Bronze cauldrons cooked; the world was carved up. This hearty night banquet of kings continued on like that until deep into the night. Fortunately, although the two kings were in high spirits, both were very restrained. They had not arranged any entertainment such as having conquered Mixtec beauties come forward to "offer dances and serve" them.
For one thing, the two men were both father-in-law and son-in-law, teacher and student, as well as political partners and rivals, and would unconsciously show a "solemn and steady" side before each other. For another, both of them truly were extremely self-disciplined, utterly unlike the indulgent style common among the Alliance's great nobles.
And when "those above have a liking, those below will surely go even further," power would amplify level by level, like ripples spreading outward. With the Divine King and the Prophet at the very top, serving as models of self-restraint among the strongmen who spoke for power, the great and small nobles of the Alliance, and the military discipline of all the various corps, had therefore always maintained a certain bottom line. Even when the corps plundered, they divided areas and centrally allocated spoils, rather than scattering into a chaotic mess... It really did have a flavor of classical militarism.
Of course, as the founder of all this, Xolotl clearly understood that Mexica classical militarism was fundamentally different from the Qin and Han of the classical age, and from Rome. Because what maintained the Alliance's military-state discipline in this Bronze tribal age was not entirely the Qin and Han's harsh laws and severe punishments, nor was it solely Rome's honor, punishment, and wealth. The most crucial foundation at the heart of it was actually the "religious rites" that soothed warriors' souls, the ever-strengthening "faith in divine authority"!
"The great affairs of