The wind blew southeast, rain fell into the valley, fresh red soaked the earth, and corpses lay toppled across the fields. Carrion-eating vultures descended into the lush farmland, lowering their heads to peck and feast, unafraid of passersby; summer flies, drawn by the reek of blood, swarmed into clusters and gorged themselves.
Black smoke billowed from the Mixtec villages. Raging fires burned and rose, then were doused by the rain. And when clear days came, the flames of destruction flared up once more, burning for days on end without going out.
This was the fertile Tehuacan Valley, more than five hundred li southeast of the Lake Capital, three hundred li southeast of Shuigu City, and one hundred and twenty li southeast of Flower Fortress. It was the most important northern gathering place of the Mixtec tribes.
The Rio Salado to the south originated in the mountains east of the valley, winding south all the way, irrigating three hundred li of fertile valley soil, flowing through the heartland of the Mixtec Alliance, until it reached the perilous Yanhuitlan.
After that, the Rio Salado joined other streams and flowed into the Rio Verde farther south. The Rio Verde continued south, twisting six hundred li through the Sierra Madre Occidental, and near Huitzoctli, it emptied into the vast North Pacific. Of course, both Rio Salado and Rio Verde were names from the colonial era. In this age, the Mixtec People called them by one shared name: the "Life Mother River of the Rain God."
The mountains gathered clouds and rain; the valley nurtured fertile soil. Rivers nourished the fields, and so people gathered there. From Flower Fortress in the far north to Huitzoctli in the far south, nine hundred li from north to south and two to three hundred li from east to