The river ran broad and mighty, the spring rain fell in a fine patter. The long Talsas River came from the east, bearing witness to the comings and goings of the Mexica fleet, and watching the spring plowing of the tribes along its course.
At the end of the long river, in the barren Tlaxcala Basin to the east, black smoke from slash-and-burn clearing gradually rose. Yet within only a few days, that wispy smoke quickly scattered in the spring rain. The old weeds and shrubs had all been burned away by mountain fires, revealing fertile fields moistened by rain and dew, waiting to be tilled.
The long river flowed quietly through the lands of Tlaxcala. And in the mountains of the Four States, every day, the old and weak of fleeing tribes came out to surrender to the Mexica army beyond the hills. They no longer had enough grain to last until the next spring. Nor could they abandon the farmlands of hope and flee into the forests again. They could only obediently submit and become tribespeople under the control of the Mexica Alliance.
At this moment, beside a crude village, the Tlaxcalan tribespeople lowered their heads, holding simple farming tools of wood and stone. Taking advantage of the softened earth after the rain, they worked hard to plant corn and beans. Occasionally, small squads of Mexica Warriors would pass on patrol along the mountain paths and rivers, great bows on their backs and long spears in hand. Deep fear and submission would then surface on the tribespeople's faces.
After the slaughter and turmoil of the Eastern Expedition, long-absent order was slowly being established in the western and southern parts of the Tlaxcala lands, among the surviving Tlaxcalans.
In the western Huexotzinco State, the first batch of eight thousand