The sun of early February rose high, blazing aloft like a god, illuminating east, west, south, and north. Sunlight crossed two time zones, nearly ten degrees of latitude, a full four thousand li in every direction, traveling from the dry, cold southwestern coast of the North American continent all the way to the warm, humid southeast by the Gulf of Mexico.
Dense jungle, crisscrossing rivers, a climate warm all year, and long, heavy rains in the wet season. This was the Totonac coast, the frontline where the Eastern Coastal Tribes and the Kingdom's legions fought and killed, another warm "Golden Bay."
The camps and military stockades of the Kingdom's legions flew the Main God's banners, stretching from the great camp at Snake Lake Village by the sea in the northwest to River Bend Stockade by the river in the southeast, extending nearly sixty li and forming a half-encircling battle line. More than six thousand Kingdom Warriors commanded nearly ten thousand subdued Totonac tribal warriors. A legion of a full sixteen thousand men was scattered among five great camps and military stockades. They had already passed through the long rainy season and faced off against the East-West Totonac Allied Forces for half a year!
The East-West Totonac Allied Forces, meanwhile, centered on the great city of Golden Bay, together with eight or nine tribal camps and military stockades around it, extending more than fifty li on the other side of the half-encircling line. Before the rainy season arrived last year, the Totonac Allied Forces had suffered several crushing defeats, been ambushed repeatedly by the Kingdom's army, lost two great stockades, and at one point fallen to just over twenty thousand men.
However, after reinforcements came during the rainy season, still more tribal troops arrived from the Totonac lands seven hundred li