The far north in November was cold, gray, and still, like a grizzly bear preparing for hibernation. Yet sunlight crossed ten thousand miles in an instant, spanning thirty degrees of latitude, and arrived in the Lake Kingdom, where the autumn harvest was already finished and the season of festivals was in full swing.
At this time of year, the Mexica highlands were warm, bright, and prosperous, and these were also the days best suited for mobilizing manpower on a massive scale. Looking down from above, the entire basin and the kingdom in the lake region were like a vast, flourishing anthill, with crowds marching, running, and bustling everywhere!
"Yi-ya-yo-hei!... Bang!"
With one neat shout, two or three hundred laborers all strained and cried out together. In groups of a dozen or so, they used ropes to pull up the great wooden piles in their hands at the same time. Several breaths later, the enormous piles came crashing down with force, pounding onto the newly laid second-grade county road—that is, the lime-clay road—with huge bang, bang sounds! And with the impact of the great wooden piles, a somewhat loose stretch of road surface was smashed solid inch by inch.
"The Main God bears witness! Be careful, all of you! Tamp it again and again, tamp it hard! Pack that roadbed solid for me—so solid you can't even stick a little finger into it! Today you must tamp at least two li. Anyone who doesn't finish, anyone whose work isn't up to standard, gets five lashes and works through the night!"
Dust filled the air, and human voices clamored. The farming garrison leader Tai Shishan carried the village banner on his shoulder, shouting commands at the top of his lungs while inspecting back and forth with great care. Following the instructions of