"Main God! The sunset—ah, it's so beautiful! Just like... uh... blood-red cacao?..."
Near evening, the red sun sank onto the hills in the distance, like bloodlight falling over a pyramid, carrying an indescribable sacredness and strangeness. Faced with such a scene, Woodpecker E-Zhuo badly wanted to recite a poem, but could not even get the opening out. Just as now, he looked at the pile of bamboo baskets before him, stuffed full of "mountain goods," and wanted to curse someone, yet likewise had no idea what to curse.
"Damn it! You call this 'mountain goods'?"
"Yeah! The Main God bears witness! This is the mountain goods of our fifteen great Banner Units, tens of thousands of men! Just say it—isn't it good stuff?!"
Red-haired chieftain Mikui held his head high and thumped his chest hard. His wild, innocent face was full of simple, honest smiles. These "mountain goods" had all been hauled back by the Black Wolf Legion on campaign, from one or two thousand li away, from the lands of the Tlaxcalan, even from the lands of the Totonac. And every time they transported "mountain goods," they had to send out more than a hundred red-haired elites and bring along several hundred trained militia!
After all, this was what the several thousand Guachichil warriors in the legion were counting on, and the wellspring of the warriors' will to fight. It absolutely had to be brought back to each Banner Unit!
"Uh, Main God!... This... you... this really is good stuff! Compared to that little tribe from before, it's higher by who knows how much... My god! These are?..."
Woodpecker E-Zhuo crouched on the ground, eyes wide, rummaging through the "mountain goods" in the bamboo baskets. He looked carefully, very carefully, at the baskets full of gold vessels, silver vessels,