Aztec Civilization: Destiny to Conquer America!-Chapter 1737 - 1242: Northward, and Further North
"Chief Divine bless us! Ignite the kiln!"
"Firestone Great Divine Spirit bless us! Ignite!..."
The sacrificial rite in Reagan Town began at sunrise and ended at noon. Next came the brick kiln inauguration ceremony! A row of eight three-meter-tall brick kilns was filled with thousands of red soil bricks, premium black perforated coal briquettes, and kindling for lighting the fire. As the Songbird High Priest gave the command, eight Priest Apprentices, with a holy expression, ignited the kindling!
"Woosh... Boom!..."
Eight flames slowly rose, burning larger and larger. Thin blue smoke wafted from the kiln openings, becoming thicker. Many tribespeople bowed their heads with reverence toward the miraculous kilns that could turn mud into stone. Not far away, the pottery kilns also emitted smoke, and the bronze smelting workshop was engulfed in smoke and fire, day and night.
From afar, the entire Reagan Town was like a gigantic volcano, not only dispersing thin smoke and dust but also surging with magma power! The source of this power lay in the abundant metal deposits on the Northwest coast, the hundreds of miles of Firestone Coal Mining Area, and the flame force guided by the Chief Divine!
In the eyes of the surrounding primitive tribes, although the Reagan Great Tribe had "Thunderbolt and Gold Bronze," what was more awe-inspiring and desirable was the "Divine Gift Skills" to manipulate fire and produce bricks and metals! It was precisely with these Divine Gift Skills that the tall Pyramid Temple rose from the ground, two or three-meter-high walls gradually enclosed, and even the middle and upper classes of the tribes lived in warm, sturdy, and waterproof brick houses!
As for the baskets and shiploads of bronze tools and weapons, they became the most sought-after and valuable commodities on the Northern Continent, traded from Reagan Town in all directions, in exchange for an endless supply of coal copper materials, food, salt, fabric, and fur. However, the thousands of pounds of refined gold and silver could only be used for temple construction, making the Chief Divine's statue shine brightly. In fact, this frontier of mountains and wilderness stretching thousands of miles was at the intersection of the Pacific Ocean and the North American plates. The contiguous Eastern mountains rose due to geological activity at the plate boundary, containing many large and small gold and silver mines. The surrounding tribes were so accustomed to it that they never considered this common yellow and white stone to have any value as commodities...
"Chief Divine bless us! May your flames and light cover the Northern Continent!..."
The temple shimmered with golden light, and the chants of the Songbird Priest drifted to the distant north. Five to six hundred miles to the north, the Yomei Great Tribe and Guayma Great Tribe added wooden carvings of the "Southern Thunder Fire Great Divine Spirit" to their tribal sacrificial altars. As faith and trade spread, even the Opata Alliance fourteen hundred miles away acquired the Chief God's Amulet of the Sun Hummingbird. These wood carvings and stone carvings, gold and silver amulets, even passed through Apache Alliance raids and battles with the Navajo Alliance, eventually flowing into the upstream of the Colorado River. The Vizilopo Main God was also known for the first time as a tribal deity from the distant south by the tribes three thousand miles away in the Great Basin.
From the smelting hub of Reagan Town, sailing southwest for five to six hundred miles led to the bustling Guano Rock production site, South Bird Stone Village. This kingdom village port at the southern tip of the Baja California Peninsula already had a population of nine hundred. Most of the able-bodied men in the village port were miners extracting guano rock. Hundreds of tons of guano rock were shipped by oar-sail ships and canoes, transported laboriously to the south. According to the Divine Revelation Place's tests, 1 ton of guano rock applied to 60-80 acres could stabilize a 4-ton grain increase within the year, with an additional increase of about 1 ton over the following two years.
In other words, every 1 ton of guano rock shipped out, if fertilized properly, could result in an accumulated 6-ton increase in grain yield! This gray-white stone fertilizer had already become the most coveted growth-enhancing Divine Object for the lake kingdom's civilian militia, land-grant samurai, and ennobled nobility! Every shipment of guano rock was a potential yield of tons of grain!
Heading north from South Bird Stone Village, bypassing the peninsula, more than a thousand miles to the north lay the equally guano rock-producing North Bird Stone Village. Currently, this village had a population of four hundred, mostly converted Kochimi people, with a few transported Chumash tribespeople. The location was too remote, not as geographically favorable as South Bird Stone Village, and most of its guano rock was meant for nearby supply to the more northerly Western Sea Coast ports.
The Priest at North Bird Stone Village, Sha Hongshu, was a Tekos native, uniquely standing out amidst the predominantly Purpecha seafaring faction, so he was naturally assigned to this "place where birds defecate all day." He racked his brains to cultivate many sweet potato fields on the barren land outside the village, but the yield was just so-so. Places that produce guano rock are severely arid and water-scarce, naturally lacking fertile soil good for farming. He also made some canoes and personally led the tribespeople in fishing, barely managing to keep the village fed.
And in this barren and desolate place, the only thing that offered hope was Sha Hongshu's "salt evaporation fields" research. Here, the sunlight was extremely abundant, with no rain, making it very easy to evaporate a large amount of bitter salt. However, this "bitter salt" had too many impurities, causing headaches and stomachaches if consumed in quantities, necessitating careful research to find ways to filter and purify it.
However, the efforts of Priest Sha Hongshu were but a stubborn struggle of unyielding ambition, destined to make little impact. Because, fifteen hundred miles north of North Bird Stone Village, there are the Kumeyaay people, converted to the Chief Divine, belonging to the Ypa Great Tribe, possessing the Chief God Priest Kuimu! Priest Kuimu here carried out three tasks: spreading the Chief Divine faith, teaching tribespeople to grow sweet potatoes and potatoes, and transporting salt!
Yes, the Kumeyaay tribes controlled a natural Great Salt Lake. The Great Salt Lake stretched over a hundred miles, with endless natural salt heaps. The salt produced by the Great Salt Lake Great Tribe was inexhaustible, supplying the entire southwestern tribes of the North American continent. And the distance from the Great Salt Lake Great Tribe to the Ypa Great Tribe was only about four hundred miles, half of which was by water. Through the Ypa Great Tribe's transportation and trade, dozens of bronze axes could be exchanged for a ton of lake salt, then loaded onto the kingdom's oar-sail ships, and transported to the Western Sea Coast of the entire Northern Continent.
These salts would be unloaded at various kingdom outposts, not only providing for daily consumption but also being extensively used to salt fish and meat for winter food storage. As for the remaining half, it would finally arrive at Whale Harbor, where it would be consumed in large quantities for whaling salt meat.
And the massive amounts of salted whale meat were the kingdom's most important food source during the Far North exploration. In the harsh cold of the Far North tribes, this long-lasting salted whale meat had skyrocketing trade value, even directly exchanging for healthy young male and female population, rapidly expanding the kingdom's outposts...
From the salt-producing Ypa Great Tribe heading north for five to six hundred miles was the kingdom's Three Hills Port. This port, surrounded by three hills, has quickly developed a population of sixteen hundred, the vast majority being converted Chumash Tribe. Thousands of acres of corn fields, pumpkin fields, and potato fields had been cultivated in the valley where the port was located. Small stone sacrificial altars were everywhere within a hundred-mile radius valley. Many worshipers thronged the altars, with sometimes three sacrificial rites in a single day. Although the Chumash people were primitive, being semi-wild in the North American continent, their faith after conversion was extremely devout. Perhaps it was precisely because of their primitiveness that they were so devout and became the first batch of thoroughly assimilated Jiao People!
Heading north another four to five hundred miles from Three Hills Port to a rivermouth area brimming with oak trees, the once nearly thousand-people-strong Salinan Tribe's Oak Tribe had vanished, or rather, been completely swallowed and integrated. And where the Oak Tribe's great tree totem once stood, now erected a wood carving of the Sun Hummingbird Chief Divine and a traditional Black Serpent grand flag!
