Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 518 We still have to rely on slavery.

Tenok must have been over sixty years old. The founding monarch of the Aztecs was now in his twilight years. As people get older, they tend to crave fame and excitement. Upon learning that Wang Dayuan and his companions came from a country across the Western Sea, Tenok was extremely excited.

Although the two sides could not communicate in the same language, the king still warmly welcomed them and invited them to watch the rituals at the Temple of the Feathered Serpent.

Seeing that this group of people were actually using living people for sacrifices, Wang Dayuan, Chen Youliang, and the others frowned deeply.

"I never imagined this place would be so barbaric, even practicing human sacrifice." Although Chen Youliang had killed countless people, he still felt nauseous at the sight of such a bizarre scene, mainly due to physical discomfort.

Wang Dayuan said, “Thousands of years ago, we were just like them. The Shang Dynasty was the same. Ji Zhou captured Qiang people in Zhouyuan for the Shang king and sent them to Chaoge as human sacrifices. The Aztecs were also superstitious, just like the Shang Dynasty. They had to consult divination before deciding on anything. It wasn’t until King Wu of Zhou attacked King Zhou of Shang and the Duke of Zhou assisted the state and established the system of rites that this system of human sacrifices was finally abolished.”

Chen Youliang nodded upon hearing this, "It seems that this so-called Az Kingdom is far inferior to us. If you say that they are truly descendants of the Jiuli from Shenzhou, then they must have lived for two or three thousand years. How can they still be so ignorant and backward?"

"Who knows? But looking at the statue they're worshipping, with its human head and snake body, it really does resemble the legendary goddess Nuwa. What about the two brocade gifts we prepared? We'll give them to them later," Wang Dayuan said, looking at the priest in front of him.

Chen Youliang pointed to the gifts carried by the soldiers behind him, "They've been prepared for a long time."

Wang Dayuan nodded, then said, “Everything here requires divination. The Grand Preceptor (High Priest) carries a lot of weight in the court of Az. After today’s ceremony, we should visit him privately and give him some bribes to keep him in check, so that he won’t speak ill of us. This way, we can operate more smoothly in Az.”

“Yes, that is only right, but I’m not good at this. I’ll have to trouble Mr. Wang to do it then,” Chen Youliang agreed.

"No problem, we've been together all this time, it doesn't matter who goes."

As the two were talking, the ceremony over there was almost over. Dozens of Mayan prisoners of war were sacrificed to the gods. The scene was extremely bloody. Tenok even smiled and glanced at Wang Dayuan and the others. He noticed that the people from the Ming Dynasty were all calm and composed, which made him think more highly of the Ming Dynasty.

Just then, Wang Dayuan clapped his hands, took two pieces of brocade from the soldiers, and presented them to Tenok. The two pieces of brocade were covered with pictures woven from colorful silk and gold thread. One was a picture of Nuwa creating humans, and the other was a picture of Nuwa mending the sky. The Nuwa figure on the brocade had the upper body of a human and the lower body of a snake. She was wearing Hanfu and had some feather ornaments on her body. Auspicious clouds surrounded her. It was truly exquisite.

Tenok, the high priest, and a group of nobles stared wide-eyed at the sight of the two textiles. Tenok even stepped forward and gently stroked the two precious textiles. Although the 'feathered serpent god' on them was not quite the same as theirs, it was not far off. In fact, because of the profound cultural development in China, the image created was more exquisite, far surpassing their own stone and wood carvings.

Tenok was overjoyed and immediately had the two pieces of textile accepted. He then had a reward prepared for Wang Dayuan and invited them to watch the locals play 'Cuju'.

At the banquet, there were turkey, chewed wine, alpaca meat, and other foods, as well as a very strange hot chocolate mixed with chili peppers. Chen Youliang tried a sip and almost spat it out on the spot. He then put it down and never touched it again.
Later, local people performed 'Cuju'. The playing field was a slope with a stone-carved ring on top. Participants could not touch the ball with their hands or feet, but could only use their bodies to bump the ball and knock it into the stone ring to score a point.

At first, Wang Dayuan and Chen Youliang were quite interested in watching it, discussing the differences between this thing and the Chinese Cuju. Wang Dayuan even whispered to Chen Youliang, "Did you see their Cuju? It bounces up again after landing. It must be made of rubber. It's something His Majesty specifically requested. We'll have to ask them where the rubber trees are later."

Upon hearing this, Chen Youliang immediately nodded, about to say something more, when suddenly a dramatic change occurred. A player who had just headed the rubber ball into the stone ring raised his hands and cheered loudly, while the surrounding crowd also shouted their approval. But then, the player who had headed the ball into the stone ring was dragged away and beheaded, while the surrounding spectators and the remaining players continued to cheer.
Wang Dayuan, Chen Youliang, and their soldiers looked at each other in bewilderment upon seeing this scene. What was going on? Why were they being killed even after winning the game? And why were the others cheering?
The game continued, and after a short while, when someone headed the ball into the stone ring again, he was pulled down and killed. Moreover, the person who was killed worshipped Quetzalcoatl very devoutly, as if he were offering himself as a sacrifice.

Wang Dayuan and the others were immediately chilled to the bone. These people actually took pride in sacrificing themselves to Quetzalcoatl and were willing to die for scoring a goal.
After this unique sacrificial ceremony and banquet ended, everyone immediately decided to complete the mission as soon as possible and leave this perverted place. The people here were simply too ignorant. What era are we living in that they still practice human sacrifice, and they even managed to make it so elaborate.

Afterwards, they secretly visited the Grand Preceptor (High Priest) with a large number of gifts. The priest was overjoyed to receive many exquisite porcelains and silk brocades and warmly entertained Wang Dayuan and his companions, even inviting them to smoke together.

After Wang Dayuan and Chen Youliang tried it, they were immediately choked and coughed incessantly, which made the priest burst into laughter.

Then Wang Dayuan frowned and said to Chen Youliang, "The tobacco that His Majesty specifically requested to be brought back should be this thing, but what exactly is its purpose?"

After coughing, Chen Youliang imitated the priest and took a puff of his pipe. He gradually got into the swing of things, savoring the experience until he felt a little dizzy. He then said, "This stuff can make you drunk. Perhaps it's a pastime like drinking tea. If we're talking about its uses, isn't drinking tea pretty useless? You can live without it. So what's the use of tea leaves?"

Wang Dayuan frowned, then nodded. "That seems to be the idea. Shall we ask him?"

"Well, whatever its use, we're already here, and His Majesty specifically asked for it, so let's just take it back," Chen Youliang said immediately.

"That's the truth."

Wang Dayuan nodded, then immediately took out the illustrated guide to local products of Lizhou that Lu Jin had given him, turned to the page about tobacco, showed it to the priest, and asked him if this was the thing they smoked.

Upon seeing the exquisite and lifelike painting, the priest immediately nodded. Wang Dayuan was overjoyed and asked the priest where he could obtain such a thing, offering to exchange some goods for it. Although the priest couldn't understand their language, he could tell what Wang Dayuan and his companions wanted. Considering the many gifts they had given, he immediately ordered his men to find them a merchant, instructing the merchant to follow their instructions and find whatever Wang Dayuan desired.

This makes the task of collecting seeds much easier.

The merchant brought them many things that Wang Dayuan wanted, such as dried chili seeds, and collected dozens of varieties of sweet potatoes and potatoes. They also found sunflower and peanut seeds, and successfully located local rubber trees.

The Yuanwang ship carried several lacquer tappers. Following the rubber tapping method taught by Lu Jin in the illustrated book, they experimented on the local rubber trees and successfully collected a lot of latex in just one day. After the latex solidified naturally, they squeezed out the water and obtained a white, foam-like latex lump.

Chen Youliang couldn't help but ask in confusion, "What exactly is the use of this thing?"

"This item is among the top four items His Majesty specifically requested to bring, along with corn, potatoes, and sweet potatoes. It is said to be very useful, not only for making wheels to make carriages run faster, but also for other things. In short, it has endless uses and is something that must be brought back."

“But the local people don’t grow these rubber trees. If we want to collect seeds, we can only wait until these rubber trees bear fruit. In that case, I’m afraid we won’t be able to go back this year,” Wang Dayuan said immediately.

Upon hearing this, Chen Youliang paused for a moment and immediately asked, "Can't we collect them all before October this year? Will we have to wait until next year?"

"Of course, this is just the beginning. We haven't found any cotton yet. His Majesty said that the upland cotton in Lizhou is long-staple cotton or some kind of grass cotton. What we are currently planting in China is Indian tree cotton, which is not actually suitable for widespread cultivation."

"In other words, as long as we don't bring back the long-staple cotton from Lizhou, we can't promote cotton cultivation in the country. This is related to the northern people's ability to keep warm, our military operations in the northern desert, and whether we can gain a foothold in Liaodong and the southern and northern deserts. We absolutely have to find cotton seeds here."

Upon hearing this, Chen Youliang sighed and said, "Then let's go find them. We're already here, so a few more months won't make a difference."

In the days that followed, Wang Dayuan bribed the priest multiple times, obtaining not only land around Xiangxun Port from the Aztecs, allowing them to live and build a port there, but also the right to do business in the area and to buy and sell local slaves. The condition was that Wang Dayuan and his people had to bring some gifts to the Aztecs every year, which Wang Dayuan naturally agreed to.

Then Wang Dayuan and his men bought several hundred slaves and brought them back to Xiangxun Port. They had the three hundred exiled Han Chinese teach them how to use tools and begin cultivating land along the river in Xiangxun Port. The slaves they bought were responsible for planting corn, sweet potatoes, potatoes, and some Chinese seeds brought from the Yuanwang ship, such as soybeans. As for rice and wheat, they could only gradually improve the farmland and try planting them next year. This year, the farming season had already passed, and it might not be possible to plant them in time.

Upon learning that they wouldn't have to till the land themselves, but only work as stewards, the three hundred exiled death row inmates were immediately excited. Although they would certainly have to work, it was obviously much easier than for the local slaves they had bought. They were only responsible for providing technical guidance and teaching the local natives how to do the work, while the rest of the heavy and tiring work was left to the slaves.

Later, under the guise of commercial trade, Wang Dayuan bought several more batches of slaves from the local area. He not only bought two local native women as wives and concubines for each of the three hundred prisoners, but also bought thousands of slaves as laborers. Some were responsible for farming, while others were responsible for helping with brick-making and house construction.

In this way, the labor shortage problem was solved, and the construction of Xiangxun Port was accelerated. Soon, a large village appeared near the port, and farmland along the river was reclaimed. Corn, sweet potatoes, and potatoes were all planted in the fields. Seeing that there was a harvest in the fields, the exiled prisoners finally felt at ease. With women and fields, they could finally settle down.

The Xiangxun Port base is currently divided into three parts. The camp built around the port is the core area, which is only for the three hundred Han people and their purchased wives and concubines. It is equivalent to the inner city, which is heavily guarded and has people on duty to guard it. In addition, there are local native slaves who are responsible for working. They live in the outer city and are mainly responsible for working. However, they also have houses here, but the city walls and houses are mostly made of wooden fortifications, making it look more like a military camp.

The third area is a few miles away, farmland beside the river. Here, there are also several hundred slaves responsible for cultivating the land. It is essentially a village that provides crops, and a group of Han soldiers are stationed here to guard it.

Yang Hui knew the importance of these slaves. They were in dire need of labor and relied on these slaves to work. So he asked the three hundred Han people not to bully them. At the same time, he selected activists from among the slaves. As long as they learned to speak Chinese or learn a craftsmanship, they could be converted into free citizens, issued Hong Kong residency, and not only given houses, but also helped to buy women for marriage. From then on, they would be no different from other Han people.

This integration will definitely take time, but they don't have any other options right now.

In the early stages of colonization, slavery was certainly the only system that could quickly meet the demand for labor.

Afterwards, Wang Dayuan left Chen Youliang at the port and took Wang Zong, Yang Hui, Nahachu and others to Mexico City. Firstly, to let them meet the local natives and familiarize themselves with the local environment, and secondly, to introduce them to the local nobles, priests and some native merchants they had made friends with during this time. This way, even after Wang Dayuan and the Yuanwang ship left, Yang Hui and Nahachu would not be completely clueless about the local area.

After familiarizing Yang Hui and Nahachu with the local environment, they took the local merchants to the village of Xiangxun Port, told them the location, and said that they could settle down there as free people, which would also make it easier for them to trade there.

Yang Hui and his group had a lot of hard currency like porcelain and ironware. As long as the local merchants took them back, they wouldn't have to worry about selling them. The merchants were naturally very happy and expressed their willingness to trade here, thus laying the foundation for the establishment of a market in Xiangxun Port.

Afterwards, Wang Dayuan reached a business deal with the priest. They first taught the local people how to tap rubber, and then the priest found merchants to harvest the rubber and transport it to Xiangxun Port for sale. In return, they could exchange it for cloth, ironware, porcelain, tea, silk and other items from Yang Hui.

The priest was overjoyed upon hearing the news. This was a great business opportunity. With this channel, he would never lack money again.
Moreover, this move directly tied the priests and Hong Kong together, forming a community of shared interests. With such a 'big shot' as a protective umbrella, no one will dare to mess with Hong Kong in the future.

(End of this chapter)