Aztec Civilization: Destiny to Conquer America!
Chapter 870 - 488: Siege of Water Valley City, the Divine War of Siege!

Chapter 870: Chapter 488: Siege of Water Valley City, the Divine War of Siege!

"Dong, dong, dong!..."

The sound of fierce war drums echoed outside Water Valley City, accompanied by the shouts of the Mexica legion, announcing a more brutal siege!

Soon, over a thousand warriors from the Tecos Tribe, bending low, pushed two hundred heavy wooden shield carts, slowly approaching the southern city wall. These Tecos warriors were the surrendered army incorporated during the kingdom’s southern expedition. They wore hats made of vines, carried short spears on their backs, and wore loincloths around their waists. The most valuable equipment they had on them was their cheap paper armor. The cost to equip them was astonishingly low.

"Creak... creak..."

The heavy wooden shield carts rolled over the trampled, solid ground, gradually approaching the south wall of Water Valley City, getting within eighty paces. By this point, the elite longbowmen defending the city could accurately hit the shield carts.

"God of the Hunt, bless us! Shoot the enemies!..."

On the southern city wall, the gaps left by the fallen were quickly filled. The commanding hereditary nobles gripped their longbows tightly, letting out fierce shouts.

"... Whirr!..."

Upon hearing the command, the densely packed warriors and militia of Tlaxcala raised their longbows, short bows, and hunting bows, nocking copper arrows, bone arrows, and even stone arrows with reed shafts, and fired continuously towards the enemy below!

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!... Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!"

Large waves of feathered arrows flew like rapid wind and sand. Dozens of Tecos warriors instantly let out screams of agony, their heads and faces hit by arrows as they fell to the ground, leaving fresh bloodstains.

The Tlaxcalans revered the God of the Hunt, Mixcoatl, claiming to be the descendants of the "Cloud Serpent". And according to myth, the weapon of the God of the Hunt was the "dishonorable" bow and arrow. Thus, unlike the Mexica who favored close combat and capturing enemies, the Tlaxcalans were especially fond of using bows and arrows. Nearly everyone practiced archery, and many bowyer families passed down their craft.

Years ago, when news of the Mexica’s invention of a new longbow arrived, the Tlaxcalan nobility were astonished and incredulous. They immediately began replicating the longbow across the Four States Alliance, quickly producing the first batch of new greatbows.

Of course, the Tlaxcalans soon discovered that using longbows to enhance arrow power meant substantially higher costs for bow making. They had to use more robust bronze tools, spend more labor, use better wood, and make larger bow frames and sturdier arrow shafts. Behind all this lay the need for abundant, ample food and the constant labor of able-bodied men!

To this day, the proportion of longbowmen in both the Mexica and Tlaxcalan legions remained very limited. The difference was that the Mexica were constrained by the number of elite archers, while the Tlaxcalans were limited by a lack of manpower and resources.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!..."

The rain of arrows flew, death whistled through the air. The Tecos warriors bent their bodies even lower, continued pushing the shield carts forward. In just a moment, the shield carts were already covered with bent feathered arrows. Tribe warriors constantly groaned or screamed, hit in their exposed vitals, falling to the ground dead.

Fortunately, the front of these shield carts was all covered with large crude shields, providing a sheltered space. It wasn’t long before a large number of shield carts were pushed to within sixty steps of the city wall, gradually coming to a stop to form protected shooting positions. The surviving hundreds of Tecos warriors curled up on the ground, trying to make themselves as small as possible, creating more space.

"Good!"

The Black Wolf Torc looked at the battle situation with satisfaction and nodded. The deaths and injuries of the hundreds of Tecos surrendered troops were insignificant. On the contrary, they successfully depleted the Tlaxcalans’ arrows and pushed the shield carts to their designated positions.

"Give the order to the Imperial Guard Legion’s Longbow Warriors’ battalion, advance and shoot!"

"Dong, dong, dong!... Longbow Warriors’ battalion, charge!"

"Chief Divine’s blessing!"

The drumbeats grew more urgent. The Longbow Warriors’ battalion let out a uniform shout, then lowered their heads and ran in small steps to the shield carts.

Compared to the Tecos surrendered troops, the equipment of the Imperial Guard Longbow Warriors was much more luxurious. They all wore bronze medium armor, bronze helmets, had bronze hand axes at their waists, held sturdy longbows, and carried two quivers of copper arrows on their backs. These thousand elite Imperial Guard Warriors were handed to Black Wolf by His Highness as the key force to suppress the city walls. The Tecos surrendered troops pushing the shield carts were meant to minimize their casualties to the greatest extent.

"Whoosh!... Whoosh, whoosh!... Whoosh!"

The Longbow Warriors charged under the rain of arrows, their pace unbroken. In the span of a few breaths, they had already reached the shield carts, about sixty steps from the city walls, and prepared their shooting positions. Soon after, they raised their greatbows in unison, aiming at the Tlaxcalan warriors on the battlements who were shouting and shooting arrows, firing back accurately in a wave of precision shooting.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!..."

"Ah!..."

The city walls were suddenly filled with screams of pain, and hundreds of Tlaxcalan warriors were hit and injured, with many falling off the walls, their heads smashed and bleeding. The defending army on the walls immediately came under suppression, not daring to reveal themselves wantonly. The barrage of arrows from the city walls became sparse, and archers from both sides began shooting at each other.

Below the shield carts, the crouching Tecos surrendered troops let out sighs of relief. The most dangerous moment had passed; they should be able to survive today.

"Damn it! It’s these archery bronze-armored warriors again! Next, they’ll definitely set up wooden ladders and send in the lowly barbarian soldiers to scale the walls and fight!"

"Black Serpent" Teuctli angrily swung his war club, smashing it hard against the wooden shield in front of him. His force was so great that he shattered the obsidian sharp fragments on the club!

The Four States Alliance of Tlaxcala lacked sources of copper, making bronze weapons extremely scarce. However, they also had large obsidian mines and mature obsidian craftsmanship, so they mainly used obsidian weapons.

In early March, the Mexica Southern Army arrived at Water Valley City and began the siege immediately. They established a main camp outside the southern city walls, clearing outposts between the eastern and western mountains in succession, then set up two small camps. In just a few days, Water Valley City was surrounded on three sides, leaving only the northern route open as a "lifeline".

At the beginning of the siege, "Black Serpent" Teuctli remained confident.

The walls of Water Valley City stood six or seven meters high, built with stones and corn mortar, exceptionally sturdy. It was the most fortified stronghold in the southern part of the Four States Alliance! The city had already driven out the elderly and weak civilians, leaving fifteen thousand defending troops behind with enough food to last two years. There were also five thousand militia guarding the outposts in the mountains on either side, capable of counteracting the Mexica’s advances. For decades, Water Valley City had been besieged by the Mexica multiple times, but it had never fallen!

"Black Serpent" had sent envoys to call for reinforcements from the northern states. The Tlaxcala River flowed past the eastern city walls, and its upper reaches in the north were still controlled by the Tlaxcala naval forces, which could continuously provide support.

"God of the Hunt bless us! We can defend these walls until we die of old age!"

Teuctli answered in this way when faced with the envoy sent by His Highness Death to demand their surrender. He even ordered the envoy’s ears cut off and eyes gouged out as a message to the Mexica that they would fight to the death!

For the next ten days, the Mexica made no large moves, seemingly helpless against Water Valley City.

The Mexica legion outside the southern city walls remained silent, continuously building equipment in their camp. The east and west sides were guarded by the city-state armies of the Mexica, old adversaries over many years of warfare. They carried wooden ladders and tried two assaults on the city, only to leave hundreds of warriors’ corpses under the rain of feathered arrows, stones, and lime pots.

"Black Serpent" Teuctli grew more confident, even organizing over a thousand warriors to launch a counterattack under the cover of darkness.

However, the enemy camp outside the southern city walls was extremely solid, and the outpost was meticulously built. The warriors couldn’t break through and instead were met with a volley of arrows, leaving behind hundreds of bodies. Meanwhile, on the east and west sides, they achieved small victories, defeating four militia camps of the city-state armies on the outskirts, inflicting over two thousand casualties!

A large number of militia perished or fled, something the Mexica city-state armies were accustomed to. Their morale remained intact as they spent a day re-assembling the scattered militia. The way these city-state armies conducted warfare was to have numerous militia camps spread far apart, stationed at the outskirts of the warrior camps, without even needing fences. Meanwhile, the central warrior camp would be well-fortified with wooden fences, bonfires lit, and meticulously guarded.

If a night attack ensued and the militia were scattered, the warriors wouldn’t come to their aid. They’d simply hold the camp until dawn. Any militia that dared rush into the camp would be treated as enemies and killed. The militia wouldn’t even dare flee towards the center, scattering instead to avoid being chased. Once dawn broke, if the attackers had not retreated in time, they’d face a fierce counterattack from the warriors!

"Black Serpent" Teuctli conducted two raids outside the city but couldn’t shake the Mexica main force and lost some elite troops. He had no choice but to retreat back into the city and patiently hold out, waiting for reinforcements from the north.

However, by mid-March, the situation had changed dramatically! The Mexica built more than a dozen wooden catapults outside the southern city walls, hurling burning pyres into the city from one or two hundred paces away! These fireballs burned on contact, even igniting stones and releasing billowing toxic smoke. They couldn’t be extinguished with water, only smothered with sand, and emitted an evil volcano-like aura.

The priests of the Holy City of Cholula observed this and quickly concluded.

"This is indeed the power of the demon, evidence of the Mexica’s fall!"

However, in the face of the formidable power of the Volcanic Demon, the priests were powerless. It seemed the God of the Hunt had abandoned his divine descendants, as boundless darkness surged from the south, gradually swallowing Water Valley City.

In the following days, the blockade on three sides of Water Valley City grew tighter. The power of the demon continued to show, one fiery ball after another shot into the city, toxic smoke wafting everywhere. In the volcanos of Central America, sulfur was far more abundant than saltpeter, and the cost of sulfur paper fireballs was much lower than refined gunpowder.

Toxic smoke spread, fierce fire raged, and Water Valley City turned into a desperate land, like the battlefield of a divine war. The morale of the defending army constantly fell, and the priests exhausted their efforts to stabilize the city’s spirit. Even "Black Serpent" Teuctli dreamed of the wicked lava of the volcanoes from the south haunting him every night!