While the 10,000 expeditionary force commanded by the traversers, munching on modern food delivered by the logistics line of time and space, slowly marched from the hot and humid Pacific coast to the cool Aztec capital, the city of Tenochtitlan in the Valley of Mexico, on the other side of the Mexican plateau, on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, Honan. The Spanish expedition under Cortés' command was also on an expedition to the city of Tenochtitlan.

In June 1519, despite Emperor Montezuma II's clear disappearance of not wanting to meet them and the withdrawal of the diplomatic envoys he had previously sent, Cortés was determined to lead an expedition abandoning the ship and advancing inland from the port of Veracruz to the inland city of Tenochtitlan.

This overly bold decision immediately sparked a riot within the expedition.

Most of the Spaniards who followed him on his adventures, eager for more gold, silver, porcelain, spices, and silk, were equally terrified of the unknown threats of the interior, where they could sail away from the shores where their ships were anchored, even if they could not defeat them, and the Indian canoes and rafts could not catch up. But once they go deep into the interior and accidentally fall into an ambush, they are in danger of dying without a place to bury.

As a result, some of them soon became angry, insisting that they would not follow Cortés to the city of Tenochtitlan, demanding an immediate return to Cuba, and attempting to steal the ships and provisions, and pull anchor and return home.

When Cortés heard the news, he quickly gathered a group of cronies to suppress the riot and hanged several of the troublemakers led by him, but the morale of the army was still very unstable.

In order to strengthen everyone's will, Cortez deliberately staged a plan to destroy the ship's ship, first he secretly removed the ship's metal parts with his cronies and stored them on a hill near the harbor for future reconstruction. Then, in front of everyone, he burned down his entire fleet, and watched them sink into the Gulf of Mexico, cutting everyone off.

At this point, all the expedition members had no way to go home, and they were all put to death, and they could only follow Cortés to the dark.

In August 1519, after settling the internal problems, Cortés lobbied the nearby Totonac tribes to unite them against Aztec rule, and Zuihou began his march on the city of Tenochtitlan with about three hundred of the bravest Spaniards, as well as hundreds of Totonac allies who had been fooled by him in the Gulf Coast, totaling nearly a thousand men, and several light artillery.

The remaining 100 or so Spaniards, who were determined not to venture deep inland, were left behind in Puerto Veracruz to guard the rear base.

From this, it can be seen what a bold gambler this Lord Cortés is: in November 1518, about half a year ago, Wendesi and several travelers, with an army of nearly 1,000 about the same size as Cortés' expedition, walked smoothly and skillfully from Port Hope to the outskirts of Tenochtitlan, but they were only content to do business. Hearing that Montezuma II did not want to receive him, he obediently left a gift and went back, never thinking of going to war directly with the Aztec Empire.

Cortés didn't even know much about the road to the city of Tenochtitlan, but he was already ambitious to conquer the Aztec Empire!

As one of the greatest legendary heroes in Spanish history, this Lord Cortés is truly an out-of-this-world man of astonishing courage!

Relatively speaking, the traversers who are familiar with the details of history seem to be a little timid and dare not let go easily. …,

Of course, it's not necessarily a hero who is bold, it can also be a madman.

However, Cortez, while somewhat insane, is clearly not a lunatic who lacks reason. In addition to risking all his belongings in the face of an unknown fate, he also knew that his army was very limited, and at the same time, he did not understand the reality of the Aztec Empire. If he had relied on a rabble of less than a thousand to recklessly attack the city of Tenochtitlan, Zuihou would have to become a prisoner of the Aztec warriors.

So, he needed to find a strong local ally, not a wind-blown wall like the Totonacs.

But in Mexico in 1519, the Spaniards had few allies to choose from.

At this time, Cortés had already heard that the Aztec Empire was the current hegemon of Central America, and all the four states were subservient and lost their temper. Looking at the whole of Central America, only two tenacious independent shili are still persistently confronting this rising military power.

One of them was the kingdom of Hun Šitiľgan, a source of silk, porcelain, and tea, and Cortés speculated that there were "suspected" Chinese merchants living there...... But the country was so far away from Puerto Veracruz that the Spaniards could not be contacted for a while.

Another old enemy of the Aztecs was the Tlaxcala League, which was entrenched in the Zutara Valley, between Puerto Veracruz and the city of Tenochtitlan, much closer to the Spaniards, and was said to be far more militarily powerful than the kingdom of Honsiutizgan.

Cortés then led his small army over a steep mountain range, breaking through the weak resistance of a few small local tribes leaning towards the Aztecs, and on September 1, 1519, he successfully entered the Tlaxcala territory in the Zutara Valley.

Then, the Spaniards were warmly welcomed in the Zutara Valley with javelins, bows and arrows, and stones - because Cortés did not communicate well in advance, and the Tlaxcalas had been blockaded by the Aztec Empire for too long, they did not know much about the outside world, and when they saw the Spaniards suddenly entering, they thought that the Aztecs had hired helpers from somewhere, so they didn't care about the three-seven-twenty-one, and fought first!

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On the first day of the war, the expedition encountered a border patrol of thirty people, and then there was a clash. Although Cortés sent cavalry in pursuit, trying to catch a few alive, he was unsuccessful, and was instead wounded several horses - the Tlaxcala's reputation for toughness is not true!

On the second day of the battle, on September 2, 1519, the famous general of Tlaxcala, Sicato Jr., arrived at the battlefield with 6,000 troops, and then launched a fierce attack without giving the Spaniards a chance to negotiate. Seeing the army of the Tlaxcalans coming, the hundreds of Totonacs who were fooled by the Spaniards were terrified for a while, lost the courage to fight, and turned around and fled.

And Cortez, who commanded the remaining 400 men to face the battle, also found that he greatly underestimated his opponent. These Tlaxcala warriors did not hesitate to pee at the sound of the cannons, as he had imagined, but braved the artillery fire. Zuihou was temporarily withdrawn because the Tlaxcalans lined up the attack formation too densely, and several important leaders were killed by shells, and the command failed for a while.

After such a fierce battle, Cortés's expedition suffered heavy casualties, and most of the Totonac allies who had fled from the port of Veracruz fled, and the Spaniards suffered more than 60 casualties, only 6 of the 16 horses were killed, and the remaining 10 horses were also wounded and could not participate in the battle. …,

What's worse is that his food is about to run out, Cortés has to take the initiative to raid some nearby small villages at night, who knows that he has attacked several villages in a row, only to find that there is nothing in them - the Tlaxcalas have long been fortified, and the Spaniards have nothing to grab.

Next, Sicato Jr. reorganized his army and launched another fierce attack on the Spaniards. Cortés relied on lining his men into stragglers, relying on the camp to take turns reloading and shooting, and finally repelled the enemy again.

However, Sicourt Cato Jr., who was a military talent, soon discovered the weakness of the firearms and changed his tactics again, organizing a group of warriors to launch a night attack on the Spanish camp. It was thought that under the cover of night, the firepower of the Spaniards would be greatly reduced.

Unfortunately, however, the little Siecourt Cato forgot that it was a full moon and that the Spaniards' camp was surrounded by empty plains...... As a result, in the bright moonlight, the movements of the Tlaxcala night raiders could not be concealed at all, and they were discovered by Spanish sentinels from a long distance, and then subjected to a short surprise attack under the personal command of Cortés. The Tlaxcalans were immediately crushed, and more than 20 people were killed in the battle.

Over the next ten days, the Tlaxcala and the Spaniards fought each other repeatedly, and neither could help the other. Cortés was unable to defeat the Tlaxcala, who were ten times his size, and Sicotecato Jr. was unable to attack the Spaniards' stronghold.

However, the Tlaxcalas were fighting on their own soil and were well supplied, while the Spaniards had only a few days' rations and soon fell into a desperate situation - more than 50 of the 300 Spaniards in the expedition were killed in battle, and many were wounded or sick. As for the hundreds of Tortonac allies who had fled from the port of Veracruz, they were quickly killed or fled, and only a few dozen men remained in Zuihou.

Next, the food in the team was almost finished, and the bark was about to be gnawed, and the gunpowder was almost exhausted due to the high-intensity fighting. Even Cortez himself had a high fever and was delirious...... The whole team was on the verge of collapse, and it was all up to Cortés and his Indian mistress Marina to coax and deceive, always barely holding on.

For Cortés, this battle must not be lost, and if it is lost, there is no place for him in Mexico - his troops cannot retreat, and if they retreat, even if the Tlaxcalas do not take advantage of the victory, the Totonacs near Puerto de la Cruz will also turn against him because of his defeat, renew their sincerity to the Aztecs, and wipe out the Spanish expedition that had burned their ships on the beach...... He had to keep going!

Thankfully, while Cortés was struggling to survive in a desperate situation, the attitude of the Tlaxcalans also changed.

- The emissary sent by Cortés to negotiate peace, after many hardships and dangers, finally bypassed the battlefield and arrived at the capital of the Tlaxcala. The elders of the Tlaxcala people finally figured out that these Spaniards who appeared out of nowhere were not the thugs invited by the old enemy Aztec Empire to crusade against them, but wanted to join them in attacking the Aztecs potential allies.

They continued to fight the Spaniards, and even if they won a crushing victory, it would not do the Tlaxcalans their current situation besieged on all sides of the Aztec Empire, but would greatly damage their vitality, and even attract the Aztecs to take advantage of the attack.

Rather than lose both sides in this senseless way, it is better to join forces with the Spaniards and deal with the Aztecs and solve this century-old enemy.

After a heated debate, the leader of the Tlaxcala's peace faction, Masisicato, overwhelmed the leader of the main battle faction, Sikotcato Sr., the father of the front-line commander Sikotcato Jr., and gained the upper hand in the chieftains' meeting. …,

The chiefs then ordered an armistice and prepared for peace talks with the Spaniards. This order was sternly rejected by the hard-line fighter Sicato Jr. However, the front-line troops of the Tlaxcalans, because of the heavy casualties, were no longer willing to fight, and began to mutiny. The Council of Chiefs in the capital of Tlaxcala was followed by three armistice orders, and Sicotecato Jr. finally conceded defeat.

In late September 1519, Cortés led a Spanish expedition of less than 500 men into the capital of the Tlaxcalas, where he made peace with the chieftains of the Tlaxcala League and decided to form an alliance against the Aztecs.

In early October, Cortés led a rested expedition and thousands of Tlaxcala allies from the Zutara Valley again. The coalition then easily broke through the Aztec blockade, routed an Aztec army of about 700 men, and arrived at the 400-pyramid city of Chorula, a major trading center and religious shrine in the eastern part of the Valley of Mexico.

The city was once an ally of the Tlaxcala and Honsiutizgans, who formed a Triple Alliance to compete with the Aztec Empire for domination in Central America. But at the height of the war, the Cholula people suddenly defected, and the Tlaxcala and Hunsutizgans were completely defeated - the former had been blocked in the Zutara Valley for many years, the trade routes were completely cut off, and recently they could not even eat salt. The latter lost all the rich territory on the Mexican plateau, and shrank to the poor places on the Pacific coast, and Zuihou was still defeated by the Aztec expeditionary force.

If a tough opponent can still make people have a trace of respect, then their own traitors can only make people hate them bitterly.

This time, the Chorura people were finally retribution, and after asking for help from the Aztec Empire to no avail, and being induced by the messengers of the Tlaxcalas, the Chorula had to surrender to the coalition forces in Kaesong, and welcomed Cortés with the most solemn courtesy.

However, the cowardly people of Chorula did not know that their flattery and flattery were actually opening the door to death for themselves.

Entertaining jackals with good wine instead of shotguns will only end up reaping blood, tears and sorrow!