February 1520, Gulf of Mexico beach, village of Semboyar

A hurried afternoon thunderstorm brought a bit of freshness and humidity to the sultry air. Behind the dark clouds that quickly dissipated like low tide, the blue sky was once again revealed, white seagulls hovered and chirped in the air, and the refreshing sea breeze was refreshing.

Easterners from the West, and Westerners from the East, have just concluded an important meeting here about the future and destiny of Central America.

- No way, from the perspective of the Native Americans, China on the other side of the Pacific Ocean is to the west of them, and Europe on the other side of the Atlantic is to the east of them. The "Westerners" in the traditional view of the Old World should be Orientals in their view; The East Asian peoples, who are often considered "Orientals", are the Westerners in the minds of Mexicans...... Well, speaking of zuihou, it seems that the author himself is dizzy......

On the humble pier of this small fishing village, the waves lap on the embankment, the warships gently heave, and the rudimentary canoes sway with the waves.

The turquoise waters gently lap against the reef on the shore, and the foaming waves wash up the beach and slowly retreat. Countless finger-thick holes covered the beach at low tide, and small red crabs crawled out of their dwellings and looked up curiously until they were grabbed with their big rough hands, cleaned and smeared with spices on the grill, or thrown directly into the boiling soup pot.

The sea breeze with a slight fishy smell gently whisks through the dense coconut groves, making a soft rustling sound, and rolling up a faint yellow dust mist on the beach. The crackling of firewood and the smell of barbecue fill the beach with piles of bonfires burning on the beach.

People of all colors sat around the fire, sharing a feast of seafood and drinking wine - Spanish soldiers in metal helmets and linen uniforms, tlaxcalans in tequila coarse cloth and red dye, Aztec royal guards in feathered crowns, salt-soaked cotton armor and animal skin robes, "female migrant workers" in hard hats, old-fashioned green military uniforms and rubber liberation shoes, and dark-faced Native seaside indigenous Totonak people with curly hair.

There are also many local indigenous girls wearing flowers and clear eyebrows, shuttling through them like colorful butterflies, pouring wine and delivering food to everyone, and from time to time they will scratch their heads and sing and dance to help the fun.

Panfellow. Morality. Navares, a Spanish military aristocrat who had been fighting for half his life, was sitting beside the roaring bonfire at this time, sipping on the sweet red star two pot heads, while relish tasting the delicious grilled fish sprinkled with a lot of pepper, cumin and other spices, dipped in fine salt, golden and crispy in color, and from time to time he made a few jokes with his cronies, and his face was relaxed and happy.

He never imagined that this expedition would be so easy!

It's just landed, and the adventure hasn't started yet! Almost all the goals were successfully accomplished!

The hardships and perils that Navares had conceived before his departure, such as storms, landbreaks, parachutes, food shortages, aboriginal ambushes, and pestilences, did not occur during the expedition; And all kinds of good luck,It's as if you don't want money.,It's not an exaggeration to say that you won the lottery and your character exploded!

-- Navaez's fleet, as soon as he landed in the village of Semboyar, came to meet with an army of Indians, and when he heard that they were on a crusade against Cortés, the generals of this army were at once overjoyed, and not only offered to go with him to encircle Cortés' bandits, but also sent them a large quantity of food, cotton, and gold as gifts. And Navaez saw that there was a good thing to be gained from just getting off the ship this time, and he also thought it was a good sign. …,

And then, more good luck followed, and Navaez was so happy that he didn't know what to say for a while.

-- After disembarking, his army did not immediately go to battle because of the physical exertion of the long voyage, but rested for a few days in the village of Semboyar, during which he saw some rare goods that seemed to come from China or India, and heard many rumors about the "gods of the West." Navaez is wondering how to cross the mountains and mountains to the far west to find a stronghold of the Chinese after fighting Cortés! Who knew that the Chinese mission actually brought a large number of Indians of all kinds to find the door from the inland direction of the west, and it did not take him any effort at all!

In this way, the Orientals from the West and the Westerners from the East had a historic meeting in an atmosphere of peace and friendship.

Well, well, although in the process of contacts and negotiations between the two sides, it seems that there is not much harmony, and many contradictions, conflicts and misunderstandings have erupted, for example, two groups of Indians almost went to war directly in the village of Semboyar. However, thanks to the efforts of him and the Chinese, all parties finally reached a consensus, that is: "Put aside disputes, work together, and wait until Cortez is finished first!" ”

What's more, Navaez also succeeded in reaching a trade agreement with the Chinese envoys, and after the Cortés gang was exterminated, the port of Veracruz was used as a transit treaty port, allowing Spanish merchants to stay in it.

The head of the Chinese mission, a prince with the surname "Ma", patted his chest and assured him that if the Spaniards could trade gold from the islands of the Caribbean, they would have all the silk, porcelain, and spices they wanted, and they would be guaranteed to be of great price and quality, much cheaper than the Venetians and Portuguese, who had monopolized the spice market in Europe at the time!

The Indians of all nationalities also swore to each other that as long as the Spaniards did not leave the port and go inland, they would not encroach on the security of the port of Veracruz, and that it would be a hub for peaceful trade between the tribes.

Just a few hours earlier, the first goods offered by the Chinese had been loaded onto the ship, which Navaez had personally inspected, and it was all haode pepper, cloves, peppercorns and nutmeg, as well as colorful silk and porcelain. To this end, he paid for the small amount of gold he had just gotten from the natives, as well as the Spanish silver and bronze coins he had brought with him, and even the ring on his hand, leaving him penniless, but as long as he could get them to Cuba, Navaez was confident that he would sell them for at least ten times the price!

By this time, most of the tasks of the expedition had been successfully completed, and the trade routes flowing with spices and silk had been successfully opened, and the Cotai Strip, which marked wealth and fame, had been unfolded before him...... Navaez was on the verge of finding the north.

O God Almighty! Are you rewarding me for my devotion over the years, so you have sent down these Orientals from the West to give me such a great fortune? If I do succeed this time, I will definitely donate money to build the most beautiful cathedral for you in the future!

Half-drunk, Navaez couldn't help but look at the heavens with tears in his eyes, and spoke silently.

Unlike Cortez, a super-madman who is the only one in heaven and on earth, Navaez, who also knows the East through "The Travels of Marco Polo", is relatively much more conservative and steady. For the legendary incomparably rich and powerful Eastern Empire, it is also with a heartfelt awe, which is more in line with the "normal" European way of thinking of this era.

Under the lure of Marco Polo's Travels, a "realistic bestseller" that actually resembles an otherworldly fantasy book, that mysterious oriental country became a paradise on earth in the eyes of most Europeans of this era, where people lived in splendid palaces, dressed in fine silks, ate delicacies unimaginable in Europe, and lived like gods; The people there were very rich, and silk, porcelain, and spices, which were high-end luxury consumer goods in Europe, were not very valuable in the Oriental origins; As for the wonderful gold, in the East there is too much to count, so much so that it is exaggerated to cover the floors with gold and decorate the roofs with gold.........

The East is a fantastic land of spices and gold. Going to the East to make a fortune became the dream of many Europeans.

This dream inspired generations of Europeans to go to the Angry Sea, thus ushering in the famous Age of Discovery.

In the early 16th century, although the route from Europe to India, Southeast Asia and China had been initially opened by the Portuguese, 100 pounds of pepper worth three gold coins in India could be sold for 80 gold coins back to Europe, of which the huge profits were unimaginably high. But the price paid by the Portuguese was also unimaginably high - thousands of good sailors died in this great voyage that Portugal had never seen before. They crossed ocean after ocean, climate zone after climate, ships kept sinking, people kept dying...... In order to maintain the 15,000-nautical-mile route from Lisbon to Macao, China, the Portuguese had to build fortressed trading posts dotted around the long coastline of tens of thousands of nautical miles from West Africa, South Africa, East Africa, India, Malacca, and the Spice Islands to Macao, spanning three continents, Europe, Asia and Africa. Around each fortress were hostile alien faces.

Worse still, since the Portuguese had chosen the path of conquest by force from the very beginning, they were unrealistically trying to become the hegemon of the entire eastern shijie. The Portuguese expeditionary force, which had a very limited force, had to fight the whole of the East - they were fighting the Chinese, the Arabs, the Africans, the Indians, the Southeast Asians, and the Venetians in the famous Battle of Diu. In West Africa, in Somalia, in the Arabian Sea, in the Bay of Bengal, in the Strait of Malacca, in Canton Bay, endless naval and land battles were fought one after another, leaving the Portuguese almost bloodied, with victories and defeats.

Moreover, their opponents were not the Stone Age natives of the New World, but civilizations with warships, artillery, and cavalry like the Europeans, and old Muslim opponents who had fought with Christians for nearly a millennium, and the Portuguese expeditionary forces often killed thousands of people in a single battle.

In contrast, the Spanish conquest of the Americas was almost a game.

Even if the Portuguese were able to win the war, they would often die later from climatic discomfort, shipwrecks, and epidemics due to the poor seafaring conditions of the era. According to the Portuguese themselves: "A guy who goes to India, there will not be one out of a hundred!" ”

The windfall profits of the spice trade during this period were entirely based on the bones of the Portuguese, which made people envious and frightened.

However, the entire Kingdom of Portugal has a population of only two million, which cannot support such a terrible mortality rate. According to the general opinion of the Spaniards, if this rate of population loss continues for a few more decades, the Portuguese will be dead if they can recruit mercenaries from the rest of Europe!

However, while the Portuguese were recklessly fighting the whole of the East for spices and silk, the Spaniards found another shortcut to spices and other Oriental specialties - from Spain to the Mexican port of Veracruz, which only had to cross the Atlantic and Caribbean Seas, the entire voyage was only one-fifth of the Far Eastern route from Portugal to the Spice Islands, and the safety factor was many times higher.

The well-informed Navaes, who only had to imagine a little, knew how many merchant ships that smelled gold coins would flock to the port of Veracruz to buy cheap spices, silks, and porcelain from the "Chinese", as well as many oriental products that had never been seen before. …,

In addition, he understood why the governor of Velázquez on the island of Cuba was determined to take back into his hands this wonderful trade route flowing with money at all costs. So, although the port is still controlled by Cortés' men, Navaez has already made up his mind that after the war is over, he will find the mayor of Puerto Veracruz anyway.

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Now, Navaez has only one mission left for Zuihou, which is to crusade against the Cortés gang, arrest this traitor, and send him to the gallows.

This task does not seem to be difficult to accomplish, as the indigenous Indians of all of Central America are currently siding with Navaez. Even the envoys of the "Ming Empire" were furious during the talks because Cortés, a group of wanted criminals, dared to forge official documents and pretend to be Spanish officials to deceive them, claiming that they were willing to lead troops to attack the port of Veracruz and serve as the main force of the battle.

The Totonacs, who had been allied with Cortés, had to tear up the covenant under strong pressure from all sides, withdraw their warriors from Puerto Veracruz, and were about to join his "regular army of the Kingdom of Spain" in a crusade against the "Cortés bandits".

According to Navaes's estimates, 30,000 troops would fight alongside him in this siege of Puerto Veracruz, and the thought of it excites him - in Europe that has just emerged from the dark Middle Ages, due to feudal divisions and states, the number of people under the direct control of kings is small, and the scale of armies and wars is generally small. Dozens of people and hundreds of people fight every day, but battles of tens of thousands and more than 10,000 people are very rare.

Take the Hundred Years' War between Britain and France at the end of the last century as an example, France, the strongest country in Western Europe at that time, mobilized the whole country in the largest battle, and only gathered 40,000 soldiers and horses. In 1494, King Charles VIII of France gathered 35,000 men to fight from the Alps to Naples and from north to south across the Italian peninsula.

Therefore, in Europe in this era, in addition to the princes and kings who ruled a country, there were very few generals who could lead tens of thousands of people to war. Navaez figured that he would never have such an opportunity again in his life, and even when he was old he could boast in the tavern that he had led an army of 30,000 men into battle, though mostly native, and that he would immediately impress a large number of drunkard gamblers.

What's more, even if these allies were not able to do their part, Navaez was confident of victory on his own, with 600 brave soldiers, more than 300 armed servants, as well as fifteen warships and dozens of cannons, which was already a formidable force in the West Indies.

(Note: Due to the butterfly effect in the novel, the dispatch date was a bit earlier than in history, and the preparation time was shortened, so the strength of the Navaez expedition was slightly smaller than the original historical figure.) ）

After Cortés lost most of the Indian allies (there were still some Indian slaves brought from the Caribbean islands), due to a series of casualties in the previous expedition, there were only a pitiful 400 people left, and they were divided between Puerto Veracruz and Tenochtitlan, hundreds of miles apart, unable to support each other in time.

What's worse is that all the ships of this gang of rebels have been scuttled by Cortés himself, and now there is no way to escape.

In fact, when he landed in the village of Semboyar a few days earlier, he had already won the first victory against the Cortés gang - five rebel soldiers who had sneaked out of Puerto Veracruz to meet their mistresses in the village had no time to escape before they became prisoners of the crusading army. Through the above information tortured from their mouths, Navaez became more and more complacent and confident, and felt that it would be no trouble to crusade against these people.

Originally, he had planned to send a few men to lobby for surrender, but now it seems that there is no need to do anything more, just pull the army over - if the traitors under Cortez's command had some brains, they would definitely surrender.

Thinking of this, Navaez couldn't help but take another big sip of soju, so he took advantage of his drunkenness to hug an indigenous girl who was scratching her head, took out a beautiful little jewelry and shook it twice in front of her, and then kissed it fiercely......