As a royal priestess serving the moon goddess Ixchel (the common moon goddess of the Mayans and Aztecs, holding the priesthood of the moon, fertility, rainbows and floods), the beautiful and intelligent Princess Snow Ji Dailan is naturally responsible for the mission of buying and winning over those "gods" in secret, and her identity on the surface is that after signing a peace treaty with the Hungshutizgan Kingdom, she is a resident priest sent to friendly countries on behalf of the Aztec Empire to "spread faith" and "consolidate diplomatic relations".

In fact, this was also a customary practice of the Aztec Empire when it expanded its influence on the outside world.

Generally speaking, the Aztecs' strategy of expansion against foreign tribes consisted mainly of the following - through marriage and war, to win over and subjugate the chieftains of the other side, to kill some of the people with different intentions, to make the other tribe to worship the Aztec gods, to unify their tribes into the Aztec political system, and especially to ensure that they absolutely obeyed the instructions of the city of Tenochtitlan to collect tribute and recruit troops from its tribes.

Well, it's basically similar to the feudal lord system between the monarch and the vassal under the feudal system in the Middle Ages in Western Europe.

However, unlike the Western European Middle Ages, the Western Europeans in the Middle Ages believed that the Holy See was the rule of the Holy See until the Reformation, and there was generally no difference in faith between kings and lords (except for the Kingdom of Jerusalem, which was taken from the Arabs during the Crusades, and the border regions of Central and Eastern Europe, which were fiercely contested with the Orthodox Church, those kings would have many pagan subjects). The Aztec neighbors, on the other hand, each believed in a different god, and according to the Aztec thinking, they had to be naturalized into the same faith.

Thus, although the Aztec Empire allowed the tribes under its jurisdiction to remain largely autonomous and did not send officials to interfere in government affairs, it sent priests and other clergy to build a temple in the conquered tribe, and then forced the conquered people to worship the Aztec gods.

These Aztec priests were also sent to take the place of overseers and informants, and were responsible for monitoring whether there were any changes in their tribes.

As for the city-states and kingdoms that were not conquered by the Aztec army, but only signed long-term peace treaties, the Aztecs sometimes sent their own priests, but that was completely coercive, basically equivalent to a permanent diplomatic ambassador.

In short, the fierce and warlike army was the hard knife of the Aztec Empire's external expansion, and the eloquent priest was the soft knife of the Aztec Empire's external expansion, representing force and culture respectively, and the two were closely coordinated, just like the expeditionary forces and missionaries of the Western colonizers in the future.

As a pampered princess of the royal family, although Xue Ji Dailan is not incapable of hardships and hard work, she can't help but feel very depressed when she sees the place where she will be resided, and her first impression is that it is so desolate and dilapidated.

She couldn't help but pull out a bottle of perfume that the maids had previously purchased from the Hunghyutizgan envoys, and play with it boredly.

-- This is a pale pink glass vial, shaped like a delicate bud waiting to be released, the wall of the bottle is smooth and transparent, and there is not a single porous hole in sight. When you hold it in your hand, you can clearly see the brightly colored perfume swaying in the bottle. Just looking at the appearance, it is a perfect handicraft.

If you hold it in the palm of your hand and gently pull out the stamen-shaped glass cork, an extremely rich and sweet floral fragrance will spread from the palm of your hand and linger for a long time.

Out of the nature of a woman's love of beauty, such a delicate and fragrant perfume naturally makes Xue Ji Dailan fall in love with it, and has countless beautiful fantasies about the "dream land" that produces this perfume, as well as the "gods" who bring fragrant perfumes, sweet candies, and bright cloths. …,

When the news came that Emperor Montezuma II had sent his nephew Kuohetmok as an envoy to the kingdom of Hunghyutizgan, she immediately volunteered to join her father's peace mission to the kingdom of Hungyutzgan.

And another reason why Snow Ji Dailan wants to go to the kingdom of Hongshutizgan and see those "gods" with her own eyes is the legend of the crystal skeleton.

- A crystal skull is for some people just an elaborate carving in the shape of a skull. However, in the eyes of those who believe in the supernatural Liliang, the Crystal Skull is not just a fun artifact, but an ancient artifact that represents destruction and destruction, or hope and healing!

Some believe that crystal skulls can be used for divination and to see the past and the future, while others claim that crystal skulls are capable of emitting spiritual energy, in the form of halos or sounds.

As for the origin of all this bizarre theory, it is a myth and legend of the Mesoamerican Indians.

Among the Indians of Mexico, there is an ancient legend that in ancient times there were 13 crystal skulls that could speak and sing. These crystal skulls contain information about the origin and death of humanity, helping humanity unravel the mysteries of life in the universe. Legend also believes that one day people will find all the crystal skulls and gather them together to combine the great wisdom of mankind and play their rightful role.

This legend has been passed down in Mesoamerica for thousands of years. It has long been thought that it is just a beautiful myth or a fantasy - no one knows what the legendary crystal skull is, and from the content of the legend, it is like an all-encompassing information and an all-knowing book, but people know nothing about it, and even doubt its existence.

Then, our beloved Mr. Wen came from a glass products company in Yiwu small commodity market with a thousand "Made.in.China" crystal glass skulls to the kingdom of Hongshutizgan on the Pacific coast of Mexico in Central America in 1515 AD......

As a result, the Aztec and Mayan priests of Central America, after seeing these thousand Chinese-made knockoffs with their own eyes, were all messed up.

――Didn't you say it before, Haode, there are only thirteen crystal skulls?

But now there are so many crystal skulls popping up all at once, what's going on?

Also, hundreds of crystal skulls have already been gathered, why haven't you heard them speak and sing?

Fortunately, in these years of poor transportation and slow flow of information in Central America, there were no newspapers, radio stations, and no paparazzi, and it sometimes took a year or two for news to spread from the Aztec Empire to the territory of the Mayans.

In addition, all the guys who can be fools fool the foolish people are usually all people who can speak well and speak skillfully. Moreover, in this era, the wisdom of the people has not yet opened, and the common people of any country are easy to fool - what is the famous saying? When the first liar on shijie meets the first idiot on shijie, religion is born!

Therefore, under the various deceptions of the priests, the impact of these crystal skulls has not caused a crisis of faith for the time being.

But, at least in the small circle of the indigenous clergy, news of that batch of crystal skeletons had quietly spread and sparked widespread curiosity. As for Princess Snow Dailan, who has witnessed and touched these brilliant crystal skulls in the palace of Emperor Montezuma, she has long wanted to go to the source of these "suspected artifacts" and find out for herself.

However, after stepping into the territory of the kingdom of Hun Thizgan for the first time, she only saw cities swallowed by vegetation, abandoned palaces, ruined temples, overgrown fields, and barren mountains that were uninhabited for hundreds of miles. …,

After passing through the abandoned old capital of the kingdom of Hunghitizgan, the delegation walked for a long time, all the way out of the steep and majestic mountains, to the hills and wet tidal flats on the shores of the Pacific Ocean, but they saw only one after another long abandoned cornfields, and a few abandoned villages and towns with only ruins and ruins, and there was almost no sign of human activity, which made Kuauchtmok often wonder if he was on the wrong path.

Fortunately, when they were already walking in the tropical jungle, the figure of the Honshutizgans finally appeared in front of them—a few laborers who were cutting trees in the forest, and they all let out a scream of horror when they saw the warriors of the Aztec Empire suddenly approaching.

Judging by the glittering iron axes in their hands, these people should be the logging team of the Hungshutizgans.

So Kuauchtmok straightened his clothes with an arrogant look, strode forward, and announced in a loud voice to the lumberjacks:

“…… We are messengers sent by Montezuma Bixia! Go back quickly and report to your king, and let him send a guard of honor to meet you!" ”

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PS: The truth about those crystal skulls in real history:

To the disappointment of some occult and dark arts worshippers, the scientific community concluded that these crystal skulls were not the work of Mayan priests in antiquity, but the work of 19th-century European jewellers.

In 2005, Jane Walsh, an anthropologist at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., used an electron scanning microscope to test the Smithsonian crystal skull at the British Museum. The results showed that the skull did not have the uneven scratches that should have been left by pre-colonial tools, but instead found clean arcs that should have been left by modern wheels. According to Walsh, "all crystal skulls are carved from modern gem-processing wheels using industrial diamonds and polished by modern machinery". The discovery shocked shijie.

Will someone fake a crystal skull in Weishenme?

The 19th century is known as the "Age of Museums", when archaeologists were digging up ancient artifacts, especially works of art, in Egypt, the Middle East, and wherever ancient civilizations existed. So this kind of art is in high demand and can bring high returns. On the other hand, the skull symbol was common in Mexican and Mesoamerican civilizations and had a very important symbolic meaning. Therefore, some crystal skulls may really be ancient works of art.

The earliest origin of these crystal skulls found in Mesoamerica is not yet verified, and some people are still willing to believe that they originated from ancient times, believing that the crystal skulls are the product of some kind of super civilization, which contains information about the origin and fate of human beings. However, the most famous skulls tend to have smooth surfaces and realistic details, clearly from modern carved jishu.

But regardless of where they come from, these crystal skulls are at least a beautiful and fascinating work of art.