49. The Visit of the Last Emperor (II)

According to Wen Desi's rough statistics, Hope Port has sold at least 200,000 logs in the past two years (one month in modern time and space). But the payment received because of this, according to Wang Qiu, was only about 400 million yuan, which made Wen Desi very suspicious:

“…… Senior Brother Wang Qiu, please tell me the truth here. I used to have a girlfriend who studied gardening, and I knew a little bit about the timber market. In China, trees that are more than 100 years old are ancient and famous trees, and they are basically not allowed to be cut down, and the high-grade timber that is older can only rely on imports. Most of the trees bought and sold in the market are less than 50 years old.

Those 500-year-old high-grade hardwoods may be exaggerated in our country to say that they are priceless, but the rarity should still be deserved, not to mention the 1,000-year-old giant trees, which are already eligible for large-scale auctions. Those well-known furniture brand manufacturers will buy it, because the furniture produced is the top luxury...... On average, the price of a thousand-year-old giant tree is probably nearly 10 million!

Most of the timber you get from Hope Port and the Valley of Mexico is just a few decades old, but there are at least a few thousand giant trees that are more than 500 or 1,000 years old! How did you receive such a small amount of money in total? ”

Regarding the "unreasonable" questioning of the literary director, Wang Qiu was naturally aggrieved.

“…… Senior, I'm afraid you don't know that the price of thousand-year-old giant wood on the market is indeed quite high, but it is not the log that can be sold at the price, but the board! Nowadays, everything in China is advocating to be in line with international standards, and all kinds of wood can only be regarded as first-class goods if they meet GB standards and hold various international certifications.

As for these logs of yours, they have not even done the basic processing of drying and fumigation, and the branches have been removed from the cutting and trimming, and the bark has not even been shaved off. Many of them were drenched in rain (because they were placed in the open air), soaked in seawater (merchants from other city-states rowed large rafts from the sea to sell), and imported into the country through irregular channels...... Even if it is 500, 1,000, or 2,000 years old, where can it be sold for a high price? ”

“…… But in that case, we're almost ruined by this war......"

Wen Deji was a little distressed at first, but then relieved, "...... Anyway, the old ones don't go, the new ones don't come! When we defeat the Spaniards and overthrow the Aztec Empire, we will be the masters of the whole of Mexico, what good things do we want? Let's all focus on war! ”

While the two of them were reviewing their troops and calculating the cost of armaments, a native nobleman covered in bird feathers hurried in to bring the important news of the arrival of the Aztec envoys.

Moreover, the leader of this group of Aztecs is actually a well-known historical figure, at least known to Wang Qiu and Wen Desi.

“…… Montezuma II's nephew Kuauchtmok?! The last emperor of the Aztecs is here?! ”

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Kuohetmok, also translated as Guatmus, Kuhatimok, Quatmoc, etc., was the twelfth emperor of the Aztec Empire and an emperor of Zuihou. Originally from the priestly class, he was also a valiant warrior and the nephew of the 10th Emperor, Montezuma II. According to the Spaniards, he was "very handsome, and courageous, but also ruthless".

The previous Kuauchtmok was nothing more than an ordinary member of the royal family and a middle-ranking general in the Aztec Empire. It was not until the juncture of the empire that he stepped onto the stage of history and left a strong mark in the history books of the Age of Discovery. …,

-- When the rebellion broke out in the Aztec Empire, and the 11th emperor died of smallpox within four months of his accession to the throne, and when the Spanish conquistador Hanan Cortés once again gathered a large army to come to the city, the twenty-five-year-old Cuauchtmoc was ordered to lead the Aztec Empire, which had fallen apart and crumbling, to fight Cortés hard for most of the year, and fought a bloody battle in the capital until Zuihou.

When the dust finally settled on the battle, the captured Kuauchtmok saw the victorious Cortés, and did not scold or give in and beg for mercy, but said very calmly: "...... You have destroyed my city and killed my people, now please kill me! ”

Since then, this sentence has become a famous phrase for the ages that announced the end of the Aztec Empire. The last emperor, Cuauchtémoc, was also regarded by later generations of Mexicans as a national hero who resisted aggression and defended independence, and his head was cast on a coin.

Before the crossing, when he was in Mexico City on a business trip, he had also seen a bronze statue of him on the street - indeed very heroic.

Of course, at this time, Kuochtmoc was just an ordinary high-ranking Aztec nobleman. I didn't know that according to the history of a certain time and space, I was about to ascend the throne next year and become emperor, and I didn't know that I would become a prisoner of the white-skinned invaders in the year after that, and I would die of all kinds of torture.

At this time, accompanied by several nobles of the Honshutizgan people, he was munching on spicy tobacco leaves (the custom of Mesoamerican Indians to chew tobacco leaves) while walking into the downtown area of Port Hope with curiosity.

Although neither the king of Avaha nor several legendary "gods" went out to greet him, which made Kuauchtmok feel that the other party seemed to be not respectful enough, he could understand this - the kingdom of Honshutizgan was not a vassal state of the Aztec Empire after all, although its attitude seemed to have softened a little, at least it had not surrendered for now, and it would be good to be able to treat each other with such a cold enemy courtesy.

What's more, after stepping into Hope Port, his whole mind has been attracted by all kinds of novelties here.

-- Compared with half a year ago, the cityscape of Port Hope has undergone new changes.

Although the slums were still full of thatched huts, a number of brightly colored red brick walls finally appeared - after numerous landslides and accidents, the first large brick kiln in the kingdom of Hunghitizgan was finally inaugurated, and bricks could be mass-produced. In addition, the elevated canals made of bamboo and wooden troughs also allow dozens of public pools throughout the city to flow with gurgling springs forever.

In addition, the coconut trees planted next to the pond and the various flowers planted by the residents around the pond have made this waterside green space automatically become the "social center" of every neighborhood, and people gather under the coconut trees every day to cool off and chat and relieve boredom.

Well, it's basically like the small community park of later generations.

Of course, in the pyramid-lined city of Tenochtitlan, where there are more imposing elevated canals and elaborate gardens, Kuauchtmok doesn't make a fuss about it – what really struck him was the road beneath his feet.

For the Indians of this era, the wild roads were generally trodden by people, and the artificially built roads were usually paved with a layer of sand on the surface of rammed earth. The best roads were paved with stones—frugal with gravel, with slabs, and even in the palace of Emperor Montezuma II, the corridors were paved with very large and polished stone slabs. …,

However, the street that appeared at the foot of Kuochtmok at this time was a whole huge stone slab, and there were hardly any gaps in it - how could there be such a huge stone slab on Shijie? And how did the people of Hunghyutizgan carve it?

It was only later that Kuauchtmok received an explanation from his entourage that it was a hard pavement made of a mud that could be condensed into stone as a reward from the "men of God...... And the pools on the street are also made of the same "cement".

Next, the row of simple steel houses in the aristocratic quarter gave the Aztec envoys an even greater shock—at first, Kuauchtmok thought they were all wooden houses, and pouted his lips and laughed at the poor sourness of the nobles of the Honshitizgans to his subordinates. But when he got closer and took a closer look, he gasped: all of these buildings were made of extremely thin metal sheets!

Build a house out of metal?! What is this concept?!!

――Before the Industrial Revolution, due to the limitations of the Jishu level, the metal production of all shijie was pitifully low. For example, during the Northern Song Dynasty, China's annual steel production was about 50,000 tons, and it was already known as Shijie's first, which is said to be close to the steel production of other civilizations in the world combined. But in later generations, it was not enough to build a giant oil tanker - by the beginning of the 21st century, China's annual steel production exceeded 700 million tons, and it was still the first ...... Compared with the Northern Song Dynasty a thousand years ago, the output has increased by 14,000 times.

In China during the Ming and Qing dynasties, many peasants were too poor to afford kitchen knives, and even the little iron on the hoe was a lot of wealth for them. Pig iron bars in many remote places can be used instead of currency, and they are also very popular. In the Aztec Empire, which did not know how to smelt iron at all and could only use stone tools to fight, the amount of metal was even rarer. Even if they gathered the gold, silver, copper, and tin of the whole city of Tenochtitlan (they didn't know how to mix copper and tin into bronze alloys), it would have been difficult to scrape together enough metal to build a two-story terraced house.

In short, in the eyes of Kuauchtmok, this kind of color steel movable simple house, which was used as a temporary dormitory for building migrant workers in later generations, is really a hundred, a thousand, or ten thousand times more luxurious than any marble luxury villa or granite palace!

What's more, the metal houses that appeared in front of him were not one or two, but in rows - modern modular and rapid buildings, which could build a building in just a week. Although the hands and feet of the Indian laborers were very clumsy, fortunately, the construction of this modular design and standardized production of color steel sandwich panel movable simple house was originally just a simple manual labor, not a complex and precise jishu work...... It's basically as easy as building blocks.

Therefore, even in a different time and space, the installation speed of this kind of mobile house is still very fast, at first it was installed one building a day, and later, the local construction team, which has gradually become proficient, can install one in only half a day.

Of course, the interior decoration and the "delicate work" such as painting murals had to be done slowly by the nobles, samurai, and wealthy merchants who moved in.

In addition, the mountains of cloth, clothing, shoes and socks, porcelain, mirrors, refined salt, sweets and steel products piled up in the city's bazaars, the kitchen knives, watermelon knives and fruit knives that can be found on the windowsills of the citizens, the glittering axes on the shoulders of the lumberjacks, and the solar-powered street lamps in the courtyards of the mansions in the aristocratic district, all amazed Kuauchtmok and made him more and more in awe of the "god-men" he had not yet met.

By the time Kuochtmok arrived at the small square of the formal meeting with a welcome song played over a loudspeaker, he had already thrown away the arrogance of "city people looking at country people" and decided to greet the "men of God" with the most humble courtesy.

What, then, was the most humble etiquette for the Aztecs, who fanatically worshipped the sun and blood?