One hundred and twenty-four, the doomsday catastrophe

In May 1520, from the turquoise waters of the Gulf of Mexico to the snow-capped Sierra Madre, fifteen million indigenous Indians throughout Central America were shrouded in a terrifying haze that symbolized death.

Cholera, smallpox, diphtheria, measles, dysentery, malaria, yellow fever, Black Death...... These virulent infectious germs, which the American Indians had never come into contact with, spread all over the land at once because of the mistake of a famous auspicious gentleman, and displayed their obscenity unscrupulously.

For the ignorant American Indians, the visible enemy could still be resisted by wielding a sword, but the invisible disease was overwhelming.

Based on their historical experience and religious beliefs, the only conceivable solution to the plague was for the priests to kill people on a large scale, disemboweling hundreds of young and healthy human sacrifices, and offering their blood and hearts to the gods...... As a result, instead of praying to the gods for salvation from the Indians, this unscientific strategy against the plague piled up too many dead bodies in temples located in the center of the city. Then, the corpses decomposed rapidly in the scorching sun, breeding a large number of infectious germs - which made the plague even more violent!

All of a sudden, the whole of Central America was filled with mourning and corpses, and the towns and villages were empty, and millions of people died of the disease.

When such a bleak and desperate apocalyptic atmosphere came, the expeditionary force of the Kingdom of Hongshutizgan, which continued to distribute antibiotic pills with remarkable efficacy to everyone in the village of Otumba, and did its best to save the wounded, became the only light in this dark age.

And those "distant gods" who are merciful and compassionate have become the almighty saviors in the minds of all the indigenous people of Central America.

- No one can know that it was these seemingly benevolent "distant gods" who built the Pandora's box for sowing the plague, but because of a series of missteps and Jihua's inability to keep up with the changes, the plague broke out in this sad land......

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Lifting the curtain of the tent, Wang Qiu raised his head, only to see that the clear night sky was cloudless, the moon was also big and round, and there was a shimmering starlight everywhere. Looking down, the vast wilderness around the expeditionary force camp in Otumba village was also densely packed with countless tents and shacks, and thousands of bonfires were lit. Even though the night is dark, it is still a noisy appearance.

-- In the last month, due to the fear of the deadly plague, in order to be able to obtain the nearest "miracle medicine" and treatment, the survivors of the entire valley of Mexico have been converging around the village of Otumba, where the expeditionary force of the Kingdom of Hungshutizgan is stationed, at an alarming speed, and have set up countless messy tents and shacks to temporarily settle down, thus forming a huge refugee camp with a total population of hundreds of thousands.

Many of them have been cured of their illnesses after receiving antibiotic medications. But their family and tribe were basically dead from the plague at this time, and even if they returned to their hometown alone, they could not sustain their lives, which was equivalent to becoming a lonely ghost.

Finding that they had nowhere else to go but here, they begged the people of Honshitzgan to take them in and become subjects under the rule of the "men of God". Wen Desi discussed with Director Ma, considering that there is no shortage of food now, and the development and construction in the future will inevitably require a large amount of labor, so he agreed half-pushed.

As a result, as the plague spread, more and more natives came to pray for the protection of the "men of God", and the village of Otumba, which was originally only a few thousand people, soon swelled into a giant slum with hundreds of thousands of people. During the day, thousands of refugees line up to receive medicine and relief food, rubbing shoulders with each other. At night, the blazing bonfires all over the mountains and fields form a brilliant sea of lights on the ground, which contrasts with the sea of stars in the sky. …,

If you look at it as far as the eye can see, behind the distant mountains at the end of the field of vision, you can vaguely see many shadowy dazzling fires, reflecting the sky on the horizon - it is the small team sent out by the traversers to set fire to the surrounding dead cities with only rotting corpses left.

Facing this apocalyptic scene full of fire, Wang Qiu couldn't help but sigh faintly.

At least hundreds of thousands of people survived because of their efforts, but at least millions more died of illness because of their mistakes.

The merits and demerits of it are really hard to explain.

Looking back at the tent, under the dim swaying kerosene lamp, Wen Desi was holding a very scribbled notebook, introducing what had happened in the past few days to Ma Tong and Cai Rong, who had just returned from modern time and space. His voice seemed to be a mixture of coldness, exhaustion, numbness, and confusion at the same time, and there was a hint of a smirk at the corner of his mouth, which seemed subtle, awkward, and eerie.

β€œβ€¦β€¦ Ten days ago, our ally, General Sicato Jr., hurried back to his homeland in a sedan chair with the remaining Tlaxcala warriors and the antibiotic pills we had provided, before his yellow fever had fully recovered.

Then, without encountering any resistance, his troops easily entered the Zutara Valley and regained power of the Tribal Alliance of Tlaxcala in one fell swoopβ€”for the plague had been breaking out in the Tlaxcala Alliance for more than thirty days, and almost all the troops guarding the valley pass had died of illness! And the population of the entire Tlaxcala Alliance has plummeted from more than 500,000 to less than 100,000 in this terrible plague!

Before returning home, Sicottcato Jr. had intended to carry out a purge to cut down all the nobles who had killed his father. When he visited his hometown of Zutara Valley this time, he found that he didn't have to do it himself, because his political enemies had already died of the plague because they had too much contact with the Spaniards who carried the source of the disease! And the whole family is dead, there is no one left, and even cutting the grass and eradicating the roots can be avoided......

The only trouble is to dig a pit for so many dead people to bury their bodies...... Because there were so many pits to dig and too few healthy people who had the strength to dig them, Sicotecato Jr. didn't finish digging for five days......"

β€œβ€¦β€¦ Then there was the news from the Gulf coast, according to the information obtained by our search team, several days before the Battle of Otumba, the port of Veracruz had been plunged into a great plague, and more than 600 Spaniards quickly died within ten days.

In a panic, Commander Garcia hastily ordered the Spanish fleet to set sail and escape, leaving more than a hundred seriously ill ships to fend for themselves on the beach...... Only one tenacious Spaniard survived the illness, and he has now been brought back by our search team. When the search party left the port of Veracruz, they also set a fire and burned down the port cursed by the plague god......"

Wen Deji's voice paused here for a moment before continuing, "...... In addition, the plague that first broke out among the Spaniards inevitably spread to the surrounding Native American villages. The outbreak is worse in the local Totonac tribe than on the Mexican highlands, where the rainforest is humid and hot, mosquitoes and flies are abundant, and the Totonac people like to kill people in their villages and allow corpses to pile up and rot...... Once the epidemic breaks out, it is really more violent than a volcanic eruption.

According to what our spies have detected, in the Totonac settlement, there is a tragic situation in which entire villages have been killed. With the exception of a dozen or so families in the village of Semboyar, where our troops had been stationed to rest, and who had barely survived because of some of the drugs we had distributed, the search party did not see a single living person in the entire Gulf Coast. As for the silver mine that we dug in the north before, because the distance was too long, the search team did not have time to rush over to reconnoitre, but it is estimated that the situation is also not good, and we should prepare for the worst...... "...,

β€œβ€¦β€¦ So the whole of Mexico is already a hell on earth? Can you estimate how many people died? ”

Senior Sister Ma Tong's words were very cold, but she also hit the nail on the head and hit the nail on the head.

But Mr. Moon's answer was even more grim.

β€œβ€¦β€¦ NO, NO, NO, YOUR QUESTION, IT'S WRONG IN TERMS OF ASKING THE QUESTION. As things stand, you shouldn't be asking how many people died here, but how many people survived in this place! ”

He then sighed and counted them one by one, "...... In the Zutara Valley, the Tlaxcala, who originally had a population of more than 500,000, now have less than 100,000 left. On the Gulf coast, the Totonac people, who used to have a population of more than a million people, are lucky to be able to survive 20,000 or 30,000 people with little medical treatment! As for this valley of Mexico, with a population of seven or eight million, because we have been putting a lot of antibiotics, maybe one million to two million people will eventually be able to get rid of the disease and survive.

Next, we have to count the Chichimec in the desert in the north and the Maya in the Yucatan Peninsula in the southeast......"

Speaking of this, Wen Deji finally couldn't hold back his emotions anymore, and slammed his fist on the table fiercely, making a loud "bang".

β€œβ€¦β€¦ One month! In just one month, at least 10 million lives were lost! What kind of sin have we done! ”

He pounded the table with emotion, choked and whispered, tears flashing in the corners of his eyes.

-- Although when he assisted Director Ma in carrying out the "bacteriological war against Europe" before, Comrade Wen Dehei, who was quite good in nature, already had some psychological burden. But in his imagination, those nightmares-like corpses and lifeless cruel scenes should only happen on the other side of the Atlantic, and it may have nothing to do with the land under his feet, so he gradually calmed down.

However, due to the accidental opening of "Pandora's box", millions of deaths occurred around him at once...... As an accomplice to this tragedy, Wen Desi couldn't help but be tortured by his inner conscience for a while - in the end, he was still not ruthless enough, not "mature" enough, to treat these living, flesh-and-blood natives of another time and space as if they were NPCs in the game.

From another point of view, it also means that he has gradually integrated into this shijie, and no longer sees himself as a passerby.