With a cool mint in her mouth, Snow Lady dangled her legs and sat comfortably on the round swivel chair in front of the bar.

The wide eaves shelter from the scorching sun, and the strong sea breeze sweeps through the open windows, making people feel even cooler.

Many of the goods she saw in the Hope Port Bazaar this morning were good things she had never seen or even imagined in her life. For example, small boxes that emit music (music boxes), dresses (chemical fabrics) with unbelievably colorful colors, costumes decorated with countless bright feathers (samba dancer suits), small metal cans (solid air fresheners) that emit a rich fragrance, and thick blankets and cotton bedding that are not used on the hot seaside but are popular on the cool and cold plateaus.

And in this small storefront, Snow Ji Dailan saw the goods that excited her even more - the tall shelves from the ground to the roof, lined with large transparent jars made of glass, filled with all kinds of colorful sugar cubes, pastries and preserves, exuding all kinds of sweet and tangy aromas, which are simply intoxicating. Most pastries are regular cubes, but many are shaped into delicate flowers, leaves, or animals. And those fruit-flavored translucent sugar cubes are as brilliant and crystalline as colorful gems in the sun.

In her memory, she had never seen a store that sold such a wide variety of snacks, and all of them were so delicate and delicious. If there is such a candy shop in the hometown of Tenochtitlan, then the whole city of ladies and gluttonous children will definitely fill the store every day.

Next, she saw an even more incredible scene—she saw the young foreigner named Wang Qiu, whispering something to the shopkeeper. The man turned around and tinkered, and out of nowhere he took out a wooden box painted white, first opened the wooden lid, and then quickly lifted the quilt underneath, and suddenly there was a burst of white smoke, and then, as if by magic, there was a plate of crystal ice in his hand, which exuded a trace of cold, which not only made people refresh themselves in this sleepy summer heat, but also made the princess and the two maids look at it intently.

Next, he took out a metal instrument that looked like a mill, smashed the ice cubes into minced pieces in three clicks, put them into three tall glasses, drizzled them with jam and honey, and three refreshing and delicious shaved ice were ready.

“…… Wow, this is...... Ice cube?! Where did you get that? Even the nearest snow-capped mountain is far away. ”

Princess Xueji's pupils suddenly widened like a cat in the middle of the night, and the two maids exclaimed without scruples.

-- Obviously, these ice cubes were not excavated and transported from the snow-capped peaks of thousands of miles away, but were made on the spot at Hope Port.

When it comes to ice making, the first thing that comes to mind for modern people is a refrigerator. But Hope Port has no power plant or hydroelectric power plant, and the meagre amount of electricity provided by a few solar panels alone is really not enough to feed a refrigerator that can be called an electric tiger.

Therefore, the ice cubes and shaved ice that have recently become popular in Hope Port adopt another relatively old ice-making method - saltpeter ice.

To put it simply, it is to prepare a large wooden barrel, a small iron bucket, fill the large wooden barrel with about half of the water, and then dip it into a small iron bucket filled with pure water, and then put saltpeter into the large wooden barrel. As the saltpeter in the large wooden barrel gradually dissolves, it will absorb a large amount of heat, causing the water in the small iron barrel to quickly condense into ice. Then wrap the ice cubes in a quilt and put them in a sturdy and thick wooden box, which can be stored for a long time. …,

In Central America at this time, the Aztecs on the Mexican plateau could also dig up ice from snow-capped mountains and store it in underground ice cellars to enjoy slowly. However, due to its geographical location in the tropical coastal region, there is simply no place to mine ice in the territory. So the ice was an instant sensation – a refreshing cup of shaved ice in the cool sea breeze under the scorching sun of a tropical beach...... It's a fairy treat!

What is more troublesome is that the saltpeter required for this ice-making method is still completely dependent on imports from modern shijie for the time being, thus restricting the production of ice cubes - although a natural saltpeter mine has been found in the northern border area, and the mining difficulty is not high, but the vein is too far away from Hope Port and not near the sea to solve the problem of large quantities of transportation, so the ice-making industry here is still unable to be self-reliant for a while.

The emergence of fruit juice shaved ice and other types of freezing points has also promoted the sales of insulated thermos, but not for hot water, but for storing ice water and ice cubes - due to the hot climate in the tropics, there is no discomfort in drinking cold water and taking cold showers, and the thermos flasks with glass mirror vacuum pumping are easy to break and inconvenient for long-distance trafficking, so there has not been much market. But after the success of saltpeter ice making, ice cubes with thermos flasks immediately became the most admired enjoyment of the wealthy, whether it is eating shaved ice directly or making iced drinks, it can make people addicted.

However, for the Aztec princess, who was so fond of spicy cuisine that she dipped her fruit in hot sauce, ordinary jam honey sweet shaved ice didn't seem to satisfy her liking - how could it be considered delicious without even a chili pepper?

“…… Well, the taste of this freshly made shaved ice should be okay! ”

“…… Well...... Yes, sweet, cool, this 'shaved ice' seems to taste good, but it seems to be missing something...... Oh, I see, is there chili sauce here? I'm going to make a better 'shaved ice' for you to try......"

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Just as Wang Qiu looked at Princess Snow Ji Dailan with black lines, he enthusiastically smeared a lot of chili sauce on the crushed ice with a small spoon, made a cup of red Mexican-style spicy shaved ice with his own hands, and held it in front of him like a treasure, making him feel infinitely entangled about whether to taste it or not. The future last Aztec emperor, Kuauchtmok, was now on a purposeful field trip in the fields on the outskirts of Port Hope.

Walking along the narrow, muddy ridges, Kuauchtmok carefully observed the fields, canals, and farmers working in the fields. From the time he went out in the morning, the more he watched, the more he felt new and shocked.

When he first heard that the corn seeds given by the "man of God" could increase the yield by more than ten times, his first reaction was to disbelieve it at all. But after inspecting the unbelievable growth of the crops in the fields, and sending a few clever retinues to inquire around for the opinions of many people, Kuauhtmok had to admit that the corn production in the fields on the outskirts of the city was probably staggeringly high.

Moreover, the peasants here are very different from other places, not only are they sturdy, red-faced, and in good spirits, but many of them wear colorful cotton shorts (sweat vests and T-shirts) and slippers, rather than the skinny, shirtless and barefoot farmers found elsewhere. Along the road, there are often people carrying large bags of goods to and fro, and it seems that they are small merchants who buy agricultural products and sell goods to and fro.

-- As a matter of fact, due to the abundant grain production and the huge income brought about by the trade in time and space, the food level of the residents of Hope Hong Kong has increased by a large margin in the past two years. Even the newly bought slaves had a meal of potato soup and boiled corn with plenty of salt. As for the ordinary civilians in the logging team, in addition to staple foods such as corn and potatoes, they are provided with plenty of vegetables, fruits and seafood every day to eat. The team that works the hardest every day, and there are also rewards for candy and shochu. In short, since two years ago, no one has starved to death in Port Hope. …,

In addition to the extraordinarily lush corn, the Aztecs were dazzled and amazed by the variety of vegetables and fruits that were not originally produced in the Americas, such as turnips, cabbage, onions, etc., which were cultivated in the fields from modern shijie seeds.

In particular, there is a huge fruit called "watermelon" with green skin and red flesh, sweet and juicy. After buying a few watermelons and cutting them with a knife, and letting each of them taste them for themselves, everyone from Kuochtmok down to Kuochtmok was full of praise for the fact that it was really cool and refreshing, and everyone agreed that they should take advantage of this peace talk to ask the people of Hungshutizgan for some seeds to go back, and try to sow some seeds in the vegetable garden of Tenochtitlan, so that their relatives and friends in their homeland could also try to taste it.

What shocked Kuauchtmok even more was that there is a plant called "potato", which can not only be grown in many barren lands, but also has an incredibly high yield, several times that of corn!

In Mesoamerican Indian civilizations, both the Mayans and the Aztecs had at least 80% of their calories in their diets coming from corn. The problem is that although corn is known as a high-yielding crop, before the modern Jishu hybridization and transgenic treatment, the yield of the original version of corn cultivated by the Indians was still relatively limited, and the yield per mu in fertile places could reach about three or four hundred kilograms, while in some relatively poor soil areas, the yield per mu was only one hundred or a few tens of kilograms -- of course, compared with the oats of the Europeans of the same era, this yield was already very good.

In these farmlands on the outskirts of Hope Port, although the amount of chemical fertilizer used is far from the standard of later generations, and pesticides are not sprayed (for fear that the farmers will poison themselves), due to the use of modern technology to produce high-yield seeds, the yield of potatoes per mu can still easily reach one and a half tons per season, and if you plant two seasons, then it is three tons -- this acre of potatoes is worth ten acres of corn land of the Aztecs -- and this is still in order to restore the fertility of the land, compost and abandon the land for the rest of the days. Or a "shrunken version" of beans that have the ability to fix nitrogen from their roots.

Therefore, although the arable land around Hope Port is not vast and not very fertile, it can fully guarantee the food ration of hundreds of thousands of people!

(After entering the 21st century, thanks to a large number of pesticides and fertilizers, the yield of potatoes per mu in rural China will exceed 10,000 catties, that is, 5 tons per mu, which can be regarded as a good harvest - now understand that Weishenme will not starve to death if you grow potatoes)

As a qualified politician and military strategist, Kuauchtmok was shocked and worried about more than that: once a country had ten times the food production, it could feed ten times the population and ten times the army...... The strength of the people of Honshitzgan will inevitably swell rapidly as a result. Coupled with the sharp steel weapons and the extraordinary powers of the foreign "gods", when they are fully fledged, they once again gather a large army to compete with the Aztec Empire for hegemony in Mexico...... Although the Aztec warriors were never afraid of strong enemies, as a sane general and member of the royal family, Kuauchtmock knew he had to respond as soon as possible.

-- Any militarized power that chooses to stifle the threat as soon as possible in the face of the new Liliang that may rise around it, or tries to turn the threat into its own help, if it closes its eyes and listens to it, and ignores it, it is absolutely the most wrong choice.

For the Aztecs, who settled in the middle of the Mexican plateau, the territory of the Honshutizgans was too remote, and the benefits of sending troops on expeditions were small and costly. Moreover, the Aztec Empire was in the midst of the worst turmoil and paralysis since its founding, and had no time to pay attention to foreign affairs.

As a result, Kuauchtmok only walked around the vicinity of Hope Harbor, and before he had seen the "Drill Monkey" and "Cupola" rocket bombardment performances carefully prepared by Wen Desi, he had already secretly made up his mind to pull the Hunghitiz people into his camp no matter what.

Therefore, in the first formal diplomatic talks held in the evening of the same day, Kuauchtmok threw out a very tempting, even terrifying, super preferential clause to the Hope Harbor side -- if the Honshuitizgans ended their hostility with the Aztec Empire and were willing to share with the Aztecs all kinds of high-yield breeds bestowed by the "gods", then they could not only recover all the territory before the war, but also become the fourth core alliance city-state of the Aztec Empire. The three cities of Tenochtitlan are treated equally!