.The tropical rainforest in the middle of the night is silent, but the chirping sound of insects is heard from time to time.

Under the cold moonlight, the depressed and empty city of Tikal is hidden in this endless forest. Ancient pyramids and tall statues that have experienced vicissitudes have cast long shadows on the broken bluestone square. Except for the few camps with bonfires, the rest of the city is trapped in a darkness, with almost no lights and no voices heard.

After repeated looting and massacre by the Inca Expeditionary Force and the local "rebel army", not many residents of this ancient city-state deep in the tropical rainforest would have survived. If the Incas on the western plateau were not inspired by the victory of the front line, they continued to leave the barren plateau hometown and migrated here to colonize and settle, Tikal would have completely become a dead city. Even so, this prosperous city with a total population of over 300,000 in its heyday would have only a few more than 10,000 new residents, which was really desolate and deserted.

In a small manor near the outskirts of the city, the elderly high priest Manuel, sitting alone in the study of the main house. With a dimly beating oil lamp, he focused on the piles of thick lists, files and books. Outside the door, a small group of tall and tall temple guards were standing in and out in two rows of guns, closely guarding all the movements around him. There were also many documents, messengers and servants, coming in and out like flowing water, conveying all the latest information, official documents and instructions.

In fact, as the logistics manager appointed by the King of the Mountains, and the actual ruler of Tikal City, Manuel could find himself a more comfortable residence, such as the mansion of the former Elves Governor, the villa of the local rich man, the back house of the luxurious temple, etc. Even the exquisite tree canopy palace left by the Elf Princess, he could move in with confidence without worrying about any problems of transcendence. When he led the entire army to the expedition and left the rainy camp of Tikal City, Tekal City, to thank him for his charisma for having fought side by side with him for so many years.

However, Manuel only found a very inconspicuous small manor to live in on the edge of the noble district of Tikal.

This manor is very small and has been abandoned for a long time. It is really not suitable for the living of a noble man like him. In the courtyard, on the roof, under the eaves, there are weeds everywhere, mosquitoes, and more than a hundred military slaves cleaned it up for three days before they could clean it up slightly. The wells in the yard had already been silted, so everything was used for a long time to get rid of water. It was really hard to get it from a distance. Although several houses were made of stone and were still solid, the various furnishings inside had been eroded and decaying. Even Manuel's room was still full of dust and mold, and from time to time, a few bed bugs, cockroaches and even rats popped up.

Despite this, Manuel still ignored the dissuasion of others and firmly decided to use this small manor as his residence.

Because this was once the hometown where he lived when he was young, a place where Manuel spent his entire childhood and was filled with countless memories.

Although, since he fled in panic in the blood and fire of the Elves' army massacre, he has not stepped into this place for more than 60 years.

During this long sixty years, Manuel first fled alone to the plateau thousands of miles away in the West, where he married and had children, had branches and leaves, and through bloody battles in the war, he gradually climbed to the high priest of the Sun God Church, creating a huge family business. Then, in the midst of new wars, his family members gradually withered and died, and eventually completely lost their descendants. The Sun Goddess he loyal to and served also fell into endless sleep with the destruction of the Temple of Time. As a result, only Manuel was left, a lonely old man, who was almost buried in the tranquil years of the yellow earth, and finally returned alone.

Sixty years ago, he left his hometown alone, and then returned to his hometown alone sixty years later. These sixty years have been like a wonderful cycle. However, the protagonist has changed from a handsome handsome boy to a hunchbacked dying old man. He was just castrated by a military doctor to an old eunuch because of his serious injury on the battlefield... To be honest, this is not a very funny and interesting thing, but a life tragedy that makes the parties involved cry.

Times have changed and the world has changed. The children of the family have long turned into dead bones. Now even their graves are not sure where to search. Only this ancestral home passed down from generation to generation has also changed a lot in the long period of more than 60 years, but it is finally filled with many of his long-lost memories of the past - the rough-lined graffiti on the wall of the study; the simple family motto carved on the screen wall of the hall; the glass marbles, iron gyros and toy tin soldiers buried under the floor tiles of the bedroom... and a small grave built by himself in a hidden corner on the edge of the courtyard...

Alas, no matter who you are, as long as you get older, you will seem to be unable to help but become more and more nostalgic... Looking at the vaguely identifiable graffiti in the corners of the wall, as well as the same vague signatures and dates, Manuel couldn't help but put his pen and stroke his forehead, sighing sadly.

He turned around and grabbed a ceramic teapot, poured several mouthfuls of cold water into his mouth, and then shook his head fiercely, trying to drive all these messy and sad thoughts aside - hundreds of thousands of Inca troops were on the battlefield, and all kinds of rear affairs were intricate, while the civil servant team under King Tkumse had already suffered heavy casualties in the continuous war. Even if he thought about money and everything he could do to catch up with, he still couldn't keep up with the continuous flight of tasks.

As the general manager of logistics affairs who coordinated all this work, at the hands of High Priest Manuel, there was a full table of emergency official duties that must be handled today.

Although the large-scale war on the front line has basically come to an end, the next step is to suppress the Ao tribe who refuses to surrender. It is probably still a protracted military operation, while the arms and ammunition is almost exhausted - the Incas' small army workshops have long been destroyed in war. These recent wars are all relying on the inventory supply of Naserel's allies and the large amount of seizures on the battlefield.

However, the former was declared exhausted last month. After all, no matter how huge a floating warship was, its warehouse capacity was limited. The latter was also cut off with the retreat of the "transportation captain" of the Elf Army. King Tecumse's urging on the front line was as tight as the day, but Manuel had no choice but to do his best to collect some civilian military equipment scattered by the Elf Army when it retreated. At the same time, through backward means such as sauna, such as sauna, they gathered some low-tech products such as black gunpowder to be sent to deal with. As for contacting international arms dealers overseas... that was what King Tecumse, who was on the coast, should try to do it himself.

In addition, there are many other things that bothered the High Priest Manuel.

As King Tecumse led the tribes and troops loyal to the royal family almost all came out and rushed into the tropical rainforest in the east. The snowy plateau behind suddenly entered a terrible state of anarchy, and the harsh famine did not ease at all. As a result, the social order in the hinterland of the plateau became gone. In order to collect necessary materials for survival, tribes of all sizes plundered and burned and killed each other, and groups of bandits rose up from all sides.

The only few thousand left-behind troops were busy, but they still couldn't suppress them at all, and even the royal territories were directly under the control of the royal family. Several bold tribes actually joined forces to attack and invade Xipan Port, a salt-producing land that was regarded as forbidden by the royal family. Another group of horse thieves of unknown origin was even more amazing. They easily defeated the three thousand defenders and looted the most prosperous city on the plateau Tijuanako...

According to the rewards of the hidden dark lines, behind this series of riots and rebellions, there seems to be a strange sect that believes in the "Die Dragon" is fanning the flames and provoking discord, and it is obviously unrelated to the demon general Oukai. Those guys who speak strange accents and proclaim that "all things in the world will eventually be destroyed, and only the dead dragon will rule everything" mostly have some connection with the army of waste beggars under Oukai... Could it be that this cunning demon has always been showing weakness to the outside world in the past and wants to pretend to be a pig and eat a tiger?

No matter what the truth is, when the situation is slightly stable, I must persuade King Tecomse to make up my mind to make a decision to break this "ally" with ulterior motives, even if it is insulted... Under the dim lights swaying in the wind, High Priest Manuel thought silently.

As an old clergyman, he knew very well how terrible incitement and destruction these strange missionaries who suddenly emerged from somewhere in the right corner would have in the right situation - whether this religious group served the true god or the false god - at the same time, he knew even more clearly how panic, fragile and helpless the plateau residents who were suddenly in the vacuum of faith after the sun gods believed in forever fell into slept, and how fragile, and helpless they were deep in their hearts, they wanted to catch a new life-saving straw - for any emerging religion that was eager to expand their power, this was the most wonderful lamb.

Therefore, for any rational ruler, this crisis must be nipped into the bud.

However, Manuel also knew very well that it was not the time to turn against these guys. Because the problems that made him feel a headache were far more than these. The snowy plateau in the distant rear, which was ignored or even abandoned by the royal family, was indeed full of natural disasters and man-made disasters, and chaos and melee. However, the tropical rainforest occupied by hundreds of thousands of Inca troops was not actually very peaceful.

As the leader of the rebellious armed alliance supported by all Incas, Mayans and Aztecs, King Tekumse has long been the legal ruler of the entire Mazka continent in name. But in fact, in this loose alliance that includes all the indigenous peoples of the Mazka continent, the three major ethnic groups, Incas, Mayans and Aztecs, and even within the various ethnic groups, have been constantly in conflicts since ancient times, with different languages ​​and cultures, and there is no concept of a unified country at all.

Just based on the existence of the powerful and cruel common enemy of the Elf Colonizer, and the miraculously brilliant martial arts of King Tecumse, so many tribes could barely let go of their hatred and temporarily unite under the Black Hawk flag of Tecumse to fight against the war.

But now, due to the rapid retreat of the elves colonists, the dawn of independence and independence of the indigenous peoples in the Mazka continent seems to be right in front of us, and the most fundamental basis for the establishment of this extensive alliance has ceased to exist. On the contrary, internal conflicts and conflicts between tribes in various places have begun to become increasingly fierce, and have gradually been officially put on the table - the root of which is the power struggle after independence.
Chapter completed!