Chapter 26: Chapter 25 Otapan
The summer on the Mexican Plateau was warm, even though the rain was constant, there was not a hint of cold.
Rainwater joined to form lines on his body. Xiulote was simply draped in a cloak and wore shorts. He stood by the river, watching thousands of small boats, like migrating flocks of birds, rowing in from the heavy rain.
The boatmen, bare-chested, exhaled as they unloaded the grain. Then, the fleet first transported the City-State Ritual Plates most valued by the king, followed by various luxury tributes. After that, came disassembled wooden parts of manual catapults. Xiulote inspected the waterproofing details by the riverbank, and lastly, three thousand Otomi people escorted by the Samurai.
Be it the Divine Stone, tributes, weapons, or captives, they would all travel up the Tampen River to the grand Lake Capital City.
The Tampen River was the lifeline of the army. Over a distance of two or three hundred kilometers, depending on the convenient river, just twenty to thirty thousand militia and boatmen were enough to sustain supplies for twenty battalions. The ratio of troops to logistics support was eight to one.
The same distance, if reliant on the dirt trails of the highlands with neither carts nor oxen carts, just manual labor, the required laborers would quadruple, making the troop to logistic support ratio two to one.
If the dirt roads changed to mountainous forests, the number of laborers needed for logistics would double again, making the ratio of troops to logistics a frightening one to one.
As for a two or three hundred kilometers journey through the tropical rainforest on land, at the technology level of any country in the world at that time, no matter how many laborers there were, the army's logistics line could not be maintained. The laborers would consume all the transported food on the road.
"River and sea transportation are the lifelines of ancient empires," Xiulote thought, "It's a pity that the army will soon have to leave this lifeline."
The City-State of Xilotepec expressed its submission to the utmost extent, with the nobility of the city-state striving to scour the city, moving supplies outside the city to meet all the demands of the Mexica army.
However, the stubborn nobility and priests did not surrender the city, and the samurai and militia remained stationed on the city walls. Because the city contained everything for them, without being utterly desperate, they were unwilling to give up easily.
King Tizoc was satisfied with Xilotepec's submission and had no interest in spending another ten months besieging this wealth-draining city.
The army's next target was the core of the loose Otomi Alliance in the west, the Mountain City of Otapan, the legendary northern homeland of the Otomi. Once Otapan City was conquered, the Otomi would lose their political, cultural, and military center and could only submit to the empire.
Six battalions of troops were left at the encampment on the west bank of the Tampen River. Two direct battalions were responsible for maintaining the large camp by the river. The supply line would here switch to a land route, winding west through the mountains and forests.
The remaining four City-State battalions were tasked with monitoring the City-State of Xilotepec and maintaining the terrestrial supply line.
Then, on the first day of September, the king led more than twenty thousand direct samurai, twenty-five thousand direct village warriors, twenty-five thousand City-State warriors, and nearly forty thousand City-State militia. A total of eleven thousand troops, fourteen battalions, moved like a vast swarm of ants toward Otapan two hundred kilometers away.
The rolling highlands, dark forests, continuous rain, deer and wolves scared away by the army, and the deserted Otomi villages were the scenery along the way.
Xiulote passed the battlefield once again, with Bertade guarding him. The two stood on the hilltop of the commander, looking together at the vast forest under the drizzle. On the blood-nourished land, the grass had grown lush enough to cover all former traces, except for the memories in people's hearts.
The army was merely passing through.
Along the march, Supreme Commander Totec established four encampments on the highlands, turning forty thousand City-State militia into logistics support, responsible for transportation and guarding the supply line, also conveniently conserving food consumption.
Eventually, after over half a month of arduous trekking, nearly fifty thousand Mexica warriors, along with twenty-five thousand direct village warriors, a total of nine battalions, finally arrived at the foot of Otapan City.
Though significantly reduced in number, the core combat strength of the Mexica army remained. Among the fifty thousand Mexica warriors were nearly three thousand Jaguars and Eagle Warrior Battalions, and over ten thousand Fourth Level veteran warriors.
King Tizoc was confident of victory.
Even if all the Otomi City-States united and fully mobilized, drafting hundreds of thousands of militia, he could win the battle.
The king longed for a hearty and decisive grand battle, a battle that could be carved onto a Ritual Plate. He was ready to craft a Ritual Plate for his own coronation, as grand as the Aztec Sun Stone. It would bear the deeds of fifteen predecessor monarchs, and he would be the sixteenth,
and the name of the Ritual Plate would be the "Tizoc Stone", establishing the king's incontestable divine right and throne.
The king's confidence lasted until the moment he saw Otapan City. At that moment, his smile froze.
"Heavenly Divine above!" Xiulote struggled out of the rainforest, and the first thing he saw was the mountain city in the distance. "Is this Otapan City?!"
Xiulote turned his head to exchange a glance with Aweit beside him, both of them breaking into a wry smile. They had long heard that Otapan was easy to defend but hard to attack, yet they had not anticipated such terrain. No wonder even a hundred years later, the Spanish could only maintain a semi-autonomous form of rule here.
Both men were covered in leaves and dust from their journey through the forest; their guards beside them helped to tidy up their gear. Behind them was the large army, equally weary from the long trek.
The elevation of Otapan City seemed to fall between Japan's mountain city and Ping Shan City. Looking up, it sat on a plateau nestled in the mountains, the relative height of which was about forty to fifty meters.
The north side was the steepest, faintly connecting to the nearby mountain range, with a small stream trickling down. The other three sides had gentler slopes, with simple roads formed by the passage of people.
The area of the city-state was estimated to exceed five square kilometers. The city walls, built along the mountain's contour, were likely four to five meters high, enclosing the entire plateau. Xiulote faintly noticed figures moving on the city walls atop the mountain and flags fluttering, probably because they had spotted signs of the large army.
"This city is a difficult nut to crack. The terrain is treacherous and it doesn't lack water sources. Plus, it's still the rainy season."
"Very tough to breach. No wonder the Otomi, despite being weak, have managed to establish roots here in the north amidst turbulent wars for over two centuries."
A familiar conversation, the two looked at each other, speechless.
After a while, Supreme Commander Totec hurried over, his face stern. As soon as he arrived, he grabbed Xiulote, "Xiulote, can your catapult hit the city on the mountain?"
Xiulote shook his head, "The whole plateau, from the edge to the base of the slope, lies under the maximum range of their city walls. Stones rolled down from the mountain top could completely destroy the catapults. Even without considering long-range attacks, it's difficult to set up a catapult on such a steep slope. Finally, even if we miraculously succeeded in setting it up, firing at the city walls twenty to thirty meters above would be utterly ineffective."
Totec furrowed his brow, "Is there really no other way? Like using wooden ladders, or that sharp metal-headed, wheeled cart you mentioned last time?"
Xiulote and Aweit both shook their heads.
"Elite samurai carrying wooden ladders up the mountain for forty to fifty meters. They would need to withstand unilateral attacks from stones, wood blocks, spears, arrows, and boulders from above the city walls for nearly thirty minutes, exerting tremendous physical effort, and then they still need to forcefully enter the city for combat. Especially during this relentless rainy season, the casualties among the samurai would be too heavy. It's just not possible," Aweit said, his face losing its smile.
"Not to mention the difficulty of constructing a battering ram. Given this terrain, it would be nearly impossible to push a ram onto the plateau, and the rocks from above could completely destroy it," Xiulote added helplessly.
"There's really no way at all?" Totec asked, still not giving up.
Both shook their heads again.
"We should lay siege," Aweit suggested.
Otapan City was a castle established in the mountains. In truth, there were ways to fight in this era. Xiulote thought, first use a large number of cannon fodder troops to exhaust the city's rolling stones and logs.
Then, with the Spanish's large caliber, short-barreled cannons, they could bombard the walls until they collapsed, or use the advantage of archers to suppress the defending army's ranged attacks from the city walls, then pushing forward the battering ram to breach the gates. Finally, rely on elite assault troops to storm in through the breach or the gates for close combat.
Regardless of the method, both required a superiority in ranged suppression, and massive casualties among the elite troops were inevitable.
But for now... "We should lay siege," Xiulote also said.
Soon, over seventy thousand Mexica troops set up camp on three sides of Otapan, blocking the easily traversed roads, building makeshift fortifications, and dispatching elite squads to patrol the treacherous north.
Totec tried various methods to provoke the defending army inside the city. According to the last intelligence report, after gathering some reinforcements from Guamare and Pamus, the city now had over ten thousand samurai, thirty thousand militia, and thirty to forty thousand able-bodied civilians, with enough food to last for a year.
Perhaps they were scared by the last battle, or perhaps they had decided to turtle up completely. No matter how the Mexica samurai provoked and tempted them, the Otomi remained immobile, staunchly defending Otapan.
The lengthy siege began.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone