章 28: Chapter 27 AD 1481
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Before his eyes, it was already mid-October, and the siege of Otapan had been going on for a month.
The long rainy season finally showed signs of departing, making way for the long-missed clear sunshine in the sky.
During this period, Xiulote and Aweit had organized nearly a thousand commonly used Chinese characters and had drawn the corresponding pictograms. At the same time, Xiulote had also taught these characters to the samurai who followed him.
These characters, starting from everyday objects, were connected to each other through their radicals, explaining each other's meanings, and then gradually extended to form basic abstract concepts. For instance, the formal government office "temple" was constructed using "inch" and "earth," followed by the concept of "time" derived from studying the sun "sun" in the "temple."
Then, inspired, Xiulote began working with craftsmen to create the simplest and clearest timekeeping device, the sundial, and proudly presented it to Aweit.
Aweit only laughed and told him that such toys had already been invented by the ancient Maya two thousand years ago. It was simply because Xiulote had not yet undergone a long and formal priestly education, so he knew very little about astronomy.
"According to the calendar we learned from the Maya, a year has twenty months, with eighteen days in each month. There are five unlucky days at the end of the year, with an additional unlucky day added every four years," Aweit explained.
365.25 days a year. Xiulote thought, I knew that too.
What came next, however, Xiulote did not know.
"The world was created by the gods, who come from the starry night sky where the Big Dipper converges, a distant place with no known whereabouts," Aweit said, as he began to sing a song for sacrificial rites.
"Twenty years make a Katun, twenty Katuns make a Baktun. After 64 and a half Baktuns, all things come to an end, and the Sun God returns to the origin of the Big Dipper."
An era is 25,800 years? Xiulote silently calculated. Convergence of the Big Dipper? No, it must be the Pleiades the Maya observed. The Sun God returns to the Big Dipper? The sun takes roughly 25,800 years to orbit around the Pleiades!
Xiulote, unable to help himself, held his forehead in his hand, thinking how such an advanced civilization in terms of their calendar could be without a writing system. Such a strangely prioritized tech tree.
"The sun is reborn, the sun dies, one cycle consists of five eras. The first era was ruled by giants who ate acorns during the age of four Jaguars. The second era was mankind who ate pine nuts during the age of four Winds. The third era was mankind who ate lotus seeds during the age of four Rains. The fourth era was mankind who ate bullrush during the age of four Waters."
What is all this? Xiulote rubbed his forehead, listening to tales of astronomy and mythology.
"The fifth era is now, with mankind as the protagonist again, eating corn, in the age of four Movements. At the end of the era, everything returns to nothingness, the world is destroyed by earthquakes, living beings perish in floods, the Sun God returns to the Divine Kingdom, signaling the end of the world," Aweit chanted solemnly and mysteriously.
"End of the world?" Xiulote felt oddly familiar with this term, "The Maya's end of the world? 2012!"
Jumping up excitedly, Xiulote grabbed Aweit, who was immersed in the mythological prophecies: "How many years are left until the end of the world?"
"Let me calculate. Don't worry, the end of the world is still far off," Aweit smiled, slightly surprised at Xiulote's reaction. "There is one Baktun, plus six Katuns, plus eleven years left until the end of the world."
Four hundred plus one hundred and twenty plus eleven, five hundred and thirty-one years? The year is 1481 AD!
Xiulote felt so moved that he was on the verge of tears; he finally knew the current year, and his memories of history (Europa Universalis) could finally connect with this era.
It was the year 1481 AD, eleven years before Columbus would discover America, thirty-eight years before the Spaniards invaded Mexico.
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In this era, the center of the world still lay in the Far East and the Near East, where the densest populations, the most majestic cities, the most bustling marketplaces, and the most powerful empires resided!
In the Far East, the Ming Dynasty was at its zenith, still in the prosperous times of the Chenghua Renaissance, having defeated the Mongols to the north and the Jurchen in Jianzhou to the east, pressing down on East Asia, undoubtedly the protagonist of this world; the Kingdom of Korea was in the midst of intense internal strife, with the advent of the Four Major Disturbances sparking waves of factional conflicts; Japan had just experienced the Ōnin War, and the Warring States Period had begun, heralding an era of chaos;
In Southeast Asia, the Ayutthaya Kingdom was in a period of prosperity under the rule of the White Elephant King, embarking on a series of reforms; in the Java islands, the Hindu Majapahit Empire began to decline while the rise of the Islamic Sultanate of Demak was emerging.
In Central Asia, the empire founded by the limping Tamerlane was falling apart, while the founder of the Mughal Empire, Babur, was about to emerge, set to conquer the Delhi Sultanate amidst its turmoil in North India; and on the Deccan Plateau in South Asia, the historically penultimate Hindu empire of Vijayanagara was in the final period of its first dynasty, with internal strife looming and the last chance to unify South India slipping away.
In the Near East, another protagonist of the world, the resplendent Ottoman Empire, was about to enter its golden age. This year, Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror, who had conquered the Eastern Roman Empire, had just passed away. He already conquered half of the Balkan Peninsula, controlled the Khanate of Crimea and had invaded northern Iraq.
Over the next hundred years, the crescent moon's expansion would never cease; the Ottoman Empire would continue to conquer Iraq, Syria, the Holy City of Palestine, Mamluk Egypt, the entire coast of the Red Sea, until it gained full control of the East-West trade, forcing the exploration and development of new routes by Europe.
The waves of Ottoman western conquest kept pressing forward, subjugating Romania, Wallachia, until they held the entire Balkan region. Then, conquering Hungary, invading Austria, and laying siege to Vienna, bringing a long, unstoppable fear to Europeans.
On the grasslands of Eastern Europe, at this time, the Grand Duchy of Moscow had just gained independence from being a vassal state of the Golden Horde, and the Slavic people were finally welcoming the dawn of rebirth. After assimilating the culture and blood of the Tatars, the Slav's expansion eastward would continue for half a millennium, crossing the boundless grasslands of Central Asia, and over the vast expanse of Siberia, all the way to the frigid Sea of Japan.
In Central Europe, the Kingdom of Poland was in the "Golden Age" of the Jagiellonian Dynasty; the prosperity of nobility manors along with the development of the noble Sejm would maintain the kingdom's loose strength; in the Holy Roman Empire, the great Maximilian I was about to become Emperor, planning cumbersome and protracted imperial reforms, and also skillfully laying out political marriages paving a vast future for the Habsburg Dynasty.
In Western Europe, the Spanish Empire was born from the union of Castile and the Kingdom of Aragon, with the devout Catholic, Ferdinand II, becoming its first king. The Reconquista, lasting for eight hundred years, was nearing its end, with the Moors being expelled back to North Africa. The gaze of the Spaniards, together with Columbus, was about to turn towards the primitive and rich America, filled with an insatiable greed for gold.
Even though Prince Henry had already passed away, the Portuguese exploration continued forward; they were about to discover the Congo, pass through the Cape of Good Hope, colonize South Africa, establish trading posts in East Africa, and eventually, upon encountering the Ottomans again in the Red Sea, they would reach the rich and fragmented India, setting up a colonial empire with a population of only two million.
At this time, after the meticulous efforts throughout his life by Louis XI, the Kingdom of France had finally annexed the Duchy of Burgundy, completing a hard-earned unification. The Spider King was about to pass away, leaving the French the rudiments of absolute monarchy.
As for the English, as far removed from the continent as they were, the thirty years' War of the Roses was not yet over, and England's unification still seemed distant. On this small island, there were still Wales, Ireland, and Scotland, and no one anticipated that an empire of the future would arise here.
In West Africa, after the Songhai people conquered Timbuktu from the Mali Empire, they finally established the empire of Black Africa along the Niger River, and subsequently met the Portuguese explorers for the first time on the West African coast.
In East Africa, the Ethiopians were still ruled under the Solomonic dynasty, their long reign set to continue for another five hundred years, sustaining the only cross amongst a sea of crescent moons.
"This year is 1481, an era where nothing has yet happened, an era full of possibilities!" Xiulote thought, "At this time, the center of the world is in the East. Europeans have not yet obtained the wealth and land of America, nor have they started the counter-attack routes to America, Africa, India, Southeast Asia, and even China. They have not yet become powerful!"
"I still have thirty years, to unify Central America and welcome the colonizers from afar." Xiulote finally let go of his fear of the unknown, the spark of conquest burning into flame. "Since I have come here, I am destined to change everything!"
"Xiulote?" Aweit looked at Xiulote, who had been standing for a while, with some confusion.
The young man finally returned to reality after a long reverie and then let out a happy laugh. He excitedly hugged his teacher, unable to contain his enthusiasm.
Aweit's smile froze instantly, and he disdainfully reached out to touch Xiulote's forehead – no fever. "You, what's gotten into you all of a sudden? That's just a myth; the end of the world is not coming."
"Yes, teacher." Xiulote leaned his face against his teacher's chest and mumbled indistinctly, "The end of the world is not coming, we shall change all this..."
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