In fact, the real architect of the mexica defeat was Ixtlilxóchitl and not Cortés, simply because by 1520 Cortés did not have the possibilities of commanding nearly half a million anahuacas that clashed with the mexicas, since he did not have the ability to clearly and explicitly communicate in the Nahuatl language and did not know the war strategies and tactics of the anahuacas. The difficulties of cultural, linguistic and warfare differences made it impossible for Cortés or any spanish to command the Tlaxcalteca armies, Texcocans, Xochimilcas, etc., that took sides with the Spaniards.
Ixtlilxóchitl is who commanded the hundreds of thousands of anahuaca warriors, who ordered cutting the water supply to Tenochtitlan and above all, who planned the spanish rescue out of Tenochtitlan, on which the official hispanic history is silent. In the early morning of the day of the spaniards rescue, Ixtlilxóchitl first attacked the mexicas by water, so when they counterattacked spaniards were able to leave the besieged site. Ixtlilxóchitl also sent an army of 100,000 men to protect the spanish retreat in the plains of Otumba. Cortés in despair, as he had lost the artillery and half of his filibusters, who drowned when falling into the water because they were carrying the gold distributed on the eve, ordered to charge against the army that came to their rescue. The Texcocans receded and the hispanic history takes this event as one of the biggest Cortes victories.
Thanks to Ixtlilxóchitl, the spanish took refuge in Tlaxcala and prevented the mexicas from persecuting and killing them. Another myth is that Cortés and his men built and constructed three ships, to subsequently besiege Tenochtitlan. The ships were mere adornment in the battle of Tenochtitlan because the Lake was very shallow and warfare techniques were by using thousands of small canoes from both sides. The most powerful weapon of the invaders was smallpox. Never in the Anahuac had had ocurred such a catastrophe of the dimensions of this pandemic. Hispanic sources make little reference to "Ixtlilxóchitl and smallpox", in order to depict "the
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