The Fall of the Golden Empire (Novel) (Volume 1) "Bloody Sunset" by Zhang Baotong
In the evening, the afterglow of the sun reflected back on the equator, and the palace hall under the setting sun was shrouded in silence. Around the square outside the palace, huge stone pillars tower into the sky. The empty sacrificial platform is mysterious and dark. The palace hall is under the huge shadow of the setting sun, and large geese hatching stones are dotted in the windless dusk. Inca soldiers in armor stood upright around the square, guarding the palace majestically.
At this time, the main gate of the palace opened, and a team of more than 200 palace guards holding hatchets came out of the palace hall. Among the team, a golden sedan lifted by 80 people was surrounded by people. Sitting on the sedan chair was Huayna Capac, the current Inca king. Following closely behind were several smaller wooden sedans, which were used by queens, princesses, princes and princesses. The team came out of the palace and walked along a road next to the palace square towards a street called Fugui Street directly opposite the square.
Fugui Street is the most prosperous and prosperous residential area in the entire city of Quito, divided into east and west districts. The East District is the area where the princes and nobles of Quito gather. There are at least a thousand princes and nobles living here. They all hold important military and political positions and clergy in the palace, country and city of Quito. They are royal relatives and relatives of the Inca king. They are closely linked to the king by blood ties and share common feelings and interests with the king. They are dignitaries under the king. Although their residences are not as grand and magnificent as the palace, they are deep and spacious. These tall houses are all round sheds built with large pieces of granite. From the appearance, they are very simple and solid, with special emphasis on symmetry, but the roofs are all paved with hay. In fact, the style of Inca architecture was so uniform that the entire country's architecture seemed to have been poured from the same mold. Therefore, the buildings on the entire street are exactly the same. Large circular sheds are built one after another along the street, extending to the mountainside in the distance.
On the west side of the street lived another kind of nobles. They were all high-ranking officials of the provinces or chiefs of some tribes who had been conquered by the Inca Empire and had surrendered. They were called "Culaka". The Inca Empire usually adopted the methods of military conquest and life assimilation to transform those foreign residents and tribes. Therefore, they always move the whole family of the surrendered foreign nobles and tribal chiefs to the capital, keeping them away from their tribes and ethnic groups like hostages. Even those high-ranking officials working in remote provinces will have their families Placed in a prosperous capital city. Although these nobles were not relatives of the Inca King, the houses they lived in were exactly the same as those of the princes and nobles in the East District. Some of the daily necessities of the princes, nobles and nobles from other provinces who lived in Fugui Street were provided by the Inca Empire. Not only did they enjoy good food and drink, wear gold and silver, enjoy themselves leisurely and have no worries about food and clothing, but they were also distributed in large numbers according to their positions. wives and concubines and a large number of male and female servants.
The Prince's Mansion is located on the street of Fugui Street, but it is a separate area. This also shows the dignity and importance of the Inca prince. There is a pond between Fugui Street and Prince's Mansion. The water in the pond is a clear spring that gushes out of a stone hole. Therefore, Prince's Mansion is also called Qingquan Garden. The pond is not big, only three to two hundred paces long and wide, but the clear spring gushes out from the stone hole in a steady stream, accumulates in the stone pond, and then flows into the farmland in the suburbs along a canal. The pond is covered with patches of small yellow, purple and white flowers, making the scenery around the Prince's Mansion very beautiful and quiet.
In the Prince's Palace lived Prince Ninan Cuyuch, the heir to the throne of the Inca Kingdom. The yard was surrounded by a high wall built of stones. The front door of the courtyard is guarded by four guards armed with hatchets. Seeing the king coming with the queen, prince and princesses, the guards quickly saluted and opened the door.
Entering the courtyard, a passage five or six meters wide paved with stone slabs leads to the depths of the courtyard. There are patches of flowers, grass and trees planted on both sides of the passage, and there are also houses that are not spacious and tall. Obviously, these houses were for the servants and servants of the palace. But the courtyard was very deserted, the doors were closed, and there was almost no sign of people's normal life and busyness. And the two living people who came out to greet the king were just like the dead, not even a little alive. This made the king frown, and a sense of sadness filled his heart.
The large group of people followed the passage and stopped in front of a tall residence made of large stones. This tall residence is like a small palace. There were still four guards holding hatchets guarding the door. When they heard that the Inca King had arrived, everyone in the mansion hurriedly ran out of the door of the big house. There were more than ten men and women. When they saw that the king's sedan chair had arrived, they hurriedly and respectfully put their foreheads on the ground and knelt to greet the king.
The palace guards stopped, and the king got down from the sedan chair. He saw that the whole courtyard was as lifeless as the underworld, with people kneeling in front of him one by one with mournful faces. A sense of foreboding suddenly arose in his heart. At this time, the housekeeper and wizard in the mansion hurriedly ran out from the door of the big house. When they saw the king, they kowtowed to the ground and said, "I didn't know that the king was coming, so I couldn't greet you in time. Please forgive me."
The emperor glanced at the courtyard in the evening, and asked the housekeeper and wizard with a gloomy face, "How is the prince's condition?" The two of them could not help but tremble, but did not dare to say a word. The king said angrily, "Didn't you hear what I said?" The two men said tremblingly, "Yes. However, the prince's condition still has not improved." The king said, "How do you take care of the prince?" The two of them bowed their heads. On the ground, he was just shaking and didn't dare to reply.
The king immediately took the queen, prince and princesses who came down from the sedan chair into the big shed. The big shed has many rooms, none of which are very large or connected, but the doors of all the rooms lead to the hall. The house has no windows, and there are only a few small ventilation holes in the greenhouse. The room can only be lit by the doorway. So, when we entered the big shed, the light was very dark, only some oil lamps were flickering on. With several maids holding lamps to illuminate the passage in the house, the king led the queen and prince into Prince Ninan's house. Prince Ninan was suffering from a plague, namely smallpox. Smallpox is a severe infectious disease caused by the variola virus, with an incubation period of seven to thirteen days. Symptoms include high fever, fatigue, headache, rapid heartbeat and back pain. Two to three days later, the typical smallpox rash will appear on the face, arms, and legs. After a few days, pus will begin to form, and scabs will begin to form in the second week. Over the next three to four weeks the scabies slowly develop and then slowly peel off. Therefore, patients will have pockmarks on their faces after they recover, hence the name smallpox.
This plague is said to have been spread by the Indians of the northern tribes when they fought with the big Spanish white people who came by boat from the other side of the sea. At that time, the local indigenous people who had lived in the Amazon tropical forests of North America for generations were burned, killed, and plundered by dozens of Spanish gold diggers armed with muskets and swords. The local tribal leader organized tribal men to resist the invaders. They relied on the forest river valleys and treacherous mountain environment to use short axes, throwing spears, spears and short arrows to attack the invaders, and defeated the Spaniards. Not only did most of the Spaniards suffer casualties, but the rest also fell ill due to their inability to adapt to the local living environment or the water and land, and almost lost their combat effectiveness. Seeing that it was difficult to conquer the local indigenous people by force, the Spanish gave military blankets and clothes of smallpox patients as gifts to the local indigenous people. It was from then on that this inexplicable and terrible plague began to spread in the local area. As the Inca Empire conquered the local tribes, the plague spread rapidly among the Inca people. The Incas lacked immunity to this disease, so many people died from the disease, and there was no cure.
If Europeans will be permanently excited and excited because of the discovery of the Americas, for the Americans who were wiped out by the plague, Columbus who fell from the sky was the source of their disaster. They were living well on their own continent, but because of the arrival of the Spanish, they not only had to face the open guns in the hands of the invaders, but they were also unable to avoid the hidden arrows of the plague cast by the invaders. Smallpox, measles, diphtheria and other ghostly words explained the end of tens of millions of Americans' lives. When Europeans set foot on the American continent at the end of the 15th century, there were 20 to 30 million indigenous people living here. About 100 years later, less than 1 million indigenous people remained. European colonists gave blankets used by smallpox victims to the Indians. Subsequently, the plague raged, and diseases such as mumps, measles, cholera, gonorrhea, and yellow fever from Europe also followed. In this way, the bones of the Americans and the great achievements of Columbus were placed in the book of merits and demerits of human history, leaving later generations trying to find an explanation. The honor Columbus received after his death may have greatly exceeded what he received during his lifetime. Westerners always proudly claim that Columbus's discovery is the greatest discovery in human history regardless of other people's feelings. But they have been hiding the tragic experience of the Indians.
Smallpox has been epidemic and widespread in Quito for several years. In densely populated residential areas and remote suburbs, you can see people who died of the disease being carried through the streets and roads by their relatives every day. , buried on a nearby hillside or by the woods. The smallpox plague spread like a demon and frightened the Incas. They offered sacrifices and prayed every day, but the demons continued to harm them. Every day their relatives or acquaintances fall ill and die of illness, and there is no cure. This kind of plague is not only common among the people, but also among the royal family and nobles. Many princes and nobles, such as Prince Ninan’s uncles Prince Jikawu and Prince Mayadika, also died of smallpox. Now, he cannot survived.
The king led everyone to the room where the prince lived. The door of the room had been opened by two young women. The king entered the house. The room where Prince Ninan lived was much larger than the other rooms and was located in the center of all the rooms. This was usually the room where the man of the house lived in the mansion of an Inca noble. The room was very dark, and exuded a strong musty smell, which made people feel very uncomfortable, and even made people feel as if they would get sick if they smelled this smell. The king walked to the prince's bedside and looked at Prince Ninan Kuyuki lying in a corner of the dark room. The prince's room was about twenty square meters, which was quite spacious, but it was very simple, with only a large bed, a few wooden boxes, a half-old wooden table and two wooden benches. There was an oil lamp placed on the wooden table, shining with a faint light. It flickered in the windy room, and was almost blown out by the wind several times. There were two young women beside the bed, kneeling on the ground silently, welcoming the king. They are the concubines of Prince Ninan.
The bright light shone on Ninan Kuyuch's thin and pale face. His lips were half-opened, his breathing was weak, his eyes were dull, he was short of breath, and his overall expression was weak. When he saw his father arriving, he wanted to sit up, but he couldn't, so he had to lie down and call out "Father".
The king hurriedly covered it with his hands and said, "Your Majesty, please excuse me." Ninan Kuyuch coughed twice and added, "My father is here to visit me. I am extremely honored. Please invite your father, queen mother, aunts, and brothers and sisters." Sit down quickly."
The room was full of relatives, but there were not that many stools. Moreover, the king did not sit down, so others could not sit down. The king leaned over the bed, took the prince's hand, and asked with concern, "How is the child's condition recently?" Before the prince could answer, he started to cough out of breath.
When the king saw that the prince was so ill, he shouted loudly, "Where is the wizard?"
A middle-aged man wearing blue clothes and blue trousers hunched over and flopped down in front of the king and said, "My servant is here."
The king felt extremely unhappy when he saw the wizard acting like this, and asked patiently, "How did you treat the prince? Why did the prince's disease become more and more serious with treatment?"
The wizard was so frightened that he immediately collapsed to the ground and replied with a cry of fear and pleading, "Report to the king that the prince is suffering from the plague. I hope the king knows that this disease is really incurable."
When the Inca King heard this, he stamped his foot and cursed, "Bold slave, since there is no cure, what use do you have? When I come back next time, if I don't see the prince's condition improve, I will behead you." After saying that, he told the prince to take good care of his health and come back for a visit in a few days. Then, he took his family and left in a hurry.
