The Fall of the Golden Empire (Novel) (Volume 1) "Bloody Sunset" by Zhang Baotong
After staying in the Tomewawa Palace for about twenty days, King Wayna Capak felt a little bored. It is not easy for a king to live in such a small place for more than twenty days. People only go out to play for leisure and relaxation. Once their mood is relieved and satisfied, they want to return home immediately. Because home is where people find peace, tranquility, convenience and ease. Moreover, Tomevawa Palace is just a place to escape the summer heat, but it is now the end of autumn, and the weather is already a bit cold. Moreover, the king has been continuously ill, and when people are ill, they want to return home as soon as possible. Although this can be regarded as the king's home, it is only a temporary home for leisure and fun, but it is not a home for a down-to-earth life. What's more important is that the king wants to return to Quito as soon as possible to go to the palace sacrificial room to worship, so as to bless his body and recover quickly.
However, it rained for several days and did not stop until the evening of that day. Therefore, Prince Atahualpa took the palace guard of about 200 people and started on the road as soon as it got dark, rushing to Quito. Tomevava is about fifty kilometers away from Quito, and the fastest way to get back to the Quito Palace is seven or eight hours.
There is a marching road from the Quito Palace to the Tomevava Palace. The avenue is about 10 meters wide and paved with cobblestones. There are thousands of kilometers of such marching roads in the Inca Empire, which were specially used for the marching of the Inca army. It gets dark very quickly in autumn. Because we were marching at night and after rain, the road was bumpy, full of water, and a little slippery. Therefore, it was very difficult for the palace guards to walk on the road. Prince Atahualpa and a few guards rode at the front on camels. Behind it is a golden royal chair lifted by eighty people, and sitting on the chair is the Inca King. Behind there was a smaller wooden sedan carried by eight people, in which sat Princess Palia. Other princesses rode camels beside the procession.
The Kingdom of Quito has a mountainous terrain and is sparsely populated. You can walk for many miles without seeing a single home. Only roadside inns can be seen every 12 kilometers. There are two huts in the post station, and there are three or four young, strong and agile postmen living there. They take turns on duty. In order to deliver official documents and items as quickly as possible, the huts were built at high altitudes to facilitate observation and lookout. People living in the huts had to keep an eye on everything on the road. Once they found someone running over, they had to go down to the ground. Waiting for the handover at the roadside, and then running to the next stop as fast as possible. The distance of 12 kilometers is the distance that the Indians can run as fast as they can.
Although it was not long after the rain, the clouds had dispersed, and when we looked up we could see the twinkling stars in the night sky. The marching road turns left and right in the mountains, going up and down. The roadside and the mountains are extremely quiet. You can clearly hear the mournful autumn cries of insects in the grass.
The Incas were short and very thin, and their body shape and appearance were very similar to those of the Tibetans on the Tibetan Plateau. With a red face, a simple and honest demeanor, he is industrious and simple, and can bear hardships and stand hard work. He is very suitable for life in the mountains and plateaus. Some archaeologists have concluded that these Indians from the American continent came from the Central Plains of China 10,000 years ago and came to the New World via the Bering Strait. At that time, there was a passage to the American continent through the Bering Strait that had not yet been flooded by sea water. The Incas were very good at walking, and could walk more than a hundred miles a day while carrying heavy loads. Even if they were tired, they would take out the coca leaves they carried with them, put them in their mouths and chew them for a while, and their physical strength would be restored immediately.
The palace guards rested once on the way and returned to the Quito Palace in the middle of the night. At this time, the palace was very quiet, and there was no movement around. When Prince Atahualpa came to the main entrance of the palace with his guards, several guards came over at the same time to salute the prince, then opened the door and allowed the guards to enter the palace.
The guards entered the palace and stopped, while the soldiers carrying the king did not stop until they reached the king's bedroom and put down the royal chair. Wait for the king to get down from the royal chair. More than a dozen princesses came to greet him respectfully and helped the king back to his dormitory. Princess Palia and the maids riding camels, who were sitting in the sedan, were guarded by soldiers. They followed a cobblestoned sidewalk leading to the harem, passed through a stone gate guarded by guards, and entered the harem. . There are two passages branching off from the Stone Gate Trail.
A wider passage leads to the Palace of the Virgins. The virgins in the Palace of Virgins are all women who maintain their chastity. There are nearly 1,500 beautiful girls living in this large palace. Almost all of them are girls from Inca noble families, and there are also some ordinary girls with outstanding looks. In order to maintain their virginity, they were selected into the palace at the age of six or seven. They were called the concubines of the sun, and even the Inca king did not dare to offend them at will. There are also 500 noble women who serve the virgins living inside. They also remained chaste. No one is allowed to enter this palace except the queen, princess and the Inca king, and offenders will be executed.
Another path leads to the living quarters of the harem. It is the courtyard where the queen, princess and concubines live. This residential area is divided into exquisite and small courtyards along both sides of the passage. In each courtyard lived a prominent female member of the royal palace and their servants. The Ziyuan Pavilion of Princess Palia is the deepest compound second only to the Qingxin Pavilion of Queen Rava Oculo. The harem has a front door and a back door. The back door is also guarded by soldiers. No one can enter without the permission of the mistress of the palace.
During the days when the king left the palace, the palace seemed very quiet and peaceful. There were no envoys or officials from other places to visit, there were no prominent activities, and there were not even large groups of concubines walking around together. But as soon as the king returned to the palace, the whole palace seemed to have regained its former vitality.
The next day, King Wayna Capak got up very late. After getting up, he felt much better after having breakfast and drinking medicine, so he asked his beloved concubines to accompany him to the sacrificial chamber to perform sacrifices. Haya asked the Kachaba wizard to lead people to the sacrificial room of the palace to prepare. After a while, Haya came to report that he was ready.
Yina and Wuga helped the king up from the bed, arranged his clothes and prepared to go out. Because the sacrificial chamber is located in the palace courtyard, there is no need to ride in a sedan chair or use palace guards. It only needs about twenty concubines to accompany it. Therefore, surrounded by many concubines, the Inca King walked towards the sacrificial chamber next to the palace hall.
The Royal Palace Sacrifice Room is located to the southwest of the Royal Palace Hall. It is an ordinary round room that is not very large. This place is run by the most privileged priest, the chief priest, who is a brother of the Inca king and is already in his early 60s. He was wearing black clothes and black trousers, with a black cloth tied around his head. He had a deep and melancholy expression and a long beard. Seeing King Inca coming with his concubines, he, others around him and the palace priests kept saluting to King Inca, and then opened the door of the sacrificial room.
The sunlight came in from direct sunlight, illuminating the palace sacrificial chamber brightly and brightly. I saw many statues of gods placed in the sacrificial room of the palace, as well as various sacrificial supplies. In the middle of the room was a large square table with a large gold plate on it and a llama on the plate. This llama had just been slaughtered, and its blood was still steaming, exuding a strong smell of blood. Alpacas were precious animals in the Inca Empire. Except for royal consumption and sacrifice, others were not allowed to kill them at will, otherwise they would be sentenced to death. In addition, there are some grains and fruits on the big table. These items are illuminated by the sunlight that penetrates, reflecting bright light.
The chief priest let the Inca king and his concubines enter the sacrificial chamber, and then instructed the priests to light a fire and place all the sacrifices on the table on the fire for burning. The fire burned more and more fiercely, and the billowing smoke slowly drifted out along the door of the sacrificial chamber. But the people in the sacrificial chamber stood motionless and watched the sacrifices being devoured bit by bit by the fire until the unpleasant and pungent smell of burnt beard emitted.
After the sacrifices were burned, the smoke drifted away, and the smell dissipated, the chief priest began to face the direction of the sun, while dancing and making mysterious gestures like making wind and rain, while constantly chanting "May the Father of the Sun May your son, King Inca, be blessed with good health and long life; may your son, King Inca, have a house full of wives and children, and may he be blessed with happiness; may your son, King Inca, and his people have abundant harvests, and may the country be peaceful and peaceful.” And Vai King Na Kapak was supported by his two young and beautiful concubines, Yina and Uga, and surrounded by many concubines. He stood next to the fire with an extremely pious and peaceful look on his face.
After the chief priest finished praying, the king left the concubine's side, walked respectfully to a wooden statue, bent down, and began to stretch his hands to his eyebrows, making a tugging gesture, and then, regardless of whether it was true or not, Even if you pick up your eyebrows, you will blow it towards the statue to show your respect. Then, the chief priest and a witch walked into a secret room nearby to talk to the devil and ask the devil to remove the disease attached to the king. This process took a long time before the chief priest and the witch came out of the secret room next to them. They walked up to the king and said to him in a happy and relaxed tone, "Thank God, we finally convinced the devil. He agreed to relieve the king of his illness. Please relax your mind and body."
When the king heard this, he felt relieved. He took a long breath and immediately felt that his whole body and mind relaxed, as if he was suddenly cured of his illness. His first feeling now was that he was hungry, very hungry, but no, he hadn't had a good meal in several days. Therefore, he asked his attendant Haya to immediately inform Yushan Pavilion to prepare breakfast for him again.
When he returned to the Yushan Pavilion surrounded by the concubines, the corn was already cooked. A princess brought a plate with two sticks of boiled corn in front of the king. The king ate the two boiled corns in just a few clicks. At this time, the pig's trotters and wolf meat that the king liked to eat were also prepared and were brought over by the two princesses. The king ate with big mouthfuls, as if he had not eaten for days. He devoured two plates of pig's trotters and wolf meat, leaving the concubines stunned. So the concubines couldn't help shouting, "The king is cured."
