The Fall of the Golden Empire (Novel) (Volume 1) "Bloody Sunset" by Zhang Baotong
After sleeping for a while and eating some food in the inn room, the king felt that he was in better spirits. He asked Haya to get dressed for him, prepare a royal chair, and then set off to continue on his way.
It has rained, the air is fresh, and under the clear sunshine, the green mountains are covered with mist. The royal team continued to rush along the royal marching road. And he walked through several inns without stopping to rest. He didn't stop until he came to a mountain pass inn called Yunling.
This post house had an inn called "Tambos", mainly for the convenience of the Inca king and his entourage, as well as for the accommodation of officials and entourage who traveled on official business. Because there are such hotels built every 20 kilometers or so on the Royal Avenue. The hotel is managed by dedicated personnel. A house must be built every 1.2 kilometers for the running postmen called "Chasky" to live in and be responsible for delivering the government's urgent messages.
At this time, the sun was in the west, the sky was bright, and the only sounds in the quiet mountains were the chirping of birds returning to their nests and the flow of streams. Because they had been marching for a whole day, the king wanted to rest at the Yunling Inn for the night, so the entire imperial team stopped. Atahualpa was helped from the royal chair by Haya and the postmaster and entered a relatively large room. Although the room is simple, it has been specially cleaned and decorated. It is covered with carpets, brand-new tables and chairs, and a very exquisite large bed. The bed is covered with gorgeous and expensive palace camel cashmere felt and blankets.
There was a young and beautiful country girl in the room who was packing the bed for the king. Seeing the king, the woman quickly knelt down and saluted. King Atahualpa had always been very strict with his subordinates, but he was very tolerant towards women. Seeing that the girl was quite pretty, he sat on the edge of the bed, pulled the girl to him, and asked her name.
The girl blushed and lowered her head and said, "My name is Gina."
The king then stroked the girl's beautiful face with his hand and said lovingly, "How old are you?"
The girl said, "Seventeen years old."
The king said, "Very good," and then asked, "Do you want to go back to Quito with the king?"
The girl flashed her big bright eyes and nodded with certainty.
The king took the child in his arms and kissed him.
At this time, Haya came to deliver food to the king. Dinner is of course more sumptuous than breakfast. It includes not only the king’s favorite pig’s trotters and rabbit meat, but also mandarin fish and lobster. These fish and shrimps were delivered as quickly as possible by post officials from the coast of Tumbes, hundreds of miles away. It is said that these fish and shrimps were just fished out of the sea and rushed over by the postmen as quickly as possible. Therefore, when they were delivered to the palace chef, they were still alive and kicking.
The king asked Haya to put the food on the small table, and then took the girl to eat together. But the girl quickly waved her hand and said, "This is the king's dinner, I don't dare."
But the king said, "Don't you dare? I asked you to eat it." After saying that, he asked the girl to sit on the chair next to him, and picked up a pig's trotter for the girl and asked the girl to eat it. The girl didn't dare to eat, so she blocked it with her hand and accidentally dropped the pig's trotters on the king's clothes. The girl turned pale with fright, and she quickly knelt down and apologized repeatedly.
Haya on the side came over immediately, and while cleaning the king's clothes, he said angrily to the girl, "You have to know how valuable the king's clothes are, even if your whole family works hard all your life, you can't get them back."
The girl was so frightened that she started to cry. But the king pulled the girl into his arms, and while wiping the girl's tears, he laughed and said to the girl, "It's okay, it's okay, the clothes are dirty, it's just a change of clothes, don't cry, don't cry, your eyeballs will be swollen from crying, It won’t look good.” After that, he said to Haya, “Send someone to Tumebamba to bring me some clothes.”
Haya said "yes" and left the house.
The beautiful girl and delicious food quickly relieved the king from the monotony and fatigue of traveling all the way. After dinner, it was already dusk and foggy. A large row of tents was set up next to the inn, and sentries were set up to seal the entire inn tightly.
The king and girl Gina stood beside the Yunling Inn and looked at the surrounding mountains. I saw this mountain peak connected to another peak, ups and downs, continuous. Below the mountain peak is an endless stream, and a path stretches along the hillside towards the mountain.
The king asked the girl, "Where do you live?"
The girl pointed to the opposite path that stretched into the mountain and replied, "Just go in from that path and go to the back of the mountain. You can see a valley. The valley is surrounded by mountains on three sides and green mountains and trees on four sides." , a small river flows through the valley, and there is a small village by the river, with several families living in the village. My home is there."
Listening to the girl's description, the king felt that the scenery there must be very beautiful, so he said on a whim, "Then let's go to your house and have a look."
Although being visited by the king would bring great honor to her parents and family, the girl hurriedly stopped her and said, "Don't go, don't go. My family is very poor and will make the king laugh."
Upon hearing what the girl said, the king said, "Then I should go take a look." After saying that, he asked the guard officer to lead the way, and took two guards along the path towards the col on the opposite side.
The mountain col opposite seems not far away, but it takes a lot of time to actually walk there. Therefore, when they walked on the mountain path covered with green grass and came to the col in the deep mountains, it was already dark. From the mountains, we entered the valley and came to the small river beside the valley. After walking for a while, we saw a single-plank bridge built with bluestone slabs under the bright moonlight. The bluestone slab on the small bridge is only half a meter wide, just enough for one person to pass. It's just that the river is only about thirty meters wide and the flow is gentle.
Several people walked slowly across the small stone bridge and came to the middle of a vegetable field. Looking forward from here, we can see a not very high mountain on the opposite side of the valley. At the foot of the mountain, you can vaguely see a few low and simple houses sitting there quietly.
Walking further, not far from the house, the barking of a domestic dog suddenly sounded. A dog barked first, and then several dogs followed. Gina whistled, and the dog closest to them stopped barking. After a while, it ran to Gina's side, wagging its tail vigorously.
Gina patted the dog's forehead and said, "Hurry and salute the king." However, the dog did not recognize the king in front of him at all, and just looked at the king indifferently. The king thought the dog was quite interesting, so he patted the dog's body with his hand and said, "Do you understand etiquette? Can you salute?" Unexpectedly, the dog suddenly bit him. If he hadn't dodged in time, his hand would have been Bitten by a dog.
When Gina saw that the dog dared to bite the king, she scolded him, "You are an unreasonable and inhuman beast, you dare to bite the king." After saying that, she kicked the dog in the mouth. The dog screamed and ran towards his home.
The king blamed the girl and said, "Why are you kicking it? It is a beast. It only recognizes its owner, not the king."
The girl Gina said, "That's not okay. If I really bite the king, what a big sin it would be for me."
The king hugged Gina and said, "You are such a good girl."
Walking up a slope from several terraced fields, you arrived in front of three dilapidated small houses in the dark. Gina went directly into the house without knocking, because the life of Inca farmers was based on the supply system. If anything was missing, you could go to the warehouse to get it, and the penalties for criminals were very heavy. Therefore, there were generally no robbers or thieves. They used it when going out or sleeping. Don't close your doors.
Gina lit the oil lamp and held it to illuminate the king. The king asked the guards to stand guard outside and entered the house alone. Under the dim light of the oil lamp, I could vaguely see the outline of the room. The room is not big, just a bedroom. There is a large bed and a wooden box in the house. Since there is only one bedroom in the house, the whole family sleeps on the same bed. There is a more modest house on either side of the bedroom. On one side is the kitchen and on the other is the sheepfold. There are pots and stoves, firewood, water tanks, half a bag of corn and two or three farm tools in the kitchen. There were two sheep in the sheepfold. The sheep were grazing in the dark. The stench of sheep manure and the odor of the sheep were very pungent and unpleasant. Therefore, if the king had not insisted on coming here, Gina would not have let King Quito come. She felt that this would not only make the king feel uncomfortable, but also make herself feel embarrassed.
Gina asked the king to sit on a small stool, and then hurriedly shouted to her sleeping parents, "Mom and Dad, the king of the Kingdom of Quito has come to our house."
The father probably thought his daughter had woken him up, so he cursed impatiently, "You're going to die for yelling. The King of Quito is so hungry that he comes to look for souls in your valley in the middle of the night?"
For the Inca people, being disrespectful to the king would result in beheading, so when Gina heard that her father dared to scold the king in front of the king, she was so frightened that her heart almost jumped out of her chest. She suddenly lifted up her father's blanket and said in a stern tone, "Your Majesty, please sit in the hall. Get up quickly and kneel down to apologize to Your Majesty."
The father has always been the master and leader of the family, and the daughter can only be respectful to her father and cannot speak loudly. Therefore, he saw that his daughter was so bold to yell at him, and it seemed that he heard a man's voice in the room just now. He thought it was impossible for his daughter to bring any man into her home, because it would be a capital crime. So, my father got up and looked into the room, and saw a tall man with noble appearance and extraordinary bearing sitting under the dim light of the oil lamp, and he was also wearing a gorgeous crown. Gina's father hurriedly put on his clothes and got out of bed to meet the guests. However, his daughter blocked him and insisted that he put on his clothes first. Because meeting the king is a very serious and important matter, and you should not be casual or disheveled.
Gina's father got dressed and walked up to the man. At this time, the daughter brought the oil lamp in front of the man so that the king could see her father clearly and the father could see the king clearly. When this simple and honest middle-aged farmer saw clearly the person sitting in front of him, he couldn't help being shocked: King Quida had really come to their home. He was so frightened that his legs were weak and his whole body was shaking because he had just said something offensive to the king. Seeing that her father was stunned, the daughter reminded him, "Kneel down and salute your Majesty."
Then my father hurriedly leaned down to the ground and said with emotion, "Your Majesty's visit to my house late at night is really a thousand-year blessing for my family!"
When Gina's mother saw the man kneeling before the king, she quickly put on her clothes, got under the bed, crawled on the ground and saluted the king, and said, "It is a blessing for my family that the king can come to my house."
King Rang said to Gina’s parents, “I didn’t want to come to the house to disturb them, but I just followed Gina here on a whim.”
Gina’s father said, “Excuse me. It’s really an honor and honor for our family and this mountainous area for your Majesty to come to my home. We are too poor and remote here. Except for the village chief, there are no other people here.” None of the older officials have been here. I didn’t expect that the king would come to my humble home tonight. This is really a great honor for our family." Then he continued to talk, "The village chief came to our house this afternoon and said he wanted my Gina. We went to receive a high-ranking official from Quito. We didn’t know who the high-ranking official was, but we didn’t expect it to be the king. This is really the blessing and good fortune of my daughter Gina!”
The king came here just to take a look, and didn't want to listen to Gina's father's nagging. So, without saying a few words, he stood up and said to Gina's parents, "I want to take Gina to the Quito Palace. I don't know." What are your living needs?”
Regarding this simple and affordable question, Gina’s parents looked at me and I looked at you, and for a long time they didn’t know how to answer. The king said, "Tomorrow I will ask the local commander to take you to the armaments warehouse. Just take what you need when you arrive." After that, he took Gina's hand and said, "Okay, it's getting late, let's go back."
Gina responded and stood up to say goodbye to her parents. The father warned Gina, "Your life is good. You have followed the king, and you must serve the king well."
The mother also came over and hugged her daughter tightly, and said reluctantly, "My baby Gina, your life is so good. If you follow the king, you will enjoy endless glory and wealth in the future. How wonderful it would be!" It’s not like your mother and I working in the fields with your father all day long, exposed to wind and sun, silently until death. You have become the king’s man, but don’t forget your father and me!”
Gina said, "Don't worry, as long as I live a good life, I will never forget you and my dad." After saying that, she left her mother's arms. When Gina took the king's hand and walked far away surrounded by guards, she could still hear her parents shouting, "Gina, my darling!"
