The Fall of the Golden Empire (Novel) (Volume 1) "Bloody Sunset" by Zhang Baotong
In the evening of the next day, High Priest Chalkuchma and Prince Luminawi hurried back to Quito from abroad. Atahualpa summoned the two army commanders and Prince Gilabamba, the governor of Quito, in the palace chamber.
The three princes entered the inner chamber of the palace, carrying bundles of thorns on their backs. In the Inca Empire, it was common to see ministers carrying heavy objects to apologize to the king, and the heavier the objects they carried, the more they showed their loyalty and respect to the king. And carrying thorns and thorns on his back showed that the minister felt extremely guilty towards the king. Because their king was captured by the Incas, it was not only a huge humiliation to the entire Kingdom of Quito and the king himself, but also a dereliction of duty by the important ministers around them. If they strongly advise the king not to go on a personal expedition, the king will not be captured by the enemy.
King Atahualpa looked stern and gloomy. He sat high on a large and dazzling solid gold chair. He held a gold ornament with red tassels in his hand. He raised his head high and looked majestic. The three ministers, carrying thorns on their backs, fell to the ground with their faces on the ground, not daring to take a breath, waiting for the king to reprimand them.
The king did not let them get up, and did not even look at them. This made the three princes feel guilty, and they were so frightened that they did not even dare to move. It seems that the king's defeat and capture this time are entirely their responsibility. The king kept watching them kneeling motionless on the ground and ignored them, which made them even more panicked and even extremely frightened.
After a long silence, the king asked with a sullen face, "How are you doing with the things I told you?"
High Priest Chalkuchma hurriedly replied, "In compliance with the king's imperial edict, the northern army has ten thousand people in Quito, and has urgently mobilized twenty thousand horses from Ilava and other places to rush to Quito day and night to assemble. It will be ready tomorrow morning Arrive. There are still 10,000 soldiers on standby. As long as the king gives the order, they will rush to the battlefield at any time."
The king snorted and asked, "Where is the central army?"
Prince Luminawi said in fear, "Back to your Majesty, 10,000 elite soldiers from the central army have also rushed to Quito from Nuevo Loja and other places to assemble. It is expected that the assembly will be completed by tomorrow evening."
Atahualpa frowned slightly and asked, "Is it too late?"
Ruminawi didn't dare to take a breath, and said solemnly, "After the heavy rain, the road from Nuevo Loja to Quito is muddy. In addition, the road is quite long. I'm afraid we won't be able to get there all by tomorrow evening at the earliest."
The king said forcefully, "No need to say more, we must all arrive at noon tomorrow."
Luminawi prostrated repeatedly, "Yes, my great king."
Then, Atahualpa whispered to Prince Gilabamba, the governor of Quito, and asked, "How is the food supply for the 80,000-strong army?"
Prince Gilabamba said, "The food in the two grain depots in the north and west of Quito is enough to feed an army of 80,000 for a year. In addition, there are several small grain depots near Quito, which together can feed an army of 80,000 for half a year."
The king was silent for a while and then said to the prince, "I am going to mobilize 80,000 elite troops for a decisive battle with Chamul. How much food do you think we need to transport?"
Prince Gilabamba said, "It depends on how long this battle will last."
The king said, "One month."
"Eighty thousand bags are needed," said the prince.
The king asked again, "How about two months?"
The prince said, "I want 150,000 bags."
The king said, "Then you can transport two hundred thousand bags."
But the prince said, "Guaranda and Tumebamba both have large grain depots. If the army can capture these two places quickly, they can use these two grain depots as supplies. The grain stored in these two grain depots can be It can feed an army of 80,000 for at least a year and a half."
Atahualpa silently fiddled with the ornament in his hand for a while, and then asked, "My noble uncle, how long do you think this battle will last?"
The high priest Charkuchma immediately said in a flattering tone, "In my humble opinion, this time the king led his army to fight against Chamul. If Kutachka hadn't rebelled on the battlefield and stabbed the king in the back, I'm afraid that The king is about to reach Cusco. Although Chamul won this battle, he suffered heavy losses and required a large number of personnel and material supplements. Most of the soldiers recruited and supplemented temporarily were farmers who had never fought before, which can be said to be useless. The combined forces, and the number is limited. However, my army in Quito has many generals and has experienced hundreds of battles. I think that once the 80,000-strong army arrives, it will be invincible and sweep across the world. Therefore, according to my humble opinion, within a week, Tumebamba will definitely be defeated; within three weeks, the capital city of Cusco can be captured."
After hearing these words, Atahualpa's gloomy face suddenly changed subtly. He nodded slightly at first, then coughed dryly and said, "What uncle said is very much what I want. I wonder what uncle can do for this decisive battle with Chamul?"
The high priest of Chalkuchma couldn't help being flattered when he heard the king's praise, and said, "In my humble opinion, this battle can be said to be a life-and-death battle between Quito and Cusco. Let Quito's army go first Fight with the 50,000 elite troops of the central army and the total of 40,000 troops commanded by Chamu. When the two armies are inextricably linked to each other and become exhausted, I will then put the 30,000 elite troops of my northern army into the battlefield. In this way, Chamu will be defeated. Er’s army will be wiped out. Once Chamul’s army is completely wiped out, then the road to Cusco can be driven thousands of miles into the wind, and tens of thousands of troops will be directed towards the Inca capital city of Cusco.”
Of course Atahuallpa knew his uncle's good intentions. He wanted to let Kiskis and Prince Luminawi take the lead, and he would attack with all his strength when they were both injured. He would not have to pay a big price, and he would be able to achieve great success and achieve brilliant results. But as the king of Quito, he really didn't want his uncle's troops to suffer too much losses, because after all, his uncle was his biological uncle, unlike Prince Quiskis and Luminavi, who were his biological uncles, but they were also his biological uncles. Huascar's biological uncle. For this reason, he always secretly favored the High Priest Chalkuchma in many ways. Therefore, after listening to Chalkuchma's words, King Atahualpa nodded with great appreciation and said, "This is a very good plan."
At this time, a courier reported urgently that the main army led by Chamul had left Tumebamba and was heading towards the city of Riobamba.
When Atahualpa heard this, he asked, "Where have the troops of Chiskis reached now?"
The courier said, "We are approaching the city of Riobamba."
The king said in a very strong tone, "Prince of Quiskis is ordered not to stop, and to rush to the Chimborazo Pass immediately, and to stand firm and wait for the order without making any mistakes."
The postman replied, "Yes, my great king." He stood up and left the chamber.
Atahualpa asked the three ministers who had been kneeling on the ground, "Do you remember what I said?"
The three ministers replied in unison, "Keep your Majesty's teachings in mind."
The king said, "Okay, I'll see what you do tomorrow." After saying that, he stepped down from the golden chair and left the house. Surrounded by the concubines, he came to the Yushan Pavilion and ate some delicious food and fruits. , and walked towards the Virgin Palace.
The next morning, after breakfast, Atahualpa rode a sedan carried by 80 people, escorted by more than 200 palace guards, to the grain depot in the north of Quito to inspect. The grain depot in the north of the city is a very large and solid grain depot, which looks like a castle from a distance. Still far away from the grain depot, you can see large and small groups of llamas being driven or led towards the grain depot on many roads leading to the grain depot. In the Inca Empire, which did not understand the definition of the circle and had no vehicles, large quantities of materials were basically transported by vicuñas. Moreover, the domestic animals God gave to the Indians were as docile as those Indians, and any child could drive them to any place.
This kind of llama is a variant of the precious alpaca. It lives in high mountains or plateau areas. It is not much larger than ordinary sheep, but it can carry more than 30 kilograms of weight and walk 20 to 30 kilometers a day. This kind of llama has a very strong survivability. It can eat grass or moss on the side of the hillside. It can go without water for several weeks and can spend the night in the cold open air, as long as it is not overloaded. It will be very obedient when carrying items, and the loaded items will also be very stable. Therefore, the Incas liked to call this animal a beast of burden. But once you find that an animal can no longer carry its load, you must quickly transfer the cargo to another vicuña before it falls to the ground. Otherwise, once it lies on the ground, you have no choice but to kill it. Moreover, this kind of livestock does not need to be specially fed. When it is time to stay overnight, just unload the goods on it and let them walk in the fields to forage for food. They can be kept like this all the way without special feeding. If you feed them corn, they will eat it deliciously. Even if they are not fed food, they will still work. The meat of this kind of livestock is the best edible meat in the world today. The meat is tender, delicious and good for health. Usually these vicuñas are tamed by their owners or collectively by the army. In times of war, they are gathered into pack teams of five hundred or one thousand to transport food and materials.
After a while, the inspection team arrived at the grain depot in the north of the city. The grain depot in the north of the city is more than 200 meters long and more than 50 meters wide. It is made of large blocks of granite and is 12 to 13 meters high. The roof is paved with thick grass. The granary has four gates, all wide open. In front of the grain depot is a very spacious grassland. Large groups of llamas preparing to transport grain gathered on the grass, eating green grass leisurely. Inside and outside the grain depot, thousands of people were busy loading grain. Seeing the arrival of King Quida, the busy people stopped what they were doing and hurriedly knelt down and shouted, "Long live the king!" The king waved his hand and asked them to continue working. People then got up and continued to do their work.
This grain depot is not so much a grain depot as a royal warehouse mainly for storing grain. In addition to a large amount of corn, there are also countless coca, gold, silver and bronze utensils, dinner plates, T-shaped picks for mining, clothing, weapons, and many high-quality woolen and cotton fabrics stacked in the warehouse.
In addition to this royal granary, there were three types of warehouses throughout the empire used to store harvested grain and collected grain. Every village, regardless of size, has two warehouses. One stores the grain used to help the villagers in times of famine, and the other stores the grain harvested from Taiyang Shendian and Inka Field. The third type of warehouse is built next to the Royal Avenue, with one every 17 kilometers. The warehouse built next to the Royal Avenue not only stores food, but also stores three types of war preparation materials: weapons, clothes and shoes.
The king led several guards to the door of the granary and saw many people loading grain into military bags. People carried the bags filled with grain and piled them on the grass. Then, someone put the piled grain bags on the llamas.
There are tall stacks of corn in the granary, so much that no one can even get in. Moreover, if you are not careful, the tall stacks of corn will collapse like an avalanche, burying people inside. Therefore, as soon as the king walked to the gate, officials blocked the king and did not dare to let the king enter.
The king asked the official in charge of the grain depot, "When will these Luo troops be on the road?"
The grain officer said, "Back to the king, the first group of llamas set off at noon to transport a thousand bags of grain for the troops led by Kiskis. The second group of llamas set off in the evening to transport a bag of grain for the troops of Ruminawi, the commander of the west. A thousand sacks of grain. A third team of vicuñas will set out early tomorrow morning to deliver a thousand sacks of grain to the troops of Chalkuchma, commander of the northern troops.”
The king asked again, "How many llamas do you have in total? How many days do you transport them?"
The grain officer said, "There are more than 3,000. Depending on the distance and food needs, the first and second times have to transport the food to Latacunga. It takes three days for a round trip. The third and fourth times The second step is to transport it to Ambato, which takes five or six days for a round trip.”
The king nodded, said "very good", and led the sedan car towards the grain depot in the west of the city.
The grain depot in the west of the city is about four kilometers away from the grain depot in the north of the city. So, in less than half an hour, we arrived. The grain depot in the west of the city is smaller than the grain depot in the north of the city, about more than 100 meters long, more than 30 meters wide, and 12 or 3 meters high. It is also built with large stones and has two gates. There is also a large green grassland in front of the door, and about five hundred llamas have gathered on the grassland. There are hundreds of people inside and outside the grain depot busy loading grain.
Accompanied by the grain officer, the king walked around the grain depot and asked the grain officer, "Where are you transporting this grain?"
The grain officer said, "According to the wishes of the general manager, these grains are transported for the army of the follow-up army, High Priest Chalkuchma, and some are for backup."
The king asked again, "How many llamas do you have?"
The grain officer said, "There are a thousand of them."
The king frowned and said to the grain officer, "Let me tell you, the chief steward, that the outcome of this battle will be determined once and for all. All the llamas must be used, and there is no need for spares."
The grain officer said, "Yes, my great king."
