The Fall of the Golden Empire (Novel) (Volume 1) "Bloody Sunset" by Zhang Baotong
The next morning, after breakfast, Chaschi came from the island and reported that Commander Chalkuchma was already waiting on the other side to welcome the king. King Atahualpa then asked eight people to carry the sedan to a very wide and large raft. There were more than ten rafts full of guards escorting the king's raft. The raft sailed very slowly towards the island against the wind and waves.
After driving for about an hour or two, the raft finally docked at a temporary dock. The king was helped from the raft to the red carpet by the guards. At the end of the carpet, Commander Chalkuchma and his generals were kneeling on the ground to greet the king solemnly.
The King of Quito walked along the red carpet to the sedan and got into the sedan, and said to the commanders and generals under the sedan, "I'm not here to visit and play. How is the Inca encirclement and suppression?"
Chalkuchma said in a tone as if he was reporting the results of the battle, "Chaski has discovered the gathering place of the Incas. I have already arranged it. When your king arrives, I will start to surround and attack. I think we will be able to attack this time." All the Incas on the island were wiped out."
Upon hearing this, the king nodded with satisfaction and said, "Very good."
It is very dangerous for the king to go to the island to personally participate in the encirclement and suppression. However, the Incas seem to have such a tradition. In every key battle, the king always has to go to the battlefield in person to set up the formation and command. Therefore, Chalkuchma must of course put the safety of the king first. He transferred 10,000 of his most elite Liwa soldiers to serve as the king's bodyguards.
A team of 10,000 people is really huge on this small island. Five thousand people opened the way in front, and five thousand people pressed down behind. The king was tightly surrounded by soldiers. The army walked quickly along the forest path towards the depths of the island.
After walking for about an hour, we arrived at the foot of a medium-sized mountain with dense trees and unfathomable depth. There were already many Quito soldiers at the foot of the mountain surrounding the mountain, but there was no attack.
As soon as the king stopped his sedan chair, Prince Chiskis, who was waiting to greet him, came to report, "We have surrounded the Inca generals on the mountain and are waiting for the king's order to attack."
Atahualpa looked towards the mountain for a while, but didn't see anything, so he said, "How do you know that the Inca general is on the mountain?"
Prince Quiskis said, "Chaski said he saw the flag of the Incas."
The king said, "Then what are you waiting for? Let's fight!"
So Prince Kiskis asked the trumpeter to blow the horn of attack. When the soldiers saw that the king came to watch the battle in person, their morale increased greatly. They roared loudly and rushed up the mountain. However, after a while, the horns above also sounded, and the shouts of killing seemed louder than those in Quito. The king felt bad when he heard this. As expected, the soldiers of Kiskis retreated not long after, and many soldiers never returned, and there were many fewer soldiers.
A general came to report, "Report to the king and commander that the Incas are difficult to detect and attack due to the dense forests."
Before Commander Kiskis could speak, Atahualpa cursed, "Idiots, you won't set fire to the forest? Just burn the forest and see where they will hide?"
The general said quickly, "Yes, my king." Then he shouted to the soldiers, "Set the forest on fire."
Soon, the soldiers set the forest on fire. The fire burned more and more fiercely with the wind, and thick smoke swept toward the mountain with a rustling sound of burning. After a while, the forest fires merged into a large sea of fire, burning more and more toward the mountain. Thick smoke billowed, and the fire was raging all the way to the top of the mountain.
However, no one was seen breaking out or escaping down the mountain. The king was very puzzled and asked his soldiers to go up the mountain to search. However, the forest was full of open flames and hot red ashes, making it impossible to enter. Several soldiers who entered the fire either had their shoes burned through by the fire, their feet were scalded, or they were unbearable by the heat in the fire, so they all retreated from the fire.
When the king saw that no one could enter the fire scene, he asked the soldiers to surround the fire scene. When the entire top of the mountain was burned by fire, there was still no trace of the Incas. The king asked the general to send people from the side of the fire scene to the top of the mountain to inspect it. Soon someone came to report that the Incas on the top of the mountain had long since escaped from a cliff behind the mountain.
The king asked a large group of guards to lead them up to an open space on the top of the mountain. Only then did he see a cliff twenty or thirty meters high behind the mountain, with a rope ladder hanging on the cliff. It turned out that the Incas had already escaped by climbing the rope ladder to the top of the cliff.
The king asked a few soldiers to climb up to see what was happening on the cliff. Several Liwa soldiers quickly reached the top of the cliff, and then shouted down, "Report to the king, there is a rocky slope above, and the rocky slope leads to the back of the cliff. There is also a rope ladder over there, and below it is A dense forest with no end in sight.
Through the soldiers' reports, the king certainly knew that the Inca had successfully escaped. The Incas were surrounded tightly for nearly two or three hours, but they were allowed to run away. This made the king very angry. He wanted to reprimand the two commanders, but when he thought about it, they didn't know that the Incas would escape from the cliff. Therefore, it is not easy to hold them accountable. At this time, it was already three or four o'clock in the afternoon. The king, who had worked hard all day, was really a little tired, so he sat in a sedan carried by eight people and returned to the military camp prepared by Chalkuchma. Eat and rest in the tent.
When he entered the big tent, he saw steaming delicious food on the table, and two young and beautiful girls were waiting for his arrival with smiling faces. This immediately relieved the king's angry mood.
The two girls looked exactly the same. They were young, neither fat nor thin. They were dressed up and looked gorgeous. He sat on the chair, pulled the two girls next to him, and asked, "What are your names."
One girl said, "My name is Kuta."
Another girl said, "My name is Maka."
The king asked again, "How old are you?" The girl said, "Fourteen years old."
The king smiled and said, "Why do you look exactly the same? It's like you were a perfect match."
The girl said, "We are twin sisters."
The king kissed each of the two girls on the face, then picked up the two sisters and sat them on his lap. He asked them where they were from and if they would like to go back to the palace of Quito with him. The two girls were very smart and well-behaved. They made the king laugh non-stop, and he completely forgot about the Inca people escaping from the cliff just now.
The next morning, while Atahuallpa was drinking with his two new favorites, Prince Quischis came over to report in person, saying, "Honorable King, my army has surrounded the main force of the Incas on a hilltop in the west of the island. However, the officers and soldiers loyal to Huascar fought hard, but my soldiers failed to attack them several times, resulting in heavy casualties. In my opinion, it is better to surround them without attacking them. As long as they surround them for a few days, they will be defeated. We will run out of water and food, and we will be defeated if we don’t fight. I wonder what your Majesty’s intention is?”
The king didn't even look at the prince, he just said, "You came here just to say this kind of thing to me?" As he said that, he continued to drink wine with his beloved girl.
Seeing that the king's attitude was very cold, the prince was so frightened that he trembled and said quickly, "Moreover, I'm afraid that if the attack is too fierce, the Incas will risk their lives to break out from behind the mountain. Because there are several paths out of the mountain behind the mountain. I'm afraid of being surrounded. The troops are insufficient, and the Incas may break out from the back mountains."
The king put down his wine glass, turned his head and glanced at him, and said, "I will immediately ask Chalcuchima to send elite troops to ambush on the paths behind the mountain. You immediately organize a heavy attack and force the Incas to break out behind the mountain."
Prince Kiskis quickly replied, "Your Majesty is wise, I will send heavy troops to attack immediately." After saying that, he crawled out of the tent.
In order to capture Puna Island as soon as possible and clear the road to Cusco, King Atahualpa, escorted by thousands of people, went to the front line to supervise the battle. Looking from the bottom of the mountain to the mountain, the dark Quito soldiers have almost rushed to the top of the mountain, and there don't seem to be many Incas on the top of the mountain. The king thought that these many elite soldiers from Quito should rush to the top and defeat the enemy. At least they should force the Incas to retreat and break out. In this way, Prince Quischis' heavy troops are chasing him here, and there are investigators behind the mountain. Ercu Chima's elite troops ambushed and intercepted, and the Incas were about to die.
However, unexpectedly, the Incas had no intention of retreating. When the Quito soldiers were about to rush to the top of the mountain, many people suddenly appeared out of nowhere and began to throw violently at the Quito soldiers. Shi He shot an arrow, and immediately saw pieces of Quito soldiers falling to the ground. Seeing that the situation was not good, the remaining soldiers retreated hurriedly.
However, the officer supervising the battle behind waved his tomahawk and chopped down several retreating soldiers in succession, making other soldiers dare not retreat any further and rushed forward. When they rushed to the top of the mountain again, they were hit and shot down by a storm of stones and arrows. Before they could retreat again, the Incas had already launched a counterattack, blowing horns, rushing over with tomahawks and spears, and slashed the Quito soldiers like slaughtered animals. Seeing that the situation was not good, the commander at the foot of the mountain quickly blew the retreat horn, causing the surviving soldiers to roll and crawl back down the mountain.
Seeing this scene, King Atahualpa was very angry. He had followed his father to lead troops in war since he was a child. He was almost invincible and invincible. How could he have ever suffered such a cowardly and humiliating defeat? However, at this moment, spies from Cusco in the south came to report that after hearing the news of the disastrous defeat in the Battle of Chimborazo, Huascar began to recruit a large number of soldiers and expand the army; Troops from all over the country were mobilized to Cusco, the capital, to prepare to resist the invasion of Quito's army.
