The Fall of the Golden Empire (Novel) (Volume 1) "Bloody Sunset" by Zhang Baotong
When more than 10,000 Inca king's palace guards and Quito soldiers entered the spacious central square of Armas, the big Spanish white men were still hiding in the Inca public houses. The leader of this exhausted Spanish force, composed of 62 cavalry and 106 infantry, was an illiterate adventurer named Francisco Pizarro who was a swineherd. After Columbus discovered the new continent, they came to this strange new continent from Panama with religious fanaticism and the dream of treasure hunting. After nearly three months of hardships and narrow-death voyages, they arrived at this strange new continent from Panama.
They came to this new land in search of gold. However, after they arrived in this new world, they did not obtain much gold, but they learned that there was a lot of gold in the temples and palaces of the Incas. However, they also learned that the Inca King was fighting a war with his brother for the throne. So, they waited to take advantage of the fishermen. When they traveled day and night from the sea into the interior of the Inca Empire, they heard that King Atahualpa of Quito had defeated the Inca Empire and captured his brother Huascar alive. He was enjoying the victory in the small town of Cajamarca. of joy. Therefore, he led his troops directly to the edge of Cajamarca to inquire about the situation of Quito's army. When they saw the torches in the Quito army camp at night as numerous as stars, many soldiers were frightened to death, and some even wet their pants in fear.
Because the morale of the army was shaken, many soldiers asked to leave here immediately. However, their commander Francisco Pizarro persuaded everyone to stay because they had traveled thousands of miles across the ocean to come here just to find gold. If they leave here now, they will be empty-handed and gain nothing. Moreover, those who could follow Francisco Pizarro across the ocean from Spain and narrowly escape death were almost all poor and ambitious. They all wanted to risk their lives to gain wealth, thereby becoming rich overnight and becoming Rich man. So when their commander said some encouraging words to them, the soldiers decided to stay and fight the Incas to the death.
Moreover, before the Spaniards entered the Cajamarca Square, which was walled on all sides, they had carefully discussed countermeasures. Because they only have 169 people, it is impossible to get support. The Inca Empire had as many as 80,000 elite troops. That night, everyone in the Spanish colonial army, regardless of their position, infantry or cavalry, took up arms and stood guard; even Pizarro himself kept running around to cheer up his men. In order to reassure the soldiers, Pizarro's brother Hernando lied to them that there were only 40,000 Inca soldiers. In fact, this number was enough to send shivers down the spines of his soldiers.
Pizarro quickly set up defenses around the Plaza de Armas. He divided the 106 infantry into two parts, led by himself and his brother Juan respectively; the 62 cavalry were also divided into two parts, commanded by his other brother Hernando and Soto. At the same time, Pizarro ordered Candia and three infantrymen to ambush at a small fortress on the edge of Plaza de Armas with bugles and a small cannon. When the Inca army surrounded Atahualpa and entered the Plaza of Cajamarca, Pizarro gave Candia a coded signal. After getting the signal, Candia and his men blew the bugle, and the Spanish cavalry ambushing on both wings rushed out together to surround the Inca army.
Cajamarca is a mountain town with only 10,000 residents. Most residents' houses are built with adobe or wooden boards, but there are also a few high-end residences built with stones. There is a palace in the city where the Virgin of the Sun God lives and a temple dedicated to the Sun God. The temple is located among ancient and towering trees on the outskirts of the city. There is a very large square with the Inca army on the edge of the forest. Outside the square there are some very strong barracks fortresses built of stone. The fort stands on a high ground and is surrounded by three walls. On the other side of the fort is a huge Inca military camp.
This square is called Plaza de Armas and is located in the center of the small town of Cajamarca. It belongs to the center of the small town valley and is only two or three kilometers away from the hills on the edge of the valley. The square is a square with walls on all sides. Outside the southern wall is a royal marching road leading to Cusco and Quito, and to the east are several houses of the Inca Apartments, specially designed for the accommodation of princes traveling from Quito to Cusco. To the north and west are walls more than two meters high. There is an entrance and exit to the square next to the Royal March Avenue.
The square can accommodate about five to six thousand people, so when King Atahualpa entered the square, escorted by more than 6,000 guards, the square was already crowded with soldiers and was filled with water. The king's sedan chair could only stop in the square. Behind them, there were 60,000 to 70,000 soldiers marching in a long line on the roads in the valley fields. When the Plaza de Armas was overcrowded and could not accommodate the crowds, the 60,000 to 70,000 troops could only stop on the road and wait. It’s no wonder that the King of Quito only wanted to show the Spanish the military power of the Inca King, but did not consider whether the Plaza de Armas could accommodate 80,000 soldiers.
The king's sedan chair, surrounded by soldiers and princes and ministers, entered the square. The sedan was decorated with rows of brilliant feathers of tropical birds and was also decorated with shiny gold and silver pieces. The Inca king was wearing very elegant and gorgeous clothes, and around his neck was a necklace made of shining extra-large emeralds. Wearing a red Bora crown on her head and gold ornaments on her short hair. After the sedan entered the square, it was so crowded that it could not move. Atahualpa stretched out half of his body from the sedan door, looked up and looked ahead for a while, but saw no sign of the big white man, so he shouted loudly, "Where are those guys?"
The Kipchak chief in the sedan next to him also leaned out of the sedan, approached him, and said, "They may have been frightened by the king's majesty and hid."
At this time, the Spaniards were indeed frightened by the Inca army. They only heard from the king's envoy that the Inca was coming to visit them, but they did not expect that the Inca would bring so many people. Therefore, Pizarro hid most of his troops behind the Inca apartment, let the cavalry hide in a small forest behind the house, and prepared for battle.
Atahualpa stuck his head out of the sedan again and shouted loudly toward the Inca apartment, "Hey, where are you?" A large group of princes and nobles surrounding the king's sedan also followed the king and rushed over, " Hey, big white guys, where are you?”
Suddenly, someone answered from the Inca apartment. At this time, I saw a big white man wearing a black robe, holding a thick book in his hand, running out of a small room outside the square. There were two people behind him. This man is Father Vicente de Valverde, the local Spanish bishop. The two men following him were a soldier named Hernando Aldana, who was wearing a long sword; the other was a translator named Martin.
King Atahualpa poked his head out of the sedan and saw those people running towards him. The priest held a heavy and old Bible in his hand, squeezed through the crowd of Inca guards and Inca princes, came to the front of the sedan, and said something to King Atahualpa. However, the king did not understand a word. Then the priest opened the Bible and began to speak to Atahualpa again. Fortunately, the translator named Martin came to the king, but this translator was a small Inca. He translated to the king and said, "Dear king, our Lord Jesus tells us that believers should live in harmony and not quarrel or fight, let alone use force to force each other."
Then, Father Vicente de Valverde said, "Yesterday our people visited the King and agreed with the King on the conditions and content of today's negotiation and peace talks, including the prohibition of bringing armed personnel. However, the King By bringing so many soldiers today, isn’t this a demonstration and threat to us?”
After hearing this, Atahualpa remained silent and continued to stretch half of his body outside the sedan chair to listen to the priest's continuous talk.
At this time, the Inca king saw the long sword worn by Hernando Aldana and wanted to come over and take a look. Hernando Aldana immediately drew out his sword and showed it to the king. The king wanted to take the sword in his hand and look at it carefully, but Hernando Aldana did not give it to him.
Seeing that King Inca had been listening but remained silent, the priest thought that the King felt that he had been wronged, so he held up the Bible and persuaded him, "I advise the King to submit to His Majesty the King of Spain, convert to God, and obey our Lord Jesus. We must obey the teachings of His Majesty the King of Spain. Moreover, we must obey God’s command, because all of God’s will is recorded in this Bible.”
After hearing this, King Inka curiously asked for the thick book, opened it and flipped through it. Because the Incas did not have writing and did not know how to make paper or print books, the Inca king did not know how to open the book. Brother de Valverde reached out to help, and Atahualpa, feeling slighted, punched the monk in the arm. Originally, the Inca King was full of curiosity about the book, thinking that there was something magical in it, but he did not expect that there was nothing in it except densely packed rows of small, black symbols that were incomprehensible.
He immediately felt that the priest was deceiving him with a kind of witchcraft that he did not understand. So, he angrily threw the book towards the crowd and shouted ferociously, "We only believe in the sun, not God or Christ. Although your king is wise and great, he lives in a very distant ocean. Besides, in this Inca kingdom, I am wiser and greater than your king. I know very well what you are and what you want to do here. You go tell the invaders if they don't obey my orders. , don’t even think about leaving here unless you return everything you plundered on this land to me.”
After saying that, the king still felt uneasy and cursed again, "You despicable gangsters with cocks and dogs, I will kill you all." He also stood up from the sedan and shouted to his subordinates, "Look, they are nothing They are a bunch of robbers and thieves." After hearing this, the crowd immediately became commotion, and the Inca soldiers began to jeer at the Spaniards standing outside the square with weapons in hand.
Atahualpa's actions gave the Spaniards a reason to take action. Seeing that the king would not listen to his persuasion, Father Vicente de Valverde hurriedly picked up the book from the ground, and ran back to the room next to the square with the two entourage in a panic, towards Commander Francis. Ca Pizarro shouted loudly, "Have you seen it? These Incas are worse than dogs, inhumane and stubborn, but you still want to persuade them and be polite. Isn't this playing the piano to a cow? ? These stubborn and inhumane barbarians must be conquered by force." After that, he said to the commander in a commanding tone, "Come out! Come out! Christians! Fight against these people who reject the gospel of God. Enemies, charge forward! How dare that tyrant throw the Bible to the ground! Charge towards them and conquer them by force, and I will abdicate your sins!"
After listening to Father Vicente de Valverde's report and watching the Inca's heckles and ridicules, Francesca Pizarro couldn't bear it any longer, so she decided to act according to the plan that had been laid out: risking a desperate move. , there is a huge risk of death and destruction, and we must also focus on attacking and forcibly kidnapping the Inca King. As long as the Inca king was captured alive, the Spaniards could use the Inca king to issue orders to the entire empire.
To this end, he divided all the more than 100 infantry and more than 60 cavalry into two teams and ambush in the houses next to the square. One team was led by his brother Juan Pizarro to attack the chief's sedan chair. , the other team led the attack on Atahualpa's sedan chair.
