The Fall of the Golden Empire (Novel) (Volume 1) "Bloody Sunset" by Zhang Baotong
A new day begins when the sun rises over the east side of Cajamarca. But this day was a meaningful day for the Inca King Atahualpa, and it was an unusual day for the entire Inca Empire.
Last night, Atahualpa stayed up almost all night. He kept asking himself: Are you still the king of the Inca Empire? He never had a definite answer because he felt as if he was no longer the king. This feeling was a premonition deep in his heart. The Spaniards were a group of thieves who came to the Inca Empire from the other side of the distant ocean. They robbed property and looked for gold along the way. They killed men and raped women when they saw them. Therefore, they will not show mercy to him, especially if he breaks the agreement and leads an army of 80,000 to intimidate them, they will definitely not spare him.
But what made him most regretful and unexpected was that he became a prisoner of the Spanish. In fact, he spent almost the entire night analyzing the reasons for his failure and capture. He admitted that the Spaniards had fire-breathing spears and running mythical beasts, but he still felt that these things were not enough to compete with his 80,000-strong army. The real reason for his failure and capture should be attributed to his carelessness and carelessness. If he had not entered the square rashly, if he had commanded his troops to surround them, if he had not allowed the Spaniards to camp in the Plaza de Armas, maybe it would not have been him who was imprisoned tonight, but those big Spanish white men. This was a fatal mistake he made.
Of course, as the king of the Inca Empire, he would not analyze his and the empire's fate from a historical and inevitable perspective. He would not think of the damn smallpox plague that killed his father, Emperor Huayna Capak, and his prince, Ninan Kuyuki; he would not think of the mutual killing between him and Huascar; he would not think of absolute rights. Leading to absolute failure; they will not think of their own arrogance and stupidity; they will not think of the gap between Inca civilization and European civilization, as well as the insidiousness and greed of European adventurers and the isolation and backwardness of the Inca Empire. In reality, it was a collision between the isolation of Indian civilization and the expansionism of capitalism.
"Father of the Sun, Father of the Sun, why don't you give your son the wisdom and strength to defeat the Spaniards? Are you going to abandon me just because I am not of pure Inca blood?" Atahualpa couldn't help it. Calling and praying in the heart. In fact, he attributed his failure and capture more to the revenge and punishment of the Sun Father. Because the throne of the Incas has always been inherited by the boys born to the Incas and their biological sisters. But he was not the prince born to the Inca King and his biological sister. Therefore, he was completely abandoned by the Father of the Sun.
When the sun shone through the vents of the house and illuminated the house brightly, Atahualpa looked out through a small hole in the door. I saw dozens of armed Spaniards standing guard in front of the door. This immediately dashed his hopes of escaping from the hut. He once escaped from his cell in Tumebamba Castle. However, the Spaniards did not seem to give him any chance to escape again this time. He even thought about whether his uncle Chalkuchma and Prince Kiskis would lead troops to rescue him, but how should he convey this information to them?
He fell down on the little bed in frustration and lay there, his mind full of frustration and regret, wondering what the Spaniards would do to him.
At noon the door of the hut opened. Several Spaniards escorted him from the hut. Suddenly coming out of the room, his eyes were stung by the light of the sun. He immediately closed his eyes and blinked them a few times before opening them. The square in front of me was filled with Inca corpses. Some Spaniards were supervising many locals to carry the bodies. There was a strong smell of blood in the air, making people feel nauseous and want to vomit.
The Indian interpreter Martin told him that the Spanish commander, Marquis Pizarro, wanted to entertain him. Originally, the banquet was arranged for last night, but for some reason it was postponed until now. The banquet took place in a room in the Inca apartment. The door of this room faces the square. The Inca King is sitting facing the gate. From here, you can see the large corpses of Inca soldiers piled in the square outside the gate that have not been completely cleaned and removed. This may have been deliberately arranged by the Spaniards, wanting to see how the Inca king would behave in front of the corpses of countless soldiers.
But he didn't look out the door, only focused on the inside. There is a small wooden table in the middle of the room. On the table lay some dried meat and corn taken from the savings warehouse next to the Inca Royal Road. These things can be said to be inexhaustible in the Inca's savings warehouse. There were also cans of beef, caviar and tomatoes brought from Spain, as well as jars of chicha wine produced by the Incas.
Francisco Pizarro, the commander-in-chief of the Spanish army, stood up from the small table and came over, saying hospitably, "Welcome, welcome." At this time, everyone else sitting at the small table also stood up and greeted the Inca King. Welcome. Atahualpa sat on the small stool opposite the Spanish commander. He glanced at the commander opposite. Although he was captured by the Spaniard yesterday, he did not see the commander's face clearly. Now when I took a closer look, it turned out that this was a man in his fifties with a full beard, thin cheeks, and sunken eye sockets, wearing a Spanish military uniform and a top hat. But through his face and expression, he could tell that the commander was an alert, determined, ruthless, greedy, even very treacherous and adventurous figure.
Indeed, the Spanish colonial commander was a shrewd and greedy adventurer. Although this pigherder was born in Trusilio, Spain in 1475, he could not read a single word, but this did not affect his lofty ambitions and dreams. In order to seek fame and wealth, he lived on the Caribbean island of Haiti from 15o2 to 15o9. Later, he joined the expedition led by Balboa. Settled in Panama in 1519. In 1522, the 47-year-old Pizarro learned about the Inca Empire from a Spanish explorer named Andiegoa. Inspired by Cortes's conquest of Mexico, Pizarro was determined to conquer the gold-rich Inca Empire. Later, he teamed up with the bandit Almagro and the villain priest Luke to escape the murder charge, and obtained a charter from the Panamanian governor Pedralias to explore this mysterious empire. In 1524, Pizarro led 112 Spaniards and a small number of Indian captives on the first expedition to Peru, with little success. After that, Pizarro and Almagro reorganized a 16o expedition team for the second expedition. After they landed in Eldogua, they fought fierce battles with countless Inca people, and Almagro lost one eye as a result. When Pizarro knew that it would be difficult to achieve his goal without reinforcements from the Panamanian colonists, he sent Almagro back to Panama to ask for help.
However, unexpectedly, the commander of the Spanish expeditionary force defeated the 80,000 Inca army without the arrival of reinforcements, and captured the Inca King Atahualpa alive. Although he had captured Atahualpa alive, he still wanted to entertain the Inca king as scheduled, and invited his brother Hernando Pizarro, brother Juan Pizarro and Gonzalo Pizarro, accompanied by Father Vicente de Valverde and Indian interpreter Martin.
The Marquis of Pizarro first introduced several of his entourage to the Inca King. Then he raised his wine glass and toasted to the Inca King, saying, "Dear Mr. Atahualpa, the Inca King, please allow me, on behalf of all the officers and soldiers of the Spanish Expeditionary Force, to pay homage to the Inca King." You express your humility and respect.”
The Incas generally did not drink alcohol while eating. They usually drank with a few people after the meal. However, Atahualpa knew that this was the living habit of Christians, so he followed the Romans, picked up his wine glass, and clinked it with everyone.
Because Hernando Pizarro had been to the palace courtyard where the Inca king lived yesterday evening and had met Atahuallpa, so he was familiar with it, so he asked Atahuallpa in a mocking tone, "King of the Incas, what are you doing?" May I ask how you feel sitting here with us now?"
Of course the Inca king understood the meaning of these words, but as he dug out some caviar with a small spoon and ate it, he replied, "Winning or losing is common sense in military affairs." Then he added, "I really didn't expect it. You were able to arrest me. I am deeply surprised and puzzled by this, and I admire and marvel at your quick actions." He spoke in this tone, not knowing how deeply he understood the disaster he was facing. It's unclear, but he is still deliberately showing his strong and unyielding will.
But Marquis Pizarro said, "This is nothing surprising, because we have made careful arrangements and arrangements for this. However, your soldiers did not carry weapons today, which really surprised us. "
Atahualpa sighed self-deprecatingly and said, "Actually, people have been reporting your whereabouts to me since the day you landed in Tumbes. However, there are really too few of you, so I didn't report it to you." You take it seriously.”
As he spoke, he stopped and said with great regret, "I could have sent troops to attack you people, but you don't have many people, so I just wanted to wait for you to come over and kill you one by one." Catch them, keep your weapons and horses, and choose a few more docile people to serve me, and then execute all the others. Today, the soldiers should bring their weapons before setting off, but I think yesterday your People came into my courtyard without weapons, so I also asked my soldiers not to bring weapons. Moreover, I think with my 80,000 soldiers, I can surrender you even with my bare hands." At this point, The miserable Inca sighed deeply.
After hearing what the Inca King said, the Marquis immediately understood why there were so many strong and dangerous fortifications and passes that were unguarded along the way they passed. If the Incas only had to station a small number of soldiers at the dangerous passes and passes, they would be I'm afraid I won't be able to fly even if I put on wings. Seeing that the Inca king had been slowly tasting the caviar, he said, "The king seems to like caviar?"
Atahualpa nodded and said, "It's good. It's delicious. I've eaten many delicious things, but I've never tasted anything like this."
The Marquis said, "In the future, when you come to our kingdom and meet our King, there will be many things you like to eat."
The Inca king smiled calmly and said, "I don't want to see your king."
Although Atahualpa has been arrested for a long time, no one has taken a good look at the Inca king. This king seems to be about thirty years old, tall and strong, handsome in appearance, and with a broad forehead. He spoke prudently, behaved solemnly, and was even a bit unsmiling, serious, or severe in his treatment of his subordinates and people; however, he seemed natural and easy-going in conversations with the Spaniards, with a frown on his face.
In order to comfort the Inca King, the Marquis said, "My noble king, please don't be depressed or troubled about yesterday's incident. Originally, we did not want to use force, but you are deeply hostile to the Spanish and want to try to attack them." We launched an attack, so we were forced to have no choice. Especially your disrespect for the Bible is destined to be punished by God. However, you don’t have to worry, as long as we go wherever we go, all the Inca Everyone will be conquered by us. You must muster up the courage to live a new life and don't be discouraged. We Spaniards have always been compassionate and magnanimous and will treat you well and favorably."
After hearing this, Atahualpa seemed less worried on the surface, but his heart was still very heavy.
The banquet lasted until late at night. In order to ensure the safety of Atahualpa, the Spaniards had built a military camp around the Inca apartment next to Plaza de Armas, locked the Inca king in a strong stone room, and arranged for three A team of ten men guarded the stone house day and night. Because the Spaniards knew that as long as they controlled the Inca King, they controlled the entire Inca Empire.
