The Fall of the Golden Empire (Novel) (Volume 1) "Bloody Sunset" by Zhang Baotong
The young women were selected and taken away one by one by the Spanish officers and soldiers, and finally some very young girls were left. These girls seemed to be only twelve or thirteen years old, some were even eight or nine years old, very young. There were about thirty of them. Therefore, Robert did not use them as quotas for officers and soldiers, but wanted to let them go home. There is also some controversy about this matter. Some officers such as Juan and Gonzalo did not agree to let these young girls go. They demanded that these girls should also be assigned to the officers and soldiers as maids or maids.
However, Roberto is a young man with education and brains. He knows that these officers and soldiers are poor people from the bottom of Spain. Most of them have never gone to school and do not understand the law. All they think about is gold. , no literacy at all. If you assign these girls to them, some surprising and unexpected things will inevitably happen. After all, there are no laws here to bind them, and no laws to protect these girls. Therefore, he repeatedly explained the reasons to Commander Pizarro and argued rationally not to distribute these girls to the officers and soldiers, because this would easily have a very bad impact on the Spanish troops.
These girls are almost all children of Inca princes and wealthy families. Because only girls from princes and wealthy families are more likely to become virgins and maids serving the princess. Girls from poor families would not have such a chance if they were not very outstanding and beautiful. Therefore, these girls will not have to worry about being homeless after they are released. After Robert's repeated insistence, Pizarro finally agreed with Robert's opinion after careful consideration.
After allocating the women, Robert announced loudly, "With the consent of the Marquis Pizarro, commander of the Spanish Expeditionary Force, the remaining young girls will be allowed to leave here and go home."
When Martin translated Robert's words into Quechu's bad words and said them to the girls, the girls were stunned for a while. When Martin said to them again, "You can go home," they woke up as if from a dream. First they jumped and jumped with joy, and then they happily dispersed around the square.
Next, the assignment of footmen and valets begins. When Robert read out the distribution plan, many soldiers were very surprised and puzzled, because they felt that they only needed women, and even a few more women would not be too much. But they didn't know what use they could make of these men. But someone immediately said to them, "These Indian men can do daily chores for us, and we don't need to spend money anyway. We can pick up food from the Inca warehouse at will, and the commander will allocate us a house to live in." As soon as the soldiers heard this, they followed the officers to choose young and strong men for themselves. "
With women and servants, the Spanish soldiers could no longer crowd into one house as they had in the past, so the commander had to allocate one or two houses to each of them. Moreover, there are many public houses for the royal family and nobles to live in the city of Cajamarca and next to the square. Because the Inca army was defeated and the Inca king was captured, the princes and wealthy people living in the city had long since fled. Therefore, the Spaniards gave these deep mansions to the officers and soldiers.
With houses and women, everyone felt like they had a home, and with maids and male servants waiting on them, these soldiers simply felt like the rich masters. Therefore, not only did they start to speak and walk like a master, they also Even every aspect of life is tainted with a master-like atmosphere. They asked servants to fetch water for them to wash their faces, clean the house, sweep the floor and make beds, cook and wash clothes. In short, apart from standing guard and performing tasks, servants were asked to do other tasks.
These maids and servants were honest, docile, conscientious people, and they served these new masters as they had served their past masters. Therefore, every time the Spaniards returned to the house after performing official duties, the servants had already prepared meals, tea or chicha wine, waiting for them to enjoy. In the past, the Inca people ate two meals a day, that is, they would eat one meal at eight or nine in the morning and then stop eating until the evening. But Spaniards eat three meals a day. After eating, these Spaniards either lie down on the bed and fall asleep; or they get together to gamble and win money. When you win money, you will be happy, singing and laughing; when you lose money, you will pout and look embarrassed, and sometimes vent your anger on the servants.
But in any case, since that battle, the living conditions and lifestyle of Spanish soldiers have changed a lot. Therefore, everyone is not only much more comfortable, but also more energetic. While they were enjoying themselves, they were not idle. Every day, they went to various places in the vicinity to conduct inspections in groups of twenty to thirty, and in groups of forty or fifty.
On this day, the cavalry detachment led by Juan Pizarro saw a large moving white cloud on a gentle slope not far from the valley. They felt that the weather was clear and windless, and there should be no white clouds floating around. So when they wiped their eyes, they saw that it was an endless flock of sheep. So they rode their horses to the hillside and saw several shepherds grazing their camels. Llamas are protected animals of the Incas. Except for members of the Inca royal family, no one else is allowed to kill or eat them. Violators are punishable by death. Of course, these vicuñas belong to the Inca royal family and are specially used to provide food for the royal court. As a Spaniard who mainly eats meat, I have long been tired of eating vegetarian food such as corn almost every day in the past few months. I don’t know where under the sky fell such an endless piece of food. The llamas really made these Spaniards overjoyed, and they had never even dreamed of it. They quickly knelt on the ground and prayed to their Lord to show their gratitude. Then, let the herdsmen catch up with the large herd of vicuñas and walk towards the military camp.
Returning to the military camp, the soldiers saw that Juan Pizarro and the others had brought back so many vicuñas. They were all like children celebrating the festival, eagerly waiting for the commander to give them their portions, and at the same time they began to prepare knives for the purpose. slaughter. The Marquis asked Juan Pizarro to count the llamas, and then asked his brother to give one to each officer and soldier, and then locked the rest in a large empty room. As for the few shepherds who graze for the royal court, the Marquis assigned them to his brother Hernando Pizarro to manage, and asked him to find a big house for these shepherds to live in, and asked them to share their livestock every day. The group went to the grassy slopes to graze, and when the work was done, they drove back some llamas for everyone to eat.
Another small team found two very large warehouses in the captured city of Cajamarca. One was a grain warehouse, with mountains of corn inside, enough to feed tens of thousands of people for at least a year or two; It is a spare parts warehouse, where countless military uniforms, blankets and other cotton materials are piled up. Some woolen materials and fabrics not only have excellent texture and bright colors, but also have exquisite printing and dyeing techniques. There were also piles of cloth shoes, weapons, tableware and coca in the warehouse. There are so many of these things that it can be said that they are inexhaustible and inexhaustible.
At the same time, each team also brought back many gold and silver utensils from various places, most of which were royal tableware for the palace, which were large and heavy. There were also treasures they had looted and taken from the corpses of Inca princes. According to the commander's order, these items must be handed over and kept by the commander's secretary named Robert on his behalf for future division. Among the treasures they confiscated were some emeralds. This gem was very precious to the Incas. Because they don't like rubies and other gems, they only value emeralds, thinking that green gems have the best power to ward off disasters and avoid evil. Therefore, many nobles like to wear such gems.
That day, Juan Pizarro snatched an emerald as big as a fist from the residence of the Inca king's concubine. This gem was actually given by the Inca king Huayna Capac to his most beloved daughter, Princess Ana Maya, before his death. Although there were many emeralds in the Inca Empire, emeralds as large as this were rare treasures. This was presented to King Huayna Capak by a chief from a province rich in emeralds. However, the Spaniards did not know much about emeralds. They always regarded these emeralds as ordinary glass. The Inca royal family itself regarded ordinary glass as a treasure, because the Incas did not have such a thing. This kind of thing was brought by the Spaniards and given to the local Indians. The Indians then gave this kind of thing as a treasure to the Inca king.
Juan Pizarro showed the emerald to his men. They looked at the gems, and some said they were gems and some said they were glass. But most people looked down upon it, saying it was glass. Someone else said to him with a very certain tone, "This looks like glass, otherwise, I will bet you my gold plate." These words made Juan Pizarro's heart feel cold, and he didn't know whether to throw it away. Should stay.
At this time, someone suggested that he seek advice from a knowledgeable priest. So, he brought the fist-like emerald to the bishop, Father Vicente de Valverde, and asked the priest to help identify the authenticity. But the priest was not good at gems. He had only heard in books that gems were indestructible. So, he held the gem and looked at it for a long time, but without seeing the reason, he said to Juan Pizarro, "You might as well try to smash it with a hammer. The only thing that can be smashed is glass. Smash it." What does not break is a gem.”
Juan Pizarro felt that the priest's words made sense, so he found a hammer, placed the emerald on a big stone, and then raised the hammer and hit the emerald hard. As a result, with just one hammer blow, the poor rare treasure was smashed into pieces.
The result of this experiment not only smashed the rare treasure of Princess Ana Maya, but also made the Spanish begin to have essential doubts about the emerald they owned. In order to identify the authenticity of their emeralds, they all took out their emeralds, placed them on rocks, and smashed them with hammers. The final conclusion was that all emeralds were fake.
