The Fall of the Golden Empire (Novel) (Volume 1) "Bloody Sunset" by Zhang Baotong
Surrounded and protected by a large group of Spanish guards and some princes and ministers, the Inca King followed the Marquis and they returned to the temple. After entering the small courtyard of the temple, the princes automatically dispersed and went back to their homes, because their homes were protected by the Spanish army. Pizarro asked the guards to tie up the horses, and then took Robert, Martin and Petya to the house where Atahualpa lived.
This room was the Inca king's meeting room. It was twenty to thirty square meters and seemed very empty. There was only a small square table and a chair. The chair was occupied by the Inca king himself, because all the Incas who came here had to kneel, and the Spaniards did not come here at all. Even when they came here, they would say a few words at most and then leave, and there was no need to sit down. Apart from that, there was nothing else in the room. In fact, nothing else is needed. Because anything he needs will be brought to him by his concubine.
Because I wanted to invite the Spaniards to dinner, I added a few more small wooden benches in the house. On the table were two clay pots of Chicha wine made from corn and several plates of simple vegetarian dishes. The meals were cooked by the princesses, because the king did not hire anyone else, and the Spaniards did not allow outsiders to live here. Although this is inviting people to eat, it is better to say that it is inviting people to drink. After the four people sat down, Atahualpa asked the two concubines next to him to pour wine for everyone.
After drinking a glass of wine, King Inca said, "Your Christianity seems to require people to learn to be good and not do bad things. However, I don't understand why some people are still good people before they come into contact with your Christianity. However, after contacting them, they are still good people." After your Christianity, you became a sinner."
One sentence stunned Pizarro and the others. Everyone put down their cups and looked at him with puzzled expressions. Pizarro looked unhappy and immediately asked, "What do you mean? Does it mean that our Christianity has corrupted people?"
Atahualpa explained unequivocally, "I mean there is a person in your army who used to be a law-abiding citizen, but now he has become a sinner after believing in your Christianity."
Pizarro's face darkened, he raised his hand vigorously and said, "Impossible."
But King Inca said, "But this is a fact. More than one minister and concubine reported this to me, and she herself admitted it. I heard that this matter has been discussed a lot among you and our people. This matter made me The pain is excruciating, much worse than what I would have endured if I were tortured and imprisoned." As he said this, the Inca king began to cry in pain.
Maybe the Inca king was telling the truth, because whether he was arrested or in jail, he really never cried. Therefore, seeing the Inca King sobbing in pain, Pizarro couldn't help but get a little angry and said, "What is going on? King, tell me, I have told all the soldiers that anyone who dares to offend the Inca King will be killed." regardless."
As Atahualpa cried, he lowered his chest and said, "There is a man among you who keeps hooking up with one of my concubines all day long, coming and going. He is literally riding on my neck and shitting."
Hearing this, Pizarro, Roberto, Petea, and even Martin himself, who were present, couldn't help but tremble in their hearts, because everyone knew that the Inca King was talking about Martin. But Martin tried his best to look calm, as if the matter had nothing to do with him.
Pizarro looked surprised and said, "Such a bold and lecherous person? When I find out, I will engage in military law."
But Atahualpa endured the humiliation and said, "I am extremely saddened by this crime. No matter if I am in prison, or suffer all kinds of disasters, or even die from suffering, I will not be so sad. Because a humble man The Indians, knowing clearly that there are laws against this crime in this land, still treat me with such disrespect, causing me to suffer such a great humiliation. It should be noted that the law stipulates that anyone who commits such crimes or simply Anyone with such a criminal motive must be burned alive together with the guilty woman, his parents, children, brothers, sisters and all other close relatives must be executed, and even the adulterer's flock must be killed. In addition, he must be born The land was turned into a no-man’s land, sprinkled with salt, cut down trees, destroyed houses in the entire village, and took other severe punitive actions so that the people would always remember the consequences of this crime.”
Listening to what Atahualpa said, Martin pretended to be calm and composed on the surface, but inside he was frightened, and he even stuttered a bit when translating.
Of course, Pizarro would not let his translator go to the gallows, because they still couldn't do without Martin. Without Martin, they could not deal with the Indians. Although Martin is an Indian, he was brought to Spain by Pizarro to learn Spanish. Not only was he a translator for the Spanish Expeditionary Force, but he also had a good personal relationship with Pizarro. Therefore, he said, "The noble Inca King "Although this matter has caused great harm to the king, it is a matter of the king's concubine voluntarily having sex with others. It is her own personal matter and your family's family affairs, and we cannot interfere with it."
These words made Martin feel a real sigh of relief, and made him grateful from the bottom of his heart for the Marquis' magnanimity. But the Inca King refused to do it. When he heard that Pizarro didn't even care about such a sinful thing, he got angry and said, "No wonder your soldiers raped and killed, and committed all kinds of evil. So this is how you indulge your soldiers?"
Martin was already very disgusted with the Inca King, and when he heard the Inca King complaining about him to the Marquis, he hated the Inca King with gnashing teeth. Therefore, he deliberately translated this sentence as, "He said that the Spaniards were a group of robbers. Rape and murder, all kinds of evil are committed.”
When Pizarro heard this, he became angry and said, "You said we were robbers. How did you do it? How did you kill your uncles, aunts, brothers and sisters?" Atahualpa choked with these words. He didn't say a word for a long time.
Although Atahualpa was captured and imprisoned, Pizarro had always been relatively polite to the Inca King and had never blushed or quarreled with the Inca King. This is the first time the relationship between the two of them has been so tense. For a moment, the atmosphere at the wine table was a little tense. Everyone was silent.
Seeing that the drinking scene had reached a deadlock, Robert wanted to adjust the atmosphere. He said, "Everyone calm down." Then, he explained to the Inca King, "Men and women having intercourse or having an affair is not a crime in Spain, even if it is a crime, it is a misdemeanor. Unlike in the Inca Empire, men and women having an affair The men will be hanged and the women will be buried alive.”
Robert added, "I heard that in some tribes in other provinces, men and women can have fornications casually, including some Inca tribes in the past who also regarded mutual seduction and fornication between men and women as a very normal phenomenon. In that context, I I don’t think people will overly investigate or impose severe penalties on adultery between men and women. Therefore, we Spaniards also have very clear legal provisions on adultery between men and women. If it is not rape, it does not constitute a serious crime. . Therefore, it is difficult for us to deal with incidents that do not constitute serious crimes."
Seeing that Robert was adjusting, Pizarro also felt that now was not the time to have a stalemate with the Inca King. Because he needed him to find a way to transport gold and silver from Cusco and other places as soon as possible. He was afraid that if this guy's attitude changed somewhere, the gold and silver he might have obtained would be lost, because he heard that after Atahualpa was captured, many Incas began to hide their gold.
Therefore, he toasted a glass of wine to the Inca King and said, "I just made a rude statement, please forgive me." Then he said, "Please don't worry, your Majesty. I will investigate and deal with him strictly when I return. Once found, I will imprison him for a month." Confinement. In addition, I want to guard the officers and soldiers guarding the temple to strengthen their duties. No Spaniards are allowed to enter the temple without my permission. As for the king’s concubines, they must be taken care of by the king himself. I want to pass this Let us both work hard so that something like this that makes the king sad and painful will never happen again."
Of course, Atahualpa didn't want to offend Pizarro, let alone estrange the relationship with him, because he was his own master, and his words could make him live or die. Therefore, after hearing what Pizarro said, he immediately nodded in agreement, and then asked his concubines to pour wine for everyone.
By this time, lunch time had passed and everyone was a little hungry, so they started eating. However, everyone looked at the way the Inca King was eating, and they couldn't help but eat. They all acted polite and elegant, eating the vegetables slowly and carefully while looking at the Inca King.
Every time the Inca king wanted to eat a certain dish, he always pointed to that dish. So, the concubine next to her put the vegetables into a small green plate with clean hands, and held them in front of the king's eyes. The king put the food into his mouth with his hands. When the king was about to spit out the bones, another concubine held her hands in front of the king's mouth and asked him to spit them out. When the king wants to eat another kind of food, the concubine will put that food on another small green plate and bring it to the king to eat. This was the first time the Spaniards saw the Inca eating. Therefore, I was very curious about the Inca King's way of eating, and I felt a little trance watching it.
It was that damn Martin again who accidentally got a piece of meat on the Inca King's clothes while eating vegetables. The Inca King stood up immediately, called his two concubines, and entered the room next door together. After a while, the Inca King came out wearing new and clean clothes. This dress is very strange. It is not made of cotton, cashmere, or animal fur, but it is bright in color and straight and smooth.
Pizarro couldn't help but touch it with his hand. He felt it was smooth and furry, so he asked, "My lord, what are your clothes made of?"
Atahualpa saw that the Marquis was very curious about his clothes and seemed very happy, so he said, "The Tumbes people made these from the down of a giant man-eating poisonous spider."
Robert said in surprise, "That kind of poisonous spider is very poisonous. As soon as the poisonous sting on its body touches a person, the person will be poisoned to death very quickly. One of my friends was killed by this poison in the forest of Tumbes." The spider was poisoned to death."
Pizarro felt a little incredible and said, "In order to make such clothes for you, someone would risk his life?"
But Atahualpa said disapprovingly, "If they don't do something like this for me, what good are they?"
Martin, who had been depressed for a long time, wanted to take the opportunity to ridicule the Inca King, so he said, "Who calls me the Inca King!"
Pizarro touched King Inca's clothes with his hand again and asked, "How long do you usually wear clothes like this?"
The Inca King said, "Just put it on once. It's not like the Marquis who wears that military uniform all day long."
Hearing what the Inca King said, the two Spaniards stuck out their tongues in surprise. Robert said to the Inca king, "So you have many pieces of clothing like this?"
The Inca king said, "That's okay."
Robert boldly said, "Can you let us take a tour?"
King Inca smiled and said, "What's wrong with that?" Then he led everyone into the room next door.
The room next door is the king's bedroom, which is not big and contains nothing but a large bed and a few large wooden boxes. Robert opened all the boxes and took a look. Only one box was full of clothes. The other boxes contained all kinds of garbage, including leftovers, fallen heads, spit out bones and Food, as well as unwanted clothing and used towels.
Everyone was very surprised that the Inca King put the waste that should be dumped into the garbage dump into a box for safekeeping, and they said, "Why don't you just dump this garbage? Why put it in the box?"
Atahualpa said, "These things are all sent to Cusco for burning."
These words made the people present even more incomprehensible.
Robert continued to ask, "These garbage are not treasures, so why are they transported to Cusco and burned?"
Atahualpa found it difficult to explain this problem to the non-believing aliens like them, but he still said, "Everything used by the Inca King has the spirit of the gods and cannot be thrown away casually. If the enemy gets it, This will cause the Inca King to lose his aura. Therefore, everything used by the Inca King will be transported to a temple in Cusco and burned together."
Listening to these words, the Spaniards remembered their common practice of Indians carefully picking up the clipped nails, clipped and combed hair, placing them in the small holes and gaps in the wall, and keeping them properly. After asking, I learned that they believe that all people who have been born must live a new life in the world, and their souls must ascend from the grave to heaven with all their physical belongings. So that their souls may not be delayed in searching for their hair and nails, they should gather their nails and hair together now so that they can ascend to heaven quickly. They still remember one time when they were digging up Inca graves in search of gold, they dug up the Inca bones and threw them everywhere. The Indians begged them not to do this, because the bones could only be resurrected when they were together. It can be seen that they firmly believe in the resurrection of the body and the immortality of the soul. And they also believe that there is life after death, where bad people suffer and good people rest in peace. The wicked experience all kinds of sickness, pain, care, and toil, without rest or joy. Good people, on the other hand, can find all kinds of comfort, ease and joy, be carefree and rest peacefully. They even believe that the soul will come out while the body is sleeping, which is what we call dreaming, because they believe that the human soul cannot sleep. Dreams are omens and omens for them, and these omens and omens will indicate that they are either in danger of impending disaster or of great blessing.
But the Spaniards find these very funny. So, after listening to this, Pizarro said, "Since King Inca has the spirit of the gods, how can we catch him?" Pizarro always liked to use this sentence to choke King Inca.
Atahualpa said sadly, "This is because the gods abandoned me at the last moment."
Returning to the dining table from the next door room, everyone drank wine and ate vegetables again. Pizarro suddenly asked, "I heard that your brother Huascar is still imprisoned in the castle of Bambamarca? How is he doing?"
When Atahualpa heard his brother's name, his body twitched suddenly, but he immediately concealed his extreme panic and said, "He is very good there, enjoying the courtesy and treatment of a king like me."
But Pizarro shook his head and said, "No?"
The Inca king said with certainty, "It is indeed so."
Pizarro looked at the Inca King carefully and said, "Well, I will go to see him sometime. I heard that he is a loyal and honest man."
Atahualpa said repeatedly, "Very good."
