The Fall of the Golden Empire (Novel) (Volume 1) "Bloody Sunset" by Zhang Baotong
After Pietro broke up with Roberto, he was walking halfway when he happened to see Captain Hernando riding towards him on horseback. He saluted respectfully, "Hello, Mr. Captain."
Hernando joked, "If you don't keep a good watch on duty, what will you do to the Marquis if the Inca king runs away?"
Petya said, "The Inca king was scared to death. How could he have the courage to escape." After that, he told Hernando what had just happened.
Hernando said, "That Inca king was too cowardly. He frightened that guy Martin by giving him a feint like that."
Petera said, "The King of Inca is not afraid of Martin, but of the Marquis. You are the brother of the Marquis. No, please warn him. The Inca King is also quite pitiful. We asked for gold, but they kept it from far away." The earth's fortune has come. Why are you still trying to scare people?"
Hernando said, "I told the Marquis that this was a trick by Martin, but the Marquis didn't believe it." Then he added, "The Marquis is going to let me take twenty cavalry to Cusco and other places. Let’s take a look around the place and learn more about the situation. Do you want to come with me?”
Peter was startled, thought for a while, and said, "Of course I want to follow the captain. Who doesn't know that as long as you follow the captain, you can get the captain's care in everything."
Hernando said, "That's right. How about going out with me? I guarantee that not only will you travel around and open your eyes, but I will also let you get some gold and silver treasures and beautiful girls."
Petya looked a little embarrassed and said, "I really want to go, but the Inca King insists on letting me play chess with him."
As he said that, Peter Yaxiang remembered something and said, "By the way, the Inca King told me to invite you to drink."
Hernando said, "The Incas bought me a drink?"
Petya said, "Yes, he told me many times, but I forgot about it when I was busy. How about it, aren't you busy now?"
Hernando said, "It's okay."
Petya said, "Let's go then."
The two walked as they talked, and soon arrived at the Inca King's house.
The Inca king was sitting on the wooden chair in the council room, worried and troubled. When he saw Petya bringing Hernando, he hurriedly got up to greet him warmly. The two of them have been in contact with each other many times, so they are relatively familiar with each other. The Inca king knew that Hernando liked to drink, so he called Uga and Tutula to serve him. Uga held two large gold cups, asked Tutula to fill up the chicha wine, handed a cup to Hernando, and said, "Mr. Captain, let me toast you first." After that, he drank first. All.
Hernando watched Uga finish a large glass of wine, drank the wine in one gulp, handed the cup to Uga, then looked at Tutula carefully, and said to the Inca King , "Why haven't I seen this newcomer before?"
Atahualpa said, "This is the young daughter of Prince Ambato, who was brought here to be dedicated to me some time ago." After that, he said to Tutula, "My beloved, this is the brother of the Marquis of Spain, Hernando Mr. Captain, come and toast him."
Tutula smiled tenderly at Hernando and said, "Sir, please don't smile, I'm full of wine." As he said that, he drank a large glass of wine in one go.
While the two concubines were pouring wine, Petya told the Inca king, "The Marquis has decided to send a captain to Cusco and other places to supervise the gold collection and investigate the Inca army's preparations to launch an army."
When Atahualpa heard this, he immediately complained to Hernando. He said, "Mr. Marquis said that I was planning to raise an army to attack the Spaniards. Do you think I could do such a thing that would make fun of my own life?" ?”
Hernando comforted the Inca King and said, "Don't worry, Your Majesty. I don't know who those words came from. I will report the real situation to the Marquis after I go out and visit various places."
Atahualpa nodded repeatedly and said gratefully, "I feel relieved because the captain is taking care of me." As he said this, he took out a very delicate gold plate with flower and animal carvings and gave it to Hernando, saying, "I will have to ask the captain to speak kindly to the Marquis about my affairs in the future."
Hernando looked at the golden plate back and forth for a long time, and said with great joy, "Don't worry, Your Majesty. As long as I am here, the Marquis will not do anything to the King. I am his brother, and my words will not harm you." Can’t help but listen.”
Although the Inca King knew that this was an exaggeration, he still thanked him with clasped fists in gratitude.
At this time, the two beautiful concubines had filled the wine glasses, and one on the side asked the captain to drink with sweet words. Hernando was happy for a moment, so he took the wine glass and drank one cup after another.
That afternoon, Hernando drank a lot of wine at the Inca King's place. As soon as he returned to the military camp, he went to the headquarters office and saw that his brother, who was the commander, was asking Roberto to give it to San Miguel, which was located in the coastal area. Antonio Navarro, the accountant of the Spanish army and the head of the local garrison in the Spanish stronghold, wrote a letter asking him to inquire and pay attention to whether any Spanish reinforcements were coming. Because it has been more than half a year since he sent his friend and partner Almagro to Panama to move reinforcements, but he has not heard from them yet.
When Hernando saw Pizarro writing a letter asking for reinforcements to come here, he was confused and said, "Why should we let them come? After they come, they will divide our gold."
Marquis Pizarro said, "There are only a hundred and sixty of us, and we have to guard the Inca King, and we have to guard so much gold. If there are no reinforcements, we can only stick to Cajamarca. Nothing will happen." It can’t be done. However, we are here to look for gold, and we cannot stay in this place. Besides, if an Inca army comes to attack us, can we people use it?"
Hernando said, "However, no Inca army came to attack and attack us. The fact that the Incas gathered in Bambamarca and prepared to attack us and rescue the Inca king was purely a rumor. I took the cavalry a few days ago Having been to Bambamarca, there were no rumors that the Incas were going to attack us or rescue the Inca King. You can’t completely believe what Martin said, because the Inca King had his sweetheart in solitary confinement, so he had ulterior motives to give the Inca King Create rumors.”
But the Marquis of Pizarro shook his head and said, "I would rather believe it than not. We are in a very dangerous situation now, and we have to guard against anything. Therefore, I want to send you to lead Twenty cavalrymen will go to Bambamarca again to see if there are any Incas gathering there." As he said this, he handed Hernando a knotted rope trail he had obtained from Atahualpa and said He said to him, "You must be ready to go to Bambamaka early tomorrow morning."
In fact, Mr. Marquis wanted Hernando to lead twenty cavalry to Cusco and other places to supervise the transportation of gold and silver. However, he heard that the Incas were gathering in Bambamarca and were preparing to attack Cajamarca. , to rescue the Inca King, so the Marquis suddenly changed his mind and asked Hernando to take people to Bambamarca to investigate the Incas' preparations to attack the Spaniards, because there were not only the imprisoned Inca King, but also the generals. A large amount of gold and silver items.
Hernando felt very helpless and unhappy that his brother only believed Martin's rumors and did not believe his own words. However, he could not change his brother's mind because he was the commander of the Spanish Expeditionary Force. He took the knotted rope note from the commander's hand and left the Marquis' office.
The next morning, Hernando Pizarro marched again toward Bambamarca with twenty cavalry. Last time, he had brought people here because he was investigating the murder of Huascar, and the road was relatively familiar, so he walked faster all the way south and arrived at the small town of Bambamaka before sunset.
People in the town were coming and going, and they were even very curious when they saw them or waved hello to them in a friendly way. Out of courtesy, they waved to friendly people along the way. When they came to the gate of the garrison castle, they showed the safe pass given by the Inca king. The Inca soldiers appeared to be very respectful and allowed them to enter the castle with salutes, and sent someone to lead them to see their commander.
The palace guard, Usaka, is the highest commander of the local Inca palace guard. He had received Hernando last time because of the investigation of Huascar's murder. Therefore, when they met again, he seemed very familiar and cordial, and arranged for them. In the two larger rooms in the military camp, they brought out good food and wine, and called some officers to accompany them to eat, drink and have fun.
When it was late at night and the Indians had left, the Spanish soldiers took out the dice and began to gamble. In the past, most of these soldiers were poor beggars and second-rate men in the country, and some were adventurers. They used to be so poor that they often couldn't even eat, but once they had some money, they liked to get together to gamble and bet. Especially the monotonous and adventurous life in front of them only deepened their habit.
Hernando led nine soldiers to live in a large house with nearly thirteen or four beds. There was a large dining table and more than ten wooden stools in the middle of the house. Originally, after walking for a day, everyone was tired. As soon as they had eaten, it was time to go to bed. However, a soldier named Letomundo didn't want to sleep, so he came to Hernando's bedside and said, "Captain, can you sleep too?"
Hernando knew what he meant and said, "What do you want to do if you don't sleep?"
Letomundo threw the two dice into the air, caught them, and said, "Let's play dice."
As soon as Hernando heard about playing dice, his hands felt a little itchy. He thought that the Inca troops and the gathering were purely rumors created by Martin. It was only the Marquis who believed in Martin too much that he let them come here to investigate. So, he said, "Okay, let's just play. I lost more than 20 gold pesos to you the day before yesterday. I don't believe I can't get it back today." After saying that, he put on the clothes he had just taken off and put on his clothes again. He fell to the ground and shouted, "Antonio, Santos, come here, get ready for war."
Antonio and Santos responded, got up and dressed as quickly as if they were engaged in battle, and came to the table. As soon as the others heard that they were going to play dice, they lost their drowsiness and ran over to surround the table. At this time, Letomundo had already brought several oil lamps in the room and placed them on the table. He also took out two small silver bowls of the same size from his military bag and said to everyone, " Shall we get started?”
Everyone said, "Let's get started." After saying that, they started to make arrangements for the banker.
Santos hit the biggest point and took the banker first. The bookmaker has the final say on where to place the bet. So he placed a bet of two gold pesos. One gold peso is equivalent to sixteen or seven dollars. With these sixteen or seventeen dollars, a family of three or four can live carefree for a year. Santos put the two dice in a small bowl, put them together with the other small bowl, and began to shake the small bowl. Then, he skillfully slammed the small bowl in his right hand towards the table, and then opened the small bowl. . The number rolled on the dice is seven.
Antonio is Hernando's deputy. His family background is slightly better than the others, and he is also more refined and conservative. Therefore, he appears to be more cautious and low-key in dealing with others. Seeing that Santos had already hit seven points, he felt that the possibility of him exceeding seven points was not very high, so he had no choice but to follow the dealer and place a bet of two gold pesos. His judgment was correct because the number he played was five. But Letomundo felt that one die had six points, two dice had at most twelve points, and seven points should not be considered a big point. Therefore, in addition to the two necessary bets, he placed three more gold pesos. However, the number he scored was also five, which did not exceed the dealer's seven.
Seeing that the other two people had not passed seven o'clock, Hernando felt that his opportunity had come, so he cruelly placed an additional ten gold pesos bet. He shook the small bowl for a while, then slammed it on the table, fully hoping to get a number of eight or nine. However, the number of one dice was two, and the number of the other dice was five. The total number It's also seven o'clock. If the points are the same as the dealer's, they can only be eaten by the dealer.
Santos was the first to win, not only winning six sure-win bets, but also winning thirteen more bets placed by Letomundo and Hernando, winning a total of nineteen gold pesos. So, confidence is greatly increased. The second time he placed five base bets, the so-called base bets are the bets that everyone must place. This time, the number he played was as high as eleven, so no one dared to play more. After that, he successively played three villages with full points of nine, ten and twelve points, winning nearly two hundred gold pesos in one go. It can be said that he made a huge fortune.
Afterwards, Antonio won the game and played three banks in a row, winning at least thirty or forty gold pesos. Then, Letomundo followed suit and won nearly one hundred gold pesos. By this time Hernando had lost more than one hundred and fifty gold pesos and, as they say in the jargon, "fell into a ditch."
At this time, he finally won a small victory and grabbed the banker. He thought that everyone in front of him was sitting on the banker, some were sitting on the five bankers, and some were sitting on the three bankers. Maybe he could also sit on the three bankers and the five bankers, so, The stakes are higher. He placed ten base bets. He originally placed a large base bet, but Santos, who was in the spotlight, did not believe his evil intentions and instead placed ten more bets. It was equivalent to saying that the bet between him and Santos was twenty gold pesos. And twenty gold pesos is a frightening number for any of them. At this time, he had lost all the money he brought with him, which he had brought specifically for gambling. Unexpectedly, as soon as the battle began, his entire army would be wiped out.
Although he was considered a casino veteran, Santos' actions still put a lot of psychological pressure on him. But he was calm, full of hope and confidence, shaking the dice and praying to God to bless him. However, God seemed unwilling to bless him today and only allowed him to shake out four points, while Santos shook out a big point of eleven.
He has lost everything and has no bill to pay. As soon as Santos saw that he started to owe debts, he said, "Forget it, let's not play anymore." Because debts are taboo in casinos. The winner will also be owed. Therefore, no one likes to play with people who owe debts.
Of course Hernando refused to let it go. He said, "No, if you want to run away after winning, there is no way."
But Santos said, "But you have no money, Captain."
Hernando said, "Who said I have no money?" As he said this, he took out a very delicate gold plate from his military bag.
Santos brought the gold plate over and looked at it, then bit it with his teeth and asked, "How much is your plate worth?"
Hernando said, "At least a thousand gold pesos."
Santos shook his head and said, "I think it's worth two hundred gold pesos at most."
Hernando said, "You see clearly, this is a pure gold treasure given to me by the Inca King. It is not some junk picked up on the street."
Santos still shook his head and said, "If you think I'm wrong, then ask them how much it's worth."
Antonio took the plate and looked at it for a while, then said disapprovingly, "It's only two hundred gold pesos."
And Letomundo simply said, "I don't think it's even worth a hundred gold pesos."
These words made Hernando very sad, but he still gritted his teeth and said, "Two hundred is two hundred." As you can imagine, Hernando not only lost the gold plate, but also owed the other three More than a hundred gold pesos for people. Everyone saw that he was very unlucky and owed money, so they broke up and stopped playing.
