The Fall of the Golden Empire (Novel) (Volume 1) "Bloody Sunset" by Zhang Baotong
The search for gold had to continue the next day, but in order to worry about the booing and siege of the citizens, Alonso asked Taluca to avoid the road he went to yesterday. Taluka nodded coldly, as if he didn't want to talk to him at all. Of course Alonso knew that this short and thin adjutant might be extremely disgusted with what they had done in the past few days, or even hate it deeply, but he still had to take them to find gold in this city.
Alonso asked the Indian adjutant, "Where should we go to find gold today?" Taluka said lazily, "Go wherever you want." Alonso became impatient and cursed, "You damn What the hell do you want to do? If I knew where to go, why would I ask you?"
Taluca thought for a while and said, "Then let's go to Pachacutec's statue and monument." Alonso asked, "Is there a lot of gold there?" Taluca replied, "I can't say for sure. "Alonso scolded, "I'm not sure, why are you going there? Isn't this a waste of time?" Taluka said, "Then go to the Sacsayhuaman Castle. I heard that Huascar is in that underground passage. There is a lot of gold hidden in it." When Alonso heard this, he said, "Then go to Sacsayhuaman Castle."
They walked along the urban avenue for about an hour and arrived at a hillside on the outskirts of Cusco. The Sacsayhuaman Castle is built on the top of the mountain. This is a circular castle built with huge stones, where the Incas held their "Sun Festival". However, there are three layers of walls here from top to bottom. Each layer of wall is 17 or 18 meters high and about 500 to 600 meters long. They are all made of huge stones. The three ancient towers on the top of the slope are arranged in a triangle and are connected to each other. Each castle has three-story towers. The upper tower is a cylinder, and the lower tower is a huge stone wall connected to the adjacent tower. The entire castle is like a solid city defense system. However, what is presented now is a dilapidated scene that has been abandoned for a long time. Moreover, people don't know how much role this castle, which took hundreds of years to build, played in defense and city defense.
A few months ago, Quito soldiers killed many Inca princes and ministers here, so since then, no one from superstitious Cusco has dared to come here. Although the corpses of the slain princes and ministers have been collected and buried, people still seem to be able to smell a fishy smell from the cool breeze blowing. Therefore, when the Taluka adjutant and the Quito soldiers came here, they all felt an invisible fear. But the Spaniards seem to be afraid of nothing for gold.
The Spaniards, led by Taluka, entered the tower and found that there was a hot spring in the tower, where they could not only bathe, but also drink. There is a passage paved with stone slabs between the ancient towers, leading to the adjacent ancient towers, and they also discovered that there is a real tunnel under the ancient castle. They entered the tunnel with torches and walked slowly along the tunnel. However, except for some huts, nothing was found in the tunnel. They walked along the tunnel to the next exit. When they came out, they found that they were in another ancient tower.
It was already noon when they stood on the castle and looked towards the city. Under the clear sunshine, the huge valley is filled with dense houses, and you can even see the statue of Pachacutik, the builder of Cusco, standing high on the monument. However, the Spaniards were not standing here admiring the beautiful scenery, but searching for places where gold might be hidden.
Suddenly, Alonso remembered something that Atahualpa had told him: Huayna Kabak, the late Inca king, had made a very thick gold chain for his son Huascar when he was born. This gold chain is more than 20 meters long, as thick as a human arm, and dozens of people cannot lift it. But the gold chain was hidden somewhere after the fall of Cusco. So, Alonso asked Taluca. Taluka shook his head and said that it might have been transported to another place and hidden.
Alonso said, "The Incas didn't even have wheels with wheels. Where could that gold chain that dozens of people couldn't lift be transported to?" Taluca asked, pointing to the huge stones used to build the walls. He said, "Then you said these huge stones are much heavier than the gold chain, and how were they transported up the mountain?" Yes, Alonso looked at the wall full of huge stones and sighed.
After spending a whole morning in the castle and getting nothing, Alonso felt very frustrated. He began to suspect that the Indian adjutant did not want them to get the gold at all, but there was nothing he could do. When they went down the mountain, they felt a little tired and wanted to find a place to rest for a while and eat something. When they saw a house on the roadside, they walked into their house and asked for some water. However, the old man in that house suddenly Seeing that it was them, instead of giving them water, they placed a wooden stick across the door to indicate that no one was home and they were not allowed to enter. Let them be shut down.
They had no choice but to knock on the door of another house. In fact, the doors of the Indian houses were all open, because there were no thieves or thieves in the Inca Empire. Stealing other people’s things was punishable by death, and other people’s houses did not give them away. Something that can be stolen.
A young and beautiful woman came out of the house. She was still smiling at first, but when she saw that she was a Spaniard, she felt as if she had seen a devil. She screamed in fright, and hurriedly hid in the house and closed the door.
They had no choice but to walk along the street towards the palace hall. Along the way, everyone who saw them either heckled them from a distance or looked at them with hatred. A few days ago, they were regarded as the distinguished guests of the king. They were always treated with the highest courtesy wherever they went, and they also looked down on the country with arrogance as superior rulers or conquerors. Some, however, feel that this unwelcome feeling is really uncomfortable when people no longer regard them as distinguished guests, but as robbers and devils.
Back at their residence, they piled up the gold and silver they had obtained in the past five or six days. The gold was at least five to six hundred kilograms, and the silver was even more. This gold and silver is not too small, so Alonso said to his two subordinates, "I think the gold and silver we got is not too small. No, let's go back tomorrow and forget it. Anyway, the Marquis is just Let’s come over to inquire about the situation in Cusco and make preparations for entering Cusco in the future.”
Alvarez didn't want to stay here anymore, so he said, "You haven't seen that the people here regard us as devils and robbers. What's the point of staying here anymore."
Pedro also said, "It's better to go back early. No matter how much gold we get, we still have to hand it over to the Marquis."
Since everyone is eager to return home, they don't want to stay here any longer. So, Alonso went to find Kiskis. Kiskis was at home with his wives and concubines tasting a kind of fresh pears from Lake Titicaca. When he saw Alonso coming to see him, he ate the pears in his hand and asked Alonso what happened.
Alonso said, "We want to go back to Cajamarca early tomorrow morning. You can send us some people to send the gold there." Quiskis serves as the commander of Cusco's city defense and garrison. For these Spaniards, It was clear what Tianlai was doing, but they did not dare to intervene because they held the safe pass of the Inca King. Moreover, they must tell Atahualpa about Cusco when they return. If he offended them and said a few bad words in front of Atahualpa, it would be very detrimental to him.
When he heard that they were leaving early tomorrow morning, Kiskis breathed a sigh of relief from the bottom of his heart. He said in a very enthusiastic and happy tone, "Dear guests, please rest assured that I will arrange everything for you just like I did for the king."
Sure enough, early the next morning, a team of thirty people stopped in front of the Spanish residence. To their surprise, the commander of the Inca army actually sent three sedan chairs that could be lifted by four people. Of course, riding a sedan chair is much more comfortable and enjoyable than riding a horse. So, they asked people to pack the gold, put the gold on the back of the horse, asked people to hold the horse, sat on the chair and sedan, and started on the road.
Seeing them leaving Cusco with the demolished gold, the citizens laughed, sang and danced. This makes them feel very uncomfortable and they have no way to stop or vent. However, once they crossed the Apurimac River, the situation changed. People along the way may not have known what they were doing in Cusco, but they still regarded them as distinguished guests from afar and treated them to the best food. He used his money to comfort them, freed up the most comfortable houses for them to live in, and took the initiative to work hard and carry gold for them. This made them feel that they were the masters of this country again.
