The Fall of the Golden Empire (Novel) (Volume 1) "Bloody Sunset" by Zhang Baotong
At this point, Queen Anna revealed a secret that she had hidden in her heart for many years. She said with infinite sadness, "Originally, after my repeated persuasion, my father realized that he should not make Atahualpa King of Quito, and decided to summon the princes and ministers to revise the decision the next morning. Wrong will, but before he could revise it, he was summoned by Father Taiyang that night." As she spoke, she added in a more serious tone, "I was the only one who knew about this matter at the time, so after my father's death, I I don’t dare to tell anyone about this, you are the only one who knows about it besides me.”
Robert put an arm on the princess's shoulder and said with admiration, "No wonder the Incas call you the goddess of wisdom."
Queen Anna smiled bitterly and said, "What kind of goddess of wisdom am I? If I were the goddess of wisdom, the Inca Empire would not be what it is today." After that, she told Roel about being scolded by Atahualpa at noon today. Bert listened.
She said, "I told him more than once, don't hold on to the dream that the Spanish will release you, and don't raise gold for the Spanish. Because once the Spanish release you, you will definitely lead an army to attack the Spanish. Inca The army can have tens or hundreds of thousands of people, but how many Spaniards are there? There are only more than 160 people. Do you think they can let you out? This is such a simple and realistic truth, but he not only He refused to listen to me and accused me of doing him harm. He said that after the Spaniards got enough gold, they would leave here and return to their own kingdom by ship. But I told him, you gave them such More gold objects will attract more Spanish bandits to come here to risk robbery. Maybe they will not leave here at all, but use it as a garrison to rob gold objects. Every time I said this to him, I would Received his insults and reprimands. When I went to court today, someone reported that the Spaniards had brought back a lot of gold and silver from Pachacamac and Cusco, and the stone room would soon be full. Your Majesty and Ministers They were all very happy. When I left the court, I reiterated my words to the king. However, as soon as he heard it, he said that I was ruining his happiness, ruining his career, cursing him, and intentionally harming him. , and also yelled that I was hoping for his early death so that I could avenge Huascar. You said how wronged I was!"
Robert held the princess in his arms, kissed the queen's tears, and said sadly, "So, you thought of coming to me tonight to question me?"
The queen nodded and said with infinite melancholy, "I know that the day is running out for the king to die, but after his death, I really don't know what I will do."
Robert said, "Then you can be my wife."
"Being a wife to the enemies of the Inca Kingdom?" Queen Anna shook her head and said, "I would rather commit suicide by jumping into the river and go with the king to see the Father of the Sun."
Robert said in a very serious tone, "I don't allow you to do this, I want you to be my lover. If you are going to die, what is the point of my life? I want you to live with me and love each other for a lifetime. Have a happy life."
The queen said, "Do you really mean what you say?"
Robert said, "I could swear to the moon."
The queen thought for a while and said, "How about you take me far away, far away, and leave this sad and unfortunate place forever."
Robert thought seriously for a while and said, "But where can we go?"
The queen said, "Anywhere will do, as long as it's not here."
Robert said, "Let me go back and think about it."
At this time, Peter came from the dark forest and whispered to them, "It's going to be closed." Robert knew that there was an order from the army that no one in the temple was allowed to go out in the dark, so he hurriedly The queen in her arms let go and said gratefully to Petya, "Thank you so much, I will repay you well."
Petya said, "Let's talk about this later." After saying that, he took the queen's arm and walked quickly towards the temple.
It was very late when he returned to the military camp, and several sentries said to him, "Where have you been? The Marquis is looking for you everywhere for a meeting." As soon as he heard that the Marquis was looking for him for a meeting, he looked towards the office of the expeditionary force headquarters. I saw that there was still light there, and thick smoke kept coming out of the room. So, I walked towards the headquarters office.
After pushing the door open and entering the office, the Marquis asked him in a very unhappy tone, "Where have you been? Why can't I find you anywhere?"
Of course Robert couldn't tell the truth, so he said, "I took a walk around the valley. The scenery there is really nice."
Hernando said, “I’ve been there so many times, and haven’t I seen enough?”
Robert said, "You have nothing to do."
The Marquis said, "Others are too busy, but you are free."
Robert said, "I've been busy to death since you guys haven't seen me these days. I have nothing to do tonight, so I want to find a place to relax. Besides, I don't know that I have a meeting tonight."
The Marquis waved his hand towards Robert and said, "Okay, stop talking, sit down and have a meeting."
Roberto sat on a small stool in the corner of the room and asked Soto next to him, "What is the meeting today?"
Soto said, "It seems that Almagro is bringing people here, and the Marquis wants us to prepare to welcome them."
Of course Robert knew that Almagro was heading to San Miguel by boat from Panama with 150 infantry and 50 cavalry and a very sufficient supply of weapons and ammunition, but he did not expect that it would arrive so quickly, so he said, "Yes. What a welcome, why are they here? Don’t they just want to divide our gold?” Hernando heard Robert’s words and said, “I said Mr. Secretary, can you speak louder so that everyone can Can hear clearly."
When Hernando said this, Robert was a little confused and said, "Isn't this right?"
Gonzalo said loudly, "Mr. Robert just said, why should we welcome the one-eyed deaf man? They are here to divide the fruits of our labor."
At that moment, most of the people present started to cheer. It took a while for the Marquis to calm everyone down and said, "Listen to me, everyone, the gold we got belongs to us, and we cannot let them divide it. However, we can use them to protect our treasury and That Inca king. Recently, everyone has complained that they have too many hours on duty and are too busy and tired. When they come, with more people and horses, everyone will be able to take a breather. Moreover, they will also have enough troops to march into Cusco. You guys Aren’t you clamoring to go to Cusco every day? With just a few people like us, we can’t keep busy just guarding the Inca King and the treasury.”
However, Juan shouted loudly, "How difficult is it to march into Cusco? As long as the gold is divided and the Inca king is killed, the treasury and the king no longer need to be guarded. This place will be like San Miguel. A few men guarded it, while the rest marched toward Cuzco. What's the difficulty? Without him Almagro, we wouldn't have accomplished anything."
Soto also said, "It doesn't matter if they come over. With more people and stronger troops, the Incas will be more afraid of us. Because Almagro's weapons and equipment are better than ours, and there are many young people, so their strength can be said to be Stronger than us. However, I am worried that the two factions will join together to cause a fight. You can think about it, Almagro and their soldiers are stronger than us, and we have more gold than them. Do you think they will be convinced by us? Is it? If the two families get together and fight openly and secretly, it would be better without them."
Seeing that the officers and brothers present did not support his views and opinions, Pizarro said to everyone in a commanding tone, "You all remember, Almagro is my partner and the one I share life and death with." A close comrade-in-arms, he was sent by the king to support and assist us. After they arrived, the two armies became a family. Of course, we still have to be the masters of this family. Almagro can only serve as Deputy, so I hope you can take the overall situation into consideration, welcome them warmly as your own brothers, treat them warmly, so that they can truly integrate into us. I won’t say more about the big truth. If anyone says I will never condone making weird remarks, causing disagreements, or ostracizing them." After saying this, he announced that the meeting was adjourned.
After the meeting, everyone left, but the Marquis kept Robert behind and said to him solemnly, "In our team, most of them are rough and low-level people, with no culture and no knowledge." What kind of foresight and knowledge can only see things in the immediate future and cannot see the long-term. You are different from them, so don’t follow them in making noises on some issues."
Of course Robert knew this, and he also helped the commander with advice, and he also wrote the letter requesting reinforcements. The reason why he changed his attitude was because he was influenced by Queen Anna just now. Listening to the commander's criticism of him, he felt that something was wrong with him, so he nodded quickly and said, "That's right."
Pizarro rolled up a cigarette and smoked it, then asked, "How is the gold collection going?"
"It's almost full," Robert said.
Pizarro nodded and said, "No wonder Atahualpa sent someone to come to me today and asked me to fulfill my promise and release him."
Robert asked, "What do you think of the Marquis?"
"Of course I can't let him go," Pizarro said.
Robert said, "But we have an agreement with him. If we don't keep our word, it will be bad for our reputation."
The Marquis frowned and said, "Are you too bookish? You don't know that there is no excuse or reason for a wolf to eat a lamb. Then we won't tell him that the gold in that room is not full at all. Anyway, this room is only guarded by our people, and they don’t know. So, starting from tomorrow, you must seal the door of the vault. No one is allowed to approach the vault except the sentry, let alone reveal the progress of the accumulation of gold in the vault."
When Robert heard this, he remembered that Pizarro himself was a cunning and dishonest political hooligan. It can be seen that Queen Anna's premonitions and guesses are still very accurate. So, he asked, "If we don't release the Inca king, and we worry all day about the Inca army coming to kidnap their king, what good will it do to us?"
Pizarro hesitated for a moment and said, "As soon as Almagro's reinforcements arrive, we will divide the gold and march to Cusco. Of course we cannot let an Inca king tie us here."
The two talked for a while and then left the office. Robert returned to his room and couldn't sleep. He felt that the Incas were too stupid, naive and gullible. When he thought about it, he felt that the Spaniards were too ghostly, cunning and scheming, even too scheming. It's so despicable and discreditable.
Obviously, the Marquis will not release the Inca King at all, nor will he be a drag. So, what should Queen Anna do? Because for him, he could not influence any actions of the Spanish, nor could he do anything for the Inca behind the back of the Marquis and his colleagues, and some of these did not seem to have much to do with him. The only thing he worried about was Queen Anna.
In the forest just now, Queen Anna had prayed to him to take her away from this place. However, this was not Spain, but a very unfamiliar country to him. He didn't even know where to take her. At the same time, since he came out of his own country, he has been with his companions and has not left everyone. He really doesn't know how to live after leaving his companions. However, if she does not leave here, Queen Anna's situation will be very miserable. As far as he knew, most princesses and noble daughters ended up being divided up by the conquerors. Some became Spanish concubines, some became servants, and some were even homeless, living on the streets and becoming prostitutes.
