The Fall of the Golden Empire (Novel) (Volume 1) "Bloody Sunset" by Zhang Baotong
In the temple courtyard, the first person to notice Queen Anna's absence was her baby daughter Kaya. When Kaya got up in the middle of the night to urinate, she found that her mother was not around. She didn't care at that time, thinking that her mother had gone to her father. However, when I got up at dawn, I still didn't see my mother, and no one dressed her. She just cried and shouted, "Mom."
Princess Ina, who lived next door, heard the crying and entered the house. She saw Kaya sitting on the bed alone, crying, but Queen Anna was not there. But the place where Anna slept was neatly laid out, as if no one had slept there. So Ina came to Atahualpa's room. The king has not gotten up yet, Kuta and Maka, who accompanied the king to bed, are still sitting in front of the door. Princess Ina asked Kuta, "Is Queen Anna here?"
Kuta said, "No, it was Princess Tutula who slept with the king last night."
Yina immediately found her sister Uga and asked her to take care of Kaya while she went to find Queen Anna. However, she searched every room in the entire courtyard and could not find Queen Anna. She thought that it was impossible for Queen Anna to leave the small courtyard, and it was impossible for the Spaniards to let her out of the small courtyard. So, she immediately came to the door of King Inca's bedroom and said to Kuta, who was keeping vigil for the king, "Go and tell the king that Queen Ana Maya is missing."
Before Kuta could send a message to the king, Atahualpa shouted from inside the room, "Why, Queen Anna is not here? What is going on?"
Princess Yina entered the room and saw that the king had sat up from the bed. Tutula beside her was wearing thin underwear and was dressing him. Yi Na saluted the king and explained the situation to the king. The king asked Princess Ina to bring her daughter over. Kaya came to the king's bedroom while crying and calling her mother.
The king sat by the bed, hugged his daughter, and asked, "When was your mother not here?"
The daughter shook her head and said, "I don't know."
A very bad thought and omen immediately appeared in Atahualpa's mind. He asked his attendant Haya to ask the Spaniards guarding the courtyard. The Spanish guards said that Queen Ana Maya left the courtyard last night and never came back. The Spanish Marquis has been searching and searching everywhere with his troops. When the Inca King heard this, he immediately felt a sense of despair: In the past few days, bad news has come one after another. First, the gold in the treasury was already full, but Marquis Pizarro refused to abide by the agreement and fulfill his promise; then a Spanish reinforcement force was about to arrive; a few days ago, he saw a meteor with his own eyes. Crossed the sky and fell into the Andes Mountains; now, his queen Ana Maya has disappeared inexplicably. He felt that these things were a sign that he was going to be in bad luck!
He originally wanted to call all the concubines together and lose his temper, but after thinking about it, he suppressed his anger. Now that Queen Anna is gone, there is no point in getting angry. He knew that Queen Anna really loved Huascar, not Atahualpa. Ever since he killed Huascar, Queen Anna had been in a bad mood and never showed a smile again. Especially that time she asked him not to help Spain collect gold. She also said that the faster and more gold could be collected, the sooner his end would come. However, instead of listening to her, he scolded her severely. From then on, she seemed to be completely disappointed in him and even stopped seeing him.
As the Inca king, he could not tolerate others betraying him. Normally, he would have imposed the harshest punishment on her. However, thinking about it now, he still felt that he should forgive her. She had persuaded him many times not to let him expand his territory, not to make him angry with Huascar, not to let him and Huascar turn against each other and kill each other. If he had listened to her, he wouldn't have ended up like this. In the past, his father always called her the "goddess of wisdom", but he always felt that she was saying goodbye to him. Now, he truly realized that she was indeed the goddess of wisdom in the Inca Empire. However, he was never willing to listen to her advice. This is his tragedy, her tragedy, and even the tragedy of the entire Inca kingdom.
At this time, perhaps because they heard the news, the princesses gathered around, waiting for the king's irritation and reprimand. Because every time a concubine made a mistake, the king would call the concubines together and reprimand the erring concubine in front of all the concubines, or even impose severe punishment on her. Although Queen Anna is not present at the moment, even if the king gets angry with them and calms down the princesses, it will make them feel better.
Seeing the king sitting on the bed in a daze, Princess Yina said, "Your Majesty, what should I do about this?"
Atahualpa had a gloomy face and asked Ina, "What do you think we should do?" Because the incident happened suddenly, he didn't know what to do.
Princess Ina said, "This matter is decided by the king." Because it was the queen who made the mistake, not the princess.
But what kind of decision can the king make? Atahualpa thought for a while and said very dejectedly, "Go and release Princess Gina. Let her follow that Inca scum."
Hearing the king say such words, Yi Na and the concubines around her were shocked and did not believe that the king said these words. Yina even said, "Does the king want to tolerate others and humiliate himself?"
The king waved his hand and said in a very sad tone, "My time on earth is short, let them go, and you all go too."
The concubines all knelt down and cried loudly, saying, "Even if we die in front of the king, we will never leave the king."
At this time, Spanish Captain Hernando came with Martin and waited outside the door of the meeting room. The king hurriedly washed up, had some food, came to the meeting room, sat on a chair next to the small table, and asked the prince guarding the door to let Hernando and Martin in.
Before Hernando could speak, the Inca King said in a very sad tone, "I decided to let Princess Gina go and let her go with the man she fell in love with."
Hernando and Martin were sitting on the small stool next to them, and they were both surprised when they heard what the Inca King said. Especially Martin, he couldn't believe his ears. He looked at the pessimistic Inca King in front of him for a long time, and he couldn't help but feel a trace of pity in his heart. He felt that this Inca King was actually quite pitiful, and he thought that he really shouldn't hurt him intentionally.
Hernando said sadly, "I'm not here to hear what you said about Princess Gina. I'm here to tell you that your queen, Anna Maya, escaped last night with the Marquis's secretary, Robert. Until now, we are still... Didn’t catch them.”
The Inca King asked in a very serious tone, "Why did she run away with your secretary?"
Hernando said, "You have to ask Queen Ana Maya about this. I heard that she is in love with Mr. Roberto."
The Inca King shook his head and said, "It's impossible, she won't fall in love with you. It's your behavior that makes her feel desperate."
Hernando said, "How do you say this?"
King Inca complained, "The gold in the treasury has long been full, even more than the gold I promised you, but you have refused to abide by the agreement and fulfill your promise, and you still refuse to let me leave here. , and your reinforcements are coming soon. She felt that not only would you not let me go, but you would kill me quickly. So, she left me." After that, he asked again, "Marquis When will you let me out? Mr. Hernando, you vouched for me at that time."
Hernando said, "Please don't worry, Your Majesty. I will go back and persuade the Marquis to let you go immediately."
The Inca King asked Haya to bring an exquisite gold plate from the kitchen, handed it to the captain, and said, "Mr. Hernando, please speak kindly in front of the Marquis."
Hernando took the gold plate and said, "Don't worry, Your Majesty, I will find a way to persuade the Marquis to give you your freedom." With that, he stood up to take Martin away.
The Inca King said to Hernando in a very earnest tone, "Then I will wait for your news." After saying that, he sent Hernando out of the meeting room.
As soon as the Spaniards left, Princess Gina entered the room, threw herself on the ground, and cried bitterly, "Your Majesty, don't believe the Spaniards. Martin has long told me that Mr. Marquis will not let the King go." , because as soon as the king comes out, he will lead the Inca army to attack them. They can't defeat the hundreds of thousands of Inca troops, so the king will die without a doubt. I think Queen Anna must have said this to you. .”
Atahualpa sighed silently and said to Princess Gina, "So, you got close to that Inca?"
Princess Gina cried and said, "Your Majesty, I was wrong and I was guilty, but I don't want to leave you."
The Inca King waved his hand and said, "Go, I won't live for a few more days. Go, I don't blame you, it's all my fault. I let the hateful white Spanish people capture me and make you all afraid with me." ." This was the first time that the Inca King admitted his mistake. However, in Inca history, the Inca King was almost a god and could never make any mistakes.
Seeing Princess Gina still kneeling on the ground, the king waved to her again and said, "Go, go. I don't need you here anymore."
Gina had no choice but to slowly get up from the ground and walk out of the meeting room.
Gina's words made the Inca king feel extremely desperate. He asked Haya to call Petera and wanted to meet Marquis Pizarro. However, after a while, Haya replied, "Petya is not here, but the number of Spaniards guarding the temple suddenly increased a lot."
Hearing these words, Atahualpa knew that his end was coming. He began to think about how to arrange his funeral arrangements.
In the afternoon, Hernando came to the meeting room with an angry look, which made the Inca king feel unlucky and his heart was beating with fear. He asked cautiously, "Have you told Mr. Marquis?"
Hernando sat on a small stool and said to the Inca King, "I want him to abide by his promise and agreement and let the king go immediately. However, the Marquis said that he is busy now and cannot take care of this matter. Wait until the gold is divided before releasing the king."
The Inca King softly said "Oh", but he knew that this was just Mr. Marquis's delaying strategy.
Hernando said to the king, "I can only ask the king to aggrieve me a little longer. It will only take twenty or thirty days until the gold is smelted into gold ingots and distributed. The Marquis promised me that he will keep his promise."
The Inca King said repeatedly, "Thank you Mr. Hernando."
