The Fall of the Golden Empire (Novel) (Volume 1) "Bloody Sunset" by Zhang Baotong
Seeing that everyone was silent, Pizarro said, "Do you have anything else to say?" Several ensigns asked Pizarro, "Marquis, when will you distribute the gold? When you recruited us? But someone said before that everyone should share the hardships and share the blessings. Now that there is so much gold in the treasury, it’s time to share it with us, right?”
A lieutenant also said, "There is so much gold in the treasury now. If one day the Inca army really comes to attack us, by then, I am afraid that everyone will not be able to win, so how can we care about the gold? So, why not Divide the gold early, and let each person protect and keep his own gold, so as not to have so many people standing guard all day long. Moreover, once the gold is robbed or occupied by the Inca army, then the Marquis will be afraid of it. The adults cannot afford it and cannot explain it to everyone."
Juan also shouted, "Second brother, divide the gold so that everyone can capture the city of Cusco."
Gonzalo couldn't help shouting, "Second brother, divide the gold quickly. There is more gold waiting for us in Cusco. If we don't divide the gold, we can't go to Cusco." , and if we go one day later, more of the gold in Cusco will be hidden by the locals. Therefore, the soldiers in our team are eagerly waiting to distribute the gold, and then rush to Cusco quickly .”
Soto also said, "Two days ago, the soldiers in our team were clamoring to come to the Marquis together to demand that the gold be distributed as soon as possible. I advised them that you can't come together to make trouble with the Marquis. This will mess up the matter and make the Marquis unhappy. , I can raise this matter with the Marquis at the weekly meeting on behalf of everyone."
Listening to this, Pizarro couldn't help but frowned. He only knew that the soldiers and officers were asking for a share of the gold, but he didn't hear that the soldiers wanted to cause trouble. He knew that soldiers making trouble was a very serious matter, and would either be exploited by the Incas or hurt themselves. Therefore, he felt that this motive must be curbed as soon as possible, and the best way to curb this motive was to quickly Divide the gold quickly. But this is good. After dividing the gold, the gold can be kept by the soldier himself. He no longer has to send people on duty and worry about protecting the treasury.
However, before Pizarro could make the final decision, Almagro also supported Pizarro and said, "I say, man, let's divide the gold and save it from being piled up in that house all day long and making people worry about it. If something happens again, I'm afraid the soldiers will eat you alive and bury you alive."
Because he had asked Pizarro several times about dividing the gold, but Pizarro was always secretive and vague. Therefore, Almagro never knew what Pizarro's attitude was, so he took advantage of the situation and forced him to Pizarro made it clear.
I saw that everyone was eagerly clamoring to share the gold. Pizarro felt that he could no longer hesitate at this moment, because he felt that he should do something that would support and inspire the soldiers, but not something that would make the officers and soldiers angry and resentful. Otherwise, his prestige as a commander would be compromised. You will be questioned and confronted by everyone. Especially for Robert's departure, he heard some people say that he was forced to leave by the Pizarro brothers. Once this kind of discussion becomes a rumor, it will be very detrimental to the Pizarro Brotherhood. It will make people think that the Pizarro brothers are trying to be kings and tyrants in the Spanish Expeditionary Force. Therefore, if they divide the gold, If it doesn't go with the public opinion, it will be easy to connect Robert's departure with the issue of dividing the gold. He must use the issue of dividing the gold to reunite the officers and soldiers and draw their attention to the city of Cusco. side.
So, after thinking for a while, he said in a very encouraging tone, "Since everyone is eager to share the gold, well, let Martin find some goldsmiths tomorrow and melt all the gold in the vault into a certain size. and gold ingots of a certain purity. Then, we will make a distribution plan and distribute the gold to everyone."
As he spoke, he pointed at Juan and Soto and said, "Starting from tomorrow, all your teams will be assigned to the treasury and smelting department to take turns on duty and stand guard." Before he finished speaking, the entire venue was stunned. There was warm and excited applause.
The smelting of gold began on one day in June 1533. This morning, the troops from Juan and Soto's squadron, plus the troops from Hernando's squadron that was originally guarding the treasury, and the troops from Pizarro's four squadrons, there were already three squadrons with more than 100 people guarding the perimeter of the treasury. . Sentries are scattered hundreds of meters around the treasury. Those officers and soldiers who have just arrived here with Almagro and other unauthorized persons are not allowed to enter. Moreover, there are separate posts in front of the treasury door and around the smelting furnace. There is a tighter guard.
In the stone room that once held the Inca king and was called the treasury or salvation house by Spain, the gold piled up had already exceeded the red line drawn by Atahualpa's finger. Marquis Pizarro asked Soto and Captain Hernando to lead some soldiers to move the gold objects out of the stone house, while he stood on the lawn in front of the door and selected some exquisite gold objects as tributes to the King of Spain and queen. Because everything they did in the New World was supervised by royal personnel, and the King of Spain controlled their destiny and wealth. Therefore, when they obtained so much gold, they had to choose some fine products as tribute to the king and queen. As long as they satisfy the king and queen, they will be protected by the king and queen even if they have some violations of laws or regulations or are excessively reckless.
Most of these gold objects include various types of wine glasses, kettles, trays, bottles and mirrors, as well as various gold sculptures of animals, plants and women, gold tables, chairs and weapons, as well as items from temples and public buildings. Among the gold bricks, gold foils and gold plates that were dismantled from the building, the most amazing and surprising thing is a kind of gold corn. Golden corn is wrapped in broad silver leaves, hanging from the broad leaves, and countless tassels are also made of gold. There is also a fountain that spurts out a dazzling stream of gold, and there are some golden birds and animals playing in the water at the bottom of the spring, which is also breathtaking.
Of course, there are also many fine carvings and wonderful gold craftsmanship, which show the Inca's superb skills in casting gold. However, for these ornaments, gold objects or art treasures cast by generations of Inca artists, what Marquis Pizarro, who was born as a swineherd, really saw and valued was the gold content of the gold objects, not its artistic value. Therefore, among the mountains of gold objects, Pizarro saw few things that interested him. So, he just selected some wine glasses and gold plates for the king and queen. Because these products contain more gold and are heavier. He thought their king and queen would be delighted.
Martin found a group of goldsmiths among the Incas. These craftsmen set up several sheds in the open space in front of the treasury. There was already a blazing fire in the furnace under the shed. Some Indian goldsmiths with bare backs and shorts were adding firewood to the furnace while blowing on thick reed pipes. Other Indians lifted the gold objects that Pizarro had selected and put them into a large refining container.
The furnace was facing the wind outlet, and the mountain wind blew in, blowing the fire in the furnace even more fiercely. The fierce fire heated the air more than ten meters away. The billowing smoke sometimes rises slowly like accumulated fog, and sometimes scatters like floating clouds.
Smelting gold requires very high temperatures, so it sometimes takes several hours to smelt a furnace of gold. The refined gold is poured into molds of the same size. Due to the backward casting process, the weight of the gold ingots coming out of each mold is actually not exactly the same. But they all use the average weight of forty-five pounds as the standard. Because this was stipulated by the Marquis of Pizarro according to the distribution plan drawn up before Robert left.
Not far from the smelting furnace, more than a dozen soldiers led by Gonzalo were organizing a group of strong Indian men to use llamas to carry thick trees here from the mountains not far away. The trees were felled with axes by dozens of Indian lumberjacks in a large forest not far from the valley.
This scene of smelting and felling goes on day and night, especially at night. The blazing fire of smelting gold almost lights up most of the sky, and can be seen even dozens of miles away. The Indian goldsmiths were so tired from working day and night that they fell asleep by the stove under the shed, but after a while, someone woke them up. But those Spanish soldiers had been on guard for a day. They were tired and sleepy, so they found a wooden board in the warm area of the smelting shed and took turns to sleep for a while holding their guns. When he was hungry, he put the hard corn tortillas next to the fire to bake for a while, then chewed the dried llama meat.
Although they are very hardworking and sleepy standing guard all day long, when they see more and more shiny gold ingots being placed in front of their eyes, they feel the glory, wealth and beauty they have longed for. The wish immediately appeared before their eyes, making them elated and excited.
After about a month of smelting and casting, the gold objects in the stone house called the "treasury" and the silverware in the two huts were all hammered into gold ingots of the same size by the Indian goldsmiths. Silver ingot. One morning after the smelting was completed, Pizarro took Almagro to the smelting plant for inspection at Almagro's request. Originally, Pizarro did not want to bring this partner here for inspection at all, because he set up many sentries around the area and did not allow Almagro's soldiers to enter the smelting site and access the vault. However, Almagro asked him many times. As a partner, he felt that it was not easy to hide it from Almagro. The more he concealed, the easier it would be to make people suspicious, so he had to take Almagro with him. Magro comes here.
