The Fall of the Golden Empire (Novel) (Volume 1) "Bloody Sunset" by Zhang Baotong
In that stone room called the treasury, the gold objects in the room have been replaced by gold ingots. The gold ingots were not small, each weighing almost forty-five pounds. They shone with a very attractive light and were placed in rows all over the ground. Seeing the room full of glittering gold ingots, Almagro was so surprised that his heart felt like it would jump out of his chest. He kept saying to Pizarro, "Oh, I have never seen so much gold! I am not dreaming!"
Pizarro said disapprovingly, "It doesn't matter. When you get to Cusco, I think you will faint from surprise."
When Almagro heard this, he said, "Really? That's great."
As he spoke, Almagro picked up a gold ingot with both hands, looked at it, and kept looking at it for a long time. Then he couldn't help but sigh and said to Pizarro, "In Spain, if a person has fifty dollars, he can live A good year. It can be imagined that if a person has a piece of gold of this size, it is equivalent to having four to five thousand gold pesos. And one gold peso is sixteen dollars and sixty-seven cents. It is conceivable that a person has If you pay four to five thousand gold pesos, what kind of wealthy family must that be!"
Pizarro felt very funny when he saw Almagro making such a fuss, but he said, "But no soldier will be satisfied with just having a gold ingot like this. Haven't you seen them gambling? They often gamble?" Every win and every loss is worth a gold plate or a gold cup, at least one or two hundred gold pesos, which is enough for a family to live a good life for decades."
Almagro shook his head and said, "I haven't seen it before. I often see my soldiers gambling. They only gamble for one or half a gold peso at most."
Pizarro smiled and said, "You can see it when you get to Cusco."
Almagro carefully put down the gold ingot he held and said, "Yeah, maybe it will be different when they have more gold in their hands."
After leaving the hut where the gold ingots were placed, they entered two smaller stone huts nearby. The light in the two smaller stone houses was very dark, but the whole room was shining with white silver light. Almagro walked to the rows of neatly arranged silver ingots and saw that these silver ingots were obviously much larger than gold ingots. Almagro first exclaimed in surprise, "Oh my God!" Then he tried to move the silver ingot to see how heavy it would be. But he just moved the silver ingot, but failed to lift it, so he said, "This is much heavier than the gold ingot."
Pizarro said to him, "The gold ingot weighs 45 pounds, but this silver ingot weighs 90 pounds. It is naturally much heavier than the gold ingot."
Almaguer sighed and said, "This place not only has more gold, but also more silver."
"This is God's gift to us," Pizarro said.
After the two people came out of the treasury and bank room, they were walking back. Almagro asked Pizarro coldly, "By the way, I heard that you have made a distribution plan for dividing up gold and silver. I wonder how much my subordinates and I can get from this gold and silver?"
Pizarro was suddenly stopped by this question. He thought for a while and said, "Why, you didn't do any effort at all, didn't take any risks, and you still want gold? Don't forget, these golds are for us to risk our lives." Earned by danger.”
Almagro was obviously prepared for this question and immediately said, "However, our soldiers participated in protecting this batch of gold and silver, and also helped you protect the Inca King. There is no big credit, at least there are some small ones." You can't say that you don't get even a little bit of harvest and reward for your contribution, right? And I have an agreement with you. No matter what, as long as it is all income, I should get the same one-third share as you."
Pizarro knew that Almagro was not an easy person to deal with, and felt that it was pointless to argue with him alone at this time, and he might not be able to gain the upper hand, so he said, "I can't do this alone." , let’s wait until the meeting to discuss it, as long as everyone agrees to share the gold and silver with your soldiers, I personally will have no objection.”
Almagro asked, "This matter is always discussed in meetings, but I never see you mention it in the weekly meetings."
Pizarro said, "The gold has just been refined. What's the hurry? I still have to prepare and discuss a distribution plan."
After hearing this, Almagro didn't feel like saying anything more. Pizarro was afraid that Almagro would be displeased, so he patted his partner's shoulder affectionately and said in a comforting tone, "I don't care if others tell the difference, but I can't ignore you, brother."
These words made Almagro somewhat happy, because although he wanted to fight for his soldiers, what he considered most was himself.
As soon as the two of them reached the shed where the gold was cast, Soto and Hernando walked towards them together. Soto walked up to Pizarro, first saluted with a military salute, and then said, "Marquis, the Inca king heard that we were smelting gold, and once again asked Hernando and I to strongly demand that you fulfill your promise and comply with the agreement, immediately Release him."
Pizarro frowned and immediately replied, "What right does he have to ask for his release? He hasn't paid enough gold yet." These words made Soto and Hernando stunned, and even the man next to him was stunned. Almagro looked at him with great surprise.
It took Soto a long time to reply, "The gold is not full, why would the Marquis order the casting of gold ingots?"
Hernando was also very dissatisfied with Pizarro's words and said, "My second brother, people have to keep their word. Atahualpa is really sincere to us, so we can't do anything too impractical."
Pizarro seemed very disgusted with Soto and very angry with Hernando, so he said, "You didn't see that I was accompanying General Almagro on an inspection. Can we wait until we have time to talk about this?"
Seeing the commander's gloomy and displeased expression, Soto quickly retreated and left.
After the inspection, the two returned to their own rooms. At this time, Pizarro was still thinking about the question Almagro had just raised. This question put him in a dilemma. If Almagro was to be given gold to the soldier, not to mention himself, even all his officers and soldiers would not agree. However, if they are not given points, it will cause mutual barriers and conflicts. So, this question really left him wondering what to do.
Thinking of this, he rode his horse to Juan's private compound. The Indian man guarding the door bowed to him very respectfully, led his horse to a tree and tied it, and led him into the house.
At this time, someone had called the Indian butler. The butler bowed to Pizarro and said, "Your Majesty, Marquis, the master is not at home. These days, because gold is smelted in the treasury and the supervision of the Inca King is tightened, the master often lives in the military camp day and night, rarely. Time comes back.”
Seeing that Juan was not there, Pizarro said to the Indian steward, "Go and find Juan, and ask him to call me Hernando, Gonzalo and Soto."
The butler said, "Yes, Your Majesty the Marquis." He was about to leave.
Pizarro immediately said to the steward sternly, "Don't let anyone know about this."
The butler said, "Yes, Your Majesty the Marquis."
After the butler left, Pizarro walked towards a very exquisitely built room. After taking a bath in the Inca bath that time, Juan saw that his second brother was attracted to the young and beautiful Indian woman, so he specially prepared this room for his second brother in his residential compound and put that room there. The woman was arranged in this room as the second brother's concubine, so that the second brother could come here from time to time for leisure and trysts. Pizarro usually takes the time to come and stay here for a night after a few days. However, recently, because gold is being smelted in the treasury, the entire Spanish army is on high alert, so he rarely comes here again.
He knocked on the door, and it opened quickly. A young and beautiful Inca woman rushed over, hugged his neck, and shouted affectionately, "Your Majesty, my master, why are you so long?" No time left?"
Pizarro said, "I've been too busy lately to take care of her." As he said that, he hugged the woman on the bed and kissed her desperately, "My little pigeon, she really misses me."
The woman said coquettishly, "You miss me, why haven't you come yet?" Then she began to undress the Marquis.
The two were intimate for a while, and Pizarro felt a little tired, so he fell asleep in a daze. But while he was peacefully dreaming, the woman woke him up and said, "My master, the meal is ready. Please get up and eat."
Pizarro sat up lazily and let the woman dress him. Then, he kissed the woman again before leaving the room.
When he arrived at the main lobby where Juan lived, he saw Soto and his three brothers already sitting at the dining table waiting for him. He took a breath and said, "You are all here."
All four captains stood up and said, "Marquis, please take your seat."
Pizarro was not polite. He sat on the seat and said, "Everyone, please have a seat." Then after everyone sat down, he picked up a glass of wine and said to everyone, "Come on, let's have a drink first."
Everyone raised their glasses, clinked them with him, and drank them all in one gulp. After drinking a glass of wine, everyone began to eat the food. At this time, Pizarro said, "The gold has been smelted. I invite you here today because I want to discuss the gold and silver distribution plan with you."
When everyone heard this, they all put down their knives and forks and listened attentively, because this is a major event that everyone is very concerned about.
Seeing that everyone was listening to him, he was a little overwhelmed, so he said in a very calm and consultative tone, "What do you think about the distribution?"
However, everyone did not know the amount of gold and silver and the number of people to distribute it, and they all felt that this matter was not something they should consider, so they never seriously thought about this issue. When the Marquis asked, everyone was confused for a moment. I do not know what to say.
After a while, Juan said, "We don't know much about these things. Why don't you, second brother, just settle the matter as you say?"
Gonzalo also agreed with Juan's proposal. Seeing that both Juan and Gonzalo had expressed their opinions, Hernando and Soto nodded in agreement.
Pizarro saw that everyone expressed their intention to let him make the decision, so he took out a distribution plan for everyone to see. Hernando and Soto were both literate people, and they knew at a glance that this was the distribution plan drawn up by Roberto. Pizarro also told everyone, "This is not my personal opinion, but Robert's original plan."
