The Fall of the Golden Empire (Novel) (Volume 1) "Bloody Sunset" by Zhang Baotong
It was just dark when Pizarro returned to his room. The Inca Princess had already prepared the meal. He ate the meal in two mouthfuls, lit a cigarette, and while smoking, he recalled the distribution instructions that Antonio had drafted for him just now, and muttered something about practicing for the night. Speeches during meetings.
After a while, everyone in the meeting arrived, and Antonio came to call him. He then got up from the stool and went out to the office. Seeing him coming in, everyone immediately became quiet. Pizarro walked to his chair, but he did not sit down. Instead, he stood in front of the table and glanced at the attendees with a serious look. From his eyes and expression, everyone felt the importance and difference of this meeting, so the venue was so quiet that you could hear a hair falling.
Pizarro breathed out softly and said in a slow and solemn tone, "Generals and officers of the Spanish Expeditionary Force, today I inspected the smelting site with General Almagro. To this end, I want to tell you something The good news: our gold and silver smelting operations have come to a successful end."
The venue immediately burst into warm and inspiring applause.
Pizarro added, "Now that the smelting of gold and silver has ended, the distribution of gold and silver will begin."
A burst of more enthusiastic applause interrupted Pizarro's speech.
Pizarro had to stop, wait for the applause to stop, and continued to preach, "Since we want to distribute, we must first formulate a distribution plan. To this end, I solicited opinions extensively among the officers and soldiers and considered various In terms of factors, let me first inform you of the principle of this distribution, that is, the distribution will be strictly based on the merits of capturing the Inca King alive and defeating the Inca army. In other words, whoever made the greater contribution to this battle will get the reward. The more; on the contrary, whoever contributes less to this battle will have a smaller reward. Without merit, there will be no rewards and rewards."
These words were obviously directed specifically at the officers and soldiers of Almagro. Because he made this adjustment certain, Almagro's officers and soldiers no longer had the right to ask for rewards and remuneration, so the gold and silver could not be distributed to them on this basis.
Of course, the officers and soldiers present could understand what the commander said, so as soon as he finished speaking, the venue burst into prolonged applause. Because most of the lieutenants who could attend this meeting were from Pizarro, and not many people from Almagro came to the meeting.
Before Almagro's people could raise objections, Pizarro asked Antonio to read to everyone the "Ransom Distribution Order" drafted by Robert and signed by Treasurer Riquelme.
After Antonio finished reading, the venue was silent for a few seconds. Almagro stood up from his chair and asked Pizarro loudly, "Why are there no people from us in the distribution plan? Are we? Are all the people working for you free of charge?”
Pizarro saw that Almagro's face had changed with anger, and he was questioning him in a noisy way, so he replied with the words he had already thought of, "When a hundred and sixty of us are facing the Inca Where were you at that critical moment when the king's 80,000-strong army was defeated? If it weren't for God's blessing and the soldiers' bravery and resourcefulness, we might have met God long ago. Now we have captured the Inca King alive, defeated the Inca army, and got You are all jealous of some gold and silver property and want to get a handful of it, are you saying this?"
Almagro was also a rough man. When Pizarro said this, he felt that he was in the right but not the upper hand. When he got anxious, he shouted impulsively, "Put down my subordinates first. I'm with you." You are a partner. When you brought me into partnership, there was an agreement and signature. It clearly stipulates that you and Luke will each have a one-third share. That is, I will get as much as you share, but you Why is there no share for me in this distribution plan?”
This issue is obviously an issue that cannot be doubted or discussed. Of course, Pizarro could not avoid it, but he said, "Although you are my partner, you have not the slightest confidence in capturing the Inca king alive and defeating the Inca army." Why should you share the same rewards and remuneration with me for your merits and deeds without any hard work? I hold my head high and engage in a life-and-death contest with the Inca King, but you are far away from the battlefield in Panama. What reason do you have to be equal to me? If you have an equal seat, you will get equal pay for no work?”
Almagro was a little overwhelmed by Pizarro's words, so he argued squeakingly, "But that's how our negotiation was written, without any conditions."
Pizarro felt that Almarro's personal matters were still negotiable. No matter what, he felt that it was still difficult to violate the original agreement, mainly because he could not offend Almagma. Offending Almagro will cause a split between the two teams, which will affect the grand cause he envisioned. So, he said to Almagro, "We will discuss your matter later, or we should discuss the distribution of your officers and soldiers first." Then, he asked, "Do you have any good suggestions?"
Almagro said, "You captured the King of the Incas alive and defeated the Inca army. It can be said that your hard work is great and you can share more, but you can't say that we will not give some to our officers and soldiers. How can this show that we are a family? ?”
Then, one of Almagro's captains stood up and shouted, "In that case, why did you have to call us over? If we knew you were doing this, we might as well start over and do our own thing to save you." We live here under the fence and let you treat us like monkeys."
The Spaniards in Cajamarca were very dissatisfied with Almagro bringing his troops here. They felt that they were just here to rob them of their spoils and fruits of labor. Therefore, when they heard what the captain said, they immediately became dissatisfied. He shouted at the captain. Immediately, Hernando stood up and asked the captain just now, "Who invited you here? You think we can't do anything without you, right? Make no mistake, without you, Not only did we defeat the Inca army, we also captured the Inca king alive. Now that we have the Inca king, we can say that he can match ten of your teams. We only need to let the Inca king say a word, the gold of Cusco and the entire Inca empire You have to move to us. Even Chalcuchima, the most famous commander of the Inca Army, followed us from Haoha to Cajamarca obediently without us having to shoot a single shot. If you don’t want to rely on others, The sea and sky are vast outside, and you can choose to go anywhere to be self-reliant and achieve your goals."
Pizarro turned blue with anger after hearing this. In order to teach Hernando a lesson, and to stop this mood and tendency of division and internal strife, he immediately slammed the table and shouted to Hernando, "Captain Hernando, I order you to keep your mouth shut. You are not allowed to speak until I give you an order."
Pizarro's words not only shocked Hernando and others, but also shocked some people in Almagro. The venue was silent for at least two or three minutes, with no one saying a word.
A second lieutenant under Almagro broke the silence first and said in a critical and indignant tone, "Although we did not participate in the battle to capture the Inca King alive and attack the Inca army, we did participate in guarding the Inca King, and even Participating in guarding the treasury, doesn’t this even count as a little bit of credit?”
This question is a very simple and direct question, and it is also a question that no one can deny or cover up. Therefore, no one defends or debates the question, but no one affirms or answers the question. Therefore, there was a quiet pause and pause in the venue.
Seeing that everyone was sitting quietly and not speaking, Pizarro felt that the plans just mentioned could not be decided through discussion at the meeting, so it was meaningless to continue the meeting. , then said, "Since everyone still has objections to some of the provisions of the plan, especially regarding whether the officers and soldiers led by General Almagro should also receive some rewards and remuneration, and how much they should be divided, there is no clear plan yet. . So, I think this meeting will end here today. Please consider and deliberate on some of the provisions and contents of the distribution plan. We will continue the meeting to discuss it tomorrow night." After that, the meeting was adjourned.
After everyone had left, only Almagro remained because he had to ask Pizarro to answer two questions. Otherwise, he would not be able to sleep even if he went back, and he would not be able to explain to his officers and soldiers. It just so happened that Pizarro also wanted to talk to him again so that the distribution plan could be finalized as soon as possible and the next step could be carried out after dividing the property.
The two sat across from each other at the table, Pizarro kept smoking, and Almagro had not yet learned to smoke, so he could only smell the smoke that Pizarro puffed out. Pizarro looked at Almagro, smiled knowingly and said, "What else do you want to say?"
Almagro said bluntly, "One is my own share, and the other is the income of my soldiers. You must give me a clear answer to these two questions."
Pizarro was silent, smoking slowly, and after a long time, he said, "I will only give you four thousand gold pesos, which is more than fifty thousand US dollars, and I will give each of your soldiers five gold pesos, which is about eighty US dollars." US dollars. You should be satisfied, right?"
When Almagro heard this, he gritted his teeth and said, "Are you sending beggars away?" Then he asked, "How many gold pesos do you get for yourself? According to the plan, you get thirteen shares, and each share counts as four For fourteen hundred gold pesos, you get fifty-seven thousand gold pesos, which is equivalent to more than one million U.S. dollars. There is also a lot of silver and the Inca throne, which is nearly thirty thousand gold pesos at least. You only gave me four thousand gold pesos, and these earnings are not even as good as one of your soldiers, so do you think I can still be considered your partner?"
Pizarro said, "Okay, I won't argue with you anymore. Can I give you ten thousand gold pesos? However, I will still give you four thousand gold pesos in the open account. The six thousand gold pesos I assigned it to you through a secret account. No one can know about this. You should be satisfied, right?"
Almagro knew that there would be no results in arguing with Pizarro, so he had no choice but to nod in agreement. But he said, "The number of our soldiers allocated is too small and we must increase it."
Pizarro gritted his teeth and said, "I will give you 20,000 gold pesos to divide as you wish."
