The Fall of the Golden Empire (Novel) (Volume 1) "Bloody Sunset" by Zhang Baotong
Almagro did the math and said, "Twenty thousand gold pesos are distributed to about two hundred people. The average is about one hundred gold pesos per person. It is too little, right? Besides, 20,000 gold pesos There is not much left except to repay debts, pay freight and buy daily necessities.”
But Pizarro said, "Your officers and soldiers did not participate in that dangerous battle, so the rewards they can get are not small. If they think it is too little, just tell them that when they get to Cusco, the gold over there will be more valuable." There will be much more than here, and then all the gold will be divided equally among everyone.”
Although Almagro felt that this result was difficult to satisfy the soldiers, the distribution power was not in his hands, so he could only look at their faces and obey their distribution. So, he let out a long sigh and said, "Okay, let's divide it according to your plan." However, he immediately raised a new question, "What about Luke's share of the income?"
Don Fernando de Luc was the priest of the Holy Church in Panama and the sponsor of this voyage and expedition. He paid 20,000 gold pesos in gold bars to Pizarro and Almagro's expeditionary force. With these funds, Pizarro and Almagro's teams could be established and the expedition could be implemented. In other words, without this funding and funds at the time, Pizarro and Almagro would not have been able to recruit troops and purchase equipment, let alone carry out an expedition. To this end, the three of them signed a contract as partners, that is, no matter what the expeditionary force obtained in the newly created area, such as territory, Indian life slaves, land, houses, real estate, treasures, and gold, silver, pearls, emeralds , diamonds, rubies and other properties, fiefs and titles, one-third of them shall be distributed unconditionally to Deluc, or his heirs and descendants, or the heirs and holders of this contract. Moreover, Pizarro and Almagro also promised Deluc in the contract that the three of them would be treated equally and benefit equally, including the benefits in exchange for their lives, trophies, and what they obtained in the above-mentioned Peruvian region. All benefits will be given to one-third of DeLuke truthfully and without any falsehood.
But Pizarro said, "Didn't Luke die not long after we started our expedition?" Pizarro said in a very regretful tone, "It was unlucky for him to not have this blessing, so this There is no need to give him a share of the property."
But Almagro said, "Although Luke is dead, the Espinoza priest is still alive and now living in Santo Domingo. In fact, he provided the funds for our expedition, and Luke Ke has also transferred the rights to him."
Pizarro said disapprovingly, "But our contract was signed with Luke, not with that Espinoza priest."
Almagro said, "But Luke must have handed over the contract to Padre Espinosa. In other words, Padre Espinosa is the holder of the contract. If he knew that we breached the contract, We will definitely file a lawsuit in court.”
Pizarro smiled and said, "Which court did he sue to? Which court can control us? To put it bluntly, even the King of Spain can't control us now, let alone a small colonial court? Okay, that's it It’s decided, Luke’s share of the property doesn’t need to be considered.”
As he spoke, he yawned and said very sleepily, "Okay, it's time for you to go back to sleep. I'm sleepy too. Go to bed early. We'll have to share the gold tomorrow morning." With that, he got up and saw Alma off. Gro went out, blew out the oil lamp, and returned to his room.
In the early morning, the sun had just emerged from the tall mountain peaks opposite. The bright and brilliant golden light illuminated Cajamarca in the mountains. The cool mountain wind blew in, bringing waves of comfortable coolness to people. The not-too-long road leading from the vault to Plaza de Armas was already densely packed with sentries. And the cavalry were using horses to carry gold and silver ingots. The gold ingot is 45 pounds per ingot, and the silver ingot is 90 pounds per ingot. They are tied tightly with ropes and placed on the horse one by one. The sun shines brightly on the gold and silver ingots. The soldiers couldn't hide their joy on their faces, and looked excitedly at the ingots of gold and silver.
Plaza de Armas, which was once filled with the corpses of Inca soldiers, was now filled with soldiers. The soldiers carrying gold and silver ingots sorted the gold and silver carried by the cavalry and placed them neatly in rows in the center of the square. In the center of the square, some soldiers and Indians were building a simple and small podium using stones and wood.
By the time all preparations were completed, it was already noon. At this time, a loud bugle sounded. All the Spanish soldiers ran to the square and lined up to gather. Three to four hundred people stood energetically in four rows. To the left of the rostrum was the team of Marquis Francisco Pizarro, and to the right was the team of General Almagro. The cavalry squadron stood at the front of the line, and the infantry squadron stood at the rear of the cavalry squadron. With the eagerness and urgency that their dreams are about to come true, they eagerly wait to reap the fruits of their victory and wait for their commander to announce the distribution plan of the reward. Because only a few officers knew the gold distribution plan, and the soldiers and junior officers did not know how much they could get. However, when they saw that all the gold and silver were cast into 45 pounds and 90 pounds of gold and silver ingots, they knew that their harvest would not be small.
Marquis Francisco Pizarro ascended the rostrum, flanked by General Almagro, Treasurer Riquelme and other royal officials. Perhaps this was a serious and prudent occasion, so he held his head high and looked very solemn. He glanced at the entire team with solemn and stern eyes, and then began to speak in a solemn and loud tone, "Brothers, officers and soldiers, you follow me and General Almagro from the distant Spanish homeland, not far away Thousands of miles away, we went through untold hardships and hardships to arrive in Cajamarca, where we experienced and started a great expedition together. Today, we have achieved a major victory in the expedition on the land where we stand. Very significant results have been achieved. To this end, I want to distribute to everyone the results of our joint efforts and battles.”
A burst of warm applause immediately broke out from the ranks of soldiers.
At this point, he began to say in a very pious and fearful tone, "In order to make this distribution fair and just, I ask God to assist me in making a fair and honest distribution, led by the Bishop Vicente de Barvi. The Abbé dei here supervises and requests the representatives of the King of Spain, the treasurer Riquelme, members of the royal family and other royal officials to act as overseers and notaries.”
There was another burst of warm applause from the team.
Pizarro took a breath and continued in a tone of explanation and emphasis, "In this assignment, although everyone is responsible for the same arduous and great cause, those who come first are trying to capture the Inca King alive and defeat the Inca army. They took some risks in the battles, sacrificed their lives, and moved forward bravely, and laid a very solid foundation for those who came later. Therefore, the rewards and rewards obtained by those who came first are different from those who came later. , because the spoils of war we are distributing today are the agreements signed between the conquered Inca kings and their conquerors. It can be said that they have nothing to do with the latecomers. Therefore, the latecomers can only benefit from the treasury and guardianship they served as The Inca King received the necessary rewards and remuneration for his work. However, please note to the soldiers who followed that Cusco was the gold capital of the Inca Empire. There was gold and silver everywhere, and the city was full of treasures. After the gold and silver were distributed , we will march to the city of Cusco together, where we will obtain much more gold, silver and treasures than here, and by then, all the gold, silver and treasures obtained will be equally distributed."
There was another burst of applause from the team, but only those soldiers who would receive a large amount of property were applauded, while those soldiers who could only receive meager rewards and remuneration from their garrison duties felt very disappointed. They immediately began to complain and be angry with each other in the team. Suddenly, there was commotion and confusion in the team.
Pizarro immediately asked Almagro to come out and rectify the situation. Almagro was also very angry with Pizarro, but in order to make this distribution work go smoothly, he still stood in front of his team and lectured the soldiers, "Keep your mouth shut." Shut it up, and I’ll talk about it later if you have any comments.”
The soldiers suddenly became quiet. In order to stop the commotion and noise among the soldiers, he gave an order loudly, saying, "If anyone violates discipline again, he will not only be exempted from his share, but will also be detained for three days."
After he finished speaking, all the soldiers fell silent, and no one dared to speak anymore.
Seeing that the soldiers were quiet, Pizarro asked Antonio to read out the distribution plan that he had slightly changed. Antonio did not announce in his reading how much of the total share of 1,200 pounds of gold and 24,000 pounds of silver should be given to Almagro and the soldiers he led. For this reason, Pizarro added, "The distribution of General Almagro and his soldiers will be distributed by General Almagro. It will no longer be announced and announced here."
In fact, Almagro himself was given gold and silver worth ten thousand gold pesos, while his officers and soldiers were given only twenty thousand gold pesos worth of property. These distributions will definitely be dissatisfied and complained by the officers and soldiers, so Pizarro felt it was inconvenient to announce them at this time.
Next, allocation begins. Pizarro asked Antonio to call the names of the officers and soldiers one by one according to their positions, and read out the allocated shares. Petera took several soldiers to distribute the gold and silver ingots according to the quotas read out. For both gold and silver were minted into ingots of gold and ingots of silver, and divided into equal parts. Each equal portion consists of a forty-five-pound gold ingot and a ninety-pound silver ingot. Therefore, it is very convenient to separate them.
The first name Antonio read out was that of Marquis Francisco Pizarro, commander of the Spanish Expeditionary Force. His share was 13 shares. That is, 13 gold ingots and 13 silver ingots, a share of 57,222 gold pesos, and 2,350 marks (230 grams per Spanish mark) of silver. In addition, he also received a large 183-pound seat made of pure gold from the Inca king, worth twenty-five thousand gold pesos. When Antonio read Pizarro's name and his share of gold and silver, several Spanish soldiers moved those items out of the stone room filled with gold and silver ingots. When these items were placed in front of the soldiers, everyone's eyes were wide open and they made sounds of admiration. When all these things were put away and arranged, Pizarro asked more than twenty Indian families led by Juan to help move them away.
The second name Antonio pronounced was Hernando Pizarro. Hernando walked out of the team and stood in front of the team waiting for the soldiers to move the gold and silver ingots he had received from the neatly arranged rows of gold and silver ingots. Of course, his income was only seven gold ingots and seven silver ingots, about 31,080 gold pesos, plus 2,350 marks of silver. After the soldiers carried out the items he had obtained, Hernando directed his slaves to carry them to his home on their shoulders. The next name was Soto, and his share was four, about seventeen thousand seven hundred and forty gold pesos and seven hundred and twenty-four marks in silver. Next, Juan and Gonzalo's income is 3 shares.
Further down are the names of the sixty cavalrymen. Each of them received twice as much as the other infantrymen, that is, two shares. Each of them received 8,880 gold pesos and 360 silver pesos. Two marks. Because in the battle to defeat the Incas, the Spanish horses actually played a vital role. Because the Incas had never seen a horse, many of them regarded such tall and rideable horses as sacred objects, and I was frightened out of my mind by the neighing and galloping of this divine creature. Therefore, the cavalry deserved a larger share.
Next is the distribution of infantry. Each of them received a share of gold and silver ingots. Each received 4,440 gold pesos and 180 marks of silver. Then, all the soldiers stationed at the colony of San Miguel received only fifteen thousand gold pesos. It can be said that this number is really pitiful. Some of the soldiers who stayed behind gave up halfway due to injuries or lack of willpower in the early stages of the expedition and returned to San Miguel, but they have been dutifully defending the military strongholds on the seaside. However, they still lost the right to fight for more property because they failed to participate in that battle. In addition, they gave Saint Francisco, the first new Christian church in Peru, two thousand two hundred and twenty gold pesos. This number is also very pitiful.
