The Fall of the Golden Empire (Novel) (Volume 1) "Bloody Sunset" by Zhang Baotong
The two of them were talking and returned to the military camp unconsciously. Pizarro was not there, so Antonio put the things he bought in the office, thinking of finding a place to have a good gamble with the guys. At this time, he was almost too busy day and night to take any time off. He hadn't tried his luck for a week or two, and his hands and heart were extremely itchy.
He came to the private house where Letomundo lived, but the housekeeper said that he went out, possibly to Santos' home. So, Antonio came to Santos' house. Santos' home is only 200 meters away from Letomundo's home, so it takes less than a few minutes to get there.
As soon as we entered the lobby of Santos' house, there were thirty or forty people gathered in the room. Antonio knew that because all the gold in the treasury was divided, there was no need for anyone to guard it, so the soldiers had more free time. In addition, after the gold and silver had just been divided, everyone had a lot of money, so they gathered together. Played gambling. However, in the past, three or five people gathered together for gambling, and they were all close buddies. How could Santos recruit so many people today? And there are many people I don’t even know. This made him feel somewhat puzzled.
At this time, when the Indian butler saw him coming, he bowed respectfully, pointed to an empty table in the corner, and said to him, "Mr. Antonio, please sit here."
Antonio looked over there and saw two or three soldiers brought by Almagro sitting there waiting for people to come and play gambling together. Antonio saw that Santos was busy playing with Juan, Gonzalo and Letomundo at the middle table, and it was not easy to disturb them, so he came over, sat at the table in the corner of the room, and asked the man next to him The two of them said, "How big are you playing?"
The two people said, "You say it."
Antonio said, "Then deposit two gold pesos at a time."
The two people showed some disdain and said, "If you ask anyone here, who can play with two gold pesos, at least five bases." The five outer bases are the base number of five gold pesos.
Antonio was surprised by this, because he knew that each of these new soldiers only had about a hundred gold pesos, but they would bet at least five bottoms as soon as they opened their mouths. This was not just trying to be flattering. Antonio shook his head and said, "There's no need to bet so much."
The two people said, "Forget it if you don't play."
Antonio had no choice but to come to Santos' side. Seeing that they were about to start rolling the dice, he squeezed in between them and said, "I'll add one too."
Santos said, "Okay, you go down."
Antonio said, "I'd better place two bottoms."
Santos clucked his teeth and said, "It's been a dynasty and you still bet two bottoms. We'll bet at least fifty bottoms."
Antonio only had about twenty gold pesos in his pocket, which was not even enough to make a small deposit. Seeing his embarrassed look, Juan said, "Okay, you'd better find the new people to play with."
The term "newcomer" is very popular among soldiers. It is usually used as a synonym for moneyless and poor people. It has a somewhat mocking meaning, so it sounds unpleasant to people.
But people are poor and have short ambitions, so Antonio can only find those new people to play with. So, he returned to the table in the corner of the room and said to the two people, "Five is five." So, without any extra words, everyone started to fight.
At this time, the butler saw that they were starting to play, so he said to them, "Each person pays five gold pesos."
Antonio was even more confused and asked the butler, "Why do you have to pay five gold pesos?"
The soldier next to him threw five gold pesos to the butler and smiled at Antonio, "How can I not pay for playing cards in someone else's poker room?" Only then did Antonio realize that Santos started his business here. to the casino.
After paying five gold pesos and having just played two games, Martin came. When he saw Antonio, he said, "The Marquis is looking for you everywhere. You said you started playing here."
Antonio asked Martin, "What do you want from me?"
Martin said, "I don't know. Looking at the anxious look on the Marquis, it must be something urgent."
Antonio frowned, stood up reluctantly, and said to Martin, "Come and play, I'll go over and have a look." After that, he got up and went out, riding back to the military camp.
Pizarro was sitting in the headquarters office, looking at the map and smoking hard. It turned out that Pizarro asked the bishop to draw him a map leading to Cusco, but Robert took the map away. So, Pizarro asked the bishop to draw another one for him. However, this map is obviously not as detailed and detailed as the original one. To draw the map, the bishop visited many Indians who had been to Cusco and revised it several times. And this map is just based on memories. When the Marquis saw Antonio coming, he said, "Write a speech for me. There will be an emergency meeting tonight."
Antonio sat at the table, laid out the manuscript paper, picked up the pen, and asked, "Marquis, tell me."
Pizarro said, "According to reliable information, Quito garrison commander Ruminawi has led 80,000 Inca soldiers and 30,000 cannibalistic barbarians from Quito and is heading towards Cajamarca. Request All officers and soldiers must be on high alert, and then the Inca King Atahualpa must be detained alone and must not allow him to meet with the princes and ministers again.”
Antonio immediately said, "These words are all rumors, and the Marquis need not take them to heart. Because these words have been circulating in the barracks for a long time, but nothing happened."
Of course Pizarro knew that this news was just a rumor, but he just wanted to use this rumor to make some articles. Because he had already divided the gold in the treasury among the officers and soldiers. In this case, he had no reason to continue to imprison the Inca King. This would make people think that the Spaniards did not keep their word, and that Pizarro did not keep his promise. However, he could not release the Inca King. If he released the Inca King, it would be like letting the tiger return to the mountain. The Inca King would definitely lead troops to attack them. Although they already numbered three to four hundred people, they were not at an advantage in a battle with tens of thousands of Inca troops. Therefore, he had to find a way to continue to imprison the Inca king and prevent him from contacting the outside world and assigning his troops to attack them. So, he said to Antonio in a very serious and stubborn tone, "There is no smoke without fire. This is not a rumor. It's just that Luminawi has always been coming but has not come. Now it is really coming. Therefore, we must be on guard."
Antonio asked, "Is this the main content of your speech?"
Pizarro nodded and said, "This matter should be used as an example to attract everyone's attention. Of course, the main thing is to talk about our current situation, our current tasks, and what we have to do. As an expeditionary force Officers who have no idea about our current situation, tasks and direction of progress, and only know how to gamble and play with women all day long, is that okay? Therefore, we must give them lectures and hammer on them from time to time, so that they can make progress and understand the situation. and a clearer insight and understanding of the mission.”
In fact, the Marquis of Pizarro was illiterate and did not need a speech script when speaking. But every time before a more important meeting, he asked someone to write a speech for him, write out his meaning in an orderly manner, read it to him, then revise it, and read it to him again. In this way, he felt that his speech would appear more organized and focused, so that officers and soldiers with little education would feel that his speech was of a high standard and worthy of respect.
Antonio felt that the Marquis seemed to be a little crazy and was complaining without any reason. He was obviously in a good situation, but he insisted on treating some rumors and rumors as serious things to make everyone nervous. Therefore, he was very reluctant to write such a manuscript, so he just made it up according to the Marquis's wishes and handed in the job, because he was still thinking about going to Santos' house to gamble.
However, he gave the manuscript to the Marquis for a read, but the Marquis was very dissatisfied and asked him to rewrite it. He had no choice but to start writing according to the Marquis's ideas again, and solemnly wrote in the manuscript what the Marquis liked to say and what he liked to hear. After thinking about it again, the Marquis felt much more satisfied.
In the evening, the headquarters held a meeting of officers above lieutenant. Pizarro first talked about the current situation and tasks according to the speech written by Antonio, and talked about the continued creation of the great cause of the expeditionary force and the important historical mission. Finally, he turned to the Quito garrison commander Ruminawi, who attempted to lead more than 100,000 troops towards Cajamarca to rescue the imprisoned Inca king. Moreover, many soldiers had already gathered in Bambamarca, preparing to Connect with Luminavi. Therefore, he proposed that Atahualpa be placed in solitary confinement and that he should no longer have contact with his ministers and family.
However, as soon as he finished speaking, Soto immediately disagreed. He said, "Does the Marquis believe too much in rumors and rumors? These rumors and rumors are nothing more than spread by Martin and his like in the military camp. Isn't the purpose Take revenge on Atahualpa, because not only has he kept the concubine named Gina in confinement, but he has also been asking you to severely punish him. Therefore, I think the Marquis should distinguish right from wrong and not be taken advantage of by villains."
As he spoke, Soto continued to emphasize, "I don't think King Inca committed much crime. Moreover, he has been helpful and harmless to us since his arrest. If the Marquis insists on saying that King Inca is guilty, he should also be punished." He was taken to Spain, where the king would judge and deal with him. He should not be dealt with at will by the marquis."
Pizarro was very angry and disgusted with Soto's words, but he also knew that Soto had a high prestige among soldiers and some officers. If he were to suppress him forcibly, he would definitely arouse strong dissatisfaction among many officers and soldiers. Therefore, He suppressed the anger in his heart, turned the topic aside, and no longer mentioned the matter of the Inca King being held in solitary confinement.
