The Fall of the Golden Empire (Novel) (Volume 1) "Bloody Sunset" by Zhang Baotong
After sleeping for a while in the inn room, the king felt that his energy was much better. He asked Haya to get dressed for him, prepare a royal chair, and then set off to continue on his way.
It has rained, the air is fresh, and under the clear sunshine, the green mountains are covered with mist. The royal team continued to rush along the royal marching road. And he walked through several inns without stopping to rest. He didn't stop until he came to a mountain pass inn called Yunling.
This post house had an inn called "Tambos", mainly for the convenience of the Inca king and his entourage, as well as for the accommodation of officials and entourage who traveled on official business. Because there are such hotels built every 20 kilometers or so on the Royal Avenue. The hotel is managed by dedicated personnel. A house must be built every 1.2 kilometers for those good runners called "Chasky" to live in and be responsible for delivering the government's urgent messages.
At this time, the sun was in the west, the sky was bright, and the only sounds in the quiet mountains were the chirping of birds returning to their nests and the flow of streams. King Atahualpa was helped from the royal chair by Haya and the post officer, and entered a relatively large room. Although the room is simple, it has been specially cleaned and decorated. It is covered with carpets, brand-new tables and chairs, and a very exquisite large bed. The bed is covered with gorgeous and expensive palace camel cashmere felt and blankets. Moreover, there was a young and beautiful country girl in the room who was packing the bed for him.
Seeing the king, the woman quickly knelt down and saluted. King Atahualpa had always been very strict with his subordinates, but he was very tolerant towards women. Seeing that the girl was quite pretty, he sat on the edge of the bed, pulled the girl to him, and asked her name.
The girl blushed and lowered her head and said, "My name is Gina."
The king then stroked the girl's beautiful face with his hand and said lovingly, "How old are you?"
The girl said, "Seventeen years old."
The king said, "Very good," and then asked, "Do you want to go back to Quito with the king?"
The girl flashed her big bright eyes and nodded with certainty.
The king took the child in his arms and kissed him.
At this time, Haya came to deliver food to the king. Dinner is certainly richer than lunch. There are not only pig's trotters and rabbit meat that the king likes to eat, but also mandarin fish and lobster. These fish and shrimps were delivered as quickly as possible by post officials from the coast of Tumbes, hundreds of miles away. It is said that these fish and shrimps were just fished out of the sea and delivered by the post officer as quickly as possible. Therefore, they were still alive and kicking when they were delivered to the palace chef.
The king asked Haya to put the food on the small table, and then he took the girl to eat together. But the girl quickly waved her hand and said, "This is the king's dinner, I don't dare."
But the king said, "Don't you dare? I asked you to eat it." After saying that, he asked the girl to sit on the chair next to him, and picked up a pig's trotter for the girl and asked the girl to eat it. The girl didn't dare to eat, so she blocked it with her hand and accidentally dropped the pig's trotters on the king's clothes. The girl turned pale with fright, and she quickly knelt down and apologized repeatedly.
Haya on the side came over immediately, and while cleaning the king's clothes, he said angrily to the girl, "You have to know how valuable the king's clothes are, even if your whole family works hard all your life, you can't get them back."
The girl was so frightened that she started to cry. But the king pulled the girl into his arms, and while wiping the girl's tears, he laughed and said to the girl, "It's okay, it's okay, the clothes are dirty, it's just a change of clothes, don't cry, don't cry, your eyeballs will be swollen from crying, It won’t look good.” After that, he said to Haya, “Send someone to Tumebamba to bring me some clothes.”
Haya said "yes" and left the house.
After dinner, it was already dusk and foggy in the mountains. Under the protection of two personal guards, the king led his beloved girl up to the mountains behind the house for a slow walk, looking at the scenery of the mountains. Walk to the top of a hillside next to a forest. The king asked the girl, "Where do you live?"
The girl pointed to the mountain col opposite and said, "It's right there."
The king looked at the valley pointed by the girl, and saw that the valley was surrounded by mountains on three sides, surrounded by green trees, and a small river flowing through the valley. The scenery was very beautiful, so he said on a whim, "Then come to your house. Go check it out.”
The girl quickly stopped her and said, "Don't go, don't go. My family is very poor and the king will laugh at me."
Upon hearing what the girl said, the king said, "Then I should go take a look." After saying that, he asked the guard to lead the way and walked along the path towards the col on the opposite side.
The mountain col opposite seems not far away, but it takes a lot of time to actually walk there. Therefore, when they walked on the mountain path covered with green grass and arrived at the col in the deep mountains, it was already dark. After walking a small road and crossing a small stone bridge, I looked deep into the mountain col under the bright moonlight and saw several low and simple houses quietly sitting at the foot of the opposite mountain. Walking further, not far from the house, the barking of a domestic dog suddenly sounded. Gina whistled, and the dog stopped barking. After a while, it ran to Gina's side, wagging its tail vigorously.
Gina patted the dog's forehead and said, "Hurry and salute the king." However, the dog did not recognize the king in front of him at all, and just looked at the king indifferently. The king thought the dog was quite interesting, so he patted the dog's body with his hand and said, "Do you understand etiquette? Can you salute?" Unexpectedly, the dog suddenly bit him. If he hadn't dodged in time, his hand would have been Bitten by a dog.
When Gina saw that the dog dared to bite the king, she scolded him, "You are an unreasonable and inhuman beast, you dare to bite the king." After saying that, she kicked the dog in the mouth. The dog screamed and ran towards his home.
The king blamed the girl and said, "Why did you kick it? It is a beast. It only recognizes familiar people and cannot recognize the king."
The girl Gina said, "That's not okay. If I really bite the king, what a big sin it would be for me."
The king hugged Gina and said, "You are such a good girl."
Walking up a slope from several terraced fields, you arrived in front of three dilapidated small houses in the dark. Gina went directly into the house without knocking, because the life of Inca farmers was based on the supply system. If anything was missing, you could go to the warehouse to get it, and the penalties for criminals were very heavy. Therefore, there were generally no robbers or thieves. They used it when going out or sleeping. Don't close your doors.
Gina lit the oil lamp and held it to illuminate the king. The king asked the guards to stand guard outside and entered the house alone. Under the dim light of the oil lamp, I could vaguely see the outline of the room. The room is not big, just a bedroom. There is a large bed and a wooden box in the house. Since there is only one bedroom in the house, the whole family sleeps on the same bed. There is a more modest house on either side of the bedroom. On one side is the kitchen and on the other is the sheepfold. There are pots, firewood, water tanks, half a bag of corn and two or three pieces of furniture in the kitchen. There were two sheep in the sheepfold. The sheep were grazing in the dark. The stench of sheep manure and the odor of the sheep were very pungent and unpleasant. Therefore, if the king had not insisted on coming here, Gina would not have let King Quito come. She felt that this would not only make the king feel uncomfortable, but also make herself feel embarrassed.
Please pay attention to Zhang Baotong's signed work "Poetic Emotions", a documentary, short prose, life essays and short and medium stories, and is currently uploading "Elegy of Paradise" 37. Persecuted)
