The Fall of the Golden Empire (Novel) (Volume 1) "Bloody Sunset" by Zhang Baotong
The king then chased the other concubine. The concubine quickly got under the bed. Seeing that he couldn't catch the man, the king got up and saw Yina sitting at the small table in the opposite corner, eating grapes leisurely. He thought to himself, I don't believe you are not afraid of Yina. So, he rushed straight towards that corner. However, just when he was about to rush to Yina, he saw Yina suddenly blowing out the oil lamp. As soon as the lights went out, darkness fell in front of him, making him unable to see anything. The king couldn't help but feel a little annoyed, and wanted to restrain Yina properly. However, at this moment, his hand was slapped hard. As soon as he loosened his hand, the frog jumped out of his hand. He wanted to catch the frog again, but all the lights in the hall were blown out and nothing could be seen.
Just when he was about to lose his temper and order someone to light the lamp, everyone suddenly surrounded him, carried him on the big bed, and stripped him of his clothes three times. At this time, all the lights in the hall were lit, but he, the King of Quito, was naked and tightly surrounded by the concubines and singers on the big bed, and they were tickled vigorously.
Atahualpa was made to cry or laugh, so he struggled hard. However, no matter how strong he is, he is not as strong as everyone else. See him being subdued by everyone. Yina asked him, "Does the king admit defeat?"
It was okay not to ask, but the question made the king a little angry. He said, "I, King Atahualpa, have fought countless battles, conquered every enemy, and won every battle. When have I ever admitted defeat to others? Just you little bitches, And you want my majestic King of Quito to admit defeat? Just dream!"
Seeing that the king refused to admit defeat, everyone called Queen Anna over and asked Queen Anna to make a decision. Queen Anna looked at the embarrassed state of the king surrounded by concubines and singing girls on the big bed, and said with a smile, "There are so many of you against the king alone, how can he not lose?" After that, she asked everyone to let the king go. , to dress the king. Unexpectedly, the king was really angry. He refused to let Yina and Wuga dress him, so he angrily rushed out naked.
However, before he ran naked from Xiaoyao Hall to his dormitory, Haya chased him and said that the messenger had just sent a secret message. He placed the secret message on Atahualpa's desk. Of course, this secret message was not written with pen and paper, because the Incas did not have writing, but used a knotted rope called "kipu" to record events or convey information. The knotted rope is usually sixty centimeters long and is made up of various threads of different colors twisted together with many tassels on the threads. These tassels are of different colors and tied into knots; different colored threads and knots represent different types of affairs and information. White represents silver, which represents peace; yellow represents gold, which represents war. But knotted text is mainly used for arithmetic operations. All upper-class Inca people who have received a certain degree of education know the information conveyed by this "kipu" knot.
While King Atahualpa asked Haya to dress him, he read the secret letter over and over again, and the more he read, the tighter his frown became. This secret letter was brought by the spy in the palace of Cusco. It means that King Huascar asked Atahualpa not to bring many tribal people because he brought too many people to the meeting in Cusco. It was very inconvenient, as long as he brought some provincial governors with him, and asked him to arrive in Cusco within a week. He also said that if Atahualpa could not arrive within a week, King Huascar would send Cusco's army north to attack.
Atahualpa immediately asked Haya to find Chalkuchma and Ruminawi and show them the secret message. Chalkuchma read the secret message for a long time, and then gave the knotted rope to Ruminawi. Luminavi looked at the knotted rope, then looked at King Atahualpa's worried look, and said, "What makes you so worried, King? Isn't it because Huascar is angry and unhappy again?" As if we are all living for him, if he is unhappy, we will be in trouble."
Atahualpa still frowned and said, "But, he is planning to send a large army north to attack."
Luminawi said in a rough voice, "When the two armies are fighting, how can he be our opponent?"
Atahualpa said to Chalkuchma, "But didn't you say that the army and strength of our Kingdom of Quito are not as good as those of the Inca Empire?"
Chalkuchma shook his head slightly and said, "In terms of the confrontation between the two armies, our Quito army is the most elite and best-fighting force brought by the late king from the provinces of the Inca Empire. And in Cusco, in addition to thirty to forty thousand soldiers, Apart from the conventional troops, there are almost no troops in other provinces and regions. Moreover, those 30,000 to 40,000 conventional troops have not fought in a war for many years. Therefore, if a war really breaks out, they may not be a match for the Quito army at all. But , this kind of battle must be fought quickly and cannot be prolonged, because once the war lasts for ten days and a half, the Inca King will be able to mobilize two to three hundred thousand troops from all provinces across the country. By then, the Quito troops with less than 100,000 troops may It’s going to be hard to win.”
Speaking of this, Chalkuchma said in an emphatic tone, "If you want to fight the Inca army, you must choose the location of the decisive battle in the city of Tumebamba. Because it is farther away from Cusco than Quito." Nearly several hundred kilometers. Once the Quito army wins, they will launch a massive attack and pursue the victory without leaving Huascar any time to breathe. He will not have enough time to recruit soldiers or send people to other provinces to bring in reinforcements. If that happens, We can quickly capture the city of Cusco and capture Huascar alive."
Atahualpa calculated with his fingers that the journey from Quito to Cusco was about 1,500 kilometers, and a normal walk would take about two weeks. It takes about ten days to get from Tumebamba to Cusco. If the news of victory or defeat was conveyed to the Inca Palace at the stations along the way, it would take three or four days at the earliest. Calculating this, after Huascar received the news of the defeat, he only had five or six days at most to prepare and mobilize. These five or six days could only mobilize citizens and farmers near Cusco, but they could not recruit and organize armies from other provinces. These newly mobilized farmers and citizens barely know how to fight and cannot be compared with the battle-hardened soldiers in Quito.
After doing this calculation, Atahualpa slammed the table excitedly and said, "That's it, then we will have a decisive battle with Cusco's army in Tumebamba. I want Huascar to really know who it is." The army is stronger." But he said regretfully, "It's just that our plan of having the soldiers dress up as people going to pay homage to the late king in order to launch a surprise attack on Cusco was scrapped."
Chalkuchma thought for a while and said, "Huascar has already said that we are not allowed to send too many people to Cusco. If we send so many people, Cusco will definitely think that we deliberately violated the rules." Huascar’s will will send troops to intercept us.”
Atahualpa nodded and said, "Then there is no need for soldiers to pretend to be civilians."
Please pay attention to Zhang Baotong's signed work "Poetic Emotions", which is a documentary, short prose, life essays and short and medium stories, and is currently uploading "Elegy of Paradise" 34. Escape into Buddhism)
