The Fall of the Golden Empire (Novel) (Volume 1) "Bloody Sunset" by Zhang Baotong
That afternoon, Hernando drank a lot of wine at the Inca King's place. As soon as he returned to the military camp, he went to the Spanish Expeditionary Force headquarters office. Seeing that his brother, who was the commander, was asking Robert to write to Antonio Navarro, the accountant of the Spanish army and the head of the local garrison at the Spanish stronghold in San Miguel on the coast, asking him to inquire and pay attention to anything. No Spanish reinforcements arrived. Because it has been more than half a year since he sent his friend and partner Almagro to Panama to move reinforcements, but he has not heard from them yet.
When Hernando saw Pizarro writing a letter asking for reinforcements to come here, he was confused and said, "Why should we let them come? After they come, they will divide our gold."
Marquis Pizarro said, "There are only a hundred and sixty of us, and we have to guard the Inca King, and we have to guard so much gold. If there are no reinforcements, we can only stick to Cajamarca. Nothing will happen." It can’t be done. But we are here to look for gold, not just stay here. Besides, if an Inca army comes to attack us, can we people use it?"
Hernando said, "However, no Inca army came to attack and attack us. The fact that the Incas gathered in Bambamarca and prepared to attack us and rescue the Inca king was purely a rumor. I took the cavalry a few days ago Having been to Bambamarca, there were no rumors that the Incas were going to attack us or rescue the Inca King. You can’t completely believe what Martin said, because the Inca King had his sweetheart in solitary confinement, so he had ulterior motives to give the Inca King Create rumors.”
But the Marquis of Pizarro shook his head and said, "I would rather believe it than not. We are in a very dangerous situation now, and we have to guard against anything. Therefore, I want to send you to lead Twenty cavalrymen will go to Bambamarca again to see if there are any Incas gathering there." As he said this, he handed Hernando a knotted rope trail he had obtained from Atahualpa and said He said to him, "You must be ready to go to Bambamaka early tomorrow morning."
In fact, Mr. Marquis wanted Hernando to lead twenty cavalry to Cusco and other places to supervise the transportation of gold and silver. However, he heard that the Incas were gathering in Bambamarca and were preparing to attack Cajamarca. , to rescue the Inca King, so the Marquis suddenly changed his mind and asked Hernando to take people to Bambamarca to investigate the Incas' preparations to attack the Spaniards, because there were not only the imprisoned Inca King, but also the generals. A large amount of gold and silver items.
Hernando felt very helpless and unhappy that his brother only believed Martin's rumors and did not believe his own words. However, he could not change his brother's mind because he was the commander of the Spanish Expeditionary Force. He took the knotted rope note from the commander's hand and left the Marquis' office.
The next morning, Hernando Pizarro marched again toward Bambamarca with twenty cavalry. Last time, he had brought people here because he was investigating the murder of Huascar, and the road was relatively familiar, so he walked faster heading north and arrived at the town of Bambamaka before sunset.
People come and go in the town, and they are even very surprised when they see them or wave to them in a friendly way. Out of courtesy, they waved to friendly people along the way. When they came to the gate of the garrison castle, they showed the security pass issued by the Inca king. The Inca soldiers appeared to be very respectful and allowed them to enter the castle with salutes, and sent someone to lead them to see their commander.
The palace guard, Usaka, is the highest commander of the local Inca palace guard. He had received Hernando last time because of the investigation of Huascar's murder. Therefore, when they met again, he seemed very familiar and cordial, and arranged for them. In the two larger rooms in the military camp, they brought out good food and wine, and called some officers to accompany them to eat, drink and have fun.
When it was late at night and the Indians had left, the Spanish soldiers took out the dice and began to gamble. In the past, most of these soldiers were poor beggars and second-rate men in the country, and some were adventurers. When they were poor in the past, they often couldn't even eat, but once they had some money, they liked to get together to gamble and bet. Especially the monotonous and adventurous life in front of them deepened their habit.
Hernando led nine soldiers to live in a large house with nearly thirteen or four beds. There was a large dining table and more than ten wooden stools in the middle of the house. Originally, after walking for a day, everyone was tired. As soon as they had eaten, it was time to go to bed. However, a soldier named Letomundo didn't want to sleep, so he came to Hernando's bedside and said, "Captain, can you sleep too?"
Hernando knew what he meant and said, "What do you want to do if you don't sleep?"
Letomundo threw the two dice into the air, caught them, and said, "Let's play dice."
Hernando's hands felt a little itchy when he heard about playing dice. He thought that the Inca troops and the gathering were purely rumors created by Martin. It was only the Marquis who believed in Martin too much that he let them come here to investigate. So, he said, "Okay, let's just play. I lost more than 20 gold pesos to you the day before yesterday. I don't believe I can't get it back today." After saying that, he put on the clothes he had just taken off and put on his clothes again. He fell to the ground and shouted, "Antonio, Santos, come here, get ready for war."
Antonio and Santos responded, got up as fast as they could on official business, and came to the table. As soon as the others heard that they were going to play dice, they lost their drowsiness and ran over to surround the table. At this time, Letomundo had already brought several oil lamps in the room and placed them on the table. He also took out two small silver bowls of the same size from his military bag and said to everyone, " Shall we get started?" Everyone said, "Let's get started."
Everyone started to make plans for the banker. The result was that Santos had the biggest points and took the banker first. The bookmaker has the final say on where to place the bet. So he placed a bet of two gold pesos. At that time, one gold peso was equivalent to sixteen or seven U.S. dollars at the time. With these sixteen or seventeen dollars, a family of three or four can live carefree for a year. Santos put the two dice in a small bowl, put them together with the other small bowl, and began to shake the small bowl. Then, he skillfully slammed the small bowl in his right hand towards the table, and then opened the small bowl. . The number rolled on the dice is seven.
Antonio is Hernando's deputy. His family background is slightly better than the others, and he is also more polite and conservative. Therefore, seeing that Santos has already scored seven points, he feels that the possibility of him surpassing seven points is not very high. So I had to follow the dealer and place a bet of two gold pesos. His judgment was correct because the number he played was five. But Letomundo felt that one dice had six points, two dice had at most twelve points, and seven points was not too big. Therefore, in addition to the two necessary bets, he placed three more gold pesos. However, the number he scored was also five, which did not exceed the dealer's seven.
When Hernando saw that the other two people had not exceeded seven o'clock, he felt that his opportunity had come, so he cruelly placed an additional ten gold pesos bet. He shook the small bowl for a while, then slammed it on the table, fully hoping to get a number of eight or nine. However, the number of one dice was two, and the number of the other dice was five. The total number It's also seven o'clock. If the points are the same as the dealer's, they can only be eaten by the dealer.
Santos was the first to win, not only winning six sure-win bets, but also winning thirteen more bets placed by Letomundo and Hernando, winning a total of nineteen gold pesos. So, confidence is greatly increased. The second time he placed five base bets, the so-called base bets are the bets that everyone must place. This time, the number he played was as high as eleven, so no one dared to play more. After that, he successively played three villages with full points of nine, ten and twelve points, winning nearly two hundred gold pesos in one go. It can be said that he made a huge fortune.
Afterwards, Antonio won the game and played three banks in a row, winning at least thirty or forty gold pesos. Then, Letomundo followed suit and won nearly one hundred gold pesos. By this time Hernando had lost more than one hundred and fifty gold pesos and, as they say in the jargon, "fell into a ditch."
At this time, he finally won a small victory and grabbed the banker. He thought that everyone in front of him was sitting on the banker, some were sitting on the five bankers, and some were sitting on the three bankers. Maybe he could also sit on the three bankers and the five bankers, so , the bet is relatively large. He placed ten base bets. The base bet he originally placed was large, but Santos, who was in the spotlight, didn't believe him and instead placed ten more bets. It was equivalent to saying that the bet between him and Santos was twenty gold pesos. And twenty gold pesos is a frightening number for any of them. At this time, he had lost all the money he brought with him, which he had brought specifically for gambling. Unexpectedly, as soon as the battle began, his entire army would be wiped out.
Although he was considered a casino veteran, Santos' actions still put a lot of psychological pressure on him. But he was calm, full of hope and confidence, shaking the dice and praying to God to bless him. However, God seemed unwilling to bless him today and only allowed him to shake out four points, while Santos shook out a big point of eleven.
He has lost everything and has no bill to pay. As soon as Santos saw that he started to owe debts, he said, "Forget it, let's not play anymore." Because debts are taboo in casinos. The winner will also be owed. Therefore, no one likes to play with people who owe debts.
Of course Hernando refused to let it go. He said, "No, if you want to run away after winning, there is no way."
But Santos said, "But you have no money, Captain."
Hernando said, "Who said I have no money?" As he said this, he took out a very delicate gold plate from his military bag.
Santos brought the gold plate over and looked at it, then bit it with his teeth and asked, "How much is your plate worth?"
Hernando said, "At least a thousand gold pesos."
Santos shook his head and said, "I think it's worth two hundred gold pesos at most."
Hernando said, "Look carefully, this is a pure gold treasure given to me by the Inca King. It is not a tattered thing picked up casually on the street."
Santos still shook his head and said, "If you think I'm wrong, then ask them how much it's worth."
Antonio took the plate and looked at it for a while, then said disapprovingly, "It's only two hundred gold pesos."
And Letomundo simply said, "I don't think it's even worth a hundred gold pesos."
These words made Hernando very sad, but he still gritted his teeth and said, "Two hundred is two hundred." The result is predictable. Not only did Hernando lose the gold plate, but he also owed other debts. More than one hundred gold pesos for three people. Everyone saw that he was very unlucky and owed money, so they broke up and stopped playing.
(Please pay attention to Zhang Baotong's signed work "Poetic Emotions", which includes short prose, life essays and short stories. Today's release is the novella "Love Ladder" (2. Isolation from the World))
