The Fall of the Golden Empire (Novel) (Volume 1) "Bloody Sunset" by Zhang Baotong
The road from Bambamarca to Pachacamac is mostly in the Cordillera Occidental Mountains. This mountain range consists of a series of parallel mountains and transverse mountains interspersed with plateau valleys, running through the western part of the South American continent. Hundreds of millions of years of orogeny have made the Cordillera Mountains full of painful sufferings of life and death. Sometimes strong earthquakes tear the mountain into cracks; sometimes lava erupts from the crater and rushes into the blue sky. It fell like fire and rain again; some places continued to subside and submerged into the seabed; some places were rising year by year, exposing ancient rocks to the surface and stubbornly forming the majestic mountain systems today.
This restless mountain range is full of wild nature. Countless earthquakes and volcanic activities, as well as landslides, mudslides, flash floods, and landslides triggered by earthquakes and volcanoes, continue to destroy people's towns and homes, leaving people with a period of Nightmarish memories of horror. However, when the Cordillera Mountains calm down, they are as beautiful and spectacular as all the mountains. They provide humans with abundant rainfall, ice and snow water, and support a wide variety of tropical mountain evergreen forests.
To be able to walk on such a road, the journey must be full of indescribable hardships and dangers. However, a grand and spacious royal road from Quito to Cusco runs through it, making this mountain range that crosses thousands of deep valleys and tens of thousands of high mountains and dangerous peaks into a smooth road in the world. This cannot help but admire the talent and wisdom of the Incas.
However, even so, the road is still unimaginably difficult and dangerous. In some places, the rock walls are so steep that the stone steps are almost vertical, and pedestrians can only climb on the rock walls. Although there are strong and tall fences and protective walls on both sides of the rock walls, it is difficult to It is extremely difficult for horses to climb these stone steps. Moreover, there are rivers crisscrossing the road, some of which are deep and fast and turbulent; some of which are bottomless and thrilling. But there are stone bridges or wooden bridges built by the Incas on the river, which can pass smoothly.
However, on the third or fourth day of Hernando's cavalry detachment walking, they came to a rope bridge along the Royal Avenue. The cable bridge is made of woven wicker, as thick as a person, and its two ends are fixed in huge stone holes dug on the banks of the two mountains. Under the bridge is a tumbling and rapid river nearly a hundred meters deep.
No one has ever seen this kind of rope bridge made of wicker. Moreover, this kind of rope bridge is obviously designed and built for pedestrians and light llamas. If horses are allowed to pass, the hoofs of the horses will easily crush or trample through the wicker. The woven bridge deck caused the entire bridge deck to collapse. In fact, let alone letting horses pass, even passing by alone is very dangerous and terrifying. Antonio, Hernando's deputy, was walking at the front. He was stunned as he watched the bridge, which was about a hundred meters long, swinging in the air from time to time. Under the bridge was a deep stream that could not be seen to the bottom. Let everyone stop in a large open space beside the bridge and shout loudly for Hernando.
Hernando was walking at the end of the team. When he heard someone calling him, he thought something had happened, so he hurried over on horseback. When he reached the bridge, he saw a rope bridge that he had never seen before.
Antonio asked Hernando, "What to do, Captain?"
The captain shook the bridge with his hand, but the bridge only shook slightly. Hernando couldn't help frowning and said, "The empty man may be able to cross, but what about the horses?" Because he had never heard of a bridge made of wicker, and he didn't know how much this kind of bridge could carry. the weight of.
At this time, the sun was already in the west and would set in half an hour. Moreover, as soon as the sun set, it would get dark immediately. Therefore, Hernando knew not to spend too much time here. So he shouted, "Santos."
Santos replied, "Arrived."
Hernando said, "You try to get there first."
Santos responded, "Yes," and walked to the edge of the bridge, tentatively stepping on the soft bridge with his feet. Because the bridge was too soft, it began to shake significantly. Santos felt guilty and immediately stepped back. Said, "Captain, I'm afraid it won't work. I'm afraid of heights."
Hernando said, "Even if you are afraid of heights, you have to go up. This is an order!"
Santos walked up to Hernando and begged in a low voice, "Please, please spare me. Can I return the gold plate to you?"
However, Hernando pulled out his pistol from the holster and threatened, "You must go forward. If you dare to retreat again, I will kill you."
When Santos saw that Hernando had pulled out his pistol, he no longer dared to be afraid. He grasped the guardrails on both sides with his hands and walked toward the bridge with trembling steps. When we almost reached the middle of the bridge, the bridge was too long and swayed very violently, just like swinging on a swing. It made people feel dizzy and frightened. Santos was so scared that he stood there and dared not move, and screamed desperately. Hernando was so angry that he cursed, "You soft bear, if you scream again, I will kill you." With that, he fired a shot into the sky. Santos was already scared, but when Hernando frightened him, he simply sat on the bridge and burst into tears.
Hernando was so angry that he cursed, but he could only scare Santos and did not dare to do anything because he was responsible for everyone who followed their brothers here. Seeing that Santos was so frightened that he sat on the bridge and refused to leave, Hernando wanted to find someone to help Santos over. He asked everyone, "Who can go over and help that soft bear over?"
However, everyone looked at me and I looked at you, and they all lowered their heads. Because everyone is afraid that the weight of two people will increase the load of the cable bridge and make it even more dangerous. Seeing that no one was willing to come forward, Hernando really wanted to go over by himself. However, he saw that the bridge was so weak, and there was an abyss under the bridge. Moreover, he was the leader of the team. If he was in danger, he would The whole task couldn't be completed, so when he saw that no one was willing to come forward, he cursed, "Damn it, when it comes to throwing dice and gambling, everyone is faster than the other, and they have fun. When it comes to serious matters, You're pretending to be a coward." However, no matter how he scolded him, the soldiers still lowered their heads and remained silent, leaving him without any clue.
At this time, someone shouted, "Look." Everyone raised their heads and looked towards the other side, and saw a thin Indian who was so frightened that Santos was sitting on the bridge that he cried out, and he was as light as a swallow. He ran onto the bridge and soon came to Santos, pulling Santos step by step to the other side of the bridge. This made everyone very surprised and happy. They thought that maybe Hernando's shot had alerted some passerby, so they ran over to help.
So Hernando shouted to Santos, who was crossing the bridge, "Let the local come over."
(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" (4. Before Marriage))
