The Fall of the Golden Empire (Novel) (Volume 1) "Bloody Sunset" by Zhang Baotong
In the next few days, Hernando continued to lead everyone to search for gold. However, all the gold seems to be hidden in a mysterious place that will never be known. This made him very frustrated, but also annoyed and helpless. He regretted that he had brought his people too late, and let the priests transport most of the gold away before they arrived.
On this day, a soldier reported to him the news: Commander Chalkuchma and 35,000 soldiers were stationed in Haoha, 200 kilometers east of here. At first, he didn't pay much attention to the news, but when he woke up from a deep sleep at night, an inspiration suddenly came to him: he should lead his soldiers to conquer this army commander who was called invincible by the Incas. If he could defeat or capture this leader alive, it would undoubtedly be more valuable than a pile of gold.
So, he immediately sent someone to Joha and sent a message to Chalkuchma, asking him to meet in the small town of La Oroa where they passed on their way back. He repeatedly emphasized that this was the order of Inca King Atahualpa. However, Charkuchma did not do what he wanted and just replied that he was seriously ill and could not travel. This made Hernando very angry, and he vowed to go to Joha to capture the Inca nobleman alive.
When his order was issued, everyone thought he was out of his mind. His deputy Antonio persuaded him, "We are only 20 people in total, but there are 35,000 people in Chalkuchma. If we go there, are we going to die?"
Letomundo also disagreed, saying, "Charkuchma is a cunning guy. I heard that he never makes mistakes in wars. Why should we take this risk?"
Santos also echoed, "The Marquis asked us to come here to look for gold, but he didn't ask us to hunt Chalkuch horses. Why should we go to ask for trouble and take that risk?"
But Hernando couldn't listen to everyone's dissuasion and said in a very tough tone, "What do you know? Get ready and set off early tomorrow morning." Because he knew that in the entire Inca Empire, only the king kept his word. With the Inca King as his trump card, the empire's millions of troops were just a bunch of lambs.
Early the next morning, Hernando took this cavalry and infantry squad of only twenty people and began to march towards Joha. The road to Joha was extremely difficult and dangerous. The Spaniards traveled all day long in the remote mountains and mountains. Because the horses' hooves walked on the rocks all day long, the iron soles under the horses' hooves were quickly worn out because there was no Iron, they had to find local Indians, use silver to make horseshoes and nail them on the horses' hooves.
In this way, they walked for about a week and finally came to a large town deep in the mountains and canyons. This place is Haoha, the residence of Chalkuchma. Unlike Atahualpa, this battle-hardened and cunning local commander placed tight sentries and guards around the passages and castles around Joha. Therefore, as soon as the Spaniards entered Joja, they encountered the sentries guarding the castle.
Hernando showed the sentries the safe pass issued by Atahualpa and asked to see the commander Chalkuchma himself, but the sentries still refused to let them pass because they had to report to them first The commander must obtain permission from their commander. Chalkuchma was Atahualpa's uncle and a battle-experienced and invincible commander of the northern army. Because he and Quiskis defeated Huascar's army, Atahualpa was defeated. Valpa sat on the Inca throne. It can be said that his status in this kingdom is below one person and above ten thousand people. Moreover, the commander has an order that all foreigners entering the Haoha area must report to him.
At this time, Chalkuchma was sitting in the room with several wives and concubines, drinking wine and eating fresh pears sent from other places by the postman. These fresh pears are all produced in southern provinces. The army commander had almost twenty wives. But most of the wives live in Quito. And now these young and beautiful wives were all rewarded by King Atahualpa of Quito after he defeated Chief Chamul in the Battle of Chimborazo, and some were given by others after he captured Cusco. , and some he captured from the enemy's troops or the palace after winning the battle. In the Inca Kingdom, it was very easy to obtain wives and concubines, just like obtaining an item, without any marriage procedures and ceremonies. Moreover, the more wives and concubines there are, the more noble the master is.
The messenger suddenly rushed in from outside and reported, "Your Majesty, the guardian of Yamaguchi Castle has come to report that the Spaniards are coming to see you."
Of course Chalkuchma knew that the Spaniards were the big white men who had captured and imprisoned the Inca King Atahualpa. There were some things that he could not understand about these big white men: I heard that they were only one or two hundred people, but they could capture alive the Inca king who had an army of nearly 80,000 people. But what is the ratio between one or two hundred people and an army of 80,000 people! He also knew that Atahualpa was not a weak-minded person. He was also a commander who had been following the late king Bayina Capac and led thousands of soldiers into the battle. He could not let the big white man capture him alive easily. . In the approximately 800 years of Inca history of conquests in the north and south, the Inca armies were almost invincible and invincible. How could there be any precedent of failure or even the king being captured? He thought that the king must have been deceived by Spain or fell into their trap. But if it were him, Chalkuchma, this outcome would never happen. On the contrary, he would annihilate the Spaniards in one fell swoop and eradicate them.
After Atahualpa was arrested, as the commander of the army, he had been very conflicted and didn't know what to do. He really wanted to lead troops to Cajamarca to rescue the king, but he didn't know what the king was thinking. He was afraid that if he launched an army to attack, he would anger the Spaniards and the Spaniards would jump over the wall, which would hurt the king's life; at the same time, Deep in his heart, there was also the most shameful selfishness and distracting thoughts: he wanted to wait until Atahualpa was killed by the Spaniards, so that he could declare independence here and establish himself as king.
After he was captured in Atahualpa, he discussed with Prince Chiskis, the commander of Quito's army, how to deal with the king's capture. At that time, the two of them agreed to let Chalkuchma lead the troops to approach the north and act according to the opportunity to rescue King Atahualpa, while Kiskis led the troops to guard the city of Cusco. If Chalkuchma encounters something unexpected, Kiskis can serve as a backup. However, when Chalkuchma came to Joha, he heard that King Atahualpa had signed an agreement with the Spaniards in exchange for gold for freedom. Moreover, Atahualpa also issued instructions to him through the prince. Without the king's order, he could only stay put and not act rashly.
But what he didn't expect was that the big white man actually came to the door. Should he see them or shouldn't he? He had no idea at the moment. In fact, he was very reluctant to see these foreigners, and they also asked him to go to Cajamarca to meet Atahualpa under the banner of Atahualpa.
(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 story "Love in the Heart")
