The Fall of the Golden Empire (Novel) (Volume 1) "Bloody Sunset" by Zhang Baotong
It was very late when he returned to the military camp, and several sentries said to him, "Where have you been? The Marquis is looking for you everywhere for a meeting." As soon as he heard that the Marquis was looking for him for a meeting, he looked towards the office of the expeditionary force headquarters. I saw that there was still light there, and thick smoke kept coming out of the room. So, I walked towards the headquarters office.
After pushing the door open and entering the office, the Marquis asked him in a very unhappy tone, "Where have you been? Why can't I find you anywhere?"
Of course Robert couldn't tell the truth, so he said, "I took a walk around the valley. The scenery there is really nice."
Hernando said, “I’ve been there so many times, and haven’t I seen enough?”
Robert said, "You have nothing to do."
The Marquis said, "Others are too busy, but you are free."
Robert said, "I've been busy to death since you guys haven't seen me these days. I have nothing to do tonight, so I want to find a place to relax. Besides, I don't know that I have a meeting tonight."
The Marquis said, "Okay, let's not talk anymore, sit down and have a meeting."
Roberto sat on a small stool in the corner of the room and asked Soto next to him, "What is the meeting today?"
Soto said, "Almagro is bringing people here, and the Marquis wants us to be ready to meet them."
Robert said, "What's there to welcome? Why are they here? Don't they just want to divide our gold?"
When Hernando heard what Robert said, he said, "Mr. Secretary, can you speak louder so that everyone can hear it clearly."
When Hernando said this, Robert was a little confused and said, "Isn't this right?"
Gonzalo said, "Mr. Robert just said, why should we welcome the one-eyed deaf man? They are here to divide the fruits of our labor."
At that moment, most of the people present started to cheer. It took a while for the Marquis to calm everyone down and said, "Listen to me, everyone, the gold we got belongs to us, and we cannot let them divide it. However, we can use them to protect our treasury and That Inca king. Recently, everyone has complained that they have too many hours on duty and are too busy and tired. When they come, with more people and horses, everyone will be able to take a breather. Moreover, they will also have enough troops to march into Cusco. You guys Aren’t you clamoring to go to Cusco every day? With just a few people like us, we can’t keep busy just guarding the Inca King and the treasury.”
However, Juan shouted loudly, "There is no difficulty in marching into Cusco. All we have to do is divide the gold and kill the Inca King. There will be no need for anyone to guard the treasury or the King. This place will be like San Miguel." A few men guarded it, while the rest marched toward Cuzco. What's the difficulty? Without him Almagro, we wouldn't have accomplished anything."
Soto also said, "No matter if they come over, with more people and stronger troops, the Incas will be more afraid of us. Because their weapons and equipment are better than ours, and there are many young people, so they can be said to be stronger than us." However, I am worried that the two factions will fight together. You can think about it, Almagro and their troops are stronger than ours, and we have more gold than them. Do you think they will be convinced by us? If the two groups With family members fighting overtly and secretly together, it would be better to live without them."
Seeing that the officers and brothers present did not support his views and opinions, Pizarro said to everyone in a commanding tone, "You all remember, Almagro is my partner and the one I share life and death with." A close comrade-in-arms, he was sent by the king to support and assist us. After they arrived, the two armies became a family. Of course, we still have to be the masters of this family. Almagro can only serve as Deputy, so I hope you can take the overall situation into consideration, welcome them warmly as your own brothers, treat them warmly, so that they can truly integrate into us. I won’t say more about the big truth. If anyone says I will never condone making weird remarks, causing disagreements, or ostracizing them." After saying this, he announced that the meeting was adjourned.
After the meeting, everyone left, but the Marquis kept Robert behind and said to him solemnly, "In our team, most of them are rough and low-level people, with no culture and no knowledge." What kind of foresight and knowledge can only see things in the immediate future and cannot see the long-term. You are different from them, so don’t follow them in making noises on some issues."
Robert felt that what Pizarro said made sense, so he nodded quickly and said, "That's right."
Pizarro rolled a cigarette and smoked it, then asked, "How is the gold collection going?"
"It's almost full," Robert said.
Pizarro nodded and said, "No wonder Atahualpa sent someone to come to me today and asked me to fulfill my promise and release him."
Robert asked, "What do you think of the Marquis?"
"Of course I can't let him go," Pizarro said.
Robert said, "But we have an agreement with him. If we don't keep our word, it will be bad for our reputation."
The Marquis frowned and said, "You are too bookish. You don't know that there is no excuse or reason for a wolf to eat a lamb. We won't tell him then that the gold in the house is not full at all. Anyway, This room is only guarded by our people, and they don’t know. So, starting from tomorrow, you must lock the door of the vault, and no one except the sentry is allowed to approach the vault, let alone reveal the progress of the gold accumulation in the vault."
When Robert heard this, he remembered that Pizarro himself was a cunning and dishonest political hooligan. It can be seen that Queen Anna's premonitions and guesses are still very accurate. So, he asked, "If we don't release the Inca king, and we worry all day about the Inca army coming to kidnap their king, what good will it do to us?"
Pizarro hesitated for a moment and said, "As soon as Almagro's reinforcements arrive, we will divide the gold and march to Cusco. Of course we cannot let an Inca king tie us here."
The two talked for a while and then left the office. Robert returned to his room and couldn't sleep. He felt that the Incas were too stupid, naive and gullible. When he thought about it, he felt that the Spaniards were too ghostly, cunning and scheming, even too scheming. It's so despicable and discreditable.
Obviously, the Marquis will not release the Inca King at all, nor will he be a drag. So, what should Queen Anna do? Because for him, he could not influence any actions of the Spanish, nor could he do anything for the Inca behind the back of the Marquis and his colleagues, and some of these did not seem to have much to do with him. The only thing he worried about was Queen Anna.
In the forest just now, Queen Anna had prayed to him to take her away from this place. However, this was not Spain, but a very unfamiliar country to him. He didn't even know where to take her. At the same time, after he came out of his own country, he has been with his companions or accomplices. He has not left everyone. He really doesn't know how to live after leaving his companions and companions. However, if she does not leave here, Queen Anna's situation will be very miserable. As far as he knew, most princesses and noble daughters ended up being divided up by the conquerors. Some became Spanish concubines, some became servants, and some were even homeless, living on the streets and becoming prostitutes. In the Inca Kingdom, prostitutes were a despicable profession that was discriminated against. They could only live in dilapidated huts in the wild and were not allowed to enter the villages, so as not to interact with other women and ruin the reputation and morality of women from good families. Men are not allowed to have public contact with prostitutes, and women are not allowed to talk to them, otherwise they will get the same notoriety as them, have their hair cut off in public, be regarded as a woman of disrepute, and be spurned by their husbands.
(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 exquisite prose "The Medieval Kingdom of Mustang")
