The Fall of the Golden Empire (Novel) (Volume 1) "Bloody Sunset" by Zhang Baotong
At the same time, Hernando was very familiar with the terrain around Cajamarca. He led the cavalry squadron to the Royal Avenue in the south of the town. There is a branch road on both sides of the avenue, leading into the mountains, and there are two smaller branch roads in front of the branch road. Therefore, he ordered two cavalry squads to quickly search and chase from the forked roads on both sides, and he led a small cavalry squad to chase south along the Royal Avenue towards Cusco.
Captain Soto, who was searching and pursuing in a northerly direction, divided the cavalry squadron into four small detachments and pursued them along four different paths. He led five or six cavalrymen and ran along the royal road. They pursued until they reached a mountain pass more than 30 kilometers away before stopping. Because he knew that if Robert took Queen Anna along this road, they would have been caught long ago, because the two of them were riding a horse and walking very slowly, and they could only walk ten or twenty kilometers at most. distance. Therefore, he concluded that Robert was a soldier and would not choose to escape from the road. Therefore, they ordered the soldiers to stop the pursuit and return along the road.
At this time, Juan Pizarro's heart was full of panic, because it was almost entirely his fault that Robert fled with Queen Anna. If they cannot be recaptured, the officers and soldiers will definitely put the responsibility for their escape on him, and he will be severely punished for it. Therefore, he decided that he must capture the two of them and bring them back to his second brother, the Marquis of Pizarro, to make amends for their mistakes. Therefore, he concluded that Robert must have fled towards the hill path to the west, because the temple was closest to the hill to the west, and if they fled from the east, they would pass by the guard post in front of the Spanish military camp. So, he discussed with Gonzalo and asked Gonzalo to lead the cavalry to search eastward. He led the cavalry and ran all the way to the hills on the west side of the valley.
However, there are several paths leading to the hills from the valley side, and there is a path leading to each hill. These are the paths that the Inca people usually walked every day when they went up to the mountains to farm and herd sheep. Juan divided the entire cavalry squadron of more than 20 people into teams of two, lined them up along the path beside the hill, and then quickly chased them along the path. These paths are winding, going up and down, up to the top of a hill, and then down to the bottom of the hill. After going down to the bottom of the hills, there are some paths leading to other hills. However, the Spanish cavalry kept going from one hill to another, climbing four or five hills in a row, but they did not see any people on the hill paths.
In fact, Robert and Queen Anna were on the hill not far from them at this time. The sound of Spanish cavalry galloping along the mountain paths had alarmed them. They speeded up and descended to a hill, then suddenly changed direction and walked quickly towards the north path. After the Spanish cavalry came down from the hill, they continued to chase in the west direction.
The chase probably lasted until late at night, but the Spaniards didn't even see a single figure, so they had to collect their horses and return to camp. Juan came back the latest with the cavalry team. When he returned to the headquarters office, his brother, Marquis Pizarro, was the only one sitting in the room, smoking a cigarette. Seeing that he came back tired, the Marquis raised his head, glared at him fiercely, and cursed, "You stupid pig, it's all your fault for me." Then he stood up and left the office.
Juan had nothing to say, he just lowered his head and watched his second brother gritting his teeth and getting angry at him, and then left angrily.
In the temple courtyard, the first person to notice Queen Anna's absence was her baby daughter Kaya. When Kaya got up in the middle of the night to urinate, she found that her mother was not around. She didn't care at that time, thinking that her mother had gone to her father's side. However, when I got up at dawn, I still didn't see my mother, and no one dressed her. She just cried and shouted, "Mom."
Princess Ina, who lived next door, heard the crying and entered the house. She saw Kaya sitting on the bed alone, crying, but Queen Anna was not there. But the place where Anna slept was neatly laid out, as if no one had slept there. So Ina came to Atahualpa's residence. The king has not gotten up yet, Kuta and Maka, who accompanied the king to bed, are still sitting in front of the door. Princess Ina asked Kuta, "Is Queen Anna here?"
Kuta said, "No, it was Princess Tutula who slept with the king last night."
Yina immediately found her sister Uga and asked her to take care of Kaya while she went to find Queen Anna. However, she searched every room in the entire courtyard and could not find Queen Anna. She thought that it was impossible for Queen Anna to leave the small courtyard, and it was impossible for the Spaniards to let her out of the small courtyard. So, she immediately came to the door of King Inca's bedroom and said to Kuta, who was keeping vigil for the king, "Go and tell the king that Queen Ana Maya is missing."
Before Kuta could send a message to the king, Atahualpa shouted from inside the room, "Why, Queen Anna is not here? What is going on?"
Princess Yina entered the room and saw that the king had sat up from the bed. Tutula beside her was wearing thin underwear and was dressing him. Yi Na saluted the king and explained the situation to the king. The king asked Princess Ina to bring her daughter over. Kaya came to the king's bedroom while crying and calling her mother.
The king sat by the bed, hugged his daughter, and asked, "When was your mother not here?"
The daughter shook her head and said, "I don't know."
A very bad thought and omen immediately appeared in Atahualpa's mind. He asked his attendant Haya to ask the Spaniards guarding the courtyard. The Spanish guards said that Queen Ana Maya left the courtyard last night and never came back. The Spanish Marquis has been searching and searching everywhere with his troops. When the Inca King heard this, he immediately felt a sense of despair: In the past few days, bad news has come one after another. First, the gold in the treasury was already full, but Marquis Pizarro refused to abide by the agreement and fulfill his promise; then a Spanish reinforcement force was about to arrive; a few days ago, he saw a meteor with his own eyes. Crossed the sky and fell into the Andes Mountains; now, his queen Ana Maya has disappeared inexplicably. He felt that these things were a sign that he was going to be in bad luck!
(Please pay attention to Zhang Baotong's signed work "Poetic Emotions", which includes short prose, life essays and short and medium-sized novels. Today's release is the novella "Love Ladder" (20. Xiugu is pregnant))
