The Fall of the Golden Empire (Novel) (Volume 1) "Bloody Sunset" by Zhang Baotong
Antonio was surprised by this, because he knew that each of these new soldiers only had about a hundred gold pesos, but they would bet at least five bottoms as soon as they opened their mouths. This was not just trying to be flattering. Antonio shook his head and said, "There's no need to bet so much."
The two people said, "Forget it if you don't play."
Antonio had no choice but to come to Santos' side. Seeing that they were about to start a new round of rolling dice, he squeezed in between them and said, "I'll add one too."
Santos said, "Okay, fine, you go ahead."
Antonio said, "I'd better place two bottoms."
Santos clucked his teeth and said, "It's been a dynasty and you still bet two bottoms. We'll bet at least fifty bottoms."
Antonio only had about twenty gold pesos in his pocket, which was not even enough for half a minimum. Seeing his embarrassed look, Juan said, "Okay, you'd better find the new people to play with."
The term "newcomer" is very popular among soldiers. It is usually used as a synonym for moneyless and poor people. It has a somewhat mocking meaning, so it sounds unpleasant to people.
But people are poor and have short ambitions, so Antonio can only find those new people to play with. So, he returned to the table in the corner of the room and said to the two people, "Five is five." So, without any extra words, everyone started to fight.
At this time, the butler saw that they were starting to play, so he said to them, "Each person pays five gold pesos."
Antonio was even more confused and asked the butler, "Why do you have to pay five gold pesos?"
The soldier next to him threw five gold pesos to the butler and smiled at Antonio, "How can I not pay for playing cards in someone else's poker room?" Only then did Antonio realize that Santos started his business here. to the casino.
After paying five gold pesos and having just played two games, Martin came. When he saw Antonio, he said, "The Marquis is looking for you everywhere. You said you started playing here."
Antonio asked Martin, "What do you want from me?"
Martin said, "I don't know. Looking at the anxious look on the Marquis, it must be something urgent."
Antonio frowned, stood up reluctantly, and said to Martin, "Come and play, I'll go over and have a look." After that, he got up and went out, riding back to the military camp.
Pizarro was sitting in the headquarters office, looking at the map and smoking hard. It turned out that Pizarro asked the bishop to draw him a map leading to Cusco, but Robert took the map away. So, Pizarro asked the bishop to draw another one for him. However, this map is obviously not as detailed and detailed as the original one. To draw the map, the bishop visited many Indians who had been to Cusco and revised it several times. And this map is just based on memories. When the Marquis saw Antonio coming, he said, "Write a speech for me. There is an emergency meeting tonight."
Antonio sat at the table, laid out the manuscript paper, picked up the pen, and asked, "Marquis, tell me."
Pizarro said, "According to reliable information, Quito garrison commander Ruminawi has led 80,000 Inca soldiers and 30,000 cannibalistic barbarians from Quito and is heading towards Cajamarca. Request All officers and soldiers must be on high alert, and then the Inca King Atahualpa must be detained alone and must not allow him to meet with the princes and ministers again.”
Antonio said, "These words are all rumors, and the Marquis need not take them to heart. Because these words have been circulating in the barracks for a long time, but nothing happened."
Of course Pizarro knew that this news was just a rumor, but he just wanted to use this rumor to make some articles. Because he has distributed the gold in the treasury to the officers and soldiers. In this case, there is no reason for him to continue to imprison the Inca King. This will make people think that the Spaniards are not keeping their word, and that he, Pizarro, is not keeping his word. However, he could not release the Inca King. If he released the Inca King, it would be like letting the tiger return to the mountain. The Inca King would definitely lead troops to attack them. Although they already numbered three to four hundred people, they were not in a good position to fight against tens of thousands of Inca troops. Therefore, he had to find a way to continue to imprison the Inca king and prevent him from contacting the outside world and assigning his troops to attack them. So, he said to Antonio in a very serious and stubborn tone, "There is no smoke without fire. This is not a rumor. It's just that Luminawi has always been coming but has not come. Now it is really coming. Therefore, we must be on guard."
Antonio asked, "Is your speech mainly about this aspect?"
Pizarro nodded and said, "This matter should be used as an example to attract everyone's attention. Of course, the main thing is to talk about our current situation, our current tasks, and what we have to do. As an expeditionary force Officers who have no idea about our current situation, tasks and direction of progress, and only know how to gamble and play with women all day long, is that okay? Therefore, we must give them lectures and hammer on them from time to time, so that they can make progress and understand the situation. and a clearer insight and understanding of the mission.”
In fact, the Marquis of Pizarro was illiterate and did not need a speech script when speaking. But every time before a more important meeting, he asked someone to write a speech for him, write down his meaning in an orderly manner, and then read it to him, then revise it and read it to him again. In this way, he felt that his speech would appear more organized and focused, so that officers and soldiers with little education would feel that his speech was of a high standard and worthy of respect.
Antonio felt that the Marquis seemed to be a little crazy and was complaining for no reason. He was obviously in a good situation, but he insisted on treating some rumors and rumors as serious things to make everyone nervous. Therefore, he was very reluctant to write such a manuscript, so he just made it up according to the Marquis's wishes and handed in the job, because he was still thinking about going to Santos' house to gamble.
However, he gave the manuscript to the Marquis for a read, but the Marquis was very dissatisfied and asked him to rewrite it. He had no choice but to start following the Marquis's ideas again, and solemnly wrote down in the manuscript what the Marquis liked to say and what he liked to hear. After thinking about it again, the Marquis felt much more satisfied.
(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" (33. See Modern Life))
