Inca Elegy (Novel) "The Fall of the Inca Empire" (Volume 2) by Zhang Baotong
After having dinner with the children of the Inca King, Marquis Pizarro felt very satisfied and happy, and even felt that these children were his own children. After dinner, he always likes to go out for a walk. This is his habit. And the routes for leisure travel are almost fixed. From here, walk to Plaza de Armas, where there is a small road that leads to the town and the temple compound where the Incas were imprisoned, as well as a main road that leads to the Inca Palace and the barracks of the cavalry squad. He decided to take a walk around the Plaza de Armas first.
As he walked on the road, he thought about his experiences in this life and felt a little complacent and complacent. Indeed, his life was full of heroic legend. He was an illegitimate son. Although his father was a Spanish military officer, he lived with his mother since he was a child. His mother was an ordinary farmer in Trusilio, Spain, and his family was very poor. Therefore, he had been raising pigs with his mother since he was a child, and acquaintances in the neighborhood liked to call him a pigherder. He never went to school and could not read a few Chinese characters, but this did not affect his lofty ambitions. He was unwilling to be a farmer all his life, staying in a pigsty to raise pigs, and suffering from poverty all his life, so he decided to go out to seek fame and fortune. After Columbus discovered the American continent in 1492, there was a gold rush and gold-seeking craze in Spain. By 1502, the 27-year-old Pizarro came to the Caribbean island of Haiti and joined the expedition led by Balboa to hunt for gold and explore. Then he began to settle in Panama.
When he was 47 years old, he learned from an explorer Andiegoa that the Inca Empire was an empire full of gold. He gave a plantation that he had obtained through repeated military exploits in the battle to conquer Panama as a gift to the Panamanian governor Pedrarias in order to obtain permission to form a team to conquer the Inca Empire. By then, he had married an aunt in Pedrarias and started a family. However, they rarely live together. Therefore, he always says to others, "I am not married and I have no children." In fact, in his mind, he was almost as good as not getting married and having children. After that, he teamed up with the bandit Almagro and the villain priest Luke to escape the murder charge, and obtained a charter from the Panamanian governor Pedralias to explore and conquer the mysterious Inca Empire.
In 1524, he led 112 Spaniards and a small number of Indian captives on the first expedition to Peru, and only obtained a small amount of gold. Two years later, he and Almagro led a team of 160 people on a second expedition and expedition. After landing at Eldogua, they fought fierce battles with countless Indians. Almagro was blinded in one eye. Seeing that the situation was not good, Pizarro sent Almagro back to Panama to ask for help.
However, the governor of Panama has been replaced by Rios. The governor did not want Pizarro to conquer the Inca Empire and occupy the wealth and resources there alone, so he detained Almagro, sent someone to recall Pizarro, and forced him to give up his conquest. In despair, Pizarro drew the sword from his waist, drew a line on the beach sand, and said loudly to his companions: Brave friends of Castile, here is Panama and poverty, over there is Peru and poverty. gold. Please choose! As a result, 13 people decided to follow Pizarro.
In 1528, he returned to Spain. With the help of his friend, the Mexican conquistador Cortes, his colonial conquest plan received strong support from King Charles V of Spain, who authorized him to conquer the Inca Empire for Spain. , and also provided him with sufficient funds. He was appointed governor, administrator and lifelong marquis of the colony south of the Bay of Guayaquil, with access to four-fifths of the wealth of the new colony. Almagro was the commander of Tumbes, a city in the Inca Empire, and the priest Luke was the bishop of Tumbes. The 13 warriors who followed him were all awarded hereditary knight titles, and each was assigned 1,000 Indian slaves and a large amount of manor land. Until 1531, when he was 56 years old, he, his half-brother Hernando, and his two younger brothers Juan and Gonzalo led a team of less than 200 people and set sail from Panama to conquer a population of about 600. The Inca Empire had tens of thousands.
Unexpectedly, everything he experienced turned out to be so smooth and smooth. Not many people died and there was not much loss, so he occupied and conquered the empire. Compared with his admirer, the Mexican conqueror Cortes, his achievements and achievements seem to be even more glorious. His name will also be remembered by Spaniards and even the whole world.
But he is not without regrets. The biggest regret is that he, an abandoned child, has neither studied nor learned to write. He had tried to learn to read on his first voyage, but his impatience prevented him from learning, and he was content to learn only to sign his name. In fact, many documents were signed by his secretary for him, and he only made two strokes on the signature place as confirmation. However, what are these compared to his great achievements?
He walked lightly all the way to the Plaza de Armas. At this time, the sun had set above the peaks. Under the shining golden light, some Indians could be seen dismantling the items on the rostrum and cleaning the ground in the square. He stood in the square for a while, seeing that it was still early, and wanted to find something to do. But no, some time ago, he was extremely busy because of the distribution of gold, the reception of Almagro, the execution of the Inca King, and the coronation of the new king. But now, everything is done and there is nothing to do. All that remained was the expedition and the march to Cusco. So, suddenly free, Dao Rang didn't know what to do for a while. He thought about it and felt that he should inspect each barracks to see how the soldiers were prepared and what difficulties and unexpected things happened.
He first came to Soto's squad barracks. The Soto team's housing is in the first two buildings of the barracks. Each building has twenty houses and houses more than sixty cavalrymen. There is also a row of stables dedicated to raising horses between the two houses. Five or six Indians are responsible for feeding the horses. When Pizarro arrived at the first house, he did not look for Soto. Instead, he quietly entered a soldier's barracks alone.
Among the three soldiers living in the house, one was writing a letter to his family in Spain, one was cleaning his matchlock gun, and the other was lying on the bed reading a book. Pizarro entered the room and saw that all three of them had something to do. He felt quite satisfied, so he greeted everyone, "Hello." When the soldiers saw that the commander was coming, they quickly stopped what they were doing and stood up. Stand at attention, salute to the commander, "Please give instructions, commander."
Pizarro quickly waved his hands to the soldiers and said, "You should be busy with your own business. I just came out to take a look." The soldier still stood there and said, "We are not busy." Pizarro used a very cordial expression He asked in a tone of voice, "We will march to Cusco in two days. Are you all ready?" The soldier said he was ready. Pizarro nodded and said, "Your team is tasked with pioneering the path. You may encounter many unexpected difficulties and dangers on the way. You must be mentally prepared." The soldiers replied , "Captain Soto has been conducting full-day training with us these days, and has also fully analyzed and prepared for all imaginable encounters. Commander, please rest assured."
Next, he came to Gonzalo's team again. As soon as he walked to Gonzalo's office door, he saw the lights on inside, and he could hear the people inside shouting from a distance. As soon as Pizarro heard this, he knew that Gonzalo must be gathering people to play dice again. Although Pizarro occasionally played for a while, he didn't like the officers and soldiers to indulge in it and treat this kind of thing as a serious matter, with no time limit. Normally, he would walk away quickly so that he wouldn't have to worry about it, nor would he care about it. However, he was about to march into Cusco, and he had just inspected the Soto team's barracks, so he felt that Gonzalo's behavior was a bit intolerable to him.
He pushed the door open and entered the house. The room was filled with smoke and smoke, and people were gathering around the lamps and throwing dice. They didn't even notice his arrival, so no one paid him any attention. This made him even more angry. He coughed hard, and then someone noticed that he was standing in front of everyone, and shouted, "Commander is here, salute." Upon hearing the shout, everyone immediately stopped what they were doing and looked up. When I went there, I saw Pizarro standing in front of everyone, so he immediately stood at attention and saluted respectfully.
Pizarro was not polite and said to Gonzalo, "Mr. Captain, how are your preparations going?" Gonzalo seemed a little at a loss and said, "Our team is staying in Cajamarca. There is nothing to prepare." Pizarro said, "Then, I want to ask you, if Ruminawi really led a hundred thousand soldiers to fight all the way, what should you do?" Gonzalo said, "You can fight. Just fight, and if you can't fight, withdraw." Pizarro asked again, "How to fight or how to withdraw?" Gonzalo was stunned by the question and hesitated for a long time before saying, "That depends on the situation at the time." Salo said angrily, "By the time you get there, it will be too late, and you can only serve as food for others to drink with."
Seeing that Gonzalo did not dare to say anything, Pizarro added, "How are you setting up your sentries? How are you arranging your emergency evacuation? Who will be responsible for guarding the grain warehouse? How will you take care of the families and property of the officers and soldiers?" ?Have you considered these?" Gonzalo lowered his head and had no words to answer. Pizarro slammed the table and shouted, "Put all these arrangements immediately. I will come to check early tomorrow morning. If there is a problem, I will remove you from your post." After saying that, he slammed the door and walked out angrily.
Further ahead is Almagro’s camp. He felt that Almagro should be responsible for this. He did not need to control too much. Not only would others not like to listen to him, but they would feel that he had intervened too much and had too much control, which would affect the two leaders and their relationship. The relationship between officers and soldiers.
He felt that there was no need to see Almagro's barracks, but Mr. Riquelme, the treasurer, should still pay it a visit. Since the last execution of Inca King Atahualpa, the two parties had been in trouble and quarreling endlessly in order to shirk responsibility. For a long time, they ignored each other and were resentful. Therefore, he felt that he should take the opportunity to improve the relationship.
