Inca Elegy (Novel) "The Fall of the Inca Empire" (Volume 2) by Zhang Baotong
At this time, Soto and his cavalry squad had been living in this town called Huanuco for two or three days. After waiting until Pizarro and Juan's squads arrived, they reported the enemy's situation to Commander Pizarro. He also discussed with Pizarro some of his ideas for advancing south. Then, he led the cavalry team and continued to advance south.
In many mountain passes and villages where they went south, small groups of Indian soldiers could be seen either burning villages or destroying rope bridges, making all the rope bridges leading to the south destroyed and impassable. Soto had no choice but to lead his cavalry squad across the river on a raft and continue southward along the Royal Road. Along the way, small groups of Indian soldiers could often be seen not far away from them, but when they chased them, those people quickly disappeared without a trace. In this way, they drove straight south, and in just one week they arrived at Haoha, where the Chalkuch Horse Army was stationed.
Coha is located in the middle of a very large green canyon on the banks of the Mantaro River in the Cordillera Mountains. It was once the capital of a large tribe conquered by the Incas, and now it is an important town on the way from Cusco, the capital of the Inca Empire, to Quito, the northern capital. The land here is flat, the climate is pleasant, the water is abundant, and the rivers are crisscrossed. In particular, the channels used to irrigate farmland are dense and regular. Therefore, it has a large population and rich products, making it an ideal place for agricultural production and life. After the Quito army defeated the Cuzco army, Atahualpa sat here and remotely commanded the Quito army to carry out a bloody massacre of the Huascar royal family. Later, after Chalcuchima captured Cusco, he also escorted the captured Huascar, the queen and their mother here, and then stayed here for a long time in accordance with Atahualpa's instructions.
Since the Indians gave up the guard of the mountain pass castle, Soto and his cavalry squad easily occupied the castle and headed straight from the castle to the Mantaro River. As the temperature gradually rises, the ice and snow on the high slopes of the surrounding mountains begin to melt, causing the river water to surge and the river surface to widen. On the other side of the Mantaro River, tens of thousands of Indian soldiers have gathered on the shore, like an overwhelming swarm of migratory birds, squeezing the spacious slope on the other side of the river into an airtight place. All kinds of war flags are fluttering in the wind, and the wind is hunting. They saw only a small group of Spaniards riding horses to the river bank, holding javelins and tomahawks, and shouting "OoO" one after another at them in demonstration.
Originally, there was a small bridge between the two banks, but the Indians had destroyed it. Soto stood in front of the demolished bridge and looked at it for a long time. He originally wanted to cross the river temporarily, find a place to stay, rest for a while, and wait for an opportunity to cross the river. However, relying on the natural barrier of the Mantaro River, the Indians thought that the Spaniards would not dare to cross the river, so they kept waving flags and shouting across the river towards the other side, causing the canyon to echo with bursts of sound.
The shouts and provocations of the Indians really angered these Spaniards. Since defeating the Inca army in the battle of Cajamarca and capturing the Inca king alive, the Spaniards no longer take the Indians seriously. In their eyes, no matter how many Indians there are, they are just a group of bluffing and frightened birds. Therefore, when I saw the Indian soldiers demonstrating and shouting at them on the other side, I couldn't help but ask to rush over to kill their morale and destroy their prestige.
At first, Soto was worried that we were outnumbered and could not fight head-on. However, when the soldiers all stared with anger and couldn't bear it any longer, Soto simply waved his sword and shouted, "Soldiers, charge, follow us." I'll fight across the river." Then he took the horse, took the lead, jumped into the cold river water, and rushed towards the other side of the river. The soldiers couldn't bear it for a long time. When they saw the commander taking the lead in jumping into the water, they shouted and jumped into the water. The river was not very deep, so the soldiers led their horses, waved their swords, and swam and ran forward in the river. When they came to the middle of the river, the water was relatively deep, and the soldiers floated and swam toward the other side.
Originally, the Indians wanted to use the river as a natural barrier. Although the river was not very wide, a large amount of water from melted ice and snow flowed into the river, making the water ice-cold and biting. Therefore, they never expected that the Spaniards would be so brave and tenacious. He actually jumped into the cold river water and rushed towards them. In fact, for the tens of thousands of Indians gathered there, the sixty or so Spaniards swimming over were nothing more than throwing themselves into a trap and coming to die. However, these Indians were just as the Spaniards thought. They were frightened by the bluff. When they saw the Spaniards leading their horses, wielding swords, jumping into the cold river and charging towards them, they were immediately struck by this unexpected scene. Terrified.
Many soldiers were so frightened that they began to run back. When the people in front ran away, the people behind them also ran back. Suddenly, the formation of more than 20,000 people immediately became chaotic, and they fled in all directions as if they were defeated. Some brave soldiers did not run away immediately. They waited until the Spanish soldiers swam to the shore, and then threw their javelins over them. However, because the distance was too far, the javelins landed more than ten meters away from the Spanish soldiers.
By the time the Spanish soldiers reached the shore, the Indians had already run away. Soto ordered his soldiers to mount their horses and pursue him. So the soldiers on horseback chased them all the way along the river bank with swords drawn. Due to the large number of people and the narrow road, the Indians were overcrowded and huddled together. They could not run fast and had nowhere to hide, so they were chased by the Spaniards on horseback. The poor Indians were as if they were seeing ghosts when they saw the Spaniards. They just ran for their lives and didn't even have the consciousness to resist or parry. As a result, they were quickly chopped down to the ground piece by piece by the Spanish soldiers wielding long swords. .
Deputy Commander Hasguana, along with Usaka, Supaipa and others, stood on a high slope next to the military camp and watched and commanded. Originally, they did not expect that the Spanish cavalry would cross the river, so they asked the soldiers to shout loudly to intimidate the troops and scare away the enemy. However, what was unexpected was that the Spaniards actually swam across the river and rushed over. When he was about to direct the soldiers to fire short arrows and throw javelins at the swimming enemy soldiers, he saw the soldiers suddenly became a mess. He immediately asked General Pumatanka to lead the guards to supervise the battle and not allow the soldiers to retreat. However, before the troops supervising the battle arrived, the soldiers by the river had already fled in all directions. Then, there was a scene of Spanish cavalry rushing onto the river bank, slashing and chasing with swords. The fleeing soldiers were like groups of hunted prey, falling one by one under the Spanish butcher's knife. This horrific scene of massacre made the senior Indian commanders and commanders watching the battle on the high slopes tremble with fear. Therefore, when they saw a group of Spanish cavalry charging towards them, they hurriedly asked Pumatanka to lead the guards to escort them down the high slope and evacuate in the direction of Bilkas in the south.
When they retreated to the mountain pass south of the canyon area and looked back, they saw that the battlefield where there had been constant killings and wailing was now silent, and the river was still flowing quietly under the bright sunshine. But the flat grassland by the river bank was littered with corpses, and the strong smell of blood could be smelled by the wind. A thrilling battle ended so quickly that it was almost impossible to recall.
Hasquana stood on a high slope and sighed in frustration. He felt that there seemed to be nothing wrong with both tactics and strategy, but the soldiers had too little fighting spirit. However, these soldiers have experienced many major battles, experienced the decisive battle with the main Inca force in Chimborazo, and also experienced the decisive battle with Huascar on the outskirts of Cusco. But they were able to win despite being at a disadvantage, but why did tens of thousands of people lose miserably at the hands of dozens of Spaniards?
Pumatanka, who was beside him, seemed to have seen what he was thinking, so he persuaded him, "Dear Vice-Commander, please don't be sad. It's not that our soldiers are not brave, nor that they have no fighting spirit, but they took the Spanish white people's Horses are regarded as gods and sacred objects. You also know that we Indians regard gods as very noble and awe-inspiring, so they dare not fight with gods."
Hasguanas said with a worried look, "If this is the case, how can we fight with Spain again?" Pumatanca said, "This is not difficult, as long as we can win a battle and let the soldiers know that the Spanish are not He is not a god, and he is not invincible, so the soldiers will not be so afraid when they fight Spain again."
Hasguana said, "Yes, we should win the battle, but under this situation, how can we win the battle?" Pumatanca said, "Don't worry, deputy commander, please give me three thousand Soldier, I promise to win the battle for the deputy commander." Hasguaña shook his head and said, "Twenty thousand of us were so frightened that we fled when we saw Spain. What can three thousand of us do? Are we not going to die for Spain? "Pumatanka said, "If we see the Spanish white people and run away in fear, let alone 20,000 people, even if there are 100,000 people, we will be completely defeated. But if we have 5,000 people who can fight to the death, we will not let them. The Spaniards beat us like this."
Supaipa felt that Pumatanca's words were reasonable and said, "If you want to win the war with the Spaniards, you have to send elite soldiers to resist them." Hasguana said, "Well, I will give you three thousand elite soldiers. I hope you can win." Able to assess the situation and act according to the opportunity, fight if you can and retreat if you can't, but don't fight Spain head-on and suffer another disastrous defeat. If we lose again and again, I'm afraid the soldiers will no longer have fighting ability."
Pumatanka said, "Please rest assured, deputy commander. Pumatanka will never fight a battle where victory is uncertain."
Hasguana said, "Look, how many soldiers are there in the army now." So Pumatanka asked his subordinate officers to gather the troops. After counting, the total number was less than three to four thousand. Hasguana thought for a while and said to Pumatanka, "You stay with three thousand soldiers to cover the attack. I will retreat with the remaining more than a thousand soldiers and prepare to retreat to Cus." Co joins forces with Kiskis." Pumatanka said, "Yes."
Pumatanka left more than a thousand Liwa soldiers who were commanding the guard, and selected two thousand elite soldiers from the remaining troops. A total of three thousand people formed an elite force to prevent the Spanish from advancing southward. .
After Hasguana led other officers and soldiers to withdraw first, Pumatanca took the large army to the small town of Bilkas for rest and reorganization, and asked a capable lieutenant under him to lead more than 200 people to serve as a saboteur. Bridges, destroying the ground, setting up obstacles, or guarding dangerous passes to harass and prevent the Spaniards from moving south smoothly.
