Inca Elegy (Novel) "The Fall of the Inca Empire" (Volume 2) by Zhang Baotong
For hundreds of years, gold has been a symbol of the Inca people's worship of the sun. It is used to decorate temples and palaces and show a sign of personal status. The empire produced a lot of gold every year, but this gold was only owned by the Inca kings, used to decorate temples and palaces, or given to princes and ministers. Therefore, except for the princes and nobles, ordinary people are not allowed to own gold, nor are they allowed to use gold as decoration. People can see a lot of gold in temples and palaces, but this shining gold is of no use to the common people. Therefore, you can see that there is a lot of gold in palaces and temples, but no one will steal it.
However, after Atahualpa issued an order to collect gold from all over the country in exchange for freedom, the Incas discovered that the Spaniards valued gold so much that they learned how precious and important gold was. Therefore, people began to steal or rob. Gold objects in temples or palaces, buried in caves and forests. And much more gold and silver was hidden by the Indians than fell into the hands of the Spaniards. According to the Inca princes who survived the massacre and purge of Quito's army, the gold the Spaniards received was only a fraction of the amount the empire possessed, like a drop of water in a large jar of water.
In fact, the Spaniards also heard this legend. This kind of legend will undoubtedly give them wonderful dreams and hopes for Cusco. That's why they were so enthusiastic and eager to march into Cusco. However, when they actually came to this capital city that was considered to be filled with gold, it was difficult to see the shadow of gold except for the floors and walls of many royal palaces and temples that had been damaged by chipping away gold. .
Since the citizens have hidden the gold, if you want to get the gold, you have to go to the citizens' homes to check and collect it. However, Pizarro ordered that soldiers not be allowed to enter residents' houses, let alone take things from citizens' homes. Violators would be executed on the spot. This blocked the way to enter residents' homes for inspection and confiscation. However, this did not stop the Spaniards from wanting to make a fortune. Because there are hundreds of temples and palaces in the city. The temples and palaces were where Inca gold gathered.
At first, Juan led some soldiers into an unknown small temple. When a priest in the temple saw dozens of Spaniards rushing into the temple with loaded guns and ammunition, he came to stop him and said, "This is a place where the Sun God is worshiped. You must not offend." However, one of Juan's men was named Leguisano. The soldier immediately cursed, "Get out of the way." As he said that, he hit the priest with the butt of his rifle, knocking the priest to the ground.
Other soldiers suddenly poured into the small temple. There were not many areas and houses in the small temple. The soldiers walked around inside and only found some gold used to decorate the sun god in the middle hall. Seeing that the gold received was too little, Juan asked the soldiers to tie up the priest and hang him on a big tree in the temple for torture and interrogation.
Juan waved his whip and asked the priest, "Where is the gold in the temple hidden?" The priest timidly replied, "After King Atahualpa issued the order to redeem freedom with gold, some loyal The nobles of Huascar sent people to the temple and said that the king wanted to raise gold to redeem his freedom and wanted all the temples to hand over gold. So we handed over all the gold."
Juan asked again, "Where is the gold that was handed over?" The priest shook his head and said, "I don't know." Juan said to the soldier, "Wash me hard." The two soldiers beside him waved. The whip struck at the priest. The beating made the priest scream in pain. Perhaps he couldn't bear it anymore, so he shouted, "Stop fighting, I say." Juan waved his hand to ask the soldiers to stop. The priest gasped and said, "I heard that the nobles who were loyal to Huascar organized a loyal team of 150 people to secretly serve Huascar. They collected all the gold in the city. Together, it took three days and three nights to transport it with alpacas. However, the gold was not transported to Cajamarca, but was transported to a deep mountain castle in the mountains north of the city and buried."
When Juan heard this, his eyes lit up and he asked, "Which castle is hidden in the north of the city?" The priest shook his head and said, "I don't know." Then he added, "I heard that those nobles let After the loyal team members of 150 people buried the gold, they asked them to jump into the river to commit suicide on a nearby river cliff. Then, the nobles also hanged themselves in the underground castle where the gold was buried. So, about Not only do I not know about the hidden gold, but no one in the whole city knows either."
Juan didn't believe it at first, and asked the soldiers to arrest the other two priests for interrogation. As a result, the other two priests gave the same statement as this priest. So Juan had no choice but to let the soldiers loosen the priest's bonds and take the soldiers to find other temples. They visited two more small temples, but the results were still disappointing. So the soldier named Leguisano complained to Juan, "In Cajamarca, they say Cusco is full of gold, but we have been running all morning and haven't gotten much." Juan He comforted him and said, "Cusco is indeed full of gold, but the locals have hidden it all."
Leguisano said, "I don't think there's anything to find in these small temples. It's better to go to the big temples and halls to look. Maybe you can find something there." Alonso on the side also said immediately, " By the way, Captain, I went to the Coricancha temple last time I came to Cusco. Not only was it wrapped in gold foil, but it also had a solid gold base for the mummy of the Inca king." Juan heard this. , and immediately said, "Very good, let's go to the Kolikancha Temple."
Alonso took everyone to the tall and magnificent Coricancha Temple in a short time. The soldier stood in front of the Corikancha Temple, looking up at the temple hall wrapped in gold foil, and was so excited that he could hardly believe his eyes. Although this place has been looted, the outside of the hall clearly shows signs of being demolished and chopped. However, there is still a lot of gold leaf left on it that has not been removed.
The priests immediately came to dissuade him, but the soldiers rushed in and entered the temple. The soldiers first followed Alonso into the inner hall. When they saw the mummy of the Inca king still placed there, the soldiers rushed forward and grabbed the gold objects and gold seats inlaid on it. Especially the gold bases under the mummy of the Inca king, each weighing dozens of kilograms. And the golden sun, which is about one meter in diameter and is shining with golden light, is even more attractive.
The priests were greatly alarmed when they saw the soldiers destroying the mummy of their king, and they all gathered around to protect it. However, the Spanish soldiers deliberately broke or pushed the mummy into pieces, which frightened the priests into protecting the mummy with their bodies. It was just that the Spanish only had gold in their eyes, snatched away the gold base, and were not interested in the mummies. This prevented those mummies from being seriously damaged.
The soldier named Legisano was the first to grab the shining golden sun. The golden sun was embedded in the stone wall and was very solid. However, the Spanish soldier just spent an hour or two to smash it off the stone wall with the butt of his gun. When the golden sun fell from the wall, Leguisano almost fainted from the altar with excitement. He lay down on the golden sun, panting and closing his eyes, dreaming of a dream that was both realistic and intoxicating that he had never experienced before.
In another large room in the temple, the soldiers also found twelve boxes made of silver. Each box is four meters high and one meter wide, and contains corn dedicated to the Sun God, because the Indians believe that the Sun God eats corn. Some soldiers also broke into the priests' houses and saw that the tableware used by the priests were all made of gold and silver. Without any excuse, they took away all the gold and silver products here.
There is a golden garden dedicated to the Sun God in the southwest corner of the Sun Temple. The garden is full of flowers, plants and trees. These flowers, plants and trees actually have the entire process from germination to flowering and bearing fruit. There are also many birds and animals living in the garden. Birds were perching on the tops of the trees and chirping, butterflies and bees were gathering nectar in the flowers, and people were using fountains to water the flowers and plants and feed the birds. This feeling and scene can be said to be vivid, vivid, and real. The Spaniards who suddenly burst into the garden were stunned. If someone hadn't seen the bright and attractive golden flowers and couldn't help but pick them with their hands, they wouldn't have known that these animals and plants were carefully carved with gold and silver, and even the water pipes Izumi water is made of pure gold and silver. It can be said that everything in the entire Golden Garden is made of gold and silver. Therefore, the entire garden was robbed by the Spaniards, leaving nothing behind.
It was early afternoon, but there was endless gold and silver for them to grab. So, how could these Spaniards go back to the military camp for lunch? They are like farmers desperately grabbing the fruits after autumn, happily grabbing the gold and silver in front of them. Because they know that if they cannot snatch these treasures in time, they will be snatched away by others soon.
Then, they hurriedly entered the nearby Moon Palace, Electric Palace, Thunder Palace and Star Palace to rob. There are many corns grown in the Moon Palace Garden. The stalks, leaves, and ears of corn were all made of gold. There were more than twenty sheep and lambs grazing in the cornfield, and a shepherd was driving the sheep with a wooden stick. And these are all made of pure gold. In addition, there are a large number of large urns, cups, pots and other utensils made of gold, silver or green amphibole next to the garden. However, this robbery caused catastrophic and devastating damage to these temples and palaces. Not only were all the gold items looted, but other items in the temples and palaces were also smashed and destroyed. After the robbery, the temples and palaces were left in a state of tragedy and chaos.
