Inca Elegy (Novel) "The Fall of the Inca Empire" (Volume 2) by Zhang Baotong
On March 24, 1534, a week after Manco's coronation, another grand gathering was held in the Inca Square to honor Juan Pizarro and Gonzalo, who were mayors of Cusco. Pizarro held the swearing-in ceremony. Although this ceremony was not as grand and lively as Manco's coronation, it had unusual significance to both Spaniards and Indians.
At this meeting attended by only four to five hundred Spaniards and nearly a thousand Inca princes and nobles, Marquis Pizarro announced the establishment of the Cusco Municipal Committee and appointed his two younger brothers Juan and Gonzalo. as mayor and appointed six other Spaniards as municipal councilors. From then on, the municipal administration of the city fell into the hands of the conquerors.
Under the auspices of Pizarro, Juan and Gonzalo took the oath under the flag of the King of Spain and delivered their inaugural speeches. Afterwards, the Marquis of Pizarro gave a speech. He said, "My fellow officers and soldiers, the expedition we are engaged in is an arduous and great undertaking. With the blessing of God, we have achieved an unprecedented and great victory. We marched into Cusco and The occupation of Cusco is not just to obtain gold, but to use it as a new territory and world for the King of Spain, making it a new continent and a new world that the Spaniards yearn for. To this end, General Almagro and I After in-depth consultations and discussions with Mr. Riquelme, the treasurer, and Father Valverde, they decided to allocate some palaces and prince residences in the Inca Palace to the soldiers as their private property. We also plan to transfer the sun god Zhen to the soldiers. The Palace of Women was converted into a Christian monastery, and soldiers were encouraged to run businesses, set up shops, and build family businesses in order to make a fortune and prosper the economy. We do not want the soldiers to return to Spain after gaining some wealth, but to keep them, Rely on them and let them work with us to create a new future. At the same time, we must continue to attract people with ideals and aspirations in Spain to move to the New World, develop the New World, and make the New World we occupy truly the King of Spain. an overseas colony."
Pizarro's speech had a huge and profound impact on the lives of Indians and Spaniards in Cusco. He was running Cusco as a permanent colonial city for the long term, and they would become permanent residents of the city.
Immediately afterwards, they began to allocate some royal palaces, temples and mansions of Inca princes around the Inca Plaza, which were originally used as military camps, to Spanish officers and soldiers as private residences. Each soldier could be allocated a large mansion, but some temples and palaces were too large to be allocated to one person, so they were divided among two, three, or four or five soldiers. It can be said that the house and yard assigned to each officer and soldier is a large manor.
The Spanish cavalryman Legisano who "lost the sun before sunrise" gambled with Juan and the others and lost his share of the golden sun in the Palace of the Sun, which was equivalent to three shares. Item for 1800 gold pesos. Originally, he had the property obtained by three infantrymen, and he was a rich man by all accounts. However, that gamble instantly turned him into a penniless and empty-handed poor man.
However, the army gave him and a soldier named Gonzalez a temple to the sun god. This temple is much larger than the one in Cajamarca where Atahualpa was imprisoned. The small courtyard is surrounded by a two-meter-high wall. There is a main hall specifically for sacrifices in the courtyard. There are five houses on both sides of the main hall and behind it. Because Leongino was a sergeant, his position was slightly higher than that of Gonzalez, who was a sergeant, so he was assigned the main hall and the other two bungalows in the temple. Gonzalez was assigned three other bungalows. A large open space behind the house is divided into half and half for one person.
The hall was about two to three hundred square meters, and Lesagino decided to turn it into a casino. So he borrowed a large sum of money from Juan and Gonzalo, bought a lot of wood, and asked the craftsmen to make 20 large wooden tables and more than a hundred chairs, which were placed in the hall. The other two bungalows have twelve rooms each. And when he got this half of the courtyard, he also got 9 young female priests and five male priests living in this courtyard. He wanted to use these houses and women to open a brothel, but his dream was shattered by Gonzalez.
That afternoon, just after lunch, Father Valverde was anxious to build the monastery, so he came to the Spanish headquarters and asked Marquis Pizarro to send soldiers into the Palace of the Virgin to drive out all the people inside. The King of Spain asked Pizarro to take a certain number of missionaries abroad in his fleet; and in the future, every expedition ship must take some missionaries with it, requiring the missionaries to follow the footsteps of the expeditionary force to spread the Holy Spirit. of truth and devoted himself to the spread of the gospel with selfless zeal. However, the heart of the bishop of Cusco became numb and cold due to fanaticism and selfishness, and he had no sympathy for the unfortunate natives. In order to build a Christian monastery, more than 1,600 virgins and maids were driven out of the Palace of the Virgins.
Pizarro sent two infantry squads to follow Father Valverde to the Palazzo Vecchio and asked the priests to open the main entrance of the Palazzo Vecchio. However, the priests refused, saying that the door could only be opened when a virgin entered the palace. However, Father Valverde did not listen to the priest at all, and immediately asked the soldiers to break down the door, and then led the soldiers into the palace.
Because the Spaniards knew in advance that they were going to drive out the people in the Palace of the Virgins, they came to wait in front of the Palace of the Virgins early so that they could seize a young and beautiful woman for themselves after the women in the palace were driven out. Especially those soldiers under Almagro, they did not catch up with the opportunity to get an Inca woman after the Inca King was captured. Therefore, many soldiers did not have a woman and wanted to take this opportunity to grab a woman for themselves. Moreover, there are hundreds of palaces and temples in the city of Cusco. These palaces and temples house a large number of princesses, princesses, priestesses and maids, at least more than 10,000 people. They are also housed together with the houses. Divided and occupied by the Spanish.
When the virgins and maids in the Palace of the Virgins poured out from the gate, the Spanish soldiers faced them. It was like an army of more than 1,600 people and an army of more than 500 people attacking each other and fighting. together. The women in the palace ran desperately towards the outside of the palace, while the men outside the palace scrambled for it as if they were robbing treasure. Many Spaniards hold one woman with one hand and use the other hand to fight for other women. There are so many women here. They just think that their hands are too few and they can't grab more. Some soldiers even robbed three, four, or five or six, but they felt that there were not enough, because these women were resources that could be easily obtained without spending money.
These virgins and maids had been living in the Palace of Virgins. Once they were driven out of the palace, they were homeless and crowded in the square outside the palace, at a loss. As a result, the Spaniards swarmed in, grabbing young and beautiful women and taking them back to their homes as tools to vent their lust and as maids to serve them, just like robbing gold treasures. For a time, the entire Sun Palace Square became a battlefield for people to fight for people. Sometimes in order to snatch a woman, the Spanish soldiers quarreled and even fought, and in the end the officers had to intervene and provide justice.
The cavalryman named Gonzalez, who was assigned to the same temple courtyard as Leguisano, was a young man in his mid-twenties. He used to be a poor farmer in the Spanish countryside and wanted to find work in the city. However, he didn't find any work, but he encountered Pizarro recruiting troops. Since Columbus discovered the New World, people's hearts have been filled with endless hopes for wealth. However, many subsequent expeditions and adventures have proven the disillusionment of these hopes. Even though the conquest of Mexico has always been regarded as a great feat, it did not Give people the golden results they hope for. Therefore, Pizarro's good promises when recruiting soldiers did not have much inspiring and motivating effect on people, because there were too many adventure results that people could not believe, so adventurers were almost regarded as desperate. I just want to try my luck from adventure. At that time, after much hesitation, the young man joined the cavalry squad of the expeditionary force. But this guy is a miser who regards money as his life. He never gambles or spends money carelessly. Therefore, almost no one in the cavalry team wanted to associate with him, and some even hated him.
That day, he did not want to go to the Palace of the Virgin because he had an Inca woman who was assigned to him by the army in the Plaza de Armas and whom Captain Gonzalo had brought over from Cajamarca not long ago. He feels that one woman is enough, but having too many women will increase the cost of living. However, he wanted to see the soldiers fighting for women, so he came to the gate of the Virgin Palace.
As the virgins and ladies-in-waiting streamed out of the palace, the soldiers rushed forward, holding them in their arms and grabbing them in their hands. Suddenly, a beautiful girl of seventeen or eighteen years old appeared in front of him. The girl was not only pure and pretty, but also elegant and noble. Her walking posture was light and graceful, and she was heart-warming every step of the way. He felt his heart beating wildly and all the blood in his body boiling, so he ran towards the girl like crazy, and then grabbed the girl's hand tightly. The girl raised her head and looked at him, then lowered her head shyly.
He felt that the girl's face was so beautiful, and just when he was about to hold the girl's face up and take a closer look, Letomundo ran over, pointed at the girl and said, "This girl is mine. "Gonzalez felt that this was Letomundo deliberately causing trouble, because the relationship between the two has always been tense. He glared at Letomundo angrily and said, "How is it possible? I saw her just walking out of the palace gate and went over to hold her back. How could it be yours?" Because None of these women have owners, whoever grabs them first belongs to them. Letomondo argued, "I put her here." Gonzalez said, "Are you dreaming?"
The two argued for a few words before starting to fight. Letomondo suddenly grabbed Gonzalez's collar and tried to force him to give up the girl. However, Gonzalez did not show weakness. He let go of the girl, rushed over and grabbed the opponent's collar, and extended his fist to compete with Letomundo to keep the girl he had snatched.
The fight between the two attracted the attention of others. At this time, Juan came over with some people. He asked others to pull them apart and asked, "What's wrong with you?" Both of them argued that the girl was theirs. Juan glanced at the girl and said to them, "Okay, you all come with me." After that, he took the two of them and the girl to his office. Juan asked both of them to tell the story, and then said to the others around him, "Both of them said that this girl is theirs. Which of you can testify?"
However, everyone remained silent. Finally, Juan took out two gambling dice and said to the two of them, "I don't care whether you are right or not. Now you two roll the dice. Whoever rolls more points will take the girl away. You agree." "?" Letomundo hesitated and said, "I agree."
Gonzalez felt that Juan knew Letomundo was lying but still favored him, so he said, "Otherwise, let the girl speak." However, Juan shook his head and said, "That won't work, she didn't speak. power." After hearing this, Gonzalez had no choice but to nod and said, "Okay, let's roll the dice." As a result, the two threw the two dice on the table, and Letomundo's number was 9. Gonzalez scored 7 points. The girl could only be taken away by Letomundo.
Gonzalez was furious, but he had no choice but to blame himself for not paying much attention to interacting with others. At the critical moment, no one was willing to stand up for him. As long as one person came out to testify for him, that The girl would be his. At the same time, he also hated Juan for deliberately being biased, but he could also understand that Letomundo had been gambling with Juan all day long, and the relationship was so tight, why didn't he turn to him? So, he complained about his bad luck and why he didn't roll the dice correctly. In this way, the girl still didn't deserve what she got.
No matter what he thought, his stomach was still filled with anger. When he came out of Juan's office and walked on the Inca Plaza, he saw that the front door of the Palace of the Virgin had calmed down. All the Spaniards had left, but there were three to four hundred Inca women sitting scattered at the door of the palace. On the edge of the street in front of me, I was looking at the distant horizon with a very sad and desperate look. They may be looking at their hometown in the distance, or they may be looking at the setting sun, because when the sun sets, they can only go to the wilderness in the suburbs to find shelter.
He walked around in front of these women, and then he realized that most of these women were in their thirties or forties, and some were even in their fifties. Of course he knew that in less than ten minutes after the Virgin and the maids were driven out of the Palace of Virgins, all the young and beautiful women were snatched away, leaving only the old and lustful women. Because of their old age and sallow appearance, they are no longer wanted and have nowhere to go but to sit in the square. When they reached a certain age, they would be sent back to their hometown by the King of Inca, where they would be respected by others and live a leisurely and happy life, but they did not expect to suffer such bad luck. And their hometowns are far away, making it impossible for them to return. Even if they return home, they must be escorted by someone sent by the Inca King, and they must never go back alone. In fact, they are homeless.
Looking at these women, Gonzalez suddenly thought why not pick some younger and more beautiful women and take them back to open a brothel? Anyway, the house I have been allocated is so big that I can definitely use it. Although Juan moved the "House of Fraternity" from Cajamarca to the edge of the Inca Plaza, Spanish officers and soldiers were widely distributed throughout the city and would not have much influence on each other's business.
Thinking like this, he started to choose among those women in their thirties and forties. The women were all worried and desperate. When they saw him making a choice, they all waited for his choice with expectant eyes. However, he only selected forty people among them. The selected women looked lucky and followed the command in two lines, walking behind Gonzalez towards a temple not far from the Inca Square. They may have been thinking that they would be pawns for their master. Slaves or servants, but they don't know that their master wants them to do things they least want to do.
Compared with Leguisano, who borrowed money everywhere and was heavily in debt, Gonzalez's most indispensable thing was money. This time he received two shares of gold and silver, totaling more than two thousand gold pesos. In addition to the two 45-pound gold and two 90-pound silver he received in Cajamarca, the total At least fifteen thousand gold pesos. Now that he has been allocated three large houses and a large yard, it is really easy to open a brothel with such a large group of Inca women for nothing. So, within a few days, he hung a big "Happy Home" sign on the courtyard gate.
Although Leguisano also wanted to open a brothel, he wanted to form a one-stop business of "eating, prostitution and gambling" to attract more Spanish soldiers. However, seeing that Gonzalez had already put up the brothel sign, he had no choice but to use the extra room to open a restaurant. He set aside the house near the main hall as a restaurant, two of them as operating rooms, and the other ten houses as restaurants, placing a dining table and a few chairs in each room. The priests and priestesses served as service personnel.
