Inca Elegy (Novel) "The Fall of the Inca Empire" (Volume 2) by Zhang Baotong
This kind of human sea battle is actually a massacre. The swords and guns collided, the sound of killing was loud, short arrows flew like shuttles, javelins flew, and stone throwers shot rocks at the opponent. The soldiers' shouts and screams when they were stabbed by weapons merged into one, and the scene of killing each other was even more horrific. At this time, the Quito people who had just been frightened by the Spanish guns and fled in all directions, under the pressure of the supervising troops, began to fight back against the pursuing Incas with superior force. Relying on the obvious superior force and the strength of the northerners, The Inca soldiers ferociously surrounded and squeezed towards the river bank. The Incas could no longer resist and almost retreated to the edge of the Mantaro River. If they continue to retreat, the Incas will be destroyed. At this time, Almagro commanded the Spanish cavalry to have crossed the river bank, riding his horse and waving his sword, charging towards the Quito soldiers wearing red military uniforms.
The Spanish cavalry rushed into the melee between the two armies like the autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves. When they saw the soldiers in red uniforms, they swung their swords to kill them. While the Quito soldiers and the Inca soldiers were fighting in full swing, such a brave new force was suddenly added, and the battle situation immediately reversed. When the Quito soldiers saw the Spanish cavalry rushing towards them like an iron stream, they didn't care that there was someone behind them to supervise the battle, so they broke up and fled. Although the war supervising troops killed many fleeing soldiers, they still could not stop the fleeing soldiers. Soon, the fleeing soldiers even broke down the defense lines of the supervising troops. This resulted in a direct encounter between the soldiers supervising the battle and the Spanish cavalry. These war supervising troops are elite troops composed of the Liwa tribe in the north. They are not only brutal and ferocious, but also bloodthirsty and warlike. They have gone against the wind and thousands of miles in the battles of the Inca Empire and are invincible, making the other side often frightened.
However, the short axes they held were obviously at a disadvantage compared to the long swords wielded by the Spanish cavalry. Therefore, the Spanish cavalry rushed over like arrows, regardless of whether they were Quidos or Livas. They slashed with their swords and immediately cut down a large number of these Livas who were supervising the battle. These Liwa people who were not afraid of death immediately discovered that they were no match for these big white men. If they continued to resist, they would only die. They immediately dropped their hatchets and javelins, mixed in with the crowd of other soldiers, and began to flee.
The Spanish cavalry and Inca soldiers chased them all the way to the end of the canyon, killing the Quito soldiers until rivers of blood flowed and corpses were scattered all over the ground. Fortunately, some fast-running soldiers escaped to the mountain pass castle in the north, and under the organization of Quiskis, they used the mountain pass to temporarily block the pursuit of the Spanish cavalry and the Incas. This allowed the Spanish cavalry and the Incas to stop. pursued.
At this time, it was already dark, but inside and outside the strong castle in the north of Haoha Town, where Quito soldiers fled in droves, there were nearly 20,000 shocked Quito soldiers crowded inside and outside. Only one or two people could pass through the castle's entrance and exit, but thousands of people were squeezing inside. The castle was already crowded with soldiers. Panting, they lay down on the dry and hard stone floor, thankful that they could escape from this massacre. Those who came in later could only go through the passage in the middle of the castle and find a place on the hillside behind the castle. Therefore, the hillsides were also crowded with fleeing soldiers.
In a narrow stone room in the castle, Tunu, the deputy commander of the army, and several other generals were sitting on stone benches. They bowed their heads and remained silent, looking dejected and defeated, waiting for the commander. Kiskis gave the order to retreat. Because more than 20,000 soldiers were crowded into this small area, with neither food nor drink, nor even a place to sit.
Suddenly, an unknown soldier shouted, "The white man is coming on horseback." The soldiers inside and outside the castle immediately became frightened and panicked. The soldiers in the castle ran towards the northern hillside, and those who had not yet entered the castle were squeezing in and out of the small door of the castle as if they were lifeless. For a time, the entire castle was filled with panic and shouting.
The deputy commander and the generals hurriedly ran out of the stone house, came to the city wall and looked into the depths of the canyon, but did not see any pursuers. So Tunu shouted loudly at the panicked soldiers, "How can there be any white people chasing you on horseback? Why are you panicking?" Then, he asked the soldiers loudly, "Who shouted just now? I Cut off his head." However, the soldiers lowered their heads and did not answer, still in panic.
After returning to the stone house, a general named Nanaska said to Tunu, "Dear Deputy Commander, how long do you think this battle will last?" Tunu shook his head and said, "I don't know. , anyway, you will lose no matter how long you fight." After hearing what the deputy commander said, another general named Kechukaya also boldly said, "If you can't win, why fight it? It's better to surrender. At least you can keep yourself alive." If you said this in normal times, you would be beheaded in public. However, instead of being criticized or opposed by anyone, his words resonated with everyone.
General Nanasca also said, "How can we, with short swords and axes, win against the white men with Pegasus and long swords? Otherwise, this battle will become more and more irritating and suffocating. In the end, we won't let him win." They cut off their heads.”
At this point, Quechukaya said to deputy commander Tunu, "Otherwise, you can persuade Commander Kiskis to surrender to the big white man early. At least you can save one life." Tunu After thinking deeply for a moment, he said, "I want to say this to him, but if he turns his face and accuses me of betrayal, wouldn't he want to chop off my head?" Nanaska encouraged the deputy commander and said, "If he wants to To kill you, we will kill him first, and then support you as the leader." Tunu frowned deeply and said, "Do you really mean what you say?" Several other generals said in unison, "Seriously." Tunu said, "Okay, I'll try to see."
Just as he was talking, Kiskis inspected from outside and returned to the house. This Quito, who was already looking old, suddenly seemed to have become older and thinner, and his back began to bend a little. He coughed loudly several times in succession, and said to his deputy Tunu with deep concern, "I don't think it's better for the soldiers to stay in this palm-sized place, without food or thirst, without any rest, noisy, and shouting. Let them withdraw now and leave early, so as not to let the Spaniards chase them tomorrow and then it will be too late."
Tunu asked, "Honorable Commander Kiskis, where are we going to retreat?" Kiskis said, "Of course it's Quito." Tunu said, "But what should we do if we retreat to Quito? The Spaniards We will definitely fight them." Kiskis said, "It will be easier when we get to Quito. It is our hometown and there are many familiar people. We will have an advantage when fighting the Spaniards." Tunu asked, " What advantage does it have?" Kiskis said, "Didn't I tell you, we are familiar with many people there." Tunu said, "Even if there are many people familiar with each other, it is still a defeat. We have fought so hard with the Spaniards. There have been many battles, but in which time have we not become familiar with each other? But which time have we won?"
After hearing this, Kiskis became unhappy and said, "According to what you said, we won't fight and just surrender." Tunu sighed and said, "Whether we fight or not, we will be defeated. So, I feel that since we have fought so many battles and still can’t win, it’s really better to make peace with the Spaniards and avoid having so many soldiers die.”
When Kiskis heard this, he slapped the stone table and cursed, "Bold, what, you want to surrender? Do you want to betray?" Tunu corrected, "It's not surrender and betrayal, I said peace." Skis asked, "How to make peace? If you don't surrender, can they make peace with you?" Then he shouted to the generals next to him, "Tie up this traitor who wants to surrender to the white people. ." However, instead of arresting the deputy commander Tunu, the generals held short axes and surrounded Kiskis with angry eyes.
Kiskis did not expect that the generals would come to attack him collectively, so he said to the generals, "You all want to betray me? This is a crime of beheading and genocide." However, Nanasca said, "We don't want to betray anyone. People, but we are tired of it and don’t want to fight anymore, because if we continue to fight, it will only lead to death. Therefore, we don’t want to follow you to death.”
Kiskis pointed at everyone and cursed, "You cowards have scared the Spanish white people out of their wits." He said, and shouted outside, "Guards." However, before he could finish shouting, several The sharp hatchet had already chopped off his head. At this point, Atahualpa's two most loyal and capable army commanders have left this world.
A group of guards rushed in and were horrified to see that their leader Kiskis' head had been chopped off. At this time, the deputy commander Tunu said to the guards, "Kiskes wanted to betray the empire and has been executed by us. You all return to your own ranks and obey the order." The guards listened to the deputy commander's words and left the stone house together. .
After killing Kiskis, Tunu said to several generals, "After we kill Kiskis, we can't go back to Quito, so we can only let the soldiers disperse and go home." The generals thought for a while, and that was all they could do, so they nodded together. So Tunu walked out of the stone house and said to the crowded soldiers in the castle, "Soldiers, we will never win the war with the Spanish whites. In the end, we can only die. Therefore, I declare I want everyone to disperse and go home, and never go to war and die again.”
Hearing this, the soldiers were startled for a moment, then jumped and cheered, running around telling each other. Immediately, the soldiers gathered in groups and began to walk toward the north on their way home. Originally, the soldiers had just lost the battle and were pessimistic and had low morale. However, now they were not running away and retreating, but going home. Therefore, the entire road heading north was filled with laughter and singing.
The next morning, when Manco and Almagro led the soldiers to surround the castle, they found that the castle was empty. Entering the stone room, they saw a man's head being chopped off and lying on the cold stone floor. Manco recognized him at a glance as Quiskis, the commander of the Quito army.
