Inca Elegy (Novel) "The Fall of the Inca Empire" (Volume 2) by Zhang Baotong
By this time, all the dry food had been eaten. Hunger and cold are a constant threat to every soldier. These Spaniards and Indians who came from the Guatemalan rainforest and the warm seaside of Galax were dressed in thin military uniforms and thin military blankets, walking scattered on the snowy plateau three to four thousand meters above sea level. Except for the blinking of their eyes, all the people's bodies seemed to have been frozen and numb. They moved like ghosts, stepping on the snow and staggering slowly in the direction of the setting sun.
Finally, the sun set below the mountain, and the troops could only camp on the snowy field. However, there was no sight or firewood in the desolate snowfield. They could only cut down a few hard and thin old trees standing on the edge of the cliff to make fires. However, this amount of firewood is really too little and too infrequent for burning. Therefore, all the soldiers and their families could only sit around in a few tents and wait for dawn. And because those poor Indians did not have enough tents, they could only brave the cold and sit around on the snow in the open air. Many of them were seriously ill and slowly died one after another after suffering.
When there is no food, hunger seems more terrible than cold. The dual torture of cold and hunger makes people feel the threat of death all the time. After waiting for more than ten hours in the long cold night, it finally dawned. However, the threat of death continues to increase. Because after dawn, the stomach will be even more hungry.
There is no food, but they have to hurry, otherwise, even if they will not die of cold here, they will starve to death here. It was a night full of fear. After dawn, Alvarado saw about one or two hundred Indians lying on the ground. There was also a young Spanish soldier who fell ill and slept in the snow. His young and beautiful wife squatted in front of his body and sobbed. Alvarado wanted to comfort her, but he didn't know what to say. Because at this moment, he felt that no matter what he said, it felt empty and useless.
At this time, a large group of vultures seemed to have smelled the smell of the dead. They flew from a distance like blocking the sky and the sun, chirping and circling above the people. When they saw a dead person with no one around them, they "hooked" " He rushed towards him and ate up the dead body in three or two strokes until only blood stains on the ground and a pile of bones were left. This sight is very terrible.
Both the Spaniards and the Indians regard this kind of vulture as an unlucky sign, so they look at the sun rising very high. Alvarado asked the trumpeter to blow the trumpet to assemble the team, ready to set off and quickly leave this snowy field full of death.
The team gathered, and obviously many people were missing. This made him feel very sad and remorseful, because he was the one who brought everyone to this deserted high-altitude snowfield. He asked the guards to open several bags filled with gold, leaving a fifth of them as a tribute to the royal family. Then he placed all the gold in front of everyone and said, "Soldiers, I am very sorry. I thought it would bring everyone here. Now we are in a very difficult situation. To be honest, I don’t even know what the future is like. But once we get out of the predicament, there will be gold all over the place in front of us."
He took a breath and said, "Now, our future is unpredictable, life and death are uncertain, so I declare that we will distribute our existing gold now. I now put all the gold here, please brothers and Officers and soldiers take their share."
However, the strange thing is that no soldier came to collect the gold. They glanced at the bags of gold on the ground with very cold eyes, and then put their hands on their empty stomachs and patted them. As if to remind their commander that what they need most now is food, not gold. Seeing that none of the soldiers asked for gold, Alvarado waved his hand to the front and asked the troops to set off.
The guard looked at the bags of gold and said to Alvarado, "What should I do with the gold?" Without thinking, Alvarado said, "I don't know if I can even save my life right now. Keep it, if you don't care about these things, just leave them here." The guard said, "Yes, Commander." Then he went to fetch Alvarado's horse.
Alvarado was about to mount his horse when a soldier came over and said to him, "Commander, that Vaglol's wife refused to leave and insisted on staying with her dead husband." When Alvarado heard this, he He said, "No, I have to drag her away." However, the soldier said, "I dragged her, but she refused to leave. If not, you go and talk about it."
Alvarado turned around and came to the young woman's side and whispered, "Mrs. Vaglol, please come with us." However, the young woman who was already very weak with sorrow shook her head. Said, "General, you go. I want to stay here to accompany him. He has no relatives here. If I leave, his soul will be restless. So, I decided to stay here to accompany him."
Alvarado said, "People cannot be resurrected after death, but those who are alive will continue to live. Please don't be like this, follow us quickly. I will take you to the sunny city of Quito." However, The young woman still refused to get up. She said in a very firm tone, "I have decided to live and die with my husband and never be separated. So, general, please stop trying to persuade me. The army needs you, general, please leave quickly. Please don't delay you here." It's precious time." Seeing that the young woman was so determined to stay with her husband, Alvarado said, "Madam, please take care," then turned around and walked towards the troops. Rush in the direction. However, after walking a few steps, he saw a soldier in his fifties squatting in front of a young soldier. Alvarado shouted angrily, "Why aren't you leaving?" The older soldier did not get up, but cried and said to Alvarado, "Tell the commander that my son is dying. "
Alvarado walked up and saw old Juan Velez. His son, Juan Velez Jr., was in a coma and was lying on a military blanket spread on the snow. Alvarado couldn't help but feel a tremor in his heart. He patted Old Juan on the shoulder and said, "Let's go, Old Juan. We can't take him with us." However, Old Juan said, "You go. . I want to stay with him. You have to know that I only have him as a relative, and he is my only hope. If he dies, what’s the point of living for me." Alvarado sighed deeply and said, "Then you Just take care of yourself." Then, he wiped his tears with his chapped palms and quickly chased the troops to the west.
When he walked for a while, he turned around and looked towards the place where he had just stayed. He saw groups of vultures flying from a distance, making frightening screams, and landed on the area where many fallen people had fallen. Soldiers gnawed on the abandoned corpses on the snowfield.
After a while, large snowflakes began to fall from the sky. The wind also began to blow in bursts from the northwest, and became stronger and stronger. The soldiers walked hard forward against the strong wind. Because the infantry had no horses, they could only walk forward step by step in the snow. Although the cavalry was on horseback, their bodies had long been frozen. Everyone looked very weak because they had not eaten anything for two or three days.
Every time you walk along the road, someone will fall down, sometimes even a piece of it will fall down. Therefore, there are always large groups of vultures screaming, chasing, and circling above them. As soon as someone falls down, they will swoop down and immediately eat the dying person into a piece of blood and a pile of bones.
However, most of the people who fell on the snow were Indians who were very sensitive to the cold, and there were also individual Spanish infantrymen. Because cavalry consumes less physical strength and energy while riding, few fall behind or fall. However, as the cold and hunger spread, some of the cavalry soldiers began to be unable to hold on.
It was snowing heavily until noon, and a soldier who was frozen fell from his horse. Seeing this scene, the soldiers nearby were stunned for a moment, then quickly jumped off their horses and rushed towards this side as quickly as vultures. Each soldier held a sharp bayonet in his hand and stabbed hard into the neck and abdomen of the horse whose owner had died. The war horse fell to the ground silently. The soldiers pounced on the horses like vultures, hacking and chopping them hard with their bayonets in order to grab a life-saving meal for themselves.
The soldiers who took the lead all grabbed a large piece of horse meat for themselves, and then started to chew and devour the bloody horse meat. The soldiers who came later did not get the meat, so they had to grab a bone, hold it and chew it with relish. The soldiers who came last did not even catch a hair, but went to rob other people's horse meat. So the soldiers started fighting in the snow and became a mess.
Alvarado came over after hearing the news and saw several soldiers fighting for food and even using knives. Alvarado shouted a few more times, asking the soldiers to distribute the horse meat they had robbed to other soldiers. However, the soldier refused. So, Alvarado took out his pistol, pointed it at the soldiers, and threatened, "I order you to give them some horse meat, otherwise, I will let your horse become someone else's lunch." Then the soldier Seeing the commander pointing his gun at him, he had no choice but to cut off a small piece of horse meat in his hand with a bayonet and distribute it to those who were fighting with them.
However, for an army with two to three thousand soldiers, how many people can the meat of one horse feed? In fact, there are more than 200 horses in the army, which can help the army solve temporary difficulties. However, every horse here belongs to an individual. They were all bought at a high price and transported here after thousands of miles of journey. Therefore, no one will provide their horses to everyone as food.
In the afternoon, they finally reached the edge of the snowfield. However, the edge of the snowfield was not a flat road, but a deep valley and sheer cliffs. Clearly, not only were they going the wrong way, they were going in the wrong direction. Looking at the deep valley cliffs in front of them, the soldiers were very frustrated and desperate.
After discussing with several captain-level officers for a while, Alvarado decided to find a way down the mountain along the cliff. Because they reached the snowfield through a path, there must be a path leading down the mountain, but this path was covered by snow. The way they find their way down the cliff is the same as the way they find a harbor along the coast.
After walking for an unknown amount of time, they finally found a path through the opposite plateau before the sun went down. When we got down to the path, it was already dark. They had no choice but to camp in a sheltered place under the mountain.
In the next few days, they were still marching on an endless snowfield. In the distance about to the northwest, a volcano is erupting. The rumbling sound brings dust all over the sky and blows in the wind, blocking the sky and the sun, shrouding the entire plateau in a dark and gloomy sky. Moreover, the dust became more and more dense, making it difficult for the soldiers to see in the distance, making it difficult to breathe, and their faces were covered with fine black dust.
However, the soldiers did not understand or know this natural phenomenon, but regarded it as a devastating disaster that God punished them. Unable to see the direction clearly, the troops had no choice but to continue walking forward in the direction of the northwest wind. Each day the journey seemed more difficult, and each day more soldiers died. However, they finally reached the other side of the Thousand Miles Plateau. Not far from Riobamba, they saw a large number of farmhouses and crops, as well as a large number of grazing vicuñas. When Alvarado brought the troops to a grain field next to a village, it happened to be the fourth week of their journey.
In that departure ceremony, 500 Spanish soldiers and more than 3,000 Indian auxiliary troops embarked on the journey in a mighty manner. The scene and momentum at that time was so majestic and heroic. Today, there are only 3,780 Spaniards and less than 1,000 Indians among them following their commander out of the mountains and plateaus. The other 120-odd Spaniards and more than 2,000 Indians have followed their commander. It fell in the wilderness and snowfields and became a meal for vultures. Even the soldiers who survived were almost all frostbitten or suffering from diseases. But no matter what, they finally got out of the boundless death zone. Although Alvarado and the soldiers had experienced many occasions of war and suffering, this experience and trip was the most thrilling in terms of disaster and fear.
Alvarado allowed the soldiers to live in this quiet and peaceful village and conduct comprehensive rest in this small village. After resting for seven days a week. The soldiers had almost recovered. Alvarado gathered all his troops and began to command the troops to march towards the northern capital of Quito. At this time, the soldiers were full of emotions and energy, and with the incomparable longing and dream for Quito, the northern capital of the Incas, they went to write the most magnificent and glorious chapter in their conquest career.
However, when they just walked onto the royal road leading to Quito, they incredibly saw a large number of horse hoof marks on the spacious and icy road. After going through so much hardship and life and death, it would be such a shock to them to see that someone had already gone to Quito before them.
