Inca Elegy (Novel) "The Fall of the Inca Empire" (Volume 2) by Zhang Baotong
After Almagro left Cusco, it seemed to Marquis Francisco Pizarro to be relieved of a worry that had kept him awake. However, conflicts in the world are always like this. After one conflict is resolved, a new one will soon appear. And new conflicts and worries will sometimes be more serious than the original ones.
When Marquis Pizarro forced Almagro to lead his troops to conquer Chile, he did not consider what would happen to the Indians. Because this warlike nation basically behaved docile and obedient after the Spaniards entered the empire, they were forced to accept the plunder of the invaders and watched one king being killed and another king being supported as a puppet. People were destroyed, resources were robbed, temples were turned into stables, palaces were turned into military camps, virgins were driven out of the palace, and princesses were gang-raped by soldiers, but they did not mount any large-scale resistance to defend their kingdom and home. Therefore, the Spaniards were confused by the illusion of the Indians and believed that the Indians had been conquered and could no longer form a climate. It is precisely for this reason that they are unscrupulous towards the Indians, do whatever they want, and bully them as much as they want. At the same time, they also relaxed their vigilance against the Indians.
When Almagro left with his troops, Marquis Pizarro quickly left Cusco and returned directly to Lima. The capital city of Cusco returned to the control of the two brothers Juan and Gonzalo. These two brothers, who were greedy for money, lustful, and addicted to gambling, gathered together to gamble every night, and they often had a lot of money. After losing money in gambling, they took their accomplices and soldiers and started to rob or rob people everywhere. Only Indians, whether princes or commoners, were not immune from robbery. All the young women they fancied were either raped by them, or snatched away to be servants or whores. Even their Inca king was not immune.
After Sankara was forcibly taken to the barracks by Juan and raped, Okoro was also taken away by Gonzalo's men. Although a month passed, the young Inca King Manco sent his bodyguard Tumi Pampa to Gonzalo's barracks several times to ask Gonzalo to release his people. However, Gonzalo occupied Okoro and refused. After failing to get her back several times in a row, Manco knew that Okoro would not come back, because he knew that Gonzalo had always been infatuated with Okoro and had regarded her as his favorite concubine and kept her in the boudoir. Go to bed every night.
On this day, Manco was accompanied by two other concubines, sitting at the table and drinking alone. While drinking, he calculated how long it had been since Topa and Umu left Cusco with the outpost personnel of the Spanish Chilean Expeditionary Force. After all, it was only a short seven or eight days, but these seven or eight days made the young Inca king feel as if he had been there for several years.
He has been longing for news about them, but there is no news about them. He doesn't know if something happened to them, or how they handled the matter. He doesn't even know where they are now. If he knew, he could at least send someone to find or contact him. While he was lost in thought, Tumi Pampa came in and said that the palace priest Umu requested an audience.
As soon as he heard that Wu Mu was back, he stood up from the table so suddenly that his voice was a little excited when he spoke, "Please come in quickly."
Wumu entered the room and bowed down. Manco stood up and helped the priest up, asking the princess next to him to give him a seat. Then, he couldn't wait to ask, "How about going out this time?" Wumu also looked a little excited and whispered, "Let's go all the way along the royal avenue. Heading north, wherever we went, we contacted the princes and chiefs through the local village chief or town chief. They all hated the Spaniards and were worried that no one would lead them to rise up against the invaders. They all swore that, As long as the king waves his flag, they will rise up with him and fight the hateful Spaniards to the end."
Manco looked a little excited and said, "How many people can they have?" Umu said, "At least 40,000 to 50,000 people. Moreover, people from other places can also be mobilized, probably 10,000 to 200,000 people." Manco said happily, "Great. As long as there are 100,000 people, the Spaniards are dead, and retaking the city of Cusco is just around the corner."
Then, he asked Wumu, "Then what do you think we should do?" Wumu said, "I have already thought about this. You have to find a way to leave Cusco, and I will arrange for someone to pick you up at the mountain pass outside the city. You. Once you get out of the mountain pass, everything will be easy to handle."
Manco said, "That's great." After that, he said to Wumu, "Well, you go home and rest first, and then rush outside the city early tomorrow morning to make arrangements and send people to greet me. I'm in the city I'm ready and waiting for your news." Wumu said, "Yes, my dear king, I will rush back to the mountains tomorrow, and I will send someone to pick you up out of the city in two days at the latest."
After Wu Mu left, Manco called several other concubines together and said to them, "You all listen to me. You must be prepared in the past two days and follow me out of the city at any time. In addition to the things you wear, You can't bring anything else with you, just like you usually go out with me." As he spoke, he said in a stronger tone, "This is a secret operation and cannot be leaked to anyone, because once the Spaniards find out, we will Even if you are dead. Do you remember?" The concubines replied in unison, "Remember, my king." But Sankara interrupted, "What about Okoro? She is still in Gonzalo. In the barracks." Manco said, "I can't control her anymore. Let's wait until I lead the army back to Cusco."
Then, Manco called the guard Tumi Pampa and asked him to prepare the sedan for departure, and secretly reopened the gate to the backyard of the palace so that he could leave the palace through the back door, so that it would not be easy for the Spanish to leave. people discovered.
Finally, Umu sent someone. The person who came was a prince named Vajkar. He told Manco that Umu had sent thousands of people to meet him at a mountain pass in the north outside the city, asking him to leave Cusco as soon as possible. In order not to attract the attention of the Spanish, Manco chose to leave Cusco in the afternoon and went straight to the North Mountain.
It was an afternoon in October 1535. The sun was very bright and there were white clouds in the blue sky. In the city of Cusco under the sun, everything is as usual. At this time, the Spanish barracks was very quiet. After lunch, the soldiers had either taken a lunch break to recharge themselves for the night battle; or they were staying in their dormitories or at home. All in all, it was very quiet in the barracks.
At this time, in the backyard of the Villacocha Palace, the eight-person sedan chair of Inca King Manco had also lifted up, quietly left the backyard gate, and walked along a secluded street toward the north of the city. The sedan was carried by eight people, accompanied by twenty or thirty princes in front and behind the sedan, and guarded by more than twenty palace guards. At the same time, there were two small sedans behind the big sedan, in which Sankara and another princess were seated. The sedan arrived at a street corner not far from the Palace Square. More than 200 Indian soldiers waiting here, led by a prince, also joined the ranks of protecting the Inca King. In order to avoid people's attention, the group of people walked quickly northward along a relatively remote street.
After walking for about an hour, they finally reached the outskirts of Cusco. At this time, the sun was still warm, and the soldiers carrying the sedan were sweating profusely and panting. However, Manco did not dare to let the soldiers stop and rest for a while, because the Inca King's travels were always very grand and elegant, and also very eye-catching. As long as he did not reach Beishan Pass and saw the troops led by Wu Mu to meet him, he would not dare to relax at all.
After leaving the city, there was originally a main road leading directly to the mountain pass of Beishan. However, for the sake of speed and safety, Manco asked the soldiers to take a small road. Passing through the castle built by the ancient Incas, the path was rugged and winding in the mountains. It went up the mountain and downhill. The road was particularly difficult to walk. But the soldiers kept taking turns carrying the sedan, walking quickly along a path toward the north.
After walking through a mountain road, we came to a canyon area. A small river flows through the valley, forming a river valley and lake. The lake is not big, but there are hundreds of birds and lush reeds in the lake, making the surroundings surprisingly quiet and peaceful. The path stretches flatly along the edge of the lake towards due north, and you can clearly see the pass of Beishan Mountain calmly waiting for their arrival in the evening sun.
After walking along the lakeside path for a while, the small bridge crossing the river seemed to be right in front of me. After crossing the small bridge, people can take a deep breath. Because once they cross the small bridge, as long as they send people to hold the bridge or destroy it, let alone the Spaniards, even the heavenly soldiers and generals will not be able to catch up with them.
However, at this moment, the sound of horse hooves galloping seemed to be heard from a distance. This sound is not heard but felt through a sensitive sense. So, someone glanced back and saw a group of Spanish cavalry, kicking up a cloud of flying dust, galloping over from the mountain to the lake on the path. So, someone immediately exclaimed, "The Spanish white people are chasing us on horseback!"
Everyone became nervous, and the soldiers began to prepare to protect their king.
When Manco heard the call, he opened the back curtain of the sedan and took a look. He saw the cavalry chasing them quickly. They were not far away from them and they would only arrive in ten minutes at most. And they were still some distance away from the small bridge, and there was no way they could get there in more than ten minutes. So he stopped the sedan, got out of the sedan, and shouted to everyone, "Hurry and hide in the reeds."
So everyone abandoned their sedan chairs, dispersed in a hurry, and soon got into the dense reeds. The reeds are very dense and stretch from the edge of the path into the lake. Manco got into the reed swamp, pushing aside the reeds with his hands while drilling deeper. However, he quickly walked into the swamp and mire by the lake. When he stepped on it, he sank so deeply that he couldn't pull out for a long time. Therefore, once you reach this point, you can't go further inside. So, he could only squat here and hide.
