Inca Elegy (Novel) "The Fall of the Inca Empire" (Volume 2) by Zhang Baotong
By about noon, the narrow mountain channel was almost filled with rocks and tree trunks. Not to mention a hundred cavalry, even a thousand people can be buried alive by these rocks and tree trunks. Therefore, when the sun shines high on the top of the cliff, there is already deathly silence in the passage under the mountain stream below. Not even a human cry or a horse's whinny could be heard.
So, Mokwa ordered the soldiers to carry javelins and short arrows, move to some trees and rocks, and search from the mouth of the mountains on both sides into the passage piled up by rocks and trees. The corpses of Spanish soldiers and horses were lying or half-buried everywhere in the passage. Those corpses were covered in blood and flesh, and they were too horrific to look at.
In the corners of some stone walls, a few injured or survivors can still be seen. When they saw the Indians rushing toward them, they held on to the stone wall and stood up, holding long swords in their hands and glaring angrily. They wanted to fight the Indians desperately, because they knew that even if they surrendered, they would be killed by the Indians. When the Indians saw them, they aimed their javelins and short arrows at them. Before they could rise up to resist, they fired dense javelins and short arrows at them. When the sun turned westward, there was no longer a living Spanish soldier in the entire passage.
Because the first two cavalry squads were completely wiped out during the ambush, Pizarro did not know the fate and news of these two cavalry squads. Moreover, there had been no news from Cusco for more than three months, so a third team was quickly sent out to reinforce Cusco. In addition to one hundred cavalry, this team also had one hundred infantry, led by Panamanian cavalry captain Pedro Diego. They set out on their journey north on the fifth day after the second cavalry detachment set off. This force, which Pizarro and the Spaniards held ardent hopes for, marched out of Lima under the leadership of two Indian guides. After crossing the Rimac River, they gradually disappeared. Among the high mountains of the Cordillera.
The guides for this team are still local Indians. Although they were soldiers in the Spanish Indian auxiliary troops, they were Indians after all. They witnessed with their own eyes that these foreign Spanish whites smashed their idols, raped or occupied their sisters and wives, and took away their property. Houses and land, they were captured and forced to use them as artillery helmets to massacre their compatriots. Therefore, they hated the Spaniards very much and had been ordered to lead the team to a deep valley and mountain stream.
They led the troops northward day and night at the brisk pace of the Indians, hoping to drag down the troops as much as possible, and then bring them into the pockets prepared in advance and capture them all. They could have taken the flatter royal road, but in order to hurry, the Indian guide took them on a shortcut. Although this is a shortcut, it is much more dangerous to walk. But the Spaniards did not know the road and could only follow the Indian guides forward.
In the evening of the fourth day of marching through the mountains of the Cordillera Mountains, when they were about to reach a campsite, a guide suddenly lay on the ground rolling with his belly in his arms, crying in pain. Pedro Diego asked him what was wrong, but he didn't say anything and just kept crying. Another guide nearby told Captain Pedro Diego that he might have smallpox. Smallpox was an incurable disease at the time, killing many people every day. Therefore, when people hear about this disease, they are frightened. As soon as Pedro Diego heard this, he kicked the guide to the side of the road, and then let the soldiers pass him as quickly as a god of temperature.
As everyone knows, the Indian ran to the small town of Matukana that night and reported the Spanish's marching route and locations to General Mokwa. General Mokwa led his troops to ambush around the deep stream in the valley overnight.
This deep valley is not very big. It is about 200 meters long and 20 to 30 meters wide. It is oval in shape, like a water ladle, and has a mountain pass that can enter it. But the cliff on the mountain pass is thirty or forty meters high. Moreover, the cliffs are covered with jungle woods and tall weeds and thorns.
At noon that day, under the leadership of the Indians, the Spanish soldiers entered the deep valley from the mountain pass. When they entered the deep stream from the mountain pass, no one realized that there was any danger here, because there was a path in the deep stream itself, which was the path that people usually took when collecting medicine. Moreover, there was a small forest in front of the deep stream, which blocked their view.
The Indian guide led the Spaniards to the grove, then gestured to Spain and shouted a few words. Before the Spaniards could understand what he meant, he saw him sneaking into the grove in two or three steps. . The Spaniards waited outside the woods for a while. When they saw that he did not come out for a long time, they sent people into the woods to look for him. However, not only did they not find the Indian guide, but they also found that behind this small forest was a very high cliff with no road at all.
Pedro Diego was shocked when he heard the news and quickly ordered the soldiers to retreat. However, before they could turn around and retreat, they saw huge boulders rolling down the steep slope toward them. Seeing this scene, the infantrymen who had changed from the rear to the front were frightened and hurriedly squeezed and shrank. However, the soldiers were all huddled together and unable to dodge. They were immediately knocked upside down by the rolling boulders, and their flesh and blood flew everywhere.
The Spanish infantry immediately spread out, dodging boulders rolling down from all sides. The cavalry wanted to rush out towards the mountain pass where they came in, but the infantry had already blocked their way. So the cavalry went around the grove, trying to escape behind it. However, behind the grove is an upright cliff. When they just stopped under the cliff, they saw countless boulders rolling down from the top of the cliff. Immediately, many men and horses were smashed to pieces by huge rocks.
The luckier cavalrymen immediately turned around and ran back. But no matter where they ran, huge rocks were smashing or rolling towards them. They wanted to break out along the mountain pass they came from. However, there were already a lot of people crowded there, and a large number of them were falling down. So, seeing that there was nowhere to hide and no way to break through, the cavalry abandoned their horses and went into the woods to take shelter.
Soon, the small grove was crowded with Spanish soldiers. But the woods are not big and can't accommodate too many people, so there is special support in the woods. Just as the soldiers were hiding in the woods, the Indian catapults began to rain dense stones towards the woods, causing the Spanish soldiers to start running out of the woods again.
Seeing this scene, Captain Pedro Diego, who had been standing next to the grove, asked the trumpeter to blow the assembly horn. Although the Indians kept rolling stones down the steep slope or throwing stones with catapults, the Spanish soldiers quickly gathered together at the edge of the grove after hearing the rally call.
Pedro Diego said to the soldiers, "Soldiers, we are besieged by the Indians in the deep valley of this valley. We have no other choice but to rush out towards the mountain pass where we came in. No matter how many of us die, we will still die." We have to rush out, otherwise, we will stay in the deep valley and wait for death. Even if we surrender, the Indians will not let us go." As he said, he waved his sword and shouted to the soldiers, " Soldiers, may God be with us, charge!" The soldiers also shouted, " Charge!" Then, they rushed towards the mountain pass.
The Indians certainly expected that the Spaniards would rush outward, so they rolled large boulders down from the cliffs on both sides of the mountain pass without gaps, and threw many trees down from above to block their passage. On the halfway slope of the cliff, there were still soldiers standing with javelins and short arrows, constantly throwing javelins and shooting short arrows at the Spanish soldiers who were breaking out.
Because the mountain pass was blocked by boulders and trees, the cavalry could not pass at all. Therefore, the Spanish soldiers gave up their horses and swarmed to the slope in front of the mountain pass. They began to avoid the boulders while scrambling to find a place to escape. . Since the entire mountain pass has been blocked by boulders and trees, escaping requires risking your life by climbing over piles of rocks and trees. This greatly affects the speed of escape. Therefore, many soldiers who were not killed by boulders and trees were hit by Indian javelins and short arrows and fell to the ground while climbing piles of rocks and trees. Moreover, because the Indians continued to throw stones and woods, the piles of rocks and trees at the mountain pass were about to block the entire mountain pass, making it increasingly difficult to escape, almost becoming a Something impossible.
When Spanish soldiers broke out towards the mountain pass, they were met by huge rocks and tree trunks that were shaking and rolling down the slope. The result of the collision between the two was extremely tragic. The horrified screams of the soldiers and the tragic scene of bloody flesh and blood simply made the world darken, and the sun and the moon lost all light.
When the midday sun shines on the not-so-large valley floor in the deep valley, there are tragic scenes of Spanish soldiers and horses with their flesh and blood flying everywhere, and their limbs separated. This sight is frightening and terrible to watch. Among the more than 200 cavalry and infantry, only two or three risked their lives to climb out of the piles of boulders and woods where the Indians had fallen, and escaped from the Indians' dense javelins and short arrows. , the rest of the people all died tragically in this deep valley and mountain stream.
