Inca Elegy (Novel) "The Fall of the Inca Empire" (Volume 2) by Zhang Baotong
I thought that as long as we held on to the city of Cusco for one to two months, reinforcements would arrive. However, it is now August, and the Spaniards have been holding on for more than five months, and there is still no news of the arrival of reinforcements.
Outside the city, an army of more than 100,000 Indians still surrounded the city of Cusco. After countless battles, both sides did not gain much advantage, and neither side dared to attack rashly. Therefore, the Indians adopted a siege approach, while the Spaniards adopted a defensive approach.
After the fire, the grain depots and supplies in Cusco were almost completely destroyed by fire. The Spaniards could only rely on a stream that ran through the city for their water supply. The food was basically a little bit of unburned corn found in a burned-down granary. The food was too limited and was not enough for the nearly 200 Spaniards and nearly a thousand Indian auxiliary soldiers.
In order to save food, except for those who want to fight, who can eat two meals a day, other soldiers can only eat one meal a day. Sometimes, when there was really no rice for cooking, the only option was to organize the cavalry to break out of the Indian encirclement and go out to grab food. However, grabbing food is a very dangerous activity. Every time you break out of the Indian encirclement, you have to pay a certain price. Because the Indians surrounded the Spaniards who were leaving the city tightly and used all their strength to block them. Moreover, the food snatched each time was not very much, and had to be transported back to the camp at a certain cost.
At present, there is no food in the city, and the soldiers can only drink a small bowl of gruel in the past two days. If we can't get food anymore, there will be no rice to cook tomorrow. Hernando called Gonzalo and several lieutenants to the command post in the square for discussion. After some discussion, everyone decided to send Gonzalo to lead a cavalry team of sixty people to grab grain outside the southern suburbs. Because the Indian troops in the southern suburbs are relatively weak.
Gonzalo selected sixty cavalrymen, with Second Lieutenant Ponce de Leon as his deputy. Before dawn the next morning, they rushed from the southern suburbs of Cusco toward the Indian camp filled with bonfires. However, when the cavalry just arrived at the edge of the Indian barracks, they were discovered by the Indians. Suddenly, there was a sound of horn horns over the barracks. The Indians immediately swarmed towards this side from the campfire, which was as dense as stars. They held weapons and torches, and soon a raging wave swept over them.
Gonzalo commanded the cavalry to rush towards the Indian stream with swords, and the two armies fought fiercely in the barracks with bonfires everywhere. The large number of Indians quickly surrounded the Spanish cavalry and attacked the Spanish cavalry with spears and torches. Seeing that they have been surrounded by Indians, more and more Indians are coming. When Gonzalo saw that the situation was not good, he shouted loudly for the soldiers to break out of the encirclement. As a result, the cavalry gathered, the front team changed to the rear team, formed an impact formation, and began to retreat. After a hard fight, they finally broke out from the layers of encirclement. Although they killed many Indians, seven or eight of their cavalry were also killed by the Indians. In comparison, this kind of war of attrition is unaffordable for the Spaniards.
Gonzalo took the team to a slope to rest, while the Indians were singing and dancing to them at the foot of the slope, as if celebrating their victory. Gonzalo knew that the soldiers in the city were hungry, and Hernando also placed hope on them, so they could not return empty-handed. Otherwise, they would be trapped and starved to death, if not killed in battle.
Therefore, they pretended to retreat, and then detoured from their hiding place to the southeast to attack, so that they could avoid the attention of the Indians. At this time, the weather was bright and many bonfires in the suburban fields had been extinguished. The Indians also woke up from their sleep and were watching the Spaniards' movements with vigilant eyes.
Gonzalo led the cavalry secretly from behind a hillside to the back of a hill in the southeast. I saw many Indians sitting on the grass in the field not far from here, eating a little bit of dry biscuits made from corn. This made Gonzalo immediately understand that it was not just the Spaniards who were hungry now, but the Incas were also hungry. Obviously, the Indian army besieging the city also had a food shortage.
Originally, the Inca Empire had many granaries, each of which could provide food for an army of 50,000 to 60,000 people for one to two years. However, these granaries were either robbed, burned or divided by the Spaniards. Therefore, it has become a very difficult task to feed a group of more than 100,000 people. Moreover, the Indians had besieged the city of Cusco for more than five months.
Of course Gonzalo knew that soldiers who did not have enough to eat would have no energy to fight, so he wanted to use this opportunity to break through the enemy camp again, rush to the outskirts, and grab some food. However, there is a distance of three to four hundred meters from the back of this hill to the enemy camp. It will take at least several minutes for the cavalry to rush over from here, which will give the Indians enough time to assemble and prepare.
However, Gonzalo knew that he must attack immediately. If he delayed any longer, the timing would be even more unfavorable. So, he asked the soldiers to prepare, and then led the cavalry to rush out from behind the hill. The Indians discovered them immediately and blew their horns. In just a few seconds, the horn sounded like an alarm throughout the Indian camp.
The Indians gathered and surrounded them one after another, forming a turbulent torrent and rushing towards them. Gonzalo clapped his horse to fight and charged forward, so as to open a bloody path and break out of the encirclement. However, the Indians were not only outnumbered, but also assembled very quickly. Gonzalo led the soldiers to slash all the way, and finally broke out a bloody path and broke out of the encirclement of the Indians. However, when he turned around and looked back, he discovered that the cavalry team had been divided into two halves by the Indians. Half of them rushed out with him, while the other half was tightly surrounded by the Indians and was in danger.
So, he took the soldiers who had broken out of the siege and turned back to rescue those people. Such fierce battle scenes are always thrilling and cruel. The two armies fought in a melee and huddled together. After about twenty minutes of desperate fighting, the brigade finally broke out of the heavy siege of the Indians and retreated quickly towards the hill.
However, one of Pizarro Gonzalo's cousins, Pedro, was unable to follow the group in time due to an injured horse. The pursuing Indians caught up and knocked off his horse with a spear. Hearing someone shouting, "Pedro has fallen from his horse." Gonzalo turned around and saw only Pedro's horse but no Pedro's men. He waved his sword and turned around with his cavalry. Go save Pedro. They rushed into the group of Indians and slashed them with swords. They did not retreat until the people behind them rescued Pedro on his horse and took him away. However, at this time, Pedro was no longer breathing and his eyes were closed forever.
This time when they went out to grab food, not only did they not gain anything at all, but they also lost troops and suffered heavy casualties. In addition to Pedro, 11 other cavalrymen fell in the Indian barracks, and even more people were injured. This was undoubtedly another major blow to the Spaniards defending the city. After listening to Gonzalo's report, Hernando frowned even more. He kept pacing back and forth in the small open space. His fat and tall body looked very weak and weak. Because he kept pacing, Gonzalo and several other lieutenants did not dare to sit down, so they had to stand upright with him, motionless.
Because this morning, a three-person cavalry team led by Ledo Monto went out to capture prisoners. They found five headless bodies at an intersection out of the city in the northern suburbs. These people have all been beheaded, and their heads are different. However, some letters were recovered from their pockets. These letters were all intended to be sent to Lima to plead for rescue. However, the Indians only killed the messengers and did not search or inspect them. If these letters really fell into the hands of Indians, the consequences would be disastrous.
Because these messengers were killed on the way, the Spaniards in the city knew almost nothing about the changes in the situation in recent months. After Pizarro defeated the siege of the Indians, he sent 100 cavalry to Cusco four times. However, these reinforcements were led by the Indian guides to the mountain col where the Indian army was ambushed, and were used by the condescending Indians. The whole army was wiped out in a shower of javelins and falling boulders. Only a few survivors escaped back to Lima and reported the horrific bloody battle to Pizarro. Therefore, from then on, Pizarro never sent reinforcements to Cusco.
However, the Spaniards who were blocked and besieged in Cusco knew nothing about it. They only know that they are besieged, struggling, waiting and waiting day by day, starving and life and death are unpredictable, but they don't know when someone will come to reinforce and rescue them. Now, they have reached the desperate situation of running out of ammunition and food.
After walking around for a while, Hernando asked Second Lieutenant Suarez, who was in charge of logistics supply, "How much food is left?" This was a question Hernando had asked many times in the past few days. Suarez replied, "There was no food yesterday. There was no food in the cafeteria from that afternoon to today." This was Suarez's answer more than once. Hernando nodded silently, and then said in a very decisive tone, "We must find a way to let all the cavalry have a full meal tonight." Second Lieutenant Suarez said with an embarrassed face, "But there is no food at all. , what do you want me to cook for the cavalry?" Hernando said in a commanding tone, "I don't care how much, you must follow this. This is an order." Suarez had to say, "Yes, sir."
Then, Hernando said to an infantry captain, "You stay to defend the city tomorrow, and I will take all the cavalry out of the city to grab food." But Gonzalo said, "No, it is too dangerous to go out of the city. You are the highest officer. We can't take such risks." But Hernando said, "We can't let everyone starve to death in the city." At this point, he once again said in a very solemn tone, "Tomorrow morning, everyone, get up at three o'clock and watch the fourth watch. Eat and leave the city at five o'clock."
That night, the soldiers went to bed early, and shortly after midnight the cavalry were called up for an emergency muster. A very tempting smell of meat can be smelled from a distance in the canteen of the barracks. It turned out that Lieutenant Suarez slaughtered two injured horses and made a sumptuous breakfast for the cavalry. These horses were bought from Spain at a large price and transported here after many twists and turns by ship. The cavalry usually regarded the horses as almost their second life. However, except for horses, there is really nothing else to eat in the city.
After eating, Hernando led the cavalry quietly out of the city to the north of the city. Because there are many villages in the north of the city, it is the most certain place to grab food, but this is also a place where the Indians focus on guarding. To rush out of the city from here, greater sacrifices and costs must be paid than elsewhere. However, Hernando had already made up his mind to fight a life and death battle between breakout and counter-breakout with the Indians here.
