Inca Elegy (Novel) "The Fall of the Inca Empire" (Volume 2) by Zhang Baotong
Manco and Tapalaka were already very hungry. After changing their clothes, they began to sit at the small table to eat. While eating, Manco said to the princess, "The food cooked by the chef today is particularly delicious. It is much more delicious than what he cooked in the past." Tapalaka also said, "That's right, today's food is really delicious." Maybe. It was because they were really hungry, or maybe because the food was so delicious, that the few plates of food on the small table were quickly cleared by the two of them.
However, Manco still felt that he was not full, so he asked the princess to call the maid over and asked, "Is there any food?" The maid looked very flustered and said, "Your Majesty, the chef made these meals because you used to Even these meals have never been finished." Manco said displeased, "The past is the past, but today is today. Let the cook cook some more meals quickly and deliver them." The maid quickly responded, "Yes, I The king."
After finishing the meal, the maid prepared bathing water for the Inca King and Princess in a large wooden basin. However, Manco had no intention of taking a bath. He asked the princess to stay in the house to take a bath, and he took Tusak and two guards out to check the sentry and the terrain.
They came to the entrance of the village, which was the only way to enter the village. On the quiet and dark high slope at the entrance of the village, two tall black figures were holding spears and looking towards the path on the opposite hillside. The Inca king led his guards up to the high slope at the entrance of the village. He said to Tusak and the four guards, "I can escape from the clutches of the Spanish today only because of your protection. I have asked the chef to cook a good meal for everyone to comfort everyone. Everyone will take turns in a while. Let’s eat.” When the guards heard this, they thanked in unison, “Thank you, Your Majesty, for your gift.” Manco added, “As long as you protect me loyally and responsibly, I will promote you and give you a lot of land and women. "The guards quickly knelt on the ground and thanked the Inca King.
Manco stood on the high slope again and looked towards the opposite hillside. I saw a sliver of moonlight on the opposite hillside, and through the moonlight I could vaguely see a path. Manco estimated the distance from the opposite hillside to the entrance of the village. This distance was at least one or two kilometers, and even riding a horse would take about ten minutes. In these ten minutes, the guards had enough time to report to him, and he could quickly take the princess into the forest next to the village. This was a forest he had taken his guards to hunt in the past. I know that from one side of the forest, you can walk to the path behind the mountain, and that path just leads to Tambo Palace.
Manco said to Tusak, "We only have four guards now. We need to divide these four guards into two shifts and take turns to stand guard at night." Tusak said, "Yes, my king." Then he said to The four guards said, "Spain knows that we Incas are not good at fighting at night, so they always attack us at night. Therefore, you must be more vigilant and not relax at all. Otherwise, you will be killed. ." The four guards said, "Follow the order, Your Majesty."
After checking the sentry post, Manco returned to the village with Tusak and two guards. Because he had been busy escaping from midnight last night to the whole day today without resting at all, so at this time, the Inca King Manco was really sleepy and couldn't hold on. He said to Tusak, "Don't sleep tonight, stand guard in front of my door." Tusak said, "As you command, my great king."
Tusak and the two guards were seen sitting on the cold stone in front of the hut. Manco entered the room and asked the princess to move some small stools for them to sit on. Then, he got into bed and fell asleep without taking off his clothes.
However, just after sleeping for a while, he heard Tusak knocking on the door hard, and Manco asked loudly, "What's the matter?" Tusak said, "The Spaniards are coming." As soon as Tusak finished speaking, Seeing Manco rushing out of the house holding Tapalaka. When Tusak saw the king and princess coming out, he said, "King, let's go quickly." After saying that, he led four guards to protect Manco and Tapalaka and hurried into the forest next to the village. After entering the forest, they did not immediately run towards the depths of the forest. Instead, they hid in a dense area and watched towards the entrance of the village.
Within a few minutes, a group of people were seen running down the hillside at the entrance of the village. There were forty or fifty people scattered. However, what surprised the Inca king was that none of these people were riding horses.
Manco said to Tusak, "Isn't that right? The Spaniards all ride horses, but these people don't ride horses. Could they be our own people?" Tusak also said, "Yes, otherwise Wait until they get closer."
The group of people entered the village from the village entrance in a panic, but the village was pitch dark and there seemed to be no one. In fact, the people in the village had already asked the Inca King to move elsewhere. This group of people seemed to have some concerns. They just stood in front of the hut where Manco lived, whispering something, but did not dare to disturb it.
Tusak walked slowly to the edge of the forest, heard their voices, and quietly ran over to Manco and said, "Your Majesty, they are our troops." In fact, Manco had already seen that they were not Spanish at all. . So, let Tusak go over first to check the truth.
Tusak walked out of the forest, quietly approached the group of people, and asked, "Who are you?" The people over there heard Tusak's voice and said, "Palace Guardsmen, we are The king's soldiers." Tusak walked up to them and saw that they were right. He ran back to the edge of the forest and shouted to the forest, "Honored king, these people are our soldiers."
Only then did Manco come out of the forest with the others. When the soldiers saw the king coming, they quickly lined up and knelt down to salute the Inca King. The Inca King asked, "Who is your leader?" A burly middle-aged man stepped forward and replied, "Inca Colonel Ibaku pays homage to the King." Manco glanced at the man in front of him and felt that this man He looked familiar, so he asked, "Where is General Sapa?" Colonel Ibaku said, "Tell the king, we live in a private house in the street. When we heard that the Spaniards were coming, we ran away quickly. However, I heard that Sapa The granary barracks where General Sapa and his friends lived had been surrounded by the Spaniards. When we left the street, we heard a fierce fighting over there. At that time, we kept running towards this direction, not knowing that General Sapa and his friends were there. How is Bian playing?"
Manco asked again, "Didn't you see any Spanish cavalry along the way?" Ibaku said, "No."
Manco felt a little strange, so he said to Tusak, "What's wrong with the Spaniards? This is a bit wrong!" Tusak said, "Yes, the Spanish cavalry captured our Inca king and the Inca people were always poor. They are chasing us." Colonel Imaku said immediately, "The Spaniards did not chase us because the wooden bridge on the river was demolished. When we crossed the river, we swam in the water."
The Inca King Manco yawned and said to the Immacu schoolmaster, "Immediately send someone to guard the entrance of the village. If you see the Spaniards chasing after you, call the police immediately." After that, he took Princess Tapalaca back to his home. went to sleep in the house.
Manco returned to the house, lay down on the bed, and fell asleep. At some point, he was awakened by the sharp sound of horns, but when he regained some consciousness, the horns stopped sounding again. He wondered if he had made a mistake because of his nervousness. So he turned over and fell asleep again. However, he was soon pushed awake by Tapalaka next to him. Tapalaka said, "Get up quickly, the trumpet is blowing outside."
Manco listened carefully again, but there was no trumpet sound, and said, "Where can there be any trumpet sound?" Tapalaka said, "It has been ringing for a long time." At this time, the door of the house was also pushed open hard, and Hearing Tusak shouting, "King, hurry up, the Spanish cavalry is coming." Upon hearing this, Manco jumped out of bed, grabbed Tapalaka and rushed out of the door in the darkness.
As soon as you go out, you can hear the sound of horse hooves galloping towards the end of the village, and the soldiers standing guard at the entrance of the village are also shouting and running towards the forest. Manco and Tapalaka, escorted by Tusak and the guards, quickly entered the forest.
As soon as they entered the forest, they saw one or two hundred Spanish cavalry swarming from the entrance of the village. When they entered the village, they surrounded it and searched every house. As a result, the palace cook and maid were arrested and taken to the flat field in front of the village.
Gonzalo walked up to the cook, pointed his whip at the cook, and asked sternly, "Who are you?" The cook had probably never seen a Spaniard before, and when he saw Spain looking so ferocious, he was almost frightened. He cried and said, "I am not a soldier, I am a cook." Gonzalo said, "Who am I cooking for? For the Indians?" The cook said, "I am cooking for the Inca King. ." When Gonzalo heard this, he laughed and said, "Very good. You cook for the Inca King. You must know where the Inca King is."
The cook pointed to the hut in the dark and said, "The Inca King lived in that hut." Gonzalo immediately asked, "Has that hut been searched?" A soldier immediately replied, "Everything has been searched. , there is no one inside." Gonzalo said to the soldier, "Come with me to have another look." After that, he led a few soldiers into the hut where the Inca King had just lived.
After a while, he heard Gonzalo shouting to the soldiers, "The Inca King has not run far, search for me quickly." After saying that, he immediately sent a small group of cavalry to chase them along the path into the mountains, leaving the rest People went into the forest to search.
The Spaniards lit many torches and entered the forest. Many bright lights suddenly flashed in the dark forest, and these lights moved staggeringly towards the forest. But at this time, the Inca King Manco had already run deep into the forest. Moreover, the Indian soldiers who entered the forest also gathered towards him from all directions. Soon, there were fifty or sixty soldiers behind him. The Indians have a strong sense of direction in the forest, and they run quickly along the north direction of the forest.
In the forest, we climbed to a very high mountain. The sky was already slightly bright. Standing on the top of the mountain, we could see the continuous forest stretching to the far side of the mountain opposite. At the bottom of the opposite mountain is the path leading to Tambo Palace.
