Inca Elegy (Novel) "The Fall of the Inca Empire" (Volume 2) by Zhang Baotong
The sky is already bright, and standing on the mountain, you can see the distant mountains stretching to the horizon layer by layer. Pieces of morning mist float gently in the mountains. The cool wind blows in waves from a distance, and it becomes faster and faster, making people smell a damp breath. Judging from the gloomy sky, it seemed like it was going to rain. Gonzalo urged the soldiers to mount their horses and catch up.
So, on the mountain path leading to Urubamba, the Spanish cavalry lined up in a long line and walked listlessly into the mountains. After a while, several bright lights flashed in the sky, and then several thunders sounded. Soon, raindrops began to fall. Moreover, the drops became heavier and heavier, and a heavy rain began to fall.
However, deep in the mountains, there are only mountains and valleys, and no villages or houses can be seen at all. The Spanish cavalry continued to move forward on horseback despite the heavy rain. After walking for about two hours, in front of a small village in the mountains, I saw a large group of Indian soldiers covering the rain in front of and behind the house. So, they rushed over immediately. However, before they reached the small village, the Indians had already disappeared from the mountain road behind the house.
Gonzalo asked the soldiers to go inside to take shelter from the rain and rest. There are seven or eight huts in the small village. Maybe the owner was scared away, and there was no one in the whole village. Because the houses of the mountain people are connected with the houses where the cattle and sheep are kept, the smell in the houses is very unpleasant. But the cattle and sheep were still in the house, so Gonzalo asked the soldiers to kill the cattle and sheep, and make a fire to roast the meat, so that the soldiers who had been hungry all night and all morning could have a good meal.
In order to learn about the whereabouts of the Inca King, Gonzalo sent some soldiers to nearby places to arrest people. About half an hour later, the soldiers sent out captured a mountain man and brought him to Gonzalo. Pizarro pulled out his long sword, waved it in front of the mountain man, and said, "Tell me the truth, otherwise, I will chop off your hands." The mountain man did not understand Gonzalo's words and responded with doubts. He looked at Gonzalo with his eyes. At this time, a soldier next to him spoke to him in Quechua and gestured to him with his hands. The mountain man immediately understood what Gonzalo meant and nodded vigorously.
Gonzalo asked, "Where did King Inca go?" The mountain people still didn't understand, so the soldier still explained to him while translating. But the mountain man shook his head and said, "I have never seen the Inca King. Besides, the Inca King would never come to this place." The soldier asked, "Have you seen any soldiers passing by here?" The mountain man said, "Today Some soldiers passed by here in the morning, and they also had people riding horses like yours." When Gonzalo heard this, he asked again, "How many are there?" The mountain man said, "There seem to be three or four hundred people."
Gonzalo immediately ordered, "Everyone gather and give chase to me." A soldier said, "The meat is almost ready." But Gonzalo said, "Seize the Inca King, you will have more to eat in your life." Meat, go quickly." So the soldiers had no choice but to take out the uncooked meat from the pot, wrap it in a leather bag, put it on the horse, then get on the horse, and let the mountain man lead the way towards the mountain deep in the mountains. Chase all the way down the path.
The rain was getting heavier and heavier, and the rain and mist were blown by the wind in large tracts. The soldiers were quickly soaked by the heavy rain. The path in the deep mountains is very difficult to walk. Sometimes it is muddy, and sometimes it is hard and slippery. These added a lot of difficulties to the pursuit of Spanish soldiers. But the soldiers, led by Gonzalo, were running on the mountain paths at a rapid march.
A winding path went up and down in the mountains, appearing and disappearing. They followed the path to the top of the mountain and then down to the bottom of the valley. When they entered a primeval forest, the rain stopped. The paths in the woods were covered with thick fallen leaves, which were soft to walk on. Maybe it's because the air in the mountains is fresh, but the soldiers didn't feel tired at all while marching over mountains and ridges.
After walking through a forest, we came to a rope bridge. The cable bridge is more than 20 to 30 meters long and is made of more than a dozen wicker ropes woven into arm-thick ropes. Below the rope bridge is a deep valley hundreds of meters deep. A rapids roared through the deep valley. Not to mention seeing it, just hearing it makes people feel frightened.
There are some scattered planks on the rope bridge. These planks can only be stepped on but cannot allow horses to pass. Therefore, Gonzalo asked the soldiers to gather the horses and tie them at the edge of the forest to prepare the soldiers to cross the bridge. . A soldier went up to the bridge first. However, after just two or three steps, the bridge began to shake violently. The soldier was so frightened that he immediately backed away.
Gonzalo had no choice but to let the mountain man who led the way lead the soldiers onto the bridge. However, the mountain man deliberately swung the rope bridge with force, making the rope bridge look like a swing, which frightened the soldiers so much that they did not dare to get on the bridge. But the mountain man took the opportunity and trotted up to the middle of the bridge.
When the Spaniard saw that the mountain man was about to walk over, he shouted, "Come back, come back." However, the mountain man did not look back at all, and then ran to the other side of the deep valley in two or three steps.
At this moment, the Spaniards fired, one of which hit the mountain man in the shoulder. I saw the mountain man covering his shoulders and falling to the ground on the other side. He rolled and climbed up to the path beside the cliff on the other side. Then he got up from the ground and ran away.
Seeing that the mountain man leading the way ran away, the Spaniards immediately ran out of moves. So Gonzalo had to order the soldiers to get on the bridge one by one and walk slowly towards the other side. The soldiers grasped the guardrail rope on one side tightly with one hand, stepped on the wooden planks of the bridge with their feet, and walked forward step by step tremblingly. The bridge was only thirty or forty meters long in total, but it felt like they had walked for days.
The soldiers who crossed the small bridge cheered on the other side and encouraged the soldiers behind them. Therefore, the soldiers who came behind crossed the bridge much faster than those in front. After about an hour of waiting, more than 200 soldiers, except for a few who were left at the edge of the forest to guard their horses, all crossed the bridge safely. The soldiers who crossed the bridge, led by Captain Gonzalo, continued to walk quickly deeper into the path.
About evening, they finally found an Indian force of several hundred people in front of a small village on the edge of the forest. They adopted a roundabout tactic to surround the force, and then launched a sudden attack. The Indians did not notice the Spaniards, but suddenly saw so many soldiers appearing in front of them, thinking that these Spaniards were falling from the sky. He wanted to seize a way to escape, but soon found that all roads had been blocked by the Spaniards. He had no choice but to respond in panic.
Four to five hundred Indian soldiers and about 200 Spanish soldiers fought in a melee, and for a while the two sides were stunned. Within twenty or thirty minutes, except for a few Indians who escaped, the rest were killed on the spot. However, the Spaniards only had more than 20 people killed and more than 30 injured.
However, they still did not find the Inca king. They caught a seriously wounded Indian soldier on the spot and interrogated him while whipping him. The soldier couldn't bear the beatings of the Spaniards and told him that the Inca King was in a small village in front, protected by the leader of Mocva and about a hundred people.
When Gonzalo heard this, he was overjoyed and did not bother to assemble the team. He just waved his hand and shouted, "Soldiers, the Inca King is in a small village not far ahead. There are only a hundred soldiers protecting him. Capture him." If the Inca King is killed, we will all be rewarded greatly." As soon as the soldiers heard his words, they followed him excitedly and continued to run quickly towards the path ahead.
After walking for about twenty minutes, there was indeed a small village on the side of the road. There were only three or five households in the small village. However, there are many discarded items and many footprints in front and behind the houses in the village, and there are also horse hoof prints. This surprised the Spaniards: I don't know how the Inca king's horses came over the rope bridge.
Obviously, the Inca army had just left here, so he ordered the soldiers to trot forward to catch up. The paths were still muddy, rugged and steep, and some of them had been torn apart by the troops who had gone before. Moreover, it was getting dark and it started to drizzle.
When they reached the top of a mountain ridge, they found that there was a team of 100 people fleeing north on the path at the foot of the mountain col just five or six miles away from them, with five or six people riding on horses. Obviously, this is the team where the Inca King Manco fled. Gonzalo pointed to the team and said to the soldiers, "Soldiers, you saw it, that is the Inca King and his friends. As long as we work harder, we can catch the Inca King before dark." The soldiers seemed to be like I was so inspired that I forgot about my fatigue and started running to catch up.
After chasing them to the col on the opposite side, and then up to a high slope, they saw that the Indians had climbed to the top of a mountain on the opposite side, and some Indian soldiers could even be seen waving to them. It only takes twenty or thirty minutes at most from the top of the mountain here to the top of the mountain opposite.
It was already getting a little dark by this time. The Spanish soldiers did not feel tired at all, but were filled with joy about catching the Inca King. When you are in a good mood, your marching speed will naturally become much faster. The soldiers went down to the bottom of the mountain and were ready for battle when they started chasing towards the top of the mountain opposite. Because they knew the Indians might be waiting for them on the top of the mountain.
They quickly reached the top of the mountain, but what they were waiting for was not a battle. Instead it was a damaged rope bridge. The rope bridge had been burned down and was still smoking. The other end of the bridge, which was more than thirty meters long, had fallen into the deep valley. On the opposite side, several Indian soldiers were sitting beside the rock cliff gloatingly, chewing coca, and waving their hands towards them, deliberately irritating them.
Looking at the burned bridge and the bottomless abyss, Gonzalo could only sigh in annoyance.
