Inca Elegy (Novel) "The Fall of the Inca Empire" (Volume 2) by Zhang Baotong
While the priest sent from Spain was still making an arduous trek in northern Peru, the Almagro Group had begun recruiting troops on a large scale in Lima to expand its army. His father's former officers and troops, as well as many people who had hated the Marquis of Pizarro in the past, and people with various other aspirations, came one after another and gathered under the banner of the young leader. After a month or two of recruitment, Almagro's men quickly gathered four to five hundred people.
For these expanding new and old troops, the top priority is the need for large amounts of weapons and supplies. All of these require a large amount of funds and expenditures, as well as military pay for the officers and soldiers. However, a lot of problems were immediately placed in front of them. Because the officers and soldiers of this army have always been in extreme poverty, and many soldiers do not even have complete clothes to wear, so the army was expanded at once, but there was not so much military expenditure and reserves.
First of all, guns and ammunition are a big problem. They captured one or two hundred matchlocks, hundreds of horses, and some long swords and spears from Pizarro's troops. However, they still lacked one or two hundred matchlocks, fifty horses, and two to three hundred horses. A spear. If you want to increase the firepower, you need to add another ten or twenty artillery pieces, as well as the food, clothing and salary of the troops, which all need to be planned and raised by the leaders of the troops. However, they currently only have a small amount of gold and silver, which they obtained from Pizarro's original treasury. However, this amount of gold and silver is not even enough to pay the troops and feed and drink the personnel. How can they buy arms?
Almagro asked Juan de Herada, "It seems that the number of troops is increasing day by day, but let alone their weapons and equipment, there is no source of food, drink and military pay for them."
Ellada was also worried and worried about this, because unlike Pizarro and others, they had never worried about money. Because at that time, the Inca Empire was full of grain depots, and there was too much gold and silver to use up. However, now almost all the resources of this empire have been robbed and divided. However, he immediately thought of a way and said to little Almagro, "We must make our demands to the royal family, hoping that they can help us solve our difficulties."
Almagro felt that this was the only way, so he nodded and said, "How about you take someone over and borrow some from Mr. Treasurer first, and then return it to him when we have it."
Elada led more than a dozen cavalrymen to the courtyard of a royal villa not far from the Lima administrative building. Here lived the treasurer Riquelme and two other members of the Spanish royal family. They have been following Marquis Pizarro and supervising Marquis Pizarro on behalf of the king. In fact, they did not have much gold and silver themselves, but according to the royal family's regulations, no matter whether Marquis Pizarro and the others robbed or mined the wealth, they must give one-fifth of their share to the royal family. Therefore, Elada knew that Mr. Treasurer must have a lot of gold and silver here.
When Mr. Treasurer saw Elada coming with the soldiers, he knew something was definitely up to him, so he said to Elada, "Why do you want to come to my place?"
Ellada said politely, "We have recently recruited a lot of new soldiers and need weapons and expenses. However, we are now empty-handed and can only borrow money from you. You can lend us the money that Marquis Pizarro gave to the royal family first." We will get through this difficult time, and when we are in a better situation and have money, we will return it to you."
The treasurer and the other two royal family members immediately frowned when they heard that they were here to borrow money from them. The treasurer said to Elada, "These gold and silver are taxes paid by Marquis Pizarro to the king. We are only responsible for keeping it, but we have no right to lend it to others. If the king learns that we have lent this money to others, he will Punish us."
However, Elada did not listen to the treasurer at all and said in a tough tone, "Stop talking so much. You must lend us this money whether you are willing or not."
Seeing Elada's soldiers preparing to rob them, the treasurer had no choice but to agree to Elada's request and led Elada to a room containing gold and silver. This room is fifteen or six square meters, and there are five or six large wooden boxes placed in it. But there were only two large wooden boxes containing some gold objects and silver ingots, which were taxes paid by the brothers of the Marquis of Pizarro for mining gold and silver mines.
Elada and the treasurer made a rough estimate of the gold and silver, and then Elada wrote a loan letter on behalf of Almagro. After writing a loan letter, Elada asked the soldiers to bring two large boxes of gold and silver back to the camp. Almagro was naturally very happy. However, when they listed together the hundreds of matchlocks, two hundred spears and swords, fifty war horses and twenty cannons they needed, as well as food and military pay, they discovered that the money Not only is it not enough, it is also much worse.
Almagro said to Elada, "Otherwise, we can save the horses and cannons and wait until we have money later."
But Ellada said, "If you don't have horses and cannons, then if you fight a war, you will have to let others attack you, and you will not be able to attack the opponent. If Marshal Almagro can have fifty more horses and cannons at that time, More than twenty cannons, then the victor will not be Hernando, and he will not be killed by Hernando."
Of course Almagro knew this. He said, "But we are short of money now. We will wait until we have money."
Elada said, "In this chaotic country, if you have a gun, you are king, but if you don't have a gun, you will suffer. Maybe before we have money, we have been defeated by others."
When Almagro heard this, he asked, "What do you think we should do?"
Elada said, “We have to find a way.”
Almagro asked, "Is there any other way?"
Elada said, "Maybe that Picardo can figure something out for us."
With that said, he asked the soldiers to take Picardo to the interrogation room. The interrogation room was furnished with whips, wooden clubs and gallows. When the soldiers brought Picardo into the interrogation room, Elada said to Picardo, "Tell the truth, where is Pizarro's treasury hidden?"
Picardo looked very frightened and said, "Didn't Marquis Pizarro's treasury already take you to it? It's in the warehouse of the military camp. There are always many soldiers guarding it."
Elada said, "We already know about that vault. What I want to ask about is Pizarro's other vaults, which we don't know about yet."
Picardo shook his head and said, "He only has that one vault. If you don't believe it, you can ask others."
Elada said, "I don't ask anyone else, I just want to ask you, because you are his secretary and only you know all his secrets."
Picardo said, "But he does only have that one vault, and he often takes me there. He doesn't have vaults anywhere else."
Elada said, "I don't believe that he has so much gold and silver, but there is not a lot of treasure in the vault."
Piccard said, "That's because Hernando brought most of the gold and silver treasures back to his hometown in Spain."
However, Elada still didn't believe it and said to the soldiers, "This gentleman doesn't want to tell the truth. You have to find a way to make him tell the truth."
So, a soldier raised his whip and whipped Picardo so hard that he lay on the ground rolling. When one soldier got tired of beating him, another soldier continued to beat him. The beating made Picardo shrink down and lie on the ground unable to move.
At this time, Elada continued, "Is it your turn to tell the truth now?"
However, Picardo cried and replied, "I am telling the truth. Marquis Pizarro only has one treasury. You can ask other people. If I tell lies, you will kill me."
Picardo was interrogated twice more, but he may no longer be able to provide the leaders of the Chilean Group with any information about the location of Pizarro's treasure, so Herrada and Almagro decided that Picardo should be put on trial. , sentenced him to death.
The news soon reached the city of Cusco. After hearing the news, Bishop Valverde immediately rushed to Lima and persuaded Almagro and Herrada to give up the action. He told them, "Killing Picardo will only intensify the hatred and hostility between the two parties." However, Almagro listened to Elada's opinion and decided to execute Picardo.
On the day of Picardo's execution, thousands of people gathered in Trujillo Square to witness a major event unfold. This place was where the Chilean Gang gathered and murdered the Marquis of Pizarro. It was also where the Chilean Gang soldiers supported Almagro as the governor and supreme administrator of Peru. Now, they are going to execute Picardo, the secretary of the Marquis of Pizarro, here.
Picardo was escorted to the square in handcuffs and shackles. At this time, someone took the lead in shouting, "Kill this bastard, he is the helper of the bully." But most people still had a compassionate attitude and hoped that the poor man able to avoid the death penalty. Because they don't want to see the two sworn factions continue to fight.
After the accuser listed all the crimes committed by Picardo, Elada announced that Picardo would be put to death. So, two soldiers put Picardo on the guillotine and pressed his head on a large wooden board. The executioner, masked and holding a large knife, walked up to Picardo, then raised the knife and chopped off Picardo's neck.
Shortly thereafter, Almagro's troops marched from Lima toward Cusco. At this time, his army had more than 500 people, including more than 200 cavalry. Some of the soldiers were veterans left behind by his father. These soldiers were all battle-hardened veterans with rich combat experience. Many of them were wearing complete armor, and some of the recruits were wearing cotton-padded clothes as protective clothing. This force of arquebuses and pikes appeared to be well equipped, with eight cannon and eight small cannon. After arriving in Cusco, they set off from the city of Cusco in mid-summer 1542 and marched westward towards the coast, preparing to meet the enemy here.
