"The Fall of the Golden Empire" (Volume I) Blood Sunset (novel) Zhang Baotong

Quito is the capital of Ecuador, but was the capital of the Kingdom of Quito more than 500 years ago. www.biquge.info At 2,879 meters above sea level, it is the highest capital in the world except for La Paz, the capital of Bolivia. Ecuador calls it the land of the equator. The land area is divided in two by the equator. Although Quito is close to the equator, because it is located in the plateau, the climate is relatively cool, but the weather is unpredictable, and there are four seasons in the year, but there is a rainy season and a dry season, the first half of the year is the rainy season, and the second half of the year is the dry season. Quito is a city built on the hills, the city is in the south of the city, and the streets are mostly narrow and paved with cobblestones. The mountainside around the city is verdant, the grass is green, the flowers are blooming, the Pichincha volcanic peak on the east and west sides of the city is more than 4,700 meters above sea level, the peak is white and thunderous, the silver light is shining, the scenery is spectacular.

Located in the heart of the city of Quito, the Royal Palace of Quito is a striking array of tall buildings and rooftops. The highest roof of the palace was the residence and office of the Inca Emperor Vajna Kabak. And the area of the Virgin Palace is the largest. More than 1,500 girls and women, from thirteen to their thirties, lived there, all of whom were virgins of the sun god and wives of the sons of the sun. In front of the palace is a small square. There are many huge stone blocks in the square, symbolizing the strength and majesty of the Inca Empire. In front of the palace and around the square, many soldiers with tomahawks and short knives can be seen standing guard.

Across the square, opposite the royal palace is a street called Fugui Street, where princes, nobles and dignitaries live. In addition to the king and princess, there lived the princes, nobles, and ministers, as well as chiefs and hostages from all over the country. So, walking through the streets, you can see large and beautiful houses one after another, and there are warehouses and supply stations that supply food and goods to these princes and nobles and the chieftains of the conquered countries. Because the daily necessities of the princes and nobles of the Inca Empire were distributed according to their needs. In addition to the items rewarded and gifted by the emperor, women and servants, all other necessities had to be collected in the warehouse. The entire street was guarded and guarded by soldiers day and night, and it was impossible for anyone who was not famous to enter at all.

In the evening, through the front door of the palace hall came a column of more than 200 heavily armed palace guards, and in the middle of the ranks of soldiers sat the Venerable Vajna Kabak the Great in a golden sedan chair carried by eighty people, and behind the sedan chair were seven or eight smaller sedan chairs. That's where his family rides. The procession followed a road from the Palace Square to Fugui Street.

It was already dark on Fugui Street, and it was impossible to see people, only the dim light of the fire shining through the windows of the houses. The guards carried the sedan chair all the way down the street. There were few people in the streets, and it was very quiet, and everyone who saw the king approaching immediately knelt on the side of the road, put their faces on the ground, and waited until the king's procession had passed before they dared to get up. There were also some people who saw the king's guards approaching from a distance, and quickly avoided them.

The procession came to a halt in front of the door of one of the most spacious and magnificent courtyards in the middle of the street. This compound is called the Prince's Mansion. The gate of the Prince's Mansion is very large, and there are four guards standing in front of the gate. When they heard that the king had passed, a large group of men and women ran out of the courtyard and prostrated themselves on the ground in fear, welcoming the king's arrival.

The king got out of the sedan chair and was helped by the two young concubines into the courtyard of the prince's mansion. The huge courtyard was dark, and I saw that the doors of the houses were closed, and the courtyards were deserted, and there was hardly any sign of people's normal life and busyness. The king couldn't help frowning, thinking to himself how this place was the same as the underworld, the living people were the same as the dead people, and there was not even a little life at all.

When the king walked to the middle of the courtyard with the queen and her family, he saw the attendant and the steward running out of a room, and saw the king prostrating on the ground and bowing down, saying, "I don't know that the king is coming, and I can't meet him in time, so I ask the king to forgive me." Then the king said, "What is the condition of the prince?" and neither of them squeaked. The king said angrily, "Didn't I hear what I said?" the two of them said with a slight tremble, "I heard." However, the prince's condition did not improve. The king said, "How do you take care of the prince?" and the two men fell on their heads on the ground, but they trembled, and did not dare to reply.

The king led everyone to the house where Prince Ninan Kuyuch lived, and the door had been opened by two young women. The king entered the prince's house. Although the prince's house is magnificent and luxurious, it exudes a strong smell of yin and mildew and long-term illness, which makes people smell very uncomfortable, and even makes people feel that they will get sick when they smell this smell.

The king walked over to the prince's bedside and watched as Prince Ninan Kuyuch lay in a corner of the darkly lit room. The oil lamp beside the bed shone with a faint light, flickering in the windy room, and was almost blown out by the wind several times. The flickering light shone on Ninan Kuyuc's thin and pale face, and he saw his lips half-open, his breathing weak, his eyes blank, his breath insufficient, and his whole expression weak.

Ninan Cuyucchi was listed as prince of the Inca Empire ten years ago. He was only eighteen years old at the time, and he was already an adult. At that time, he had been living with his father, Vajna Kabak, in the southern city of Cusco. However, the Inca Empire encountered difficulties in attacking Quito, when the expeditionary force led by Waina Kabak the Great's younger brother Kiskis was unable to capture the rebels who had captured the capital of the Kingdom of Quito, and the losses were heavy, and the cold weather on the northern plateau caused many soldiers to fall ill, resulting in low morale and demoralization, which greatly affected the combat effectiveness of the Indian army. Before the arrival of the rainy season, the Indo-Ca army launched several large-scale attacks on the capital of Quito, but it could not be attacked for a long time, but was raided by the Quito rebels, causing the Indo-Ca army to retreat for nearly 20 miles at once.

Upon hearing this news, the eleventh monarch Vajna Kabak, who was far away in the palace of Cusco, the capital of the Inca Empire, was terrified and led 40,000 defenders stationed in Cusco overnight to reinforce him. At this time, Ninan Kuyucchi had been designated as the prince, and he was supposed to supervise the administration of the country and garrison the capital for his father, but the Inca Empire had always had the habit of the monarch driving the expedition in person, so his father decided to take him to the battlefield and make meritorious achievements, so as to make some preparations for mastering the army and ascending the throne in the future. Therefore, it was decided that his sixteen-year-old brother, Prince Huascal, would be in charge of the country with the assistance of Prince Barbara Parca, an auxiliary minister, and that Prince Ninan would accompany the army.

Kabak the Great led 40,000 reinforcements day and night to the outside of Quito, where they joined the remnants of the Kisis army, and after a desperate battle with the rebels in Quito, they finally captured the city. As his father continued to lead his army in pursuit of the enemy and against the barbarians in the north, the task of clearing the fleeing rebels and restoring normal life to Quito fell on the shoulders of Prince Ninan. Prince Ninan's personality is more effeminate and Sven. There is some resemblance to his younger brother, Prince Huascar, but Huaskar is more assertive than his older brother. This may have something to do with the fact that their fathers are too powerful and powerful, because as is often the case, if the father is too wise and great, the son is more tender and cowardly, and if the father is indecisive, the son will be brave and fearless. For example, the eighth king of the Incas, Viracocha, was indecisive due to his father, Yavar Huacac, who caused the rebels to flee for their lives and not dare to resist. Villakocha then organized the scattered peasants and soldiers to fight the rebels until reinforcements from the provinces arrived, quelling the riots, restoring peace and causing his father to abdicate the throne.

At that time, the city of Quito was full of dead bodies and rivers of blood, and Prince Ninan organized manpower to bury the corpses on the one hand, pacified the people on the other, and often visited the wounded soldiers, and transported grain and grass for his father's northern expedition, and was deeply loved by his father and the people. However, more than ten years have passed since the war to quell the rebels, but the plague in the city of Quito has not stopped. The plague was smallpox, a deadly bacterium spread by Spanish soldiers. It is said that the Spanish soldiers were defeated by the barbarian tribes in the battle of robbery and slaughter of the barbarian tribes because they were not familiar with the geography of the time. So they gave the barbarian leader clothes and blankets contaminated with smallpox as gifts. Because the barbarians had no immunity to smallpox, smallpox spread among the barbarian tribes, causing a large number of barbarian deaths. Later, during the Inga army's crusade against the barbarian tribes, the germ was brought to Quito. So, every day outside the gates of Quito, you can see the bodies of plague patients buried in the hillside fields.

The plague spread not only among the poor, but also among the royal courts and nobles. In a year, dozens of princes and nobles were killed by the plague, and I don't know what plague patients the prince came into contact with, and he was also infected with this terminal disease. He had been ill for three months, and no matter how much the priests of the palace prayed for him every day, his condition was getting worse every day, and he was about to die. Therefore, Kabak the Great decided to take the opportunity of this family reunion to come and visit Prince Ninan.

When Prince Ninan saw his father coming, he called out "Father" and sat up from his bed to salute. But the king hurriedly blocked it with his hand and said, "The emperor is exempt." Ninan Kuyuch sighed twice and added, "It is a great honor for the child to be visited by the Father. Please sit down quickly, my father, my mother, my aunt, and my younger siblings. ”

However, the king did not sit down, but asked, "How is the child doing?" Before the prince could reply, he coughed breathlessly.

When the king saw that the prince was so ill, he cried out loudly, "Where is the sorcerer?" A middle-aged man in a green coat and trousers bowed down and threw himself in front of the king, and said, "The slave is here." When the king saw the sorcerer like a bear, he was not happy, and asked patiently, "How did you treat the prince, and why is this disease getting worse and worse?"

The sorcerer was so frightened that he immediately collapsed on the ground, and replied in a cry of fear and pleading, "Report to the king, it's not that the slut can't see a doctor, but that the prince is suffering from the plague, and I want the king to know that there is really no cure for this disease." "The plague, or smallpox, is said to have spread from Europe, and the natives of the New World had no immunity to the disease, and suffering from it was tantamount to death.

When the king of Inca heard this, he stamped his foot and scolded, "Bold servant, since there is no cure, what use do I want you to come? ”

Rava Okliu, the biological mother of Prince Ninan, saw that her eldest son was sick like this, so she lay down in front of her son and wept, "My son, I haven't seen you for a few years, and you are so sick. Ninan took her mother's hand and said, "Mother, my son can't do his filial piety for you." As soon as the mother heard this, she cried louder, "Son, my royal son." ”

At this time, the queen was helped over. Then, Princess Paria, Prince Huascal, Prince Manco, Prince Atahualpa, and Princess Anna all came to pay their respects to Prince Ninan. Then the king told the prince to recuperate and come back in a few days. Then, he left in a hurry with his family. (To be continued.) )