After waking up, Cortez hated Marin so much that he couldn't stop scolding Marin. In fact, Cortés was wrong to blame Marin, because Marin really did not mean to deceive the Spaniards, but the African part of the history textbook in his previous life was very inaccurate. Therefore, he did not know exactly the specific years when the ancient Zimbabwean Empire was active.

In fact, the ancient Zimbabwean Empire ran out of gold as early as 1430. Subsequently, around 1450, the ancient Zimbabwean Empire abandoned the city of Great Zimbabwe and moved to the upper valley of the Zambezi River, more than 350 kilometers to the northeast, with a new capital named Zvongombe. The ancient Zimbabwean Empire was also renamed the Mutapa Kingdom.

The distance of more than 350 kilometers is far away, and it is not far away. Although there are no horses in southern Africans in this era, the black buddies are also very good at walking. Didn't you see that the marathon champions in the future are all black buddies? Therefore, 350 kilometers is nothing, but more than 8 marathons......

After scolding Marin enough, Cortez began digging Stone Town in an attempt to find the remaining gold. During this period, he dug up a lot of stone carvings, and even some ancient porcelain. However, the gold was not mined. But he didn't give up and continued to dig and dig......

And just when Cortés took people to dig three feet into the ground in Stone City to find gold, more than three hundred and fifty kilometers away, the new capital Zvongombe, who had already had good foot strength, reported the news that the old capital Stone City was attacked by foreign enemies to the current king, and King Yo was shocked that the old capital was attacked, in particular, he was angry when he learned that the invaders were actually digging three feet in the old capital Stone City. After all, the remains of many ancestors were buried in the capital, and they should not be desecrated.

So, King Chikuyo beat the drums of war and gathered all the standing armies near the royal capital......

The standing army of the Kingdom of Mutapa was composed of combat regiments, each of which was about 500 to 1,000 men, and there were also less than 500 men.

At this time, there were a total of 8 combat regiments with a total of 5,600 people near the capital of the Mutapa Kingdom. After gathering all eight battle regiments, King Chikuyo recruited more than 2,000 tribal warriors from nearby tribes, gathered 8,000 men, and slaughtered the abandoned old capital of Great Zimbabwe.

More than 10 days later, when the army of the Mutapa Kingdom arrived, the warriors of the two phalanxes of Cortés were still happily digging graves......

Fortunately, Cortez arranged for guards. After discovering that the northeast direction was killing a large group of people, the guards immediately blew the whistle to warn. Cortés hastily gathered all his soldiers and put up a hasty resistance.

It's just that the army of the Mutapa Kingdom is too uncompetitive on its own. Obviously, the number of people has an absolute advantage, but it is still suddenly attacked, and it is said that it should have an advantage. However, after a hasty battle, the outnumbered army of the Mutapa Kingdom was defeated......

How did they lose? Come, let's talk about the warriors of the Mutapa Kingdom......

The majority of the population of the Mutapa kingdom is the Kalanga people, a branch of the Shona people. The traditional way of fighting of the Shona people is to use a light short spear, which is used as a javelin.

During the battle, the Kalangas took turns in battle regiments, throwing short spears and javelins at enemy formations at a distance of forty or fifty yards......

The Javelin's hit rate is impressive, about the same as that of a smoothbore gun after it exceeds 70 yards. And the Shona people, including the later Zulus, used this "fate" bidding gun tactic to fight each other. If one side is unlucky and there are too many people in the javelin, it will be the first to collapse and then break out. But if the fleeing party drops its weapon and flees, the other side cannot be pursued again, as is customary. Then, the defeated tribe will send someone to show its submission. Or, leave their original territory and go into exile......

……

At the beginning of the battle, King Chikuyo, according to tradition, sent out a battle regiment and threw javelins at the enemy line. But at this time, the muskets of Cortés' two phalanxes also rang out......

Moreover, although the smoothbore musket concentrates the enemy after more than 100 yards by God forbid. However, at a distance of forty or fifty yards from which the enemy threw the javelin, the hit rate of the smoothbore gun was still very high, more than 50%!

Then, the combat regiment that took the lead in bidding for guns was unlucky, and was directly killed and wounded by muskets, more than 200 people......

Moreover, this huge volley of gunfire frightened the warriors of the uninformed Mutapa Kingdom. They had never seen such a bizarre way of killing......

Then, the first to be frightened by the living people of the combat regiment sent out turned around and ran away......

King Chikuyo was also taken aback, but he was not deeply touched by the casualties. So, he chose to send another combat regiment to bid for guns. As a result, the second combat regiment still suffered more than 200 casualties, and they also collapsed and ran away in fright......

Then, several other regiments of the Mutapa kingdom did not dare to step forward......

Cortés was an adventurous fellow, and when he saw that the enemy was timid, he hurriedly let the army advance. In front of the enemy line, he had the musketeers fire three volleys at the Guards Combat Regiment where the King's guard of honor was located, killing five or six hundred men.

At this time, Chikuyo finally got scared. Then, he was the first to turn around and run away, while several other combat regiments also fled...... The warriors of the Mutapa Kingdom, who threw javelins to hurt the enemy by fate, finally lost to the more professional Spanish army. Not to mention, it was the colonial army that used the Spanish phalanx.

Cortés won a great victory, and then led the army in pursuit, which lasted for half a month, until it reached Zvongombe, the capital of the Mutapa Kingdom. Zvongombe is not a stone town in Greater Zimbabwe, but a cottage community in a river valley.

After Taniguchi was conquered by Cortez, King Chikuyo fled into the mountains from the other direction with his army, protecting the royal family and his courtiers.

Cortés didn't bother to chase it, but directly led his troops into the royal palace of the Mutapa Kingdom, which was like a large cottage. Cortés was then dazzled by the gold in the cottage-like royal palace......

In the humble royal palace, Cortés seized more than 150,000 ounces of gold, equivalent to 4.25 tons or 9,375 pounds.

Cortés was puzzled - didn't he say that the gold in Stone Town was mined? Why is there so much gold in the royal capital?

I found an Arabic Prophet Elder who didn't have time to run away and asked through an Arabic interpreter who knew Arabic, and I found out that although the super gold mine near Stone Town in Great Zimbabwe had dried up, there were still many small and medium-sized gold mines throughout the country of Mutapa Kingdom!

The Mutapa kingdom relied on force to impose half of the gold as a tribute to the small tribes that found gold mines throughout the country. It is estimated that the annual gold tribute collected by the tribes of the Mutapa kingdom from all over the country is estimated to be as high as about 35,000 ounces, which is equivalent to one ton. At this time, the Portuguese engaged in the golden sand trade on the coast of West Africa, and the annual gold income was only half a ton...... In other words, the annual gold income of the Mutapa Kingdom is twice that of the Kingdom of Portugal and West Africa......

And the 150,000 ounces of gold that Cortés found in the treasury of the royal palace was the surplus of the financial revenue of the Mutapa Kingdom in recent years. Of course, if it had been a few months later, the kingdom might have spent tens of thousands of ounces of gold. After all, the Mutapa Kingdom would cost a lot of money just to feed those thousands of standing troops.

……

After getting so much gold, Cortés was not in a hurry to hunt down the king of the Mutapa Kingdom. Because, his army was not familiar with the local terrain. Moreover, in the previous battle, despite the victory, the Spaniards also lost more than 200 people under the blow of the African buddy's "fate vote law enforcement" tactic.

In addition, because of the unadaptability to the local climate, quite a few soldiers have already begun to get sick. Fortunately, these soldiers are able to adapt to the tropical climate, otherwise, it would be worse.

Seeing that nothing could be done, Cortés led a raid of the entire city of Zvongombe and recovered more than 20,000 ounces of gold from temples and the homes of powerful people.

He divided the more than 20,000 pieces of gold with his soldiers, and then, with 150,000 ounces of gold from the state treasury, he was carried by the mules he had brought with him, and happily returned to Mozambique along the same route.

Anyway, he already knew the exact location of the Mutapa Kingdom. It's a big deal, next time I bring more people to attack, although there is still a big gap with the legend that there is gold everywhere, but this 150,000 ounces of gold is definitely enough to make a difference......