Hello, and welcome to Western Sieve Episode two hundred and fifty four. Oh
brother, where art thou? In our last episode, Manco Inca launched his
great rebellion. Manco had by now realized that the Spaniards were playing him for
a fool. He was ready to chance everything on the roll of a dice,
and when we last ended, he was supremely confident his armies had Francisco
Pizarro pinned down around what he was calling los reyes, what we would call
Lima. Pizaro and his brother Gonzalo, we're holding on for dear life in
Cusco. Outnumbered thousands to one, the Spaniards hoped their ability to force the
Inca from their main fortress to the north of the city would change their situation.
But though their situation might have improved, which had had, they were
still vastly outnumbered and needed some way to break through Manco's armies, which had
only gotten let's say, fractionally easier. If Hannando and Gonzalo are going to
survive, they would need to keep gambling and winning. But Zisco Pizaro did
not learn about the assault on Cusco or Manco Inca's rebellion until May the fourth,
fifteen thirty six, two days before the mass of Inca assault on the
capitol, Pisaro fired off two frantic letters to his brothers, telling them that
he was sending aid as quickly as he could. Neither letter made it,
one, however, survived in its patchwork. It reads as follows, Magnificent
Sir, today, I arrived in the city of kings Lima after a visit
to the cities of San Miguel in the newly founded city of Trahilo, with
the intention of resting after so many hardships and dangers. But before I could
even get off my horse, they gave me some letters from you and from
my brothers, through which I was informed of the rebellion of that traitor,
the Inca Emperor. This greatly troubles me on account of the detrimenta will cause
to the service of the Emperor, Our Lord, and the danger that you
are in, and of the trouble it will cause me in my old age.
I am greatly consoled your presence there in Cusco, and if it is
the will of God, we will rescue those of you there. And thus
I leave you, praying to our Lord to watch over and to aige your
magnificent person day to the fifth of May fifteen thirty six, signed Francisco Pizaro.
Pizzaro had only founded the City of Kings for months earlier. He named
it the City of Kings because it was established on the Feast of Epiphany,
also known as the Feast of the Magi or the Three Kings as they're often
called in the United States. Lying on a flat desert plain, the city
was bordered by the Remac River, which literally meant the speaker in Inca Remac,
believe it or not, is later going to be corrupted into the city's
present name Lima. Since his arrival in Peru for the second time and sis
Gopizarro had scarcely stopped to rest, he had defeated and killed Atahualpa, crowned
manko Inca, and set out to build what would become the capital of Spanish
South America. No one understood the need to win the piece so much as
Fransasko Pizzaro. He still had less than six hundred total Spaniards at his disposal
against an empire of perhaps five hundred million. That means his men were outnumbered
about ten thousand to one. The kinds of unforced errors his brothers were busy
making as though they were going out of style would not have worked the best
of circumstances, and these were not the best of circumstances. The fact of
the matter was that Pizzaro and his fellow Spaniards controlled only a few tiny pockets
of the Inca Empire. And yes, for the moment, I'm going to
totally ignore Almagro and his army, which is somewhere working its way north present
day Chile. Pisaro's power emanated outward because of his alliance with manco Inca.
Hence, when the alliance disappeared, his extended power disappeared. Pisardo realized that
if manco Inca would be able to take Cusco, not only would he lose
over half of his brothers, but he would likely lose half of his available
forces as well. The conquest of Breu would need to start all over again,
and this time there would be no fooling a gullible manco Inca that he
was on his side. Hence, Pisaro did what he could and dispatch two
forces towards Cusco immediately. Essentially, he sent one north and one south over
different passes through the Andes toward Cusco. Pizzaro really thought that he had Manco
Inca out foxed on this occasion, But little did he realize Manco had already
sent a massive army whose sole purpose it was to block any relief force from
leaving Lima. Pizzaro sent two forces of cavalry into the mountains. One was
led by Gonzalo de Tapia. Tapia's column was to follow the Inca Road south
on the coast for nearly one hundred miles and then take a branch east that
climbed into the Andes. Eventually, the cavalry unit would turn south into the
main Inca highway and take it all the way to Cusco. What neither Pizzaro
nor his captains realized, however, was that Manco had already sent a native
army north from Cusco under the command of one of his generals, with orders
to pin down Pisardo's forces in Lima and prevent Pisardo from relieving the besieged mountain
capital. By now, Spanish forces in Lima, Jawa, and Cusco were
operating in a virtual information blackout, unable to communicate with one another. Not
only had the Incas succeeded in severing the Spaniards lines of communications. They had
also been busy redesigning their military tactics. After three and a half years of
occupation, Manco's generals knew by now something of the strengths and weaknesses of Spanish
military techniques. Attacking Spanish cavalry while on level ground was essentially suicide, no
matter how many native troops there were. They also knew that the only successes
their troops had had boss far had been attacking the Spaniards on terrain so rough
that the cavalry was useless. Now, with advanced knowledge of two Spanish columns
moving slowly between jagged heights and narrow passes of the Andes, and taking into
account everything that he knew about the invaders, General Kiso, probably the most
important INCA general moving forward, carefully made his plans. According to one chronicler
quote there, the INCA strategy was the following. They would allow the Spaniards
to enter a deep, narrow gorge and seizing the entrance and exit with a
great mass of Indians. They would then hurl down such a quantity of rocks
and boulders from the hillsides they would kill them all almost without having to come
to grips with them endue. The strategy was simple, use thegraphy of the
Andes against the Spaniards, and soon enough this became the number one operating principle
of the Inca army. One group of Pisado's men, as I mentioned,
was riding south before turning east one day, half drowsing in their saddles and
climbing slowly up the canyon toward a pass. These Spaniards were abruptly jolted awake
when masses of native warriors suddenly appeared ahead, seemingly from nowhere. Guiso's troops
charged toward the column, launching a volley of sling driven stones that slammed into
the cavalrymen at the front. Caught by a surprise Tepia, the man I
mentioned before, and his men turned their horses around and raced back down the
canyon, only to find the bridge over the river they had just used disappeared.
Native warriors had dismantled it soon after the Spaniards had ridden across. Surrounded
now by sheer canyon walls and with an impassable river between themselves and safety,
the Spaniards were tramped As the men shouted to one another, wheeling their horses
around and trying to decide what to do, a noise as loud as a
canyon suddenly erupted in their midst A huge boulder had smashed into the ground from
above, crushing a number of riders and horses and spraying others with a deadly
shrapnel of rocks. Looking up, the Spaniards saw in horror that natives lining
the canyon walls were pushing more boulders over the edge, and that others were
already crashing down. Amid the noise and confusion and the cries of the wounded,
the Spaniards knew one thing for certain. They had been caught like rats
in a prepared trap. Two, three, and now four more boulders hit
the ground, exploding on impact and taking groups of horses and their riders down
with them. Uninjured horses made, wounded horses screamed, and Spaniards just shouted
to each other in confusion as boulder after boulder after boulder continued to crash down
upon them. Some tried to escape, bolting with their horses forward or back,
but these just ran into a sling of stones and arrows shot by jungle
archers. A few slammed their horses into the masses of warriors, slashing at
the natives with their swords, but soon a sea of hands surrounded them and
pulled the Spaniards from their mounts. Thrown to the ground, these armored invaders
immediately disappeared, never to return. General Kiso more than likely witnessed his carefully
designed to ambush from a perch atop the canyon rim. He watched with satisfaction
as wounded Spaniards crawled on the ground, pursued by native troops who used their
heavy wooden clubs to mash in their skulls. Other warriors grabbed the now riderless
horses by the reins, a few of which reared up but were unable to
escape. Within about a half an hour, a force of seventy Spaniards had
been reduced to a few crawling survivors. But as I mentioned, there were
two columns of riders. But Kiso now he knew what to do. In
another high, narrow canyon, similar to that which Gonzalo de Tapia's men had
been crushed, Kiso staged his next ambush there. The inca general caught the
entire force of sixty Spaniards by surprise and quite literally crushed them with an avalanche
of boulders. Kiso's legions then clubbed the survivors to death. Here's one recount
quote the inca. General Kiso seized many supplies that these dead Spaniards were carrying
from Spain, brocades and silk and other rich garments, and a lot of
wine and foodstuffs, and swords and lances they later used against us. And
they had more than one hundred horses, and they had also seized much artillery
end quote. Determined to continue this methodical campaign, General Kiso now marched his
army north to the city of Jaoja, which was still inhabited by a community
of a couple dozen Spaniard encomienda owners. Years of unbroken military successes and arrogance
had lulled these Spanish inhabitants into a false sense of security. Assuming that this
force of sixty soldiers was still in the area, the ones who had just
been crushed to death by boulders, the encomienda owners ignored reports by their frightened
servants that a large native army was now approaching the city. Chronicker Martan Demura
describes, quote the Spaniards received news that they the native warriors were coming to
kill them, they paid no attention, nor did they respect them at all,
saying, let these dogs come to where we are waiting for them,
and we will cut them all to pieces, even if they come with twice
the number they already have. And for this reason they didn't want to take
any precautions, nor fortify themselves in the central area, nor post guards or
lookouts, nor play spies on the road so they could be warned when the
Indians were near end quote. So unfortunately for them, the Spanish and comienda
owners failed to perceive the imminent danger around them. That evening, General Quiso's
troops encircled the small town of Juja. At dawn, he gave the order
to attack the Spanish. Destruction was almost instantaneous. Caught off guard, those
who could quickly made their way to the town center for an Alamo like final
stand. It did not make a difference. General Kiso had overwhelming numbers,
and this time the Spanish did not have cavalry to save them, even with
their superior military technology. Slowly, but surely, each of them was bludgeoned
to death, well, all except one. He escaped. Maybe he was
allowed to escape, and made his way back to Lima, where he soon
informed a distraught Francisco Pizzaro about the latest catastrophe. With each passing day no
doubts, Pizzaro became more and more certain that his dream of ruling the Anka
Empire was slipping from his grasp. For the first time since the Spaniards arrived
in Peru four years earlier, an inc in general had successfully eliminated not one,
but four different Spanish forces, three of which were composed of cavalry.
How the tide had turned. Two months prior, Francisco Pizaro commanded five hundred
Spanish troops and had control over a puppet emperor. Now said puppet emperor was
leading a rebellion which had in the past sixty days wiped out about a third
of his troops, and his own brother Juan was amongst the dead. Keep
this up and Francisco would join him before too long. All of this war
on Francisco Pisaro. One chronicler described him at the time as follows quote.
The governor was greatly troubled after seeing all the bad things that had happened,
because he had already had four dead captains and almost two hundred dead men and
many horses. And he also knew for certain at the city of Couscoe was
either in great danger was already lost, and if the latter, then his
brothers and all the people in it were dead. And for this reason,
and seeing himself with so few people, he was very distraught fearing the loss
of this land. For there wasn't a day when someone didn't come to tell
him that such and such chief as rebelled, or in such an area,
so many Christians have died who had gone looking for food end quote. Pizzaro
had discovered that the Inca knew how to defeat his cavalry, but discovered it
too late. If he had been aware, there's no way Pizzaro would have
had just sent a hundred will remend to their deaths. He believed them to
be invulnerable, which only months before they had been, for once the Spanish
were on the losing end of the information war, the Inca simply knew more
about what was going on than they did. Fearing that his two brothers,
Hernando and Gonzalo might likewise be dead, Pizaro sent an emergency sos appeal to
the various Spanish governors living elsewhere in the Americas. We have the letter that
he sent on July the ninth, fifteen thirty six, to Pedro de Alvarado,
Hernan Cortes's former second in command and now the governor of Guatemala. In
the letter, Pizaro sounds uncharacteristically meek and chastened. He wrote Talvarado as follows,
the Inca Emperor Manko has the city of Cusco besieged, and I have
heard nothing about the Spaniards in it. The country is so badly damaged that
no native chief now serves us, and they have won many victories against us.
It is causing me such great sorrow that is consuming my entire life,
as well as fear of losing my governorship. I beg of you to send
me some help, because not only would it be doing his majesty a great
service, but it would also be doing me a favor. It would save
the lives of those who are here in Lima. You can be sure that
if we are not rescued, the Cusco will be lost, and then the
rest of us will be lost. Because we are few and of almost no
weapons, and the Indians are fearless. I will not say more except that
it will cost you little to perform this service for our royal majesty and to
grant the favor that both his Realm and my self request. And even if
it costs a lot to help us Christians, everyone will be grateful for it.
May the Lord grant your magnificent person as prosperous life as you desire,
Signed Francisco Pizaro. Pizzaro's letters eventually wound their way through Central America, into
the Caribbean, and finally to Spain. Evidently the postal service still worked fine.
King Charles undoubtedly read the news with equal feelings of consternation and hopelessness.
He was counting on his twenty percent of Manco's gold and silver to finance his
European wars. Never a man with a ton of liquid capital on hand,
Charles and his Council of the Indies did nevertheless spring into action. One Spaniard
wrote the following from Panama quote, The Lord of Cousco and of the entire
realm has rebelled. The rebellion has spread from province to province, and suddenly
they are all rising up rebellious chiefs have already arrived forty leagues about one hundred
and forty miles from the city of the Kings, that's Los Rees or Lima.
Governor Pizarro is asking for help, and we'll be given everything possible from
here. We will send someone there with as much money as we'll be needed,
and we are asking that as many people come as are able, along
with the greatest amount of artillery, harquebuses and crossbows. Of course, all
this would take time. For all Charles knew by the time that letter got
from Pizarro reached him, the rebellion had won, All the pisados were dead
and there was nothing to be done. But he still had to try.
After all, he had a lot of money on the line. While all
this was going on, manko Inca was celebrating General Kiso's recent victories about thirty
miles northwest of Cusco in a fortress temple complex called and this word is going
to be a stretch for me oleyan Tayambo, and that is why I will
not be repeating that pronunciation going forward, or at the very least keeping its
mention to a minimum. The fortress was extremely well located and commanded both entrances
into the Yucca Valley north of Cousco. Manko, feeling confident, now,
addressed his native chiefs and military officers, My sons and brothers. In past
talks, you already know how I prevented you from inflicting harm on those evil
people through deceit of saying they were the sons of the creator God, which
I permitted for this reason, and helped them giving what I had, silver,
gold, clothing, corn, alpacas, men, women, children,
and innumerable other things. But they seized me, beat me, and mistreated
me without my having merited it, and then they tried to kill me.
It had caused me grief that you, being so many, and they being
so few, they escaped from your hands. Perhaps the gods helped them,
for you have told me that they were on their knees every night praying,
for if He did not help them, then how did they escape from your
hands? With so many of you. What is done is done. From
now on, be aware of them, for they are our worst enemies,
and we will perpetually be theirs. I want to strengthen my position in this
town and make a fortress here that no one will be able to penetrate.
Do me this favor, because one day we may need to make use of
it. Manca was feeling optimistic, and why not, it seemed like every
day better and better news was coming in recalled one Inca witness quote. During
this period, messengers arrived with news of the destruction that have been carried out
in Lima and Jouja, where the battle had occurred between the Indians and the
Spaniards, in which the Indians have been victorious. And they brought my father,
that is manco Inca, many heads of Spaniards and two live Spaniards and
a black man and four horses, which arrived a great rejoicing for those victories.
And my father accepted these gifts very honorably and infused everyone with a desire
to fight with equal vigor end quote. Knowing that General Kiso had wiped the
central andes of the hated invaders and with the other two Pizzarto brothers hold up
in Cusco, manco Inca sent the following message to his best general, march
to Lima and eliminate Francisco Pizzaro. Once he did that, which manko Inca
had no doubt he would do with great ease. Then Kiso could march back
to Cusco, link up with the remaining armies, and together they could eliminate
the Spaniards once and for all. Back in Cusco, things were getting desperate.
One hundred and ninety men were trapped within the capital. Sure they had
taken the fortress of Sasko Saman, but they were running out of supplies and
had heard nothing from the outside world. With no communication from the other Brothers
or from any other Spaniards, those who within Cusco had no idea what was
going on. Daily, however, Mango's forces continued to attack the Spaniards and
their native auxiliaries. A number of captains now urged hernandol Pisaro to assemble a
small group of their finest cavalry to break out of the city and ride for
help on the coast. Others countered this argument. They said breaking out of
the city, or even attempting to, was a suicide mission and would cost
those remaining precious horses. Many men argued either they needed to attempt to break
out all together, or they needed to stay and fight all together in the
end, and then they went with option A. He picked fifteen of his
best horsemen and decided that that group would attempt to break out. He believed
that he had to get word to Lima. But then, just as dawn
broke the next morning, tattered message arrived. It came stuffed within a pile
of severed Spanish heads. No doubt, as the men looked down at a
horror at the heads of some of the men sent to carry the message to
Cusco from Lima, they wondered how the letter, incomplete as it was,
had found its way to them. According to one witness, one day before
the Spaniards were to set out, just after mass, many Indians on the
surrounding hills began to shout, and they left five heads of Christians and more
than a thousand ripped up letters on the road. The Indians had seized these
letters and killed some Christians whom the governor had sent to rescue the city.
The Indians had brought these things so that we could see them and know what
had happened, and so that we would become more discouraged. But on the
contrary, this gave us life and rejuvenated us, because by way of these
letters we found out what we wanted to know, that the governor and his
men were alived, and we learned about the victory that the Emperor Charles the
fifth had against the Moors in the capture of Tunis. Quote. Convincing Manko
to send the letter with the severed heads had been the suggestion of one of
Mango's Spanish prisoners. He convinced the Inca emperor that seeing these useless scraps of
paper would send those within Cusco into even more of a panic. Evidently,
after three years, Manko still did not understand even the very purpose of writing.
Thus, without realizing it, Manko had just sent into Cusco a literal
treasure trove of information. Reinvigorated by the knowledge that his brother Francisco was probably
still alive, and Hernando canceled the attempt to reach the coast and instead decided
that perhaps he and the rest of his Trap Spaniards might try to crush the
Inca rebellion In a bold move, his spies had informed Hernando that Manko Inca
was presently headquartered at Oleanta Yambo, some thirty miles northwest of Cusco. If
Hernando could strike directly at the emperor, capturing or killing him, than the
Trap Spaniards might be able to break the back of the rebellion. Manco's cousin
Passak meanwhile continued to fight on the side of the Spaniards. He could then
be placed on the prone, so leaving fifty foot soldiers in control of their
main fortress and another forty in the city below. Hernando now led a force
of seventy cavalry and thirty foot soldiers, together with a variety of Inca auxiliaries,
out of the city. Hernando's goal was a simple one, to seize
or kill the leader of the rebellion, manco Inca himself. Hernando and his
men soon fought their way down into the narrow flat Yuka Valley plain. They
followed the uk River for some time before it led them to the massive fortress
headquarters of manco Inca. Reported Pedro Pisaro quote, when we arrived we found
Olean Tambo so well fortified that it was a horrifying site. For the place
is very strong, with very high terraces, and with very large and well
fortified stone walls. It has but one entrance, that is against a very
steep hill, and on the hill were many warriors with many boulders, which
they had head up in order to hurl them down whenever the Spaniards dared to
enter an attempt to capture the fortress gate end quote. Hernando's men gathered on
the plain below the fortress, and soon they noticed a new type of Inca
warrior. Before them were what looked like legions of warriors wielding nothing less than
what appeared to be medieval longbows. These were warriors from the Amazon and Although
the Inca had always incorporated Amazonian warriors into their armies as those were the only
people from the jungle who knew how to use bows and arrows, the Spaniards
were surprised to see that so many of these people had suddenly appeared unlike the
inhabitants of the Andes. Many of the antis natives, which is what they
were called, painted their faces with dyes. Others more than likely had various
feathers from tropical birds sprouting from their skin, noses and mouths. When the
Spaniards rode too close to the fortress walls, slews of arrows immediately arched into
the sky, bearing sharp and bamboo and palm wood points, many of which
hit the armored men and their horses. The aim of the Amazonians, Hernando
soon discovered was very very good. Hernando's cavalry continued to circle in skirmish while
the Spanish foot soldiers fought with the ever bolder Indian troops. Then, without
warning, the Spaniards noticed the suddenly previously dry ground begin to grow moist,
then wet. Then the foot soldiers found themselves knee deep in water. Manko
had unleashed a new secret weapon. He had opened up the gates controlling the
Pachata River. Soon the water had risen so high that had reached the belly
of the Spanish horses quote the Indians without our knowing, it turned the river
into the plain where we were, and had we waited longer, we would
have all died. Yet, when he understood the trick the Indians had played
on us, and that it was impossible to take the village at this time,
Hernando Pizaro ordered us to retreat, and as the night drew darker,
he sent all the foot soldiers ahead with the baggage and some mounted troops to
guard it, and he himself, with the other troops, took the middle
and he ordered his brother, Gonzalo Pizzaro, along with a few more of
US cavalrymen, to bring up the rear, and in this way we retreat
it end quote. Hence, against very difficult circumstances, the Spanish managed to
carry out a forest retreat. Saw how Hernando and his men struggled across the
flooded valley and reached the heights on the other side. The next day,
these same exhausted men fought their way back to Cusco, having lost several horses
and suffering a variety of men wounded. Meanwhile, four hundred miles away and
roughly eleven thousand feet lower in elevation, Francisco Pisaro, anxiously awaited for reinforcements
from abroad and wondered whether his brothers in Cusco were still alive. Pisaro was
still receiving reports from various spies that a massive Inca army was assembling nearby for
an attack on Lima. This was the same army, his spies, no
doubt told him, led by one General Kiso, This man who had wiped
out Pissarro's relief forces and massacred the Spaniards in Jauja. General Quiso, they
told him, had vowed to destroy every bearded invader on the coast, exactly
as he had done in the mountains. Because of recent losses, only one
hundred or so Spaniards were alive defend what would be Lima one day and what
was then still referred to as Los Reyes. Needless to say, the city
was at a breaking point. Fear and panic ran through the streets. No
ships had arrived bearing any reinforcement. Then in late winter, so like September
remember Southern Hemisphere. The news that everyone had been dreading finally arrived. Quote
the conquistador Diego de Agua presently arrived, having fled to the city of Kings,
and reported that the Indians were up in arms and had tried to set
him on fire in their villages. A great army of them was approaching,
the news of which deeply terrified the city, all the more because of how
few Spaniards were in it. Almost immediately more news followed. Auxiliary Indians from
outside the city of Kings arrived, complaining that great quantities of Indian warriors were
coming down from the mountains to destroy them, killing their women and children.
The governor sent Pedro de Lerma with twenty cavalry in order to find out what
was going on and to scout the area. Lerma left that night, and
only two leagues about seven miles from the city, he found himself besieged by
fifty thousand Indian warriors. So the rumors of the impending attack, it seemed,
were true. In reality, General Kiso had spent months gathering up additional
levies and preparing his men for the battle to come. He could have attacked
much sooner, but he felt he needed the extra men. You see,
he was confident that he could destroy Spaniards in the MoU, but as of
now, no one had yet determined how to defeat Spanish cavalry on level ground.
There they remained invincible. But Manko had given his best general clear instructions.
He was to march to Lima and destroy this fledgling Spanish city. He
was to capture Pisharo and bring him back to Manko as a prisoner, but
everyone else was to be slaughtered. Los Race or whatever the Spanish were calling.
The settlement was to be wiped off the map, and then Kiso was
to march back to Cusco to help Mano finish off the Spaniards there. Now,
as I mentioned, General Kiso fully realized that the strength and speed of
the Spanish horses could only be neutralized by steep topography horses, it turned out
even more so than men simply weren't good at running up steep hills. As
long as his men controlled the heights, Qiso had the advantage. In the
case of the Spanish city on the coast, however, which Kiso's scouts had
no doubt built small clay models of him to study. The general quickly saw
that his troops would be forced to abandon the protection of the hills and would
have to attack the Spaniards on flat terrain. There they could certainly expect to
be attacked by Pizarro's cavalry. As the Inca general studied the claim models and
examined the representations of the hills around the city, he undoubtedly realized that Manco's
order to attack Pissaro's coastal city was going to be the most difficult challenge of
his life. General Kiso decided to attack Lima from three sides, northeast and
south. He would use his overwhelming numbers to slowly crush the Spaniards within just
as Manko was doing in Cusco. After arriving outside the town, Cusco gave
his men a night's rest, and then he issued the order to attack.
Those forces now began a pincer like movement toward the city, advancing across the
plane to the sound of the Inca's traditional music of conk shells, clay trumpets,
and drums. From above, the divisions looked like a three sided clamp
that was slowly crushing the city. Pizzaro, meanwhile, had stationed his eighty
cavalry within the city, hidden from sight. When Quiso's divisions finally began arriving
at the city's outskirts and the rest of the attacking troops were now well exposed
on the plane, Pissaro gave his own signal to attack. A group of
harquebussers now suddenly appeared, firing their weapons, their heavy barrels issuing clouds of
smoke, and their lead balls ripping into the attackers. Next came the inevitable
cavalry charge. With lances and swords drawn and shouting, the Spaniards galloped rapidly
towards the attackers front lines, smashing into them and then slashing down over their
swords, thrusting with their spears. The spaniards native auxiliaries, meanwhile, far
more numerous than the conquistadors, also charged out, counterattacking the Inca troops with
stone and bronze tipped clubs. Fierce fighting commenced, although as usual, the
warriors clubs and slingstones were simply no match for the armored Spaniards. Although Quiso's
troops had succeeded in reaching the outskirts of the city, it was there that
the Inca attack stalled, as the Spanish foot soldiers, cavalry, and native
auxiliaries fought fiercely to prevent Los Reyes from being overrun. All afternoon the battle
raged, with the Spaniards armored cavalry exacting a deadly and unequal toll on Quiso's
troops. Finally, the Inca general ordered his forces to retreat to the hills
ringing the city, knowing that the steep escampments there would protect from further cavalry
attacks. Kiso and his own division retired to the tall brown sugarloaf le kill
that is now called Sero San Cristi Bald and now rises over Lima from across
the bay. For the next five days, Manko's finest general laid siege to
Pisaro's city, with the Spaniards having to fight fiercely each day to prevent it
from being overrun. On the sixth day, however, Kiso had reached a
turning point. Manko had not ordered his veteran general to lay siege to the
city, but to take and destroy it and to put the Spaniards there to
death. The constant unequal attrition, however, was beginning to demoralize the Inca
troops. Well Aware that Mango's warriors still surrounded Cusco but had stalemate it there
for more than three months, Kiso felt the pressure to finish the job on
the coast and returned to assist his emperor each day. However, Kiso witnessed
from this hilltop position the Spanish cavalry reek havoc among his native warriors. The
only chance he had of breaching the defenses was to risk everything on one throw
of the dice. He had to launch one final overwhelming blow upon the city,
and this time he himself would lead the charge. Calling for an assembly
of his captains, Keiso waited patiently for them to arrive. From the heights
of Sierra San Cristobal, he could easily look out over the city and see
the Inca road stretching northeast and south, while to the west lay the dull,
metallic blue ocean. To the east rose the Andes, barely visible.
Gradually, Keiso's captains arrived, and once they had assembled, Manko's general stood
and gestured down at the Spanish settlement, announcing that he was quote determined to
enter the city and take it by force, or die in the attempt.
I intend to enter the town today and kill all the Spaniards who are in
it. Those who accompany me must go, with the understanding that if I'd
die, all will die, and if I flee, all will flee.
The native captains and leaders all agreed to go with him and quote, and
so General Kiso launched his final assault on Los Rays quote. The entire native
army began to move with a vast array of banners, from which the Spaniards
recognized the determination and will they were coming with. Pizzaro ordered all the cavalry
to form into two squadrons. He placed one squadron under his command in ambush
in one street, and the other squadron in another. The enemy was already
advancing across the open plain by river. They were very magnificent men, for
all had been hand picked. The general Kiso was advancing in front of them,
wielding a lance. While it seemed certain that Pizzaro was doomed, the
Inca military power structure had one fatal flaw. Inca armies always placed their leaders
in the front line. Pizzaro knew by now that if he could kill Kiso,
then the entire command structure would collapse. Pizzaro had been brought up in
the European tradition, he never led his forces personally. Now, Pizzaro,
realizing that this might be his last and the only chance to survive, he
launched an attack aimed straight at General Kiso. A chronicler tells us what happens
next quote. General Kiso crossed both branches of the Rimac River in his litter.
Seeing that the enemy warriors were starting to enter the streets of the city
and some of Kiso's men were moving on the tops of the walls, the
Spanish cavalrycharged out and attacked with such great determination that, since the ground was
flat, they routed them instantly. The General Kiso was left there dead,
and so were forty commanders and other chiefs alongside him. Although it seemed as
if our men had specially selected them, they were killed because they were marching
at the head of their men, and thus they were the first that the
Spaniards smashed into. The Spaniards continued to hill and wound Indians as far as
the foot of the hill of Saint San Cristo bal, at which point they
encountered a very strong resistance from the defensive sight they had made and quote.
When night fell on the battlefield, though the Inca army outnumbered its opponents still
by at least one thousand to one, it melted away without a leader.
The soldiers simply gave up and went home. The army might have been fine
in terms of manpower, but psychologically it was crushed. Three days later,
a breathless runner tore into the Inca camp north of Cuzco. He delivered the
shocking news to a stone faced Manko Inca Kiso. His best general was dead,
his army all but vanished. Francisco Pisaro remained alive, his city and
his small army intact. It was a complete reversal. Manko had him,
He had Pizarro on the ropes, and somehow Pisaro had survived. The news
was utterly devastating, But if Manko that day was looking around for someone to
blame. That man wasn't the now dead general Kiso. Manco had ignored what
Kiso had learned, namely that they could beat the Spaniards in the mountains,
but nowhere else. In the end, Kiso's last charge could only go down
as one of those romantic but hopeless last stands, like the charge of the
Light Brigade maybe, or Pickets charge in the American Civil War. Now there
was nothing Manko could really do to stop Pisaro from linking up with his brothers.
The army that could have once stopped up a all the gaps and held
the two forces apart was gone, and worst news arrived immediately thereafter. A
column of four hundred armed Spaniards had just reached the southern border of Peru.
Diego de Almagro, Psato's old partner was back. If you've enjoyed the show,
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