Chapter 1617 There Is Still Gold
After waking up, Cortes hated Marin so much that he couldn't stop scolding Marin. In fact, Cortez misunderstood Marin, because Marin really didn't intend to deceive the Spaniards, but the description of the African part in the previous life history textbook was very inaccurate. Therefore, he does not know the specific active years of the ancient Zimbabwe Empire.
In fact, the ancient Zimbabwean empire ran out of gold as early as 1430. Then, around 1450, the ancient Zimbabwe Empire abandoned the city of Great Zimbabwe and moved it to the upper valley of the Zambezi River more than 350 kilometers northeast. The new capital was named Zvongombe. The ancient Zimbabwe Empire was also renamed the Mutapa Kingdom.
The distance of more than 350 kilometers is far, far, not far. Although the southern Africans did not have horses in this era, the black buddies are also very good at walking. Haven't you seen that the marathon champions of later generations are all black buddies? Therefore, 350 kilometers is nothing, but more than 8 marathons...
After Cortes had had enough of scolding Marin, he began digging into Stone City, trying to find the remaining gold. During the period, he dug up a lot of stone carvings, and even some ancient porcelain. However, the gold was not dug up. But he didn't give up, and continued to dig and dig...
And when Cortez led his men to dig three feet in Stone City to find gold, more than 350 kilometers away, the new capital Zvongombe, had already had a black man with good feet, and the old capital Stone City was attacked. News of the attack by foreign enemies was reported to the current king, Chikuyo. King Chikuyo was taken aback by the attack on the old capital, especially when he learned that the invaders had actually dug three feet in the old capital Stone City, and he was immediately angry. After all, the ancient capital buried the remains of many ancestors and should not be desecrated.
So, King Chikuyo sounded the drum of war and summoned all the standing troops around the capital...
The standing army of the Mutapa Kingdom is composed of battle groups, each with about 500 to 1,000 people, and some are less than 500 people.
At this time, there were 8 combat regiments with a total of 5,600 people near the capital of the Mutapa Kingdom. After King Chikuyo gathered all 8 combat groups, he recruited more than 2,000 tribal fighters from nearby tribes, gathered 8,000 people, and marched towards the abandoned old capital of Great Zimbabwe, Stone City.
More than 10 days later, when the army of the Mutapa Kingdom arrived, the soldiers of the two phalanxes of Cortes were still happily digging graves...
Fortunately, Cortez arranged for security personnel. After discovering that a large group of people had been killed from the northeast, the security personnel immediately blew the whistle to warn. Cortés hastily summoned all his soldiers and put up a hasty resistance.
It's just that the army of the Mutapa Kingdom itself is too disappointing. Although the number of people is absolutely superior, they still attack suddenly, so it should be dominant. However, after a hasty battle, the army of the Mutapa Kingdom, which had a superior number, was defeated...
How did they lose? Come, let's talk about the fighting style of Mutapa Kingdom fighters...
The main body of the population of the Mutapa Kingdom is the Kalanga people, a branch of the Shona people. The traditional fighting method of the Shona people is to use a light short spear as a javelin.
During the battle, the Kalanga people took turns to fight in combat groups, throwing short spears and javelins at the enemy at a distance of forty or fifty yards...
The javelin hits were impressive, about the same as the musket hits past 70 yards. The Shona, including the later Zulu,
They all use this "fate" javelin tactics to fight each other. If one side is unlucky and too many people win the javelin, they will collapse first and then flee. But if the fleeing party dropped its weapon and fled, the other party could not pursue it according to the usual practice. Then, the defeated tribes will send people to show their submission. Or, leave the original territory, and the whole family goes into exile...
...
When the battle started, King Chikuyo, according to the tradition, sent out a fighting group to throw javelins at the enemy. But at this time, the muskets of Cortez's two phalanxes also rang...
And, while the muskets concentrated the enemy after more than 100 yards God forbid. However, at a distance of forty or fifty yards from where the enemy throws the javelin, the hit rate of the musket is still very high, exceeding 50%!
Then, the battle group that stepped forward to bid the gun first was unlucky, and was directly killed and wounded more than two hundred people by the musket...
Moreover, the huge volley of gunshots stunned the ignorant warriors of the Mutapa Kingdom. They have never seen such a weird way of killing...
Then, the surviving members of the battle group sent out first turned around and ran away in fright...
King Chikuyo was also taken aback, but sitting in the rear, he didn't feel deeply about the casualties. Therefore, he chose to send another combat group to javelin. In the end, the second battle group still had more than 200 casualties, and they also collapsed and ran away in fright...
Then, the other regiments of the Mutapa Kingdom did not dare to step forward...
Cortes was an adventurous fellow, and when he saw that the enemy was timid, he hastened to advance his army. In front of the enemy line, he let the musketeers fire three rounds of volleys at the Guards Combat Regiment where the King's Guard of Honor was located, killing five or six hundred people.
At this time, Chikuyo was finally scared. Then, he turned around and ran away first, and several other battle groups also fled... The Mutapa Kingdom fighters who threw javelins to hurt the enemy by fate lost to the more professional Spanish army after all. What's more, it was the colonial army using the Spanish phalanx.
Cortés won a complete victory, and then led his army in pursuit. After half a month, he pursued to Zvongombe, the capital of the Mutapa Kingdom. Zvongombe is not a stone city in Great Zimbabwe, but a village of cottages in a river valley.
After Taniguchi was captured by Cortez, King Chikuyo led the army directly to protect the royal family and officials, and fled into the mountains from another direction.
Cortes didn't even bother to chase, but directly led his troops into the palace of the Mutapa Kingdom, which was like a large cottage. Then, Cortez was dazzled by the gold in the fake palace...
In the humble palace, Cortes seized more than 150,000 ounces of gold, equivalent to 4.25 tons or 9,375 pounds.
Cortez was very puzzled—didn't it mean that the gold mining in Stone City was over? Why is there so much gold in the capital?
I found a Kalanga prophet and elder who knew Arabic and had no time to run away. I asked through an Arabic-speaking military translator and found out—although the super gold mine near Stone City in Great Zimbabwe has dried up, the Kingdom of Mutapa There are still many small and medium-sized gold mines all over the country!
The Mutapa Kingdom relied on force to impose half of the gold as a tribute tax on small tribes who discovered gold mines all over the country. It is estimated that the annual gold tribute collected by the Mutapa Kingdom from gold-producing tribes across the country is estimated to be as high as 35,000 ounces, which is equivalent to one ton. At this time, the Portuguese were engaged in sand trade along the coast of West Africa, and their annual gold income was only half a ton... In other words, the annual gold income of the Kingdom of Mutapa was twice that of the Kingdom of Portugal in West Africa...
The 150,000 ounces of gold that Cortes found in the treasury of the palace was the surplus of the financial revenue of the Mutapa Kingdom in recent years. Of course, if it is a few months later, the kingdom may have to spend tens of thousands of ounces of gold. After all, the Mutapa Kingdom would spend a lot of money just to feed the thousands of standing troops.
...
After getting so much gold, Cortez was no longer in a hurry to hunt down the king of the Mutapa Kingdom and his party. Because his army is not familiar with the local terrain. Moreover, in the previous battle, despite the victory, the Spaniards also lost more than 200 people under the attack of the African buddies' "fate cast law enforcement" tactics.
In addition, many soldiers have begun to fall ill because they are not adapted to the local climate. Fortunately, these soldiers are able to adapt to the tropical climate, otherwise, it would be even worse.
Seeing that nothing could be done, Cortes led people to search the whole city of Zvongombe, and seized more than 20,000 ounces of gold from temples and dignitaries' homes.
He divided up the more than 20,000 gold with his soldiers, and then, taking the 150,000 ounces of gold from the treasury, let the mules he brought carry it, and happily returned to Mozambique along the original road.
Anyway, he already knew the exact location of Mutapa Kingdom. Big deal, bring more people to attack next time, although there is still a big gap with the legendary gold everywhere, but this 150,000 ounces of gold is definitely enough to deal with...