Chapter 1617： There is still gold

After waking up, Cortez hated Marin and he scolded Marin. In fact, Cortés blamed Marin, because Marin did not intend to deceive the Spaniards, but in the history textbooks of previous lives, the African part was very inaccurately described. Therefore, he did not know the specific active years of the ancient Zimbabwe Empire.

In fact, the ancient Zimbabwe Empire had dried up gold as early as 1430. Subsequently, around 1450, the ancient Zimbabwe Empire abandoned the Great Zimbabwe City and moved it to the upper valley of the Zambezi River, which is more than 350 kilometers northeast. The new capital is called Zvongombe. The ancient Zimbabwe Empire was also renamed the Kingdom of Mutapa.

For a distance of more than 350 kilometers, it is far away, not far away. Although southern Africans do not have horses in this era, the black buddies walk very well. Haven't you seen all future marathon champions are black guys? Therefore, 350 kilometers is not a big deal, but just 8 more marathons ...

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

And when Cortez took someone to dig the ground three feet in the Stone City to find gold, more than 350 kilometers away, the new capital Zvongombe, there was already a good old foot black, and the old city Stone City was hit The news of the foreign enemy's attack was reported to the current King Chikuyo. King Chikuyo was taken aback by the attack on the old city. In particular, he was angry when he learned that the aggressor had dug three feet in the stone city of the old city. After all, the remains of many ancestors are buried, so they cannot be profaned.

Therefore, King Chikuyo sounded the drum of war and summoned all the standing troops near the capital ...

The establishment of the Mutapa Kingdom Standing Army is a combat regiment. Each combat regiment has about 500 to 1,000 troops, and some have less than 500.

At this time, there were 8 combat regiments with a total of 5,600 troops near the capital of Mutapa Kingdom. King Chikuyo gathered all 8 combat regiments, summoned more than two thousand tribal warriors from nearby tribes, and gathered 8,000 people, and slayed to the abandoned old city of Stone Town, Great Zimbabwe.

More than 10 days later, when the army of the Mutapa Kingdom was killed, the soldiers of the two phalanxes of Cortez were still digging graves happily ...

Fortunately, Cortez arranged a security officer. After discovering that a large group of people were killed in the northeast, the security personnel immediately whistle to warn. Cortez hurriedly summoned all the soldiers and hurriedly resisted.

It's just that the army of Mutapa Kingdom is too disappointing. Obviously, the number of people has an absolute advantage, or they suddenly attacked. It should be the advantage. However, after a hurried battle, the dominant army of Mutapa Kingdom was defeated ...

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

The main population of the Mutapa Kingdom is the Kalanga, a member of the Shona. The traditional fighting method of the Shona people is to use a light short spear as a javelin.

During the battle, the Kalanga took turns in combat units, throwing short javelins at enemy lines at a distance of forty or fifty yards ...

The javelin's hit rate is very touching, similar to that of a smoothbore over 70 yards. The Shona, including the later Zulu people, used this "fate" bidding gun tactics to fight each other. If one side is unlucky and too many people win the javelin, it will collapse first and then flee. However, if the violent party throws away their weapons and escapes, the other party cannot follow the practice. Then, the defeated tribe will send people to show their surrender. Or, leaving the original site, the whole clan went into exile ...

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At the start of the war, King Chikuyo sent a combat regiment in accordance with tradition and stepped forward to throw a javelin at the enemy formation. But at this time, the guns of Cortez ’s two phalanxes also sounded ...

And, although the smoothbore muskets concentrated on the enemy after more than 100 yards, God blessed them. However, at a distance of forty or fifty yards from the enemy throwing the javelin, the hit rate of the smoothbore gun is still very high, exceeding 50%!

Then, the battle group that took the lead in bidding for the gun was unlucky, and was directly killed by the musket and injured more than 200 people ...

What's more, the loud sound of volley guns stunned the soldiers of the Mutapa Kingdom who had little knowledge. They have never seen such a weird way of killing ...

Then, the first person alive who was sent out by the fighting group turned around and ran away ...

King Chikuyo was also taken aback, but, sitting in the back of the town, he didn't feel much about the casualties. So he chose to send another battle group to bid for the gun. As a result, the second battle group still killed and injured more than two hundred people, and was scared to collapse and ran away ...

Then, several other regiments in the Kingdom of Mutapa dare not step forward ...

Cortez is an adventurous guy who sees the enemy timid and quickly advances the army. In front of the enemy line, he let the musketeers fire three rounds of volleys at the guards' regiment where the king's ceremonies were held, killing five or six hundred people.

At this time, Chikuyo was finally afraid. Then, he took the lead to turn around and run away, and several other combat regiments also ran away ... Throwing javelins to hurt the enemy Mutapa Kingdom warriors, and eventually lost to the more professional Spanish army. What's more, the colonial army used the Spanish phalanx.

Cortés won a big victory, and then led the army to pursue, and chased for half a month, all the way to the capital of the Kingdom of Mutapa Zvongombe. Zvongombe is not the Great Zimbabwe Stone City, but just a cottage community in a river valley.

After Taniguchi was captured by Cortez, King Chikuyo took the army directly to protect the royal family and his group of subjects, and fled into the mountain from the other direction.

Cortez did not want to pursue, but directly led troops into the royal palace of the Mutapa Kingdom like a large cottage. Then, Cortez was dazzled by the gold in the cottage-like royal palace ...

In the humble royal palace, Cortes seized more than 150,000 ounces of gold, which is equivalent to 4.25 tons or 9375 pounds.

Cortez was very confused-didn't it mean that the gold mining over the Stone Town was finished? Why is there so much gold in King City?

When I found an Arabic-speaking elder of the Kalanga prophet who was too late to run through the Arabic-speaking interpreter, I realized that-although the super gold mine near the Stone City of Great Zimbabwe dried up, the Kingdom of Mutapa There are many small and medium-sized gold mines all over the country!

The Kingdom of Mutapa relied on force to impose half of the gold as a tribute tax on small tribes that discovered gold mines across the country. It is estimated that the gold tribute tax levied by the Muta Kingdom, which produces gold from all parts of the country, is estimated to be around 35,000 ounces, equivalent to one ton. At this time, the Portuguese engaged in sand trade along the coast of West Africa, and the annual gold income is only half a ton ... That is to say, the annual gold income of the Mutapa Kingdom ~ www.novelhall.com ~ Times ...

The 150,000 ounces of gold that Cortes found in the palace treasury is the surplus of the Muttapa Kingdom ’s fiscal revenue in recent years. Of course, if it is a few months later, the Kingdom may have to spend another tens of thousands of ounces of gold. After all, if the Kingdom of Mutapa just needs to support the thousands of standing troops, it will cost a lot of money.

...

After receiving so much gold, Cortez was not in a hurry to chase down the king of Mutapa Kingdom and his party. Because his army is not familiar with the local terrain. Moreover, despite the victory in the previous battle, the Spaniards also lost more than two hundred people under the blow of the African buddy's "fate law enforcement" tactics.

In addition, many soldiers have become ill because they are not adapted to the local climate. Fortunately, these soldiers can adapt to the tropical climate, otherwise, it will be worse.

Seeing that nothing was possible, Cortez led people to search the whole city of Zvongombe, and found more than 20,000 ounces of gold from temples and powerful homes.

He divided the more than 20,000 gold and his men, and then took the 150,000 ounces of gold copied from the treasury, let the mule brought him, and happily returned to Mozambique along the same road.

Anyway, he already knew the specifics of Mutapa Kingdom. Big deal, next time bring more people to attack, although there is still a big gap from the legend that gold is everywhere, but this 150,000 ounces of gold is definitely enough to make a difference ...