The Mistery of Belicena Villca Standartenführer consulted his wristwwatch with luminiscent hands : eight past one . In just eight minutes , and without giving them time to fire a shot , the three SS officers exterminated the Duskha garrison !
From the main entrance , until the wide square where the Monastery stood , ran a wide avenue 300 meters long through which Von Grossen had planned the next breakthrough . Except for the two Lopas that remained outside , and whose mission was to climb the towers , the Kâulikas were ordered to " clear " the passage of the Germans . With that purpose , barely blown off the gate , three of them headed straight there brandishing their scimitars and , with remarkable skill , slaughtered all the Duskhas who crossed their path . They had divided up the route and each one came and went about a hundred meters lavishing sword blows to the right and left . The first to die were , of course , the inhabitants of the houses facing the avenue , that made the irreparable mistake of going outside when they heard the explosions : elders , men , women , children , the Kâulika scimitar forgave no one . After ten past one , when they were joined by the two Lopas who were returning from finishing off the wounded in the garrison , the bodies of dozens of entire families layed lifeless in the vicinity of their dwellings .
But , at that stage of the events , after the explosion of the bombs , the grenades , and the clatter of the submachine guns , chaos ruled the Duskha village . Amid the infernal shouting , a bewildered crowd of people converged on that road , some in order to reach the walls , and others to head towards the Monastery . And although many came armed with daggers and sabers , and offered fleeting resistance to the Kâulika monks , these inexorably reaped their miserable lives .
When the four SS officers raced for the Monastery , the avenue had become a river of blood . But the road was effectively " cleared ". They only fired a few bursts as they passed , over the crowd that flowed through the side streets . Behind them also advanced the Kâulikas , admirably fulfilling their function of ensuring the mobility of the Germans .
At ten past one , meanwhile the Germans marched down the avenue , the two Lopa archers from outside returned and climbed by a staircase of stone to the towers that guarded the destroyed entrance gate . There they separated : one would take the corridor on the left and the other the one on the right , corridors that connected all the towers to each other and that consisted of narrow cantilever platforms , peripherally distributed on the inner side of the wall . On each tower there was a primitive hearth , which was now useless for heating the definitely frozen bodies of the guards . The Kâulikas , from the first towers , observed the conglomerate of houses that extended compact in a strip three hundred meters wide , parallel to the wall . Using the different towers it was possible to master every detail , block , alley , house or Temple , of the Duskha village .
They had spent the day before making the incendiary arrows . It was not difficult : it was enough to wind a woolen thread around the tips of the common arrows impregnated in a mixture of fuel oil and sugar . They had a hundred of those arrows , then , according to Von Grossen , no more were required ; the important thing , explained the Standartenführer , was not the quantity of the arrows but the quality of the selected targets and the degree of success in the shots . According to that tactic , the Kâulikas chose the hundred targets one by one , trying to target the flammable materials such as woods and fabrics .
Doors , windows , awnings , curtains , food sacks , stacks of forage and looms armed under wide corridors , began little by little to take different categories of combustion . In some places , the flames soon surpassed the height of the houses and the sparks invaded the surroundings ; the fire spread inexorably and the fire became general .
When both Kâulikas reached the final towers , at twenty past one , the Duskha village had been transformed into a gigantic bonfire . The uncontrolled mobs were mostly trying to escape the suffocating heat and reach the lake or go outside the walls . The sentries at the side doors , caught between the flames and the crowd , opened and could not prevent the passing of hundreds of terrified villagers . In that moment , the two Kâulika monks assumed very different attitudes . The one in the tower of the extreme right , lowered himself with a rope outside the wall and went resolutely towards the place where the horses were hidden , knocking down without contemplations , with deadly scimitar blows , the bewildered Duskhas that he found on his way . The one in the tower on the left prepared the rope to descend outside , but then he descended the stone staircase towards the inside and , turned into a whirlwind of deadly thrusts , he cleared the vicinity of that site of enemies : he awaited the arrival of the squad of Von Grossen , which should already be there .
Fifteen past one . The numerous group of Duskhas , gathered at the entrance of the Monastery , demanded with loud voices the presence of the Lamas of the Turmeric bonnet . Ignoring the clamor of their brothers , the monks had entrenched and were probably saying prayers to Rigden Jyepo and the Gods of the White Fraternity .
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