Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction Group 2 -1 2019 | Page 218

Great Admiral Zheng He of the Western Seas
Peak School (ESF), Akin, Esra - 8
1
I was born a Muslim. My parents are Muslims, so that made me one; I guess it was meant to be that way.
My father was an explorer, and my grandfather was an explorer too. The only thing that I didn’t get was
why there were so many explorers in my family.
Now I’m guessing you would like to be filled in so you understand the story... Back then, China was
divided into many different chiefdoms, and each one had its own king or ruler. Together, it was called the
Middle Kingdom. All of these rulers fought with each other regularly, and one sad day when I was eleven
or so, our village was attacked.
The soldiers set fire to our homes! Suddenly, when the soldiers came, there were thousands of them coming
through our city walls, and nobody had noticed that I ran to find my father. He had to know! Lost in my
thoughts, I didn’t notice the guards creeping up on me. “Zheng He, look out behind you!” said one of the
people being attacked. I quickly gathered my consciousness and saw a large hand reaching over my shoulder
to grab me. I slapped the hand away and ran for my life. As I ran, I found my father, he was in a terrible
state…
2
Lying at my feet was my father. He had been screaming, but was now mysteriously quiet. I figured
something was terribly wrong, and checked all his bones to make sure that they weren’t broken.
Slowly I turned my father around and saw a large dagger lodged into his back. “No! No! No! Father, you
can’t be dead!” My eyes welled with tears, my head clouded… Time stood still. Anger surged through my
veins.
In my sadness, the soldiers dragged me away to the great capital city called Beijing. When I looked around,
there were many young boys who were captured. But they were all so small and weedy, and smelled really
yucky! On the journey to Beijing, I dreamed of a life of adventure and boats. Since I had been raised as a
Muslim, I could speak Arabic and Chinese, which made me pretty clever compared to the Chinese boys.
The emperor at the time was a curious young man, and wanted to find out about different places around the
world. He wanted to know about strange animals that people in China have never seen! He wanted to build
ships so he could leave land and go explore, make friends from far away lands! His naval architects were
asked to make 300 ships, which he called ‘Swimming Dragons’!
Now the emperor wanted servants to work on his ships. He came to look at the captured boys. “I want
that giant one who is almost 2 metres tall”, said the emperor.
3
Many years later, on one very average day, the emperor called me to his royal palace. “My loyal and very
trustworthy Zheng He, I want you to be the admiral of these large ships I have ordered to be made. Go
explore new lands, sail across the unknown waters and tell the people you meet about the Middle
Kingdom”. So since that very day, I was known as the Great Admiral Zheng He.
After a month or so, I went off for our first adventure with my crew of almost 30,000 men in 300 ships,
each one with 9 sails, an underwater fish tank to keep fish fresh and healthy, rooms with fresh plants
growing, live animals, medicine men, chefs, warriors, fishermen for each crew, and most importantly the
most glamorous gifts the emperor could think of. You see, the emperor wanted to make friends with the
most interesting people we met, and we did.