Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction Group 2 - 2 | Page 178

Admiral Zheng Victoria Shanghai Academy, Lam, Julian - 10 Admiral Zheng He and his fleet of ships just left China, and are about to go to their first stop, Vietnam. There were 16 ships and he was going to hand out gifts in the form of gold, because the Yongle Emperor of China wanted to build good relations with other countries. Everyone was excited and happy for the journey. Everyone on board was eating their breakfast of mantou and drinking oolong tea, and they were extremely hungry. They were close to China but not close enough to see China, even though it was a bright, clear and sunny day. Suddenly, there was fog everywhere. Zheng He was feeling uncomfortable because he couldn’t see his ships. He didn’t want anything bad to happen, like a pirate attack and stolen treasure. Zheng heard his men bumping into each other and shouting at each other. Ho Wong, the captain of the ship, Phoenix, signalled to his crew to row to a place where pirates lived. “Where are we going? The other ships are going the other way!” a member of the crew questioned him. “Be quiet! I am the captain of this ship! How dare you question me!” The crew started moving the ship to a land of troubles. Pirates suddenly jumped aboard The Phoenix and attacked the crew with swords. Some of the crew, scared, ran around the ship and accidentally fell in the sea. Some hid aboard the ship but some brave soldiers fought back with spears, swords and also bow and arrows. While they were fighting, some pirates accidentally knocked down some torches and lit up the ship with fire. There were sounds of weapons clanging with each other, shouting and screaming. The pirates and the soldiers had to avoid the flames on the bloody deck which had dead bodies laying on it. There were more dead bodies from the crew than the pirates. Some of the soldiers caught on fire as they were forced into the flames. People were fighting everywhere. While they were fighting, arrows were being shot from the pirates’s ship, flying through the air and injuring the enemies. “Go, get the treasure!” yelled Chen Zuyi, the leader of the pirates. Ho, who had since joined the pirates on their ship, directed a few of them back to his own ship, The Phoenix, on small wooden sailboats to steal the precious treasure on the lower deck. The pirates climbed into the lower deck and started to load the treasure onto the sailboats. “Go, quicker!” barked Ho. Chang, a captain of a ship called Firefly, saw flames across the sea, He heard shouting and smelled the smoke. “Tell Admiral He!” he shouted. Chang waited for Zheng He’s instructions, then lead his ship to the flames. As he moved to the flames, he wondered what was going on. Suddenly, he saw the name of the ship through his telescope and realised it was one of their own fleet, He was shocked to see that Captain Ho was helping Chen Zuyi, the most feared pirate of the Asian seas, to kill his crew and steal the Emperor’s treasure. “Fire archers! Aim at the pirate’s ship then fire!” commanded Chang. The pirates ran around the deck of their ship frantically trying to avoid the arrows. Chen Zuyi feared that he was going to lose him ship and his men. Pirates were shot on the body but some wanted to take cover so they wouldn’t die, so they decided to hide behind barrels or even dead bodies. Chen was forced to jump into the freezing sea because his ship was in flames. Chen swam up the water and was unexpectedly hit by a bunch of wood planks. Chen furiously screamed while swallowing salty water, “How dare you, Chang you filthy sailor!” Chen swam as he tried to get to the sailboat Ho was in with the treasure, while also avoiding dead bodies floating in the sea and arrows being shot at him.