Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction Group 3 | Page 314

axes, anchors were lifted. The sails were pulled down, oars were rowing rhythmly with every shout of
man, and the fleet began to travel forwards. It was a fleet of impressive and massive looking ships, with a
main ship in the middle, surrounded by four mid-sized in its flank, together with six small but agile boats.
As Cheng He in the main ship eyed his surrounding fleet, he beamed,” I just hope nothing goes wrong…”
The immense fleet started at the Chinese river mouth, then sailed towards the mouth of the Min River,
into the open sea where their journey truly started.
It had been a week since the fleet’s departure from China. Now, they were floating endlessly up and
down in the never-ending sea, never seeming to reach any solid ground. So far, almost all soldiers were
seasick, which badly affected their work efficiency. Besides, upon realizing they were lost at sea, no one was
particularly excited about that. “Just where are we going?” yelled a hysterical crew member who was nearly
driven mad by the rocking sea and homesickness. Zheng He replied rapidly, “foreign countries,” The crew
member pushed Zheng He over onto the table and snarled, face to face to him,” And in what place in the
earth is it? Listen to me, you’re just blindly sailing! Look at the food we’ve got left, it won’t last another
week! The emperor had just sent us here to die!” Zheng He was unmoved by the bitter comment and
responded, “How do you know we’re not going to make it? Defeat the fear inside your heart before you
deny something!” The crew member snarled,” we’ll see about that, later, when you don’t lead us to death.”
He then loosened his grip on Zheng He and stormed away, wooden floor creaking under his step. Zheng
He sighed, the voyage had begun to turn bad.
It was another five days of never-ending sailing until intense yelling startled Zheng He. “There’s another
ship! In the distance! It looks like it’s heading this way!” yelled the watcher. Zheng He immediately flashed
his eyelids open. He had been taking command and hadn’t slept for days, trying to talk to his crew that they
would eventually arrive. The last thing he wanted was a pirate attack, when his whole fleet was in bad
condition. He immediately stood up in the deck and barked instructions, “All battle stations ready, it’s us
down or they who are down,” However, the crew just moaned, “ay ay, sir”
It was a desperate situation, Zheng He concluded. After all, his ships had not been prepared for war. As
he observed with his telescope, he saw land! Yes, land! Just behind the other ship, it was solid ground, and
the ship wasn’t moving towards them, it was parked on the shore! Zheng He’s mouth curled to a joyful
smile as he yelled, “Hold your fire, boys, we have arrived.” Then murmured, “I fear this is only the start of
our voyage…”