Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction Group 3 | Page 116

They went back to the ship, with over a hundred men carrying boxes of resources back onto the ship. All of them looked at Zheng He with anger in their eyes. “Is there a problem?” he asked sternly. “Well, what do you think? This was supposed to be a raid, we’re here to steal resources, not make friendships,” one of the soldiers shouted. Another soldier next to him quickly covered his mouth before he continued to speak. “The point of the mission was to gain resources for our country, not to terrorize citizens and make enemies. I figured we could use a different method of obtaining these resources, one that didn’t involve raiding.” Zheng He responded in a calm yet strong voice. “You figured,” another soldier sneered. Zheng He looked at him. “Trust me, by the end of this journey we will have ships filled with resources to bring back to our country.” “Yeah, and what if that doesn’t happen?” yet another soldier muttered. “Then we will go back to each and every one of the cities we have seen and travelled to and we will raid them until all of our ships are filled with nothing but resources.” Zheng He answered in a much stricter voice. The resentment in the atmosphere seemed to relieve, and all the soldiers went back to their cabins. Zheng He sighed, and once again looked at the sea. The next morning, they arrived to Java, and Zheng He walked up to the city’s leaders and asked for an alliance. They agreed, traded resources, and peacefully left the city. Then, over the course of a few weeks, they travelled through the Indian Ocean and made alliances with the people of Malacca, Aru, Samudera, Lambri, Ceylon, Quillon and Calicut. During this process, many of the cities offered a multitude of resources to the crew, and by the end of it, a quarter of the crew had to sleep in tighter cabins due to the amount of resources their ships had to carry. During their journey back home, Zheng He saw one of his soldiers sitting on the dock, his face completely pale. Zheng He went up to him and asked, “What’s the matter?” With a shaky voice he answered, “I-I have been thinking. W-what will the Emperor do when he finds out we haven’t raided a single city.” Zheng He thought about the issue for a second and answered, “Don’t worry. I will handle this matter personally.” When they got back home, thousands of men marched out of the ships, carrying boxes upon boxes of loot and resources. Everyone in the city looked at them in awe, even the Emperor was impressed. “May I talk to you, your Majesty?” Zheng He asked the Emperor. The Emperor looked at him and smiled, “Of course,” he said.