Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction Group 3 | Page 249

The Story of a Ming Warrior
St. Paul's Convent School, Kaur Sandhu, Gursharan - 15
It’s been 2 years since my last voyage. Now I am standing here at the dock. I can still remember clearly the
day my father opened the door of our small hut and the soldiers bombarded our home looking for me, and
gave me the heart-wrenching news that the emperor had issued the imperial order for the second voyage.
The cries of my mother and sister and the looks of pity I received from my friends for the last month of my
stay at home in Nanjing.
Standing at the dock has never been this hard, the journey was a path full of darkness, unsure of the people
we would meet. Father wasn’t in the fleet, he had to stay here in Nanjing and help Grandpa with the
noodle shop, bidding me goodbye he left.
“Are we messing around, huh? Should we see what the quartermaster has to say,” a man said. I shake my
head frantically the quartermaster is ruthless when it comes to slacking. He takes ahold of my collar and
drags me. “Yi Shao do you not know how to keep your men under control? Your monkey was slacking
around.” “Don’t worry I can handle such brats very well,” says Yi Shao. A slap on the face breaks my chain
of thoughts. “You will work with the boatswains while you be our monkey, also you will be the only
monkey for this journey. No one will help you,” he continues. His abnegation towards me is nothing new.
It’s been a month since we set sail, and I have worked relentlessly. Yi Shao is the most apathetic being I
know filled with beguile. He made all the gunners fire which meant I had to work faster. It’s the middle of
the night and I have finished setting up the board. “Huang se.” shouted a strong voice, a tumult of shouts
and gunshots were heard. “Set up the artillery pieces. Now,” roared a voice from the cabin upstairs. The
gun master was near the gunwale shooting with the guns I reload and check every night in case of surprise
attacks. When I was near Yi Shao, I told him that I had reloaded the artillery pieces and other machines. At
that moment I saw that there were pirates coming up the Jacob’s ladder. I got the gun out of his grasp and
shot them, suddenly all the chaos on the ship came to a halt, everyone was looking at me like I was an alien,
a deep feeling of compunction took over me.
The bodies of the pirates I had killed were taken down from the Jacob’s ladder onto the quarterdeck. The
chaos stopped again but after a man yelled “Defeat.” With this all of the intruders shot themselves. Dead. I
was beyond bewildered. Then Admiral broke the hush, saying, “Who shot the pirates?” I was about to tell
him that I had done the murder, when Yi Shao spoke up “Captain it was none other than me.” Why was
he taking blame? Suddenly Captain trudged towards our direction, he bumped me on the way to Yi Shao.
Once he reached him he patted him, and to my surprise said, “Men learn from him, and for his bravery and
quick wit he will receive 200 gold coins.” So I was cheated. I was pushed out of the way as crew members
came up to him and patted him.
It has been weeks since the attack and we have met many pirates on our sail across the Indian Ocean. Many
came empty-handed and left with full pockets ranging from gold to vases.
Days passed slowly. Some crew members had their family members on board so they didn’t feel the dreaded
feeling of home sickness. Today a suspicious-looking man had come aboard the ship. He came from a land
that the navigator didn’t have on his map, but it did not look like Zheng He thought much of the fact. He
had left with much more gold and silk then any of the pirates. Dawn was about to break and I had to
prepare the breakfast today. After the misery with the cook had ended, I walked up the Crow’s nest, one of
my favourite hiding spots. My happiness was fleeting.
Admiral had just sent off another fleet of sailors with pockets of gold. From his face it was evident that he
was under stress. The heavy shooting practice that the gunners had been doing had greatly affected the
remaining amount of gunpowder. We had very little to no security, what is the use of the artillery pieces is
if there is no gunpowder to power them. “Captain has ordered everyone to board on the main deck,”
someone shouted. Everyone started to run to the decks.
When I arrived onto the deck everyone’s head was bowed. I saw a man who was wrapped like a cocoon in
a purple robe and covered in gold necklaces. “Stand,” roared Captain. “This gentleman has agreed to give us