Han’s Story
Nicole L
n the Ming Dynasty, one man was chosen from each family in some villages. Unfortunately, those damned
men were forced to fight for China in the war.
The
carriage
e, Group 2: Fiction, St. Margaret's Co-educational English Secondary & Primary School
I
On the day the announcer arrived in the village, when the gong sounded, all the men lined up outside.
announcer called out the names of the husbands, brothers and uncles and they stepped into a large
and rode off into the mist. They might not come back. Ever.
One of the men was called Han. He came from an extremely poor family. Their ‘house’ was made entirely
from the rubbish that was dumped on the ground. Han had two brothers, four sisters and a mother. His father
was chosen for the last war and died on the battleground. His mother had to work overtime as a seamstress to
support the whole family.
When Han was a kid and his father was still alive, his dad always took him to an eye-dazzling meadow.
Flowers grew in nearly every single inch of the plain, birds greeted them with sweet songs every day and berries
grew in small shrubs. Han used to pick them to suck their heavenly juice. And if you climbed the tallest oak tree,
you could faintly see the Great Wall, grandly standing so proudly against the sunlight. But now...
All that was left of the paradise Han used to go to was a complete wasteland—destroyed by the enemies of
the north when they stormed the wall.
The Mongols.
From then on, Han swore to protect his village, his home and his family. Sitting in the carriage, he thought
about what it would feel like to die as a hero, like his father. Suddenly, an arrow stabbed into the chest of the
man sitting next to Han. He fell to the floor and more arrows came flying in and three other men were shot. The
villagers fled for their lives but were soon captured by the attackers.
Many hours later, they were dragged by the attackers into a cave. When night finally came, everyone was
fast asleep, except Han. He looked around and saw booby traps had been set up all over the place and the
entrance was blocked by a mammoth boulder. There were guards everywhere. Han drifted into sleep.
He had a very strange dream: An army of men, who wore the same uniform as the kidnappers, attacked a
stone dragon. Surprisingly, he saw himself marching amongst the crowd. The dragon roared and tried to escape
into the white sky. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning struck the dragon to the ground and the army burned it to death.
The dream ended with a Mongolian flag waving mockingly in the air.
Han woke up drenched in sweat. His dream could only mean one thing— the kidnappers were the Mongols!
It was they who murdered his father at the wall; it was they who brought poverty to his family; it was they who
destroyed the meadow.
Rage filled Han’s body. This realization convinced Han to form a rebellion to prevent the kidnappers from
mounting the wall and destroying other villages inside the fort.
The next day, Han asked the villagers to join him. All of them agreed because they didn’t want to kill
innocent people. Later that day, the kidnappers took the villagers to the wall. They all hid in the trees and waited
for patrollers of the wall to arrive. A few minutes later, a squad of watch guards passed by.
In the blink of an eye, the Mongols ran to the wall and climbed it with a grappling hook. The villagers were
about to sneak up on them when a streak of white light flew past them and punctured the wall. More spears
came flying past and a group of men rushed out and fought the kidnappers. Han and the villagers hid behind a
big bush and watched. Han saw a tall man who looked awfully like his father, but older. Han and the villagers
decided to join this mysterious group of men to fight the Mongols. They fought and fought until the last Mongol
died.
After the battle, he went to find the man who looked like his father and asked him, “Were you in the war
when the Mongols attacked and burned down the Great Wall?”
“
Yes,” he replied. Han asked another question, “Did you have a son named Han before you went to war?”
“
Yes, I did. How do you know?”
“
I’m your son.”
The man’s eyes reddened and filled with tears.
“
My son! … I thought…”
Anger filled Han’s heart. He shouted at his father, “How dare you desert us! Mother nearly died because of
her grief and I was proud that you died as a hero at the Great Wall. Not even a letter…”