A Mighty Hero Behind the Great Wall
Chik Hei Loong, Group 2: Fiction, Ying Wa Primary School
in Shi Huang was the first person in history to unify China. He ruled with an iron hand. In order to
defend his empire, he built the Great Wall of China at the expense of people’s lives and caused
calamity to his people.
mus
hate
During the Qin dynasty, there was a peasant called Zhang Zhi Ming who was tall, strong and
cular. He always heard about how the cruel Emperor treated the people. He was furious and
d him.
One day, Emperor Qin said to his Prime Minister Li Si firmly, ‘I want to defend my empire and let it run
forever. We need to build the Great Wall.’ Therefore, all the men in the country were recruited to build the
Great Wall, including Zhang. During the recruitment, some of the men were scared and tried to escape. ‘Those
who refuse to build the Great Wall, execute them immediately!’ ordered Emperor Qin. At that time, hundreds
of people were caught and executed brutally. They were then buried in a hole as big as a pond to intimidate the
people.
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Soon, the people were sent to a desolated site. They were scared and suffered the sadness of being away
from home. Zhang sympathized with them, but he could not do anything.
At the site, they were ordered to build the Great Wall immediately. Soon, the people started carrying bricks,
stones, sand … to the site. After a day’s hard work, all the workers were weary but were only distributed little
bun that hardly sustain their bodies’ needs. They all starved.
One night, a few starved workers could not endure anymore and sneaked into a barn to steal food.
Unfortunately, they were caught by the guards. As they were led to the general, suddenly someone shouted,
‘
Let them go!’ It was Zhang. Zhang fought with the guards; who could not overpower him and were killed
instantaneously. It was easy for he was physically strong and mighty. He buried them near the site. The
incident was well spread among the workers. Since then, he was named “the hero” and was treated with high
respect.
Luckily, the general didn’t find out what had happened. He thought that the missing guards had run away
with the stolen grain.
After days of laboring, the workers aired their grievances with each other. They wanted to escape, but did
not know how to do it. After a thorough discussion, Zhang suggested a bold decision of digging a tunnel
secretly and escape from it. Although, it seemed impossible, they gave it a try.
Every day around midnight, while the guards were sleeping, Zhang led them to steal stones and woods to
make ploughs and shovels. Once they gathered enough tools, they started digging under their hut. They dug
and dug, even though they were exhausted. When morning came, they quickly hid their tools so that no one
could discover what they did at night. They masqueraded that everything was as usual. After a month, they had
dug a narrow tunnel which could only fit one person.
They kept digging, day after day, month after month and year after year. Finally, a miracle came. ‘We had
built a tunnel to the other side of the site,’ Zhang said excitedly. Although they couldn’t believe how they did it
without using a map or navigation tools, they all cheered for their success. Every worker was jubilant and
yearned to go home. ‘We do not want to stay here for a second longer!’ they muttered. Now, they waited
patiently for a chance, the best chance to escape …
At a dark and quiet night, everything seemed as usual, they had decided to execute their “plan”. They
waited for the guards to sleep, and then they walked into the secret tunnel one by one. As there were so many of
them, it seems to take ages. As dawn was breaking; they knew that they needed to hurry up. There were two
guards coming out of their resting tent and going towards their hut to order them up. They were sleepy and
rubbing their eyes while walking. ‘Quick! The guards are coming!’ Zhang whispered as he saw them through
the gap of the window. He urged the workers to be faster. The workers panicked and rushed into the tunnel.
On the other hand, Zhang clenched his fists, preparing to fight.
In a flash, the door swung open. “Whack! Bang!” One of the guards was down. The other was shocked
and cried out, ‘Help!’ Soon, the relief force was there. Zhang snatched their weapons and fought with them.
As more and more soldiers came, Zhang was outnumbered and overpowered. In the desperate situation, the
workers were forced to abandon Zhang and ran by themselves. Before they ran, they blocked the entrance with
stones to delay the chasing soldiers. Fortunately, all of the workers escaped and the soldiers were furious.
When the Emperor Qin heard about it, he burst into flames. ‘EXECUTE HIM NOW!’ he ordered furiously.
‘
I am proud for saving so many lives,’ Zhang laughed loudly without regret. This adds oil to the fire. ‘SLICE
HIM PIECE BY PIECE! THEN OFF WITH HIS HEAD! HANG IT ON THE GREAT WALL FOR ALL TO