tightly on his collar. A split-second later, a man knocked him over and pressed him to the ground. The
remaining soldiers either stood guard next to Yuwen or ran after Yuanzhi.
Ten minutes later, all was silent, except for the inherent weeping of Ah Mee and Ah Yan.
The soldiers took Yuwen across deserts, grasslands, plains, mountains… Yuwen couldn’t keep track of
all the various terrains. On the way, the soldiers terrorized more villages, taking all the men with them. As each
day passed, the number of captives accumulated to more than 100 people. Everyone had to walk over thousands
of kilometers. Each step was like an arrow piercing his body, but Yuwen kept up the struggle. No information
was given to the people. They didn’t know what they needed to do, or where they were headed. All they knew
was that they needed to go forward.
The days turned into weeks; the weeks turned into months.
One afternoon, the captives reached a big trench where hundreds of other captives were already settled.
Once everybody had sat down, the general spilled the beans. The Chinese emperor was lacking in laborers to
build the Great Wall, so he had called upon soldiers to round up all the men in the east to assist the soldiers in its
construction. The Great Wall’s purpose was to prevent the barbaric Mongols in the north from invading into
China. He informed the captives that the section of the wall they were to build was called Yellow Flower
Fortress, or Huanghuacheng. He immediately sorted the big troop of people into different groups- some were in
charge of the brick carrying, the brick making, the kiln workshop, the stone supply, the sticky rice and lime
mixing… soon, it was Yuwen’s turn to be delegated into one of the groups.
“
This group will be in charge of the brick laying,” the general pointed at Yuwen’s group. A minute
later, his group was briefed about how to lay the bricks. They had to lay the brick in a certain pattern so that the
wall remained sturdy. Right after the briefing, Yuwen got to work.
Before long, Yuwen’s life became a daily routine. In the morning, he was provided with a simple
breakfast of porridge. Then, at 8:00am, he was led by the general to the site of the great wall. He would collect
the bricks brought up to the hill by the group in charge of brick transportation. Then, he would walk a few
hundred meters to place the brick. This would be repeated until noon, where he was given another bowl of
porridge and a cup of water. He would continue this brick lying until sunset. At sunset, he was led to the camps
which were just a few tents in which the laborers slept. There was no furniture, and the only source of comfort
was the blazing fire which was set up every night to scare away any wild predators.
The work was arduous. Easily the youngest in the group, Yuwen had to work twice as hard to keep up
with the fitter and stronger adults. Even though the sun was shining brightly in the sky, casting its hot rays to
bathe the earth in its boiling glow, he still was expected to work. Although fluffy white clouds drifted across the
azure sky, it wasn’t enough to shield the laborers working at Huanghuacheng from the scorching heat.
Soon, summer gave way to winter and the thick snow which had accumulated on the Great Wall further
worsened the atrocities that the laborers faced. Yuwen had not seen Yuanzhi, so he assumed that Yuanzhi had
escaped the wrath of the soldiers. Every night, he was faced with cold and hunger. As each day passed, he
witnessed more and more people just toppling over from exhaustion, lack of sleep, cold or hunger. These