The Haunted Wall
Samuel Chow, Group 4: Fiction, St. Joseph’s College
t was a sunny autumn day in Changtai Village, which was located in a remote part of northern China.
Flowers bloomed and fluttered in the breeze. Yellow leaves fell gently to ground, and the weather was
mild. Everything seemed so peaceful. From the village the gigantic figure of the Great Wall can be
clearly seen up the mountains. It was like an enormous dragon winding through the high mountains, and
its end was far beyond the villagers’ horizons. It had been almost a century since the Great Wall had last
been repaired; many parts of it had been worn off. Although the Great Wall was just a few kilometers away
from the village, the villagers never dared to go near the Great Wall. It was said that the Great Wall was full of
ghosts; anyone who went near the Great Wall would be haunted by ghosts and become mad. So the villagers
stayed in their peaceful village, leaving the Great Wall alone.
On that autumn day, the villagers were working as usual. Men were busy harvesting crops in the field,
women weaved cloth and did household chores. Suddenly, the villagers saw a band of soldiers racing into the
village from a distance. As their village was very close to the Chinese-Mongolian border, they thought the
approaching soldiers were Mongols looking to capture the village. They were extremely frightened. Children
cried. Dogs barked. In desperation, the villagers grabbed whatever weapons they had. Some held knives,
others grabbed axes. Everyone was ready to fight.
Soon the army reached the village. Just as the villagers were going to attack the soldiers, a young
general in iron armor shouted, “We are Chinese soldiers, don’t be afraid. Here are the orders of the Great
Emperor: as Mongolia is increasing powerful and is a constant threat to the northern borders, the Great Wall
needs to be fortified to help our army to resist the invasions of the Mongols. All households in this village are
required to send one man to fortify the worn off Great Wall.”
The villagers were sorrowful and worried, as they all knew that fortifying the Great Wall was a dangerous
and risky task: it took away many lives. In fact the Great Wall was nicknamed “the barrier of China, the grave
of workers”. Many were reluctant to go, partly due to the danger of fortifying the Great Wall, partly because
of the old saying that the Great Wall was full of ghosts. They begged the soldiers for exemption from the
notorious duty, yet the soldiers insisted that they had to go. The soldiers said that it was the responsibility of
all Chinese people to follow the orders of the Emperor. Eventually, the soldiers lost patience and snatched the
men from the grasp of their families. Then they forced the men to leave the village. Some family members
tried to follow the men, but were stopped by the cold-blooded soldiers. Wives cried for their husbands.
Children cried for their fathers. Parents cried for their sons. Their cries were so loud that it could be heard
miles away. They all knew that they might not see the men ever again.
The men were then sent straight to the Great Wall fortification project. The working conditions were
extremely harsh. They had to transport huge pieces of stones up the mountain to the Great Wall for
fortification. Despite their large physical input, they were severely mistreated. They had never had a meal
after which they were full, nor had a sleep after which they were fully rested. They did not have enough water
to drink, nor enough clothes to wear. When the fortification project was completed the next year, less than half
of the men returned to Changtai Village alive. Most of the corpses of the perished men were missing. It was
said that they were buried at the foot the Great Wall, but the villagers were not sure whether it was true or not.
They were not allowed to enter the area near the Great Wall and look for the missing corpses.
For the villagers of the Changtai Village, the following years were difficult. The village lost many men,
and the women had to help in the farms. Locusts kept trespassing the fields and the crops were destroyed.
The villagers were starving and lived miserably. They cursed the government for fortifying the Great Wall.
At the same time, Mongolia became increasingly powerful. Large Chinese troops stationed along the Great
Wall, and the atmosphere in Changtai Village was very tense. Seeing the troops, the villagers anticipated a
bloody battle and were very worried.
Three years later, he troops moved away from the section of Great Wall near Changtai Village. The
villagers heard that the Chinese army had invaded Mongolia and captured large pieces of land north of the Great
Wall. The once anxious villagers were relieved. “Our ancestors must have blessed our village from being
attacked by the Mongols,” they told themselves. On a clear summer day, they held an ancestral worship to
thank their ancestors. They gathered in the ancestral hall and prepared the best food they could afford. They
were worshipping their ancestors when a Chinese soldier dashed into the ancestral hall. The villagers were
going to reprimand him when he said, “The Mongols laid a surprise attack! All land north of the Great Wall
has already been lost; the Mongols are now assaulting the Great Wall! Our armies are heavily outnumbered,
I