Historical+fiction+piece

** Alex Wong 823 ** My name is Howin and I am a caption from the state of Jin in China from the armies of the house of Zhi. I was in charge of a group of forty men. My family lived in the state of Jin and they were killed when another state attacked my village when I was five years old. A man from another Jin village found me in remains of the village and he raised me as his son. The village that we lived in was inhabited by mostly farmers and their families. The houses in our village had thatched roofs and were made of mud brick. He died when I was eighteen years old and I joined the army to support myself after I sold off his farmland because I didn’t want to be a farmer. There were four families fighting for the control of the state of Jin: the house of Zhi, the house of Wei, the house of Han and the house of Zhao. The house of Zhi, Wei and Han attempted to destroy the house of Zhao. They attempted to do this by attacking Jinyan, a city that the house of Zhao was using to defend themselves. The armies of the houses of Zhi, Wei and Han marched to Jinyan, confident that they would be victorious. When we got there, we realized that we could not breach the city walls and we began to lay siege on the city. The armies were kept in the same area and I often visited my friend, Chou in who was in one of the armies of the house of Wei. I have known him since I was a child in the village of my adopted father. The campsite was a grassy field and even though we were spread out over a large area it was still crowded. Then after three months of being in the same area as the other armies with nothing to do the armies we were ordered to spread out around the city. Then a year went by and some soldiers were sent to change the direction of the flow of the Fen River and make it flood the city. Three years after the commanders flooded the city, we expected them to surrender because the city would be running out of food. Then on May 8th, 453 BCE, the camp the armies of the house Zhi were suddenly flooded and all the armies were in disarray, trying to stop the rising water. Then the armies of the houses of Wei, Han and Zhao attacked us. I heard from other soldiers that the two armies surrounded our army and our troops were being killed. I was in the center of the armies of the house of Zhi so I was away from the fighting. Suddenly arrows started to rain down on us and people all around me were being killed by the arrows. Later I heard from another soldier that an army was attacking us from the front. “Sir the whole army will be destroyed at this rate!” said a soldier named Seng. “Calm down,” I said. “But sir they are getting closer and closer to us!” said Seng nervously. “We should retreat.” “No, we will fight and we will die with honor.” I said. “Yes, sir,” said Seng. “Men I have fought bravely with you for many years and this will not be an exception. We will fight to the end and we will die with honor,” I said to my men. The ground around me was covered with blood and dead bodies. Some soldiers from our armies were running past us pushing and shoving us out of their way in a frantic attempt to escape death. The other captions were getting their soldiers ready to fight the enemy armies. I drew my sword and ordered my soldier to ready their weapons. Then all that enemy armies came onto us like rushing water. There were so many of them but our soldier fought them back. I slashed down soldier after soldier and so did my soldiers. Then I felt a pain in my chest and killed the man I was fighting. I clutched my chest and gritted my teeth. Then I looked down and saw a bloody gash on my chest. The pain was unbearable and my soldiers were being killed. Then I saw Chou with his caption near him. “Kill your friend and show your loyalty to the house of Wei,” I heard Chou’s caption say. “Yes, sir,” said Chou with no emotions. He came toward me and unsheathed his sword. He tried to cut off my arm but I blocked it with my sword. Our swords were pushing against each other mine horizontal and his vertical against each other and I said “we don’t have to do this Chou.” He did not respond but he pushed me away from him with his sword. Then he launched attack after attack and I only blocked them. Then he cut my arm and a jet of pain shot up my arm. Then he knocked me to the ground by kicking me but I kick him away from me and got up. Anger came over me and I lost control and I attacked Chou with all my might. I attempted to cut his arm off but he blocked it with his blade. Then I pushed his blade up and it went above his head with his hand grasping it. Then he took a step back to regain his balance and I stabbed him in the chest. “What have I done?” I whispered to myself. “Chou!” “It is okay,” said Chou calmly and close to death. Then he closed his eye and never opened them again. I pulled my blade out of him and I looked up and saw that my soldiers were being killed. I ran forward and assisted my soldier and fought for them. Then one after one I saw each of my men being killed. Then I saw that Seng was cut in the stomach and he fell to the ground. “Seng,” I yelled. There were three enemy horsemen left from a cavalry charge in the area. I ran over to were shin lay and killed the man who was about to kill him. I picked up Seng and put him over my shoulder and I ran towards the nearest one killing every enemy soldier in my path. With my bloody covered blade I stabbed and killed the soldier on the horse. He fell of and I mounted the horse. Then I used my sword to kill the enemy soldiers in my path and get away from the battle. I rode out through a grassy plane where it seemed like there wasn’t battle close by. The two enemy horsemen were behind me and they were getting closer. I threw my sword back at them and the tip cut a huge gash in one of the horsemen’s face and the hilt hit the other one in the face. Both of them were knocked off their horses. After a couple of miles I stopped at a cave to bandage up Shin and myself as best I could with strips of my clothes. I took off my armor and Seng’s armor and hid it in the cave because it was heavy and we could be tracked with it on. Then we slept and in the morning I put Seng over my shoulder and went to find a village and after four days without food or water I found a village. Seng was still on my shoulder when we went into a village but I was so tired because of my lack of food and my loss of loss of blood that I collapsed. I woke up in a bed and woman about my age tending my wounds. The room was small and it was made of wood. In the room there was a chair, a table and a chest. “Where is Seng?” I said weakly. “Oh, your friend lost too much blood and he died last night,” said the woman. “I am sorry we couldn’t save him.” “It is okay it was not your fault,” I said feeling an arrow of sadness pierce my skin. “My name is Mei-Lei, what is yours” She said. “My name is Howin. It is nice to meet you to,” I said. “It is nice to meet you too,” said Mei-Lei. Her father was a farmer and he let me work on his farm for money. He was a pretty successful farmer and he needed help. I had unexplainable feelings for Mei-Lei and when I shared them with her she said that she had them too. I saved up money to buy a farm, some tools and some crops. I got some money from selling my crops and I asked Mei-Lei’s father for her hand in marriage. He gave his blessing and Mei-Lei and I were married. We are living in a large house made of wood that in next to my field. I am the happiest I ever been since I was born and Mei-Lei and I have a son and a daughter.
 * The Battle of Jinyan **