THE INVASION
by Vic
As I woke up in the morning, I saw the sun peeking from the unfinished Great Wall that the Emperor ordered to be built for our protection from the Mongols. My father was just walking out of the door. I saw his big shoulders turn to my mother who was cooking in the kitchen. I saw his blue eyes and red, red lips. His uniform was making him look especially powerful today. It had red cloth knitted into it. My mother must have heard me. She called, "Law Lei! Come down for food."
I got dressed and ran down the first flight of stairs. My father was a good friend of Emperor Sung, in fact he was one of his top advisers. We were very rich and we lived in the Forbidden City.
After eating my Shark's Fin soup, I ran outside of my house, My mother told me to be back by sunset. I went into the Emperor's Palace. I called his son, Janlin, who was my friend. He jumped from his window, as he liked to show off, then we both, in unison, jumped on our horses. We took a moment to laugh at this coincidence. Father yelled to us,"Be careful!"
Then Emperor Sung told my father, "Oh Nie let the boys play!"
Then we were off! We took our horses from My favorite creek and then to the Peking Opera. The horses were so tired that we stopped to get water.
Janlin's brown eyes were tired I could tell. The long ride made his silk robe dirty.
His yellow hair was now much lighter from staying in the sun so long.
After this I would expect him to want to go home. But he suggested that we go to Shanxi! At first I was hesitant. Forgetting what my mother said, I agreed.
We took the horses and turned them to the south. After about two days of our four-day trip, we stopped in a village. We wrote a letter to our fathers. Because I remembered what my mom said and I did not want anyone to worry, we wrote:
Dear Fathers,
We have taken the horses and decided to go to Shanxi.
We will be back in 14 days. Don't worry Janlin knows someone
who lives in Shanxi. Janlin is tired so we will stop in a village
near Shanxi to gather supplies.
Have a nice day Fathers,
Law Lei, Sung Janlin
After a stay in a local village, we went ahead on our trip. The trip was fun, Janlin and I raced our horses through the villages! We arrived in Shanxi. At night, we went into the City where we gathered to play the best Go players. Of course, we beat them.
In the morning we went to Janlin's friend's house. He had a letter from our fathers saying to come home immediately, because the Mongols were already invading! We got our supplies and everything quickly!
Our horses were ready to go and we got on them at once! We rode non-stop. The only time we stopped was for food and water! This time, instead of it taking us four days, it took us only three days to get back to Peking.
By the time we were there, the Mongols had already taken northern China with no problem! Father and Emperor Sung had already decided to send troops to northern China. I told father not to do this because the Mongols had much better military tactics than the Chinese! My father agreed and said, "Wisdom is better than weapons of war." We had fewer deaths because my father and the Emperor did not send the villagers to fight.
So I became an assistant to the Yuan Dynasty. And the Emperor Sung was sadly killed by the Mongols. I lived a prosperous life and a happy one at that, even though my dear friend died.