Here's another story in our "Kids in Ancient China" series. This story is really long and is in parts.
The Fake City
Part 1
“Where are we going now?” Xi Bing groaned to his parents.
“Up to the mountains. We’ve told you this many times before.” His dad answered.
“How much longer?” Xi Bing’s little brother, Xi Wei, groaned.
“We’ll get there when we get there,” His dad answered again.
“We should take a short break,” their mom suggested.
“Yes, and I’m hungry!” Xi Wei smiled and rubbed his tummy.
The family sat down on the ground and enjoyed some steamed bread. By this time, it was a bit old, but it was all that they had.
“I wish I had some honey to put on top of it,” Xi Wei complained.
“I’m sorry, sweetie. We should be at the city soon and I’m sure they’ll have some honey,” their mom said.
“Try to imagine that there’s honey on it. Here, I’ll give you some of my own honey,” Xi Bing motioned with his hand. It was only pretend honey, but it worked to lighten up the mood.
“Hey, mom, I think I see someone. Wait, there’s more people. It looks like a family,” Xi Jing said. Xi Jing was the boys’ older sister. She was usually quiet and shy, and she understand the reason why there were moving: to be safe.
The country was in chaos. The Han Dynasty was almost finished, but there was no real government set up in its place yet. If you were lucky enough, the city you lived in had its own army to protect the city from all of the other small armies going throughout the country. However, the city that they lived in had none. With each passing day, it got more dangerous. Their whole town could be destroyed. Over the year, the family had seen many of their neighbors move to other cities, leaving the town largely deserted and empty. The family knew that they, too, had to leave in order to be safe.
The city they chose to move to was up in the mountains with a wall around part of it because it was thought to be safe. They had already been walking for 2 days and had another day or two to go until they reached the town.
“Yes, I do think it’s a family, dear,” said their mom.
“Look- boys! There are 2 boys!” Xi Wei said, excitedly.
“They look like they’re the same age, so they might be twins.” Xi Bing said.
The family waited to see who these people were.
“Hi, my name is Chen Min,” said one of the boys to introduce himself. He held out his hand to Xi Bing.
“And I am Chen Yang,” said the other boy as he reached out to shake Xi Wei’s hand.
“Are you both, twins?” Xi Bing asked hesitatingly. They didn’t look like twins, but they looked like they were the same age.
“No, I’m actually his cousin,” Cheng Yang explained. “My dad had to fight in the local army. Our town and the town next to ours had an army. Every man had to fight in this army for at least 5 years. Sadly, my dad died fighting during these 5 years. A few months later my mom got really sick and died. I, too, got sick. Thankfully, my aunt and uncle lived in the same city and took care of me. By this time, a lot of the families moved out of the town and they, too, decided to move. So, here we are.”
“Sounds like us,” Xi Bing and Xi Wei’s dad explained. “Our town doesn’t have an army so many people were moving out. We were one of the last few left in the town and finally decided to move out as well.”
“It’s nice to meet you all. It’s great to see a friendly face,” The mom said as she shook the hand of the mom in the other family. This was to be the start of a long friendship between the two families, who were both moving to the same city in the mountains.
It’s a funny thing, but when you travel with friends, even new found friends like these, time goes faster. The 2 days it took them to finish their journey to their new city went by so fast.
“Wow, dad, is that it? I see something over there, between the trees,” Xi Bing pointed out to his dad.
“I suppose it is,” he answered.
“I wonder if there’ll be lots of girls my age. It would be great to have more friends. I’ll settle for friends that are younger or older than me too, of course,” Xi Jing said.
As they got closer to the city, Xi Bing said his thoughts out loud. “What kind of a city is this? It’s so disappointing. I only see big walls. I don’t even see the gate to get in? Where is it?”
The city was much larger than the towns either of the families came from. Walls surrounded the city and the gate was slanted on the hillside. This was supposed to make it hard for any army to come and attach them. The gate was open all day and closed at night. The whole mountainside was full of trees, which was a great help in keeping the city somewhat hidden and hard to find for any army that might come against it.
“Wow, this city is huge!” Xi Wei said.
“Let’s go in,” Xi Bing said. “I’m sure there’s a market where we can get something to eat- I’m starving!”
“You’re always hungry!” His mom said.
“Tell me about it. These two are also always hungry! It must be something about boys,” the other mom said.
The market place was the first thing in the city. Stalls of vegetable and fruit sellers, meat sellers, and a myriad of other small shops lined the sides of the main street. They got some snack food and found a place to sit to eat.
“Right, the next job is to find a place to live. Would your family like to live close to ours if we can? I don’t know if we can find two houses next to each other available to rent or not, but we could try,” Mr. Xi (Xi Wei, Xi Bing, and Xi Jing’s dad) suggested to the other dad.
The two fathers started walking around the city while the rest of the families stayed and finished their snack. Although they wanted to walk around and explore their new city, they didn’t because they didn’t want to get lost! Also, if they stayed put, the two dads would know where to find their families. Finally, after two hours, they came back.
“No luck. It’s getting late. We’ll have to sleep outside the city. There aren’t any hotels or logging for guests available. We’ll try again tomorrow.” Mr. Xi broke the news to them.
They set up camp outside the city walls. This was the fourth night they slept like this- under the stars. The first night or two were exciting for the kids, especially the boys. However, by the third night it had lost its newness and they longed for home. Their bags (with the one change of clothes they each brought) were used as pillows and they had a blanket or two as well to keep warm. It wasn’t that comfortable, but after a long day, sleep came fast.
The next day they explored the city’s streets together. The boys loved their new city, but Xi Jing didn’t. She was quick to point out how the city lacked all the trees and flowers their old town had. Actually, overall, there weren’t much gardens around. Where did they grow their food?
People were generally welcoming to them, but assumed they were just travelers because they all still carried their bags with them. Finally, after another full day of searching, they were able to find two homes. Although the two families weren’t going to be neighbors, but would live only a few streets away from each other instead.
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