Legacy

No doubt you have heard of the Great Wall of China.  Built a very, very long time ago.  The idea was of course to keep out the unwanted.  Which was just about all non Chinese.  The keep out mentality was pervasive among the Chinese, except for Warlords who wanted in.  It was a time when the feudal system was in full bloom.  It was a time of obvious double standards; as the idea was for each Warlord to keep other Warlords out his territory, while finding a way into theirs.

With those kind of attitudes, it’s a miracle that differences were put aside long enough to allow the combining of forces so to speak enabling the Great Wall to be built.  Afterwards it was back to business as usual which was stay away from what’s mine while I take yours.  The Chinese became very adept at both. The Chinese were clever people.  That includes the peasants that were conscripted to work on the Great Wall, for you see they also learned about barriers.

Now way back then in the Chinese province of Fung Yu Tu.  There was a Warlord by the name of Ghi Mu Yurn. And as all efficient Warlords knew, the key to maintaining power was in maintaining a large fighting force. That of course necessitated paying the troops and providing them with shelter and other unmentionable perks.  Not to mention feeding them took a lot of food.

Food was the main reason that Ghi Mu Yurn would send his bully boys around to each peasant village right after harvest time each year to demand taxes in the form of eighty percent of the crop.  This would barely leave enough to seed the next year’s crop and keep the villagers alive a hair above the starvation level.

Needless to say none of the peasants were in love with the arrangement.  They no longer could swallow the story of having to maintain troops to fight off the hordes that would invade China.  Why should they, after all they helped build the Great Wall, and  now knew the so called hordes they were being protected from was  for sure just  a fairy tale, and maybe not much of a threat even before the Great Wall.

Ah so! now enters the story, one peasant who was developing an attitude.  He was called Won Hun Lua, a bull of a man, even as a short Chinaman he was impressive.  And pretty clever also.  He fomented much unrest and a spirit of lets do something among the villagers.  They were getting tired of laboring hard for something that gave them no benefit as individuals or a village.

Now the village involved here is the village of  Mon Ton Laik.  It sat on the shore of a relatively good size lake nestled in the center of a large valley.  The only way into the valley was by a cleft in the cliffs.  A wide cleft of some two hundred feet and a height one hundred and thirty feet.  This passage was like that for some four hundred feet.  The river that flowed out of the lake also flowed through the passage but was only fifty feet wide, leaving lots of room to get through without getting wet.

The first attempt led by Won Hun Loa was to move the village from the shores of the lake, out into the lake and set it up on stilts, pylons, posts, whatever you want to call them.  The idea was that the harvest would be taking from the land and stored in granary’s that now sat on stilted platforms out in the lake. So when the War Lords bully boys showed up, they would get zip and have to like it.

Well they showed up with the wagons for hauling grain and other crops away.  They were not happy.  They shouted oaths and threats.  The villagers thinking themselve’s now immune, stood there and laughed at them.  That was not a good idea as it made the troop leader so mad he could barely sputter.  But he sputtered well enough to issue an order.  And a flaming arrow went into the first hut on stilts out in the lake.  Burnt it to the ground it did.

The next demand was load your grain on your boats and bring it to us or we will burn the whole village.  Needless to say the grain was brought to them.  Laughing on their way out with the booty, the bully boys leader shouted back, see you next year.

Now Won Hun Loa was not one to give up easily. He thought and thought.  Then he had an idea.  That was to get longer stilts and move the village farther out into the lake beyond arrow range.  That they did and were feeling real good about how smart a move it was.

Next harvest time rolled around and here came the bully boys again to demand grain.  The villagers thought, Ha! Ha! Foiled them at last. However, the leader of the bully boys  knew if he went back empty handed the Warlord would probably kill him.

He had definite incentive to find away to get that grain.  He ordered his men to find and lash together four logs.  Then get a long pole and   take the rough made raft out to within arrow range.

Well there was another hut burning and another gathering of grain. On the way out the leader of the bully boys shouted, see you next year, don’t worry we will bring a boat with us. Ha! Ha! Ha!

The leader of the bully boys was one Hun Ki Monoa.  However

Won Hun Loa was no pussycat either and he was still determined to end this extortion of crops from the people.  Why the villagers kept listening to Won Hun Loa is a mystery as he’d failed in his efforts twice.  But they did.  This time he told them, we should take lessons from the experts.  He went on to tell them he was one of those conscripted to work on the great wall, and that it was obvious as to why it was built.  He said we shall build our own wall; a very special wall.  They said where and what kind and how?  He said let me think on that and I will devise a plan.

Won Hun Loa devised a most excellent plan.  It would be a wall, a very special wall inasmuch as it would also be a dam.  Now in those days gunpowder had already been discovered in China and it was easy to make from sulpher and powdered charcoal.

Using a goodly quantity of hastily made gunpowder, they went about midway into the only passage into the valley and blasted much rock from the sides.  This rock was used to make a ten foot high dam across the passage.  The river of course then backed up making the lake larger but not by a terrible amount.

Then leaving a space  fifty feet wide, the original river width, did build up on both sides of that a dam wall combination another sixty feet high.  Unlike most walls this one had no top on which one might gain a foothold.  Rather it was only about eight inches at the peak.  Very narrow indeed and also had set in it like a sharp edged sword a iron strip about six inches high all the way across.

The mechanics of this arrangement were simple enough.  The space in between kept the water flowing, leaving a depth on the valley side of the passage of ten feet, too deep to wade.  The force of the water spilling over was sufficient to make going up through it impossible.  Not to leave any possibilities unconsidered, then if someone managed to scale  either side with the idea of hauling men and boats up and over, they would find the ropes cut quickly when trying to pull something up and over with tension being on that cutting edge.  Then if by some unbelievable feat with unbelievable luck, someone did get a boat over; it would be near instantly swept through the opening back to the down side of the dam/wall.

Yes an ingenious design.  Won Hun Loa was proud, the villagers overjoyed.  Hun Ki Loa and his bully boys showed up again and werre sorely distressed at what they found.  The villagers had a spotter posted high up at a place only reachable from inside the valley.  The spotter came back and reported to Won Hun Loa that Hun Ki Monoa was completely thwarted. In fact the spotter also reported that Hun Ki Monoa and his bully boys were seen going not back towards their own Warlords Compound, but south towards another’s; apparently to seek refuge and offer services.

Of course Won Hun Loa and the villagers felt sorry for Hun Ki Monoa.  You could just tell it from their laughter.