The Journey To The Moon

Long ago, the Emperor of China ordered his chief engineers and alchemists to construct a giant gunpowder powered rocket to take him to the moon.
"I wish to start a trade agreement with the people of the moon", he said, "Offering them tea and rice in exchange for the silver that the moon is made of"
And so, though it took several months and hundreds of men to accomplish it, eventually a rocket was built that was over a hundred feet high and, when its giant fuse was lit, the Emperor, who was seated on a throne in a golden compartment in the head of the rocket blasted off, with a roar of exploding gunpowder, to the moon.
When he landed upon the moon, however, to his astonishment, the Emperor found a city made entirely of shining silk inhabited by a race of intelligent silkworms
And when he was shown to the king of the silkworm people, the Emperor, as he had planned, presented the king with a cup of tea and a bowl of rice.
But then, drinking the tea and eating the rice, the Silkworm king was not impressed.
"Bleughh!", said the king, spitting out grains of rice, "This is no good. We silkworms only drink water and only eat mulberry leaves".
"No rice or tea?", asked the Emperor, "Well what would you like in exchange for silver?".
The Silkworm king thought a while.
"Well? There is a mechanical silver dragon with teeth of diamond and eyes of Jade who attacks our city and burns our mulberry forests to the ground with his fiery breath", he said, "All our bravest warriors have tried but have not been able to vanquish him. If you can rid us of the dragon then we will do business with you".
Now, hearing this, the Emperor was not sure if he could vanquish a giant mechanical moon dragon all by himself but then, thinking about the dragons fiery breath, suddenly the Emperor came up with a plan.
And, the next day, accompanied by a regiment of fierce silkworm warriors pulling a huge catapult behind them, the Emperor was led to the silver canyon where, inside a cave of sparkling jade, the giant mechanical dragon lived.
And when the mechanical monster saw the Emperor approaching, it came out of his cave roaring and blowing out torrents of flame from its mouth and nostrils.
But then the emperor, commanding his silkworm troops, ordered them to load a barrel of his gunpowder onto the catapult and fire it at the dragon.
And when they did this, the barrel of gunpowder, flying into the flaming mouth of the mechanical dragon was ignited by the fire and, exploding inside the dragon, blew it to pieces.
With a ginormous bang, springs and cogs and shards of scrap metal flew everywhere and seeing the metal monster destroyed, the silkworm troops let out a happy cheer.
Then, when the Emperor returned victorious to the palace of the Silkworm king, keeping his promise, the king signed a trade agreement between china and the moon.
Unfortunately, the Emperor had used up all the gunpowder he needed for a return journey to the Earth.
"However am I to get home again?", he wondered.
But he needn't have worried for then the Silkworm king ordered his people to weave a giant parachute of silk for the emperor and, leaping off of the edge of the moon wearing the parachute, the Emperor floated gently back down to Earth.
After that the people of China and the Moon became great friends and emissaries from the moon were even invited to celebrate their new friendship with the biggest firework display that anyone on the Earth or the Moon had ever seen.