Since I was already prepared, it didn’t take much time this time. Guo Kang quickly persuaded Lama Wang to provide him with more help, and also approached several Ross priests for help.
Father Mikhail was happy to help. Guo Kang told him that he planned to set up a new school locally in the future and let the church arrange manpower to teach these Russians how to read basic writing. According to his plan, at least one person in every family needed to be literate.
Moreover, during the course of the class, these people must also be taught to learn laws and basic common sense - such as how the country operates, who manages the city, how to respond when something happens, and so on.
Although it seems that this is very simple knowledge, many people really don't know it these days, especially these Russians.
According to previous understanding, these people have no concept that "joining the army is a citizen's right". In their eyes, being a soldier means being cannon fodder for Mr. Boyar, and they do not understand the relationship between power and force, as well as the principle of equality between power and responsibility. If they live in an environment where no one has this concept, then even if these people are put into the legion, they will not be able to fight well.
To put it bluntly, a qualified army is not formed in a military camp, but is built together by the entire society. Based on this principle, you can understand why they attach so much importance to their community environment.
Therefore, their settlements must be carefully sorted out, their household registrations must be sorted out, and an effective education system must be established, so that qualified soldiers can be cultivated.
Both priests have studied theology in the Orthodox Church, know Greek, and understand the importance of language and writing. Therefore, they all agree with Guo Kang's suggestions. Father Mikhail even said gratefully that this was an act of kindness like a saint.
Since the opening conditions were so good, they didn't bother to pursue other details - of course, Guo Kang himself hadn't planned the details yet. According to his original plan, these people would not need to learn Greek, but would just learn Chinese characters directly.
However, he hasn't discussed this matter with others yet, and he doesn't know how to arrange it most appropriately.
At the beginning, when everyone promoted Chinese characters, they actually did not want to see any further divisions in Rome due to language issues. But looking at it now, the situation is still quite embarrassing.
As a lingua franca, Chinese characters do have various benefits. But on the other hand, the Purple Horde Khanate did not have the ability to popularize Chinese language and Chinese characters among the entire population. This has led to strange phenomena: some people speak half-baked Chinese; some people forcefully pronounce Chinese characters using the grammar and word order of the local language; and some people directly spell Chinese characters in the local language, making reading and writing two separate systems... …Up to now, we can only ensure that the middle and upper levels of the army can use Chinese proficiently.
But on the other hand, we don’t have a better lingua franca. In the "Romania" region where the Purple Horde began, the local Bulgarians and Wallachians were unwilling to accept Greek. They felt that the Greek empire did not force them to accept this language, and the Purple Horde had no need to do so.
Especially in border areas, due to the long-term antagonistic relationship, some people would rather learn Chinese than learn Greek. They cannot accept Greek becoming a lingua franca that everyone must learn, and firmly oppose linking Greece and Rome.
For the same reason, the Greeks did not like the words of these "Slavs" either. There were many Greeks serving as officials, and their opinions also had a certain influence and could not be ignored casually.
In the end, no one could convince anyone, so they could only use the Chinese characters for "third party". The advantage in this kind of argument, the biggest advantage of kanji, is that legions love it. Anyway, everyone can say that the use of Chinese characters is for military needs, not to despise or suppress anyone culturally, thus avoiding troublesome disputes among locals.
Given the current situation of these Slavs, if they had a choice, they would definitely choose Chinese instead of Greek. Therefore, Guo Kang is somewhat confident about this.
Other than that, we can only make temporary decisions based on the situation.
When Qin Shihuang unified the six countries, he required all countries to use unified writing. It seems that this is a big project, but in fact it is not that difficult.
According to the conclusions drawn by later generations from the Qin bamboo slips in Liye, during the Qin Dynasty, some of the local officials were officials from the previous Chu State. After the demise of the Chu State, they were retained by the Qin Dynasty county guards. The characters they used changed from Chu Chinese characters to the font specified by the Qin Dynasty. However, it only took these Chu people a few months to fully adapt to the new format of official documents. They even learned the common sayings in Qin people's official documents. .
Therefore, the prerequisite for quickly unifying writing is that everyone’s writing is almost the same. Although there is indeed a difference, it depends on who you compare with - compared to the situation in Europe, their side can even be considered negligible.
No matter how great Qin Shihuang's achievements were, he was just an ordinary person, not a myth like the Heavenly Father, and it was impossible to do things without historical background. It is precisely because of this realistic foundation that unified writing is possible.
As for the Purple Horde Khanate, they have done their best to reach this point...
Of course, there is another aspect that is difficult to explain clearly, which is the mentality of the upper-level rulers.
Guo Kang himself knew that the Purple Horde Khanate was actually still a small clan facing a large country. Under this system, the mentality of the ruling class is actually very subtle.
Although it is nominally a country founded by the Mongolian Golden Family, starting from the founder Boyan Timur, basically no one in the entire family can speak Mongolian. Because the Golden Horde spoke the Turkic Kipchak language, Boyan Timur, as a small-headed person from the middle and lower classes, could only speak this language back then. As for the following generations, they gradually no longer even know the Turkic language...
Moreover, after the Civil War, the Mongolian princes were liquidated; after Timur defeated Tokhtamysh and routed the remaining forces of the Golden Horde, the local grassland nobles experienced another major reshuffle. After two rounds of purges, the traditional tribal nobles actually no longer have much power.
Now among this group of "Mongols", probably only a few officials responsible for diplomacy, who often conduct trade and diplomatic exchanges with Central Asia and grassland areas, can also speak Mongolian. Even when I'm having fun, I only know a few words to say hello to people and ask them to drink.
And because of the role of Nanya Shihou, as the true high-level language of the court, Chinese was actually the "national language" of the Khan's court. This has been basically established since the time when Guo Gai was in charge of internal affairs for a long time.
In fact, many noble families do not only know this language. For example, the Cao family and the Shi family all lived among the Turkic tribes. But for everyone, Chinese is not only the biggest common ground, but also the collective memory of each family as a community, which has irreplaceable significance. Without Chinese, everyone might have to break up.
Although it sounds a bit strange, Chinese language and military skills are actually the "anchor" for the self-positioning of the upper echelons of the Khan's court.
(End of chapter)
