Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 597 Teaching Shi Huizhen to Read
After Guo Kang was busy for a few days, Theodora came back. Although he had too much to do, Guo Kang had no choice but to go to her place to help.

Not only that, during the day, Theodora took Shi Ke and Shi Huizhen to the monastery outside the city to find him, saying that they had reached an agreement with the Shi family. Now, they were going to send Shi Huizhen here according to the recommendation of Lama Wang, so that Guo Kang could teach her personally and give her some common sense.

Guo Kang had no motivation at all and even thought she was just looking for trouble. He explained that he was not a professional teacher and might not be good at this. Besides, he was too busy now and would not have much time before going to the battle. With this little effort, he could not teach her anything.

He speculated that Da Lama Wang actually valued Shi Huizhen and was really ready to train her to do something. He probably meant to give the Shi family a face and show his importance to Shi Huizhen, so nominally, he wanted Shi Huizhen to study in the church. In this way, even if she didn't learn anything, she could see if she could polish her character, or at least brush up her qualifications, so that when she does serious work in the future, everyone will really treat her as a violent barbarian...

The problem is, if this is the case, we must find a scholar of high moral character and prestige. Guo Kang's qualifications are not enough to be Shi Huizhen's master - the seniority is not right. Moreover, when he thought of Shi Huizhen's temper, he felt numb and really didn't want to care about such a guy.

Sometimes, Lama Wang likes to flatter him too much, so it's not surprising that he would do something. However, who knows, Theodora, who is so cunning, would also follow suit and make trouble. I don't know what she is thinking. Therefore, Guo Kang was quite helpless.

However, since Theodora and Shi Ke both came to ask him for help, he couldn't refuse them, so he could only reluctantly agree and decided to deal with it first. Theodora didn't urge him, but just said that she was busy recently and couldn't watch over her all the time. Guo Kang could decide what to tell her and how long to tell her.

Before that, she went back to her hometown with her grandmother and brought a large group of distant cousins ​​from the Serbian mountains to Dadu.

Since getting married, the Queen Mother has had many more relatives like this. Every few days, someone comes to her house, claiming to be a long-lost distant relative of her family, who was married many generations ago. The family trees of these local minor nobles are long and messy, and no one can tell how much of them are true. But since they have come to claim it, it is not easy to directly say that your evidence is unreliable...

In this way, over the past few decades, there have been more and more inexplicable relatives. Theodora told Guo Kang that she suspected that it was a Serbian, and they were all relatives of the Queen Mother. However, these people were also very brave when fighting, and some people even wanted to be relatives just to join the army.

The mountainous areas of Serbia were not wealthy, and for many people, being able to join the frontline army and gain military merit was a valuable opportunity. Those who had a little savings at home would train their children in martial arts from an early age and encourage them to go out and fight. Therefore, every time there was a major war, a bunch of people with their own weapons and horses would appear over there, claiming to be uncles and brothers that she hadn't seen for many years, and they had to come to help. This kind of thing happened so many times that everyone was used to it.

However, these people are not very honest, especially some young people, who are visiting the capital for the first time and find everything new. These hundreds of cheap cousins ​​start running around and causing trouble as soon as they enter the city, and they are impossible to control. She has to deal with them. So, she can't rest for the time being.

Sure enough, within two days, Theodora and Shi Ke brought Shi Huizhen here. Guo Kang had just sent away Captain Jessica who came to visit, and was busy communicating with them again. Fortunately, this time, no matter what they said, Shi Huizhen was much more honest. The two asked her to follow Guo Kang's arrangements, and she did not directly express her opposition.

The monks in the monastery were somewhat dissatisfied. Originally, their Holy Light Hermitage was established to study philosophy and theology, especially natural philosophy. In the monastery, in addition to places for eating and sleeping, there are also various special places for studying natural philosophy, equipped with various research instruments and supporting workshops.

As we all know, natural philosophy is also philosophy, and it is a relatively pure discipline in philosophy that is closer to the origin of the Heavenly Father. This research place is also a quiet place for the Heavenly Father. Originally, women were not allowed to enter. As a result, since Theodora broke into the door, she couldn't stop.

After that, when Theodora couldn't find Guo Kang sometimes, she would think that he had hidden here, and would rush in every few days to look for him. The female sponsor of the monastery also often came here to visit under the pretext of looking for Guo Kang to check on the project. Now, they have to force a woman to come here to attend classes. How can we study philosophy if this continues?
However, Guo Kang himself really couldn't do anything.

Philosophy seems to be born with a dislike for women, and he can't change it by himself; those women insist on running here, and he can't control them either. So, he can only try to appease everyone and make do with it for now...

After a few greetings, Theodora left first. Shi Keduo gave a few instructions and hurried to the dock. Shi Huizhen looked around curiously, stared at Guo Kang for a while, and then said, "Brother, can you really make Brother Tian appear?"

"Ah?" Guo Kang didn't react at all.

"My brother told me that you can inject Brother Tian's divine power into the equipment, so you can create a powerful mechanism that can saw down a big tree in a few strokes." Shi Huizhen said: "Is this what you are researching here? Is this true? How do you do it?"

"Uh... how did it get spread like this?" Guo Kang said in surprise: "The machine is not that powerful now. The source of its power is very simple, which is the hot steam when boiling water. This thing is not that mysterious."

"The power between heaven and earth was created by Heavenly Father and given to all of us. There is no question of who must operate it or inject it. As long as you understand the principles of nature, everyone can use it. If you study hard, you will understand it, too."

"Oh, no wonder they said that." Shi Huizhen suddenly realized: "Then what my brother said is right, I really should learn from you. Can you teach me how to make that machine? I also want to drive that thing to beat people, it must be very exciting." "?"

Guo Kang had no idea what she had realized. But after thinking about it, he thought that Shi Ke and the others had probably tricked her into being honest by saying that if she studied hard, she could learn these magical skills. So, he didn't say much...

However, Shi Huizhen herself was very willing to chat. Seeing that he did not answer for a while, she immediately asked, "I just saw that Captain Yang, under the young King Wu, also came here. What is he doing here? Is he also here to learn how to drive the Tianxiong machine so that he can go to fight?"

"...No, he just visited people everywhere and asked about the situation." Guo Kang didn't know if she could understand him, so he tried to explain: "In his hometown, many people are very dissatisfied with the Alemanni nobles who rule the local area. Now the situation is getting worse and worse, and all kinds of rumors are emerging. Some radical people have already started preparing weapons and want to start an uprising."

"But as one of the leaders, he will probably have to lead people out to sea in the near future and go on a business trip with the little King of Wu. I guess he won't be able to take care of that in the short term. So, he has been contacting people everywhere. On the one hand, he wants to leave people behind to handle daily work; on the other hand, he also wants to see the attitude of the government and try to get more support. Now I don't know how to make the best arrangements."

"They also want to attack Alemanni?" Shi Huizhen said without hesitation: "Of course we can help. There is no need to test it."

"It's not that simple." Guo Kang shook his head. "Help is just a word, but how to help, to what extent, who will command whom when helping, how to divide the results after helping... These are all very troublesome matters. All parties have to discuss them repeatedly. They can't be solved in just a few words."

"Ah? So complicated?" Shi Huizhen was very surprised.

"Actually, this is a pretty irritating job." Guo Kang told her, "Any organization of a certain size is not monolithic. They are like this, and so are we. Although Captain Yang often represents his faction and works on some things here, not everyone in his hometown obeys him - it's better to say that most people don't obey him."

"He told me about the current dilemma. The merchants in the city and the tycoons who run farms in the countryside do want to gather people and show their strength. However, they just want to demonstrate and scare the Alemanni, forcing them to make concessions to the locals, lower taxes, and stop letting their cronies steal their business. Beyond that, there are no more demands. On the contrary, they don't want to really fight, fearing that it will affect their business. Of course, they don't want us to intervene, because they are worried that they will have to pay more money to sponsor the military, and they are also afraid that we will also intervene."

"That's impossible." Shi Huizhen muttered, "I wouldn't believe it even if I were in their place. And the barbarians are definitely more barbaric, how could they really agree? These people are too undetermined to fight."

"We think so too. I guess those people are not completely unaware of this, but sometimes people are so short-sighted for the sake of their own property." Guo Kang shook his head: "If you don't want to sacrifice any benefits, you can only pin your hopes on these illusory opportunities. I guess the reason why they are so lucky is that they have too many interests to take care of, so they can't help but be too cautious."

"However, it cannot be said that they are cowardly or undetermined." He thought for a moment and said, "In fact, these people are very brave to take a gamble, and even dare to bet their own lives and property that the barbarians will not do it. Moreover, although they look cunning, they are actually very determined, but they are determined to keep every penny..."

"It's true that they are not suitable for fighting. We, along with Captain Yang and his men, all think so. However, these people are the main sponsors of their sect and have really paid a lot of money. Therefore, they do have influence and cannot be ignored directly. This is more troublesome."

"Of course, these people are just one side. The other side is equally difficult to deal with." He continued, "In his hometown, many poor people have also joined the church, but these people are not well-educated and can be easily instigated. Civilian priests also often lack sufficient theological literacy and often come up with some inexplicable ideas and put forward slogans that are impossible to achieve or even violate basic social ethics. Some are so outrageous that Captain Yang and his team can't stand it. They would rather lose some manpower and drive them away quickly."

"These people may not be friendly to us either, because some of them think that we are heretics just like the Bishop of Rome; others simply don't trust all outsiders - including the Alemanni and us Romans. There are actually quite a few such people, especially the farmers in the countryside. They have some such ideas, and we can't drive them all away. In the end, we still have to convince them slowly."

"Oh my God... He is much better than me." Shi Huizhen shook her head: "I can't do this."

"Your brother asked you to learn cultural knowledge for these reasons." Guo Kang quickly taught: "War is far more than just fighting and killing. There are a lot of other things, even pure human relationships. If you want to be an ordinary swordsman, you will naturally worry about these; if you want to be a ten thousand enemy, you have to consider a lot more."

"Okay..." Shi Huizhen was dumbfounded. After hesitating for a moment, she could only agree.

(End of this chapter)