Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 657: Don’t Move the Little Warmaster to a Strange Temple

Guo Kang wanted to ask about the current battle situation, but Tuo Huan and others said that his biggest task now was to heal his wounds. Other things were secondary.

Tuohuan even complained that he should have been more resolute at the time and not let Guo Kang follow the army to earn military merits, but should have waited until he did more things and reached a higher level before talking about things here. Because Rome was not short of generals at that time, but there were few people who could take over his job.

However, Guo Kang believed that if one really wanted to do something these days, it was impossible to avoid the battlefield. Nowadays, the world is far from being unified, and barbarians are rampant everywhere. These people do not understand reason and can only speak with swords. If one has not experienced the battlefield, it is equivalent to missing the most important experience.

Moreover, when the Khanate was first established, Gaozu Bayan Temur agreed with ministers and vassal kings that those who were not members of the Golden Family could not be made Khans, and those who had no military merits could not become pillars of the state. This was to limit the problems of indiscriminate enfeoffment and separatism that often occurred from Central Asia to Europe. This was the national law that his ancestor Guo Gai personally participated in formulating, and naturally he had to abide by it.

Since then, those who want to inherit the title must have military merit. At that time, Queen Mother Helena was powerful in the court, but there were few people with outstanding military merit among her confidants, so her influence on the army has always been weak.

After Basil III decided to rebel against her, Guo Kang's grandfather Guo Shuai came to the training camp of the Thracian military district outside the city overnight and shouted to everyone, "Those who support the Khan, tie the scarf around your left arm!" The legionnaires in the camp responded in droves, taking off the red "Fokal" scarves that were originally tied around their necks and tying them around their arms. They opened the city gates that night and entered Dadu, helping Baisai Khan to regain power. It can be seen how great the influence of this rule is.

Therefore, joining the army and seeking military merit was also the most basic requirement of the Guo family. The hope of his family and country was here, and he could not give up easily.

Seeing that they could not convince him, Tuohuan and others had no choice but to let it go.

However, after gradually coming to his senses, Guo Kang found himself in an unfamiliar building. At first, he subconsciously thought that this should be a field hospital temporarily requisitioned by the army to accommodate the wounded. But when he recovered and looked around, he found that he seemed to be the only one here - even if he was a "VIP patient", it couldn't be so deserted.

"Why did you move me here?" he asked curiously.

"It was Miss Ranna who came up with the idea." Tuohuan told him: "You were unconscious before, and everyone was scared to death. The Russians under your command were still shouting that the captain was dead, causing panic among the people..."

"Don't pay attention to them, they'll just keep yelling." Guo Kang said speechlessly.

"We were indeed panicked at the time." Tuo Huan admitted, "No one could wake you up, so we quickly looked for a doctor. But after a long time, several military doctors found that you didn't have any serious injuries. Even the place where the arrow hit, there were no traces of external injuries. But, for some reason, we couldn't wake you up. The military doctors could only guess that you were too tired and mentally exhausted, and you would probably wake up on your own after a while."

"We didn't know what to do. We suspected that it wasn't a physical injury, but a problem of...possibly being possessed by a demon. So we urgently called Master Wang over. But he brought people to chant sutras, and after a while, there was no response. Instead, he saw you and started to smile foolishly."

"Uh..." Guo Kang was a little embarrassed for a moment.

"Later, other people came. Miss Jeanna said that when she was in Egypt, she came here with the members of the order. There is an ancient temple nearby with good feng shui. In the past, they held exorcism ceremonies here." Tuo Huan continued:
"We don't know what to do, so we decided to try our luck and bring you here."

"My luck is indeed good this time, but I should be more cautious next time," Guo Kang said helplessly.

"Yeah, I also feel it's weird." Zhu Wenkui beside him nodded in agreement, "To be honest, I think this place is evil enough in itself. According to the customs here, I'm afraid we have to ask Master Wang and the others to tear down this temple."

"What do you mean?" Lady Jeanna, who was standing behind him, was displeased when she heard it: "I'm trying to help you out of kindness, and you're still saying that." "I really think something is wrong. Look at the walls around here, there are still some inscriptions left." Zhu Wenkui pointed to the side: "I don't recognize these words either. They look like ghost paintings. I don't know what they mean."

"This is ancient Egyptian writing. In fact, it is the same as your temples. It is all words praising God or praying for the sponsor. It is not an evil spell." Lady Jeanna said: "This is an ancient temple. It was still in operation in the Roman era, but later it lost its incense and declined. Besides, how can a temple curse believers every day? How can anyone come to worship?"

"Is this their ancient writing? No way." Zhu Wenkui looked around and was a little surprised: "This is the same as the painting..."

"People here now also think your Central Plains characters look like paintings," Lady Jeanna said bluntly, "and some people actually believed that Egyptian characters and the Central Plains characters we often use are related."

"There are two main schools of thought among people who study Egyptian writing. One school believes that Egyptian writing originated from Chinese characters, and the other believes that Chinese characters originated from Egyptian writing. These two schools are the most prominent schools of thought at present."

"Ah?" Zhu Wenkui was even more surprised. "But I think it really doesn't matter. We also have people who study epigraphy. Ancient characters don't look like this."

"After all, for a long time, people didn't know much about Chinese characters. Chinese characters themselves have only suddenly become popular in the past few decades, allowing people to have a deep understanding of them." Lady Jeanna told him: "But understanding Chinese characters is still good. It can dispel many superstitious ideas and outrageous stories."

"Egyptian writing is too old, and no one has used it for a long time. Apart from a few scholars who are curious about it, most people have no impression of it. So when they first see it, they naturally feel it is mysterious and obscure, as if it contains some unknown magic. That sense of fear and all kinds of messed up folk legends probably come from this."

"In fact, this is just the writing used in daily life at that time. The history of Chinese characters is not necessarily shorter than that. If it really has magical power, the people in the Central Plains should be the same. Why don't you guys strike lightning with your mouth or fireballs with your pen?"

"Okay. You are still studying this." Zhu Wenkui thought about it and had no choice but to accept it.

"After all, there are so many ruins like this around that we see them everywhere, so it is necessary to learn more about them." Lady Jeanna said, "In addition, during the Roman Empire, Egyptian scholars also wrote several pamphlets introducing knowledge in this area. Unfortunately, even these introductory articles by later generations are not very popular. We in the order only know the general situation through these remaining records."

"I can't understand why they can even abandon words," Zhu Wenkui commented.

"It's not abandoned, it's just a change of writing form." Lady Jeanna explained: "Then the Egyptians switched to using letters. They referred to the Greek alphabet and invented the Coptic alphabet to record pronunciation, which has been used until now. So in theory, it is also a continuous process, it didn't disappear suddenly."

"I remember that Guo Kang'anda used Greek letters to create a phonetic notation system, saying that it could be used to annotate Chinese characters." Tuo Huan interrupted, "So the Egyptians are using this phonetic notation system to write characters, and don't want to use the Chinese characters anymore? This sounds weird. Is there really someone who would do this when he has nothing better to do?"

"I don't know about that." Lady Jeanne admitted, "Anyway, this isn't a cursed place. Look, isn't he getting better now?"

"Then I have to be more careful next time." Guo Kang suddenly remembered the environment with a strange style: "I think we should not move it randomly..."

(End of this chapter)