Father of France

Chapter 257 Incorporating the Hajis
Koman had just finished translating a children's primer, went to Chinatown to deliver the Chinese version of "100,000 Whys" to be printed, and then left.

"They have nothing in their hands, how can they print?" Lucar, who had come with Coman, cautiously reminded him, wondering if his superior had forgotten something.

“They are all artisans, their skills are passed down through royal selection, and some of them are engravers, so movable type printing is not a problem for them.”

Koman, sitting calmly in the passenger seat, replied, "If you can't do it, it means your skill level isn't up to par. It's okay to print a few extra; we'll need them later. The safety of these artisans is extremely important. Set up a company of military police nearby, explain their mission, and ensure their safety. Once the housing problem is completely resolved, we should start looking for raw materials."

"The battalion commander really values ​​them," Lukar remarked sincerely as he drove towards the location of the tribal sheikhs.

“It’s not that hard work, but I do acknowledge that they value it.” Koman thought to himself that in his eyes, these craftsmen were more important than the lives of the French, but considering that saying it might hurt him too much, he skipped the question. “Actually, once you understand and delve into the knowledge of pictographs, using them is quite simple, and the translation workload is not very large. Coincidentally, I do understand them.”

Koman looked quite smug, seemingly proud of his mastery of the only hieroglyphic script still in use in the world.

Hieroglyphs were used in the early stages of civilization. As ideographic writing systems, they were easy to write, but extremely difficult to spread in ancient times that were often thousands of years old. As a result, they were very easy to lose. Egyptian, Sumerian and Mayan hieroglyphs were lost for this reason.

It's important to understand that in the early stages of civilization, the advantage of ideographic writing in terms of ease of writing could not be fully realized. Clay tablets were used in North Africa and the Middle East, and bamboo slips were used in East Asia. It wasn't until the advent of paper that ideographic writing spread widely.

Ancient Egypt and Sumer did not last until that time, remaining forever at a stage similar to oracle bone script.

Thus, in modern times, only the great Eastern country remained with pictographic writing. It's unclear whether Japan qualifies, but Koman believes it shouldn't, as Japan merely borrowed words from Chinese.

Once pictographic writing is mastered, its advantages over phonetic writing become apparent. Phonetic writing is good at recording pronunciation, which seems to make perfect sense. However, it's important to know that in ancient times, communication was hampered by natural factors such as terrain. Even a country as large as England had accents. France has several French dialects, and even Bavarian, a single language in Germany, can be divided into different dialects.

This has led to the continuous differentiation of phonetic writing systems over thousands of years. The phonetic writing system based on the Latin alphabet has split into the languages ​​of Western countries such as English, French, and German.

The development of writing systems is like a mountain of code. As time goes by, various words accumulate in languages. English, French, and German will use more and more words, and the differences will naturally become greater and greater.

The former advantage of being close to spoken language and easy to spread was the core driving force behind language differentiation.

The situation is somewhat better for languages ​​like French, German, and Russian. English, due to its widest dissemination, has continued to evolve and has evolved from what it once considered its advantage, resulting in an ever-growing vocabulary and a situation similar to Upper and Lower Bavaria.

The reason Americans are willing to listen to Trump's speeches is because his vocabulary is simple English, making it understandable to people from all walks of life in America.

For many people in the lower classes in the United States, they may not understand what the elite politicians who are trained from childhood say when they give speeches, but they can't feel the emotions in them at all.

At this point, the advantages of hieroglyphics became apparent. Although hieroglyphics were difficult to master in the early stages of civilization, they had already stopped evolving and the accumulation of hieroglyphic codes had ceased. Although new words appeared, they were all reorganized from existing characters.

Using phonetic scripts as a supplement to pinyin actually makes writing extremely simple; the only problem is eliminating accents.

Chinese has become the language with the smallest written vocabulary among the world's major writing systems. This led to a gradual improvement in accent issues, and ultimately, in artificial intelligence models, Chinese, with computing power far less than that of the United States, decisively broke through the barriers to AI models built by the US.

What do these language problems have to do with Koeman? They are related, but it's not an English problem, although the English language is also a mess, with over a million words and that number keeps increasing every year.

However, in the realm of languages, English is not the formidable obstacle. To see Arabic without knowing it is like a frog in a well seeing the moon, while to see Arabic is like an ant seeing the sky. The total vocabulary of Arabic is ten times that of English.

Thinking about it this way, it's no wonder that Arabs can only recite scriptures; just recognizing characters is already quite difficult.

French language education in overseas territories is now imperative; otherwise, France will be left with Arabs who spend their entire lives studying Arabic and still haven't mastered it.

France is quite adept at this; during its colonization of French Indochina, it successfully repelled Vietnam's Chinese character system. Whether the Vietnamese will be grateful decades later is another matter. At least France's determination to promote French culture is certainly stronger than the British's, and Corman, as a Frenchman, certainly cannot lag behind in this regard.

As for whether French is the most accurate language in the world, the truth or falsehood is not so important; it all depends on how much France boasts about it.

The Khajiit sheikhs waited for about half an hour before Koman finally arrived from the western district. The esteemed sheikhs did not slam their fists on the table, but they all looked somewhat impatient.

Just then, the door to the room was suddenly pushed open, and Coman, wearing a top hat, stepped in, his Lorraine cross badge gleaming. "Sorry, something came up."

"A major, who does he think he is?" someone in the waiting crowd muttered softly in Arabic.

Koman turned his head away, his body obscuring the sunlight so his face was not visible, but he still answered from beneath the Lorraine cross on his hat, replying in Arabic, "Sorry, I understand Arabic."

Although he struggled with Arabic, which seemed like an incomprehensible script, he had lived in Syria for so long that he understood Arabic. If there were any accent issues, the sheikhs would find the reasons themselves.

He closed the door behind him, blocking out the sunlight, and walked up to the sheikhs, some in suits and others in traditional robes, and said in a reciting tone, "I am very grateful to the distinguished sheikhs for coming. You are all people trusted by the Paris government and the Algerian command."

The sheikhs, the tribal leaders, softened their expressions. Since the other party had apologized, it would seem unmagnanimous not to forgive them. Some French people are quite unique, even making their canes into the shape of long knives.

Koeman entered carrying the dagger he had named Sheikh three days earlier, which eased the tension between them. Indeed, this dagger had beheaded quite a few vice presidents, prime ministers, and leaders, making the name Sheikh truly fitting.

"The tribes, families, or communities of all the Sheikhs are supporters of spreading civilization and Enlightenment ideas in France. The Chairman of the Council of Ministers and the Commander-in-Chief have seen the contributions of everyone and the Hakis community. Now France has a major decision that can be used to strengthen mutual trust and enhance the social status of the Hakis community."

Koman's words made the sheikhs' eyes light up. Bujama Sheikh, a Berber sheikh, was particularly impressed. As a sheikh of a pro-French militia, he keenly recognized that this was a good thing. "Respected Major, given our close relationship, you can tell us what Paris is asking for. We will do our best to serve you."

“If that’s the case, then that would be the best,” Koeman replied with a smile. “I wonder what the Sheikhs think of the current Mediterranean railway plan.”

“This is extremely important for the overseas provinces; it is the foundation of our progress,” Sheikh Tabet replied with certainty. “We need this railway.”

"The Paris government has seen your needs," Koeman said with a smile, giving an ambiguous answer that immediately stirred up the group of sheikhs.

Omar Sheikh stood up excitedly, "Does this railway need our help?"

“It’s better than everyone imagined.” Coman coughed lightly and straightened up. “Based on the resolution of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Schuman, and with the permission of General Juan, the overseas provinces, considering the needs of war preparedness, have decided to establish a railway corps. Considering the loyalty of the Hakis to France, it has been decided to select soldiers from the Hakis community to establish three railway corps divisions, responsible for building railways and maintaining them after completion. The railway corps divisions will receive the same treatment as the fourteen divisions of the Production and Construction Corps.”

Wow! Koeman's words were met with cheers, and Bujamashech couldn't help but shout, "Thank you to the Paris government for their trust in us!"

"Of course, since there are only three Railway Corps Divisions, they certainly cannot be divided according to tribes. As an important part of the army, the Hakis who join the Railway Corps Division must also strictly demand themselves according to the standards of the French army. Everyone should think this through carefully."

Coman did not resort to deception; tribal politics could not be allowed into the French army, and future promotions and advancements would not be decided by these sheikhs.

It's better to be honest to say the unpleasant things upfront. The silence was temporary. Even if he came under the direct command of the French army, wouldn't his family still be his subordinates? This problem could be overcome. After a brief silence, the sheikhs present still expressed their support.

Koeman was well aware of this, but given the current conditions, it was already quite good that he could do this much. He couldn't possibly deal with the Haqs before even solving the Arab problem.

(End of this chapter)