Chapter 101: [Assimilation]

After the military training, the soldiers still have cultural classes to attend at night, and the lecturers are mainly war shamans.

Each hundred has two war shamans, who are teachers, military doctors, and missionaries of the Oracle religion.

"Spiritual Oracle" is something they carry with them at all times. It is a thin book with less than 100,000 words, which can be conveniently put in their arms and then read and recited at any time. It is their textbook and also their spiritual food.

In fact, many people can't put this book down, not just shamans, but anyone who can read it fluently.

Not only because of the ideas it expounds, but more importantly because of the series of stories it tells.

Ma Shao introduced a concept similar to "parallel world" into the worldview of Lingyu Religion, and based on this, grafted many classic stories from later generations.

For example, the cesarean section evidence in "Let the Bullets Fly" and the novel "The Wandering Earth"... Of course, he definitely did not copy them directly, but adapted them and then wrote them into the classics, otherwise it would inevitably be too incongruous.

In addition to stories, the book also contains some jokes with rich meanings, such as "Yes, Minister" and "Soviet Jokes".

With these contents, even people who have no interest in religion or science will read "The Oracle" with great interest.

For those with a strong thirst for knowledge, the content of "Spiritual Oracle" is even richer.

Basic scientific knowledge is not mentioned.

The most crazy thing is that there is a chapter in the book called "Saint Questions", which contains some questions raised by Ma Shao that no one can solve, mainly mathematical problems, such as: Goldbach's conjecture, Riemann's conjecture, twin prime conjecture, four-color conjecture...

That's right, Ma Shao was plagiarizing Hilbert's 23 questions!

Of course, he didn't copy all of them, and it's not appropriate to put forward some advanced conjectures now.

He also wrote about the Goldbach conjecture, a conjecture that had already appeared, but added a sentence "I heard" in front of it.

In addition to mathematics, there are also problems in physics, chemistry, biology, politics, history and geography. They are all of similar level of unsolved problems, many of which no one has been able to solve even in the 21st century.

In this way, Ma Shao raised a total of thirty-six questions, and claimed that he would be willing to call anyone who could solve one of them his teacher - sincerely.

Currently, there is an English version of "The Oracle" and it is gradually spreading in Clark Town, but there is no one powerful enough to fully understand "The Holy Question".

Let alone a small town, looking at the entire world, there are only a very few people who can fully understand the meaning of these thirty-six world-class problems.

As for a solution, that is even more impossible.

Ma Shao could fully imagine how a top scientist felt when he read "Sacred Questions".

War shamans hold the Oracle and spread ideas among the army.

Other shamans are doing similar work, such as the two shamans at the Clark Township clinic and the public elementary school.

For example, the more than 900 prisoners also received the shamans' teachings while undergoing labor reform.

A reform camp for prisoners.

More than 900 captives gathered around several campfires, listening to the shaman telling them the "Oracle", and many of them were mesmerized.

It's getting late.

"That's all for tonight's compulsory classes," the shamans said. "Next up are the elective classes. Those who don't want to study can go and take a rest."

Most of the prisoners dispersed and returned to their rooms to rest. It wasn't that they didn't want to attend the class, but time didn't allow it.

If they choose to take elective courses, they will inevitably not get enough sleep, and they still have work to do during the day. In order to avoid being punished, they can only go to bed early.

There are also a small number of people who choose to take elective courses, only a few dozen people.

The overseer ordered them to gather together the several dim bonfires and light a large, vigorous one so that the lessons could continue.

They scooped up the firewood with shovels and moved it to the same place, occasionally chatting with the people around them.

"Hawkeye, why are you taking the elective course too?" An Arapaho looked at his young companion who was shoveling firewood with him.

"I figured it out." Hawkeye said.

"What did you figure out?"

"A lot." Hawkeye lowered his head and was silent for a few seconds, then continued, "First of all, I decided to learn the Apache language and writing as soon as possible, at least like you, Smoke."

The Arapaho known as Smoke smiled and said, "I can hardly say I learned the Apache language."

Hawkeye: "You have a vocabulary of one thousand words, your salary is doubled, you can work two hours less per day, you can have one day off per week, and your sentence is only four years."

"I have some foundation." Thick Smoke said, "Thanks to my second wife, the woman my uncle robbed from Apache."

Then he changed the subject: "If you take this elective course, aren't you afraid that you won't be able to get up tomorrow morning? Or that you'll fall asleep while working."

Hawkeye: "So what? It's nothing more than being scolded, having my salary deducted, and at most doing frog jumps and push-ups. Even if all my salary for this month is deducted, as long as I can pass the exam next month, my salary will be doubled and I will earn it back soon."

"Indeed." Smoke nodded.

"And..." Hawkeye hesitated for a moment, "And I think there's nothing wrong with learning the Apache language. At least, the Apaches in Sleeping Bear City are so different. They are warm, kind, and wise. They follow many rules and morals when treating us captives. They are unlike anyone I've ever seen."

Smoke said nothing for a moment as he shoveled the last of the burning wood onto the fire, handed over the shovel, and sat down around it.

"In fact, it is far more than just different." He finally said, "If you listen to more shaman courses, or even read part of the Oracle yourself, you will feel that the crow's words are not empty words."

"you mean..."

Thick Smoke sighed, "Apache's son of the sky will surely impress everyone. A year ago, I didn't believe it when Crow said this, but now, I may understand the meaning of this sentence better than Crow does."

"I've seen our future," he said slowly. "We're all going to be Apaches."

…

The last day of December.

Ma Shao was wearing a cowhide coat and sitting in the chief's hall reading a newspaper.

Compared to the beginning, the newspapers he buys now are more diverse. It is no longer just the three most famous ones. He also buys many less well-known newspapers, as well as some books.

So he can get more information.

But there was some information that had little to do with the newspaper, like the one he was reading now.

"The Mexican Foreign Ministry said it refused to meet with U.S. envoy John Slidell and rejected all negotiations."

There was another comment in the newspaper: "The fragile Herrera government dared not meet with Slidell. President Herrera knew that as long as he negotiated with the United States, even if it was just to discuss what to have for lunch, he would be driven out of the presidential palace by domestic dissatisfaction..."

Ma Shao looked at the news, thought for a while, and finally found a rainy day: "It's time to talk about the Mexican problem. We need to have a meeting."