1840 Indian Rebirth

Chapter 163 [Editing is a good job]

"Dong Yan has read the "Lingyu"?"

Hearing this news, Ma Shao couldn't help being a little surprised.

The current version of "Lingyu" has about 15 words and covers a wide range of fields, including mathematics, physics, humanities and history.

Although avoiding obscurity as much as possible is one of its basic writing principles, if you want to read it through, you need [-] words.

Not only is it a question of vocabulary, it is a great test for reading ability and even salivation ability.

After reading the 15-word content, even if multiple breaks are allowed in the middle, most people will lose control of their mouths halfway through the reading.

In fact, the so-called freedom after reading the "Lingyu" is just the highest reward randomly set by the horse sentry. He doesn't think any of those war criminals can do it.

Unexpectedly, someone actually did it.

I have to say he is a ruthless person.

"Yes. He has a good foundation in Apache, so he quickly mastered a lot of vocabulary." The rainy day nodded.

"...plus he's really gifted with languages, so it's a feat that can be accomplished."

Ma Shao thought for a moment and asked, "After he was freed, did he ever consider leaving Sleeping Bear City?"

Smile on a rainy day: "If Yan Yan wanted to leave, I wouldn't just give him freedom."

"I let him pass this challenge just because I saw that he already has a heart for Apache... After all, if you really have to pick a mistake, how can there be no mistakes in 15 words."

"Dense Smoke is now a legal resident of Sleeping Bear City, and works as a trainee teacher in the school. I originally planned to make him a regular next year."

He paused: "However, now it seems that he should be more suitable to be the editor-in-chief of the Apache News Agency."

Thick Smoke is undoubtedly No.1 in the essay contest, with excellent content, neat writing, and a novel title, it deserves it.

And under the thick smoke, there were three other people who were also excellent, and they were roughly evenly divided, so the horse sentry gave them the second prize.

There are more than [-] third prizes and encouragement prizes.

A few days later, Sleeping Bear City held a public meeting. An important part of the meeting was the announcement of the results of the essay contest, and of course the awards.

Public meetings are still held in the open air in the square, and residents in the city are allowed and encouraged to watch. Basically, every meeting has at least a few hundred spectators.

This time there were even more onlookers, people were standing or sitting, filling the square, and there were many policemen interspersed in the middle to maintain order.

"...In the past half a month or so, we held an essay competition. More than 5000 people participated in this competition, and the chief and I selected 32 winners from it." Rainy Day said.

"Now, I will announce the results of the Apache Communications Essay Contest."

"The first is the winners of the Special Encouragement Award. Although their articles are not outstanding enough, they are all children under the age of ten. They have great potential and deserve encouragement. The winners include—"

Reading the list of winners on a rainy day, several children walked from the crowd to the podium one after another, and received the certificates and prizes from the horse whistle.

Among these children, the oldest is ten years old, and the youngest is only seven years old.

They instinctively expressed joy, holding certificates and award books, and smiling.

Correspondingly, there were discussions among the parents in the audience.

"Second brother, your child is promising, and he will definitely become a great shaman in the future." All kinds of envious voices sounded.

"Look at other people's children, and then look at you, and you will know how to play all day long!" Such reprimands followed one after another, and parents took the opportunity to teach their children a lesson.

The Apaches did not have a tradition of competition and learning, which is rare in the entire American continent.

However, after Ma Shao became the chief, the halo of being a poet in East Asia radiated in the tribe every day.

In just three or four years, the Apache people here have subtly acquired a large number of East Asian characteristics, and "other people's children" is undoubtedly the most basic one.

Strictly speaking, this is not a good phenomenon, and people who like to say this are often mediocre educators.

But Ma Whistle didn't have any strong feelings. After all, he couldn't expect every teacher and parent in the tribe to be an excellent educator, which was too normal.

In later generations of China, this is also commonplace. The achievements of most educators are based on luck. If they are unlucky, they blame the educated.

He has seen too many colleagues who follow the scriptures and even dawdle, as well as parents who are not helping and dragging their feet.

However, although these people are pig teammates, they also know the importance of education. Although they are rampant, they at least imagine that they are engaged in education, which is quite rare.

Involution is inevitable, but the way of involution can be chosen.

Compared with white people who hold guns and write inside, East Asians who read books inside are simply too decent and civilized.

Let the Indians roll in this direction, which is relatively good.

"Next is the Encouragement Award..."

The awards continued, and the Special Encouragement Award, Encouragement Award, Third Prize and Second Prize were announced one after another, all of which were awarded by Horse Whistle to the winners.

"The last is the winner of the first prize, Thick Smoke, the winning work "Shock! The truth about the Great Irish Famine is..."."

The winners have not been notified in advance, and they are not sure whether they have won the prize, let alone how many prizes they have won.

So hearing the news, the thick smoke in the crowd seemed rather stunned.

When he was not included in the previous awards, he almost thought he was out of luck.

Unexpectedly, he got the first prize!

Thick Smoke was a war criminal released on parole a few months ago, so his award did not cause much cheer, and the scene was a little quiet.

"Come up, thick smoke, and come to claim your honor!" Horse Whistle stood on the stage, beckoned to him, and took the lead in applauding.

"Clap clap-"

Under his leadership, people applauded one after another, and the atmosphere finally became lively again.

Only then did the thick smoke leave the crowd, and stood on the podium in a daze, lowering its head: "The Great Chief..."

"Dongyan has taken a detour before, but that doesn't mean he won't become a respectable person in the future." Ma Shao said slowly, "He proved his repentance by reading the "Lingyu", and now he uses the article Prove your talent."

"Let's learn from this fine Apache."

"Papapa——" Applause broke out in the square again.

The horse whistle handed him the certificate of award and the voucher: "You can take this voucher later and go over there to exchange for gold coins."

In such a serious award ceremony, it seems inappropriate to hand out money.

Therefore, the horse whistle did not send money directly, but made a bonus certificate, allowing the winners to exchange for cash later.

"After the meeting, all the award-winning works will be posted for everyone to learn from, and of course to criticize." At the end, Ma Shao said to everyone, "These articles are not perfect, and my comments will also be posted."

After the commendation was over, the horse whistle called some of the winners individually and talked with them.

It was not Dense Smoke who was called by him first, but William Sebastian, one of the winners of the second prize.

It looks like a Caucasian name, but it actually belongs to a Caucasian.

The three people who won the second prize are Lumpy Hair, Long Hair, and this William Sebastian.

This man was one of the first white people to convert to the Apache and one of the first white people to be trained as an oracle shaman.

Like Thick Smoke, William Sebastian's essay revolves around the Irish Famine.

But by comparison, his prose is a bit sluggish, and his Apache is not yet fluent.

The flaws in the writing are not the biggest problem. What really caused him to lose in the smoke was his extreme thinking.

Probably because Sebastian has lived in the western capitalist society for a long time, and he has a deep-rooted pain.

So when he came into contact with the red thoughts in the core of the spiritual teaching, he almost immediately transformed into a fanatic.

When he criticized the actions of the feudal nobles and capitalists in the Great Irish Famine, his tone was so fierce that it could be described as swearing, showing strong hatred.

Horse Post even suspected that the original version of Sebastian's article might have been written in swear words, and then it was revised into the non-swear word version he saw now.

"Sebastian, your article is well written. Considering that you haven't studied Apache script for a long time, this is a surprising achievement." Ma Whistle said.

"Thank you, Warchief." Sebastian said very respectfully.

He is in his early thirties, has a not thick blond hair, and his face is a typical German. In fact, he has lived in Germany for the first 20 years.

However, his current attire is no different from that of the Apaches in Sleeping Bear City, with jeans, a fur coat, and a feather tied on his head.

The horse whistle can generally distinguish the appearance or temperament of white people, just like distinguishing Chinese, Japanese and Koreans, especially Germans, and he can't tell the specific characteristics.

This may be because a certain type of German film left a deep impression on him...

First some encouragement, then Ma Shao changed the subject: "However, your article also has some problems."

"First of all, there are some mistakes and omissions in words and grammar. This is a small problem. I believe you can correct it soon."

"Then there are thoughts, or ... emotions, in the text."

"Although your analysis of the Great Irish Famine is also in place, there are some one-sided conclusions and too much personal emotion. For example, your description of the capitalists has many traces of 'conspiracy theory'."

Sebastian didn't quite understand: "The conspiracy theory is..."

Horse whistle: "Imagine capitalists too proactively, united, and rationally—like individuals who are sure to win, and imagine many things they participate in as conspiracies that they actively and carefully manipulate."

"But in fact conspiracies are not common, especially the kind of wonderful and complicated conspiracies...Compared with conspiracies, what dominates human history is more conspiracy."

"Moreover, human society is a chaotic system attached to nature, complex and weak, full of too many accidental and force majeure factors, no one person or organization can carry out a conspiracy against the whole society, capitalists are not even an organization."

"So, even those things that are extremely beneficial to some people in hindsight, the high probability is the result of multi-party games including accidental factors, rather than the result of anyone's active manipulation."

Although Sebastian's articles are written with fierce words, his real-life personality is a little silent, he keeps listening and nodding from time to time.

And compared to the Apaches of Indian origin, his admiration for the horse post is not weak, so he basically doesn't refute anything, just accepts it.

Ma Shao continued: "Capital has nothing to do with personality either. Adjectives about personality such as despicable and shameless have no meaning to it. It is a natural phenomenon that commonly occurs in human beings. There is no good or evil."

"Whether the Irish people are suffering or happy, capital doesn't care, capital only cares about profits."

"Therefore, judging the personal good and evil of the capitalist, that is, the carrier of capital, is not judging capital, but judging him from left to right."

"Just like when studying free fall, the color and taste of the object are never worth discussing. The law of gravity behind it is the truth that needs our attention."

Ma Shao learned that Sebastian already had a certain foundation in physics before joining Apache, at least he knew the law of universal gravitation.

So Sebastian could understand this analogy and think about it for a while.

After a while, Ma Shao looked at him: "Sebastian, do you want to be an editor?"

"Editor?" Sebastian was taken aback.

Horse sentry: "Yes, the editor of the news agency. The tribe established an Apache news agency, but due to the lack of qualified editors and writers, it only took on very few functions, not a real news agency."

"This call for papers is to select editors and writers. You are undoubtedly one of the candidates who can be an editor, and you are the only white person among them. Some tasks are only suitable for you."

Horse Whistle smiled: "Editing is a good job. How about it, Sebastian, do you want to try it?"

Sebastian looked a little hesitant: "I have no experience."

"Any job starts with no experience. If you have experience to do it, then there is no job you can do."

Said the horse whistle.

"All the editors of the news agency will be doing this job for the first time. Your specific job will not only be an editor, but also a part-time reporter."

Sebastian nodded: "As long as the chief wishes so, I am willing to be the editor."

Ma Shao: "Well, now you are one of the editors of the news agency. You will have several colleagues and a boss, that is, thick smoke."

"Tomorrow I will gather all the editors and tell you about the goals and requirements of the job."

After Sebastian left, the horse sentry found thick smoke.

"Great chief." Perhaps because he had just gotten rid of his status as a war criminal, Yan Yan seemed a little cautious, his tone and posture were too restrained when he spoke, and he often bent his waist.

The horse whistle signaled him to sit down, and said with a smile: "If you are not quite used to the new identity, you can refer to other Apaches, especially those who have lived in Sleeping Bear City for three years."

(End of this chapter)