Usurping the Mongols: My Father-in-Law is Genghis Khan

Next, under Suren's guidance, Zhao Shuo and Hua Zheng visited the various workshops to learn about the workers' treatment and diet.

The artisans never expected that the highly esteemed Mongolian consort, rumored to be the strongest warrior on the grasslands, would value them so much. Coupled with the generous rewards announced by the workshop supervisors, they were filled with enthusiasm.

When Zhao Shuo announced that they would have an improved meal today, with unlimited mutton, the artisans cheered.

After the tour, Zhao Shuo sat down and said to Suren, "Suren, I heard you want to go to the battlefield and make a name for yourself?"

Zhao Shuo said meaningfully, "If you want to be an official, you don't necessarily have to go to the battlefield."

"What does the consort mean...?"

Zhao Shuo played coy and said, "You will know in the future. In half a year, the Khan will take a further step and become the Great Khan of the entire grassland, but he hasn't decided on the title yet. At that time, he will definitely reward meritorious officials, and I have my own arrangements for you."

In the blink of an eye, half a year passed.

Many things happened during these six months.

For example, Zhao Shuo formally married the beautiful Suna, who had different-colored eyes.

For example, Sun Wei was still young and inexperienced, so the production of tendon, feather root, and armor was not going smoothly. However, Zhao Shuo had great confidence in him and did not urge him, giving him money and materials, allowing him to experiment freely, regardless of cost.

For example, Tata-tonga, the creator of the Mongolian script, was found by Zhao Shuo among the Naiman captives.

As a top scholar on the grasslands, Tata-tonga certainly understood what a brand-new, unified grassland empire meant.

It would be a great nation like the Xiongnu, Turks, and Xianbei of the past.

Becoming the originator of the writing system for this great nation, his name would be passed down through the ages and recorded in history, a dream come true.

Therefore, he not only had no psychological resistance to the task Zhao Shuo gave him but also tried his best to complete it.

However, Tata-tonga was initially skeptical about Zhao Shuo's deep involvement in the matter.

What if Zhao Shuo was both civil and military? This was scholarship, not leading troops and governing, so how could Zhao Shuo, who was in his twenties, help?

However, on the other hand...

After Tata-tonga explained the difficulties of creating the Mongolian script to Zhao Shuo, he realized how shallow his initial thoughts were.

"There are two main difficulties in creating the Mongolian script. First, although some words are common between Mongolian and Turkic, most are not. Using Naiman letters to pronounce Mongolian sounds, many sounds cannot be produced. Second, there are inherent shortcomings in the Naiman script: the same pronunciation can have many meanings, which can easily lead to ambiguity when written down. I, your old servant, want to create a perfect script for Mongolia to repay the consort's kindness in not killing me, and minimize this shortcoming. However, I have been thinking about it for several days without any progress."

The Naiman script is actually a phonetic alphabet.

Using the same phonetic alphabet for two languages naturally has many incompatibilities.

In real history, the Mongols themselves were not very satisfied with the Mongolian script created by Tata-tonga using the Naiman script. Later, various Mongolian scripts such as Phagspa Mongolian script, Galik alphabet, Todo script, Vakinzra script, and Cyrillic Mongolian script were created.

On the one hand, this shows that the Mongolian script created by Tata-tonga did have many inconveniences. On the other hand, it can also illustrate that creating a Mongolian script is very difficult—none of these many versions of Mongolian script satisfied the Mongols, and they kept switching back and forth.

But for Zhao Shuo, creating a Mongolian script was not that difficult.

First of all, there was the pronunciation. Wasn't there the International Phonetic Alphabet?

The International Phonetic Alphabet is not the same as the phonetic symbols learned in junior and senior high school English. That kind of phonetic symbol is a variant of the International Phonetic Alphabet, suitable for learning English only. In fact, the International Phonetic Alphabet can accurately pronounce the sounds of any language in the world, and even Pinyin can be regarded as a variant of the International Phonetic Alphabet.

By adding some techniques of the International Phonetic Alphabet to the Naiman alphabet, wouldn't it be possible to accurately pronounce all Mongolian sounds?

The problem of the same pronunciation easily leading to ambiguity was even easier to solve.

Japanese has a large number of Chinese characters, which is to solve this problem: write out the Chinese characters directly, but pronounce the corresponding Japanese sound of the Chinese characters.

As a result, the more advanced the Japanese exam, the more Chinese characters there are. People whose native language is Chinese will quickly feel that it is easier and easier to learn Japanese: they can tell what the word means at a glance, and they only need to learn the Japanese pronunciation, so how can it not be easy?

Therefore, the overall plan for creating the Mongolian script was: use the Naiman alphabet improved with the International Phonetic Alphabet as the foundation, and then use Chinese characters to solve the problem of easily occurring ambiguity.

What? Traditional Chinese characters are too difficult to learn and may not be easy to promote? Simplified Chinese characters can be used.

Well, after conquering the Central Plains in the future, Zhao Shuo will promote simplified Chinese characters in the Central Plains. When the Han people see the text written in Mongolian, although they cannot pronounce it, they can understand the general meaning. When the Mongols see the text of the Han people, they can also understand the general meaning.

Even if the bones are broken, the tendons are still connected, perfect!

"Same sound, different characters? Incorporating Chinese characters into the Mongolian script?"

Tata-tonga, as a top scholar on the grasslands, certainly had some understanding of Chinese characters. However, limited by his knowledge, he never dreamed of this method of creating writing.

The more he thought about it, the more he felt that Zhao Shuo was amazingly talented. Thinking of the special phonetic symbols that Zhao Shuo had just come up with, he finally understood what kind of person the Mongolian consort in front of him was.

Tata-tonga stood up, bowed deeply to Zhao Shuo, and said sincerely, "I have always been somewhat proud of my learning, and thought that if a person was to be selected from the grassland scholars to create a script for Mongolia, it would have to be me.

Today, after listening to the consort's words, I realized that I am really a frog in a well, ignorant of the immensity of the world. The originator of the Mongolian script can only be the consort Zhao Shuo. I am at most participating in it, making a small contribution."

Zhao Shuo smiled and said, "So, the methods I said are feasible?"

Tata-tonga said without hesitation, "Completely feasible. As long as I have enough time, I will definitely be able to create a perfect Mongolian script according to the consort's design."

"It doesn't have to be completely perfect. Now that the Khan is about to ascend the throne, it is best to create a rough prototype first."

"That's even simpler. The general prototype of the text is only twenty or thirty letters, plus dozens of Chinese characters. I can create it today."

"Then I'll have to trouble you."

Sure enough, early the next morning, Tata-tonga handed over the rough prototype of the Mongolian script to Zhao Shuo for review.

After studying it for another half a month, this brand-new script could barely be used practically.

Temujin was overjoyed when he learned about it and immediately summoned Tata-tonga to the royal court. There was no other reason: the Khuriltai assembly was about to be held soon, and the gold seals for conferring titles on the generals had to be engraved first. Tata-tonga, this old man, was not only an expert in language and writing but also a master of engraving.