Chapter 66: Dismissing Soldiers

  Zhong Jinwei looked at Sun Chengzong, seeing that he seemed to still be waiting and had not started the military council at all. He shifted his body slightly towards Sun Chengzong and asked in a low voice: "Sir Sun, are all the people here?"

  Sun Chengzong looked up and saw that it was Zhong Jinwei, and couldn't help but smile wryly. He lowered his loud voice and said, "This is General!"

  Zhong Jinwei was still not very clear, shouldn't the military discipline be strict, after the three drums were finished, all the generals gathered together, and then they started discussing matters, those who were late would be punished with a military stick? How to understand Sun Chengzong's meaning, it seemed that he couldn't do anything about them.

  Sure, here is the translation:

  As expected, more people came afterwards, and Sun Chengzong didn't say he wanted to hit the board either, his attitude was about the same as those who came before.

  After another two quarters of an hour, Sun Chengzong finally straightened up and cleared his throat: "The military meeting begins."

  The people whispering to each other below finally shut up and stood at attention.

  "Gentlemen generals, the Emperor has sent a supervisor, and it is this person beside me." Sun Chongzong introduced while pointing at Zhong Jinwei.

  Zhong Jinwei saw Sun Chengzong introduce himself, learned from the TV etiquette, stood up and clasped his fists to the various generals below.

  Sun Chengzong's voice continued: "The supervisor is the newly appointed Zhongxing Bo, Zhong Jinwei."

  At this time, the title of Gong Hou Bo was not yet widespread, and these military leaders had not yet received their titles and rewards, so Zhong Jingwei's position became more prominent.

  Some of the military officers who saw Sun Chengzong introduced Zhong Jinwei as a supervisor, or even a middle-ranking official, and they all came out to pay their respects.

  Zhong Jinwei was most concerned about who the well-built civil official was.

  Immediately, the official stepped forward and made a fist to Zhong Jingwei: "The subordinate officer, the governor of Daming Prefecture and deputy envoy Lu Xiangsheng, has seen the supervisor."

  "What, Lu Xiangsheng? He is indeed Lu Xiangsheng! Zhong Jinwei was so excited that he stood up from his chair. However, he soon realized he had lost his composure and simply nodded to return the courtesy."

  Others also didn't think there was anything special about this because Lu Xiangsheng was a civil official, and it's not excessive to treat him with such solemnity.

  "After everyone finished paying their respects, Sun Chongzong's loud voice rang out again: 'Generals, how is the troop reduction and reorganization going?'"

  "The troops have all been disbanded."

  "Reported to General Ba, he has followed orders and is in the process of cutting, will definitely be completed after noon."

  "Report back to the troops: our entire unit has already become an elite force."

  These commanders have made statements one after another, basically all meaning they will complete their tasks.

  Zhong Jinwei listened to it on the side and felt a bit strange. Didn't the emperor say that the plan to eliminate the weak and retain the strong was not going smoothly? And when he asked Sun Chengzong, he also seemed to be smiling wryly. How did everything get completed now, isn't this great?

  Zhong Jinwei thought of this and looked at Sun Chengzong with a puzzled expression.

  Sun Chengzong understood the look in Zhong Jinwei's eyes and didn't explain, he just said to the account below: "Since it's already done, each department will report the results of the troop reduction."

  Nobody dares to take the lead.

  Sun Chengzong added: "Please ask Lu Zhifu to report in order from this list."

  Lu Xiangsheng listened and stepped forward, clasped his fists in respect, and replied: "This subordinate has brought 2,323 soldiers and militiamen. After this subordinate's selection, there are 812 people left; the rest will be taken back to Daming Prefecture by the Deputy Commander of the Daming Prefectural Garrison tomorrow."

  Zhong Jinwei heard this and said, "You've reduced so much, isn't that very successful?"

  The generals below all buzzed up at once, but none of them dared to discuss it loudly.

  Sun Chengzong was also very pleased when he heard it. He said: "Lu Zhifu, how did you select them?"

  "We did not use officials over fifty years old or under fifteen, nor those who were the only son in their family, nor those whose father and son were both present, nor those whose brothers were all present, nor those who were the sole breadwinner of their family. However, there remained 3,400 people left. Later, we selected those who could carry a hundred jin stone lock and walk a hundred paces without panting, so only eight hundred twelve people were left."

  "Good! Good! Good!" Sun Chengzong was very satisfied upon hearing this, three goods in a row. He didn't expect that as soon as Zhong Jiawei arrived, there would be good news.

  "Governor Lu has worked hard, next one." Sun Chengzong said with a smile.

  Zhong Jinwei heard this on the side and thought to himself, "An idol is just an idol. His actions are swift and his troop reduction makes sense. It's no wonder that later generations would say that Lu Xiangshan was the Yue Fei of the late Ming dynasty."

  The next was General Zuo Dasou of Liaodong, who stepped forward and said: "Under my command there are 20,300 cavalrymen. After several bloody battles, the number has been reduced to 18,200. This time, there is no weak soldier to be eliminated."

  Sun Chengzong nodded, the cavalry of the Gengjin Army, and this time they brought out all the fine cavalry, no weak soldiers.

  This ancestor's longevity is also famous, historically, people ate human flesh. Zhong Jinwei also remembered the appearance and will definitely interact again.

  "Next one." Sun Chengzong continued on the other side.

  This time it was General Cao Minglei of Baoding who reported: "There are a total of 15,800 people under my command. This time we eliminated 100 weak soldiers."

  This brings up a problem. Sun Chengzong looked at Zhong Jinwei, who seemed to have not noticed anything was wrong. Sun then asked Cao Leiming, "How many cavalry do you have in your unit?"

  "The total number of soldiers is 232 cavalrymen."

  "So you're saying the remaining 15,000 are all elite infantry?"

  "Exactly!" General Baoding didn't blush at all.

  Sun Chengzong saw Zhong Jinwei start to show a thoughtful expression, and he said expressionlessly: "Next one."

  Commander-in-Chief Hou Shilu stepped forward: "My troops originally had 34,600 men. After this round of troop reductions, I have 34,000 men left."

  "So you're saying your battalion has over 600 casualties?" Da Huamen asked.

  "Exactly!"

  "How many cavalry?"

  "Eighteen hundred and ninety people."

  "En, next one." Sun Chengzong said numbly on his side.

  Changping General Yu Shiwei stepped forward: "Under the command of the late general, there were originally 29,700 people. This time, we have lost more than 420 weak soldiers."

  "There are a total of one thousand five hundred and seventy cavalrymen in this department."

  Zhong Jinwei's eyebrows furrowed, even if they weren't people from later generations, just looking at the events after Jianyue entered the pass, they would know that these people were not speaking the truth.

  With so many strong troops, how could they end up like this? Were the Jinwei soldiers all carrying machine guns and sweeping them away? With cold weapons, if both sides had roughly equal strength, the casualty ratio wouldn't be that different. How could the Jinwei possibly suffer losses and still show off their military prowess in the capital region?

  Zhong Jinwei was thinking, the generals below continued to report, almost all of which were similar to the previous few. The proportion of eliminated weak soldiers was small and pitiful, almost negligible.

  Zhong Jinhui didn't want to listen to those commanders nonsense anymore, this was definitely not true.

  As he thought about the soldiers he saw on his way to the Chinese military account, listening to the words of the generals below, Zhong Jinwei felt a bit piercing in his ears. So, he interrupted the report of the general below and said directly: "Generals, what is your standard for eliminating weak soldiers?"

  No one answered Zhong Jingwei, and the big account was quiet. It's not that they looked down on Zhong Jingwei, but his position was placed there, the key is that this question is not easy to answer.

  Sun Chengzong spoke up: "Baoding General Cao Minglei."

  Cao Ming Lei walked out with a expressionless face, thinking to himself that he was unlucky.

  "If you come to answer the military governor's words."

  "Without a set of rules to distinguish between strong and weak, the supervisor has never been in the army before, and even if the general says it, he can't make it clear."

  "Speak!" Sun Chengzong gave him a stern warning.

  "Yes." The various generals still had a bit of awe in their hearts towards Sun Chengzong, after all he was an old veteran.

  "Observe his words and watch his color, thus distinguishing between strength and weakness."

  Zhong Jinwei still heard a black line.

  Sun Chongzong nodded at several generals, and whether he said it or not made no difference, as everything depended on the judgment of the general himself.

  Finally, Sun Chengzong was fed up with it and slapped the desk, saying directly: "The emperor has an edict, the military needs of the court are insufficient to support the use of a large army. If you continue with this method, everyone will starve together when the time comes."

  None of the generals below spoke up.

  "Disperse, disperse, go back and sweep again." Sun Chengzong didn't want to see this group of old slippery fish anymore.

  The sound of clashing steel plates echoed immediately, then slowly faded away.

  When it was quiet again, Sun Chengzong said to Zhong Jinwei: "Zhong Xingbo, did you see that?"

  "Hmm." Zhong Jinwei nodded.

  "There's still some good news today, at least the elimination of troops on Lu Zhi's side is complete. I also know that those he left behind may not necessarily be strong soldiers, but at least they are robust and vigorous warriors."

  Zhong Jinwei thought for a moment and asked: "Why doesn't Lord Sun directly set a standard to eliminate the soldiers?"

  "What is the method of determination?"

  "Just like Lu Zhifu."

  Sun Chengzong shook his head and said: "Zhongxing Bo doesn't know, the Taoist priests here are different. Like Lu Zhifu, in the Ming army now, he should be one of a kind."

  Then Sun Chengzong made a conclusion: "Lu Zhifu's method of eliminating the military is impossible to achieve in the current Ming army."

  Zhong Jin asked strangely: "Why?"