Chapter 69: The Troops Are Dismissed

  Sun Chengzong adjusted his expression and said, "Later, I will summon all the generals to discuss again. At that time, the supervisor...". Sun Chengzong stopped here, glanced at Zhong Jinwei, and continued: "A unified strategy for eliminating soldiers has been established. The cavalry is not included in the elimination list, only the weak among the infantry are eliminated. The measure is to line up. All generals must follow this strategy."

  Sun Chengzong stared into Zu Dashou's eyes and said, "When the time comes, there will definitely be someone who wants to resist or follow your previous example and lead the army to flee. With your precedent set, they won't have any excuse not to do it."

  Zhu Dashou's cold sweat began to flow, if all these killers imitated themselves, Emperor Chongzhen would not put their crimes on his own head, and in the end he would definitely not escape the autumn reckoning. Thinking of this, he hastily bowed his fist and said: "Your subordinate deserves death."

  Sun Chengzong slowed down his tone and said to him, "This is also your chance to make a meritorious deed." Then he immediately became serious and said, "Whoever dares to do such a thing, I will discuss with the supervisor and deal with it as desertion in battle. I will dispatch your cavalry to pursue and kill them, without showing any leniency." In the end, Sun Chengzong's words carried a chill.

  Like Zu Dashou, a man who has seen life and death in Liaodong, Sun Chongzong's words with a hint of cold blood did not take it seriously, let alone his own premise for survival was based on this. So, he didn't think twice and firmly said: "The end will obey the order!"

  Zhong Jinwei was shocked on the side, when did he discuss this with Sun Chengzong. However, he would not speak out against Sun Chengzong, it was clear that this was the additive that Sun Chengzong had mentioned earlier.

  After communicating with Zu Dashou in advance, Sun Chengzong began to beat the drum and gather his generals.

  After waiting for a long time, Sun Chongzong spoke up: "Have all of you thought of a way to distinguish the strong from the weak?"

  It was very natural that no one made a sound. Not to mention that no one was willing to think of a solution, just now the meeting had just been dismissed for how long, and those who were far away in the camp had just returned and were called back again, could they still have time to think?

  "Alright, no one is speaking up, I'll say it then." Sun Chengzong didn't wait any longer.

  "Governor Lu's troops, I think it's unnecessary to eliminate them again. Do you have any opinions, generals?"

  The generals under him looked at Lu Xiangsheng standing in the front row, and no one objected. Firstly, because Lu Xiangsheng had reduced his own troops from over 10,000 to around 800, which was too ruthless; secondly, because Lu Xiangsheng was a fourth-rank civil official, although his rank was lower than theirs, but he was a civil official after all, who dared to provoke him.

  Sun Chengzong saw that the generals below did not speak, and it was also within his expectation. He then said: "The cavalry under each department does not need to be further reduced. Do any of you have an opinion?"

  At this moment, all the generals below looked at Zu Dashou with envy and jealousy. This Zu Dashou has passed the test. Several generals under him had fewer cavalrymen and were a bit unwilling to give up, whispering among themselves: "Why shouldn't they be eliminated?"

  Sun Chengzong was old, but his ears were sharp. He shouted loudly: "Whoever thinks that the cavalry of various departments also has weak soldiers, go out and fight a battle to see."

  Zu Dashou, in coordination with Sun Chengzong's words, turned to the several generals who were whispering among themselves, staring at them fiercely as if they would immediately drag them out for a decisive battle once they uttered a word about fighting.

  Everyone knew that their infantry could never win against cavalry, so they quieted down again.

  Sun Chongzong saw that no one was speaking, so he said: "Very well, since all the generals agree with my first two proposals, now there is only one weak unit left to be eliminated, and that is the infantry."

  He looked around and then at Zhong Jinwei, saying: "Zhongxing Bo has been ordered by the Emperor to come and supervise the implementation of the strategy of eliminating the weak and retaining the strong. Now he has informed me of a principle that all generals must follow and execute, and no longer push it away."

  Sun Chengzong is also a slippery head. When he said this, it seemed like the emperor had given an order to be executed by everyone. But if you really investigate carefully, he didn't seem to say that it was the emperor's intention, only that Zhong Xingbo told him, but in fact, it was indeed Zhong Jiwei's plan.

  At this time, the Baoding General Cao Ming Lei stepped forward and saluted Sun Chongzong with a fist: "This general does not know what kind of rule it is to leave behind weak soldiers and eliminate strong soldiers."

  "Or we'll just have to get rid of it ourselves."

  "Right, right, this time we must increase our efforts."

  A group of generals followed closely behind, speaking loudly and boisterously, like a vegetable market.

  Sun Chongzong slammed his hand on the table, and the generals below who were talking were startled, not daring to speak again, looking at Sun Chongzong.

  Zhong Jinwei was not scared this time, because looking at the chaos below, he had already turned his head to look at Sun Chengzong.

  "You're not saying that both strong and weak forces are strong troops, are you? This principle applies to both strong and weak forces, all conforming to the distinction between strong troops and weak soldiers."

  Sun Chengzong looked at the generals below, who were all looking at him, wondering what this rule was. He said directly: "The rule is to line up in formation, and those with high military discipline among the soldiers are temporarily considered strong troops. If you can't even stand in a row, how can you fight?"

  Sun Chengzong relied on his own experience and suddenly spoke coarsely. It's also true that when you speak politely to these generals, they won't even pay attention to you.

  All the generals know that the most basic thing for infantry is to form an array and fight, so forming an array is the most basic. If you can't even form a good array with your soldiers, who would dare say they are strong troops?

  But if it comes to this, those civilians who were caught by themselves will be leaked, and those military households, they also have training, and they are also afraid of being eliminated.

  This will definitely not work, each will start looking for flaws to oppose, and their eyes will roll around.

  Commander-in-Chief Hou Shilu stepped forward and said, "I don't know what kind of formation this army wants to take, nor what the limits are. Do you want us to stand for three days and three nights? The soldiers can't take it either."

  Sun Chengzong thought to himself: You'd better find me a soldier who can stand for three days and three nights. After some thought, he declared: "We currently have an army of over 400,000 men. I only need the last 80,000 men standing."

  This is a ratio of one to five, each secretly calculating in their hearts, and they all took a cold breath, wondering how many more troops they had available.

  Hou Shilu spoke first: "General, isn't this elimination too much? If we eliminate even the relatively strong soldiers and only leave so few, what if Jian Yu comes back to attack?"

  "Yes, yes, this ratio is too big."

  "We can't take these soldiers with us, there are too many of them. We'd better get rid of all of us instead."

  "Yes, it's so late, we might as well go back now."

  Sun Chengzong watched these people talk more and more nonsense, really wanting to learn from Zu Dashou. So, he glanced at Zhong Jinwei with his eyes. Coincidentally, Zhong Jinwei also looked over and blinked at him.

  Zhong Jinwei received the signal from Sun Chengzong and knew it was time for him to take action. He suddenly stood up from his chair, loudly saying: "Do you want to rebel? Do you want to flee in front of the emperor's eyes? Where is the law of the imperial court? If someone dares to do such a foolish thing, don't blame this monitor for being ruthless."

  Gu Baihe and Wang Peng were also clever, coordinating with Zhong Jinwei's words, taking a step forward from behind him, staring at the person who was making the most noise, showing the presence of the East Factory.

  The generals below were scolded by Zhong Jinwei and shut their mouths, looking at Zhong Jinwei.

  Zhong Jinwei made an effort to look fierce and said, "Zhu Daishou, the General of Liaodong."

  "The end will be there." Zu Dashou knew it was his turn to perform and responded loudly to Zhong Jinwei.

  "Whoever dares to run, you lead the cavalry to slaughter them, no need to take prisoners."

  "I will obey orders!" Zu Dashou replied in a very loud voice, as if afraid that others would not hear.

  Those generals below looked at each other in dismay, "You're the one who ran away first, aren't you? You ran, and we couldn't run."

  It's actually like this, when people see others doing bad things and not getting caught, they think it's no big deal to do bad things too, after all, there's a precedent; but what they don't know is that the person who did the bad thing and didn't get caught is always worried about being caught.

  Sun Chengzong looked at the situation below, thought for a moment, and broke the silence: "I know your difficulties, I'll take the risk of losing my official position, and give you a ratio of one to four. If the Emperor blames anyone, he can blame me. Is this acceptable?"

  Actually, the lower-ranking generals are still unhappy, and three-quarters of the soldiers need to be eliminated, which will cost a lot of money. However, looking at Zu Dashou and then at Zhong Jingwei, they don't dare oppose it anymore. Currently, in the Imperial Army, who can outrun the Kwantung Iron Cavalry? Who can defeat the Kwantung Iron Cavalry?

  These generals thought again, and this soldier only said that he wanted to eliminate three-quarters of the total number. If someone else's soldiers were eliminated first, wouldn't their own be retained? Thinking of this, they felt a bit more at ease. So, they all asked: "Soldier, who do you think will be the first to line up and eliminate troops?"

  They all hope Sun Chengzong will arrange himself last.