Cthulhu Gonfalon

Chapter 827: Vol V Chapter 187

Sui Xiong had actually been rather shocked when he had first heard about the war’s details. He was not concerned with the death tolls as casualties were to be expected in war. All along, during the Cold War, most wars had taken place in terms of pursuits. Well, that was the context that he had understood when he made war games of his own. Thus, Sui Xiong had all always associated war with sorrowful deaths and sadness. However, the extremity and intensity of this war surprised him.

On the side of the aristocrats, they had lost half of their regular soldiers, one-third of their regular soldiers and 20% of their conscripted troops. This was already considered severe. According to Sui Xiong’s recollections, most parties would consider surrendering if they had lost about 10% of their overall troops. Even if they were unwilling to do so, they would probably crumble in defeat once this number increased to about 20%.

For the aristocrats, it was surprising that they had only crumbled at about 20% of a numerical loss, considering that most of their troops were conscripted and not veterans. However, regardless, their troops really could not compare to that of the merchants’, and thus, even this little feat was not considered much.

One had to consider that the merchants had lost a majority of their new troops and yet had won the war with a huge disadvantage and only about 40% of their troops left. The tenacity and determination displayed were simply unheard of! In this world, probably only those who were fanatical disciple knights of churches would have such strong will.

Even before Sui Xiong had entered this realm, there were also few in the human world who could sustain war efforts till the end in the face of desperation like that. The number of such individuals could be counted using one’s fingers, and one may not even need both hands!

Even though Sui Xiong himself had lived in a country whose troops were amongst the top ten on Earth and had many friends who were regular soldiers, he did not believe that the troops on Earth could be labeled as “iron armies” if they were unable to reach the standard displayed by the merchant troops.

Online, there was a famous idea that East Asia was a “monster room.” People living in East Asia were able to be stable and steady and were all clearheaded and fought well despite their status. If they were to move to Africa, America or any other “newbie” continent, even if others mocked them, they would still be able to maintain their ferocious punches and nimble kicks to remain unbeatable.

In this world, with the existence of real gods, the strength of “faith” was expanded. The regiment of knights were often able to sustain extreme war efforts under a single command. Although the regiment of knights was not big, their prowess was often stunning. Normal regular armies were not even worth 10% of them. As for conscripted troops, they were even less important and would falter in the face of slight aggression by the other party, just like when fans had friendly matches with professional idols online.

According to Sui Xiong, although the new merchant troops could not yet compare to the regiment of knights, they were probably the next in line. Even the Republic of Northwest’s troops, which were better trained and equipped, could not compare in terms of morale and tenacity. Sui Xiong was thus curious as to how the merchants had developed their troops.

He had previously secretly witnessed how the merchants trained their troops, but that was a mere few years ago. How had these troops improved so tremendously over such a short period of time?

Sui Xiong decided to direct this question to Leon, who was equally unclear.

“I did not observe them in the past; thus, I also do not know how to answer you. However, I’m also curious as to how such a determined army was trained. To be honest, the whole world is curious, and many tried to gain intel on their strategies but have failed thus far.”

Sui Xiong nodded and proceeded to find God of War, Wenner. Intuition told him that Wenner would have the answer. Furthermore… If one were to think logically, Wenner was definitely aware of the emergence of such a formidable army and would have some internal intel of his own.

Sui Xiong was spot on.

Once Sui Xiong explained the intentions of his surprise visit, Wenner was silent for a while before smiling awkwardly.

“That army… was personally trained by Augmentin and me.”

Sui Xiong was shocked. After a few seconds, he asked, “You and Augmentin? Together?”

“Yes. We watched the new troops train at the start, and I felt that they had the potential to excel. Augmentin had said that training alone was not enough. A prepared army requires not just excellent fighting knowledge, good resources and strict discipline, but more importantly, a clear vision and tenacity… We thus both found human followers to act as common folk and become commanders.”

“What happened next?”

“We intercepted a training camp easily and made these people commanders. Using about three years’ time, we were able to train an army that meets our standards. We returned after the job was done.”

“How exactly did you do it?”

“I was in charge of holistic training, with the main goal of increasing cohesiveness. To normal soldiers, individual strength is never as important as the cooperation of the team. I thus reduced individual strength training and increased activities that would test their teamwork skills. I aimed to create an army that could form random yet functional groups with random troops at any given point in time with necessary.”

Sui Xiong nodded. This was, after all, wise thinking.

“Augmentin was less involved in such training but rather focused on thought mobilization. He used his powers to convince the higher-ups at the camp to allow every soldier to sign a contract. The contract mainly stated that regardless of whether a soldier survived or died in war, his family could receive aid from the government afterward. If the children of these soldiers willingly joined the army, they would receive even more benefits. However, in exchange, the soldiers would not receive commendation awards for war, only the previously mentioned aid…”

“Wait! No awards? Even after fighting a war? That was accepted!?”

Wenner was shocked by Sui Xiong’s response, and he glanced skeptically at Sui Xiong.

“Wasn’t that what you mentioned at the start?”

“Ah? When?” Sui Xiong replied blankly.

“One, listening to all actions; two, not taking the masses with one line; three, all seized goods must be returned to the public. At that time, you even composed a song and made these lines lyrics, just that you had forgotten the rest of the words…”

It was at this moment that Sui Xiong remembered a casual conversation he had had with Wenner in the past. He had put the People’s Liberation Army’s Three Major Disciplines and Eight Attentions to song. It was just that he was unable to memorize the entire song at that time and had only sung a short part for Wenner…