Understanding Tea Country's Military Strength

Less than half an hour later, Feng returned home. The four well-behaved children were still quietly kneeling where they had been, waiting.

Feng was quite pleased by this and said with a smile,

"Very good. All four of you have done well.

Sada Hidemasa, this is the transfer order from Lord Daimyo that you wanted."

With that, he tossed a letter of appointment into the man's hands.

Then he looked at the other three and said,

"Now that Tea Country's general is gone, you, as the deputy general, have been promoted by the daimyo to become the new general.

And you two Guard Corps captains have been promoted to deputy generals while temporarily retaining your positions as Guard Corps captains.

Once Lord Daimyo finds suitable replacements, the two of you will be relieved of your Guard Corps duties."

As he spoke, he tossed out another three letters of appointment.

The four men who received their new appointments looked at Feng, then at the letters, their faces filled with both surprise and disbelief. For a moment, they were stunned.

Feng patiently waited for the four to recover before speaking again.

"Then, gentlemen, do you have any objections to the daimyo's appointments?"

"No. We thank Lord Daimyo for his trust, and we thank you for your assistance, my lord," the four replied in unison.

"Hehe, good. Then let us continue. I want to know whether Tea Country has any other national guards or samurai outside the capital."

Feng asked.

"Yes, my lord. Aside from the capital, Tea Country has three more Guard Corps units.

One is on Nagi Island, where Degarashi Port is located. One is in Upper Leaf City on the border between the Land of Fire and Tea Country. The other is in Lower Leaf City on the border between Tea Country and the Land of Moon."

"How capable are these Guard Corps units? How many men do they have?"

"Capability? They are fairly good. Every guard has received combat training.

Each Guard Corps has around fifty men. In addition, Daimyo Palace has a hundred-man Samurai Corps made entirely of samurai.

Apart from the Five Great Nations, Tea Country's military strength is already above average."

The newly appointed Tea Country general said this with a proud expression.

"??" Feng... had never felt so speechless in his life.

Did they even hear what they were saying!?

Tea Country's territory was roughly one-sixth the size of the Land of Fire, yet its total military force was fewer than five hundred men?

Most of them were merely ordinary people with training.

And they were telling him that this was above average outside the Five Great Nations?!

Then how did the Land of Rain with Akatsuki count? How did the Land of Fields with Orochimaru count? How did the Land of Waterfalls with the Seven-Tails count?

"My lord, aside from the Five Great Nations, Tea Country is only inferior to the Land of Rain, which has the 'Demigod of the Shinobi World,' and the Land of Waterfalls and the Land of Grass, which have ninja villages.

Compared with other countries, though, our strength really is not weak.

Take the Land of Moon to the south, for example. If they did not constantly hire ninjas from the Land of Water to help them, we might have conquered the Land of Moon long ago."

Seeing Feng's confusion and speechlessness, Sada Hidemasa spoke up to explain.

After hearing this, Feng could not help sinking into thought.

Because he realized that what Hidemasa had said might actually be true.

He carefully recalled some of the situations involving other small countries in the anime Naruto.

For small countries such as the Land of Vegetables, the Land of Honey, and the Land of Filling, their entire territory was just a small town.

Their military consisted only of a guard unit of several dozen ordinary people, perhaps with one or two ninjas or reasonably capable samurai among them at best.

Then there was the Land of This, which had been slaughtered by Sasori of the Red Sands alone.

When Feng watched the anime back then, he had thought Sasori was quite powerful. But since the Land of This was even worse off than Tea Country, that meant Sasori had only dealt with a few ordinary rogue ninjas and around a hundred trained ordinary people.

Any ninja squad from the Five Great Nations, including its team leader, could probably accomplish that.

Thinking about it that way, Sasori slaughtering the Land of This was like using a cannon to kill a mosquito.

At that thought, Feng could not help sighing again. The ninjas of the Ninja World really were idiots, dreaming every day of becoming nothing more than village chiefs—the Kage.

Wouldn't becoming a daimyo or king be better? Those people had nothing but titles and not the slightest strength, yet in all these millennia, no one in the Ninja World had ever considered that they could easily replace them!??

Still, it was fortunate that no one in the Ninja World had ever done so. That was why Feng could so easily control Tea Country's daimyo and become the capital's guardian, giving him time to slowly take control of Tea Country without anyone becoming suspicious.

"Whew... Then, aside from ordinary guards who have received combat training, does Tea Country have any ninjas or people about as strong as ninjas? What exactly is their strength?"

After accepting the bizarre setting that strength did not equal status in the Ninja World, Feng asked about something else.

He needed to know what experts Tea Country had and how strong they were before deciding how to take control of the country.

"Ninjas? There are a few, both genin and chunin, but they are all rogue ninjas and do not belong to the country.

As for people with strength comparable to ninjas, I count as one. My strength is between genin and chunin.

This general is about as strong as I am, while the Guard Corps captains are roughly genin-level.

There are also a few samurai in the daimyo's Samurai Corps who are about as strong as genin.

As far as I know, those are all the experts currently in Tea Country."

Sada Hidemasa explained. Though still young, he had ambitions, but he also valued his life.

He had always kept track of the experts within the country, because any of them might become competitors in his climb upward.

"That is all? If a fairly strong ninja came to Tea Country to cause trouble, wouldn't they be able to move about without obstruction?"

Feng was puzzled again.

"My lord, there is no need to worry about that. Given the relationship between our daimyo and the Land of Fire's daimyo,

if a ninja really came to cause trouble in Tea Country, we could spend some money to hire Konoha ninjas for help.

With Konoha's ninjas being so powerful, what problem could they not solve?" Hidemasa explained.

"Hm!!?? Tea Country hires Konoha's ninjas whenever something happens??"

Feng was shocked upon hearing that. Did that not mean that if anything happened in Tea Country, he would have to expose himself?

And in his memories, the anime seemed to have featured Tea Country hiring Konoha ninjas for help—twice.

The reason he remembered was that Naruto Uzumaki had been the protagonist sent both times.

"Not necessarily. Lord Daimyo is reluctant to spend extra money.

Under normal circumstances, he first has the Guard Corps deal with the matter. Only if they cannot handle it and the matter is important to Lord Daimyo will he hire Konoha's ninjas for help."

"I see. All right, I understand."

Feng let out a long breath. Before, he could not say anything about it, but from now on, whether the daimyo hired Konoha ninjas would be up to him.

His plan was for Tea Country to continue hiring Konoha ninjas as it had before.

However, if a mission involved meeting the daimyo or remaining in the capital, Feng would find a way to resolve it himself rather than trouble Konoha.

For matters that did not require meeting the daimyo or staying in the capital, everything would continue according to the old rules, with Konoha ninjas handling them.

That way, nothing would appear too unusual and draw Konoha's attention, greatly reducing the chance of exposing himself.

"By the way, you four, investigate whether there are any truly heinous criminals in the capital.

If there are, bring me three alive. Kill all the rest if you can.

If you cannot defeat them, report to me. I will handle it."

Having put his mind at ease, Feng brought up another matter.

"Yes, my lord!" The four answered in unison.

"All right, go get busy." Feng waved his hand, dismissing them.

Upon hearing this, the four bowed together in farewell and left.