Less than half an hour later, Feng returned home. The four well-behaved children were still kneeling quietly 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 the Land of Tea's general is gone, you, as 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, you two will be relieved of your Guard Corps duties."
As he spoke, he tossed out three more letters of appointment.
The four who received their new appointments looked at Feng, then at the documents in their hands, their faces filled with both surprise and disbelief. For a moment, they were completely stunned.
Feng patiently waited for the four to recover from their shock 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 also thank you, Lord Guardian, for your assistance," the four answered in unison.
"Heh heh, very good. Then let's continue. I want to know whether the Land of Tea has any other state guards or samurai outside the capital."
Feng asked.
"Yes, sir. Aside from the capital, the Land of Tea has three other Guard Corps.
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 the Land of Tea; and one is in Lower Leaf City, on the border between the Land of Tea and the Land of Moon."
"How strong are these Guard Corps? How many people do they have?"
"Strong? They're fairly capable. Every guard has received combat training.
Each Guard Corps has around fifty people, and there is also a one-hundred-man Samurai Corps composed entirely of samurai within the Daimyo Palace.
Aside from the Five Great Nations, the Land of Tea's military strength is already considered upper-middle tier."
The newly appointed general of the Land of Tea spoke with a proud expression.
"???" Feng... had never felt so speechless in his life.
Did they even hear what they were saying!?
The Land of Tea had roughly one-sixth the territory of the Land of Fire, yet its total military force numbered fewer than five hundred people?
Most of them were merely ordinary people who had received training.
And with that, they claimed they were already upper-middle tier 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?
"Lord, aside from the Five Great Nations, the Land of Tea 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 shinobi villages.
Compared with other countries, however, our strength truly isn't weak.
Take the Land of Moon to the south, for example. If they hadn't constantly hired shinobi from the Land of Water to help them, we likely would 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 but fall into deep thought.
Because he realized that what Hidemasa had said might actually be true.
He carefully recalled some of the circumstances of other small countries in the Naruto anime.
Small countries such as the Land of Vegetables, the Land of Honey, and the Land of Filling had territories no larger than a small town.
Their armies consisted of only a guard unit of several dozen ordinary people. At most, that guard unit might have one or two shinobi or samurai with passable strength.
Then there was the Land of This, which Sasori of the Red Sands had slaughtered all by himself.
When Feng had watched the anime, he had thought Sasori was quite strong. But considering that the Land of This was even worse off than the Land of Tea, that meant Sasori had at most dealt with a few ordinary rogue shinobi and around a hundred trained ordinary people.
Any random shinobi squad from one of the Five Great Nations, including the team leader, could probably achieve that.
Putting it that way, Sasori slaughtering the Land of This was a bit like using a cannon to kill a mosquito.
Thinking of this, Feng could not help sighing again. The shinobi of the Ninja World were truly idiots, dreaming every day of becoming nothing more than village chiefs—Kage.
Wouldn't becoming a Daimyo or king be better? Those people had nothing but titles and not the slightest bit of strength. Yet in the Ninja World, not a single person had thought over the past thousand years that they could easily replace them!??
Fortunately, no one in the Ninja World had ever done that. That was why Feng had now so easily controlled the Daimyo of the Land of Tea and become the capital's guardian, giving him time to gradually take control of the Land of Tea without arousing anyone's suspicions.
"Phew... Then, aside from ordinary guards who have received combat training, does the Land of Tea have any shinobi, or anyone with strength comparable to shinobi? How strong are these people exactly?"
After accepting the absurd premise that strength did not equal status in the Ninja World, Feng asked about something else.
He needed to know what experts the Land of Tea had and how strong they were before deciding how to take control of the country.
"Shinobi? There are a few, including Genin and Chunin, but they are all rogue shinobi and do not belong to the state.
As for people with strength comparable to shinobi, I count as one. My strength lies somewhere between Genin and Chunin.
This general is about as strong as I am, while the Guard Corps captains are roughly at Genin level.
There are also several samurai in the Daimyo Mansion's Samurai Corps whose strength is comparable to Genin.
As far as I know, these are all the experts currently in the Land of Tea."
Sada Hidemasa explained. Though he was not very old, he was ambitious and valued his life at the same time.
He had always paid attention to the experts within the country, because any of them might become a competitor in his climb upward in the future.
"That's all? If a powerful shinobi came to the Land of Tea to cause trouble, wouldn't they be able to move about completely unhindered?"
Feng was puzzled again.
"Lord, there is no need to worry about that. Given the relationship between our Daimyo and the Daimyo of the Land of Fire, if shinobi truly came to make trouble in the Land of Tea, we could spend some money and hire Konoha shinobi to help.
With the strength of Konoha's shinobi, what problem couldn't be solved?" Hidemasa explained.
"Mm!!?? Our Land of Tea hires Konoha shinobi whenever something happens??"
Feng was startled upon hearing that. Didn't that mean that if anything happened in the Land of Tea, he would have to expose himself?
And in his memory, the anime did seem to have incidents where the Land of Tea hired Konoha shinobi for help—twice, in fact.
The reason he remembered was that Naruto Uzumaki had come both times.
"Not quite. Lord Daimyo is reluctant to spend extra money.
Under normal circumstances, the Guard Corps will handle matters first. Only if they cannot resolve it, and it is important to Lord Daimyo, will Konoha shinobi be hired for assistance."
"I see. All right, I understand."
Feng let out a long sigh of relief. The past was irrelevant, but from now on, whether the Daimyo hired Konoha shinobi would be up to him.
His plan was to continue hiring Konoha shinobi for the Land of Tea's affairs as they had before.
However, if a mission involved meeting the Daimyo or staying 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 remain as it had been, with Konoha shinobi handling them according to the old rules.
That way, nothing would seem overly abnormal and draw Konoha's attention, greatly reducing the chance of his exposure.
"By the way, you four, investigate whether there are any heinous criminals in the capital.
If there are, bring me three alive. Kill all the rest who can be killed.
If you cannot defeat them, report to me. I will handle it."
Having put his mind at ease, Feng brought up another matter.
"Yes, sir!" The four answered in unison.
"All right, go get busy." Feng waved his hand, dismissing them.
The four bid farewell with a bow and left together.
Before you continue