Chapter 1958: Year-End Assembly (5)

Zhao Chi really didn't do it on purpose.

If he wanted to be intimate with Su Qin, there was no need to do it in a public setting like this.

But after spending so long with them, gestures like this had become completely natural.

Especially in his own territory, where he received dozens of kisses every day.

This trend had been started by Gu Qing.

Tang Ruan and the others were far too shy to do something like that.

But when the upper beam is crooked, the lower beams go askew too.

Seeing Gu Qing do it so often, they gradually learned to be "naughty" as well.

Every time they passed by Zhao Chi, they'd plant a loud smacking kiss on him.

Zhao Chi had slowly gotten used to it too.

And in his own territory it was half a public space anyway; the female villagers nearby had all grown used to it as well.

They didn't even mind the cries that went on for hours at night, so what was a kiss?

Besides, Zhao Chi rarely appeared in public, so what had just happened was truly subconscious.

Although Su Qin had dodged, she quietly slipped her hand over and placed it in Zhao Chi's, letting him knead it as he pleased.

Zhao Chi smiled, fondling her hand while listening to Lu Yibing's summary.

Lu Yibing was very professional.

Not a single wasted word.

Straight to the point:

"This year we suffered two blows: the sweep in January, and then the surprise attack in July. We took heavy losses in both, and many comrades left us forever.

"But we pulled through. The territories we lost have all been retaken, and the enemies who hurt us have basically all been wiped out.

"As of now, this is the strongest our Poshi Army has ever been!

"It's the result of everyone's joint effort!

"Counting from the start of the year, our Poshi Army only had 5 regiments, a total of just over 6,700 lords, and our territory was only 3 hidden towns in Snow Plain City, plus 1 hidden county and 4 hidden towns in White Grass City.

"After suffering those two blows, our strength was nearly halved, dropping to just 35% of what it had been — an extremely painful loss.

"But as of now, our strength has multiplied several times over!

"We currently have 11 regiments in total, close to 38,000 lords. Our territory has also expanded to 4 cities!

"In Snow Plain City we have 2 counties and 10 towns, plus 7 hidden counties and towns.

"White Grass City, Ice Mountain City, and Sky Peak City together have 1 commandery, 3 counties, and 19 towns, plus 13 hidden counties and towns.

"This scale is already stronger than the Resistance Alliance we joined last year!

"However…

"Our rapid rise in strength has also brought many problems.

"We have a large number of comrades and allied troops who joined after this resistance war broke out.

"Of course we welcome true comrades, but inevitably some enemy spies have mixed in among them.

"There are noble lackeys, traitors who joined the werewolves, and spies from the Heavenly King Army, the Divine Net Army, the Holy Blood Army, and so on.

"As of today, we've captured a total of 1,419 spy lords this year — 911 were executed, and 508 are imprisoned awaiting processing.

"No one wants to take action against friendly forces, but they are the enemy.

"Besides that…

"Because many who joined the Poshi Army came in as teams, our Poshi Army has a lot of small factions within it.

"I don't need to say it — everyone should have felt this.

"But that's fine. As long as everyone's goals align and we fight the werewolves and nobles together, it's okay as long as you can produce results.

"However, some factions have already begun refusing orders, even openly defying them — this is absolutely intolerable.

"Absolutely intolerable!

"Fortunately, our Binghe Corps has not seen this kind of situation, and we don't want to see it in the future either.

"Among the lords executed this year for defying orders, there were 9 of general rank, 103 of colonel rank, including two corps commanders.

"I'm saying this not to intimidate everyone, but to warn you.

"Defying orders is betrayal, no matter the reason.

"Just last month we executed a corps commander. His reason for defying orders was also very reasonable — because the operation ran into an accident and most of his corps was trapped, he had no choice but to defy orders, otherwise the losses would have been extremely heavy.

"But precisely because of his improvised decision, the entire regiment found it hard to adjust on the fly, allowing the enemy to break through from the flank, which then dragged the whole regiment into crisis and caused the entire battle to fail!

"That regiment suffered terrible losses!

"Although our current strength is far greater than before, we are still the weaker side against the werewolves. We don't have many chances for error, so we must strictly enforce orders!

"This is warfare, this is combat! It's not a joke.

"Anyone who defies military orders, death!

"…Alright, I've said a bit too much. Next, I'll briefly summarize the strength comparison of the various forces in Snow Plain City.

"Please look at the chart."

Lu Yibing's fingertip swayed.

A table immediately appeared on the light screen.

Very clear.

【Snow Plain City Strength Comparison】

【1. Moon-Gazing Army】 100%

【2. Noble Army】 37%

【3, World-Breaking Army】9%

【4, Heavenly King Army】4%

【5, Iron Blood Army】3%

【6, Blade Edge Army】2%

【7, Heavenly Court Army】1%

【8, ……】

Discussion immediately rose from below the stage.

Lu Yibing explained:

"The Moon-Gazing Army is the werewolves; they all invaded from Moon-Gazing City. We also use our estimate of their strength as the baseline to assess the strength of the other factions.

"Werewolves are hateful, but they really are strong. Compared to them, the Nobles only have 37% of their strength.

"Without the protection of the central formation, the Nobles wouldn't have held on until now at all.

"Third place is us.

"Although we're called third, we're still quite a bit weaker than the werewolves and the Nobles.

"We only have 9% of the werewolves' strength, or one-fourth of the Nobles' strength.

"The Nobles did indeed suffer heavy casualties and were besieged in the central district, but they still retain a great deal of their strength. After all, they are Nobles — their foundations run far too deep.

"The Heavenly King Army's previous strength was about the same as ours, slightly weaker.

"But their personnel composition is more complicated. Although the number of lords isn't less than ours, their strength is generally very poor.

"They struck out in all directions to plunder and met with a great deal of resistance. Add to that our recent sustained strikes against them, and they've been reduced to only half our strength.

"Some other factions are a bit weaker. The Iron Blood Army, Blade Edge Army, and Heavenly Court Army can generally be counted as friendly forces. We all count as members of the Resistance Alliance, although that alliance has already disbanded.

"It's fortunate that the Divine Net Army and the Holy Blood Army aren't in Snowfield City, or we'd have even more trouble.

"The strength comparison is just like that.

"Every time I see data like this, I feel a great sense of regret.

"Clearly, starting from the Nobles, everything below is all human factions.

"If all of us humans had always stayed united, the werewolves would never have been able to plunder so much of the Nobles' assets.