How a general encourages and manages unit cohesion, preparedness and effectiveness is largely at their discretion, but no general is trying to impress upon the rank and file that it is acceptable to disregard the chain of command under any circumstances.
Even the most jovial and informal military commanders that encourage informal attitudes between the rank and file will demand their orders be followed to the letter and the chain of command to be respected at all times.
There is a time and place for everything. That's the critical context your entire rebuttal is missing and why none of the examples of below work. This isn't like any of those occasions where the Hi Shin Army can afford to joke around or petty transgressions can be ignored. It's not the time for that.
They just lost a battle and sustained heavy losses. They're deep behind enemy lines, in unfamiliar territory, cut off from their supply unit and several armies searching for them.
The last thing any general in that situation needs is for his leadership to be undermined.
You said things here for which I don't even disagree with. And don't really counter anything I said in the part your quoted.
Anyone say Shin is trying to have his subordinates not follow his command when needed? Nope
Anyone say Shin isn't trying to have his chain of command respected? nope
"These is a time and place for everything"... very reasoning I can apply to Naki
They had been taking Ls after Ls that was resulting in a giant negative for the Qin collective army, when Denei was calling the captain an asshole in front of everybody, because he stopped Denei from punching a little girl.
Garo telling Shin to the shut the fuck up, while Shin was trying his best to get em the fuck outta there in a desperate situation with his body partially fucked up...But of course isn't this disrespect, this is "family business"...
You don't have a consistent definition of what would be considered "Respect" for Shin.
Do you seriously think Kan Ki suffered anyone being as insubordinate as Na Ki was to Shin? Most certainly not. Na Ki does not have that kind of dynamic with Kan Ki. No one does. The man exacts tolls for failure. What do you think he does to anyone that presumes to speak and make deals for him? Nobody but his inner circle would even dream of doing something that stupid and even they would be shitting bricks in case Kan Ki decided to punish them just on the principle - which is what matters here.
The principle in question is chain of command. An army is nothing without it.
Something as trivial as sending scouts without permission does not begin to compare to the flagrant insubordination of committing to a deal with a third party without authorisation, talking back when questioned, and giving a half-assed apology with your back turned.
People got killed for less in those days. Way less.
insubordination:
- the refusal to obey someone who is in a higher position than you and who has the authority to tell you what to do:
- the
act of
refusing to
obey orders from someone in
authority
- the quality or condition of being
insubordinate, or of being disobedient to authority; defiance:
1st. He didn't disobey any orders from Shin. Nor was he defiant to Shin. Ignoring the captain's complaints (which is what they were) is not the same as refusing to obey his orders. Had Shin told Naki to step the fuck down, he would've done so. But no, do you know what Shin did?? He yelled at him saying "Naki I'm the one who makes decisions here".. That's not an order, that's complaining to somebody and explaining them to who's got authority. Is it disrespect? Yes, Insubordination? No.
2nd. And do you know what Naki would've done if Kanki tried that toll shit on him? Walked away or fought against Kanki. That's who Naki is, man didn't give a single fuck about Kanki when he left the army despite having gone through many wars with him. Did you see him offer an apology? Nope. He simply asked to be requested to be transferred to the HSU while looking right at him in the eyes... While everyone else took that as disrespect to Kanki and yelled at him. But you believe this is a less of an issue compared to what just happened now.
3rd. "Something as trivial"... yikes. Something so trivial that it required permission from Kanki, hence Maron pointed it out. Something so trivial as sending out scouts deep into enemy location where they could've been wiped out or could've potentially fucked up the grand plan by Kanki by giving up their locations or various other scenarios, you know something that impacts the entire ONGOING battle, hence Maron talks about asking permission. But that's trivial.. right. No my guy, that's called disregard for authority. So no it's not something trivial, otherwise Maron wouldn't have brought it up. There's a procedure for that for a reason.
4th. Yes people got killed for less in those days. For example insulting your captain with vulgar language in front of everyone after he tells you to back off. Putting a sword on the commander-in-chief's neck because you disagree with a decision he made. Leading a mini revolt upon the General's group because of disagreeing with a decision he made. Insulting the commander-in-chief with names to his face, because you don't like him. Do you know what is insubordination though? Disobeying the commander-in-chief's orders and trying to do your own thing because see it as the best which results in the L for campaign (Moubu). Or when the commander-in-chief tells you to go after Kisui, and you decide on your own its better for you to chase down Riboku.. that's defying orders last time I checked.
And if you want to get fully real on the insubordination, Naki is preventing Shin from committing it against Kanki. Whether Saki clan can go to Gi'an or not is not Shin's decision to make. It's a decision already made by the commander-in-chief, Kanki. Shin doesn't have any authority over the Saki clan. He can refuse them entry to Gi'an, which would be against the commander-in-chief's orders.. aka insubordination. Hence Saki clan flat out tells him It's Not His Call To Make. It has already been made by the leading officer, Kanki. It's up to Shin whether he'll cooperate with them or not. And if he doesn't, he's going against Kanki's command to the overall army, which is going to Gi'an. And if he prevents the Saki clan from going there, he's going against Kanki's orders as well.
Threatening fellow Qin soldiers? Hmm....doesn't look good when it comes to insubordination, when he has no authority over them. (Saki clan is directly under the authority of Kanki, and nobody else).
5th. Naki doesn't have the authority to make the decisions, which everyone there knows lol. So its' pointless to even act like he made the decision on behalf of Shin, when Shin can refuse it. I don't understand how you don't get that. You're acting as if Naki signed a contract with the Saki clan that Shin now has to follow... nope. Shin can very well still say "nah bro we ain't doing this", and Naki would follow along. Hence my point, he said what he needed to say to the Saki clan to get the information he had been wanting for ages now. Hell there's been build up to this very moment since the end of the Keisha campaign.
But point being there is no insubordination that happened here. Something that can be viewed as disrespect? Yes.. and for which Naki apologized with "my bad", which I said is the best you're gonna get out of somebody like Naki. Hence Shin took it and didn't say anything to him after that.
Nobody went about that way because that's the way Hara wrote it and my complaint is with the writing.
"Naki ignoed and kept his inquiry" there is your blatant insubordination in your own words. Ignoring your general is a flagrant disregard for the chain of command would absolutely be corrected.
Saying "my bad" with your back turned to your superior officer is not a proper apology in any military-minded person's view. The half-assedness of the apology is damn near as bad as anything else and would've probably gotten people in worse trouble.
- Right and the point being made is it's not a big deal or an issue hence Hara wrote it the way it is.
- Ignoring complains of your commanding officer for a few minutes to inquire about important information, when your commanding officer was acting like a hot headed idiot, isn't insubordination. It was corrected, hence Naki's "my bad".
- People apologize in different ways, as I've already mentioned. How meaningful that apology is to that person is not something you decide. "any military-minded person's view", you're now relying on generalizing every military minded person as the same... not how it works. And what was the apology that Shin gave to Kanki after committing actual insubordination? Let me show you:
Oh look at that... he ain't give no apology to the commanding officer of the army. But now we need an apology form Naki more than "my bad" which is meaningful coming from Naki who didn't even apology to Naki about leaving his army? Yeaaa buddy
Well, it's a good thing you acknowledge he silenced Shin.
If only you could acknowledge that shit would get you severely punished in those days so it's a bit bizarre to see Na Ki do it and get away with it so easily.
Idk why you're speaking of "in those days" as if every single military unit ran during those days operated the same mindset. They didn't. Would some have killed their subordinates for that? yes.. some would've killed their subordinates for calling them an asshole after they've been told to back down.. But shin ain't one of those. He by all means is not the norm.
Addressing a superior by their rank is not a grand gesture of respect, it is what is expected. Na Ki rarely, if ever, calls Shin by his name either, it's always by rank from what I remember. That's just their dynamic.
Whether Shin is a hothead or not is irrelevant. It's not Na Ki's place to correct his behaviour, that's the part you keep missing.
Actually the reason you address a superior officer by their rank is to show respect. If Naki was committing insubordination as you're exaggeratingly putting it, he wouldn't be showing respect to Shin by addressing him as captain, and not once yelling or calling any names at him. It's not "just their dynamic".
Actually it is relevant, and no I'm not missing that part, because that part doesn't exist. He didn't correct Shin's behavior lol.
As I said, critical context.
That placing of the insult in the panel says it all. It's a minor thing in the background for amusement. The entire context of that scenario is so wildly different.
More importantly, this was also a very different time. Shin is now a general, a vastly more prestigious station, with a growing legend spreading through all of China. He's no longer a kid, he's a man in his mid to late 20s. Things have changed tremendously since the time of that panel.
Shin's relationship with his troops has as well. It's still far less formal than most, but they're not quite the ragtag bunch they used to be. There is a lot more overt respect for Shin expressed by his troops. That's been the situation for a while now.
Ahhh so you're on the "Hara didn't write it in a major way so it's not a major thing"... now apply that same logic here. If this was a big deal, Hara would've made it a big deal, it wasn't.. hence Hara even drew Shin in a gagish way lol.
You're now saying disrespect to the captain is ok in certain scenarios.. while not ok in others. But who decides which scenarios are ok or not? lol
You'd be wrong there again, Shins' relationship with his squad is still pretty much the same, especially the OG squad of officers. Hence mfs like Garo can tell his ass to the shut the fuck up when he's struggling on the battlefield and fighting for his life lol.
An order only needs to be ignored once for the entire army to pay.
That's why chain of command is so important, and why enforcing it so critical.
No order was ignored here. Because no order was actually given to Naki.
Again, very different context.
Ga Ro is expressing concern over his captain's wellbeing in the kind of language they use around each all the time. There is no one around them that matters for him to bother with the proper decorum.
Telling the captain to Shut up after he asks how you are is not expressing concern over his captain's well being, not sure how you correlated the two. Try saying shut up to an actual commanding officer of modern day military, let alone from those times (since ya like bringing up those times ahah) and see how that gets you treated. HSU is the only place in the entire Kingdom-verse where that type of shit slides.
You've essentially turned it into "disrespect is fine, when there's no one around for it to matter".. guess what? You're never gonna catch Naki telling Shin to shut up even if there's no one around them.
Ga Ro never disrespected En in any way that was beyond the pale given their ranks, nor did it even begin to approach what Na Ki did. He questioned En's ability, it was rude, not egregiously offensive.
He actually did, Garo at that point had not even 10% of the authority that En-san had, on what terms does he have the right to question the 2nd-in-command of the HSU, who has fought alongside Shin the longest out of anyone (including out of Kyoukai/Behei/Ten/etc)... Not a single mf has ever questioned Ensan's capabilities until Garo.
Have fun questioning vice-commanding officer's abilities who has been with the commanding officer the longest on the battlefield.. and see how
What all of your examples fail to get is context.
What happens within the HSA - whether it's petty arguments or name calling - that's considered family business. So long no one is outright refusing to obey orders or violating the chain of command, they're fine.
What makes Na Ki's conduct egregious is that it involved a third party and Na Ki's behaviour was in front of said third party.
Yea you're pretty much on "feel free to insult as long as it's not in front of others".. yeaa that's called being fake my guy. Which HSU isn't.
Who are you on about?
This isn't accurate for Kan Jou or A Ka Kin. Both have different dynamics with Ou Hon as well. The relationship with Kan Jou was rocky at the beginning because he came from the Ou Sen Army, but he developed a devotion so strong he nearly died for Ou Hon at Shukai.
A Ka Kin is an eccentric, and he nevertheless never fails to pay Ou Hon the proper respects of his station and title.
Neither of these guys have done anything to warrant Ou Hon reprimanding them.
Again more excuses to justify disrespect. It was ok for Kanjou to show disobedience to Ouhon because of a different dynamic due to coming from Ousen's army.. lol what??
What you're failing to realize is that Naki since the moment he joined (its been years now that he's been part of the crew) has been obedient and devoted to Shin. He didn't need multiple battles to accept Shin.
People join the HSU to follow Shin.
The point is not that Shin should kill or punish whoever disobeys him. The point is that there is chain of command to be respected and I don't think Shin would let Na Ki slide as easily as he did, which is why it is dissatisfying writing to me.
This is not really true. People of relevance join the HSU for what the HSU as a collective is about not just Shin himself. Is Shin the main reason why the HSU is the way it is? yes already pointed out in my post before. The people of relevance who joined the HSU:
Gakurai who joined the HSU due to the Duke entrusting the shield to him (though this wasn't some sort of a major reason for him). However, what impressed Gakurai the most and made it good for him was the collective environment of the HSU:
Sosui, who was honored to join the HSU not just because of Shin, but because of the collective unit. Because of how they were made up of bunch of common folk who rose in military.
And why did the man at hand leave a bigger general, Kanki, to join a 5000-man commander? Just to follow him? Nope. But because of what the HSU as a collective is. The people in it, how they treat each other, what they're all about, and etc.
Yes I understand your point, however I don't think you're realizing the small contradiction you're making in this very statement. "The chain of command needs to be respected", right which Naki did, hence his "My bad", but you aren't satisfied with that, which you're entitled to. However, I simply disagree with the notion that this was the ultimate disrespect or something shown by a subordinate to Shin. Kanjou/Denei/Garo showed much worst disrespect to their commanding officers, imo, than anything Naki did here, and did so without any "my bad". The types of "disrespect" that'd have their heads rolling "in those days".
And also you brought up Ten in one of your previous posts, to point how Shin would react to such a scenario. But didn't take into account, Karyo Ten was a newbie to the HSU with 0 battle experience who started ordering around the HSU. Naki has been an officer in the HSU for 4 years now, where he's tactically contributed to the HSU many times, Shin is not going to react the same way.
But hey you're entitled to disagree with writing choices of Hara. Though.. gotta say Naki is under a leader who's committed actual insubordination and far more disrespect against commanding officers than anything Naki has shown in the entire manga. Would be hilarious to see Shin try and punish Naki for this without looking like a walking hypocrite.
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I initially thought that finding about Kanki's weakness would give me sort of 'aha' moment, like everything is in place now, but instead it just makes me wonder about everything more.
But another issue is, maybe it's only me.. but this arc has been giving me: "This can't be mfin Riboku" vibes.