^How did you come by that information?
@Porcelainpot:
A question for anyone who's read the raws, though the answer would largely be based on opinion.
! I haven't read the raws/scans but I know some hazy details (which may be wrong), for example the fact that Xin/Shin not only defeated and killed Rinko (a general beyond ordinary general level), but also Mangoku, and he also overpowered Houken. That's insanely impressive, considering that Houken might as well be the strongest person alive. But the manga definitely has a long way to go, and Shin is only 3000 man commander (which he seems to be incredibly over-qualified for). So my question is, how is Shin going to grow from there? Yes he can expand on his tactical and leadership abilities, but it seems like such an odd move to first make Shin super strong then improve his other categories afterwards, instead of it all moving as one. I can see Shin having a disability like losing an arm or eye along the way, or ditching his "pumped up" mode (in the Kingdom stats, Shin has a strength bonus when pumped up), but does anyone else have any other theories?
Then there's why he was only promoted to 3000 man commander and not higher, which might've been explained in the raws and I'd love it if someone could explain.
! I think for the Shin versus Rinko, it could have gone either way (Shin was definitely pumped up but Rinko was the more skillful fighter. Shin was just relying on brute strength and most of his strikes were blocked by Rinko although on one of the blocks, Rinko lost some of his fingers. On the other hand Rinko made more "strategic" slashes like aiming for Shin's legs and generally cut Shin more than Shin cut him.). For Mangoku, he was a general of assault but his fighting strength was just 88 to Rinko's 93 so he wasn't an upper tier general (I consider an upper tier general as having at least 90 in any stat). For Houken, his left arm was broken by Duke Hyou and I think he was wounded lightly by the Duke too so Houken definitely wasn't at full strength. Shin did manage to push Houken back and wounded him at least once each but he hasn't reached Houken's level yet. For Shin to be a great general (physically at least), I think he shouldn't be at a level where he would have to enter "pumped up level" too often (like Ichigo with his bankai spamming). Spamming the "pumped up" mode shows that the enemy general is strong but also shows that Shin didn't mature much (enemies can be defeated with things other than brute strength, like superior technique, speed, and cunning e.g. Kyoukai, Shin hasn't been able to beat her with just brute strength) He still has room for growth because I doubt even when healthy and in pumped up mode, he can't beat healthy top tier fighting strength generals like Moubu, Tou, Ouki, Renpa, and Houken. Well, that's just my opinion.
! For why he was just promoted to 3000 man commander, I think the reason is the same for his previous promotions. Those promotions were based on his "strength merit" meaning that he contributed to the battle mainly because of his fighting strength. You could argue for some cases that he didn't only use fighting strength but then an ally (Ouki and Mouten for tactics or a superior like Baku Koshin and I think Duke Hyou ordered charges on the enemy). For the Zhao war, we did see that he used tactics learned from the stateless war zone to implement Ouki's plan but still used brute strength and a subordinate's advice to break through Fuuki's formations to get to him. After reading through the first Wei arc, I believed that Shin deserved a bigger promotion but looking back, the author gave Shin the right "amount". Since Shin is a battle junkie, he didn't have the experience of personally leading men into battle and so you can't just give him a thousand men to command. I have read other people's opinions on this and they have said that Shin needs experience at almost every level of command (100, 300, 1000, 3000 etc.) before he gets promoted again. Also, since Shin isn't a strategist minded person, you wouldn't want to give him high amounts of troops for him to whimsically lead to battle (victory or defeat, I think that happened after the second Wei arc before Ten showed up as his strategist).
! Sorry for the wall of text and if it appears that I'm the only one replying to your posts but I really like this manga and thread so I want to share information and know what other people think about this manga.