This is something I failed to notice before, but could I confirm that soldiers desert ahead of everyone else ONLY IF there are enough soldiers for only the soldiers to desert?

Previously I was under the assumption that soldiers would desert first, then the rest would desert proportionally. But having probably been a few soldiers short of deserting for some of the ticks I was chained, I found that I had a good number of soldiers left (whereas in other ticks only soldiers deserted, as desired).

If I'm not wrong, would this also make it worthwhile to consider throwing a couple of NSes on a chained province that is releasing soldiers, even though it eases overpopulation a bit? (The goal being to make that province 1 soldier short of doing an all-soldier desertion? Is there also a school of thought on releasing thieves vs def specs (I assume that offense is out, and you wouldn't want to release elites)

If this is the case, does anyone have the link where you are able to make an approximate calculation as to how many soldiers are needed? I've seen it in the forums before but thought I could just wing it (evidently not).

Thanks in advance!