Slitherine

Silly question but..
If I take the Classical greek army list as an example :
- Hoplites : bases 24-160. So I have to have at least 24 bases of hoplites and 160 at the max. Seems easy to understand.
- Upgrade hoplites to mercenaries : 0-48

Let's say I have only 48 bases of hoplites on the army.
Can I take 48 bases of hoplites and upgrade them to mercenaries ? or does that mean I have to take 24 bases of hoplites and that I can upgrade the 24 other bases to mercenaries ?

Sorry if it's a dumb question but I find the issue a bit confusing (maybe because I'm not English).

Thanks by advance.

You can upgrade them all to mercenary, a maximum of 48. You could take 24 and just have 8 of those 24 as mercenary.

Your first reading is the correct one, you must take take the minimum (24) but you can apply the upgrade to any of them, up to the maximum (48 ). So, if you take 48 bases, you can upgrade them all.