Kingdom is awesome. Yeah, I mean – duh. It sells a ton, it gets phenomenal reviews. It’s not like that’s some secret (although it took almost twenty years for the manga to be licensed in English – the first volume is finally releasing next month). Still, it’s worth reiterating it once in a while, lest we take it for granted. It manages to find just the right balance between history and fiction, not spoiling what was already a great story with too much embellishment but not afraid to spice up the soup from time to time.
There are a ton of moving parts to this arc. The upcoming battle promises to be one of the biggest the world had ever seen at that point in history. Not to mention, the entire thing hinges on a ruse only a handful of people know about. Qin has to fool the smartest tactician in the Six Kingdoms into thinking their army is invading from one place when it’s actually invading from another. And the whole thing has to happen in the midst of a generational change at the top. None of the six great generals remain, and a lot of the critical work is in the hands of three kids barely into their 20s. But one of those kids is finally lifting Wang Yi’s poleaxe, symbolizing that generational change. It’s a hugely significant moment both for Xin and for Kingdom.
The first big decision – and cliffhanger – is which next gen-erals Changping will put in charge of the invasion. He – and Kingdom – milk that for every ounce of drama it’s worth. First he calls Huan Yi to the stage, which understandably has the Fei Xin rather alarmed. But then the queen of the mountain tribes, Yuang Duanhe, is introduced. She and her people are old friends of Xin and Diao (and our man Bi) of course. But they’re not the commanding generals. That would be Wang Jian, cousin of Wang Yi, a mysterious man renowned for his coldness and cruelty. But it’s his strategic acumen that Changping needs, and he’s the one he trusts to make the decisions that will have to be made on the fly.
As Yuang Duanhe patiently explains to Diao, the battle has already started. It’s easy to think of Kingdom almost as a sports anime sometimes, but in war nobody is going to play nice and let things proceed as they’re drawn up. The Fei Xin army is moving too fast, she says. And their – and Diao’s – overeagerness could tip off enemy spies (who are certainly present) that something is amiss. 200,000 strong, the army marches towards Jin’an, the storage depot on the way to Heiyong, which will serve as the launching pad for the invasion. Or so Changping wants Li Mu to think.
This entire deception hinges on Jin’an. A massive supply caravan from the south into Jin’an, and then on to Heiyong, seems to confirm what the invasion plan is. So Li Mu and his spy chief, Shun Shuishu, take from their reports. It’s only an offhand comment from a messenger that five of their spies at Jin’an have disappeared that suggests to Shun Shuishu that something is amiss. Why would security be so heightened at a simple supply depot? The plan was to send dummy supplies north to Heiyong, keeping the real deal hidden underground until the army arrives. At Jin’an they change direction towards Ye’, catching Zhao and Li Mu with their pants down.
Or so was the plan, anyway. Shun sussing out the truth (at least suspecting it) throws the entire invasion plan to the wolves. Or so it would, if everyone played nice and let things proceed as they’re drawn up. As all this is happening messengers are flying to inform both Changping and Li Mu of an unexpected turn of events. The army of Yan is massing on Zhao’s eastern frontier, poised to use the distraction provided by Qin’s invasion to snatch the prize of Zhao for themselves. Zhao and Qin aren’t the only ones who have spies in foreign armies…
Yan is certainly not in this to do Qin any favors. If their actions benefit Qin in the near-term, so be it. And on paper, they certainly seem to. Even if word of Shun Shuishu’s suspicions reaches Li Mu, he can’t ignore a threat on his doorstep. He surely has no choice but to divide his army – his only decision is whether to divide half of it between Heiyong and protecting the capital, or put all his eggs (that half of them) into one basket. On the face of it this seems to be a huge break for Qin – there’s a lot of territory between Yan and Qin after all, most of it Zhao. The longer-term implications for them are less clear, but for now Changping – and perhaps Wang Jian, independent of his direction – must decide how best to take advantage of it.
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