Uncensored (minor) historical spoilers ahead.
I was having a look at a martial tier list I am making (stand by for that) and I made an interesting observation around Shibasaku:
The wings on his helmet reminded me somewhat of the 6 wings Sei bestowed upon his 6 Greats:
I will now post a brief, minor historical spoiler-ish summary on Shibasaku that I found on Reddit:
Sima Cuo - Shi Ba Saku (First expansion of Qin):
Considered the best Qin general in history before the deeds of Bai Qi and Wang Jian. Sima Cou from the legendary Sima family had an impecable military career and was the first great military expansionist for Qin, by his command Qin conquered and subdued the States of Shu and Ba, he had a successful campaign in Wei as well and an attack on Chu, setting the basis of the Qin state as a military superpower, he created a momentum that [Hakuki] took pretty good advantage of.
You see while generals like Ouki, Koshou, and Kyou were irl Great Generals of Qin, their actual achievements are not anywhere near as romanticized as they are in the manga. Shibasaku is quite different, historically he was a majorly successful great general and one of the most important in Qin history. I have even seen some sources call him one of the top 4 most important generals in Qin history next to Hakuki, Ousen, and Mouten.
There is a famous story about Shibasaku from the times just before the formation of the original 6 Great Generals of Qin:
Back when the state of Qin was small and weak, King Shou summoned Shibasaku and another general (forgot who, doesn’t matter) to talk with them about what they believed the objective of the Qin military should be.
The first general laid out a plan that we would actually see Shouheikun attempting to execute in the actual Kingdom manga: conquering the state of Han and using the conquered territory as a checkmate strategy against all of the other states.
Shibasaku then argued that the first general’s plan would never work, as Qin was too small and weak to defend itself from the other states ganging up on them if they attempted the Han strategy. He instead argued that Qin should subdue the aforementioned Shu and Ba, and then did so before having more success in Wei and Chu. It was by Shibasaku’s strategy and advice (and later Hakuki and the rest of the Qin 6) that Qin went from being a Han-tier state to a military superpower and the second strongest in China.
Bringing this back full circle to what I posted about Ei Sei’s 6 being granted “wings”, I believe Hara will give Shibasaku credit with the foundation of the Qin 6 system itself, since irl it was Shibasaku who originally birthed the Qin war machine. So I’m wondering if the wings on Shibasaku’s helmet are a reference to the wings Sei later gives his Qin 6. If so, Hara is truly a madman who has planned every ounce of his manga from the start.
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