Controversial Best Manga/Anime Main Character Tournament
- Thread starter Light D Lamperouge
- Start date
I am ngl, seeing you guys argue about it for the past few pages is peak WG.
For me Sasuke clearly counts in this. He's almost as much of a main character as Naruto. He spearheads the story, and much of it revolves around him specifically. We follow the story through both lenses, Naruto's and Sasuke's. Sasuke functions as the foil and mirror of Naruto. He's more than just the rival etc.
For me Sasuke clearly counts in this. He's almost as much of a main character as Naruto. He spearheads the story, and much of it revolves around him specifically. We follow the story through both lenses, Naruto's and Sasuke's. Sasuke functions as the foil and mirror of Naruto. He's more than just the rival etc.
I tried to make a list of the the series I read/ watched but can’t come up with any notable characters not already listed 
Manga:
Berserk
Vagabond
Kingdom
One Piece
Naruto
OPM
Sunken Rock
Kengan Asura
Skimmed through Bleach
AoT (stopped midway)
Anime:
Baki
HxH
OPM
FMA (dropped)
Death Note
Manga:
Berserk
Vagabond
Kingdom
One Piece
Naruto
OPM
Sunken Rock
Kengan Asura
Skimmed through Bleach
AoT (stopped midway)
Anime:
Baki
HxH
OPM
FMA (dropped)
Death Note
Just look at this resume
1. Battle of Ganmon
Riboku's first big victory in the series where he launched an offensive into Xiongnu territory and defeated them in an open battle. Before talking about the scale of this feat let's first estimate how strong the Xiongnu army was, since we've never seen them in action.
Here Yotanwa says that Xiongnu Army is on a completely different level then any other tribes she fought. Then Eisei mentions how three enemy states agreed to built a giant wall just to defend against them.
Here Bananji mentions how Zhao send multiple celebrity commanders to Ganmon, but none of them could survive even a month.
Here Banyou calls Ganmon "the land of death that surpassess even the struggles of plains". While it's unclear what exactly he mean by this, it's an indication of Xiongnu's reputation.
Despite this, Riboku's victory over them was very swift and he was fighting on enemy's terrain in plains while being on significant number disadvantage (200k vs 130k).
Here Yotanwa calls the battle "Completely one-sided slaughter".
It was also mentioned that Riboku personally assassinated multiple Xiongnu commanders on the battlefield, although it's unclear if it was during this battle or even before that.
2. Battle of Bayou
Riboku's victory over Ouki that granted him the position of prime minister. For this war he created a multi-layered plan in order to trap the legendary great general.
He researched Ouki's history, found the best terrain for a trap and created nation-wide information blocade to hide his army. Then he made Houken commander-in-chief of Zhao and leaked this information to Qin in order to lure Ouki out.
What's interesting is that Ouki was able to figure out that he's being lured into a trap based on Chousou's tactics, but he incorrectly estimated their arrival due to lack of experience in the north and it was all within Riboku's expectations.
Here Ouki admits of being outplayed and that he doesn't have a plan for this situation.
It's often brought up that Riboku used Houken in this battle, but it's also worth noting that Ouki himself had two GG-level commanders - Tou and Moubu. Who in many ways are more valueble then Houken due to being actual commanders.
3. Battle of Busui and Hau
Battle against Yan that happened offscreen. However, we know that Yan was called "completely helpless" despite cities having very high reputation.
4. Alliance with Qin
When king Toujou's lover was kidnapped by Ryofui, Riboku traveled personally to Qin's capitol in order to negotiate. Ryofui was planing to kill Riboku during this meeting, however, not only he could talk himself out of this situation, but at the price of one city also establish an one year alliance, despite two nations being at very bad terms. This impressed even a veteran diplomat like Saitaku.
5. Victory over Gekishin
While using the alliance with Qin Riboku invaded Yan and defeated it's best great general Geki Shin.
Before the battle started Riboku set up several fake HQ's and hid himself to Gekishin's right. From there he could view Yan from the same vantage point and counter their every move as well as avoid Gekishin's poison cats.
It's worth mentioning that the battle was already approaching it's climax just after half a day and before Houken even showed up (even tho the terrain was hevily favorable for Gekishin due to his mountain tribes). Houken in this battle was placed close to Riboku's HQ and was simply used as a finishing move.
It was also noted that the Yan army was superior to Zhao in terms of individual strength, so them wining so easily can only be contributed to the difference in strategy.
6. Dueling Shin
One of few martial feats we've seen from Riboku. He challenged Shin to a fight and was able to knock him back after the first clash. It's worth noting that this is post-Sanyou Shin that already had pretty good martial achievements like killing Rinko and surviving blows from Renpa and Houken.
7. Realizing the significance of Sanyou Conquest and creating Coalition Army
It was mentioned that Qin's conquest of Sanyou was a key move that would allow them the conquest of China. Riboku saw this and formed coalition army as the means of prevention. It was a second time in history of warring states when someone was able to do it, first one being by Gakuki of Yan 40 years prior.
Riboku and Shunshinkun were the only two people in China who realized what the victory in Sanyou truely meant and even Gohoumei was surprised about the news.
In order to form the alliance Riboku created information lockdown good enough to fool Shouheikun's intelligence network. Something that Shouheikun considered his own failure. What's more Shouheikun didn't think there would be anyone capable of doing this.
8. Sneaking the soldiers through Bu Pass
At the start of the war Riboku created a contingency plan in case taking Kankoku Pass would proven to be too difficult. He deliberately chose for Zhao the battlefield closest to the southern path and was sending his men to the Bu Pass, a few thousand at a time. He also added small unit of elites from each nation's army, so that it would be seen as common victory. To send tens of thousands of troops to the southern path without anyone catching on would take numerous days, however since they were being sent from day one, they were able to sneak through the mountains and throw Qin into disaray. After witnessing that Karin compared Riboku's way of thinking to her own, but admitted that Riboku gives more thought to things around him.
9. Battle of the Southern Path
While traveling the mountain passages Riboku Army's rear was attacked by Duke Hyou. Many people see this as a failure on Riboku's part, because Duke was able to overcome his formation and Riboku was forced to use Houken to win. However, there are few factors that need to be adressed.
1) Duke Hyou was hinted to be possibly the only general capable of reading the flow on the spot. It was said that Keisha (who has one of the best instincts in the series up to date) was incapable of decyphering it. For this feat Riboku even called Duke an Epitome of the Instinctual Type, something that was also confirmed by his maxed out instinct stat.
2) It was said that for the proper usage Ryuudou requires the commander to have a high vantage point - something that Riboku lacked at the moment. This is important, because if that was the case then Duke's faint of moving away from his flags would not work, since Riboku would see the battlefield from above. This is also confirmed by the earlier battle between Gohoumei and Duke. Gohoumei actually tried to use Ryuudou against Duke Hyou while having high vantage point and Duke's response was to fall back.
3) Later it was revieled that during this battle Riboku could in fact comprehend Duke's way of warfare which enabled him to create a new hybrid army.
This is an impressive feat, because it was implied that no strategist of the past was able to reverse-engereer instinct this way and it confirms that Riboku still improved since the early arcs.
10. Battle of Sai
Later Riboku served as the strategist of Zhao forces against king Eisei and the city of Sai. For this battle he decided to separete his army into two batalions that assaulted the defenders both during the day and night and tire them out. This allowed him to break them after 7 days of fighting, but was forced to leave after the arrival of Yotanwa Army. Some people tent to use this battle to downplay Riboku, but there are few problems with that.
1) Sai was not just a "city full of peasants", but was presented as absolute anomaly. First of all the city itself had exceptionally strong defences which is why Shouheikun chose it as the battlefield over Kanyou. It also had 50+ officers and strategists (including Kaioku), few units of professional soldiers (HSU, Duke's Elites, Heki Unit, Eisei's guard unit etc). But more importantly it had Eisei's "fanatical" morale boost that was directly compared to that of a great general and was even superior to Ouki's rallying. We know for a fact that Riboku had zero problems against other Qin cities and Shouheikun believed that even Kanyou with him in command wouldn't be able to hold out long enough.
2) Yotanwa arrived in the exact same moment Riboku opened the gate of Sai. So even if she was few minutes later then Eisei and Shin would be captured. Although you can argue that Hara did that purely for dramatic effect.
3) Riboku didn't retreat, because he believed he can't defeat Yotanwa. In fact he was confident in his victory against her. It's just that he would loose too many troops to fight another battle against Shouheikun afterwards. You have to remember that he would have to face two fresh armies commanded by top tier generals one after another, which is why his decision was to leave.
11. Alliance with Quanrong Tribe
At some point before Gyou Campaign Riboku made a diplomatic move towards the Quanrong tribe from Ryoyou. The city of Ryoyou was technically a separete state that did not belong to Zhao. However, with gifts and diplomacy Riboku was able to gain the respect of their leader Rozo and thanks to this Quanrong were fighting on Zhao's side during the next war.
12. Fortifying western Zhao and creating Retsubi trap
After the battle of Koku You Hills Riboku begun to fortify the western Zhao and bulding multi-layered defence that would allow him to engage Qin in long-term war. Whats impressive about it is that Shouheikun believed that said defense would be enough to hold Qin forces at bay for over ten years, which would put a great strain on Qin's reasources and render the conquest impossible in the long run. This move forced Qin to make a risky attack on Gyou as it was the only way for them to get insight into central Zhao territories.
In addition Riboku created a trap in Gyou Region. First he upgraded Gyou's defences to the point where Ousen believed it's impossible for them to break it from the outside, even calling it a "perfect city".
He then purposely weakened Retsubi in order to make it possible to easily recapture it. This allowed him to cut out the invading army from their supply line and informations and utilize starvation strategy.
13. Battle at Shukai Plains
1) Reading Ousen's opening move and assassinating Makou
On the first day of Battle at Shukai Plains (after Ousen striked Rigan soldiers with the Akou Army) Riboku made a surprise attack on Qin's left wing with a small unit of cavalry that enabled him to take their HQ and kill general Makou. However, what people sometimes forget is that Riboku decided to strike, because he expected Ousen to make a big move and thus seeing a possible opening.
When Riboku decided to take Ousen's bait and start the battle on that wing he already had the plan in his head. He knew that Qin's left wing is where Ousen is seting a trap which is why he decided to start the battle there.
2) Analyzing Ousen's defensive formation and defeating Akou
On the 9th day of Battle at Shukai Plains Riboku predicted that Qin would atempt a big move. In order to counter it, he observed the battlefield for some time and was able to figure out the weakness in Ousen's advanced defensive formation that was used by Akou Army. This allowed them to remove Akou from the battle, although he survived thanks to Akakin and Ouhon.
3) Plan against Ouhon
On the 13th day of battle Riboku created a plan for his left wing commanders cooperate in a manner which would allow them to eliminate Ouhon. The plan was to use cavalry unit from Gakuei's remnants to keep Kyoukai occupied. Then have Gyou'un to sturm Gyoku Hou's HQ with few hundred of his elites when they are engaged against Chougaryuu Army. It's worth noting that the plan was good enough to fool even Shin's instincts as he wasn't able to tell what is their goal.
In the end Ouhon was able to survive due to plot armor his fighting prowess as well as Kanjou and Kyuukou's aid and returned to the battlefield on the last day.
4) Pincer for a pincer
When his HQ was pincered by Qin forces Riboku decided to use the opening and attack Ousen's own HQ. He send Futei with few hundred cavalry to slip through Qin armies and attack Ousen's 5000 personal guards from the front. He also ordered Bananji to sneak through the forrests and strike Ousen from the side. Due to Bananji going into his berserk mode the pincer was especially dangerous. In the end Ousen was able to escape thanks to Mouten and Ouhon's help, but it was implied that he could have died if not for both of them rushing to his aid.
5) End of the battle and Ousen's analysis
In the end the battle ended in Qin's victory. According to Ousen this was due to two reasons. First one was Zhao not geting support by their capitol army and second due to Ousen having better pawns. He also considered Riboku's tactics possibly superior to his own due to his moves against Akou and Mako
14. Realizing the supply route
After conquering Gyou the Qin army hide themselves inside the walls of Gyou while Zhao surrounded the city to prevent them from resuplying. Riboku also covered both western land and river routs.
In the end Qin was able to get supplies from the allied nation of Qi. It's worth pointing out that Riboku did in fact predict this could happen, but was unable to warn his troops due to being arrested by Zhao king and removed from the war. This strongly suggest that if Riboku wasn't summoned to the capitol then Zhao could possibly win the war, since they would be able intercept supplies in time.
15. Building the Great Wall
It was later revealed that Ri Boku planed the construction of a Great Wall south of Kantan which halted their invasion on Kantan after Kochou's defeat. It's worth pointing out that this construction most likely begun even before the loss of Gyou as a security mesure in case Qin army would reach this far. It also allowed Riboku to limit Qin's attack options from the south which later force them to make a failed attack on Zhao's northern regions. As far as military fortifications go this is most likely the biggest architectural achievement so far in the series.
16. Trap in the North
After Qin's advancement was halted by Riboku's wall Ousen decided to attack the city of Gi'An located in the north. Riboku however was able to predict Ousen would choose this location for the attack six months prior to invasion alongside thier paths of attack and used this knowledge to create a large-scale trap. The plan here was to reduce Qin's forces before the main clash while also gathering the armies of the entire north in secret in order to fool Qin into thinking they will have the number advantage and walk into an ambush. Due to Riboku's information blocade Qin did not suspect large difference in numbers and Riboku was able to create an advantagous situation for himself.
1) Atsuyo
In order to reach Zhao's north Qin Army first had to go through the city of Atsuyo. Hovewer in this castle Riboku implemented a plan that allowed him to split enemy's forces. He sent Shunsuijuu into the castle who made a sacreficial strategy where the wounded soldiers would jump off the wall and take down their enemies with them. Using such a tactic was possible thanks to the grudge against Qin after the prievious massacre and it was effective enough to prevent Ousen Army from moving any further due to the losses they suffered.
2) Roumou
After predicting that Qin will sent reinforcements through Roumou region he sent generals Kansaro and Jiaga to the city of Roumou to prepare it and trained it's troops. When the Qin reinforcements of 140k moved into the land they were ambushed and forced to retreat. Out of them only 50 000 were able to pass which was also part of the strategy in order to make Qin confident in victory and move forward. Whats more impressive is that Roumou forces were only few tens of thousands, but due to them having half a year of preparations and the element of surprise they were able to successfully reduce Qin's northern forces in this invasion to fourth of it's original number and slain their commander-in-chief.
3) Rallying the Gi'An troops
Before the battle begun Riboku also raised the morale of his army with the passionate speech. Instead of focusing on political situation he reminded them about the family they have to protect from the invaders which resulted in a great boost of morale.
17. Battle at Gi'An
For the main clash Riboku organized his forces into a "cage" formation where he surrounded them from all sides with the intention of wiping out their army at the location he chosen beforehand. When Shin decided to move his forces to the other side Riboku moved his elite Seika armies against Qin's special units as a preventing mesure. Against Kanki he used the experience from the battle of Koku You Hills and had his armies advance cauciously knowing that Kanki's only way of fighting are trick strategies.
At the end of the day Kanki and his core officers were able to escape the cage by stalling until nightfall with their cross formation, however they lost most of their army with the special units loosing more then half of their fighting power. Meanwhile Zhao were not mentioned to suffer any notable casualties in this battle are were able to preserve their strength.
18. Securing the region
After the special units were able to capture Gi'An it was revealed that Riboku made preparations to allow the castle to be recaptured. He sent all the civilians to a secure Hika city in order to prevent Kanki to use them as a barganing chip. His deputy Shunsuijuu also poisoned the wells inside the Seikirei castle which allowed Zhao to get rid of Qin remnants inside the city and cut Kanki off. Due to this Kanki was forces to abandon G'An as it was impossible to defend.
19. Battle of Hika
After leaving Gi'An Kanki marched towards the city of Hika where the civilians were moved. Trying to protect the citizens Riboku rushed there with his army and got ambushed by Kanki. Kanki's goal was to take Riboku's head and for that he split his remaining forces into three batalions in order to secure all possible pathways. Although Riboku was caught off guard with this manouver it should be noted that he wasn't completely unprepared. As was pointed out by the narrator Riboku set his formations in a way they could assist him in case of HQ being in danger.
During the fighting he also killed Shuma, one of Kanki's strongest warriors with quick stab from the blindspot. Riboku was able to survive long enough for the arrival of reinforcements by raising the morale of his closest troops to the point where they were fanatically throwing their lives away alongside his own martial might. Due to this, the ambush has backfired on Kanki who himself got traped and surrounded. Although Riboku was close to loosing his life the combination of secured travel formation, high morale of his close allies and his own martial might allowed Riboku to overcome Kanki's scheme which resulted in remanants of Kanki Army geting wiped out including Kanki himself.
To sum up - Qin's Gi'An Campaign could be considered their biggest defeat in the series so far. It resulted in death of the most famed member of Six Great Generals at the time alongside his army which was a huge reputational hit for their military prestiege. Generals Heki and Fuuhan got captured while general Sohakou was slained. The exact number of deceased Qin troops in the entire war is unclear, but I estimate it between 160,000 and 200,000 depending on how big were loses of the Ousen Army in Atsuyo. In the same year it also allowed Chu to capture some of Qin's cities in the south due to the losses they prieviously suffered.
20. Battle of Hango
Another one of Riboku's victories in the northern wars. For this battle Riboku placed his Ganmon officers against Yotanwa, Seika forces in the center against Ousen and on the left wing Enkan in chargé of a large Gi'An Army against the special units.
Riboku's plan was to exploit Ousen's weakness of being bad in "straight-forward battle". In his opening move he used himself as a bait in order to disrupt Akou Army as well as to lure Rishin away from the main battlefield and keep him buissy with a siege. Prior to battle he ordered the construction of several earth-work forts that he could hide inside while being pursued. The forts also had a hidden tunel as a way for his to escape in time. Due to Shin's absence Ouhon was forced to support the right wing and had his hands full with Gi'An Army. This resulted in Qin's young talents being sealed off and unable of sowing any complexity that Ousen could exploit.
The next step was for his hidden card Shibashou to destroy Ousen in direct clash. Despite suffering some losses Seika succeeded and were able to kill Ousen's two top generals and anihilate their army of more then 100'000 soldiers.
According to the narrator more Qin soldiers lost their lives in this battle then any other in the warring state period. It should be noted that thanks to Riboku's victories in the northern wars Qin's path of unification was almost ended and Qin needed to impletent grand reforms of Shouheikun's Three Pillars Plan in order to get back on track.
Yotanwa after learning of Riboku's plan in Bayou considers him a fearsome strategist
Gika calls Riboku a monster who surpassed Ouki
Ouki considers Riboku a general of unprecedented level
Ryofui feels that Riboku is projecting "fearsome greatness"
Shunshinkun says that Riboku is "far more terrifying than you can imagine"
Ouken thinks Riboku defeating Ouki and Gekishin was not a fluke
Ordo calls Riboku the most noteworthy man in all of China
Renpa calls Riboku the most dangerous man in China
Ouken thinks that Riboku is far greater then Qin have given him credit for
Eisei and Saitaku both consider Riboku to be the biggest obstacle on the path of unification
Gyou'un a veteran general and a deputy of Rinshoujo calls Riboku the strongest member of the Three Great Heavens in all of history
Ousen calls Riboku a monster of the same caliber as himself
Wei officers consider Riboku to be the only person that can keep up with ferrocity of Gohoumei's tactical offense
The narrator calls Riboku the "single most dangerous man Qin had faced yet"
After realizing the extent of Riboku's northern trap both Shouheikun and Ousen think they underastimated Riboku.
Shin praises the fire of Riboku's will and compares him to himself
Riboku's character statistics at the time of Battle of Eikyuu are:
Strength: 91
Leadership: 99
Knowledge: 100
Experience: S
In terms of total stats those are top 5 in the series and Riboku is the only character so far with maxed out knowledge.
Statistics obviously are not meant to represent all factors for a commander, but they also give some insight into the authors mind.
1. Battle of Ganmon
Riboku's first big victory in the series where he launched an offensive into Xiongnu territory and defeated them in an open battle. Before talking about the scale of this feat let's first estimate how strong the Xiongnu army was, since we've never seen them in action.
Here Yotanwa says that Xiongnu Army is on a completely different level then any other tribes she fought. Then Eisei mentions how three enemy states agreed to built a giant wall just to defend against them.
Here Bananji mentions how Zhao send multiple celebrity commanders to Ganmon, but none of them could survive even a month.
Here Banyou calls Ganmon "the land of death that surpassess even the struggles of plains". While it's unclear what exactly he mean by this, it's an indication of Xiongnu's reputation.
Despite this, Riboku's victory over them was very swift and he was fighting on enemy's terrain in plains while being on significant number disadvantage (200k vs 130k).
Here Yotanwa calls the battle "Completely one-sided slaughter".
It was also mentioned that Riboku personally assassinated multiple Xiongnu commanders on the battlefield, although it's unclear if it was during this battle or even before that.
2. Battle of Bayou
Riboku's victory over Ouki that granted him the position of prime minister. For this war he created a multi-layered plan in order to trap the legendary great general.
He researched Ouki's history, found the best terrain for a trap and created nation-wide information blocade to hide his army. Then he made Houken commander-in-chief of Zhao and leaked this information to Qin in order to lure Ouki out.
What's interesting is that Ouki was able to figure out that he's being lured into a trap based on Chousou's tactics, but he incorrectly estimated their arrival due to lack of experience in the north and it was all within Riboku's expectations.
Here Ouki admits of being outplayed and that he doesn't have a plan for this situation.
It's often brought up that Riboku used Houken in this battle, but it's also worth noting that Ouki himself had two GG-level commanders - Tou and Moubu. Who in many ways are more valueble then Houken due to being actual commanders.
3. Battle of Busui and Hau
Battle against Yan that happened offscreen. However, we know that Yan was called "completely helpless" despite cities having very high reputation.
4. Alliance with Qin
When king Toujou's lover was kidnapped by Ryofui, Riboku traveled personally to Qin's capitol in order to negotiate. Ryofui was planing to kill Riboku during this meeting, however, not only he could talk himself out of this situation, but at the price of one city also establish an one year alliance, despite two nations being at very bad terms. This impressed even a veteran diplomat like Saitaku.
5. Victory over Gekishin
While using the alliance with Qin Riboku invaded Yan and defeated it's best great general Geki Shin.
Before the battle started Riboku set up several fake HQ's and hid himself to Gekishin's right. From there he could view Yan from the same vantage point and counter their every move as well as avoid Gekishin's poison cats.
It's worth mentioning that the battle was already approaching it's climax just after half a day and before Houken even showed up (even tho the terrain was hevily favorable for Gekishin due to his mountain tribes). Houken in this battle was placed close to Riboku's HQ and was simply used as a finishing move.
It was also noted that the Yan army was superior to Zhao in terms of individual strength, so them wining so easily can only be contributed to the difference in strategy.
6. Dueling Shin
One of few martial feats we've seen from Riboku. He challenged Shin to a fight and was able to knock him back after the first clash. It's worth noting that this is post-Sanyou Shin that already had pretty good martial achievements like killing Rinko and surviving blows from Renpa and Houken.
7. Realizing the significance of Sanyou Conquest and creating Coalition Army
It was mentioned that Qin's conquest of Sanyou was a key move that would allow them the conquest of China. Riboku saw this and formed coalition army as the means of prevention. It was a second time in history of warring states when someone was able to do it, first one being by Gakuki of Yan 40 years prior.
Riboku and Shunshinkun were the only two people in China who realized what the victory in Sanyou truely meant and even Gohoumei was surprised about the news.
In order to form the alliance Riboku created information lockdown good enough to fool Shouheikun's intelligence network. Something that Shouheikun considered his own failure. What's more Shouheikun didn't think there would be anyone capable of doing this.
8. Sneaking the soldiers through Bu Pass
At the start of the war Riboku created a contingency plan in case taking Kankoku Pass would proven to be too difficult. He deliberately chose for Zhao the battlefield closest to the southern path and was sending his men to the Bu Pass, a few thousand at a time. He also added small unit of elites from each nation's army, so that it would be seen as common victory. To send tens of thousands of troops to the southern path without anyone catching on would take numerous days, however since they were being sent from day one, they were able to sneak through the mountains and throw Qin into disaray. After witnessing that Karin compared Riboku's way of thinking to her own, but admitted that Riboku gives more thought to things around him.
9. Battle of the Southern Path
While traveling the mountain passages Riboku Army's rear was attacked by Duke Hyou. Many people see this as a failure on Riboku's part, because Duke was able to overcome his formation and Riboku was forced to use Houken to win. However, there are few factors that need to be adressed.
1) Duke Hyou was hinted to be possibly the only general capable of reading the flow on the spot. It was said that Keisha (who has one of the best instincts in the series up to date) was incapable of decyphering it. For this feat Riboku even called Duke an Epitome of the Instinctual Type, something that was also confirmed by his maxed out instinct stat.
2) It was said that for the proper usage Ryuudou requires the commander to have a high vantage point - something that Riboku lacked at the moment. This is important, because if that was the case then Duke's faint of moving away from his flags would not work, since Riboku would see the battlefield from above. This is also confirmed by the earlier battle between Gohoumei and Duke. Gohoumei actually tried to use Ryuudou against Duke Hyou while having high vantage point and Duke's response was to fall back.
3) Later it was revieled that during this battle Riboku could in fact comprehend Duke's way of warfare which enabled him to create a new hybrid army.
This is an impressive feat, because it was implied that no strategist of the past was able to reverse-engereer instinct this way and it confirms that Riboku still improved since the early arcs.
10. Battle of Sai
Later Riboku served as the strategist of Zhao forces against king Eisei and the city of Sai. For this battle he decided to separete his army into two batalions that assaulted the defenders both during the day and night and tire them out. This allowed him to break them after 7 days of fighting, but was forced to leave after the arrival of Yotanwa Army. Some people tent to use this battle to downplay Riboku, but there are few problems with that.
1) Sai was not just a "city full of peasants", but was presented as absolute anomaly. First of all the city itself had exceptionally strong defences which is why Shouheikun chose it as the battlefield over Kanyou. It also had 50+ officers and strategists (including Kaioku), few units of professional soldiers (HSU, Duke's Elites, Heki Unit, Eisei's guard unit etc). But more importantly it had Eisei's "fanatical" morale boost that was directly compared to that of a great general and was even superior to Ouki's rallying. We know for a fact that Riboku had zero problems against other Qin cities and Shouheikun believed that even Kanyou with him in command wouldn't be able to hold out long enough.
2) Yotanwa arrived in the exact same moment Riboku opened the gate of Sai. So even if she was few minutes later then Eisei and Shin would be captured. Although you can argue that Hara did that purely for dramatic effect.
3) Riboku didn't retreat, because he believed he can't defeat Yotanwa. In fact he was confident in his victory against her. It's just that he would loose too many troops to fight another battle against Shouheikun afterwards. You have to remember that he would have to face two fresh armies commanded by top tier generals one after another, which is why his decision was to leave.
11. Alliance with Quanrong Tribe
At some point before Gyou Campaign Riboku made a diplomatic move towards the Quanrong tribe from Ryoyou. The city of Ryoyou was technically a separete state that did not belong to Zhao. However, with gifts and diplomacy Riboku was able to gain the respect of their leader Rozo and thanks to this Quanrong were fighting on Zhao's side during the next war.
12. Fortifying western Zhao and creating Retsubi trap
After the battle of Koku You Hills Riboku begun to fortify the western Zhao and bulding multi-layered defence that would allow him to engage Qin in long-term war. Whats impressive about it is that Shouheikun believed that said defense would be enough to hold Qin forces at bay for over ten years, which would put a great strain on Qin's reasources and render the conquest impossible in the long run. This move forced Qin to make a risky attack on Gyou as it was the only way for them to get insight into central Zhao territories.
In addition Riboku created a trap in Gyou Region. First he upgraded Gyou's defences to the point where Ousen believed it's impossible for them to break it from the outside, even calling it a "perfect city".
He then purposely weakened Retsubi in order to make it possible to easily recapture it. This allowed him to cut out the invading army from their supply line and informations and utilize starvation strategy.
13. Battle at Shukai Plains
1) Reading Ousen's opening move and assassinating Makou
On the first day of Battle at Shukai Plains (after Ousen striked Rigan soldiers with the Akou Army) Riboku made a surprise attack on Qin's left wing with a small unit of cavalry that enabled him to take their HQ and kill general Makou. However, what people sometimes forget is that Riboku decided to strike, because he expected Ousen to make a big move and thus seeing a possible opening.
When Riboku decided to take Ousen's bait and start the battle on that wing he already had the plan in his head. He knew that Qin's left wing is where Ousen is seting a trap which is why he decided to start the battle there.
2) Analyzing Ousen's defensive formation and defeating Akou
On the 9th day of Battle at Shukai Plains Riboku predicted that Qin would atempt a big move. In order to counter it, he observed the battlefield for some time and was able to figure out the weakness in Ousen's advanced defensive formation that was used by Akou Army. This allowed them to remove Akou from the battle, although he survived thanks to Akakin and Ouhon.
3) Plan against Ouhon
On the 13th day of battle Riboku created a plan for his left wing commanders cooperate in a manner which would allow them to eliminate Ouhon. The plan was to use cavalry unit from Gakuei's remnants to keep Kyoukai occupied. Then have Gyou'un to sturm Gyoku Hou's HQ with few hundred of his elites when they are engaged against Chougaryuu Army. It's worth noting that the plan was good enough to fool even Shin's instincts as he wasn't able to tell what is their goal.
In the end Ouhon was able to survive due to plot armor his fighting prowess as well as Kanjou and Kyuukou's aid and returned to the battlefield on the last day.
4) Pincer for a pincer
When his HQ was pincered by Qin forces Riboku decided to use the opening and attack Ousen's own HQ. He send Futei with few hundred cavalry to slip through Qin armies and attack Ousen's 5000 personal guards from the front. He also ordered Bananji to sneak through the forrests and strike Ousen from the side. Due to Bananji going into his berserk mode the pincer was especially dangerous. In the end Ousen was able to escape thanks to Mouten and Ouhon's help, but it was implied that he could have died if not for both of them rushing to his aid.
5) End of the battle and Ousen's analysis
In the end the battle ended in Qin's victory. According to Ousen this was due to two reasons. First one was Zhao not geting support by their capitol army and second due to Ousen having better pawns. He also considered Riboku's tactics possibly superior to his own due to his moves against Akou and Mako
14. Realizing the supply route
After conquering Gyou the Qin army hide themselves inside the walls of Gyou while Zhao surrounded the city to prevent them from resuplying. Riboku also covered both western land and river routs.
In the end Qin was able to get supplies from the allied nation of Qi. It's worth pointing out that Riboku did in fact predict this could happen, but was unable to warn his troops due to being arrested by Zhao king and removed from the war. This strongly suggest that if Riboku wasn't summoned to the capitol then Zhao could possibly win the war, since they would be able intercept supplies in time.
15. Building the Great Wall
It was later revealed that Ri Boku planed the construction of a Great Wall south of Kantan which halted their invasion on Kantan after Kochou's defeat. It's worth pointing out that this construction most likely begun even before the loss of Gyou as a security mesure in case Qin army would reach this far. It also allowed Riboku to limit Qin's attack options from the south which later force them to make a failed attack on Zhao's northern regions. As far as military fortifications go this is most likely the biggest architectural achievement so far in the series.
16. Trap in the North
After Qin's advancement was halted by Riboku's wall Ousen decided to attack the city of Gi'An located in the north. Riboku however was able to predict Ousen would choose this location for the attack six months prior to invasion alongside thier paths of attack and used this knowledge to create a large-scale trap. The plan here was to reduce Qin's forces before the main clash while also gathering the armies of the entire north in secret in order to fool Qin into thinking they will have the number advantage and walk into an ambush. Due to Riboku's information blocade Qin did not suspect large difference in numbers and Riboku was able to create an advantagous situation for himself.
1) Atsuyo
In order to reach Zhao's north Qin Army first had to go through the city of Atsuyo. Hovewer in this castle Riboku implemented a plan that allowed him to split enemy's forces. He sent Shunsuijuu into the castle who made a sacreficial strategy where the wounded soldiers would jump off the wall and take down their enemies with them. Using such a tactic was possible thanks to the grudge against Qin after the prievious massacre and it was effective enough to prevent Ousen Army from moving any further due to the losses they suffered.
2) Roumou
After predicting that Qin will sent reinforcements through Roumou region he sent generals Kansaro and Jiaga to the city of Roumou to prepare it and trained it's troops. When the Qin reinforcements of 140k moved into the land they were ambushed and forced to retreat. Out of them only 50 000 were able to pass which was also part of the strategy in order to make Qin confident in victory and move forward. Whats more impressive is that Roumou forces were only few tens of thousands, but due to them having half a year of preparations and the element of surprise they were able to successfully reduce Qin's northern forces in this invasion to fourth of it's original number and slain their commander-in-chief.
3) Rallying the Gi'An troops
Before the battle begun Riboku also raised the morale of his army with the passionate speech. Instead of focusing on political situation he reminded them about the family they have to protect from the invaders which resulted in a great boost of morale.
17. Battle at Gi'An
For the main clash Riboku organized his forces into a "cage" formation where he surrounded them from all sides with the intention of wiping out their army at the location he chosen beforehand. When Shin decided to move his forces to the other side Riboku moved his elite Seika armies against Qin's special units as a preventing mesure. Against Kanki he used the experience from the battle of Koku You Hills and had his armies advance cauciously knowing that Kanki's only way of fighting are trick strategies.
At the end of the day Kanki and his core officers were able to escape the cage by stalling until nightfall with their cross formation, however they lost most of their army with the special units loosing more then half of their fighting power. Meanwhile Zhao were not mentioned to suffer any notable casualties in this battle are were able to preserve their strength.
18. Securing the region
After the special units were able to capture Gi'An it was revealed that Riboku made preparations to allow the castle to be recaptured. He sent all the civilians to a secure Hika city in order to prevent Kanki to use them as a barganing chip. His deputy Shunsuijuu also poisoned the wells inside the Seikirei castle which allowed Zhao to get rid of Qin remnants inside the city and cut Kanki off. Due to this Kanki was forces to abandon G'An as it was impossible to defend.
19. Battle of Hika
After leaving Gi'An Kanki marched towards the city of Hika where the civilians were moved. Trying to protect the citizens Riboku rushed there with his army and got ambushed by Kanki. Kanki's goal was to take Riboku's head and for that he split his remaining forces into three batalions in order to secure all possible pathways. Although Riboku was caught off guard with this manouver it should be noted that he wasn't completely unprepared. As was pointed out by the narrator Riboku set his formations in a way they could assist him in case of HQ being in danger.
During the fighting he also killed Shuma, one of Kanki's strongest warriors with quick stab from the blindspot. Riboku was able to survive long enough for the arrival of reinforcements by raising the morale of his closest troops to the point where they were fanatically throwing their lives away alongside his own martial might. Due to this, the ambush has backfired on Kanki who himself got traped and surrounded. Although Riboku was close to loosing his life the combination of secured travel formation, high morale of his close allies and his own martial might allowed Riboku to overcome Kanki's scheme which resulted in remanants of Kanki Army geting wiped out including Kanki himself.
To sum up - Qin's Gi'An Campaign could be considered their biggest defeat in the series so far. It resulted in death of the most famed member of Six Great Generals at the time alongside his army which was a huge reputational hit for their military prestiege. Generals Heki and Fuuhan got captured while general Sohakou was slained. The exact number of deceased Qin troops in the entire war is unclear, but I estimate it between 160,000 and 200,000 depending on how big were loses of the Ousen Army in Atsuyo. In the same year it also allowed Chu to capture some of Qin's cities in the south due to the losses they prieviously suffered.
20. Battle of Hango
Another one of Riboku's victories in the northern wars. For this battle Riboku placed his Ganmon officers against Yotanwa, Seika forces in the center against Ousen and on the left wing Enkan in chargé of a large Gi'An Army against the special units.
Riboku's plan was to exploit Ousen's weakness of being bad in "straight-forward battle". In his opening move he used himself as a bait in order to disrupt Akou Army as well as to lure Rishin away from the main battlefield and keep him buissy with a siege. Prior to battle he ordered the construction of several earth-work forts that he could hide inside while being pursued. The forts also had a hidden tunel as a way for his to escape in time. Due to Shin's absence Ouhon was forced to support the right wing and had his hands full with Gi'An Army. This resulted in Qin's young talents being sealed off and unable of sowing any complexity that Ousen could exploit.
The next step was for his hidden card Shibashou to destroy Ousen in direct clash. Despite suffering some losses Seika succeeded and were able to kill Ousen's two top generals and anihilate their army of more then 100'000 soldiers.
According to the narrator more Qin soldiers lost their lives in this battle then any other in the warring state period. It should be noted that thanks to Riboku's victories in the northern wars Qin's path of unification was almost ended and Qin needed to impletent grand reforms of Shouheikun's Three Pillars Plan in order to get back on track.
Yotanwa after learning of Riboku's plan in Bayou considers him a fearsome strategist
Gika calls Riboku a monster who surpassed Ouki
Ouki considers Riboku a general of unprecedented level
Ryofui feels that Riboku is projecting "fearsome greatness"
Shunshinkun says that Riboku is "far more terrifying than you can imagine"
Ouken thinks Riboku defeating Ouki and Gekishin was not a fluke
Ordo calls Riboku the most noteworthy man in all of China
Renpa calls Riboku the most dangerous man in China
Ouken thinks that Riboku is far greater then Qin have given him credit for
Eisei and Saitaku both consider Riboku to be the biggest obstacle on the path of unification
Gyou'un a veteran general and a deputy of Rinshoujo calls Riboku the strongest member of the Three Great Heavens in all of history
Ousen calls Riboku a monster of the same caliber as himself
Wei officers consider Riboku to be the only person that can keep up with ferrocity of Gohoumei's tactical offense
The narrator calls Riboku the "single most dangerous man Qin had faced yet"
After realizing the extent of Riboku's northern trap both Shouheikun and Ousen think they underastimated Riboku.
Shin praises the fire of Riboku's will and compares him to himself
Riboku's character statistics at the time of Battle of Eikyuu are:
Strength: 91
Leadership: 99
Knowledge: 100
Experience: S
In terms of total stats those are top 5 in the series and Riboku is the only character so far with maxed out knowledge.
Statistics obviously are not meant to represent all factors for a commander, but they also give some insight into the authors mind.
Just look at this resume
1. Battle of Ganmon
Riboku's first big victory in the series where he launched an offensive into Xiongnu territory and defeated them in an open battle. Before talking about the scale of this feat let's first estimate how strong the Xiongnu army was, since we've never seen them in action.
Here Yotanwa says that Xiongnu Army is on a completely different level then any other tribes she fought. Then Eisei mentions how three enemy states agreed to built a giant wall just to defend against them.
Here Bananji mentions how Zhao send multiple celebrity commanders to Ganmon, but none of them could survive even a month.
Here Banyou calls Ganmon "the land of death that surpassess even the struggles of plains". While it's unclear what exactly he mean by this, it's an indication of Xiongnu's reputation.
Despite this, Riboku's victory over them was very swift and he was fighting on enemy's terrain in plains while being on significant number disadvantage (200k vs 130k).
Here Yotanwa calls the battle "Completely one-sided slaughter".
It was also mentioned that Riboku personally assassinated multiple Xiongnu commanders on the battlefield, although it's unclear if it was during this battle or even before that.
2. Battle of Bayou
Riboku's victory over Ouki that granted him the position of prime minister. For this war he created a multi-layered plan in order to trap the legendary great general.
He researched Ouki's history, found the best terrain for a trap and created nation-wide information blocade to hide his army. Then he made Houken commander-in-chief of Zhao and leaked this information to Qin in order to lure Ouki out.
What's interesting is that Ouki was able to figure out that he's being lured into a trap based on Chousou's tactics, but he incorrectly estimated their arrival due to lack of experience in the north and it was all within Riboku's expectations.
Here Ouki admits of being outplayed and that he doesn't have a plan for this situation.
It's often brought up that Riboku used Houken in this battle, but it's also worth noting that Ouki himself had two GG-level commanders - Tou and Moubu. Who in many ways are more valueble then Houken due to being actual commanders.
3. Battle of Busui and Hau
Battle against Yan that happened offscreen. However, we know that Yan was called "completely helpless" despite cities having very high reputation.
4. Alliance with Qin
When king Toujou's lover was kidnapped by Ryofui, Riboku traveled personally to Qin's capitol in order to negotiate. Ryofui was planing to kill Riboku during this meeting, however, not only he could talk himself out of this situation, but at the price of one city also establish an one year alliance, despite two nations being at very bad terms. This impressed even a veteran diplomat like Saitaku.
5. Victory over Gekishin
While using the alliance with Qin Riboku invaded Yan and defeated it's best great general Geki Shin.
Before the battle started Riboku set up several fake HQ's and hid himself to Gekishin's right. From there he could view Yan from the same vantage point and counter their every move as well as avoid Gekishin's poison cats.
It's worth mentioning that the battle was already approaching it's climax just after half a day and before Houken even showed up (even tho the terrain was hevily favorable for Gekishin due to his mountain tribes). Houken in this battle was placed close to Riboku's HQ and was simply used as a finishing move.
It was also noted that the Yan army was superior to Zhao in terms of individual strength, so them wining so easily can only be contributed to the difference in strategy.
6. Dueling Shin
One of few martial feats we've seen from Riboku. He challenged Shin to a fight and was able to knock him back after the first clash. It's worth noting that this is post-Sanyou Shin that already had pretty good martial achievements like killing Rinko and surviving blows from Renpa and Houken.
7. Realizing the significance of Sanyou Conquest and creating Coalition Army
It was mentioned that Qin's conquest of Sanyou was a key move that would allow them the conquest of China. Riboku saw this and formed coalition army as the means of prevention. It was a second time in history of warring states when someone was able to do it, first one being by Gakuki of Yan 40 years prior.
Riboku and Shunshinkun were the only two people in China who realized what the victory in Sanyou truely meant and even Gohoumei was surprised about the news.
In order to form the alliance Riboku created information lockdown good enough to fool Shouheikun's intelligence network. Something that Shouheikun considered his own failure. What's more Shouheikun didn't think there would be anyone capable of doing this.
8. Sneaking the soldiers through Bu Pass
At the start of the war Riboku created a contingency plan in case taking Kankoku Pass would proven to be too difficult. He deliberately chose for Zhao the battlefield closest to the southern path and was sending his men to the Bu Pass, a few thousand at a time. He also added small unit of elites from each nation's army, so that it would be seen as common victory. To send tens of thousands of troops to the southern path without anyone catching on would take numerous days, however since they were being sent from day one, they were able to sneak through the mountains and throw Qin into disaray. After witnessing that Karin compared Riboku's way of thinking to her own, but admitted that Riboku gives more thought to things around him.
9. Battle of the Southern Path
While traveling the mountain passages Riboku Army's rear was attacked by Duke Hyou. Many people see this as a failure on Riboku's part, because Duke was able to overcome his formation and Riboku was forced to use Houken to win. However, there are few factors that need to be adressed.
1) Duke Hyou was hinted to be possibly the only general capable of reading the flow on the spot. It was said that Keisha (who has one of the best instincts in the series up to date) was incapable of decyphering it. For this feat Riboku even called Duke an Epitome of the Instinctual Type, something that was also confirmed by his maxed out instinct stat.
2) It was said that for the proper usage Ryuudou requires the commander to have a high vantage point - something that Riboku lacked at the moment. This is important, because if that was the case then Duke's faint of moving away from his flags would not work, since Riboku would see the battlefield from above. This is also confirmed by the earlier battle between Gohoumei and Duke. Gohoumei actually tried to use Ryuudou against Duke Hyou while having high vantage point and Duke's response was to fall back.
3) Later it was revieled that during this battle Riboku could in fact comprehend Duke's way of warfare which enabled him to create a new hybrid army.
This is an impressive feat, because it was implied that no strategist of the past was able to reverse-engereer instinct this way and it confirms that Riboku still improved since the early arcs.
10. Battle of Sai
Later Riboku served as the strategist of Zhao forces against king Eisei and the city of Sai. For this battle he decided to separete his army into two batalions that assaulted the defenders both during the day and night and tire them out. This allowed him to break them after 7 days of fighting, but was forced to leave after the arrival of Yotanwa Army. Some people tent to use this battle to downplay Riboku, but there are few problems with that.
1) Sai was not just a "city full of peasants", but was presented as absolute anomaly. First of all the city itself had exceptionally strong defences which is why Shouheikun chose it as the battlefield over Kanyou. It also had 50+ officers and strategists (including Kaioku), few units of professional soldiers (HSU, Duke's Elites, Heki Unit, Eisei's guard unit etc). But more importantly it had Eisei's "fanatical" morale boost that was directly compared to that of a great general and was even superior to Ouki's rallying. We know for a fact that Riboku had zero problems against other Qin cities and Shouheikun believed that even Kanyou with him in command wouldn't be able to hold out long enough.
2) Yotanwa arrived in the exact same moment Riboku opened the gate of Sai. So even if she was few minutes later then Eisei and Shin would be captured. Although you can argue that Hara did that purely for dramatic effect.
3) Riboku didn't retreat, because he believed he can't defeat Yotanwa. In fact he was confident in his victory against her. It's just that he would loose too many troops to fight another battle against Shouheikun afterwards. You have to remember that he would have to face two fresh armies commanded by top tier generals one after another, which is why his decision was to leave.
11. Alliance with Quanrong Tribe
At some point before Gyou Campaign Riboku made a diplomatic move towards the Quanrong tribe from Ryoyou. The city of Ryoyou was technically a separete state that did not belong to Zhao. However, with gifts and diplomacy Riboku was able to gain the respect of their leader Rozo and thanks to this Quanrong were fighting on Zhao's side during the next war.
12. Fortifying western Zhao and creating Retsubi trap
After the battle of Koku You Hills Riboku begun to fortify the western Zhao and bulding multi-layered defence that would allow him to engage Qin in long-term war. Whats impressive about it is that Shouheikun believed that said defense would be enough to hold Qin forces at bay for over ten years, which would put a great strain on Qin's reasources and render the conquest impossible in the long run. This move forced Qin to make a risky attack on Gyou as it was the only way for them to get insight into central Zhao territories.
In addition Riboku created a trap in Gyou Region. First he upgraded Gyou's defences to the point where Ousen believed it's impossible for them to break it from the outside, even calling it a "perfect city".
He then purposely weakened Retsubi in order to make it possible to easily recapture it. This allowed him to cut out the invading army from their supply line and informations and utilize starvation strategy.
13. Battle at Shukai Plains
1) Reading Ousen's opening move and assassinating Makou
On the first day of Battle at Shukai Plains (after Ousen striked Rigan soldiers with the Akou Army) Riboku made a surprise attack on Qin's left wing with a small unit of cavalry that enabled him to take their HQ and kill general Makou. However, what people sometimes forget is that Riboku decided to strike, because he expected Ousen to make a big move and thus seeing a possible opening.
When Riboku decided to take Ousen's bait and start the battle on that wing he already had the plan in his head. He knew that Qin's left wing is where Ousen is seting a trap which is why he decided to start the battle there.
2) Analyzing Ousen's defensive formation and defeating Akou
On the 9th day of Battle at Shukai Plains Riboku predicted that Qin would atempt a big move. In order to counter it, he observed the battlefield for some time and was able to figure out the weakness in Ousen's advanced defensive formation that was used by Akou Army. This allowed them to remove Akou from the battle, although he survived thanks to Akakin and Ouhon.
3) Plan against Ouhon
On the 13th day of battle Riboku created a plan for his left wing commanders cooperate in a manner which would allow them to eliminate Ouhon. The plan was to use cavalry unit from Gakuei's remnants to keep Kyoukai occupied. Then have Gyou'un to sturm Gyoku Hou's HQ with few hundred of his elites when they are engaged against Chougaryuu Army. It's worth noting that the plan was good enough to fool even Shin's instincts as he wasn't able to tell what is their goal.
In the end Ouhon was able to survive due to plot armor his fighting prowess as well as Kanjou and Kyuukou's aid and returned to the battlefield on the last day.
4) Pincer for a pincer
When his HQ was pincered by Qin forces Riboku decided to use the opening and attack Ousen's own HQ. He send Futei with few hundred cavalry to slip through Qin armies and attack Ousen's 5000 personal guards from the front. He also ordered Bananji to sneak through the forrests and strike Ousen from the side. Due to Bananji going into his berserk mode the pincer was especially dangerous. In the end Ousen was able to escape thanks to Mouten and Ouhon's help, but it was implied that he could have died if not for both of them rushing to his aid.
5) End of the battle and Ousen's analysis
In the end the battle ended in Qin's victory. According to Ousen this was due to two reasons. First one was Zhao not geting support by their capitol army and second due to Ousen having better pawns. He also considered Riboku's tactics possibly superior to his own due to his moves against Akou and Mako
14. Realizing the supply route
After conquering Gyou the Qin army hide themselves inside the walls of Gyou while Zhao surrounded the city to prevent them from resuplying. Riboku also covered both western land and river routs.
In the end Qin was able to get supplies from the allied nation of Qi. It's worth pointing out that Riboku did in fact predict this could happen, but was unable to warn his troops due to being arrested by Zhao king and removed from the war. This strongly suggest that if Riboku wasn't summoned to the capitol then Zhao could possibly win the war, since they would be able intercept supplies in time.
15. Building the Great Wall
It was later revealed that Ri Boku planed the construction of a Great Wall south of Kantan which halted their invasion on Kantan after Kochou's defeat. It's worth pointing out that this construction most likely begun even before the loss of Gyou as a security mesure in case Qin army would reach this far. It also allowed Riboku to limit Qin's attack options from the south which later force them to make a failed attack on Zhao's northern regions. As far as military fortifications go this is most likely the biggest architectural achievement so far in the series.
16. Trap in the North
After Qin's advancement was halted by Riboku's wall Ousen decided to attack the city of Gi'An located in the north. Riboku however was able to predict Ousen would choose this location for the attack six months prior to invasion alongside thier paths of attack and used this knowledge to create a large-scale trap. The plan here was to reduce Qin's forces before the main clash while also gathering the armies of the entire north in secret in order to fool Qin into thinking they will have the number advantage and walk into an ambush. Due to Riboku's information blocade Qin did not suspect large difference in numbers and Riboku was able to create an advantagous situation for himself.
1) Atsuyo
In order to reach Zhao's north Qin Army first had to go through the city of Atsuyo. Hovewer in this castle Riboku implemented a plan that allowed him to split enemy's forces. He sent Shunsuijuu into the castle who made a sacreficial strategy where the wounded soldiers would jump off the wall and take down their enemies with them. Using such a tactic was possible thanks to the grudge against Qin after the prievious massacre and it was effective enough to prevent Ousen Army from moving any further due to the losses they suffered.
2) Roumou
After predicting that Qin will sent reinforcements through Roumou region he sent generals Kansaro and Jiaga to the city of Roumou to prepare it and trained it's troops. When the Qin reinforcements of 140k moved into the land they were ambushed and forced to retreat. Out of them only 50 000 were able to pass which was also part of the strategy in order to make Qin confident in victory and move forward. Whats more impressive is that Roumou forces were only few tens of thousands, but due to them having half a year of preparations and the element of surprise they were able to successfully reduce Qin's northern forces in this invasion to fourth of it's original number and slain their commander-in-chief.
3) Rallying the Gi'An troops
Before the battle begun Riboku also raised the morale of his army with the passionate speech. Instead of focusing on political situation he reminded them about the family they have to protect from the invaders which resulted in a great boost of morale.
17. Battle at Gi'An
For the main clash Riboku organized his forces into a "cage" formation where he surrounded them from all sides with the intention of wiping out their army at the location he chosen beforehand. When Shin decided to move his forces to the other side Riboku moved his elite Seika armies against Qin's special units as a preventing mesure. Against Kanki he used the experience from the battle of Koku You Hills and had his armies advance cauciously knowing that Kanki's only way of fighting are trick strategies.
At the end of the day Kanki and his core officers were able to escape the cage by stalling until nightfall with their cross formation, however they lost most of their army with the special units loosing more then half of their fighting power. Meanwhile Zhao were not mentioned to suffer any notable casualties in this battle are were able to preserve their strength.
18. Securing the region
After the special units were able to capture Gi'An it was revealed that Riboku made preparations to allow the castle to be recaptured. He sent all the civilians to a secure Hika city in order to prevent Kanki to use them as a barganing chip. His deputy Shunsuijuu also poisoned the wells inside the Seikirei castle which allowed Zhao to get rid of Qin remnants inside the city and cut Kanki off. Due to this Kanki was forces to abandon G'An as it was impossible to defend.
19. Battle of Hika
After leaving Gi'An Kanki marched towards the city of Hika where the civilians were moved. Trying to protect the citizens Riboku rushed there with his army and got ambushed by Kanki. Kanki's goal was to take Riboku's head and for that he split his remaining forces into three batalions in order to secure all possible pathways. Although Riboku was caught off guard with this manouver it should be noted that he wasn't completely unprepared. As was pointed out by the narrator Riboku set his formations in a way they could assist him in case of HQ being in danger.
During the fighting he also killed Shuma, one of Kanki's strongest warriors with quick stab from the blindspot. Riboku was able to survive long enough for the arrival of reinforcements by raising the morale of his closest troops to the point where they were fanatically throwing their lives away alongside his own martial might. Due to this, the ambush has backfired on Kanki who himself got traped and surrounded. Although Riboku was close to loosing his life the combination of secured travel formation, high morale of his close allies and his own martial might allowed Riboku to overcome Kanki's scheme which resulted in remanants of Kanki Army geting wiped out including Kanki himself.
To sum up - Qin's Gi'An Campaign could be considered their biggest defeat in the series so far. It resulted in death of the most famed member of Six Great Generals at the time alongside his army which was a huge reputational hit for their military prestiege. Generals Heki and Fuuhan got captured while general Sohakou was slained. The exact number of deceased Qin troops in the entire war is unclear, but I estimate it between 160,000 and 200,000 depending on how big were loses of the Ousen Army in Atsuyo. In the same year it also allowed Chu to capture some of Qin's cities in the south due to the losses they prieviously suffered.
20. Battle of Hango
Another one of Riboku's victories in the northern wars. For this battle Riboku placed his Ganmon officers against Yotanwa, Seika forces in the center against Ousen and on the left wing Enkan in chargé of a large Gi'An Army against the special units.
Riboku's plan was to exploit Ousen's weakness of being bad in "straight-forward battle". In his opening move he used himself as a bait in order to disrupt Akou Army as well as to lure Rishin away from the main battlefield and keep him buissy with a siege. Prior to battle he ordered the construction of several earth-work forts that he could hide inside while being pursued. The forts also had a hidden tunel as a way for his to escape in time. Due to Shin's absence Ouhon was forced to support the right wing and had his hands full with Gi'An Army. This resulted in Qin's young talents being sealed off and unable of sowing any complexity that Ousen could exploit.
The next step was for his hidden card Shibashou to destroy Ousen in direct clash. Despite suffering some losses Seika succeeded and were able to kill Ousen's two top generals and anihilate their army of more then 100'000 soldiers.
According to the narrator more Qin soldiers lost their lives in this battle then any other in the warring state period. It should be noted that thanks to Riboku's victories in the northern wars Qin's path of unification was almost ended and Qin needed to impletent grand reforms of Shouheikun's Three Pillars Plan in order to get back on track.
Yotanwa after learning of Riboku's plan in Bayou considers him a fearsome strategist
Gika calls Riboku a monster who surpassed Ouki
Ouki considers Riboku a general of unprecedented level
Ryofui feels that Riboku is projecting "fearsome greatness"
Shunshinkun says that Riboku is "far more terrifying than you can imagine"
Ouken thinks Riboku defeating Ouki and Gekishin was not a fluke
Ordo calls Riboku the most noteworthy man in all of China
Renpa calls Riboku the most dangerous man in China
Ouken thinks that Riboku is far greater then Qin have given him credit for
Eisei and Saitaku both consider Riboku to be the biggest obstacle on the path of unification
Gyou'un a veteran general and a deputy of Rinshoujo calls Riboku the strongest member of the Three Great Heavens in all of history
Ousen calls Riboku a monster of the same caliber as himself
Wei officers consider Riboku to be the only person that can keep up with ferrocity of Gohoumei's tactical offense
The narrator calls Riboku the "single most dangerous man Qin had faced yet"
After realizing the extent of Riboku's northern trap both Shouheikun and Ousen think they underastimated Riboku.
Shin praises the fire of Riboku's will and compares him to himself
Riboku's character statistics at the time of Battle of Eikyuu are:
Strength: 91
Leadership: 99
Knowledge: 100
Experience: S
In terms of total stats those are top 5 in the series and Riboku is the only character so far with maxed out knowledge.
Statistics obviously are not meant to represent all factors for a commander, but they also give some insight into the authors mind.
1. Battle of Ganmon
Riboku's first big victory in the series where he launched an offensive into Xiongnu territory and defeated them in an open battle. Before talking about the scale of this feat let's first estimate how strong the Xiongnu army was, since we've never seen them in action.
Here Yotanwa says that Xiongnu Army is on a completely different level then any other tribes she fought. Then Eisei mentions how three enemy states agreed to built a giant wall just to defend against them.
Here Bananji mentions how Zhao send multiple celebrity commanders to Ganmon, but none of them could survive even a month.
Here Banyou calls Ganmon "the land of death that surpassess even the struggles of plains". While it's unclear what exactly he mean by this, it's an indication of Xiongnu's reputation.
Despite this, Riboku's victory over them was very swift and he was fighting on enemy's terrain in plains while being on significant number disadvantage (200k vs 130k).
Here Yotanwa calls the battle "Completely one-sided slaughter".
It was also mentioned that Riboku personally assassinated multiple Xiongnu commanders on the battlefield, although it's unclear if it was during this battle or even before that.
2. Battle of Bayou
Riboku's victory over Ouki that granted him the position of prime minister. For this war he created a multi-layered plan in order to trap the legendary great general.
He researched Ouki's history, found the best terrain for a trap and created nation-wide information blocade to hide his army. Then he made Houken commander-in-chief of Zhao and leaked this information to Qin in order to lure Ouki out.
What's interesting is that Ouki was able to figure out that he's being lured into a trap based on Chousou's tactics, but he incorrectly estimated their arrival due to lack of experience in the north and it was all within Riboku's expectations.
Here Ouki admits of being outplayed and that he doesn't have a plan for this situation.
It's often brought up that Riboku used Houken in this battle, but it's also worth noting that Ouki himself had two GG-level commanders - Tou and Moubu. Who in many ways are more valueble then Houken due to being actual commanders.
3. Battle of Busui and Hau
Battle against Yan that happened offscreen. However, we know that Yan was called "completely helpless" despite cities having very high reputation.
4. Alliance with Qin
When king Toujou's lover was kidnapped by Ryofui, Riboku traveled personally to Qin's capitol in order to negotiate. Ryofui was planing to kill Riboku during this meeting, however, not only he could talk himself out of this situation, but at the price of one city also establish an one year alliance, despite two nations being at very bad terms. This impressed even a veteran diplomat like Saitaku.
5. Victory over Gekishin
While using the alliance with Qin Riboku invaded Yan and defeated it's best great general Geki Shin.
Before the battle started Riboku set up several fake HQ's and hid himself to Gekishin's right. From there he could view Yan from the same vantage point and counter their every move as well as avoid Gekishin's poison cats.
It's worth mentioning that the battle was already approaching it's climax just after half a day and before Houken even showed up (even tho the terrain was hevily favorable for Gekishin due to his mountain tribes). Houken in this battle was placed close to Riboku's HQ and was simply used as a finishing move.
It was also noted that the Yan army was superior to Zhao in terms of individual strength, so them wining so easily can only be contributed to the difference in strategy.
6. Dueling Shin
One of few martial feats we've seen from Riboku. He challenged Shin to a fight and was able to knock him back after the first clash. It's worth noting that this is post-Sanyou Shin that already had pretty good martial achievements like killing Rinko and surviving blows from Renpa and Houken.
7. Realizing the significance of Sanyou Conquest and creating Coalition Army
It was mentioned that Qin's conquest of Sanyou was a key move that would allow them the conquest of China. Riboku saw this and formed coalition army as the means of prevention. It was a second time in history of warring states when someone was able to do it, first one being by Gakuki of Yan 40 years prior.
Riboku and Shunshinkun were the only two people in China who realized what the victory in Sanyou truely meant and even Gohoumei was surprised about the news.
In order to form the alliance Riboku created information lockdown good enough to fool Shouheikun's intelligence network. Something that Shouheikun considered his own failure. What's more Shouheikun didn't think there would be anyone capable of doing this.
8. Sneaking the soldiers through Bu Pass
At the start of the war Riboku created a contingency plan in case taking Kankoku Pass would proven to be too difficult. He deliberately chose for Zhao the battlefield closest to the southern path and was sending his men to the Bu Pass, a few thousand at a time. He also added small unit of elites from each nation's army, so that it would be seen as common victory. To send tens of thousands of troops to the southern path without anyone catching on would take numerous days, however since they were being sent from day one, they were able to sneak through the mountains and throw Qin into disaray. After witnessing that Karin compared Riboku's way of thinking to her own, but admitted that Riboku gives more thought to things around him.
9. Battle of the Southern Path
While traveling the mountain passages Riboku Army's rear was attacked by Duke Hyou. Many people see this as a failure on Riboku's part, because Duke was able to overcome his formation and Riboku was forced to use Houken to win. However, there are few factors that need to be adressed.
1) Duke Hyou was hinted to be possibly the only general capable of reading the flow on the spot. It was said that Keisha (who has one of the best instincts in the series up to date) was incapable of decyphering it. For this feat Riboku even called Duke an Epitome of the Instinctual Type, something that was also confirmed by his maxed out instinct stat.
2) It was said that for the proper usage Ryuudou requires the commander to have a high vantage point - something that Riboku lacked at the moment. This is important, because if that was the case then Duke's faint of moving away from his flags would not work, since Riboku would see the battlefield from above. This is also confirmed by the earlier battle between Gohoumei and Duke. Gohoumei actually tried to use Ryuudou against Duke Hyou while having high vantage point and Duke's response was to fall back.
3) Later it was revieled that during this battle Riboku could in fact comprehend Duke's way of warfare which enabled him to create a new hybrid army.
This is an impressive feat, because it was implied that no strategist of the past was able to reverse-engereer instinct this way and it confirms that Riboku still improved since the early arcs.
10. Battle of Sai
Later Riboku served as the strategist of Zhao forces against king Eisei and the city of Sai. For this battle he decided to separete his army into two batalions that assaulted the defenders both during the day and night and tire them out. This allowed him to break them after 7 days of fighting, but was forced to leave after the arrival of Yotanwa Army. Some people tent to use this battle to downplay Riboku, but there are few problems with that.
1) Sai was not just a "city full of peasants", but was presented as absolute anomaly. First of all the city itself had exceptionally strong defences which is why Shouheikun chose it as the battlefield over Kanyou. It also had 50+ officers and strategists (including Kaioku), few units of professional soldiers (HSU, Duke's Elites, Heki Unit, Eisei's guard unit etc). But more importantly it had Eisei's "fanatical" morale boost that was directly compared to that of a great general and was even superior to Ouki's rallying. We know for a fact that Riboku had zero problems against other Qin cities and Shouheikun believed that even Kanyou with him in command wouldn't be able to hold out long enough.
2) Yotanwa arrived in the exact same moment Riboku opened the gate of Sai. So even if she was few minutes later then Eisei and Shin would be captured. Although you can argue that Hara did that purely for dramatic effect.
3) Riboku didn't retreat, because he believed he can't defeat Yotanwa. In fact he was confident in his victory against her. It's just that he would loose too many troops to fight another battle against Shouheikun afterwards. You have to remember that he would have to face two fresh armies commanded by top tier generals one after another, which is why his decision was to leave.
11. Alliance with Quanrong Tribe
At some point before Gyou Campaign Riboku made a diplomatic move towards the Quanrong tribe from Ryoyou. The city of Ryoyou was technically a separete state that did not belong to Zhao. However, with gifts and diplomacy Riboku was able to gain the respect of their leader Rozo and thanks to this Quanrong were fighting on Zhao's side during the next war.
12. Fortifying western Zhao and creating Retsubi trap
After the battle of Koku You Hills Riboku begun to fortify the western Zhao and bulding multi-layered defence that would allow him to engage Qin in long-term war. Whats impressive about it is that Shouheikun believed that said defense would be enough to hold Qin forces at bay for over ten years, which would put a great strain on Qin's reasources and render the conquest impossible in the long run. This move forced Qin to make a risky attack on Gyou as it was the only way for them to get insight into central Zhao territories.
In addition Riboku created a trap in Gyou Region. First he upgraded Gyou's defences to the point where Ousen believed it's impossible for them to break it from the outside, even calling it a "perfect city".
He then purposely weakened Retsubi in order to make it possible to easily recapture it. This allowed him to cut out the invading army from their supply line and informations and utilize starvation strategy.
13. Battle at Shukai Plains
1) Reading Ousen's opening move and assassinating Makou
On the first day of Battle at Shukai Plains (after Ousen striked Rigan soldiers with the Akou Army) Riboku made a surprise attack on Qin's left wing with a small unit of cavalry that enabled him to take their HQ and kill general Makou. However, what people sometimes forget is that Riboku decided to strike, because he expected Ousen to make a big move and thus seeing a possible opening.
When Riboku decided to take Ousen's bait and start the battle on that wing he already had the plan in his head. He knew that Qin's left wing is where Ousen is seting a trap which is why he decided to start the battle there.
2) Analyzing Ousen's defensive formation and defeating Akou
On the 9th day of Battle at Shukai Plains Riboku predicted that Qin would atempt a big move. In order to counter it, he observed the battlefield for some time and was able to figure out the weakness in Ousen's advanced defensive formation that was used by Akou Army. This allowed them to remove Akou from the battle, although he survived thanks to Akakin and Ouhon.
3) Plan against Ouhon
On the 13th day of battle Riboku created a plan for his left wing commanders cooperate in a manner which would allow them to eliminate Ouhon. The plan was to use cavalry unit from Gakuei's remnants to keep Kyoukai occupied. Then have Gyou'un to sturm Gyoku Hou's HQ with few hundred of his elites when they are engaged against Chougaryuu Army. It's worth noting that the plan was good enough to fool even Shin's instincts as he wasn't able to tell what is their goal.
In the end Ouhon was able to survive due to plot armor his fighting prowess as well as Kanjou and Kyuukou's aid and returned to the battlefield on the last day.
4) Pincer for a pincer
When his HQ was pincered by Qin forces Riboku decided to use the opening and attack Ousen's own HQ. He send Futei with few hundred cavalry to slip through Qin armies and attack Ousen's 5000 personal guards from the front. He also ordered Bananji to sneak through the forrests and strike Ousen from the side. Due to Bananji going into his berserk mode the pincer was especially dangerous. In the end Ousen was able to escape thanks to Mouten and Ouhon's help, but it was implied that he could have died if not for both of them rushing to his aid.
5) End of the battle and Ousen's analysis
In the end the battle ended in Qin's victory. According to Ousen this was due to two reasons. First one was Zhao not geting support by their capitol army and second due to Ousen having better pawns. He also considered Riboku's tactics possibly superior to his own due to his moves against Akou and Mako
14. Realizing the supply route
After conquering Gyou the Qin army hide themselves inside the walls of Gyou while Zhao surrounded the city to prevent them from resuplying. Riboku also covered both western land and river routs.
In the end Qin was able to get supplies from the allied nation of Qi. It's worth pointing out that Riboku did in fact predict this could happen, but was unable to warn his troops due to being arrested by Zhao king and removed from the war. This strongly suggest that if Riboku wasn't summoned to the capitol then Zhao could possibly win the war, since they would be able intercept supplies in time.
15. Building the Great Wall
It was later revealed that Ri Boku planed the construction of a Great Wall south of Kantan which halted their invasion on Kantan after Kochou's defeat. It's worth pointing out that this construction most likely begun even before the loss of Gyou as a security mesure in case Qin army would reach this far. It also allowed Riboku to limit Qin's attack options from the south which later force them to make a failed attack on Zhao's northern regions. As far as military fortifications go this is most likely the biggest architectural achievement so far in the series.
16. Trap in the North
After Qin's advancement was halted by Riboku's wall Ousen decided to attack the city of Gi'An located in the north. Riboku however was able to predict Ousen would choose this location for the attack six months prior to invasion alongside thier paths of attack and used this knowledge to create a large-scale trap. The plan here was to reduce Qin's forces before the main clash while also gathering the armies of the entire north in secret in order to fool Qin into thinking they will have the number advantage and walk into an ambush. Due to Riboku's information blocade Qin did not suspect large difference in numbers and Riboku was able to create an advantagous situation for himself.
1) Atsuyo
In order to reach Zhao's north Qin Army first had to go through the city of Atsuyo. Hovewer in this castle Riboku implemented a plan that allowed him to split enemy's forces. He sent Shunsuijuu into the castle who made a sacreficial strategy where the wounded soldiers would jump off the wall and take down their enemies with them. Using such a tactic was possible thanks to the grudge against Qin after the prievious massacre and it was effective enough to prevent Ousen Army from moving any further due to the losses they suffered.
2) Roumou
After predicting that Qin will sent reinforcements through Roumou region he sent generals Kansaro and Jiaga to the city of Roumou to prepare it and trained it's troops. When the Qin reinforcements of 140k moved into the land they were ambushed and forced to retreat. Out of them only 50 000 were able to pass which was also part of the strategy in order to make Qin confident in victory and move forward. Whats more impressive is that Roumou forces were only few tens of thousands, but due to them having half a year of preparations and the element of surprise they were able to successfully reduce Qin's northern forces in this invasion to fourth of it's original number and slain their commander-in-chief.
3) Rallying the Gi'An troops
Before the battle begun Riboku also raised the morale of his army with the passionate speech. Instead of focusing on political situation he reminded them about the family they have to protect from the invaders which resulted in a great boost of morale.
17. Battle at Gi'An
For the main clash Riboku organized his forces into a "cage" formation where he surrounded them from all sides with the intention of wiping out their army at the location he chosen beforehand. When Shin decided to move his forces to the other side Riboku moved his elite Seika armies against Qin's special units as a preventing mesure. Against Kanki he used the experience from the battle of Koku You Hills and had his armies advance cauciously knowing that Kanki's only way of fighting are trick strategies.
At the end of the day Kanki and his core officers were able to escape the cage by stalling until nightfall with their cross formation, however they lost most of their army with the special units loosing more then half of their fighting power. Meanwhile Zhao were not mentioned to suffer any notable casualties in this battle are were able to preserve their strength.
18. Securing the region
After the special units were able to capture Gi'An it was revealed that Riboku made preparations to allow the castle to be recaptured. He sent all the civilians to a secure Hika city in order to prevent Kanki to use them as a barganing chip. His deputy Shunsuijuu also poisoned the wells inside the Seikirei castle which allowed Zhao to get rid of Qin remnants inside the city and cut Kanki off. Due to this Kanki was forces to abandon G'An as it was impossible to defend.
19. Battle of Hika
After leaving Gi'An Kanki marched towards the city of Hika where the civilians were moved. Trying to protect the citizens Riboku rushed there with his army and got ambushed by Kanki. Kanki's goal was to take Riboku's head and for that he split his remaining forces into three batalions in order to secure all possible pathways. Although Riboku was caught off guard with this manouver it should be noted that he wasn't completely unprepared. As was pointed out by the narrator Riboku set his formations in a way they could assist him in case of HQ being in danger.
During the fighting he also killed Shuma, one of Kanki's strongest warriors with quick stab from the blindspot. Riboku was able to survive long enough for the arrival of reinforcements by raising the morale of his closest troops to the point where they were fanatically throwing their lives away alongside his own martial might. Due to this, the ambush has backfired on Kanki who himself got traped and surrounded. Although Riboku was close to loosing his life the combination of secured travel formation, high morale of his close allies and his own martial might allowed Riboku to overcome Kanki's scheme which resulted in remanants of Kanki Army geting wiped out including Kanki himself.
To sum up - Qin's Gi'An Campaign could be considered their biggest defeat in the series so far. It resulted in death of the most famed member of Six Great Generals at the time alongside his army which was a huge reputational hit for their military prestiege. Generals Heki and Fuuhan got captured while general Sohakou was slained. The exact number of deceased Qin troops in the entire war is unclear, but I estimate it between 160,000 and 200,000 depending on how big were loses of the Ousen Army in Atsuyo. In the same year it also allowed Chu to capture some of Qin's cities in the south due to the losses they prieviously suffered.
20. Battle of Hango
Another one of Riboku's victories in the northern wars. For this battle Riboku placed his Ganmon officers against Yotanwa, Seika forces in the center against Ousen and on the left wing Enkan in chargé of a large Gi'An Army against the special units.
Riboku's plan was to exploit Ousen's weakness of being bad in "straight-forward battle". In his opening move he used himself as a bait in order to disrupt Akou Army as well as to lure Rishin away from the main battlefield and keep him buissy with a siege. Prior to battle he ordered the construction of several earth-work forts that he could hide inside while being pursued. The forts also had a hidden tunel as a way for his to escape in time. Due to Shin's absence Ouhon was forced to support the right wing and had his hands full with Gi'An Army. This resulted in Qin's young talents being sealed off and unable of sowing any complexity that Ousen could exploit.
The next step was for his hidden card Shibashou to destroy Ousen in direct clash. Despite suffering some losses Seika succeeded and were able to kill Ousen's two top generals and anihilate their army of more then 100'000 soldiers.
According to the narrator more Qin soldiers lost their lives in this battle then any other in the warring state period. It should be noted that thanks to Riboku's victories in the northern wars Qin's path of unification was almost ended and Qin needed to impletent grand reforms of Shouheikun's Three Pillars Plan in order to get back on track.
Yotanwa after learning of Riboku's plan in Bayou considers him a fearsome strategist
Gika calls Riboku a monster who surpassed Ouki
Ouki considers Riboku a general of unprecedented level
Ryofui feels that Riboku is projecting "fearsome greatness"
Shunshinkun says that Riboku is "far more terrifying than you can imagine"
Ouken thinks Riboku defeating Ouki and Gekishin was not a fluke
Ordo calls Riboku the most noteworthy man in all of China
Renpa calls Riboku the most dangerous man in China
Ouken thinks that Riboku is far greater then Qin have given him credit for
Eisei and Saitaku both consider Riboku to be the biggest obstacle on the path of unification
Gyou'un a veteran general and a deputy of Rinshoujo calls Riboku the strongest member of the Three Great Heavens in all of history
Ousen calls Riboku a monster of the same caliber as himself
Wei officers consider Riboku to be the only person that can keep up with ferrocity of Gohoumei's tactical offense
The narrator calls Riboku the "single most dangerous man Qin had faced yet"
After realizing the extent of Riboku's northern trap both Shouheikun and Ousen think they underastimated Riboku.
Shin praises the fire of Riboku's will and compares him to himself
Riboku's character statistics at the time of Battle of Eikyuu are:
Strength: 91
Leadership: 99
Knowledge: 100
Experience: S
In terms of total stats those are top 5 in the series and Riboku is the only character so far with maxed out knowledge.
Statistics obviously are not meant to represent all factors for a commander, but they also give some insight into the authors mind.
I have this post saved when I used to debate @RayanOO and @TheKnightOfTheSea about Riboku in the Imformers pm. It used to include images as well, but those expired and I can't be bothered to search for them again. I just added some new highlights.
