This thread contains history spoilers, tho only limited to past events, mainly the life of Hakuki, but nothing of the current or future events of the manga
-The Thread isn't concerned with the Chouhei tragedy, but Hakuki's life itself
Known as 'Lord of Martial Peace' by some, and the 'Human Butcher' to others, but he was universally known as a 'God of War'.
A couple weeks ago I delved into Bai Qi's biography, and I was shocked beyond measure at the greatness of this man, and it is not only limited to China, Hakuki, aka as Bai Qi, could very well make it to the top 10 brightest and most powerful generals in history.
At first I expected Hakuki to be this old school general who wants nothing but to win wars and sack cities, but this is where the surprise was.
Whats makes Hakuki the most unique general of all was the fact that claiming cities and simply winning wars was not really valuable in his eyes, his true aim lied elsewhere, the destruction of enemy states manpower. This is such a powerful statement, you'd be tricked at first into thinking Ouki was the lead 6GG when it came to making the unification dream become a reality, but its dead wrong, Hakuki was the biggest dreamer in Qin, arguably more so than King Sho himself.
Hara disrespected Hakuki's legacy on two occasions so far, the first is when he claimed Ko Shou was the one to devise the plans for Qin's six, which is absolute bullocks in real history. Hakuki was the commander of the Qin military and Prime Minister of Qin for decades, Koshou is 'mostly' fictional like Ouki.
The second is Chouhei. In the manga, Renpa holds Zhao defense for 2 years against the might of Hakuki and Ouki, which he could've managed irl but that's not what happened. For the first 2 years it was Oukutsu alone who faced Renpa, and after Renpa was replaced, King Sho ordered Hakuki to take the mantle and he instantly crushed the Zhao armies. Chouhei was so great a win that it literally paved the way to China's unification.
And its not simply about winning the war, but winning it the Hakuki way. So this was the battle of Chouhei historically;
-Oukutsu breaks Renpa's 450,000 strong first line of defense
-Oukutsu unable to penetrate Renpa's second line of defense that lied along a river, stalemate for 2 years
Renpa out, Hakuki secretly appointed as commander
The first thing Choukustu did was to quickly cross the river and attack Qin's left flank, but unbeknownst to him Hakuki had deliberately weakened the left flank and anticipated Zhao making such a move. Behind Qin's left flank, Hakuki built one of his impentrable famed fortresses, and had his left flank fall back there and lure the Zhao army further in. Hakuki immediately sent a 25,000 detachment north and cut off Zhao's supplies, while he sent another 5000 missile cavalry to cut off the road between Choukutsu's new camp and his main HQ. Bai Qi himself followed soon and secured the river exits. With Zhao unable to progress past Hakuki's hill fortress, they were left trapped in a triangular encirclement.
Choukutsu had no choice but to retreat, and naturally suffered heavy casualties by doing so. Eventually, the Zhao army were entrapped and running low on supplies by the minute. Usually the other states would send reinforcements to Zhao at this point, but how could they when Hakuki has been hammering in their frontlines for decades. This was the reason for Qin targeting its main rival Zhao to begin with.
For 46 days, Hakuki launched attack after attack against the Zhao army, who were so desperate that some records claim the Zhao soldiers resorted to cannibalism after they were done with horses. Eventually, Choukutsu was shot by an arrow after he unsuccessfully lead a last charge against the encirclement.
The battle is won, 400,000 broken soldiers laid there waiting to return home, but Hakuki had different plans.
We know Hakuki never participates in wars he cannot win, and after this battle he was sure as hell he could claim Kantan. The way he saw it, these soldiers would've stood in Qin's way after they free them, and Hakuki had no time to spend, so naturally he would take the blame for this massacre in order to ensure Qin's dream of unification, but killing 400,000 soldiers was not enough for Hakuki.
He. Buried. Them. Alive
Meanwhile the other 5 states hearing the news;
Qin killed 400,000 prisoners
By burying them alive
Hakuki only saw one thing, unification, and he built the stairway to this unification dream using these dead bodies among other lives he claimed. He even freed a couple hundred prisoners to spread fear among the other states, you can imagine the terror.
Some of you might question why King Sho didn't take action against Hakuki after this massacre, but the sad reality is that he was rather delighted instead of furious. This shonen manga aside, King Sho was as bloody as they get, and for him to have a general like Bai Qi who'd take this weight off his shoulders is more than he can ask.
After Chouhei, Qin became the most prominent state while the others went on defensive mode for quite some time.
It is worthy of note that Bai Qi only killed trained soldiers on the battlefields, never civilians, contrary to what the manga says.
After Hakuki set his eyes on Kantan, Zhao managed to convince one of Qin's ministers that Hakuki was aiming to claim Zhao for himself. This minister then convinced King Sho that the Qin army must be weary at this point so he called them back. On his journey home Hakuki fell ill.
If King Sho was an actual God of War, Ouki would've been Kingdom's MC and not Shin
3 years later, an incompetent King Sho decides to attack Kantan and fails miserably at that. After four months, with Hakuki seemingly recovered from his illness, Sho asks Hakuki to lead the armies, but Hakuki knew it was a losing battle and refused the kings order using his illness as an excuse, and urged Sho to retreat his armies.
Sho didn't listen, and appointed Oukotso as the leader, but it was no use still, Chu and Wei stood with Zhao and crushed the Qin.
Sho asked Hakuki a second time but he refused again. As Hakuki said it, he would rather be executed for refusing the King's order than lose his undefeated streak.
What did small dick Sho do after this? He stripped Hakuki of all land and titles, reducing him to a mere foot soldier...
The same minister who convinced Sho to send the Qin armies back from Kantan, warned Sho of Hakuki's potential betrayal. Fearing Hakuki would end up joining another state, Sho sent Hakuki a knife. Who knows what would've happened to China if Sho allowed Hakuki to destroy Zhao back then, but to think that even tho he claimed countless cities and terrorized the entirety of China, his king didn't allow him to reach his full potential. That's crazy.
Before he committed suicide, Hakuki stated that he deserved such a tragic end after the atrocities he committed.
As bloody as he was Hakuki knew this was the only way to unification, and as sad as it might be, this has been the case throughout China's history.
Fun fact, Mao Zedong killed x60 more people than Hakuki
Anyway, with all that said, this man was a real character with a weight that shoulders kingdoms. After his passing, Qin's citizens were devastated at their most beloved general, he was worshipped far and wide as the savior of the kingdom. As it was known back then, as long as Hakuki draws breath, no one could lay thier hands on Qin.
Undeafeated, undisputed and unrivalled under the heavens, China's mightiest, Bai Qi
