Kingdom - Chapter 634: Strategy Undone

[Lee Ba Shou]

In regards to Shin not sensing the counter attack,

I don’t think it’s a bad decision from Hara, as Shin is still developing his instincts and him reading a very similar instinctual to himself in Gyou’Un doesn’t mean he can suddenly read Riboku,

Though I do find myself wishing that Shin’s Instincts would’ve been expanded a bit more here, As he seemed completely oblivious to RBK’s counter attack which was really a pretty basic maneuver.

 

[Blackbeard]

Ryouyou is seized by Yotanwa, the bulk of Riboku's army got butchered at Shukai Plains, Shiryu and Sou Ou attacked Riboku's rear slowing his retreat, Zenou's unit is effortlessly brutalizing the remnants of Riboku and Kisui's armies as we speak meanwhile Gyou has finally collapsed and opened its gate.

So Qin managed to achieve a decisive victory over Zhao on all fronts as expected by most readers. the common opinion now is that retarded king Tou Jou will execute Riboku sooner or later, but fortunately for Riboku, Shibashou is just around the corner and together they could launch a counter attack.

Even though Gyou's ruler, Earl Chou Ki is uncle of Tou Jou, even though Gyou is the second largest city in the state, even though losing Gyou results to the royal capital itself being endangered, the dumb maufcking king still insists on not sending help. Gyou's located in the middle of Zhao's heartlands so the state has basically been checkmated at this point. i expect there are two more major battles before conquest of Kantan. can't talk about that in detail since we would be discussing historical facts.

 

[Owl Ki]

Yes, it makes sense that Qin was the one rationing food, the one that actually ran out of food and fought with an empty stomach but it doesn't stop them from steam rolling Zhao at the Shukai plains.

Either the Ousen Army still had food, the Mouten Army still had food or both of them still had food. The only one that ran out of food for certain was the Qin Right Wing and they were saved through the Gyoko Hou and Hi Shin Units being “awakened”.

Chougaryuu also said this regarding hunger being a motivation in of itself.

Spoiler

Then, fully supplied essentially fresh Zhao soldiers March through the night and suddenly it matters again and they are tired.

Yes because those soldiers fought/ran at full speed from sunrise to sunrise. They literally had no rest for over 24 hours and then immediately had to fight the fully prepared and fresh Kanki Army.

The Qin forces, beleaguered and tired as they were during the Battle of Shukai Plains, still had several hours rest between fighting during the night time. The Riboku Army did not rest once for over a day and a night.

With the example you posted above being either not a near death situation or they ended up dead.

Irrelevant. The point was not whether or not they died but the fact that they were all in far, far worse condition than Shin and were still able to fight.

So for Shin to be still kicking after a near death experience like that is a bad writing from Hara.

Not really. Shin was revived and healed by Kyoukai’s spiritual technique, so it can be chalked up to that.

Not much point reviving a body that is going to die from it’s wounds, is there.

You didn't get what I'm saying. Sensing something like that is the forte of an Instinctual general. So for Shin to be unable to sense it at all is a big bad decisions by Hara.

Just because it is what they do, does not mean that they immediately excel at it against anyone of any caliber. Shin is still currently a novice at instinctual intuition and tactics in general.

Duke Hyou could sense just about anything and everything (except Keisha) because of his exceptional experience. Shin has only had a single moment where his instinctual intuition was applied on an army wide scale (against Gyou’un) and he was still being bested on a tactical level.

This is what Keisha told Rihaku regarding instinctual types such as Hyou.

Spoiler

Shin was focused on the rear guard. The soldiers within the rear guard had no idea what counterattack Riboku was planning since their orders were to be bait to distract the Qin, thus they gave no indication to Shin.

All the nearby strategists simply saw Riboku turn around and decided to withdraw. They were also further back from Shin and not engaged in the fighting as much, hence why they noticed more quickly than Shin himself, who was busy fighting.

The other thing is that whenever Shin has a moment of instinctual intuition, it is usually when neither Ten or Kyoukai are around (e.g. When Shin halted the Mangoku Army and when he hunted down Reiou) or when Ten fails (e.g. against Gyou’un).

Shin’s biggest problem that he needs to overcome in order to truly become a Great General of the Heavens, is his over reliance on Ten and Kyoukai when it comes to tactics. They are practically crutches by this point and Shin really needs to learn how to stand on his own two feet without them holding his hands.

Edit: MangaSee images do not permanently stay on posts within this forum, so I am replacing any that are in my posts.

 

[Guan Yu]

Irrelevant. The point was not whether or not they died but the fact that they were all in far, far worse condition than Shin and were still able to fight.

No, that's the point. When someone is on a near death experience and they still continue to fight, they always ended up death or fully incapacitated rightly after. But Shin do it just fine.

Just because it is what they do, does not mean that they immediately excel at it against anyone of any caliber. Shin is still currently a novice at instinctual intuition and tactics in general.

Duke Hyou could sense just about anything and everything (except Keisha) because of his exceptional experience. Shin has only had a single moment where his instinctual intuition was applied on an army wide scale (against Gyou’un) and he was still being bested on a tactical level.

This is what Keisha told Rihaku regarding instinctual types such as Hyou.

Spoiler

Shin was focused on the rear guard. The soldiers within the rear guard had no idea what counterattack Riboku was planning since their orders were to be bait to distract the Qin, thus they gave no indication to Shin.

All the nearby strategists simply saw Riboku turn around and decided to withdraw. They were also further back from Shin and not engaged in the fighting as much, hence why they noticed more quickly than Shin himself, who was busy fighting.

The other thing is that whenever Shin has a moment of instinctual intuition, it is usually when neither Ten or Kyoukai are around (e.g. When Shin halted the Mangoku Army and when he hunted down Reiou) or when Ten fails (e.g. against Gyou’un).

Shin’s biggest problem that he needs to overcome in order to truly become a Great General of the Heavens, is his over reliance on Ten and Kyoukai when it comes to tactics. They are practically crutches by this point and Shin really needs to learn how to stand on his own two feet without them holding his hands.

Which then comeback to my first post:

2. Shin almost caught by surprise counterattack from Riboku.
It's disappointing to see Hara choose to do that and having Ten to sense it instead of Shin. I mean, something like that is supposed to be an Instinctual general's forte. Sure there could be made an argument that Shin's instinct isn't yet top tier or consistent or etcetera. But considering that someone like Ten was capable of sensing it yet Shin doesn't have even the slightest clue of what happens is bad decisions by Hara on my opinions.

 

[Owl Ki]

No, that's the point. When someone is on a near death experience and they still continue to fight, they always ended up death or fully incapacitated rightly after. But Shin do it just fine.

Shin is not currently having a near death experience though, is he?

Kyoukai’s spiritual revival technique must at bare minimum, heal or partially heal the body of the recipient of her life energy or else they would just die again from their wounds, would they not?

The point of those examples was not anything to do with near death/death/whatever. It was to do with physical condition and their ability to fight despite being physically compromised.

Even if we remove every single example that died from the wound I described, that only removes Ouki and Choutou.

Moubu fought on immediately after an extreme diff fight and a broken wrist, that Mangoku soldier did not die on panel, Mougou got back up after losing an arm and Duke Hyou was not killed by losing his arm, he was killed by getting cleaved in half.

Shin has no lost or broken limbs, no grievous injuries, is not physically compromised and is clearly not dying.

Why should he not be able to fight when people with broken or missing limbs (e.g. Hyou, Mougou and Moubu... oh, wait. Just remembered papa Gyou’un and his speared arm. Lol) or are in the process of dying (e.g. Ouki and Choutou) can fight just fine?

Which then comeback to my first post:

Which brings me back to my point of Shin’s over reliance on Ten and Kai along with his lack of experience.

Whenever those two are around, he essentially relegates the job of strategy/tactics to them while he focuses on clobbering the enemy.

Ten, Mouten and Ouhon, as strategists, all recognised the potential for a strategical counterattack as soon as Riboku turned around and they retreated in advance. They did not sense that a counterattack was coming, they predicted it.

Meanwhile, Shin was busy fighting the rear guard thus he was preoccupied, not that looking at the rear guard would have given him any indication of what Riboku was planning since they themselves had no clue and Riboku’s flanking units were hidden by forest.

There was nothing to sense.

Which brings up a colossal difference between strategists and most instinctuals.

Strategists rely on predicting the movement of their opponents and plan ahead based on those predictions. Instinctuals rely on reacting to their opponents movements and exploiting weaknesses when they do move.

It is because of their reactionary nature that they can get caught out such as Duke Hyou getting pincered by Gokei’s chariots, Keisha becoming frustrated from Kanki’s lack of movement, Duke Hyou getting completely tricked by Keisha and now, Shin nearly being caught by Riboku.

 

[PuckTheGreat]

It was a great chapter for sure, but there are two points for me that reduces the greatness of the chapter a little bit.

1. Shin being battle fit.

Sure Shin said that it's feel heavy for him to swing the glaive and doing a battle. But considering that he just experience a near death battle against Houken, I would expect Shin to not be in a condition as good as he currently is. And that he would be in the back or in the middle of his unit and giving them order from there, not leading from the first line like that.​

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2. Shin almost caught by surprise counterattack from Riboku.

It's disappointing to see Hara choose to do that and having Ten to sense it instead of Shin. I mean, something like that is supposed to be an Instinctual general's forte. Sure there could be made an argument that Shin's instinct isn't yet top tier or consistent or etcetera. But considering that someone like Ten was capable of sensing it yet Shin doesn't have even the slightest clue of what happens is bad decisions by Hara on my opinions.​

I agree the Shin part was a little meh for me particularly since he grew so much as an instinctual general this arc but the ting here is as long as Ten remains the Hi Shin Unit's strategist, Shin's role as any sort of control tower in the unit will be very limited as Ten's relevance in the unit would fade otherwise or at the very least she won't be able to stand out as she's done till now. A bit of a shame though, as I feel that bit was the perfect opportunity for Hara to show Shin's growth this arc. Even though Shin just took out fcking Houken, it still feels like he's lacking in comparison to Ou Hon and Mou ten which honestly sucks balls at this point.