Kingdom - Vol. 70 Ch. 765 - Battle of Shadows

[MangaDex]

 

[Grimmycoffee]

Alright let's see where this goes

 

[Knighto]

I really hope he gets killed, because he pretty much created an international conflict, as he killed a prince

 

[quiproquo]

The plot thickens!

 

[vonisme]

Damn, dude's Gaslighting skills are maxed

 

[Wushizzle]

He's clever as hell, I'll give him that, but its a interesting divergence. You have your own spy who is "loyal" and yet "disloyal" from one of the people you know best, and per the words of the person you know "best" your spy is disloyal and sworn to your greatest enemy Riboku. Hahaha, i'd rather be in the frontline then in Ri Shi's position, poor bastard needs to make sense of absolute chaos! Give me the blood and thunder of a battlefield, I'll die a easy death!!

 

[nutjob]

@FeedMeOreos
Small empty balloon on page 8, under "Move or be run over!!"

 

[sssr]

The waist chopper was not historically used in Qin as far as we can tell. Their waist chop was performed with butcher knives and was a heck of a lot slower than would be possible with a proper waist chopper.

The waist chopper shown here is a device first attested in the Tang dynasty but probably mainly used in the Song. It's rather infamous thanks to the Seven Heroes and Five Gallants story cycle, where the main character Bao Qingtian (Bao Zheng) had three types of waist chopper: a dragon-headed one for royalty and nobles, a tiger-headed one for military officers, and a dog-headed one for commoners.

I always thought... Wait, what's the point? All three versions worked exactly the same way... You would think that the execution METHODS would be different for the three classes, but no. Personally I wouldn't give two shits what kind of head the waist chopper giving me a horrible death would have.

Also, Ri Shi of all people really shouldn't be talking about waist chop.

 

[Yiledute]

I normally would say that we could always trust the fanaticism of a person. But then again, killing a prominent figure from another nation when they are a guest in your own country is a very bad impression on the rest of the nations. I guess that this could work if Qin were already planning on conquering Han soon, and Qin is already enemy of the world, so this may not be as big of an issue as it would be in any other situation.

Youka has a very big point, Rishi can't afford to get rid of the intelligence network, not unless he has another one ready to take over.

 

[jiraiyasama3310]

He's clever as hell, I'll give him that, but its a interesting divergence. You have your own spy who is "loyal" and yet "disloyal" from one of the people you know best, and per the words of the person you know "best" your spy is disloyal and sworn to your greatest enemy Riboku. Hahaha, i'd rather be in the frontline then in Ri Shi's position, poor bastard needs to make sense of absolute chaos! Give me the blood and thunder of a battlefield, I'll die a easy death!!

The skills of an excellent spy are best used by an excellent handler.
Ri Boku is just the perfect fit. Ri Shi might be the best legalist, but he's a bad handler.
Ri Boku understands the game well. Had Ryo Fui been in the game, the situation might have been different.

 

[Bloodprince]

god please don't listen to this traitorous fuck

 

[Jachinz]

Bruh you just killed the dude before brining any information to light. You have made your own countries position far worse. They literally just invited the guy there.

 

[Amariithynar]

snip It's rather infamous thanks to the Seven Heroes and Five Gallants story cycle, where the main character Bao Qingtian (Bao Zheng) had three types of waist chopper: a dragon-headed one for royalty and nobles, a tiger-headed one for military officers, and a dog-headed one for commoners.

I always thought... Wait, what's the point? All three versions worked exactly the same way... You would think that the execution METHODS would be different for the three classes, but no. snip

More than likely, each blade was a different sharpness and otherwise maintained differently.

 

[Doomer]

"i might be a complete traitor to everyone that has every trusted me but if you let me go i'll definitely help Qin take over China, trust me bro" nah man, this dude is a traitor of the highest degree, if you ever let him go you will never see him again and he will just hold a grudge against you and send spies into Qin. torture him and then execute him publicly.

 

[LJmnz27]

I think keeping him alive to feed false info would be more beneficial to Qin. If what Ri shi said is true that's how I would play it. Loosing an intelligence network is worse than having one not loyal to you.

 

[Knighto]

I think keeping him alive to feed false info would be more beneficial to Qin. If what Ri shi said is true that's how I would play it. Loosing an intelligence network is worse than having one not loyal to you.

problem is... the team of spies that worked for him rather than Rishi, he can't be let loose, he will help Riboku get the spying for the other countries too

 

[LordTartaros]

Youka is living rent free inside his head

 

[nokosama]

 

[sssr]

More than likely, each blade was a different sharpness and otherwise maintained differently.

In Three Heroes and Five Gallants (the original version of Seven Heroes and Five Gallants before the pedant Yu Yue "fixed" the title, having completely missed the point) it's specifically stated that the three blades were ordered from the same blacksmith and were exactly the same, as the three waist choppers were put to service on the same day. This is interpreted as Bao Zheng's adherence to the principle of absolute equality before the law, with the heads and decorations serving as his only concession to rank. However, we can easily imagine that the dragon one would remain pristine from lack of use while the dog one would be pretty janky from constant use, so...

 

[sssr]

OK, for people who want to crucify Youka right away, most likely Youka's network here is serving as a replacement for the historical Mohists. In Qin apocryphal histories, it is said that the Mohist school under its third generation leader secretly pledged support to Duke Xiao of Qin and started setting up a network of affiliated officials in all Warring States that strove to influence the states in ways that would benefit the reunification of China (Mo Di shared Confucius' belief that China used to be one state).

It isn't known if this effort survived to the time of Ying Zheng, but Mohists were the preeminent military engineers and strategists of all 7 kingdoms all the way to the end, and supposedly the secret deal between Qin and Qi was made possible by Mohists serving as messengers. Mohists were masters of mathematics and cryptography too.

When Qinshihuang suppressed the Confucianists and other schools opposed to the Legalists, he left out the Mohists. They eventually fizzled out of existence because their ethical teachings were absorbed into Confucianism and the Han peace made their military skills less useful to the state. This sounds very similar to what Youka is proposing here.