A Great General’s View is the 537th chapter of the Kingdom manga, written and illustrated by Yasuhisa Hara.
Summary
Mou Ten begins talking about the view that a Great General sees. Ou Hon's subordinates are confused about what Ou Hon means when he says he'll turn things around. Ban You makes his way to Ou Hon. Ou Hon tells Mou Ten that he's not interested in delusions/theories. Mou Ten tells still tries to tell Ou Hon what he means.
Ou Hon splits his forces and makes his way. Chou Ga Ryuu isn't fazed, its within his calculations and he has his elite squad stationed near predicted escape routes (south). He tells his soldiers to check to make sure if Ou Hon is part of the escape.
Ou Hon is not in the bigger escaping squad he is leading a smaller calvary to the opposite side in the North. Chou Ga Ryuu believes Ou Hon is merely splitting the forces to have better chance of regrouping with A Kou’s reinforcements coming up behind Chou Ga Ryuu, so he tries to create a wall to block the path of Ou Hon.
Chou Ga Ryuu is shocked to see Ou Hon make a beeline towards Ba Nan Ji’s army away from A Kou. Gaku Ei's calvary is still following Ou Hon, Ou Hon tells his soldiers to speed up even more to create distance. Ba Nan Ji's reserves start shooting at Ou Hon as well as their cavalry makes their way towards Ou Hon.
Kan Jou’s subordinates say their plan to escape backfired, Ou Hon replies "we're not escaping, we're going to attack." Kan Jou and others are surprised and asks where there going. He replies, "weakness of an army rank (rank is when they line up)".
A basic part of battle is creating ranks, and since both parties create ranks, its natural they clash in ranks. The part you have to pay attention to is behind, since if a rank loses control of what's going on behind it, it'll be pincered from front and back, reason for reserves is to prevent this. Second weakness is the ends of a rank, if it gets attacked from the sides, the enemy will coordinate an attack with 2 armies to create a domino effect and defeat the rank starting at the ends.
Army chasing Ou Hon is part of Ba Nan Ji's reserves and he is doing everything he can to out-maneuver them. This is because he was targeting a specific point. After seeing this, Chou Ga Ryuu is shocked and can't stop his admiration for Ou Hon's strategy. The point of Ou Hon's target is the farthest side of Ba Nan Ji's ranks (he ran all the way past from his location to make it to other side of the battle).
Chou Ga Ryuu’s soldiers are surprised Ou Hon will risk everything to target Ba Nan Ji since they only number around 600. Chou Ga Ryuu states, Ou Hon has no intention of attacking by himself, and says if A Kou is a capable commander, he'll react to Ou Hon's strategy. A Kou, of course, reacts and tells his army to coordinate attack with Ou Hon and "eat up Ba Nan Ji's Army" starting from the left, he says he'll tie down Ba Nan Ji where he is, and he joins the fray.
A Kou says his because of Ou Hon, his own strategy that he devised has gone out the window. But with this move, he thinks the Qin can cripple Ba Nan Ji Army to a point where it won't be able to revive itself only on second day.
Chou Ga Ryuu continues his admiration, as he can’t believe Ou Hon was able to be so quick witted when the Gyoku Hou Unit was on the verge of collapsing and surrounded by his and Gaku Ei’s Army.
Mou Ten finishes his insight. He says Great Generals of Six Great Generals of Qin caliber, in any situation or time, they always believed themselves to be the main piece of the puzzle that the war/battle revolved around and sought to impact or disrupt the battlefield, and that was the view he believed they were seeing.
Characters
Qin
Shukai Plains
- Gaku Ka Unit
- Mou Ten flashback