War is Hell.

Forgive me for stating the obvious but yeah, no matter how exciting and even occasionally funny a series like Kingdom makes it out to be, battle is awful. It’s death, and everything else is just a side dish. Unfortunately for much of human history it was the only way a lot of people had to make a living or glorify their name, and the main means of foreign policy for most countries. I’ve said it before but within reason Kingdom doesn’t gloss over that too much, which is something I respect about it.

Wang Jian knows what he’s doing. Swinging around a poleaxe the size of Detroit is nice, but a commanding general’s main job is to come up with or agree to the correct strategy, and delegate the right jobs to the right people. Putting Yang Duanhe in charge of storming Liewei is a good example. This is an instance where the Fei Xin force and its commander are pretty much overshadowed. Yang Duanhe knows what it takes to overwhelm a castle’s defenses, and knows the cost of doing so. So do her myriad tribal armies, and their loyalty to her is such that they’re willing to pay it.

None of this is to say that the Fei Xin aren’t essential elements of this siege. Their main job is to overwhelm the defenders inside Liewei once the mountain tribes have opened the gates, but Yang needs their support in getting that done. As a very envious Wang Ben races towards Liewei to see for himself what happens and Meng Tian wistfully looks on, Xin despatches his “Bow Brothers” to support the tribesmen storming the walls. This is a worry, Xin says, because for all their skill Ben and Dan have never used their arrows on human beings before.

Dying is obviously the worst-case scenario for a soldier. But killing is pretty traumatic too, especially for new recruits (and the youngest in the squad at that). Yang needs archers and these two are, unquestionably, the best Xin has. But when the moment comes they hesitate, traumatized by seeing the faces of the men they’re supposed to kill. Ren breaks through this barrier, spurred on by the sight of his allies being mown down by the archers on the walls. But Dan can’t force his aim high enough to take down those men. This is something I would imagine will be revisited soon enough.

With the archers’ help the tribes do manage to get the gate open, and once that happens it’s only a matter of time. But the price paid is still very much in the balance, and this is where the Fei Xin is going to bear the brunt. Especially when the Liewei cavalry shows up, sending a shiver of panic through the newbies in the Fei Xin. But their leader soon arrives. Wang Qi’s massive poleaxe in hand. And while he does massive amounts of damage with it, it’s obvious to Qian Lei that he’s struggling. “This piece of shit is too heavy” indeed – that’s something Xin is definitely going to have to work on.

By the time Wang Ben arrives Liewei has already fallen, and Xin is on the highest rooftop waving the Qin flag. Wang Bian has delegated correctly again, and still has most of his army (including the other two young guns and their squads) relatively unscathed. But apparently there’s another layer to this siege, one last “trick” Li Mu had up his sleeve. Whatever that trap is, Wang Jian seems to have no troubling figuring it out. Which is not, of course, the same as avoiding it.