So begins the war. The surprise invasion by the Yan army complicated things, but the main event remains Zhao vs. Qin. You have to feel for Li Mu here. Not only does he have two armies sandwiching him from east and west, he has an enemy of sorts in his own capital. Over and over we’ve been told that Li Mu is the greatest strategic mind in the Middle Kingdoms (or close). But the current situation is going to put that to the test, as it’s going to demand every ounce of ingenuity he’s got.

These action-driven eps of Kingdom seem to fly by in about five minutes, and this was no exception. With its arrival at Jin’an, Wang Jian’s army finally gets let in on the secret. Once their change of direction happens all pretense at deception is pretty much out the window – it’s a race at that point. Wang Jian makes it clear – any general who struggles with this audible will be summarily beheaded. 200,000 strong turn on their axis and head southeast at the military equivalent of a sprint, determined to reach Ye’ before Zhao reinforcements from the capitol do. Not that there aren’t going to be obstacles along the way.

We know that Xianyang and Li Mu now know about Yan’s eastern invasion, but not whether that information has filtered down to Wang Jian. I’m not sure it would cause any change to his tactics, but the Qin army betrays no evidence that it’s aware. Li Mu certainly is. He’s also, thanks to Shun Shuishu, aware of Qin’s subterfuge, and faces the cruel choice of how to divide his army. He informs the royal capital of what’s happening and suggests they send and army to Liewei, Zhao’s equivalent to Qin’s Handan’. But Li Mu probably knows the King is unlikely to acquiesce to such a request. The King’s “counter-offer” is to rouse up an army from Ye’ and send them, leaving the Handan force to protect his royal person (and bath).

As for Yan, Li Mu appears to have caught a break here. The invading army is ploughing through the meagre western defences like a knife through ghee, but is now headed for Qingge. That frontier outpost is the domain of a brilliant rogue general named Sima Shang, who despises the high command and feigns illness, fighting only when it suits him (despite Li Mu having tried to tease him out by offering to make him one of Zhao’s three great generals). Sima Shang would likely have sat this one out if Yan weren’t headed directly for his doorstep. But they are, and he’s riding out to meet them – for the nonce sparing Li Mu from having to further divide his forces on the Eastern and Western Fronts.

So, then, the first great battle of the invasion war is destined to take place at Liewei. Zhao will obviously try and slow down Wang Jian every way they can, buying time for the Ye’ reinforcements to arrive. But Wang Jian knows this, and it’s why his army was constructed as it is. Highly autonomous separate entities, accustomed to acting on their own. As such he deploys units under his command – first Huan Yi, then Wang Ben (his nephew) to deal with the Zhao forces harassing the main army while the bulk of his forces keep moving at speed towards Liewei.

But even Liewei is an intermediate target, the undercard and not the main event. Rather than throw everything he has at Liewei and it’s formidable defensive constructions, he despatches Yang Duanhe’s mountain tribe army and the Fei Xin to claim it, leaving his main force in reserve. This is shrewd for multiple reasons, not least that these are two armies with a long and friendly relationship. Yang Duanhe (who in real life was a man, interestingly) assures Xin that her people will breach the walls and throw wide the gates – all the Fei Xin need to do is storm through them and bring the defenders inside to heel. Yang Duanhe talks a big game, but so far she’s always been able to back it up.