| Kan Ki | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Chinese | Huan Yi | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Kanji | 桓騎 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Epithet | The Beheader Fifth Great Qin’s Prodigy | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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Appearance
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| “ | Rage. That is what drives Kan Ki. Rage that burns so strong it's hot enough to melt even rock. | ” |
—Saki to Naki on Kan Ki's motivations. | ||
Kan Ki is a member of the Six Great Generals of Qin and the leader of Kan Ki Army. In the past, he was a bandit leader with a penchant for decapitation, which earned him the moniker The Beheader. He also served as a Vice General in the Mou Gou Army, and after the death of Great General Mou Gou, he commands his own independent army.
Appearance[]
Kan Ki has long, jet black hair arranged in a ponytail, with shorter stray hairs around his hairline. His hair always looks glossy and slick. Hs dons a small goatee like most important men in the series. He typically wears a smug expression on his face, never being shown looking truly angry or upset. He wears purple armor with dark-colored fur around the neck, a robe with leopard print trim, metal boots with suns on them, and a general's cape, as well as multiple cuff earrings on his left ear. His eyes are slender and he has thick eyebrows, a sharp nose, and soft looking lips. He is considered to be quite attractive by other characters.
Personality[]
His personality is said to be extremely brutal, as he has no qualms in killing surrendered soldiers and personally beheaded every person in any city or village he conquered. This is shown in how he sends heads of Wei soldiers back to their commanders, who have been severely tortured, along with bags of eyeballs back to their camp to decrease morale and incite fear. His brutality would also extend to his allies and even his subordinates, having no qualms sacrificing his own men for the sake of victory. Ou Sen who correctly deduced Kan Ki's unique plan against Ko Chou even called him insane due to how extreme Kan K is by intentionally sacrificing large numbers of his own men simply to defeat Ko Chou, Ko Chou despite acknowledging Kan Ki's ingenuity, expressed his disbelief towards his inhumane methods by calling Kan Ki deranged. Ma Ron also claimed that the reason why Kan Ki massacred the one hundred thousand surrended Zhao soldiers was simply to satisfy his bloodthirsty temperament rather than revenge for Raido's death. Sei also noted Kan Ki's brutal methods will end up backfiring on Qin's ambition and efforts to unite China as Kan Ki's decision to massacre all of Ko Chou army's surrended soldiers have incite immense anger and hatred among the people of Zhao by practically repeating Haku Ki's massacre of Zhao soldiers at Chouhei, leading the remaining Zhao soldiers on Ri Boku's superior planning to launch an all out last stand against Qin's next invasion, rather die fighting than concede to their hated foe.
He always has an arrogant smirk on his face and talks in a crude manner at times. He shows no respect for his foes as he calls Gen Bou "an old fart" and "trash" before killing him. He exhibits a sense of humor and sarcasm as in the case when a fellow soldier asked him, why he made an apparently unskilled individual like Ogiko a 1000-Man Commander of the Kan Ki army, to which the General merely responds lightheartedly with the words "cause it's funny obviously."
He has personally stated that he could care less about the concept of loyalty to one's kingdom and wouldn't even be concerned if Qin was to fall. In his personal opinion, despite his employment within Qin's military forces, the concept of kingdoms is nothing more than a corrupted system or 'cesspool' where a select upper classes can treat commoners as they please. On the other hand, he is still quite content with being a General as it allows him to quench his thirst for the thrill of warfare (no matter how savage) in a sanctioned manner. Despite his outward reasoning for his actions and methods, some of Kan Ki's closest soldiers and subordinates claim that he isn't motivated by the thrills of war but pure rage and anger towards the world.
He also has a frighteningly cool demeanor and almost never displays any panic no matter how dire the situation is. Kan Ki is also very sadistic as he toys with Haku Ki Sai by dangling the idea of survival in front of him and forced him to beg for his life. Kan Ki then stabbed him several times after he refused to grovel.
He does exhibit a sense of loyalty exclusive to Mou Gou by holding the position of Vice General in his army and coming when summoned as demonstrated when Chou Tou used Mou Gou's name, as he knew that Kan Ki would simply ignore a request for a conversation with him. His loyalty extended to such degree, that he "offered" incinerated enemy soldiers who had surrendered to his now-deceased general, calling him by his moniker Ha Kou Rou.
Kan Ki also has no problems being endangered or at risk due to his willingness to make snap decisions despite being in danger, even though Kyou Kai once held her sword to his throat he showed no problems ordering his men to decapitate Den Yuu as a response.
History[]
In his youth, Kan Ki was the leader of a large pack of bandits based in the mountains in Southern regions of the state of Qin during the waning days of King Sho's era of warfare. He became infamous for his unusual ways of guerilla tactics and brutal personality as he would behead every single citizen of any local cities and villages he conquered. At some point during this period he was recruited by Mou Gou, a Great General of Qin, as the old general saw potential in the young bandit and decided to take him under his wing. He along with his other peer who was named Ou Sen, rampaged their way across the Warring States while living underneath the shadows of the Six Generals of Qin.
About a decade later and now a general, Kan Ki would be a major player in the Sanyou Campaign of the State of Wei while serving as a vice general to the Qin Army, having conquered five cities before arriving at the place where the conclusion of the campaign would take place.
Story[]
Sanyou Campaign Arc[]
He is first seen in the Qin-Wei conflict when Rin Ko is scouting out targets to slay before the upcoming battle. His strange camp setup checks the Wei general as it appears to be full of openings yet they could all be traps. Kan Ki arrives on Mount Ryuu to set up his camp, giving him a good terrain advantage before the main battle. He sees a smoke signal from the HQ saying that they'll be praying for their victory and Kan Ki calls it "rare" for Mou Gou to do such a thing.
After the vanguard from both sides had faced off, Kan Ki and his 30,000 men faced off against General Kai Shi Bou in the hill region. His effective use of guerilla warfare combined with his ruthless and cruel mental warfare tactics that made the Wei troops succumb to fear for the Qin General gave Kai Shi Bou quite a challenge. He finishes with a "human forest" before finding out that the enemy's main army is heading for his headquarters. He turns this threat in an opportunity as he and his men disguise themselves as Wei messengers who are able to infiltrate Kai Shi Bou's HQ in order to get close to the Heavenly King Gen Bou. Upon being found out, Kan Ki and his men proceed to kill the Wei guards present and he comes face to face with the old man who tries to recruit Kan Ki as his student. His request is the last thing he says before he is beheaded by the Qin general who calls him trash. He later attacked and captured the Wei headquarters and cruelly killed Haku Ki Sai the Wei commander-in-chief. His crew then beheaded the other captured officers as well.
During the reward ceremony following the Sanyou Campaign, Kan Ki has raised two ranks in the nobility and given the lands of Sei Hi, Sei Rin, and Dai Ka. While kneeling before the king, Kan Ki was curious to see the face of the person who had his power stolen by Ryo Fui. He is surprised by the fierce light emitted from the king's eyes, which he found strange for a person "raised as a doll in a palace of luxury."
Coalition Invasion Arc[]
He along with other Great General class Generals were summoned at Kanyou to discuss the plan to defeat the Coalition Army.
In the Battle of Kankoku Pass, he and his crew use oil barrels stolen from Kanyou’s warehouses to throw it on the Go Hou Mei siege tower. Kan Ki then shoots a fire arrow that burns the tower and hundreds of Wei troops while laughing.
After Chou Tou got poisoned by Han's poison arrow troops, he gathered some troops and stole a Wei flag and started going towards his HQ. Chou Tou followed along with his army. They broke through the armies without fighting because, in the middle of the siege of Kankoku Pass, every single soldier was focused on destroying the wall. After they defeated the Han Defense HQ, Chou Tou slew the Han commander in chief Sei Kai and shortly afterward died himself from the poison. Kan Ki afterward stayed on the Kankoku Pass walls for the rest of the Coalition Army war, but because the Coalition Army was focused on fighting at other battlefields, there was no action on Kankoku Pass.
Conspiracy in the Court Arc[]
After the end of Coalition War Kan Ki is ordered to attack the gigantic Wei stronghold of Kyuu. He easily took the city and burned Wei commanders alive as a tribute to Hakurou.
State of Ai Arc[]
He wanted to gouge out the eyes of Rou Ai and the fleeing Ai Army.
Koku You Campaign Arc[]
He is the leader of the army that attacked the hills. But he never appeared on any battle and instead used his typical move, massacring nearby villagers and made a bridge made of corpses, that unnerved Shin and Kyou Kai who tried to attack him, thus negating their victory over Ryuu Tou and Kei Sha.
Western Zhao Invasion Arc[]
He was placed as the general of the first army of the western Zhao attack army. Along with the mountain king Yo Tan Wa who leads the second army and general Ou Sen who acts as the commander of the third army as well as the supreme commander. He was later tasked to be in charge of besieging Gyou.
Battle of Eikyuu Arc[]
Kan Ki was called to Capital of Qin and been promoted to become a member of Six Great Generals when Ei Sei revived the "Six Great General" system on new year. He returned to the frontlines and began a brutal offensive on Heiyou that resulted in many losses albeit mostly those that don't belong to Kanki's gang. He made a deal with Ou Sen that he'll let Mou Ten be under Ou Sen wing in exchange for Ou Hon who would replaced and take command of Kanki's left wing army that would see heavy losses and nearly wiped out in the process of taking Eikyuu hill. Eventually, he has caught great general Ko Chou attention who moved his main army to reinforced the garrison that were facing kanki's army. For 8 days it was a hopeless battle as the combine army of Ko Chou's and Zhao's defenders made up a total of 240,000 men outnumbered against Kanki's army who has less than 100,000 men, together with the terrain advantage under Zhao's favor on Eikyuu. Including, when Kanki's gang were being pushed to the brink of wiping out, many turned and flee from the battlefield. Pushing further to Zhao's seemingly complete victory. Unknown to Ko Chou's and Kanki's army. Kanki had set up a scheme that would play out in Sun Bin's strategy fashion that will turned the table to Qin's victory.
The Hi Shin Army, who was situated between Ou Sen and Kanki forces. Finally been called by Kanki to take action and join the fray on claiming Eikyuu Hill where Ou Hon army took charge in. Having Succeeded claiming Eikyuu hill, Kanki's army were pushed further back and having lost the will to fight, many more fled the battlefield, Kanki, who was thought to be at his Headquarters vanished without trace. When Ko Chou sends his main army and left wing army to pushed further to crush kanki's men, and had the reserve army of 5000 men to guard against Shin who defeated the ring wing army and now holds Eikyuu hill. Kanki would appear at Ko Chou's Headquarters with his detach unit that sneaked pasts the Zhao's main relentless onslaught. Ko Chou who realized too late of Kanki's scheme, was slain on his way to escape.
Unknown to Kan Ki, before Ko Chou decided to take his own life, later decided to kill many of Shu Ma Clan, he mentioned he'll have a drink with Rai Do in afterlife. Prompting Kanki to find out the fate of Rai Do after slaying Ko Chou. With Ko Chou's death and decapitated head as proof, the Zhao's army at Headquarters fled, he would quickly turned the tides of war to his favor when, the last 8 days of battle, he had Ma Ron to handle giving out false information to cause confusion and panic among Zhao's forces should Kanki succeeds in slaying Ko Chou. With the death of Ko Chou and confusions sowed among Zhao's army, furthermore with the return of Kanki's men who fled. The Zhao's army loses their morale and quickly surrendered to Kanki's army numbering 100,000 men as prisoners.
Kan Ki would later learned the fate of Rai Do's gruesome death and had his men to execute all prisoners which would be recorded in the history as one of many tragedies of war. After the massacre king Ei Sei visited Kan Ki to judge him for his reckless actions. Ei Sei tries to ask him for a reason he killed the prisoners, but Kan Ki avoids giving direct answer. Ei Sei looses his patience and almost killed him. Ma Ron however is able to stop the bloodshed. He says that the massacre was that there was still a risk of rovolt once the Zhao soldiers would realize they outnumber Qin greatly. If that happened there was a risk of Qin suffering a great loss. Ei Sei says that for this there was no need to kill every lost soldier and all they needed to do is to match the strength of the prisoners to stop them and this was unnecessary bloodshed. After hearing this Kan Ki bursts into laugh and says that Ei Sei is the one responsible for killing the most people in this world. A dispute breaks between the two of them and Kan Ki even acuses him of being a bloody king. He says that humanity will never allow for peace to be possible and that Ei Sei expects too much of humans. Ei Sei however, doesn't think there's anything wrong with that, since he's the king that wants to find the shortest path towards peace. At first he thinks that Kan Ki turned towards hopelessness, however he stops mid-sentence and gets quiet for a moment. Kan Ki asks Ei Sei what is his verdict regarding his fate. Ei Sei decides to not excute him, since Ma Ron's explanation was enough and Kan Ki also secured an important victory for Qin. Despite this he warns Kan Ki that if he does something reckless again his head will roll. Later in the night Kan Ki is seen with a mysterious woman from the Saki Clan in his bed.
Zhao's Retaliation Arc[]
Abilities[]
| “ | Young yet endowed with talent. It's said that if he were only born one generation earlier, he would have been counted amongst Qin's Six Generals. | ” |
—Rin Ko commenting on Kan Ki's abilities. | ||
| STATS | |
|---|---|
| Strength | 93 |
| Leadership | 95 |
| Intelligence | 96 |
| Experience | A |
| Rage: 100 | |
| STATS | |
|---|---|
| Strength | 93 |
| Leadership | 94 |
| Intelligence | 95 |
| Experience | A |
| Demonic Eyes: 99 | |
| STATS | |
|---|---|
| Strength | 93 |
| Leadership | 92 |
| Intelligence | 95 |
| Experience | B |
| Cruelty: 99 Eyeballs | |
| STATS | |
|---|---|
| Strength | 93 |
| Leadership | 92 |
| Intelligence | 95 |
| Cruelty: 99 Eyeballs | |
Kan Ki was noted to possess a talent for warfare on par with Six Great Generals of Qin, eventually becoming a member of the new Qin Six.[1][2] A prodigy at warfare, he has never formally studied strategy, yet has never lost a battle because of his unorthodox tactics. Because of that, Kan Ki was even considered by Mou Gou to be Qin's number one general at turning the tables.[3]
Physical Abilities[]
Master Swordsman: While Kan Ki is not seen fighting actively very often, his high strength value indicates of him being a capable combatant. He shown to be a powerful swordsman, from personally decapitating entire cities and villages to brutally killing enemies in single combat, as he was able to cut two members of the Zenou Clan with ease. He deflected a strike from Ka Man from Ko Chou Army expeditiously as he cut the old commander in half.[4]
Archery: Kan Ki displayed some proficiency with the bow, being able to aim a flame arrow at Wei Siege Tower from the top of Kankoku Pass.
Leadership[]
Kan Ki possesses immense charisma, as well as strong leadership skills as he was able to unite many independent bandit clans into a large bandit army under his rule. Many of his bandit chiefs are even willing to follow him into extremely unfavorable battles. Some, like Rai Do are even willing to withstand intense torture and interrogation in order to protect his secrets which is a further indication of the loyalty that he is able to inspire. As a former bandit leader, Kan Ki understand his own soldiers well enough to use their cowardice and dishonour as ex-bandits to his advantage to create a massive diversion by having them flee a losing battle against the Ko Chou Army whom are among the best of Zhao's military who is vastly superior to them in terms of numbers and military skills while commading his strongest soldiers of Zen Ou Clan and Shu Ma Clan whom are also experts in stealth to hide themselves long enough to evade the majority of the Ko Chou Army until they could ambush Ko Chou at the right timing, upon tricking the Zhao soldiers into surrendering, the deserted Kan Ki soldiers quickly returned to the battlefield to fiegned innocence help revitalized the Kan Ki Army to control the surrended Zhao soldiers. His only miscalculation is Raido's death due to the latter's brash and reckless nature despite specially having Ogiko informing him beforehand his plan to defeat Ko Chou.
Tactical Abilities[]
Kan Ki is an aggressive general and tactician who specializes in guerrilla warfare and psychological warfare. Instead of being called a "meticulous strategist" he is a commander who follows his intuition and does not do anything pointless in battle.[5] He could devise the most ingenious plans solely from imagination without any sort of military training and knowledge, even outright telling his vassals that he never needed reasons or tactics, simply the most effective method that will lead the Kan Ki army to absolute victory, even devise his own variation of Sun Bin's famous strategy in the Battle of Banryou. Because of his unorthodox tactics, his victories are unbelievable, as seen from the Battle of Koku You Hill. Ka Ryo Ten commented that the greatest of Strategists would be hard-pressed to replicate similar results like his.[6] Even the most intelligent of the current Six Great Generals, Ou Sen stated that Kan Ki's way of thinking elude him.[7]
He has proven himself to be extremely resourceful, making excellent use of surrounding resources to use them against his foes, as in the instance when he took down a Wei Siege Tower with the use of oil (which was "secretly borrowed" from the capital of Kanyou's storehouses) and a flame arrow. His most unique and seemingly lethal trait is his uncanny ability to infiltrate an enemy's headquarters and kill their general and commanding officers. This tactic being the downfall of many prominent generals like Gen Pou, Haku Ki Sai, Sei Kai and Ko Chou. His very own base camp is also noted to utilize a unique formation which is seemingly full of openings but in actuality, it acts as trap that is designed to lure and wipe out attackers.[8]
Despite his genius, Kan Ki's methods is noted to be gruesome and inhumane stemming from his brutal mindset as he is willing to kill not only enemies and neutral civilians but also sacrificing his own men for his plans. Having the Saki Clan performing acts of extreme cruelty in order to demoralize or manipulate his opponents. He often mutilates the bodies of dead troops or civilians and sends them to the enemy to terrify enemies or tortures captured soldiers for information. This is shown when he ordered the massacre of Koku You's citizens simply to trick Ki Sui after learning his past tragedy by threaten to do the same to the City of Rigan. This allowed the Kan Ki Army to seize victory in the Koku You campaign with minimal casualties noted by Ka Ryo Ten to be beyond their calculations.
Manipulation of Information: Kan Ki is adept at manipulating information flow. During the Battle of Eikyuu he used a strategy based around fooling his enemies into false sense of security by making them misjudge the number of his soldiers. He then used newly created opening to strike their HQ and take the head of their commander-in-chief Ko Chou. After that he instructed his commanders to spread misinformation to weaken Zhao soldiers' morale. As a result, he got tens of thousands of soldiers surrendered.
Quotes[]
- Hahahahah! What a lame old fart. He got his ass kicked in the blink of an eye! Damn Geezer's all talk!!
- [To Shin] Hahahahaha!! Know what? You win. You're actually number one. Of all the Twisted bastards I've met in my life, you are the biggest villain of them all, Shin.
- [To Shin] The unification of China. Going by your eyes...Are you telling me that if you manage to pull that off, that all war will finish and peace will descend upon the world? Yep, you're one evil bastard.
- [To Shin] The whole idea of unifying China involves butchering an enemy state's people through overwhelming military power until they no longer have the strength to fight back. Then, you just swoop in and claim everything they own for yourself: The land, The people, the resources, all of it. It's the slaughter and pillaging on a whole new scale. And the only ones who will be happy for the peace this brings...Are the people of Qin.
- [To Shin] We will continue burning down villages and slaughtering the people of Kokuyou.
- [To Ei Sei] Truly a bloody king. I'm a cute puppy compared to you.
- [To Ei Sei] You expect too much of humans. O'King of Qin.
Gallery[]
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Trivia[]
Kentaro Ito, the Japanese voice of Kan Ki, has provided the voices of Renji Abarai a former enemy turned alley in the Bleach series, Yoshitake Shiraishi, a core alley in the Golden Kamuy series, and Chouji Akimichi, a core character in the Naruto series.
He is noted by Bi Hei to have smelled very nice.
Kan Ki doesn't like wearing soldier armor due to the fact that it "rubs him the wrong way".[9]
While he explicitly condones rape, it is unknown if he ever participates in such barbaric acts himself. He is frequently pictured with various women and concubines.
References[]
