This is the payoff of the last episode, EP4 is the propaganda, to lead the audience to side with Seii. But this episode shows the dismantling of that propaganda. I do think the anime is really unfriendly to anyone who hasn't studied 3 kingdom or things like 36 stratagem. As a Chinese born having those knowledge, I can see myself struggling to immediately connect what the story is pointing towards, it's hard for me to imagine people who have never heard of them understanding most references.,