Luo Ying looked towards the entrance of the Trial Illusion.

[Common Man's Trial: The Rise and Fall of Nations]

Upon seeing the name of the illusion realm, he naturally thought of that famous line known throughout the world: "When a country rises or falls, every common man has a responsibility."

And, from the name, he deduced that this instance was very likely about the historic deeds of a common man who, fueled by courage and determination alone, changed the major events concerning the rise and fall of nations.

However...

How frequent were such events in history?

They were probably as rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns.

If it were really about a common man in the traditional sense—someone with limited personal combat power and not a high level of education—then they would be nothing more than a minor soldier in a peasant uprising. The power of a single person, no matter how strong, would find it very difficult to influence the overall situation of the world.

Therefore, Luo Ying speculated that the "common man" here should not be an ordinary person without any special talents, but more likely a hero who possessed a certain degree of personal bravery.

Did he reach the limits of what a common man could achieve?

With such a guess, Luo Ying stepped into the Trial Illusion.

After passing through the entrance, Luo Ying found himself on a vast battlefield.

The sky was high and the air was clear, an excellent time for a great battle.

From his vantage point mid-air, overlooking the earth, he could clearly see the entire battlefield.

Looking northeast, he could make out the silhouette of a large city. However, the encamped army was not in some barren wilderness, but near a temple close to the great city.

Within the temple, there was also a pagoda in sight.

This pagoda had thirteen levels and stood nearly forty meters tall, square in shape with an ancient and elegant appearance.

And Luo Ying found that his army was encamped both inside the temple and around it.

Looking further afield, there were rivers and mountains flanking both sides, offering a perfect battlefield.

The army formation was spread out towards the northeastern city, with a rough scan revealing it was divided into approximately six corps.

At the very rear was the army's camp, moving forward there was a contingent of several thousand elite cavalry, and farther forward was the main force, with the vanguard consisting of the central elite infantry flanked by foreign mercenaries on both sides.

The army stretched out for miles, showcasing that this was a large-scale war mobilizing more than one hundred thousand men.

Luo Ying could vaguely see that the reason the formation was deployed this way was due to the advantage of the terrain.

The enemy was encamped inside the city to the northeast, while their own position at the temple had rivers and mountains on both sides, ensuring that the flanks were safe from cavalry threats.

Thus, there was no need to divide the army into five separate formations of front, rear, left, right, and center; attention could be wholly focused on the enemy directly ahead.

After seeing the full view of the battlefield, Luo Ying had a rough guess about this battle.

Since he had been preparing for the game "Dark Sand," he had a relatively deep understanding of the basic content of the game and its historical knowledge.

And now, this battlefield was not just some obscure historical battle.

Judging by the style of the temple and pagoda, this could very well be the battle of Xiangji Temple!

The battle of Xiangji Temple was a historically significant battle in ancient warfare, featuring the peak record of battlefield executions: thirty thousand beheaded in half a day!

Although there were many battles before and after that also resulted in large numbers of battlefield executions, they differed from this one.

In an earlier period before Yan, there had been a great battle where three to four hundred thousand defected soldiers had been buried alive—a figure that seemed even more shocking, but there is a complete difference between mass burials and battlefield executions.

Battlefield executions meant that the enemy did not break down organizationally but resisted until the end.

In other major battles with high casualty figures, it was often the case that one side was already trapped and at the limit of their energy, strength, and morale or had already fled.

The large numbers of enemies killed typically occurred during a one-sided massacre.

But in the battle of Xiangji Temple, sixty thousand were beheaded, twenty thousand captured, and twenty thousand scattered in one afternoon; even though the enemy was defeated, almost sixty percent of their soldiers died before they were completely broken. On ancient battlefields with melee weapons, this was almost an impossible figure.

Generally speaking, if an ancient army collapsed with a casualty rate of 10%, it would be considered a normal performance for elite troops.

But that this army had sixty percent casualties before collapsing, regardless of any possible exaggeration of figures, was sufficient to show that they were absolutely among the elite.

And it was an epic clash between elites.

The battle of Xiangji Temple was a key engagement in the Liang Dynasty's suppression of the An and Shi Rebellion. In this battle, the Liang Dynasty had a total of one hundred and fifty thousand men, while the rebel forces also had around one hundred thousand elites.

These rebels were elite frontier forces, with high will to fight, combat skills, and military organization.

So, this battle was truly a hard fight!

Luo Ying's view quickly zoomed in, and then, he entered into the army formation at the very front.

The center of the front line was the elite infantry corps, flanked by foreign mercenaries.

And the elite infantry corps was also divided into several layers.

According to the military structure during the Liang Dynasty, the very front of the army formation consisted of archers and spearmen. At the start of the battle, the archers would launch the first wave of attacks on the enemy, and when the two sides engaged, the elite spearmen were responsible for holding the front lines.

The cavalry on both flanks would then encircle the enemy depending on the situation, turning the tide of the battle.

And if the spearmen were breached by the enemy's cavalry, the reserve troops from behind would immediately fill the gap.

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