"Let’s kill the named enemies first!"
Ma Anbang...I wonder how hard he will be to kill?
Reflecting on this, Fan Cun raised his arm and shouted, "Ma Anbang colluded with the Jin people to murder Commander Geng. Should we not avenge this? Is there anyone willing to join me, kill Ma Anbang, and avenge Commander Geng?"
Unexpectedly, quite a few people responded to his call.
Although hundreds of thousands of the Rebel Army had already dispersed, among those who remained many were still willing to fight, including Rebel Army leaders like Chen Shilong and Zhang Jun, who was also willing to go.
As a result, Fan Cun quickly gathered a cavalry force of more than a thousand people.
Among these people, General Chen had the highest status, and thus he led the cavalry of over a thousand directly toward the military camp where Ma Anbang was stationed.
Back to the starting point in the instance, Fan Cun looked up silently at the sky, questioning his life choices.
"Ma Anbang has allied with the Jin and is now a governor overseeing a province with fifty thousand troops...
"Not to mention a thousand cavalry, even five thousand cavalry would hardly stand a chance of winning.
"Even if I wanted to replicate General Qin Kaiyun’s tactic of breaking formation to kill the enemy leader, we simply don’t have enough manpower."
Fan Cun scratched his head, utterly puzzled.
With his intelligence level of 1, he was naturally stuck, but that was okay because he could look up a guide.
Fan Cun temporarily exited the game to check online for a ready-made solution.
At the same time, Li Hongyun was also looking up at the sky in disbelief, questioning his life choices just like Fan Cun.
His gaming experience was very similar to Fan Cun’s.
In the process of pursuing Yunfeng Monk, neither of them faced much obstruction. In fact, even without the talent to track, as long as they brought well-informed Rebel Army cavalry to ambush the necessary route to the Jin Army’s camp, they could intercept Yunfeng Monk.
Even if they didn’t succeed the first time, they would eventually succeed if they tried several times.
However, Li Hongyun soon encountered the same issue as Fan Cun, and his reaction was much the same.
Li Hongyun managed to convince people like Chen Shilong, taking fifty cavalry to capture Ma Anbang.
Of course, they were eventually caught and beaten by the fifty thousand-strong army stationed in Ma Anbang’s camp, and his high luck trait had no effect whatsoever.
It didn’t matter whether it was Fan Cun’s thousand cavalry or Li Hongyun’s fifty, they all failed miserably without even seeing Ma Anbang.
Naturally, the two men made similar choices, but their motivations were completely different.
Fan Cun’s motivation was simply reckless—he couldn’t think of what the next target in the mission might be, so he thought of leading men to kill a traitor as a trial.
But Li Hongyun did so because he had done his research and knew the historical records.
However, executing it turned out to be not so straightforward...
Li Hongyun decided against making any more futile attempts and instead began to analyze the situation.
"This is strange. According to historical records, this should have been the right approach.
The original text states, ’Yu Jiaxuan, barehanded, led fifty cavalry, captured Ma Anbang among fifty thousand, like clutching a frightened rabbit. Bridling the horses and sneaking through the passes to the Huai River, they rode continuously day and night without food. His valor and heroic spirit inspired even the cowardly! Upon seeing him, the Holy Emperor sighed thrice.’
Translated, it means he took fifty cavalrymen, bound Ma Anbang amidst fifty thousand troops, then broke out and galloped southwards, resting only after crossing the Huai River, leaving his pursuers far behind. This feat spread his fame far and wide, even the Qi Dynasty Emperor marveled at it.
But... how on earth is that feasible?"
Disheartened by his failed attempt to copy the standard solution, Li Hongyun had no choice but to reconsider it from scratch.
"Firstly, the goal was to capture Ma Anbang, whether alive or dead; capturing him alive was ideal. Secondly, a successful breakout had to happen to return to the Qi Dynasty for the next stage of challenges.
This aspect was very much in line with the situation at the time."
Li Hongyun quickly analyzed and realized that capturing Ma Anbang was the only choice at the time.
At that point, the Rebel Army had dispersed, and with Yu Jiaxuan’s prestige, rallying these forces again was virtually impossible.
For the Rebel Army, the ultimate goal was naturally to gather as many people as possible and to align with the Qi Dynasty.
After all, they were in Jin-controlled territory; despite their large numbers, they actually lacked strong military power. Once the Jin Army freed up their forces, they would be doomed.
The assassination of Commander Geng by Ma Anbang’s betrayal further proved this.
Thus, Commander Geng and Yu Jiaxuan had been busy trying to align with the Qi Dynasty, but Commander Geng’s death had interrupted these efforts.
Now, Yu Jiaxuan needed to achieve his ambitions, which meant returning to the Qi Dynasty and bringing more people with him.
And to bring more people, he needed prestige.
And how to gain prestige?
The answer was simple—killing Ma Anbang would be the ultimate boost to his prestige.
Needless to say, if Yu Jiaxuan could capture Ma Anbang alive, it would undoubtedly inspire the Rebel Army enormously, at least gathering part of them again and potentially "Bringing Order Back from the Brink of Chaos."
At the time, Yu Jiaxuan decided to risk infiltrating the enemy camp to capture Ma Anbang, partly due to this reasoning, and not solely out of a desire for revenge.
Yu Jiaxuan might have been fierce, but he was also a scholar of unmatched talent and breadth, not just a reckless man.
So, the critical issue was the final step.
How could fifty cavalrymen capture the leader Ma Anbang amidst fifty thousand and also successfully break out heading south?
Li Hongyun initially thought this feat was as many online articles had described, mainly about how phenomenally brave Yu Jiaxuan was, somewhat akin to General Qin Kaiyun, where he’d just charge illogically into the enemy camp, killing anyone who blocked his path until he reached Ma Anbang, tied him up, and then fought his way back out again.
But when he tried this, it was doomed.
It was simply impossible!
After all, this was the era of cold weapons. With fifty against fifty thousand, no matter how great the disparity between individual soldiers, this was an utterly unwinnable battle.