Transmigrating into the poorest illegitimate son of the Hexi clan, Xu Cangming clutches his family's heirloom iron wok and sinks into thought. In his previous life, he was a 28-year-old master's graduate in history and a food-loving Bilibili creator. Now he's experiencing famine in the Tang dynasty?
For a bite to eat, he dares to wager his outer trousers in a drinking game with Cheng Yaojin, and uses Essential Techniques for the Welfare of the People to leave the imperial chefs questioning their lives. The officials at court all think he's a clownish glutton, unaware that he has already laid out a grand plan.
Then the Turkic cavalry smashes through the frontier defenses. After three days without food, Xu Cangming charges out of the city, swinging his iron wok. The enemy soldiers roar with laughter: “Has the Tang army run out of food? They sent a cook out to die?”
Later, a tale spreads beyond the frontier: A starving demon from the Central Plains, carrying a black wok, chased the Turkic cavalry for eight hundred li, with half an uneaten sesame flatbread still stuck to its rim.
Xu Cangming burps and rubs his eyes. “Quiet. Let me finish this bowl of lamb paomo... then we can talk about destroying a nation.”
