In 2026, Cheng Zhiliang, a student in the mechanical engineering department of a certain 211 university, encountered a landslide during an outdoor experiment. When he woke up, he found himself lying in a pile of beggars filled with stinking odors. There is only a thin but fierce-eyed young man beside him - Zhu Chongba (Zhu Yuanzhang).
The beginning is hell: he is so hungry that he grabs swill, is chased and bitten by the landlord's dog, and is also beaten by other beggars. Relying on his modern knowledge of wilderness survival (and a little knowledge of chemistry), Cheng Zhiliang led a small team to hunt in the barren mountains, make salt, dig saltpeter and make explosives for self-defense, and gradually became known as "Cheng Banxian" among the refugees in Haozhou.
As Guo Zi rose up in rebellion, Zhu Yuanzhang decided to join the army. Cheng Zhiliang knew that the tide of history was unstoppable, and he chose to be the "man standing behind Zhu Yuanzhang." When others used spears and arrows, he took out the blueprints of counterweight trebuchets; when Chen Youliang used water to block Poyang Lake, he took out mines and explosive bombs; when Zhang Shicheng defended the city, he dug tunnels and telescopes.
In this process, Cheng Zhiliang counterattacked step by step from a "mud-legged man" who was ridiculed by the squires to become "Mr. Tianji" respected by the entire army. He helped Zhu Yuanzhang destroy Chen Youliang, defeat Zhang Shicheng, and conduct the Northern Expedition to Dadu. But the more successful he became, the more he felt a chill in his back. He saw with his own eyes how Zhu Yuanzhang quietly eliminated other rebel leaders and how he became suspicious of his old brother because of a slander.
