Chen Hao is a history graduate student, a part-time storyteller, and a short-video creator.
One morning, he wakes up as a refugee abandoned by the Yellow Turban Army, so emaciated that he could become someone else's next meal at any moment. His only possession is a plastic lighter printed with an advertisement for a barbecue restaurant.
At the brink of death, he gets a sudden idea: he uses the lighter to fake a "heavenly fire" and claims to be a disciple of the Immortal Nanhua, barely managing to intimidate everyone into backing down.
On the road as a refugee, he recites the Thirty-Six Stratagems to scare off government troops, uses basic chemistry to make salt and earn his first fortune, and gathers his first fans by telling the story of Wu Song Fighting the Tiger in a ruined temple. Soap, cement, strong liquor... One modern invention after another turns him from a leader of refugees into the most sought-after figure in Yingchuan City.
Cao Cao sends people to recruit him, and Chen Hao spoils the Battle of Guandu and Sima Yi's usurpation of Wei to his face. Lü Bu leads troops to attack, and Chen Hao teaches him a lesson with cement walls and grenades. On the eve of the Battle of Red Cliffs, he accurately predicts the southeast wind and, while he's at it, lures Zhuge Liang away.
While Cao Cao, Liu Bei, and Sun Quan are still fighting tooth and nail over Jingzhou, Chen Hao has already built Jiaozhou's first university, first blast furnace, and first firearms unit. He wages public opinion battles with newspapers, sidelines the great clans through a parliamentary system, and heralds the Industrial Revolution with the steam engine.
In the final battle, Cao Wei's army of two hundred thousand marches south. Standing in a hot-air balloon, Chen Hao raises a tin megaphone and calls out: "Brothers on the other side! Surrender your weapons and you won't be killed! Three meals a day, with meat!"
He ends not only the chaos of the Three Kingdoms, but also two thousand years of imperial rule.
