After transmigrating to the first year of Jian'an, modern-day office worker Deng Mu descended into a chaotic age. With no money or family background, he relied solely on his foreknowledge and extraordinary strategic brilliance to survive. At the time, Liu Bei had just taken Xuzhou and was surrounded by enemies, trapped in a hopeless encirclement by Lü Bu, Cao Cao, and Yuan Shu. Disguised as an envoy from Liu Biao, Deng Mu exposed the fatal predicament facing Xuzhou in a few words, then used one scheme after another to snap Liu Bei out of his obsession with benevolence and righteousness. He predicted Lü Bu’s surprise attack and accurately calculated the course of the defeat, hiding in Haixi in advance to save Liu Bei’s wife and children. His uncanny foresight won over Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and the rest. He discarded the mediocre Longzhong Plan from the original story and devised an outrageous blueprint for conquest. He recruited elite Yellow Turban troops and borrowed a route to conquer Wancheng, helping Liu Bei turn the tide from the brink of defeat. He outmaneuvered the warlords at every turn and steadily rose to the top of the Han realm.
