You Were Supposed to Go to War in the Young Master's Place, So How Did You End Up Ruling the World?

[Alternate History] [Wish-Fulfillment] [Decisive and Ruthless] [Brave and Cunning] [No System]

In his previous life, Cao Xuan was a special forces squad's head cook. In this life, he transmigrated into ancient times as a kitchen servant in a noble household. Because he looked seven or eight tenths like the young master, he was forced to put on armor and take the young master's place in the army, becoming a boy soldier.

As it turned out, Cao Xuan didn't just go on a killing spree. He cut right through the battlefield.

At sixteen, he took up the blade. At seventeen, he drew up battle formations. At nineteen, he wrote New Insights into the Art of War. At twenty-one, leading eight hundred survivors, he crushed fifty thousand Hu cavalry. At twenty-four, he reformed the military system. At twenty-five, he invented the three-sided blood-groove spear and the repeating crossbow. At twenty-six, he formed the Iron Pagoda heavy cavalry. At twenty-eight, he expanded the territory of the Great Tang three thousand li beyond the desert.

The improved rations he introduced for the Tang army tripled the average combat strength of its soldiers.

His invention, the sand-table war game, was enshrined among the Ten Worthies of the Martial Temple.

His annotated edition of The Art of War became a family heirloom among military houses for generations.

In debates before the armies, he slaughtered the golden-saber warriors of the twelve Northern Barbarian tribes until they cut their own throats in atonement.

When he mustered his forces on the battlefield, he terrified a hundred thousand Western Xia Iron Falcons into retreating overnight.

At twenty-six, he took command with the tiger tally. At twenty-eight, he was enfeoffed as Marquis Champion. At thirty, he was appointed Supreme Marshal of All Armies.

He wiped out the Japanese pirates in half a month, pacified the southern frontier in less than ten days, and led three thousand Black Armored cavalry on a three-thousand-li raid straight for the Turkic royal camp.

When his Cao battle standard was raised atop the walls of Rome, the rulers of sixteen European states knelt to welcome the imperial army.

In the Golden Throne Hall, the young emperor nervously offered up the dragon throne. "How about... you sit here and review the memorials?"

The civil and military officials roared, eyes bloodshot: "If the Marshal won't ascend the throne, I'm done fighting!"

And it all began when he buckled that bloodstained armor onto the young master...