When it came to the most brainless wish-fulfillment novels...
You had to mention the national destiny arena.
Simply put, the protagonist transmigrated into a world where arena battles determined national destiny, and every country had to summon its historical or mythical figures to fight.
Win in the arena, and the people lived peaceful, happy lives. Lose, and crops failed while floods swept across the land.
Following the formula, the protagonist's country of Huaxia would inevitably have suffered a break in its civilization, forgotten its own history and mythology, and gotten the shit beaten out of it by other countries.
Then, when it was the protagonist's turn, the arena would offer him three historical figures to choose from.
Two of them would inevitably sound incredibly badass but actually be complete trash.
For example, Xing Daorong, whose title was "Peerless Supreme General," but who actually got utterly crushed by Zhao Yun and Zhang Fei.
Or Zhu Qizhen, whose title was "Ming God of War," but who actually handed over hundreds of thousands of troops for free and became a "foreign exchange student" after the Oirats captured him.
The third would usually sound worthless but actually be an absurdly powerful superman.
For example, someone titled "A Seventeen-Year-Old Kid," who was actually Huo Qubing, made Marquis Champion at seventeen.
Or someone titled "A Beggar on the Street," who was actually Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming dynasty, who started with nothing but a bowl.
Anyone whose brain wasn't full of shit would know who to pick.
But the spectators below acted like they'd drunk bootleg liquor, insisting that the protagonist choose one of the two pieces of trash.
Then, when they saw him choose the third, they all cried, "Ah, we're doomed!"
At that point, the villains would also mock him relentlessly,