Sky Curtain: The opening scene explains the four major cases of the Ming Dynasty plus the early Ming

"Having discussed the dramatic political changes, let's move on to the economic and military situation in the sixth year of the Longqing reign."

Judy unscrewed the thermos; 50Jie had already refilled the teacup. He nodded to the metal hand and continued pushing.

"Let's start with the economy. In the sixth year of the Longqing reign, trade in Yuegang continued to prosper. The number of merchant ships going to sea increased year by year, and silk and porcelain were exported to Southeast Asia and Manila, while silver from the Americas was steadily imported. At the same time, in the first month of the lunar calendar, a 370-mile-long dike was built along the Yellow River from Xuzhou to Suqian. Guangdong was exempted from taxation due to the Japanese pirates, and grain was distributed from the official granaries to disaster-stricken areas in the north."

He listed these positive data on the left half of the whiteboard.

Historical records state that Taicang's silver reserves were significantly more abundant than at the end of the Jiajing era. Military expenditures in the northern frontier were greatly reduced due to the peace treaty, while overseas customs duties and border commercial taxes became new sources of fiscal revenue. Overall, the national policy was pragmatic, and the people's livelihood was stable.

Zhu Dijun took a step back and looked at the whiteboard.

"From the front, it looks fine. More money, fewer battles, repaired dikes, and tax exemptions. But let's turn to the right half of the whiteboard."

He wrote the first line on the right: "Who controls the overseas licenses?"

"Who holds the power to issue sea-going permits for Yuegang? The Fujian local government. And who are the Fujian local officials allied with? The gentry and powerful families of Jiangnan. Can ordinary people get a sea-going permit? Don't even think about it."

Zhu Dijun drew a funnel.

"The silver from the Americas came in through Yuegang. Local prefectures and counties kept 30%, the provincial administration kept 30%, and wealthy maritime merchants kept 40%. What reached Taicang? Only a tiny fraction. Of that fraction, some had to be allocated to repairing the Yellow River dikes, paying the troops in the nine border regions, and providing famine relief in Yulin. The amount that actually reached the common people was not even a tiny fraction."

He wrote "zero" at the bottom of the funnel.

"Let's talk about the Yellow River dikes. Three hundred and seventy li of dikes—how much did the project cost? Hundreds of thousands of taels of silver. It was subcontracted layer by layer, with river officials, censors in the capital, and close confidants of the cabinet each taking a cut. The dikes were built with shoddy workmanship, only superficial repairs were done. It looks fine in the short term, but what about in the long term?"

Zhu Dijun wrote the year on the whiteboard: "Wanli First Year".

"Zhang Juzheng plans to implement the Single Whip Law next year, converting all taxes into silver. What does this mean? It means that ordinary people will have to sell their grain to pay taxes in silver. Who will hold the silver? The gentry in Jiangnan, the maritime merchants, and the money shops. They will suppress grain prices during a bumper harvest and raise silver prices when taxes are due. They will fleece both ends."

He tapped the whiteboard.

"What's even more fatal is that the Ming Dynasty's monetary system was completely tied to the American silver mines. The country had no independent currency reserves. Once sea routes were cut off and silver imports decreased, the national tax and monetary system would immediately collapse. The powerful officials in the court only cared about short-term trade profits and completely ignored long-term financial risks."

Zhu Dijun turned to face the camera, his tone as flat as if he were reading a weather forecast.

"What they overdrawn was not just a few years' worth of finances. It was the fate of the Ming Dynasty for a hundred years."

The bullet comment section no longer needs guidance.

What would happen if the supply of silver to the Americas were cut off?

"The silver shortage during the Chongzhen reign of the late Ming Dynasty, which prevented tax revenue collection, was directly related to this."

"It's like connecting the Ming Dynasty's lifeline to the Spanish silver mines. Once the mines are depleted, the Ming Dynasty bleeds to death."

Zhu Dijun didn't respond and switched to the military section.

"Northern Frontier. The peace treaty of the Longqing era is stable, and Altan Khan adheres to the tributary alliance. Qi Jiguang has completed the construction of all the hollow watchtowers in the Jizhou Great Wall. 30,000 elite infantry and cavalry are stationed in the northern frontier. Horse markets in Xuanfu, Datong, and Shanxi remain open. The people of the north are spared from plunder, and military spending has been significantly reduced."

He listed these positive data points and then drew a red line on them.

"On the other hand, the imperial court relied on trade and rewards to maintain peace, and actively reduced the size of the garrison at the nine border regions and cut military budgets. After Qi Jiguang completed the Great Wall, he only allowed passive defense and did not actively develop the grasslands. Prolonged peace eroded the morale of the soldiers."

He circled the word "cut" heavily.

"The deeper reason is that most of the northern border troops were former subordinates of Gao Gong. After Zhang Juzheng came to power, he reduced military spending and compressed military power, which was essentially to weaken the remaining power of the former chief minister in the army. In October, he sent vice ministers to inspect the nine border regions, ostensibly to check military equipment, but in reality to investigate the financial channels of the border towns. He divided the military pay that originally belonged to the border generals and put it under the control of his own confidants."

Zhu Dijun wrote the final power structure on the whiteboard.

"Want your full pay and rations? Want promotions based on military merit? Fine—align yourself with the Grand Secretary's faction. Don't? You'll get a low grade in the Nine Border Regions' assessment."

"What about the southeast? In February, Japanese pirates invaded Shentunwei, Leizhou, and Gaozhou in Guangdong. Local government troops divided into several routes to encircle and suppress them, and defeated them all. In May, taxes were reduced or exempted for the war-torn prefectures and counties in Guangdong."

He marked Guangdong on the map.

"Guangdong didn't open its ports. Yuegang was in Fujian. How did Guangdong merchants make money? By smuggling. They colluded with Japanese pirates to smuggle. The government's suppression of the pirates was perfunctory—why? Because when war broke out, the imperial court increased local taxes to fight the pirates, and military and disaster relief funds were divided up by officials in Guangdong and Guangxi and the Jiangnan faction in the capital. The longer the suppression of the pirates lasted, the more money they made."

Zhu Dijun wiped the whiteboard clean and wrote a line of words in the middle: "General Evaluation of the Sixth Year of Longqing".

"On the positive side: the imperial power was transferred smoothly, Zhang Juzheng built an efficient reform cabinet, the northern border was stable, and the economy was accumulating strength. The foundation of governance, finance and border defense accumulated during the Longqing reign was all handed over to Zhang Juzheng, ushering in the prosperous era of the first ten years of the Wanli reign."

"On the other hand——"

He paused for two seconds and looked at the camera.

"All the 'smooth handover and reforms' of the sixth year of the Longqing reign were actually a meticulously planned power grab. Zhang Juzheng, Feng Bao, and Empress Dowager Li formed an alliance, waiting for Emperor Muzong's death to alter the imperial edict, frame and expel the regent, purge neutral cabinet ministers, and monopolize power in both the inner and outer courts. Militarily, they weakened veteran generals through troop reductions and border patrols, consolidating military power into the hands of the regent's faction. Economically, maritime trade, river works, and border markets were all channels for distributing spoils, with silver highly concentrated in the hands of powerful figures in Jiangnan, and the monetary structure riddled with fatal flaws."

He put down his pen.

"It seemed that a revival was imminent. In reality, the system of checks and balances in the court had completely collapsed. The power of the cabinet expanded infinitely. This laid the groundwork for Zhang Juzheng's autocracy, the conflicts between the emperor and his ministers during the Wanli era, and the rampant factional strife in later generations."

Zhu Dijun took a sip of tea and put the cup down with a soft thud.

"Oh, one last thing.

He pulled up a royal archive on his tablet.

"Empress Dowager Li was the birth mother of Emperor Wanli, Zhu Yijun. But today I'm not talking about Empress Dowager Li. I'm talking about another woman—Lady Wang, Empress Xiaojing."

A short message appeared on the whiteboard.

"Wang was originally an ordinary palace maid in Cining Palace. When Wanli went to pay his respects to Empress Dowager Li, he took a liking to her. Later, Wang became pregnant, and Empress Dowager Li urged the emperor to acknowledge the relationship. Wang was made a Consort Gong and gave birth to the eldest son, Zhu Changluo. However, Wang had a very low status in the palace throughout her life, and it was not until her grandson Zhu Youxiao ascended the throne that she was posthumously honored as Empress."

Judy turned around and looked at the comment section.

"Whom does this familiar script remind you of?"

The comment section was silent for a few seconds.

Then, a dense barrage of comments flooded in.

["Emperor Yingzong of Ming, Zhu Qizhen! His birth mother, Empress Hu, was kidnapped by the treacherous Empress Dowager Zhang and made into her own child by the treacherous Empress Sun Ruowei"]

["Emperor Wuzong of Ming, Zhu Houzhao! The infamous Zheng Wang seditious case proves that he was born to a palace maid surnamed Zheng!"]

["The drama of powerful ministers, concubines, and eunuchs vying for imperial power is playing out once again!"]

Why is the bloodline of the Ming emperors always being controlled by these people?

Judy looked at the comments but didn't say anything.

He picked up a marker and drew a horizontal line on the whiteboard, stretching from Hongwu to Chongzhen. The line was marked with over a dozen nodes—each node representing an emperor "born of a palace maid" or "manipulated by the harem."

"Family members, do you see this? Starting from the Xuande era, this phenomenon has been present in almost every dynasty. Who the emperor takes a liking to, who gives birth to his child, whether the child can survive, and whether he can become the crown prince—all of this is controlled by the harem and the civil service group. The emperor himself has less and less say in these matters."

He threw the marker on the table.

"By the Wanli reign, this drama had reached its climax. Wanli wanted to make his favorite son the crown prince, but he couldn't. The civil service group opposed it desperately, dragging it out for fifteen years. In the end, Wanli gave up—'You can do whatever you want, I'm not going to hold court anymore.'"

Zhu Dijun looked directly at the camera.

"The emperors of the Ming Dynasty, from the iron-fisted rulers like Zhu Yuanzhang who had absolute authority, degenerated generation after generation into caged birds tamed by the civil service, the harem, and the eunuchs. The sixth year of the Longqing reign was the most critical point on this degenerate line. The ten-year-old Wanli Emperor ascended the throne, and the iron triangle usurped power. From that day on, imperial power could never hold its head high again."

The Ming Dynasty, in a parallel universe.

After hearing this, Zhu Yijun stood up from his dragon throne. He didn't get angry or curse. He simply walked to the window and looked out at the Forbidden City.

"Mr. Zhang taught me to read the Zizhi Tongjian. Feng Bao taught me to abide by palace rules. The Empress Dowager taught me to be obedient."

He reached out and pushed open the window. The autumn wind blew in, ruffling his gray hair.

"I have been emperor for forty-eight years. The first ten years were Mr. Zhang's emperor. The middle thirty years were a period of inaction. The last eight years were a period of being an emperor who couldn't accomplish anything he wanted."

He turned around and looked at the horizontal line drawn by Zhu Dijun on the sky.

"The only decision I ever made in my life was to stop attending court."

Zhu Yijun smiled. His smile was more like a grimace.

"I've spent thirty years in silence, wearing down those civil officials. They want to control me? Fine. I'll do nothing and see who they can control."

He walked back to the dragon throne and sat down. The large dragon throne made his figure appear exceptionally small.

"Judy Jun is right. I'm not lazy. I was—castrated bit by bit by these people, starting when I was ten. In the end, I didn't even bother to get angry anymore."

The live broadcast signal from Tianmu was still running. Zhu Dijun tidied up the documents on the table and said his last words to the camera.

"We've finished discussing the sixth year of the Longqing reign. In 15 minutes, we'll talk about the true and false unofficial histories of the Longqing era. With the Ming History being extensively revised and fragmented, unofficial histories can also be considered official histories, and official histories can be unofficial histories."

He turned off the projector.

The studio lights dimmed. Princess 50 and Princess 36 stood in the corner, their metal armor reflecting the faint glow of the remaining screen light.

Zhu Dijun pulled up a chair and sat down, rubbing his eyes. Another encrypted message popped up on the tablet—the interrogation by the National Security Bureau had yielded a new breakthrough. An academic tycoon had confessed to three key nodes in the upstream of the financial chain.

He glanced at it, then placed the tablet face down on the table.

"Let's finish discussing the Ming Dynasty's game first. Some accounts can only be clarified by considering both the past and present."