Sky Curtain: My Great Qin must have an aircraft carrier!

"Three hundred years..."

Ying Zheng stared at the words, his five fingers inside his sleeves slowly clenching.

He unified the world and made a grand vow to pass it down through the generations, from the second generation to the third generation and even to the ten thousandth generation.

But this auspicious omen, seemingly from the celestial realm, declared in its very first sentence that no dynasty could last more than three hundred years.

The Zhou Dynasty lasted for eight hundred years, so why couldn't the Qin Dynasty even last three hundred?

Ying Zheng turned his head to look at Zhao Gao, who was kneeling on the ground trembling, his tone revealing neither joy nor anger.

"Zhao Gao, tell me, what does this celestial curtain mean?"

"This... I deserve to die! This wicked and misleading nonsense must be the work of the remnants of the six kingdoms. Please, Your Majesty, calm your anger!"

Zhao Gao opened his mouth, cold sweat pouring down his forehead.

Little did he know that what was once a beautiful dance and delicious food would become a curse that would bring ruin to the country.

Seeing that Ying Zheng's gaze was becoming increasingly hostile, Li Si stepped forward, cupped his hands, and said, "Your Majesty, the feudalism mentioned by Tianmu refers to the system of the Zhou Dynasty."

"Our Great Qin Dynasty abolished the feudal system and implemented the prefecture-county system, a groundbreaking new system that should transcend the past three hundred years and last for ten thousand years!"

Upon hearing these words, Ying Zheng's expression softened slightly, but the prediction of three hundred years ago still felt like a thorn in his heart.

"In your opinion, Prime Minister, what exactly is this celestial canopy?"

"..."

Li Si was speechless. He had no idea what this was, and could only reply with a stiff upper lip: "Your subject is foolish and dare not speak presumptuously."

"Perhaps we can summon alchemists such as Lu Sheng and Xu Fu to come and take a look."

Ying Zheng remained noncommittal and was about to issue an edict to summon him when Meng Tian suddenly raised his hand and pointed to the air:

"Your Majesty, the heavens are moving again!"

Everyone looked up at the same time.

From the sky came the flippant voice of a young man.

Many people are curious as to why feudal dynasties never lasted more than 300 years.

[Friend, I think you've included the time spent in chaos and disintegration in your calculations. In reality, let alone 300 years, it's questionable whether it can even maintain stable existence for 100 years.]

[Look, from Qin Shi Huang to the end of the Qing Dynasty, more than two thousand years, sounds quite long, right?]

The period of true unification lasted only about 800 years; the remaining 60% was all periods of chaos.

These words caused an uproar throughout the world.

From the First Emperor of Qin to the end of the Qing Dynasty? More than two thousand years?

"The Qing Dynasty is over? My Great Qing Dynasty is gone?"

Inside the Chengde Mountain Resort, Emperor Qianlong, who had been admiring the flowers, suddenly flew into a rage.

"Insolence! Our Great Qing Dynasty was founded by the founding emperors Taizu and Taizong, expanded by the reigns of the Shengzu and Shizong, and I now enjoy ten great military achievements... How come it all ended with the Qing Dynasty?"

"By imperial decree, proclaim to the world that no citizen is permitted to look up at the sky; those who disobey will be executed!"

Upon hearing this imperial decree, Heshen was stunned, thinking to himself that the emperor must have lost his mind in anger.

This canopy hangs high in the sky, visible to everyone, so how can it be forbidden?

If this decree were to be passed down, wouldn't it make the whole world laugh their heads off?

But Heshen dared not show the slightest sign of his displeasure and quickly knelt down to reply, "Yes, sir."

After venting his anger, Emperor Qianlong finally calmed down a bit, but an even more chilling thought surfaced in his mind.

Now that the Qing Dynasty is gone, who will take over the country?

Is it a resurgence of the remnants of the Ming dynasty? Or have those foreign barbarians invaded the pass?

Or perhaps, those treacherous Han officials below rebelled?

Emperor Qianlong lowered his eyelids, his expression turned sinister, and finally he let out a cold laugh.

He wanted to see which unfilial descendant had squandered the family's legacy!

Meanwhile, inside the Changchun Palace in the Forbidden City.

Emperor Guangxu sat by the window, looking at the words on the sky, and could only smile bitterly.

What difference is there between his current situation and that of a subjugated slave?

Orders could not be issued beyond the Forbidden City; the Empress Dowager ruled from behind the curtain, while foreign powers surrounded them from the outside.

The Qing Dynasty was nothing more than a living dead man hanging on by a thread.

The sky wasn't wrong; it simply announced the time of death.

So why is that? The reason is actually very simple.

Feudal dynasties were societies where land was the sole means of production and dominated by a privileged class, inherently containing irreconcilable contradictions.

In agrarian societies, land was the most crucial means of production and a means of preserving wealth. For the bureaucratic class, the safest way to acquire wealth through power was to invest in land.

For example, Yan Song, a notorious corrupt official in the Ming Dynasty, monopolized hundreds of thousands of acres of land, which is the most typical example of land annexation.

When land consolidation reaches its limit, and large numbers of farmers go bankrupt and flee, it becomes a situation where officials force the people to revolt, leaving them with no choice but to rebel!

"The notorious corrupt official Yan Song?"

Zhu Yuanzhang, who had been quite interested in watching the sky as a play, suddenly froze with a smile.

He abruptly stood up, his face turning from white to red, then from red to purple, and roared throughout the hall: "Yan Song? Who is Yan Song?!"

"Investigate! Search through all the official records of the Ming Dynasty and find this Yan Song! We'll skin him alive, stuff his skin with straw, and hang him outside the Meridian Gate!"

Just as Zhu Shuang and Zhu Gang were about to leave to receive their orders, Zhu Biao quickly stopped them and then bowed deeply to Zhu Yuanzhang.

"Father, please calm your anger. This Yan Song may not be one of our people."

"If Father were to launch a nationwide search now, it would likely cause turmoil in the court and among the people, creating widespread panic!"

Zhu Biao knew his father's temperament well; he couldn't tolerate the slightest injustice, especially towards corrupt officials.

If this isn't stopped, who knows how many more wronged souls will be lost in Yingtian Prefecture tomorrow, with heads rolling everywhere.

"If it's not just this dynasty, then it's because our Zhu family descendants are incompetent!"

Zhu Yuanzhang pointed at the sky and roared, "Are the Ming Dynasty's penal laws just for show? Is no one able to control this beast?"

What he couldn't stand the most was Tianmu's phrase, "a typical land annexation."

Old Zhu suffered hardships from a young age and knows best what it feels like for ordinary people to have no land to cultivate.

His whole family starved to death back then because they had no land!

As it turned out, the heavens told him that the future Ming Dynasty would be the same, no different from previous dynasties.

How could Zhu Yuanzhang possibly accept this!

"Heh, just don't let me find out who the current emperor is, or I'll crawl out of my grave and personally beat him to death!"

"Achoo!"

Jiajing rubbed his nose, wondering if he had caught a cold, and then looked up at the sky.

Upon seeing the name Yan Song, a chilling, ambiguous smile appeared on his face.

This scathing rebuke is directed at Yan Song, but it's actually a slap in the face to Emperor Jiajing!

Yan Song knew better than anyone where the wealth he had plundered from the people ultimately went.

"My empire, my subjects—when did it become your place to interfere?"

Jiajing snorted coldly, strolled to the alchemy furnace, looked at the flames dancing in the furnace, and muttered to himself.

"However, the dog's barking is too loud and disturbs the immortal's cultivation, which is indeed a bit of a problem."

……

"Good heavens, the rise and fall of ancient dynasties seems to resemble cyclical financial crises!"

Lu Li had a strange sense of déjà vu, and then scrolled to the comments section.

(Wow, that's really concise. It's a shame the blogger isn't making short videos; they've hit the nail on the head with just a few words.)

(To put it bluntly, two hundred years is enough for land consolidation to reach its limit. If the country is to continue, the only option is to keep expanding the pie, but agricultural societies don't have that capability, so they have to start from scratch.)

(Wait a minute, didn't the Zhou Dynasty last for over 800 years? Doesn't that break the rule?)

(Wasn't the Zhou Dynasty just a sham? Besides being called the Zhou Dynasty in name only, who cared about the Zhou emperor behind the vassal states? It was basically a bunch of independent states.)

Soon, netizens started arguing about it.

The hardest thing in the world is putting your thoughts into someone else's head.

After fanning the flames below, Lu Li contentedly scrolled to the next video.

An even more sensational headline successfully caught his attention.

[The First Modern War: The Gulf War Explained!]