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

The collapse of Zhu Di and his son Zhu Gaochi did not stop the trial in the heavens.

Instead, Zhu Dijun's voice became even colder, as if he wanted to completely burst the festering sore hidden under the guise of "benevolent governance"!

"Family members, do you really think that Zhu Gaochi, that good-for-nothing, only ruined his father and the national policies of the Ming Dynasty?"

"No! The worst victim he ever betrayed was his own son, Emperor Xuanzong of Ming, Zhu Zhanji! His grandson, Zhu Qizhen, and a whole series of emperors after him were all betrayed by Zhu Gaochi, and betrayed terribly."

The scene on the screen shifts.

A valiant young man appeared, drawing his bow and arrow and galloping on horseback, displaying a style reminiscent of his grandfather, Zhu Di.

He was Zhu Zhanji.

"Wow! Emperor Xuanzong! What a great emperor! The reign of Renxuan!"

"Yes, history books say he was both a skilled ruler and a capable military commander. He quelled the rebellion of the King of Han, allowing the country to recuperate and thrive. He was a wise and benevolent ruler who maintained the status quo!"

[“Hey upstairs, don’t be fooled by history books! Brother Jun already said that you can’t look too closely at posthumous titles with ‘Ren’ in them. The ‘Ren’ in ‘Renxuan’s Reign’ refers to Zhu Gaochi! How good do you think that ‘reign’ could be?”]

The discussion in the bullet comments made Zhu Zhanji from all different timelines suddenly raise his head!

In particular, Zhu Zhanji in the first year of the Xuande reign had just quelled the rebellion of his second uncle, Zhu Gaoxu, and imprisoned him in the palace. He was preparing to make great strides, but the civil official group led by the Three Yangs in the court hindered him at every turn, which made him very angry.

Upon seeing Tianmu mention him, an ominous premonition immediately rose in his heart.

Zhu Dijun's voice confirmed his premonition.

"Zhu Zhanji was indeed a good emperor who wanted to achieve something, but unfortunately, the pit his father, Zhu Gaochi, dug for him was too deep!"

"Zhu Gaochi only reigned for ten months before his death, but during those ten months he successfully cultivated a powerful group of civil officials!"

"When Zhu Zhanji ascended the throne, he faced this situation: the three Yangs of the cabinet held immense power, and the six ministries and nine ministers were deeply entrenched in their power base—all of them were the 'political legacy' left by his father!"

"If he wanted to get things done, he had to fight this massive bureaucratic machine! He fought it openly and covertly for a full ten years!"

"He wanted to reopen the sea trade, but the civil officials said, 'This is competing with the people for profit!'"

"He wanted to reorganize the border defenses, but the civil officials said it was 'exhausting the people with military spending'!"

"He wanted to reduce the number of officials, so the civil servants collectively submitted a memorial accusing him of being 'harsh and ungrateful'!"

"A full ten years! The most precious ten years of an emperor's life! Wasted on this endless infighting!"

Ultimately, exhausted and heartbroken, Zhu Zhanji died mysteriously at the young age of thirty-eight, ten years after his ascension to the throne!

"How did he die?"

Zhu Dijun's voice suddenly became mysterious.

"According to unofficial historical accounts, he was murdered by his childhood sweetheart, the notorious Empress Sun Ruowei, who colluded with the cabinet to rise to power!"

"Why? Because an emperor who is exhausted and even obsessed with cricket fighting to escape reality is far more in line with the interests of the civil service than a wise and powerful emperor!"

"And his son, Zhu Qizhen, who ascended the throne at the age of eight, was a puppet of this civil official group from the moment he sat on the dragon throne!"

"It wasn't until he took control of the government and attempted to break free from control that the Tumu Crisis occurred!"

These words plunged Zhu Zhanji, the first emperor of the Xuande reign, into an icy abyss!

He looked at the seemingly submissive old ministers under His Highness, Yang Shiqi, Yang Rong... and then thought of his own harem, and the ambitious Empress Sun...

A chill ran from the soles of my feet straight up to the top of my head!

So this is what my fate will be ten years from now?

He was driven to despair by the power struggles and was ultimately murdered by his wife and ministers.

"Well said!"

Zhu Zhanji did not faint like his father. Instead, he roared and his eyes burned with raging anger!

This anger was not only directed at the Three Yangs, but also at his father, Zhu Gaochi, who had only been emperor for ten months but had ruined his entire life!

On the sky, Zhu Dijun's mockery continued.

"So, family members, what will we, in later generations, call the reigns of Zhu Gaochi and Zhu Zhanji?"

"The reign of Renxuan?"

"Stop joking!"

"We call it—the 'Cure of Fat Crickets'!"

On the sky, the four large characters "[The Rule of Fat Crickets]" exuded endless mockery!

"A fat pig emperor and a cricket emperor! One handed over power to civil officials, while the other was magnified and maliciously dubbed the 'Rule of the Fat Cricket' because of the civil officials' fondness for playing with crickets."

"It can be said that Zhu Gaochi, this benevolent emperor, caused a series of Ming Dynasty emperors to suffer greatly."

"If I were in his shoes, as long as I stamped approvals every day and indulged in eating, drinking, and merrymaking, I could be the emperor of this 'Rule of Renxuan' too!"

"Pfft! The fat cricket is the perfect embodiment!"

"I feel sorry for Emperor Xuanzong for a second. He must have been incredibly unlucky to have such a father!"

"From Zhu Gaochi to Emperor Chongzhen (Zhu Youjian) who hanged himself, every single emperor after him cleaned up the mess left by the civil service group he had nurtured! They had the will to kill the traitors, but were powerless to reverse the tide!"

"The source, the source of everything, is that fat pig Zhu Gaochi!"

In all the myriad worlds and timelines, all the emperors of the Ming Dynasty, except for Emperor Guangzong Zhu Changluo who had just ascended the throne a month earlier, were now cursing at Zhu Gaochi's memorial tablet in their hearts!

That damned Emperor Renzong!

He was simply the biggest scoundrel of the Ming Dynasty!

Zhu Dijun seemed to have run out of steam with his rant, and he let out a soft sigh.

"Sometimes, I really don't understand. Zhu Gaochi's father, the Yongle Emperor Zhu Di, spent his whole life fighting with civil officials. Didn't he, as the crown prince, know about these things?"

"Shouldn't he be wary of civil officials and continue down his father's iron-fisted path?"

"Fine, even if you were born a spineless, fat pig, you can't treat your own descendants like this!"

"Family members, don't be fooled by those embellished Ming Dynasty novels. Get to the bottom of things, and you'll find that those authors themselves were completely misled by the historical materials of those corrupt Ming Dynasty officials, singing praises to these treacherous ministers!"

"History, sometimes, really does need to be viewed in reverse!"

Finally, Zhu Dijun unleashed a decisive blow.

"Oh, right, I forgot to tell Zhu Gaochi something."

"More than a hundred years after your death, your descendant, the Ming Emperor Jiajing (Zhu Houcong), after winning the 'Great Rites Controversy' and completely suppressing the civil official group, the first thing he did was angrily throw your 'Renzong' memorial tablet out of the Imperial Ancestral Temple!"

"I must give a thumbs up to Emperor Jiajing here!"

"Well done!"

These words shocked the entire world!

How could later generations of descendants throw away their ancestors' ancestral tablets?

That must have been an immense amount of hatred!

And a certain parallel Yongle period

When Emperor Yongle (Zhu Di) heard this, he let out a long sigh of relief.

He looked at his fat son, who lay unconscious on the ground, and the sorrow and anger in his eyes eventually turned into a deathly cold silence.

He spoke slowly, his voice not loud, yet it carried throughout the entire hall.

"deliver an imperial order."

"Crown Prince Zhu Gaochi is unworthy of his position, and has colluded with foreign officials, intending to undermine the foundation of the nation. He is hereby... stripped of his title and reduced to commoner status, and placed under house arrest for life!"