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

Kill the emperor!

When those two words, like two sharp blades dipped in chilling poison, were spat out of Judy Jun's mouth.

In the vast expanse of time and space, it seemed as if even time itself had stood still for a moment.

Everyone was shocked by this conclusion, their scalps tingling and their souls trembling!

This marks the fifth time that the Ming Dynasty's civil official group has murdered the emperor.

From the very beginning, Zhu Yunwen murdered Zhu Yuanzhang, then Zhu Di's version of the Sand Dune Coup, then Zhu Gaochi died in the palace, then the Three Yangs instigated Sun Ruowei to kill Zhu Zhanji, and now it's Zhu Qizhen's turn.

The Ming Dynasty civil officials not only had the audacity to commit regicide, but they were also extremely bold, and they actually carried it out on multiple occasions!

"Unfortunately, the assassination was originally carried out by the Tatars, but for some reason, they did not participate in the action against the civil official group. As a result, the equally heinous Governor-General of Xuanfu and Datong, Yang Hong, sent his son to personally assassinate the emperor at Tumu Fortress. In order to silence witnesses, in addition to the nobles who accompanied Zhu Qizhen at the time, civil officials such as Cao Nai, Wang Yonghe, and Wang Zuo were also killed to cover their tracks."

"Because these Ministers of Revenue and Ministers of War repeatedly tried to break away from the ranks to inform Yang Hong, and were repeatedly caught by Zhu Qizhen. Who knew that Yang Hong, Yu Qian, Chen Xun and others were too eager for advancement and too eager to seize power. Yang Hong, Yu Qian, Chen Xun, Wang Wen and others joined forces to kill them. You are dead, and I will inherit your position."

At this point, both the viewers in the live stream and people from all dynasties took a deep breath.

The truth about the Tumu Crisis is not the military incompetence fabricated by those who write about it out of self-interest, nor is it the emperor's stupidity.

Rather, it was a conspiracy orchestrated and executed by the civil service within the Ming Dynasty and border generals, targeting the supreme ruler...

An assassination attempt?!

And the purge of the royalist party members left behind by emperors Zhu Di and Zhu Zhanji!

"Oh my god... oh my god... I feel like my brain has crashed..."

"King regicide... They actually dared to regicide?! This isn't just audacious, it's utterly depraved! And to silence them, they even killed their comrades who participated!"

["This is the fifth one. From Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, to Zhu Qizhen, this is the fifth one. No wonder Brother Jun said that the source came from the Song Dynasty. It turns out that the Song Dynasty was practice, and the Ming Dynasty was the real deal. Indeed, the only way to deal with the civil official group is to imitate the methods of the Qing Dynasty, but the price is too high."]

"I understand! I understand completely! Why was the Tumu Fortress defeat so devastating! Why was Emperor Yingzong captured! Because from beginning to end, it was all a setup! A deadly trap set to kill him!"

"Don't forget, the archaeological team led by Brother Jun just discovered 5600 corpses at Tumu Fortress, as well as evidence left by Zhang Fu's personal guards—the border army murdered the emperor! I'm afraid Wang Zuo, Cao Nai, and the others didn't expect that this is different from what was agreed upon. The original plan was only to kill Zhu Qizhen and Xun Gui, but they didn't expect that they were also killed to silence them."

"This is a million times more disgusting than what's written in the history books! In the history books, those damned civil officials use false records to tell us that Zhu Qizhen was just a fool, a joke! But now, he... he's a tragic hero who was betrayed and killed by his own ministers!"

"Damn it, I'm getting more and more annoyed by some content creators and novelists. They don't even bother to check the facts before claiming that Zhu Qizhen killed 50 troops. They don't even consider whether Tumu Fortress could actually hold 50 troops. They just throw around the number 50. Zhu Qizhen was a terrible ruler, and Yu Qian was a loyal minister. I suspect that the so-called 50 troops were probably the sum of deserters from the Zhengtong era, embezzled pensions of soldiers who died in battle, etc., all pinned on Zhu Qizhen. After all, the dead don't speak, and that's been the case since ancient times."

[“Brothers, the truth is out! Have you guys noticed? Most TV dramas these days are using the Tumu Fortress incident with its 50-strong army to collectively smear Zhu Qizhen. Who's behind all this? It's so hard to guess~~”]

"Hey, the AI-generated hypothetical scenario where Zhu Qizhen knew the truth in the 7th year of the Zhengtong reign was so realistic that everyone thought it was real. I just wonder if they could create a Tumu Fortress version."

"The brother upstairs is overthinking it. By the time of Tumu Fortress, it was too late to turn the tide. Now I finally understand why Zhu Qizhen built temples for Esen and Wang Zhen—it was because they saved his life!"

"Sigh, it suddenly dawned on me that none of the emperors named Yingzong had a good ending. Emperor Yingzong of Ming and Emperor Yingzong of Yuan were killed by their own people in a coup. So, could the short-lived Emperor Yingzong of Song have been killed by Song Dynasty civil officials? The other side ascended the throne for four years and did the same things as his two successors, Emperor Yingzong."

"Yeah, right. Those damn authors of Tianmu Novels and those who write about time travel to the Ming Dynasty don't even mention the events surrounding Zhu Qizhen's Qing army. The southeastern rebellion, the southwestern suppression, the burning of the border granaries—they just spout off about the 50 troops at Tumu Fortress. These people are either idiots, or they're evil, or both!"

[Hard to say]

In the minds of all modern viewers, the constant barrage of comments in the live stream doesn't fool the masses. You can be deceived for a while, but not forever.

In an instant, the entire live broadcast room's perception of Zhu Qizhen underwent a dramatic reversal!

He was no longer the foolish, incompetent "Baozong" who brought endless shame to the Ming Dynasty.

Rather, he was a tragic young emperor who attempted to fight against the entire corrupt bureaucratic system on his own, but was ultimately dragged into the abyss by these evil spirits!

The shame, at this moment, transformed into a tragic grandeur.

Mockery, at this moment, solidified into sympathy.

Set in the 14th year of the Zhengtong era, inside the Qianqing Palace.

Zhu Qizhen sat blankly on the dragon throne, his whole body trembling violently.

He was neither afraid nor ashamed.

It was a chilling, bone-chilling rage that rose from the depths of one's bones after being overwhelmed by endless betrayals!

Kill the emperor!

So... they wanted to kill me!

It turns out, from the very beginning, this was all a setup!

He suddenly raised his head, his once clear eyes now bloodshot, staring intently at the silent civil and military officials below the throne.

His gaze swept over Minister of War Kuang Ye, Minister of Revenue Wang Zuo, and then over the Grand Secretaries of the Cabinet…

At this moment, the people in his eyes were no longer the pillars of the country, nor the ministers who assisted him.

Instead, they were faces hidden beneath human skin masks, hideous, malevolent demons eager to devour their masters!

"Hahaha……"

Zhu Qizhen suddenly chuckled softly, the laughter growing louder and more shrill, filled with endless desolation and madness.

"Hahahahaha!!"

I, the Emperor, hereby order the Qing army to reorganize the garrisons in order to strengthen the military might of my Great Ming Dynasty!

I, the Emperor, am determined to fight corruption and severely punish corrupt officials in order to restore a bright and just world to my Great Ming Dynasty!

But you...

You bunch of ministers who read the classics and spout nonsense about benevolence and morality!

Just because I'm going to cut off your source of income, just because I'm going to investigate your messy accounts!

You intend to join forces with foreign enemies and orchestrate this grand scheme to kill me?!

Wang Zuo and the others who were named also looked grim. They thought about how they had been betrayed by their colleague Chen Xun and other treacherous traitors, and then killed to silence them. If they were dead, then their families would not fare much better; it was only a matter of time before their entire families were wiped out. Civil officials understood civil officials all too well.

Hmm... Should we cooperate with the emperor to kill those bastards Chen Xun, Wang Wen, Yu Qian, and Yang Hong first?

Hongwu Hall.

Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly stood up from the dragon throne. The murderous aura emanating from him was so strong that it almost materialized, causing the temperature in the entire hall to drop abruptly!

"Good! Good! Good!"

Old Zhu said "good" three times in a row, his bloodshot eyes flashing with an almost manic excitement and tyranny.

"I knew it! I knew these bookworms were all bad apples!"

He pointed to the sky, roared at his sons, and at the entire court of officials:

"Look carefully, everyone!"

"This is what you keep telling us about 'governing the world together with the scholar-officials'!"

"Co-governance?!"

"They want to shit on the emperor's neck! They want to turn our Zhu family's empire into capital for their own businesses!"

"That brat Zhu Qizhen, well done! Killing those censors was absolutely the right thing to do!"

"We haven't killed enough!"

"If it were us, we'd tie up all nine generations of these people's families and take them to the execution ground, chopping them into mincemeat! Let's see who dares to play this game with us again!"

Yongle Palace.

Zhu Di did not roar; his face remained calm, but beneath that calm lay a fury more terrifying than a volcanic eruption.

As a military genius, he had been completely baffled by it.

Why?

Why did they suffer such a crushing defeat at Tumu Fortress?

Now he understands everything.

This is not a defeat.

This was a military coup, launched from within, and so perfect it was almost flawless!

His gaze fell upon his son Zhu Gaochi and grandson Zhu Zhanji, his eyes filled with disappointment and heartache.

The latter also knew what a stupid thing he had done.

His disappointment stemmed from the fact that the military system he had built, which had been enough to make the Ming Dynasty proud, had rotted to such an extent from within.

From his death to the Tumu Crisis during Zhu Qizhen's reign, only 25 years passed—just enough time for a person to grow up and become successful, perhaps even before passing the imperial examinations. But the result was...

He was heartbroken because his great-grandson, a boy with the same ambition as him, had to face a pack of wolves in human skin all by himself!

"child……"

Zhu Di looked up at the sky, as if whispering to Zhu Qizhen in another time and space.

"This is not your fault."

"You didn't lose to the Mongols."

"You've lost to a pack of vicious dogs you thought were guarding your home, but who actually wanted to devour your entire family!"

Above the sky, Zhu Dijun's voice rang out again, carrying a solemn, pronouncement-like tone.

"Yes, family, you guessed right."

"The Tumu Crisis, in essence, was not a war."

"It was a large-scale joint execution orchestrated and carried out by the highest-ranking interest groups within the Ming Dynasty, targeting the Empire's supreme leader!"

"And the first and most crucial step of this plan is—"

"Lead the snake out of its hole!"

"To lure Zhu Qizhen, the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, out of the impregnable city of Beijing!"

"How do I lie?"

A cold smile curled at the corners of Zhu Dijun's mouth.

"What they are exploiting is precisely what is most precious, and also most deadly, in this young emperor—"

"His ambition, his aspirations, and his unquestionable sense of responsibility towards this country!"

"When news of the Oirat harassing the border arrived, when urgent dispatches from the border towns flooded into the capital like snowflakes, when the entire court was filled with a tense atmosphere of 'national crisis'..."

"A voice would keep ringing in Zhu Qizhen's ears."

"Your Majesty, you are the Son of Heaven! You are the sun of the Ming Dynasty!"

"Emperor Taizong (Zhu Di) led five northern expeditions back then, how magnificent! You are a descendant of Emperor Taizong, how can you diminish the prestige of your ancestor?!"

"These civil officials are all talk; only your personal command can sweep across the land and restore the prestige of our Great Ming!"

"Family members, think about it: a young emperor who is sixteen or seventeen years old, has just assumed power, and is eager to break free from the constraints of civil officials and establish unparalleled achievements—can he resist such temptation?"

"No, he can't!"

"Thus, personally leading the army to reclaim military power transformed from a crazy option into the only correct choice, one filled with glory and dreams!"

"And the one who blew that first note of the magic flute in the emperor's ear, personally pushing him into the abyss..."

Zhu Dijun's voice suddenly stopped.

His sharp gaze swept across countless worlds and timelines, as if he were enjoying the breathless anticipation of everyone present.

Then, he slowly uttered a name that made Zhu Qizhen's blood freeze.

"Wang Zhen!"