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

The Ming Dynasty, during the Yongle reign.

Inside the Fengtian Hall, there was a deathly silence.

Everyone knelt on the ground, gazing up at the sky, watching that sinister nursery rhyme spread rapidly like a plague in the capital city of another time and space.

Zhu Gaosui's mouth was agape enough to fit an egg, and all the color drained from his face.

He had previously called Zhu Dijun an idiot, but now, he felt a chill run straight up from his tailbone to the top of his head, making the hairs on his body stand on end.

That's not stupid!

This is clearly madness! This is demonic!

"Father...Father Emperor..."

Zhu Gaosui's voice trembled violently, "This...this descendant Zhu Dijun, has he gone mad? Yu Qian...that's a powerful minister who currently holds the upper hand! He's using such a vulgar nursery rhyme to slander a meritorious official, he...he's digging his own grave! If he's discovered...his throne will turn to ashes in an instant!"

"Shut up!"

This time, before Zhu Di could get angry, Crown Prince Zhu Gaochi suddenly turned around and whispered a rebuke to him.

Zhu Gaochi's face was also pale, and his forehead was covered with a fine layer of cold sweat, but his seemingly gentle eyes were flashing with unprecedented horror and contemplation.

He understood, but he couldn't believe it.

"Snapped!"

Zhu Di slammed his fist on the table and stood up once again!

But this time, there was no anger on his face, only an extreme, almost manic excitement and fear!

Those tiger eyes were fixed on the sky, as if they wanted to pull that unseen descendant out of the long river of time for hundreds of years and give him a big hug!

"Good! Good! Good!"

He said "good" three times in a row, his voice making the hall reverberate.

"Digging your own grave? Fool! What do you know!" Zhu Di pointed at the sky and roared at his three sons, his voice filled with barely suppressed elation.

"This is called putting yourself in a do-or-die situation! This is called walking a tightrope on a cliff!"

"Why would he slander Yu Qian? Because Yu Qian is the embodiment of 'righteousness'! He is the so-called pillar of the nation, the backbone of everyone! As long as Yu Qian doesn't fall, Sun Ruowei's alliance with those civil officials will be unbreakable! Zhu Dijun will never have a chance to rise again!"

"So what he wants to do is pull this most 'righteous' person down from his pedestal! He wants to use the 'dirtiest' methods to smear him with indelible filth!"

Zhu Di's eyes shone with an alarming intensity; he seemed to see a reflection of himself during the Jingnan Campaign.

"This nursery rhyme, seemingly attacking Yu Qian, Chen Xun, and Wang Wen, and even Sun Ruowei, is actually attacking the 'hearts and minds' of the entire Ming Dynasty! It's telling the world: what you trust and admire may all be false! Your heroes may be hypocrites! Your empress dowager may be an ambitious schemer!"

"Once the seeds of doubt are sown, trust will crumble! If Yu Qian and his ilk try to depose and install an emperor in the name of 'righteousness,' their actions will be illegitimate and they will be condemned by the world!"

"He's gambling with his throne, with the safety of the entire capital, for a chance to overthrow an impenetrable wall! He's using a nursery rhyme to sow discord between the emperor and his ministers, between the empress dowager and her meritorious officials, and between officials and the people!"

"This is no longer a conspiracy! This is an open scheme! A scheme that attacks the very core of one's being!"

As Zhu Di finished speaking, he couldn't help but burst into laughter, his laughter filled with joy and appreciation.

"That's what you call boldness! That's what you call imperial strategy! These are my good descendants! You three are worthless, not even worthy to carry his shoes!"

Zhu Gaochi, Zhu Gaoxu, and Zhu Gaosui knelt on the ground, being verbally abused mercilessly, yet they dared not utter a single word in rebuttal.

Looking at the younger generation stirring up the winds and clouds in the sky, they were filled with endless shock and fear.

This guy named Zhu Dijun is a monster!

……

Meanwhile, in modern times.

The chat room in Zhu Dijun's live stream was completely flooded with comments.

"Holy crap! Holy crap! I'm dumbfounded! You can play like this?!"

"Poisonous! Absolutely poisonous! This is a thousand times more poisonous than sending the Imperial Guards to kill someone!"

"Any expert out there? Quickly analyze this! How risky is this move? I feel like Jun Ge's version of Zhu Qiyu is self-destructing!"

On screen, the refined-looking anchor "Dongmen Chuiniu," wearing black-rimmed glasses, stepped forward. He looked serious and pushed up his glasses before slowly speaking.

"Dear viewers, we cannot view this matter from a God's-eye view. You must understand how high Yu Qian's prestige was in the historical context of that time, after the so-called fabricated Battle of Beiping."

"In the fabricated Battle of Beiping, he turned the tide and saved the day, and through constant propaganda, he became known in the people as a savior, a living saint! Zhu Dijun's portrayal of Zhu Qiyu attacks Yu Qian in this way, which is like...like dancing on an egg!"

The anchor's voice became serious.

"This is a gamble with an extremely low success rate, but if successful, the rewards are unimaginably huge! He dragged everyone into the mess, muddied the waters, and made everyone a suspect. Zhu Qizhen, Empress Dowager Sun, Yu Qian's political enemies... anyone could be a suspect, but he, the 'heartbroken' emperor, is the least suspicious!"

"He used the most outrageous act to cloak himself in the most innocent guise! This move wasn't just killing people, it was destroying their spirits! It was destroying the core values ​​of the entire Ming Dynasty at that time!"

"A madman! A complete and utter madman, a man who schemes to the core of human nature!"

After a brief silence, the live stream chat exploded with even more frenzied chatter.

"I declare that Zhu Qiyu (played by Zhu Dijun) is the most cunning emperor I have ever seen, bar none!"

"This game is too big; my heart can't take it!"

"All I want to know now is, how is Yu Qian going to break this deadlock? This is practically an unsolvable, openly calculated scheme!"

……

The Jingtai reign, the capital city.

Panic, like a real dark cloud, hung over everyone's heart.

Nursery rhymes are no longer just sung by children.

In teahouses, restaurants, and alleyways, people were whispering everywhere.

Every exchange of glances was filled with suspicion and distrust.

"Have you heard? The Duke of Zhongguo's household was so angry last night that he vomited blood!"

"That's not all! The Wang family of the Ministry of Personnel smashed all the official porcelain from the previous dynasty!"

"I doubt it! Tell me... how exactly did the Crown Prince die?"

"Shh! Are you out of your mind?! This is not something we should be discussing!"

Rumors and gossip can hurt more than a knife.

The once unbroken court is now riddled with countless unseen cracks.

Those who supported Yu Qian, Chen Xun, and Wang Wen were naturally furious and arrested people everywhere in an attempt to quell the rumors. But the more they did this, the more the people felt that they were guilty.

Meanwhile, those officials who had been suppressed by Yu Qian and Chen Xun were gloating and secretly fanning the flames, hoping to make things even bigger.

The entire capital city was like a giant powder keg.

The one who lit the fuse was an emperor whom everyone thought was "deposed".

Inside the Qianqing Palace.

Zhu Dijun listened to Xing An's report without any expression on his face.

He simply picked up his teacup and gently blew on the floating tea leaves.

"Xing'an".

"This servant is here."

"Tell me, in a pot of muddy water, is it easier to fish, or is it easier to... drown?"

Xing'an shuddered, feeling a chill creep up his spine.

He dared not answer.

Because he saw that there was no smile in his master's eyes, only a bottomless, cold darkness.

This game has only just begun.