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

"A better option? That's still rebellion! It's chaos! It's shaking the very foundation of the nation!"

Zhu Qizhen completely lost control of his emotions. He rushed forward, grabbed Zhu Dijun's shoulders, and shook him violently, as if trying to wake this "madman" up.

"Qi Yu! Wake up! We are the emperor! The Son of Heaven! The rulers of the world! How could you... how could you think of such a thing!"

"Our Zhu family's empire was won by Emperor Taizu with every sword and spear! How could you destroy it with your own hands!"

Faced with his brother's hysterical questioning, Judy did not struggle.

He simply watched him quietly, letting him vent his inner fears.

Only when Zhu Qizhen's strength gradually ran out and he loosened his grip while panting did Zhu Dijun slowly speak.

His voice was eerily calm.

"Brother, we have no choice."

These words were like a bucket of ice water poured over Zhu Qizhen's head once again.

"We were Han Chinese first."

"Then came the emperors of the Han people."

Zhu Dijun spoke slowly and deliberately, each word like a heavy hammer, striking Zhu Qizhen and the hearts of all the emperors under the heavens.

"What do you think this throne is? Is it an inherent divine right? Is it proof that you and I can lord it over each other?"

"No!"

Zhu Dijun categorically denied it.

"It is simply a responsibility that our Zhu family bears for all Han Chinese people under heaven!"

"A responsibility to ensure they have clothes to wear, food to eat, land to cultivate, and the ability to survive in the face of natural disasters and man-made calamities!"

"When we can no longer bear this responsibility, or even when we ourselves become the greatest disaster for the people of the world..."

Zhu Dijun's gaze became incredibly profound, as if it could see through the cycles of history.

"It should be taken away!"

"Whether it's taken away by outsiders or handed over by ourselves!"

These words completely shattered Zhu Qizhen's last line of psychological defense.

He collapsed to the ground, muttering to himself:

"You're insane... insane... you're really insane..."

Ignoring his breakdown, Judy Jun turned his gaze to the endless void, as if conducting a judgment on all of time and space.

"Our Ming imperial family bleeds with Han blood; we must never become like those useless fools of the Northern and Southern Song dynasties!"

His voice suddenly turned sharp, filled with undisguised contempt and disdain!

"When the country was on the verge of collapse, instead of thinking of resistance or standing with the people, these people, who possessed vast wealth, followed the Mongol invaders, wagging their tails and begging for mercy, and then turned around and preyed on their own compatriots!"

"How tragic it was that Lu Xiufu carried the young emperor into the sea! And what noble spirit Wen Tianxiang left behind in his famous line, 'Since ancient times, who has ever escaped death? Let my loyal heart shine in history!'"

"But their tragic heroism and integrity only serve to highlight how despicable and shameless the majority of the Southern Song Dynasty's scholar-officials were!"

[Sky Screen Live Stream]

[“Holy crap! They’ve started roasting! Jun-ge is directly calling out that coward (Song) by name!”]

"Well said! Those surrenderers at the end of the Northern and Southern Song dynasties are practically the ancestors of modern traitors! Apart from a few loyal ministers, most of them were spineless cowards!"

"Jun-ge's words are practically addressed to all emperors! Stop thinking about your own throne all day long, and ask yourselves if you're even human!"

……

The Song Dynasty.

Lin'an.

Inside the palace, Zhao Gou, who had just been gloating over Zhu Dijun's spoils-sharing, turned a deep shade of liver upon hearing these words.

"Rebellion! Rebellion! How dare these emperors of later generations slander my Great Song Dynasty like this!"

He was so angry that he was trembling all over, and he pointed at the sky and cursed loudly.

But the more fiercely he cursed, the paler his face became, because he knew that what the other party was saying was a bloody truth!

On the other side...

Cliff Mountain.

Amidst the towering waves, Prime Minister Lu Xiufu, carrying the young Emperor Bing on his back, was preparing to leap into the sea.

As he listened to the sounds coming from the sky, two lines of clear tears suddenly streamed down his despairing face.

He glanced back at the fallen land behind him, then looked at the bewildered young emperor in his arms.

"His Majesty……"

He murmured softly.

"Did you hear that? In later generations... there will still be people who remember the backbone of the Han people..."

"I have no regrets in dying!"

Having said that, he held the young emperor in his arms and resolutely leaped into the turbulent sea.

……

Ruins of Nangong Palace.

Zhu Dijun's voice grew increasingly cold, like a chilling wind from the depths of hell.

"Look at the Confucius family in Qufu!"

These words were like a bombshell dropped on the Confucius Mansion in every timeline of the Ming Dynasty!

"When the Mongol barbarians arrived, they were the first to submit a petition of submission, saying things like 'All under heaven are one family, sharing the emperor's rule!'"

"Our great ancestor, Emperor Gaozu, drove out the barbarians and restored China, but they immediately changed their tune, leading their people to kneel outside Yingtian Prefecture and shouting, 'The Mandate of Heaven has been bestowed upon us, a sage has descended upon the world!'"

"Brother, tell me!"

Zhu Dijun suddenly pointed at Zhu Qizhen.

"These so-called 'descendants of sages' who are two-faced, lack integrity, and place family interests above the nation and its people—do you expect them to share the fate of the country in times of national crisis?! Do you expect them to share the fate of Han civilization?"

Zhu Qizhen opened his mouth, but couldn't utter a single word.

……

In the fourth year of the Hongwu reign of the Ming Dynasty in a parallel universe.

Yingtian Prefecture.

Zhu Yuanzhang had just finished reading a memorial submitted by Kong Kejian, the current Duke Yansheng of the Kong family, a sycophantic and flowery article praising his achievements.

He was preparing to write a batch of vermilion ink to reward him!

Just then, Judy Jun's contemptuous words came clearly from the sky.

Zhu Yuanzhang's hand, which was holding the vermilion pen, suddenly paused.

He raised his head, squinted at the sky, and then looked down at the memorial in his hand.

A cold, murderous smile slowly appeared on that weathered face.

"Someone come here!"

"exist!"

"Investigate!" Zhu Yuanzhang's voice wasn't loud, but it carried an undeniable authority.

"Investigate this thoroughly! What did the Confucius family of Qufu do during those hundred years from the Northern Song Dynasty to the end of the Yuan Dynasty? How did they treat the Tartar emperor, and how did they treat us!"

"Investigate each and every case thoroughly, until the truth is revealed!"

"As you command!"

Watching the commander of the Imperial Guard leave to receive his orders, Zhu Yuanzhang casually threw the memorial on the ground and crushed it with his foot.

"What utter nonsense about being a descendant of a saint!"

He muttered a curse under his breath.

"We're not dead yet! They're already trying to fool us! These descendants are right! These scholars are wicked!"

On the other side...

The Yongle, Xuande, Zhengde... and even the Chongzhen period.

At almost the same time, the Duke of Yansheng of the current dynasty was terrified!

They immediately wrote a letter in blood, a memorial of ten thousand words, and sent it to the emperor, crying out their innocence.

"Injustice! Your Majesty!"

"This is a slander by later generations who played the role of the 'tyrannical Emperor Jingtai'! It's a vicious scheme to sow discord between the emperor and his ministers!"

"Our Kong family has revered Confucianism for generations, and our loyalty to the emperor and our love for the country are as clear as heaven and earth, as evident as the sun and moon!"

However, faced with their pleas, Zhu Di, Zhu Zhanji, and Zhu Houzhao, sitting upright on the dragon throne, simply looked at them coldly, their eyes filled with unprecedented scrutiny and suspicion.

Because the Kong family had too many history of surrendering, from the end of the Qin Dynasty to the present Ming Dynasty, they repeatedly switched sides and betrayed the country too many times.

The sky once again planted a seed of doubt in them.

And once this seed takes root, it can never be pulled out!

……

Amidst the ruins, Zhu Dijun's voice, like a prophecy of the end of the world, continued to echo in Zhu Qizhen's ears.

"Brother, do you believe it or not?"

"By the time of our Great Ming Dynasty, we had truly reached the most severe period of the Little Ice Age, beset by internal and external troubles, until the day we could no longer hold on..."

"The first to open the gates and welcome the foreign invaders from beyond the Great Wall were this group of gentry who are still shouting 'loyalty to the emperor and patriotism' today!"

"The first family to kneel before their new master and shout 'Long live the Emperor!' was the Confucius family of Qufu!"

"Because in their eyes, there has never been such a thing as a country or a nation!"

"It's just their own family!"

"Whoever can protect their land, whoever can uphold their privileges, is their master!"

"Benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trustworthiness! But loyalty is the only thing missing!"

Every word Zhu Dijun said was like a knife, stabbing deeply into Zhu Qizhen's heart.

He recalled the group of "key ministers" in the Hall of Supreme Harmony, who revealed their ugly side in their struggle to divide the spoils.

He recalled those powerful families in history who, during periods of dynastic change, transformed themselves and continued to serve as officials in the new dynasty.

He recalled the cold and cruel logic his brother had spoken.

Everything connected at this moment, forming an incredibly clear yet terrifying picture.

He finally understood.

The deep-seated fear slowly dissipated at that moment.

Instead, there is a deeper, colder, more desperate understanding...

He finally understood his brother's madness.

Zhu Qizhen's body slumped down, leaning against a charred pillar, his eyes staring blankly ahead.

In a voice that sounded almost utterly exhausted, he asked the question that would change everything.

"Then... what should we do?"

Upon hearing this, Judy Jun knew that his brother had finally been "persuaded".

He turned around, facing the setting sun, its crimson light stretching his figure to an incredibly long and slender silhouette.

"us?"

He laughed, a laugh that, in the evening breeze, carried a chilling, sinister pleasure.

"We will be the ones wielding the knife."

"Before they betrayed their entire nation..."

"First, take them out, along with the very roots of their livelihood and their evil deeds..."

"Let's dig it up together!"