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

After Jiajing came Longqing, and then Wanli.

Once the temple name "Lizong" was officially recognized, the stigmatization of Zhu Dijun became an unstoppable torrent.

His books were banned.

His ideas were denounced as "fallacies and heresies".

The university he founded was gradually transformed into an "academy" that only taught Confucian classics.

The industrial system he pioneered was gradually abandoned because it was considered "ingenious and frivolous" and because it competed with the "gentry" for profit.

The once bustling factory has fallen silent once more.

The once bustling railway is now gradually becoming rusty.

The self-sufficient farmers who once owned their own land lost it again and became tenants and vagrants under the joint exploitation of the corrupt "Hammer Party" and the emerging gentry.

History has drawn a circle that inspires despair.

By the end of the Wanli era, the Ming Dynasty court had been completely controlled by the Donglin Party and other civil official groups.

They represented the interests of the wealthiest gentry, landlords, and big merchants in Jiangnan.

They abolished the heavy taxes on unscrupulous merchants, but instead shifted the heavy burden onto the peasants even more severely.

They shout "Let the people rest," yet they condone their family members' illegal and disorderly conduct.

They restored the old "rule of the fat crickets," a prosperous era embellished by civil officials.

Beneath this seemingly prosperous surface, the people are suffering terribly.

Tianqi and Chongzhen.

When the last emperor, Zhu Youjian, ascended the throne, he faced a corrupt country beset by internal and external troubles.

He wanted to revitalize the government and restore order to the court.

But he sadly discovered that he had long been sidelined by the literati who once shouted "for the country and the people".

Every imperial edict he issued never left the Forbidden City.

He wanted to levy commercial taxes, but all the officials in the court opposed it, citing "ancestral laws."

He wanted to reorganize the border defenses, but the Minister of Revenue cried and said that the national treasury couldn't even produce a single tael of silver.

Meanwhile, in the north of the empire...

A new force is rising.

That was not the Later Jin Jurchen in history.

Instead, it was a monster formed by a savage tribe from the Nurgan Regional Military Commission, exiled Japanese pirates, and... Shanxi merchants from the northwest of the Ming Dynasty.

They called themselves "Later Jin" and, under the banner of "sweeping away the bandits for the Ming Dynasty," repeatedly knocked on the gates and marched south with the help and guidance of local tyrants and gentry led by Shanxi merchants.

Each time they marched south, it was not to attack cities, but only to plunder.

Those spineless civil officials always advocated "peace talks," using the people's hard-earned money to feed this insatiable wolf.

They even secretly colluded to bring disaster to the Ming Dynasty.

They are using this method to weaken imperial power and those disobedient military men.

They believed that everything was under their control.

Until the bandits' raging fires completely engulfed the entire north.

In the seventeenth year of the Chongzhen Emperor's reign, Li Zicheng captured Beijing.

Zhu Youjian hanged himself on Coal Hill, writing in blood before his death: "I am not a ruler who will bring about the downfall of the country; all my ministers are ministers who will bring about the downfall of the country."

The news reached Jiangnan.

Instead of being saddened, the leaders of the Donglin Party celebrated their victory.

They immediately enthroned Prince Fu, Zhu Yousong, and established the so-called "Hongguang" regime in Nanjing.

They could finally take complete control of the country, just like the civil officials of the Song Dynasty.

However, they did not expect this.

The Manqing army in the north, guided by internal traitors, marched south under the pretext of "avenging their emperor and father"!

Shi Kefa fought to the death in Yangzhou, and the city eventually fell.

The Yangzhou Massacre and the Jiading Massacre.

History has repeated itself in an even more tragic way.

Those civil officials who were shouting "loyalty" yesterday immediately shaved their heads, changed their clothes, and knelt before the invaders' horses, transforming themselves into "subordinate ministers."

They pointed out to the invaders where the resistance was most resolute.

They devised the most vicious and bloody plan for the wild boar skin, to wipe out any resistance.

China has been completely submerged!

Darkness enveloped this once glorious land.

But the flame was not extinguished.

Under the "Dabentang" system restored during Zhu Dijun's reign, the descendants of countless Hongwu nobles, Jingnan nobles, and even Jingtai nobles did not fall into corruption under the influence of the civil service group.

They were ostracized and suppressed, but they always remembered the glory of their ancestors and that distorted history.

When the country was destroyed and their homes were destroyed, they became the most resolute force in the resistance.

Meanwhile, in Fujian, Zhu Yujian, the Prince of Tang, an insignificant member of the imperial family, raised the banner of rebellion with the desperate protection of several descendants of the Jingtai Emperors, and adopted the reign title "Longwu".

At first, his strength was weak, and he suffered repeated defeats.

The old army has long been corrupt, and the people are numb and indifferent.

He was almost driven to despair.

Until one day, a small squad that was protecting him fled into a remote mountain range on the Loess Plateau in Shaanxi Province in order to escape the pursuit of the Qing army.

They stumbled upon a cave in the mountains that was sealed off by a huge rock.

Pushing aside the boulder, inside was a huge, sealed chamber wrapped in layers of paraffin wax and oilcloth.

When they lit the tinderbox and saw the thousands of scrolls in the secret room, everyone was stunned.

A copy of the Yongle Encyclopedia!

"A Survey Report on Rural Areas in Jiangnan During the Jingtai Period of the Ming Dynasty"

The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy!

The manufacture and repair of steam engines!

"Improvement and Application of Gunpowder Weapons"!

And... that most crucial, true "Hammer Party Action Plan"!

At the very top of the scroll lay a will wrapped in yellow silk.

That was left to future generations by Zhu Jianshen, the "Guardian of Fire" of the Ming Dynasty.

"If future generations see this edict, it will prove that my uncle Zhongzu's prophecy has come true, that the land of China has sunk and the Chinese people have suffered calamity."

"You need not grieve, you need not despair."

"Your ancestors and I have prepared for you the tools to restore your kingdom and the seeds to start a prairie fire."

"Stand up, do not kneel! Unite all forces that can be united to thoroughly and cleanly wipe from this land those traitors who distort history, those national traitors who let wolves into the house, and those barbarians who enslave my compatriots!"

"remember!"

Our journey is to the stars and the sea!

Zhu Yujian held the imperial edict in his hands, tears streaming down his face.

He knelt down on the ground and kowtowed heavily in the direction of Beijing.

"Your unworthy descendant Zhu Yujian pays respects to Emperor Zhongzu and Emperor Xianzong!"

"With our ancestors above, your grandson will surely restore the Ming Dynasty!"

Having received a "backup of civilization," the Longwu regime underwent a complete transformation.

Zhu Yujian was no longer the lonely man who could only rely on old nobles and local gentry.

He possessed the weapon of thought.

He sent people to make countless copies of the real "Hammer Party Action Program" and "Rural Survey Report" in the most accessible vernacular Chinese, and distributed them to all the areas still resisting.

"Down with the new gentry! Reclaim our land!"

"Every citizen of my Great Ming Dynasty shall be entitled to twenty mu of land!"

"Expel the Tartars and restore China! We are not fighting for the emperor, but for ourselves, for our descendants, so that they can live with their heads held high!"

These slogans, like thunderclaps, awakened countless numb souls.

Those peasant armies that had originally fought independently, and those rebel armies that had been struggling in the deep mountains and forests, all came to join them.

Upon seeing this program, the remaining forces of Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong accepted the reorganization of the Longwu regime without hesitation.

Because they discovered that what Emperor Longwu wanted to establish was the world they had always dreamed of: a world where "everyone has food to eat and everyone has land to cultivate."

A brand-new alliance, centered on the common people and the old elites, is burning brightly in southwestern China.

Using the technical blueprints they found, they rebuilt the arsenal deep in the mountains of Sichuan.

When the first breech-loading cannon using Minié bullets was manufactured, and when the first "new army" equipped with flintlock muskets took to the battlefield, the balance of war began to shift.

This was a war that lasted for a full thirty years.

A bloody battle between civilization and barbarity, between revival and decline.

The Manchu Eight Banners cavalry were routed by the new artillery, which had a longer range and greater power.

Those surrendered Tartar troops crumbled before the Han Chinese men, whose national consciousness had been awakened.

The traitorous gentry and bureaucratic clique that had been entrenched in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Fujian, acting as accomplices to the tyrannical regime, was uprooted by the restoration army that had stormed out from the southwest. Their land and wealth were confiscated and distributed to landless peasants.

The cost of war is devastating.

According to postwar statistics, the population of the entire country decreased by 35 million.

The bones are exposed in the wild, and there is no cock crowing for thousands of miles.

But this land was ultimately purified.

In the thirtieth year of the Longwu reign, the Restoration Army captured Beiping, and Zhu Yujian performed the Heaven-worshiping ceremony again in the Forbidden City.

The Han people have returned!

Ten years later.

When Emperor Longwu, Zhu Yujian, had wiped out the traitors and remnants of the regime and began to restore the livelihood of the people,

On the eastern sea, a fleet appeared that blotted out the sky.

They are not enemies.

Two flags were flying on the fleet.

One type is the Ming Dynasty Yan Prince's Banner embroidered with a black bird.

One type is the Ming Dynasty Han King Banner embroidered with a crimson tiger.

After nearly two centuries away from their homeland, the two overseas branches have returned!

The Yan Kingdom in Annam and the Han Kingdom in Ma Nali had long since developed into two powerful empires whose strength was no less than that of their homelands.

They brought with them more advanced steam-powered ironclad warships, countless technical talents, and massive amounts of gold and resources.

Three branches of Chinese bloodline victoriously met in Nanjing.

At that moment, Emperor Longwu Zhu Yujian, along with the contemporary Prince of Yan and Prince of Han, embraced and wept before the portrait of Emperor Zhongzu Zhu Dijun.

Our ancestors' last wish has finally been fulfilled.

Next comes the reckoning!

A global reckoning spanning a century!

All forces that funded the Qing Dynasty or invaded the Ming Dynasty during its collapse were placed on the purge list.

The first group consisted of Shanxi merchant families in Northwest China and their "Khazar" financial backers.

A joint expeditionary force composed of three Ming empires set out from Xinjiang, heading west and traversing the vast grasslands.

Their motto was simple: "Kill them all, loot them all, burn them all!"

All countries that support the "White Hat Cult" and act as its accomplices have been completely wiped off the map.

Countless Han Chinese were relocated to their land, and Buddhist temples and Taoist monasteries replaced the original mosques.

The second group consisted of barbarians from the sea.

The combined Ming Dynasty fleet blockaded all shipping routes from Japan to Europe.

Anyone who has participated in aggression, whether a country or a company, must pay a hundredfold price.

War, reparations, cession of territory.

The once-mighty "empire on which the sun never sets" bowed its proud head in the face of absolute power.

Meanwhile, domestically, Zhu Yujian issued a far-reaching decree.

"Close all foreign-owned guesthouses forever!"

The institution, established during the Yongle era and originally intended for exchange, ended up producing countless ungrateful wretches and was completely abolished.

"Those who are not of our kind will surely have different hearts. To try to civilize barbarians is a joke."

"The only way to deal with wolves is with a hunting rifle!"

The 45th year of the Longwu reign.

Zhu Yujian, with his white hair, stood at the highest point of the Nanjing Observatory, holding in his hand the edict of Emperor Xianzong Zhu Jianshen, which he had treasured all his life.

He looked at this new world, which was in ruins but also full of vitality.

He thought of his ancestor, whom he had never met but who had influenced his entire life—Emperor Zhongzu of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Dijun.

"Emperor Zhongzu..."

"Your prophecies have all come true."

"Darkness has fallen, but the flame has never been extinguished."

"Now, this flame, we will spread it throughout the entire world!"

"Our journey..."

He raised his head and looked up at the deep starry sky, which seemed to hold countless secrets.

"It's the stars and the sea!"