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

Zhu Dijun's voice, like a scalpel, precisely dissected the texture of history and the hearts of countless people across countless worlds and timelines.

Having just experienced the exhilarating thrill of the "IF line," returning to the cold reality now brings a suffocating and stinging feeling that makes it hard for everyone to breathe.

"Family members, I know what you're thinking."

Why would an emperor who has just broken free from control be so reckless and so willing to declare war on the entire civil service?

Zhu Dijun's voice carried a chill.

"Because he was afraid."

He feared that if he were even a step too late, he would end up like the night of the "Cao Qin Incident," without even a chance to resist!

He feared that if he softened his heart even slightly, he would repeat the same mistake, be imprisoned in the Southern Palace again by those ruthless wolves, and perhaps... even lose his life!

"Therefore, the moment he regained power, revenge, or rather, the reckoning for self-preservation, began in the most thunderous and ruthless way!"

Zhu Dijun's tone suddenly became urgent, as if he were recounting to everyone that fierce power struggle!

"In August of the seventh year of the Tianshun reign, a key figure died."

"Sun Shaozong, the third maternal uncle of Emperor Yingzong, who took over the command of the Northern Garrison of the Embroidered Uniform Guard after the 'Cao Qin Rebellion'!"

"History records say he died of illness, but family members, do you believe that?"

"Just when an emperor had regained power and was preparing to purge his maternal relatives, the most important henchman of the maternal relatives' group 'coincidentally' died of illness?"

Zhu Dijun gave a cold laugh, and the scene changed.

On the dragon throne, Zhu Qizhen's face appeared somber and uncertain in the candlelight.

"Upon Sun Shaozong's death, Emperor Yingzong didn't even give the Sun family any time to react before immediately issuing an imperial edict!"

"He ordered his most trusted servant, the eunuch Menda, whom the civil officials scorned, to take over the entire Embroidered Uniform Guard!"

"This was the first strike! And the most devastating! He wrested the emperor's sword back from the Sun family!"

This scene made Zhu Yuanzhang of the Hongwu era nod vigorously.

"Yes! That's how we should do it! The Embroidered Uniform Guard must be in our own hands!"

The scene then changes.

"Now that we've reclaimed the sword, the next step is the shield!"

"The three major military camps of the capital are the shield protecting the capital! After the 'Cao Qin Rebellion,' although Sun Jizong fell, the one in charge of the three thousand camps was still a member of the Sun family—Marquis Huaining, Sun Tang!"

"With a single imperial edict, Zhu Qizhen, citing old age and declining health, directly 'invited' this imperial brother-in-law to get out of here and retire!"

"Immediately afterwards, Zhu Yong, the Earl of Funing and a descendant of a meritorious official who had contributed to the Jingnan Camp, was appointed to take command of the Three Thousand Camps!"

"Swords and shields, overnight, all fell into the Emperor's hands!"

"Only after doing all this did he finally have the energy to do something he had long wanted to do but never dared to."

Above the sky, a decree slowly unfolded, each word conveying endless sorrow and remorse.

[...The posthumous title of the late Emperor Gongrang Zhang Empress is: Gongrang Chengshun Kangmu Jingci Zhang Empress...]

"Family members, he has restored the honor of his own mother, Empress Hu Shanxiang, who was deposed by his father, and reinstated her with a new title!"

"This is no longer an implication; it's a direct challenge to the Sun family, a declaration to the entire world!"

"I am not a nephew of the Sun family!"

"My mother is Hu Shanxiang!"

"He is legally severing all ties with Sun Ruowei and the entire Sun family's maternal relatives!"

Xuande Time and Space.

"puff--"

Zhu Zhanji could no longer withstand the successive blows, and a mouthful of blood gushed out, instantly staining the front of his dragon robe red.

His eyes were bloodshot as he stared intently at the imperial edict on the sky, his body trembling like a leaf in the wind.

"Shanxiang...Shanxiang..."

He muttered to himself, his voice filled with endless regret.

If only he hadn't listened to that wicked woman and his mother's slander...

If only he hadn't deposed the empress back then...

His town will never recognize a thief as its mother!

There would have been no Tumu Fortress!

There would have been no Cao Qin Rebellion!

There would be no tragic scene of brothers killing each other and nephews and uncles killing each other!

"I...I was wrong!"

The usually arrogant Emperor Xuande was now like a helpless child, letting out a heart-wrenching cry.

It's him! He's the root of everything!

Zhu Dijun's voice grew increasingly cold, as if announcing an inevitable death.

"Family members, did you see that?"

"Seize military power, eliminate nepotism, and cleanse the bureaucracy."

"Every step Zhu Qizhen took was a perilous one, a declaration to the enemy: 'I have returned!'"

"His enemies, the remnants of the Sun family, and the civil officials he dismissed, of course understood it too."

"They knew the emperor had gone mad; he would no longer compromise!"

"What awaits them is only reckoning!"

"When the noose of death is already around their necks, will these people just sit and wait to die?"

Zhu Dijun paused, glancing around at the tense faces across the myriad worlds, and slowly uttered the most fatal answer.

"They chose the most despicable, yet most effective, method."

"Kill your lord!"

These two words, like a black lightning bolt, tore through all of time and space!

Countless people felt their scalps tingle instantly, and a chill ran from their spines straight to the top of their heads!

They considered that Zhu Qizhen might fail, that he might be placed under house arrest again, or even forced to abdicate.

But they never expected that the seemingly unarmed civil officials and the fading relatives of the emperor would dare to do such a treasonous thing!

"How dare they?!"

In the Hongwu era, Zhu Yuanzhang shattered the armrest of the dragon throne with a single palm strike, his beard and hair standing on end, his murderous aura almost bursting out of the sky!

"A bunch of pedantic scholars! A bunch of vermin! We didn't kill enough back then!"

"They dare to kill the emperor?!"

"Who gave them the audacity!"

Zhu Dijun did not answer directly, but instead cast his gaze toward the lonely Qianqing Palace in the sky.

"Family members, an emperor living in the heavily guarded Forbidden City, assassinating him is harder than climbing to heaven."

"unless……"

"That knife came from his side, from the place he trusted most and was least guarded about."

In the scene, the figure of a woman slowly appears.

She was dressed in her empress's everyday clothes, her face dignified, but her eyes revealed a hint of sinister ruthlessness and determination that was hard to detect.

She was the wife of Zhu Qizhen and the mother of Crown Prince Zhu Jianshen—Empress Zhou!

"No...impossible!"

Zhu Zhanji, living during the Xuande era, exclaimed in shock.

He could accept Sun Ruowei's betrayal, and he could accept the civil officials' misrule, but he could not accept that a wife would raise a butcher's knife against her husband who had returned from a bloody battle!

"Family, nothing is impossible."

Zhu Dijun's voice was devoid of any emotion.

"When faced with enormous profits, family ties are the cheapest thing."

"Zhu Qizhen's ruthless purge offended everyone. The Sun family, his maternal relatives, wanted to save their lives, while the civil service group wanted to retain their power."

"As for Empress Zhou, what she wants to preserve is her son's position as crown prince and her own position as empress dowager!"

"She's scared!"

"She feared that Zhu Qizhen would go down a dark path, ultimately losing everything and dragging her son down with him!"

"She was even more afraid that Zhu Qizhen, in his desire to avenge Hu Shanxiang's lineage, would threaten her son's position as crown prince!"

"Thus, with the joint planning and instigation of the remnants of the Sun family and Grand Secretary Li Xian, this woman was moved."

The scene in the sky became incredibly oppressive.

A bowl of seemingly ordinary medicinal soup was placed in front of Zhu Qizhen.

He had just finished dealing with a mountain of memorials, and his face showed undisguised exhaustion.

He looked at his wife, perhaps even with a tender smile, and then drank the bowl of medicine in one gulp.

"The 2th day of the first month of the eighth year of the Tianshun reign, which corresponds to February 23, 1464 AD."

Emperor Yingzong of Ming, Zhu Qizhen, passed away.

"It has only been three months since he bestowed an honorific title upon his mother, Hu Shanxiang."

"It had only been six months since he had completely regained military and political power."

Zhu Dijun's voice sounded like he was reciting a eulogy for a hero who had failed in his mission.

"He defeated all his enemies, but fell at the hands of his own wife."

How ironic!

How tragic!

At this moment, all realms and time were deathly silent.

Everyone was stunned speechless by this cruel truth.

The emperor who became a prisoner in Tumu Fortress.

The emperor who was placed under house arrest in the Southern Palace for seven years.

The emperor who narrowly escaped death during the "Cao Qin Rebellion".

He struggled and fought his whole life, and in the final moments of his life, he finally launched a desperate counterattack like a true emperor!

But in the end, he still couldn't escape the cruel tricks of fate.

He died before dawn.

"Of course, that's not how it's written in history books."

Zhu Dijun's voice rang out again, pulling everyone back to reality.

"After his death, Li Xian, Sun Jizong, and their group were reinstated and regained power. In the 'Veritable Records of Emperor Yingzong,' which they oversaw the compilation of, they fabricated a perfect, ridiculous reason for the emperor's death."

On the sky, a line of historical records appeared.

[...From the seventh month of the fourth year of the Tianshun reign, the Emperor suffered from beriberi, making walking difficult... By the first month of the eighth year, his illness had worsened significantly, and he passed away.]

"Beriberi!"

Zhu Dijun practically gritted his teeth as he uttered those three words.

"They told the world and future generations that this emperor died from beriberi!"

"Moreover, to make this lie seem more believable, they laid the groundwork as early as the fourth year of the Tianshun reign, when Zhu Qizhen had just begun preparing to deal with Shi Heng!"

"The entire four-year medical history is meticulously recorded, leaving no room for error!"

"Family members, do you understand now?"

"This was not a spur-of-the-moment regicide!"

"This was a long and meticulously planned political assassination of the emperor, orchestrated at least four years in the making!"

boom!

If the previous regicide was shocking...

At this moment, this four-year-long conspiracy brings with it a fear that runs deep in the bones!

From the moment Zhu Qizhen sought to seize power, an invisible net had already enveloped him.

Every step he took was within the other party's calculations.

His so-called thunderous counterattack, in the eyes of the enemy, may just be a trapped beast struggling in its final moments before death.

"Beasts! A bunch of beasts!"

Zhu Zhanji appeared to be insane. He rushed off the dragon throne, drew a guard's sword, and frantically hacked at the beams and pillars in the palace.

"Sun Ruowei! Zhang Shi! Li Xian! Zhou Shi!"

"I will kill you all! I will tear you to pieces!!"

He hates!

I hate that vicious woman, Sun Ruowei!

I hate that biased mother, Zhang, who let the wolf into the house!

He hates himself even more!

I hate my own stupidity, I hate my poor judgment of people!

Judy Jun let out a long sigh.

"Why……"

"If Zhu Zhanji hadn't done that stupid thing of deposing the empress, none of this would have happened."

"The Ming imperial family can still suppress the increasingly arrogant civil official group by relying on the military merits of Hu Shanxiang's lineage."

"Why did it come to this?"

"After Zhu Qizhen, how many of the Ming emperors, apart from the immortal Jiajing and the greedy Wanli, lived past forty?"

"One after another, they died suddenly; one after another, they died mysteriously..."

"What lies behind this? Family members, you can ponder it carefully."

Zhu Dijun didn't finish his sentence.

But the unfinished meaning sent chills down the spines of emperors throughout all time and space!