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

As Zhu Dijun's voice faded, the myriad worlds before the sky fell into an eerie silence.

It was a feeling of frustration mixed with anger, resentment, and helplessness!

In the chat of the "Modern Live Room," someone finally voiced everyone's thoughts.

"This is so frustrating! It's fucking frustrating!"

"Yes! Starting with Zhu Qizhen, how come all the emperors of our Great Ming Dynasty have been like puppets! Zhu Qizhen was, Zhu Qiyu was, and now it's Zhu Jianshen's turn!"

"These civil officials, these nobles, they're like a malignant tumor that's stuck in your bones! You can't get rid of them!"

"I was enjoying watching the young emperor swiftly and decisively depose the empress for less than three minutes, and then I was told he was still a puppet and had to bow to his enemies. This feels... like punching a cotton ball!"

That's right.

suffocated.

This is the most accurate depiction of the situation at the beginning of Zhu Jianshen's reign.

He could eliminate an empress and a eunuch with sheer ruthlessness.

But he could not shake the mountain of power that had been built up over decades by countless officials, nobles, and relatives of the emperor!

The Chenghua Era.

Zhu Jianshen gazed silently at the sky, his face expressionless.

Only he himself knows how he spent those days and nights of forced compromise.

He was willing to exonerate Yu Qian, for he was a loyal and virtuous man of the country.

To restore the reputation of a traitor like Shi Heng, every time the seal was affixed to the imperial edict, it was as if a red-hot iron was used to brand the word "shame" into his heart!

That was his father's enemy!

He was one of the creators of his childhood nightmares!

But he had no choice but to endure it.

"Family members, I know you all feel frustrated."

Above the sky, Zhu Dijun's voice rang out again, this time carrying a hint of cold sharpness.

"But you must remember, the most important thing a hungry wolf needs before it goes hunting is patience!"

"Zhu Jianshen was being patient and compromising, but he was also waiting for an opportunity!"

"An opportunity that would allow him to rightfully wrest the sword hilt back from the civil officials!"

"Soon, that opportunity arrived!"

The scene shifts, and a map of the Ming Dynasty's territory appears on the sky.

The southwestern border region, encompassing Guangxi and Sichuan, was shrouded in blood!

"In the first year of the Chenghua reign, the Yao people of Dateng Gorge in Guangxi rebelled, and the Manchu tribes of Shanduzhang in Sichuan rioted!"

"In the second year of the Chenghua reign, in the Jingzhou and Xiangyang regions, hundreds of thousands of refugees gathered in the mountains and forests. Bandit leaders Liu Tong, Shi Long, and others openly established a kingdom and proclaimed themselves kings, shaking the entire world!"

Zhu Dijun's voice suddenly rose in pitch!

"Family members, internal strife is a disaster for a country."

"But for an emperor who wants to regain military power, it's a golden opportunity!"

"Because quelling internal strife requires swords, guns, and an army!"

"Instead of the empty rhetoric and flowery language of those civil officials in the imperial court!"

At that moment, everyone understood!

The Hongwu Era.

Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes lit up instantly, and the feeling of frustration vanished, replaced by an almost cruel excitement!

"Yes! That's it!"

"We can't beat you guys at using words, but when it comes to killing, you bunch of pedantic scholars are all useless!"

"Kill! Kill them all! Let's use the blood of these traitors to reclaim the military power of the Zhu family!"

Above the sky, the young emperor Zhu Jianshen finally got his chance.

When reports of the suppression of the rebellion flooded into the capital, the court officials were still arguing endlessly about who should be the commander-in-chief and how to allocate provisions.

Zhu Jianshen stood up directly from the dragon throne and, in an unquestionable tone, issued his first military appointment since ascending the throne!

"Zhao Fu, the Deputy Commander-in-Chief, is hereby appointed General Who Conquers the Barbarians, to command all troops and conquer Guangxi!"

"Is appointed Zhu Yong, Earl of Funing, as General Who Pacifies the Hu, to quell the bandits in Jing and Xiang!"

No discussion!

No consultation with the Cabinet was conducted!

This is a direct order from the Emperor!

"Your Majesty, you mustn't!"

An old minister stepped forward, heartbroken and indignant, "War is a matter of vital importance to the state; how can it be treated so lightly! We should summon the nine ministers to discuss a foolproof plan!"

"A foolproof plan?"

For the first time, Zhu Jianshen, sitting on the dragon throne, revealed his true colors in the imperial court.

His voice wasn't loud, but it carried a chill that went straight to the bone.

"Should we wait until you reach a conclusion through discussion, or wait until those rebels reach the gates of Nanjing?"

"I give you power so that you can govern the country, not so that you can engage in empty talk and harm the nation in your memorials!"

"Anyone who dares to obstruct us will be considered a traitor!"

The moment those words were spoken, the entire room fell into a deathly silence!

All the civil officials looked at the young emperor in horror, as if they were seeing him for the first time.

They then realized that the person in front of them was not the young man who could be manipulated at will in the harem.

Instead, he was a ruthless character who could send the Empress, the Emperor's father-in-law, and a veteran eunuch from seven reigns to hell within a month!

"Family members, Zhu Jianshen's first step is to use swift and decisive measures to completely separate military command from the infighting among civil officials!"

"Then, he abolished the 'regimental battalion' system that had been established in his father's name years ago!"

"This is a signal! He wants to completely purge the deeply entrenched old forces in the military and establish a new army that obeys only his own orders!"

In the scene, Zhu Yong and Zhao Fu are like two unsheathed swords, piercing straight into the heart of the rebellion!

Dateng Gorge was a scene of carnage and rivers of blood!

The heads of bandit leaders Liu Tong and Shi Long from Jingxiang were sent back to the capital by express courier!

A series of resounding victories brought Zhu Jianshen's prestige to its peak in the army!

He promoted numerous generals from humble backgrounds who had rendered meritorious service in the war, placing them in key positions within the Beijing Garrison.

In the imperial court, no one dared to question his military decisions anymore!

"Family members, do you think this is the end?"

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

"No!"

"Suppressing the internal strife is just an appetizer!"

"Because, something truly happened that made the Manchu Qing dynasty's 'wild boar skin' grit his teeth and desperately smear him when compiling the History of Ming!"

The scene on the screen suddenly shifted to the northeastern frontier of the Ming Dynasty!

Between the white mountains and black waters, countless figures draped in animal skins and tied with money rat tails are frantically plundering villages of the Ming Dynasty!

They burned, killed, looted, and committed all sorts of atrocities!

"In the third year of the Chenghua reign, the Jianzhou Jurchens, who were entrenched in Liaodong, were the real Buryat and Tungusic barbarians in history. They believed that the Ming Dynasty was already weak after the Tumu Crisis and dared not fight again."

"They repeatedly invade our borders and slaughter our people!"

"When the news reached the capital, the civil service group once again jumped into action."

"They said that the Jurchens were barbarians and should be appeased, not lightly waged war, lest we repeat the mistake of Tumu Fortress!"

"They even suggested that offering the Jurchens some rewards would persuade them to withdraw their troops!"

"When these memorials were placed before Zhu Jianshen..."

Zhu Dijun's voice trailed off.

Above the sky, the young emperor stared at the humiliating words and remained silent for a long time.

Then he smiled.

That smile sent a chill down Wan Zhen'er's spine.

That was the most extreme killing intent, forged from a childhood filled with mountains of corpses and seas of blood, suppressed for more than a decade!

"appease?"

"reward?"

Zhu Jianshen slowly stood up, walked to the huge map of the territory, and pressed his finger heavily on the two characters "Jianzhou"!

The next second, his icy, emotionless voice resounded throughout the entire Qianqing Palace, echoing across countless realms!

"Issue my decree!"

"Assemble an army of 50,000, with General Zhao Fu as commander-in-chief and the seal of General Who Pacifies the Barbarians!"

"Order the King of Joseon to immediately dispatch troops to cooperate in the battle!"

"Tell them!"

A blood-red light flashed in Zhu Jianshen's eyes, and he spoke each word slowly and deliberately, like the whisper of a demon god!

"I want no prisoners, no heads!"

"What I want is to eradicate the threat completely and eliminate any future problems!"

"This battle is called—"

"The Chenghua Emperor plowed the court!"