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

"Use eunuchs to monitor military officers."

"Using a secret service agency despised by all intellectuals to fight against the entire deeply entrenched civil service system."

"This is the solution Zhu Jianshen offered to break the deadlock!"

Zhu Dijun's voice was filled with helplessness and determination.

"It's extreme, it's insane, it's even like drinking poison to quench thirst."

"But for an emperor who has been pushed to the brink, this is his only choice!"

Before the canopy, everyone fell silent.

They could no longer judge the emperor with simple terms of "good" or "bad".

All they saw was a lone fighter, waging a life-or-death struggle against a massive and suffocating interest group, a struggle destined to be recorded in history!

"And the counterattack from the civil service group proved the correctness of Zhu Jianshen's choice."

"While they were in the imperial court, they were frantically impeaching Wang Zhi and attacking the Western Depot."

"On the other hand, they went even further, placing their cronies in the army and excluding dissidents!"

Zhu Dijun's tone became incredibly sorrowful.

"Family members, do you know what this internal strife ultimately led to?"

The scene changes.

It was no longer during the Chenghua era, but two hundred years later.

War raged across the land, and the country was shattered!

Countless soldiers, dressed in the standard armor of the Ming army, raised their banners with the money-tail design and pointed their swords at the compatriots they had once sworn to protect!

Behind them, a menacing banner bearing the character "Qing" fluttered in the wind!

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, dozens of Ming army generals surrendered to the Qing Dynasty!

Among them were generals like Wu Sangui, Geng Jingzhong, and Shang Kexi, who held significant military power and had enjoyed a long line of imperial favor!

The so-called "Han Army Banner" they led, during their southward massacres, displayed a level of cruelty far exceeding that of Tungusic wild boar skin!

"Why?!"

Zhu Dijun uttered a resounding question!

"Why is it that the army that my Great Ming Dynasty supported with the best food and supplies ultimately became the gravediggers of its own destiny?!"

"Because when a country's civil officials only think about forming cliques, suppressing dissent, and enriching themselves, they treat truly loyal and brave soldiers as enemies and arbitrarily suppress them."

"Then, the warriors of this country will ultimately only have two paths left."

"Either, you go along with them and become a corrupt official like them."

"Or...?"

"The only option is to find a new master who is willing to truly value them and give them opportunities to achieve success!"

"This is the root cause of the tragedy that led to the birth of countless Han Chinese bannermen at the end of the Ming Dynasty!"

"This is not a betrayal by a military commander!"

"This is a slow murder of the morale and loyalty of the military men of our Great Ming Dynasty, a process that has been carried out by the entire civil service for two hundred years!"

A veiled attack on the heart!

Every word is written in blood!

The Hongwu Era.

Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes were bloodshot, and his fists were clenched so tightly that his knuckles had turned pale from the excessive force.

He looked at the descendants and generals kneeling at the feet of the wild boar skin on the sky, their overwhelming killing intent almost solidifying into a tangible form!

"Traitor...traitor!!"

"We must kill all these damned traitors!!"

He turned around abruptly and roared like a wild beast at Zhu Biao!

"deliver an imperial order!"

"Tell those commanders under my command!"

"From now on, in any war, civil officials will dare to interfere in military affairs, dare to withhold rations and pay, and dare to frame military officers..."

"No need to ask for permission!"

"Kill them on the spot!!"

"The swords of our Great Ming Dynasty are for killing enemies, not for those pedantic scholars to use as tools in their power struggles!"

At this moment, in all time and space, all those frustrated and unfulfilled generals were moved to tears!

Meanwhile, those self-proclaimed literati and officials looked ashen-faced, as if they had fallen into an ice cave!

They were horrified to discover that the anchor on the screen was completely destroying the moral high ground they depended on for their livelihood!

Sure enough, writers from all over the world began to fight back.

The Song Dynasty.

"Nonsense! Utter nonsense!"

A venerable scholar, his beard and hair bristling, pointed at the sky and angrily denounced, "The arrogance of military men is a great scourge to the nation! Our founding emperor used civil administration to control the military, which brought three hundred years of peace! This is the ultimate principle of governing a country!"

The Qing Dynasty.

An imperial censor wearing a melon-shaped hat chimed in with a high-pitched voice:

"This scoundrel is spreading alarmist rumors, intending to sow discord between the ruler and his ministers, and to destabilize the foundation of the nation. He is a traitorous minister and his entire family should be executed!"

Even some intellectuals during the Republican era frowned, feeling that the anchor's remarks were too extreme.

However, the public's reaction was quite different.

They don't understand any profound principles of governing a country.

All they knew was that what was being said on the screen was what they had personally experienced!

Those adults who spout benevolence and morality are more ruthless than anyone else when it comes to collecting taxes! Those generals who defend the country often don't even have enough to eat!

"That's right! None of those officials are any good!"

"Good riddance to the emperor! These bloodsucking parasites should all be wiped out!"

The will of the people is the greatest balance!

Just then, Judy Jun smiled.

That smile was filled with cold mockery.

"I know there are definitely a lot of people criticizing me."

"It's okay."

"Because history has already delivered its final verdict on this 'conflict between civil and military forces' that has lasted for over a thousand years!"

The scene above the sky shifts again!

Time stood still in a year that everyone was intimately familiar with!

[1905 AD!]

A figure dressed in Qing Dynasty official robes, with a solemn expression, appears in the center of the image.

Yuan Shikai!

Beside him was another important official of the late Qing Dynasty, Zhang Zhidong!

In the thirty-first year of the Guangxu Emperor's reign, Yuan Shikai, the Governor-General of Northern Zhili, together with Zhang Zhidong, the Governor-General of Huguang, jointly submitted a memorial to the throne!

[We urge the immediate abolition of the imperial examination system and the promotion of modern schools as a means to cultivate talent and advance education!]

[Approved by imperial decree!]

The following year, in 1906, the last imperial examination in Chinese history concluded.

This system, once seen by countless scholars as a ladder to heaven, and also regarded by the civil service as a monopolistic power system that had plagued the country for millennia, has finally been swept into the dustbin of history!

Zhu Dijun's voice, like that of the final judge, was proclaiming the final verdict!

"Did you see that?"

"During the Ming and Qing dynasties, hundreds of millions of people shed their blood, and a nation nearly collapsed. History has finally provided the answer!"

"When a group no longer represents progress, no longer cares about its country and people, only knows how to protect its own interests, suppress dissent, and even colludes with foreign enemies to betray its nation..."

"Therefore, it is inevitable, and must be, abandoned by the times!"

"This is the most just, yet also the most cruel, final judgment on those so-called 'scholar-officials' who brought disaster to the country and its people!"

The words fell.

In all the myriad realms and timelines, all voices that were still defending the imperial examination system and the scholar-official class came to an abrupt end.

They were so overwhelmed by this last tombstone from the future that they could no longer utter a single word.

Hundreds of millions of people, not tens, hundreds, or thousands, but hundreds of millions!

The Chenghua Era.

Inside the Qianqing Palace.

Zhu Jianshen looked at the sky, and slowly closed his eyes.

It turned out to be the case.

It turns out that my enemies are not just those people in the court.

Rather, it is a system that has lasted for thousands of years.

He suddenly felt a little tired.

But when he opened his eyes again, that weariness had been replaced by a deeper resolve.

He looked out of the hall at the deep, seemingly all-consuming darkness.

He knew that Wang Zhi and his Western Depot were already taking action.

Perhaps he cannot completely destroy that massive system.

But at least, in his own time, he could deal with those enemies who dared to challenge imperial power and who dared to extend their reach to his family and his army...

One by one, I personally sent them to hell!