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

The air inside the live stream was so stuffy it was suffocating.

The data on the screen showing that the Beijing garrison was receiving salaries without working was like a heavy hammer blow, shattering everyone's last illusions about the Ming Dynasty's golden age.

Zhu Dijun stands in front of the camera.

He did not sit down.

He braced his hands on the table, leaned forward, and exuded a chilling sense of oppression in his eyes.

"Family members."

I'll say it again.

"This is only the army stationed at the foot of the capital."

"This is merely the army stationed at the foot of the capital!"

"This is merely the army stationed at the foot of the capital!"

Repeated three times in a row, each word dripping with emotion, the voice booming like a bell.

All the emperors throughout the myriad worlds and timelines changed their expressions upon hearing these three roars.

The era of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Yuanzhang, who had been standing upright, suddenly swayed.

He gripped the armrest of the dragon throne with one hand, his knuckles turning white.

Right under the nose of the emperor, at the foot of the capital.

The military has become so rotten!

What about the other parts of the Ming Dynasty?

On the sky, Zhu Dijun's fingers were frantically typing on the keyboard.

Top-secret investigation files bearing the seal of the Ming Dynasty's Office of Transmission spread out on the screen like snowflakes.

The timeline was precisely pulled back to the eighteenth year of the Hongzhi reign.

"Leaving the capital, let's go see the nine important border towns of the Ming Dynasty."

"The time was June of the eighteenth year of the Hongzhi reign."

"Zhu Houzhao sent his trusted confidants to investigate the military garrison pastures in Jizhou."

"Jizhou is the northern gateway guarding the capital, the first line of defense against the Tatars' southward advance!"

"The military settlements and pastures there are the rations for the warhorses of the border soldiers; they are their lifeline!"

Zhu Dijun suddenly pointed to the shocking list on the screen.

"But what were the results of the investigation?"

"The military garrison pastures of Jizhou have long been completely divided up!"

"The ones who seized these strategic materials were none other than ourselves."

"It is indeed the Ministry of War of the Ming Dynasty!"

"It's the Five Military Commands!"

"It's from the Imperial Horse Stables!"

"Civil officials, military generals, and eunuchs—the core power holders of the Ming Dynasty—colluded to undermine the foundation of Jizhou's border defenses!"

Yongle Time and Space.

Zhu Di kicked over the imperial desk in front of him.

The memorials were scattered all over the ground.

He drew his imperial sword and cleaved the bronze crane ornament inside the palace in two.

"Ministry of War!"

"The Five Military Commands!"

"The nine strategically important border towns I left to my descendants have been ruined by these beasts!"

Zhu Di's eyes were bloodshot, like those of a furious lion.

He was all too aware of the importance of the Jizhou grasslands.

Without pastures, there are no warhorses.

Without warhorses, what could the Ming border army use to fight against the Mongol cavalry on the grasslands?

On the sky, Zhu Dijun's reckoning had only just begun.

"Don't rush, this is just the tip of the iceberg."

Let's continue.

"Inspect the grain depots in Guyuan, Ningxia!"

"Guyuan is a core fortress of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region."

"This uncovered a massive corruption network."

A dense network of relationships appeared on the screen.

"All four governors and censors in the capital are implicated in the case!"

"Twenty-six local officials in Shaanxi have been found to have embezzled government funds and salaries!"

"Inspect Shaanxi's grain depots again!"

"A total of thirty-eight commanders at various levels in Ningxia Garrison were involved in reselling military rations!"

Zhu Dijun's voice echoed in the hall, carrying endless mockery and sorrow.

"Family members, can you believe it?"

"The military rations of these important border towns were treated like personal ATMs by these governors, censors, and commanders."

"The border soldiers stood guard in the freezing cold, hungry."

"They were drinking and enjoying music in the brothels of the capital!"

In the modern live stream room, the chat was completely ignited with anger.

"Kill them! Every single one of these beasts deserves to be executed by slow slicing!"

"The provincial governor and the censor-in-chief were leading the way in embezzling military rations; the Ming Dynasty's supervisory system was rotten to the core!"

"Thirty-eight commanders! That's like the entire military force of Ningxia Guard being rotten!"

"No wonder the Tatars can come and go as they please; this defensive line is a complete sieve!"

Zhu Dijun picked up his water glass and gulped down half a glass of cold water in one go.

He tried to suppress the raging anger churning in his chest, but he couldn't.

"The time came to September of the eighteenth year of the Hongzhi reign."

"Zhu Houzhao's butcher's knife has finally been pointed at the interior of the imperial city."

"He began investigating the Imperial Guards under the command of the Imperial Horse Administration—the Four Tengxiang Guards!"

"These are the emperor's personal guards, the last line of defense responsible for protecting the Forbidden City."

On the screen, an utterly absurd number was magnified by a blood-red halo.

"More than 13,900 people!"

"Among the four guards of Tengxiang, the number of people receiving salaries without working is as high as 13,900!"

"The Emperor's personal guard is nothing but a shell!"

"If someone were to rebel at this time, Zhu Houzhao wouldn't even be able to muster a single soldier to protect him!"

The era of the Zhengde reign of the Ming Dynasty.

Inside the Leopard Room.

Zhu Houzhao sat on the steps, toying with the blood-stained Embroidered Spring Knife in his hand.

He looked at the sky, a cruel sneer curling at the corner of his mouth.

When he found out this number, he didn't sleep a wink all night.

He felt that in every shadow in the Forbidden City lurked a knife that could slit his throat at any moment.

Zhu Dijun spoke faster and faster, pushing this investigation storm to its climax.

"The year is drawing to a close."

"Zhu Houzhao conducted a comprehensive survey of the seventy-one garrisons in the capital region."

"The number of permanent personnel recorded in the Ministry of War's ledgers of the Ming Dynasty was more than 339,000."

"This army is nominally capable of quelling any rebellion."

"But what about the actual number of people counted?"

Zhu Dijun slammed his hands heavily on the table, making a deafening thud.

"150,000 people!"

"Only a paltry 150,000 people are on duty!"

"More than half of them are absent!"

"Of the 330,000 troops, 180,000 vanished into thin air!"

The entire universe was deathly silent.

Only Judy Jun's voice, filled with utter despair, echoed.

"This is only in the capital, under the emperor's nose, in a major military town in the northwest."

"Family members, why don't you use your imagination?"

"In those remote and inaccessible southeastern coastal areas."

"In the border areas of the southwestern chieftains in those deep mountains and forests."

"In that bitterly cold land of Liaodong."

"What kind of rotten mess will the Ming Dynasty's military settlements, garrisons, and granaries become?"

The chat in the live stream paused for a full ten seconds.

Subsequently, an unprecedented explosion occurred.

"I can't even imagine it, I absolutely can't think about it!"

"The entire southeastern coast must have been swallowed up by powerful clans; no wonder the Japanese pirates were able to run rampant later!"

"The Ming Dynasty is just a shiny shell; it's been hollowed out by these officials!"

"What kind of hellish start did Zhu Youcheng, this supposedly benevolent ruler of all time, leave for his son?!"

On the screen, the scene shifted to the Ministry of War of the Ming Dynasty.

An elderly man in a scarlet official robe was writing something, his brow beaded with sweat.

"Faced with Zhu Houzhao's thunderous investigation."

"Someone's getting restless."

"Who?"

"Liu Daxia, the Minister of War and the Grand Commander of all the armies in the realm!"

Zhu Dijun sneered repeatedly.

"This civil official leader was powerful and influential during the Hongzhi reign, and even dared to destroy Zheng He's voyage charts."

"Completely terrified."

He wrote a resignation letter overnight, weeping and pleading to retire and return to his hometown.

Why was he running so fast?

"Because he knew that once this lid was completely lifted, even if he, the Minister of War, had a hundred heads, it wouldn't be enough to chop them off!"

"He must extricate himself before Zhu Houzhao's executioner's blade falls, to save his own life and his family's wealth and glory!"

The Hongwu Era.

Zhu Yuanzhang stared at Liu Daxia's panicked face on the screen.

He slowly drew the sword from his waist.

"run?"

"You've ravaged our Ming army like this, and you still want to run away?"

"Mao Xiang!"

Mao Xiang, the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, kowtowed repeatedly.

"Your subject is here!"

"Pass down this decree to future generations!"

"No matter what method we use, we must wipe out Liu Daxia and the entire civil service clique behind him!"

Zhu Yuanzhang's voice sounded like it came from the deepest hell.

"Execute ten generations of their families!"

"We need to let them know that touching the military power of the Ming Dynasty is like touching the sore spot of the Zhu family!"