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

On the screen of the live broadcast room, a power matrix diagram covering the entire capital of the Ming Dynasty appeared.

Zhu Dijun walked to the screen, his fingers quickly sliding across the bright red names, his eyes revealing a calm and collected demeanor.

"Family members, take note of this combination of moves."

"This is the first lesson Zhu Houzhao taught the Ming Dynasty court: what true absolute control is!"

In the background music, the rapid drumbeats sounded again.

"In the first year of Zhengde's reign, while the old guys in the cabinet were still playing the trick of resigning and forcing the emperor to abdicate, Zhu Houzhao had already quietly completed the decapitation of the military forces in the capital."

"He appointed the eunuch Wang Yong as the commander of the nine gates to patrol the city and control the last line of defense of the Forbidden City."

"Following this, eunuchs Zhang Yong, Wei Bin, and Ma Yongcheng respectively took command of the Three Thousand Battalion, the Five Thousand Battalion, and the Divine Machine Battalion!"

"That's not all. He even went so far as to eliminate the channels through which civil officials could wield military power, appointing these three powerful eunuchs to command the twelve battalions!"

Zhu Dijun's voice echoed in the hall.

"In name only, the three major battalions of the Beijing Army are still controlled by nobles such as the Duke of Yingguo and the Duke of Baoguo, Zhu Hui. The rules haven't changed, but they've given us face."

"But in reality, through the supervising eunuchs stationed in each battalion, Zhu Houzhao's will could directly reach every company and every sentry post!"

"From this moment on, the Five Military Commands became nothing more than an empty shell, devoid of any soul, within the military order of the Ming Dynasty!"

The era of Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty.

The cold wind at the foot of Coal Hill made Zhu Youjian shiver.

He stared intently at the sky, his lips trembling violently, as if his spine had been removed.

"The supervising eunuch...holds absolute control..."

Zhu Youjian muttered to himself, tears streaming down his haggard face.

He thought back to when he had just ascended the throne, for the so-called "popular support" and for the "national unity" mentioned by the civil officials.

He killed Wei Zhongxian without hesitation.

He withdrew all the eunuchs who were supervising the army in various places.

He thought this would win the loyalty of the civil officials.

The results of it?

There was no money, no soldiers, and even when the emperor wanted to check the accounts, he would be met with various excuses from the civil officials.

Finally, the day before those civil officials surrendered to Li Zicheng, they were still instructing themselves to be "dignified".

"I...I was wrong!"

Zhu Youjian suddenly collapsed to the ground, his fist slamming hard onto the rough earth and stones.

He looked at the ancestor Zhu Houzhao on the sky, who at the age of fifteen dared to be an enemy of all the scholars in the world and dared to use eunuchs as sharp blades to stab into the chests of soldiers.

He felt an unprecedented sense of shame.

"I am inferior to Emperor Wuzong... I am not even worthy to carry his shoes!"

In the modern live stream room, the chat was instantly flooded with comments from viewers.

[“Zhu Youjian: Just call me by name, and give me your ID number!”]

"Hahaha, Emperor Chongzhen must be green with envy right now. Look at Zhu Houzhao, he was the true master of power politics."

[Emperor Wuzong: Grandson, watch closely, Grandpa will teach you how to use eunuchs to control those trolls!]

"The person upstairs is wrong. It wasn't just Zhu Houzhao, but also Jiajing. Which of the last few clever emperors of the Ming Dynasty didn't master the art of manipulating eunuchs?"

Zhu Dijun looked at the comments on the screen, a meaningful smile curving his lips.

"Here I want to give special criticism to Emperor Chongzhen (Zhu Youjian) of the Ming Dynasty."

"He also ascended the throne as a prince, and his initial situation was extremely similar to that of Zhu Houzhao."

"But he didn't learn even a fraction of what his ancestors did."

"If Zhu Youjian hadn't listened to the nonsense of those civil officials, he might have even taken a single glance at how his ancestor, Emperor Shizong of Ming, Zhu Houcong, controlled the world while cultivating immortality in the Western Garden."

"The Ming Dynasty would not have been in his hands, and he would have ended up hanging himself on Coal Hill."

These words were like knives, cutting into Zhu Youjian's heart.

He clutched his chest, gasping for breath, as if he were about to suffocate.

Above the sky, Zhu Dijun's narration did not stop, but turned to a deeper level of domestic political maneuvering.

Having gained control of the military, Zhu Houzhao then began a frantic expansion of domestic policies.

"He appointed eunuchs Liu Jin, Qiu Ju, and Gu Dayong to oversee the Eastern and Western Depots and rebuild the intelligence network."

"Then, he initiated a move that utterly shattered the hopes of the civil service—mass-deploying eunuchs to guard remote areas!"

On the screen, flashing dots lit up on the map of the Ming Dynasty.

"Eunuch Yu Jun is to guard Nanjing."

"Eunuch Wei Xing was stationed in Huguang."

"Eunuch Chen Gui is stationed in Xuanfu."

"Eunuch Hou Neng is stationed in Datong."

"Not only these strategic locations, but also Shanxi, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Fujian... these major tax-generating and grain-producing areas, all had their imperial strongholds driven in!"

Zhu Dijun slammed his hand on the table, his eyes flashing with a piercing light.

"In particular, Zhu Houzhao specially transferred Liu Yi from the Imperial Horse Administration to supervise the Fujian Shipbuilding Bureau."

Why?

"Because he wants to take a bite out of the biggest piece of the civil service's pie—overseas trade!"

The era of the Zhengde reign of the Ming Dynasty.

Inside the Leopard Chamber Hall, the eunuchs whose names had been called by Zhu Dijun were now staring intently at the sky.

Liu Jin straightened his chest, his eyes filled with ecstasy and pride.

At that moment, he finally understood that he had played such an important role in history.

Although his reputation was ruined, he was the emperor's sharpest claws!

On the sky, Zhu Dijun's voice became deep and magnetic.

"Family members, we must face a cruel historical fact."

"Since the birth of the profession of eunuch, except for a very few special periods, they have always been closely tied to imperial power."

"We all prosper together, and we all suffer together."

"Eunuchs have no descendants or families; all their power comes from a single glance or an imperial edict from the emperor."

"Civil officials are different; they have families, fellow villagers, and interest groups behind them."

"Even if the emperor dies, civil officials will still be civil officials; they can remain officials under a different master."

"But if you, the emperor, fall, the eunuchs will be the first to be purged like stray dogs."

Zhu Dijun stared directly into the camera, his tone revealing an undeniable chill.

Therefore, Zhu Houzhao's choice to trust the eunuchs was not because he was stupid, nor because he was lustful.

"Because in that era when the entire court was filled with traitors, only these rootless, broken people were the last guardians he could trust on this isolated island!"

"This is the political wisdom of Emperor Wuzong of Ming, Zhu Houzhao!"

In the myriad worlds and timelines, officials from various dynasties displayed a variety of fascinating expressions.

The civil officials of the Ming Dynasty, in particular, were filled with rage as they looked at the eunuchs sent to various regions to guard the sky.

Once these eunuchs arrived in their respective locations, they became the emperor's eyes and ears and his money bag.

They are not just collecting taxes, but also monitoring the actions of local officials.

The civil officials' actions of concealing disasters, embezzling military funds, and privately dividing salt profits could no longer be hidden from these eunuchs, who were like a leech to their bones.

Zhu Dijun picked up his water glass in the live broadcast room and slowly took a sip.

"Family members, let's focus on the eunuch Liu Yi who was sent to the Fujian Shipbuilding Bureau."

"Many people don't understand why Zhu Houzhao would place his trusted confidants in a remote overseas trade regulatory department?"

On the big screen, a turbulent sea appeared.

Merchant ships laden with silk, porcelain, and tea are slowly sailing into the deep sea.

"Historical records say that Zhu Houzhao's actions were to plunder the people's wealth in order to satisfy his personal extravagance."

"Bullshit!"

Zhu Dijun couldn't help but swear, his voice deafening with the amplification of the speakers.

"The Ming Dynasty's maritime ban was an ancestral rule."

"But this maritime ban applies to the powerful families along the southeast coast! It does not apply to trade officially regulated by the imperial court."

"Don't be fooled by the mites that were used to clean wild boar skins and the Ming Dynasty history that was altered by the civil service."

Zhu Dijun pointed his finger toward the coastlines of Fujian and Zhejiang.

"The gentry in those places, during the day in the imperial court, spout benevolence and morality, saying that the sea ban is to defend against Japanese pirates, and that not a single plank can go to sea."

"At night, their family's fleet would be loaded with goods, engaging in large-scale smuggling trade with overseas merchants without any tariffs!"

"That's a fortune enough to buy the entire Ming Dynasty court!"

In the modern live stream room, the viewers suddenly understood.

"Holy crap! Isn't this a classic case of embezzlement?"

"The civil officials are calling for a maritime ban, but in reality, they're just after their own exorbitant profits from monopolizing maritime trade!"

["Zhu Houzhao sent Liu Yi over there; he's trying to snatch meat from these smugglers' mouths!"]

Zhu Dijun nodded, his eyes growing even sharper.

"That's right!"

"Zhu Houzhao did not believe in that set of ancestral laws at all."

"He sent Liu Yi to Fujian ostensibly for oversight, but in reality, it was to collect protection money and take a cut!"

"He wanted to forcibly seize the overseas trade profits that had disappeared into the pockets of the gentry and put them into the imperial treasury."

"Because only when the Imperial Treasury is full can he bypass the Ministry of Revenue to support his Leopard House Guard and repair his border fortifications."

The era of the Chenghua reign of the Ming Dynasty.

Emperor Zhu Jianshen of the Ming Dynasty sat on the dragon throne and coughed lightly twice.

As he listened to Zhu Dijun's analysis of eunuch politics, a bitter smile involuntarily appeared on his lips.

"This child... has learned all of my methods from the Western Depot perfectly."

Zhu Jianshen understood this feeling all too well.

Surrounded by the civil service, it's like walking through a quagmire.

Only these eunuchs, despite their bad reputation and greed, were truly obedient.

If given power, they would dare to attack those high-ranking Confucian scholars who are usually aloof and superior.

On the sky, a golden statue of an emperor appeared behind Zhu Dijun.

That wasn't Zhu Houzhao enshrined in the Imperial Ancestral Temple, but rather the fearless war god in his own heart.

"Family members, Emperor Wuzong's system is actually a 2.0 version of his grandfather Emperor Ming Xianzong Zhu Jianshen's model."

"The core of this system can be summed up in one word: control!"

"Control money, control troops, control intelligence."

"And eunuchs are the gears that move through these power grids."