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

On the large screen in the live broadcast room, the yellowed account book images kept overlapping and flickering.

Those were the tax ledgers of the Ming Dynasty, the blood and sweat of countless people.

Zhu Dijun stood in front of the screen with his hands behind his back.

His gaze was sharp and cold, staring directly at the camera.

"Family members, Emperor Wuzong's dispatch of eunuchs to the provinces was, of course, to establish a new court system that belonged to him."

"But you must not underestimate the strength of the civil service's counterattack."

"These people have deep roots in the local area, and their network of interests is denser than a spider web."

"What was the purpose of the eunuchs that Emperor Wuzong sent out?"

"They're checking the accounts!"

"That's equivalent to going back twenty years in modern society!"

Zhu Dijun suddenly raised his voice, which reverberated in the empty live broadcast room.

"These eunuchs who are stationed here will be tasked with investigating who has pocketed all the money and grain that the Ming Dynasty has been paying over the years."

"On one hand, we need to investigate the huge debts owed by officials during the Hongzhi reign."

"We even need to find ways to resolve the debt crisis of those local slums."

"This is tantamount to cutting the flesh out of these local tyrants and civil officials with a knife!"

A map of Huguang Province appeared on the screen.

A place name in bright red is highlighted: Yunyang.

"As expected, Emperor Wuzong's powerful measures immediately met with extremely fierce and shameless resistance from local officials."

"It was the second month after Emperor Wuzong ordered his trusted eunuch Wei Xing to guard Huguang."

"A shocking yet extremely bizarre thing has happened."

The image on the screen went dark instantly.

Immediately afterwards, towering flames lit up the night sky, turning it red.

It was a raging fire that defied all reason.

Zhu Dijun sneered, pointing at the flames on the screen.

"The yamen of the Commandery of Yunyang Commandery in Hubei is on fire."

"A fire is one thing, after all, ancient wooden buildings are prone to water damage."

"but!"

"Besides the Commandery, hundreds of local government offices were simultaneously engulfed in flames on the same day and night!"

"How utterly absurd!"

"This fire burned so cleanly and efficiently, so precisely and accurately."

"It not only burned down the major granaries where local taxes and grain were stored."

"Furthermore, it also burned down hundreds of government offices that had stored local account books, population registers, and land acreage maps for decades, reducing them to ashes!"

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

"Family, the fire dragon has burned the warehouse again!"

"The account books are gone, the money and provisions are gone, and there's no way to prove anything!"

"These local officials used a single fire to completely erase the evidence of their twenty years of corruption!"

The barrage of comments in the modern live stream room instantly exploded like a tsunami.

Netizens were thoroughly enraged by this blatant and shameless act.

[“Damn it! What’s with this fire dragon burning the warehouse again?! How many times are they going to use this trick?!”]

"From the time of Emperor Yingzong of Ming to the time of Emperor Wuzong of Ming, this method of 'fire' has proven to be consistently effective!"

"No wonder Brother Jun used to joke that all the emperors of the Ming Dynasty were reincarnations of the Fire God. With such a group of officials who love arson under their command, how could the world not be engulfed in flames!"

"Hundreds of government offices caught fire at the same time. They're not even bothering to pretend anymore, are they? They're just telling the emperor directly: the accounts can't be investigated, get out!"

"An audit inevitably leads to a fire; this is a physical law of ancient officialdom!"

The era of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty.

The Fengtian Hall was deathly silent.

Only heavy breathing echoed in the air.

Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes widened, and the murderous intent in them solidified into a tangible form.

He stared intently at the towering flames in the sky.

The fire burned in Yunyang, but it pained Zhu Yuanzhang's heart.

This is putting the Zhu family's empire on the fire!

"What a simultaneous fire!"

"What a magnificent fire dragon burning down the granary!"

Zhu Yuanzhang's voice was deep and hoarse, yet it carried a chilling, bloody quality.

He overturned the heavy golden nanmu imperial desk in front of him.

Inkstones and cinnabar brushes were scattered all over the ground.

"Are they taking advantage of the Zhu family because they think they have no one left?!"

"They dare to burn down hundreds of government offices just to check the accounts!"

"If we investigate their heads tomorrow, do you think they'd dare set the entire Yingtian Prefecture on fire?"

Yongle Time and Space.

Zhu Di, carrying the Emperor's sword, paced back and forth in the main hall.

His chest heaved violently.

This is blatant provocation!

This is the most blatant contempt for the imperial power of the Ming Dynasty!

"Do these civil and military officials really think my sword is dull?"

"With hundreds of government offices catching fire at the same time, do they think everyone in the country is blind?"

The orthodox timeline.

Zhu Qizhen, sitting on the dragon throne, was deathly pale.

He recalled that when he sent people to check the accounts years ago, a sudden fire destroyed all the account books.

As a result, he personally went to the site, which led to the Tumu Fortress Mutiny in the future. However, he did not expect that his descendants would encounter the same thing later.

The Chenghua Era.

Zhu Jianshen crushed the jade paperweight in his hand.

The shards of jade cut his palm, and blood dripped onto his dragon robe, but he was completely unaware.

The emperor of the Ming Dynasty was forced into becoming a fire god by these civil officials.

If the emperor dared to touch their purse strings, they would dare to set fire to the emperor's empire.

On the sky, Zhu Dijun's voice rang out again, pulling everyone's thoughts back to the Zhengde era.

"Locals used fire dragons to burn down granaries to counter the garrison eunuchs."

"And the high-ranking civil officials in the capital were not idle either."

"The time has come to the second month of the first year of Zhengde."

"The cabinet, led by Liu Jian, Li Dongyang, and Xie Qian—the three beasts of the Hongzhi era—launched a full-scale counterattack against Zhu Houzhao."

A series of cabinet memorials appeared on the screen.

"They not only strongly opposed Emperor Wuzong's collection of commercial taxes in areas such as Zhengding in Hebei."

"It also launched a fierce attack on Emperor Wuzong's move to establish imperial estates in Yongqing, Longping and other places."

Zhu Dijun pulled up a data chart of land annexation in the Ming Dynasty.

"Family members, many people feel that the imperial estates represent the emperor competing with the people for profit."

"However, in the mid-to-late Ming Dynasty, the existence of imperial estates was actually an attempt by the emperor to nationalize land!"

"Emperor Wuzong forcibly seized the unclaimed wasteland and land of runaway households that had been concealed and encroached upon by powerful families and local gentry, and brought them under the control of the imperial court."

"This is like snatching food from a tiger's mouth!"

"These civil officials own countless hidden lands. Emperor Wuzong's actions are tantamount to digging up their ancestral graves. Do you think they won't fight you to the death?"

Zhu Dijun's eyes became extremely playful.

"It was in February of the first year of the Zhengde reign that the power struggle between Emperor Wuzong and the cabinet group reached its climax."

"Zhu Houzhao did something extremely bold."

"He bypassed the cabinet entirely!"

"He instructed the Directorate of Ceremonial to send an official document to the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Personnel, and the Censorate."

"That is, the 'red certificate' that terrified officials in the Ming Dynasty!"

"Emperor Wuzong issued an extremely strong order in the imperial edict, instructing all ministries and departments to disregard the cabinet's draft proposals and act directly according to his will as emperor!"

The live stream screen switched.

Inside the cabinet office, several elderly ministers dressed in scarlet robes trembled with anger.

"This completely threw the cabinet into chaos."

"The Grand Secretaries of the Cabinet were furious and overturned the table."

"They pointed their fingers at the eunuchs of the Directorate of Ceremonial and cursed them."

"They said that the Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs could reject the draft proposals of my cabinet, and that the Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs' approval of imperial edicts was indeed a power exercised on behalf of the emperor."

"but!"

"The Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs must absolutely not bypass the Cabinet to directly command the Six Ministries!"

"This is a serious overreach of authority! This is a violation of ancestral laws!"

Zhu Dijun clapped his hands and sneered.

"Then, the most outrageous scene unfolded."

"The Cabinet forcibly rejected all the official documents submitted by the Directorate of Ceremonial!"

"Then, they drafted a new proposal entirely according to the stance of the civil service group, and slammed it directly onto Zhu Houzhao's desk!"

"This is no longer a petition."

"This is disciplining this fifteen-year-old emperor in front of the entire world!"

"They were clearly reminding Zhu Houzhao: Know your place. How the cabinet operates and how the country is governed are not for you, the emperor, to tell us!"

The moment these words were uttered, the entire universe was in an uproar.