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

"Family members, 18 taels of silver were reduced to a mere 18 taels by the civil official with a stroke of his pen."

Zhu Dijun let out a cold laugh in front of the camera.

"This is no longer just bullying; it's rubbing the dignity of this Emperor of the Ming Dynasty into the mud!"

"This mess hasn't been cleaned up yet, and someone's already jumping out, recklessly courting death right under Wu Zong's nose!"

The timeline on the large screen slowly advanced, freezing at the winter of the second year of the Zhengde reign.

Three portraits of people dressed in scarlet official robes were heavily nailed to the center of the sky.

"Cui Xuan, Minister of the Imperial Seal Office! Yao Xiang, Vice Commissioner of Huguang! Zhang Wei, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Works!"

"The core members of these three civil service groups went on official business. According to the laws of the Ming Dynasty, there were strict regulations regarding what kind of sedan chair officials of different ranks would ride in and what kind of post station they would stay in."

"But what about these three people?"

Zhu Dijun slammed his fingers on the table.

"He violated traffic regulations, was surrounded by a large entourage, and displayed the imposing manner of a high-ranking official!"

"Not only that, they openly condoned their followers' extortion and bribery in the prefectures and counties along the way. Local officials not only had to serve them fine wine and meat, but also had to stuff them with silver as tribute!"

"The Ministry of Justice is still investigating the 18 taels of silver, and these three people are still defying the law."

"If it were you, could you have tolerated it?"

The emperors of all eras across countless worlds turned ashen-faced.

The Hongwu Era.

Zhu Yuanzhang crushed the teacup in his hand, and scalding tea dripped through his fingers.

"Defying the law and disregarding all legal consequences!"

"They treated all the rules we set for the post stations back then like worthless scraps of paper!"

On the sky, Zhu Dijun's tone suddenly rose, revealing an extremely comfortable and pleasant feeling.

"Sixteen-year-old Zhu Houzhao didn't indulge them at all!"

"What bullshit about 'the law doesn't punish everyone' and what bullshit about 'unspoken rules of officialdom'!"

"Arrest them! Have the Imperial Guards arrest these three lawless bastards and bring them all to the capital!"

The scene shows the streets of Beijing amidst a snowstorm.

Three high-ranking officials, who were usually high above others, were stripped of their official robes and knelt in the snow with disheveled hair.

"Zhu Houzhao issued a death order!"

"Put heavy iron shackles weighing over 100 pounds on their heads!"

"Family members, remember that it was the dead of winter, when water freezes instantly!"

"Three pampered civil officials, wearing heavy wooden and iron shackles weighing a hundred pounds each, were publicly paraded through the busiest street corner in the capital for three whole days!"

The era of the Zhengde reign of the Ming Dynasty.

In the main hall of the Leopard Room.

Zhu Houzhao tilted his head back and let out a burst of unrestrained, wild laughter.

"Good! Well done!"

He looked at the masterpiece created by his future self on the sky, his eyes burning with frenzied pleasure.

"A hundred-pound yoke, the wind and snow are biting cold."

"I want the entire world to see the ugly spectacle of these hypocritical vampires, spouting righteousness and morality, kneeling on the ground begging for mercy like dogs!"

Zhu Dijun suddenly changed the subject.

Emperor Wuzong originally intended to torture these three parasites to death.

"But at this point, those old foxes in the cabinet jumped out again."

"Grand Secretary Li Dongyang, Second Grand Secretary Xie Qian!"

"They knelt outside the Qianqing Palace, tears streaming down their faces, using their status as imperial tutors to desperately try to morally blackmail them."

"Your Majesty! Officials are exempt from punishment! Killing a scholar-official is an ominous sign!"

"This act violates ancestral rules and offends the natural order. I implore Your Majesty, for the sake of this old minister's guidance, to spare their lives!"

Upon hearing these words, the viewers in the modern live stream room completely lost their composure.

"Here we go again! This is the classic tactic of civil servants protecting their own!"

"If any of their people break the law, it's against the natural order; if the emperor doesn't listen to them, he's considered licentious and immoral!"

"That old scoundrel Li Dongyang is shameless. When he was embezzling, didn't he jump out and say it violated ancestral rules?"

Zhu Dijun snorted coldly.

"Because the inner and outer courts had not yet completely broken off relations, Emperor Wuzong had no choice but to spare their lives and exile them to the army."

"But this incident acted as a fuse."

"To burn away the last vestiges of affection between Emperor Wuzong and the civil service!"

The time on the screen is spinning rapidly.

Several large, blood-red characters crashed into everyone's view like a meteorite.

[June, the third year of the Zhengde reign. Midsummer!]

Zhu Dijun's face appeared extremely cold under the screen's light.

"Family members, due to the previous frantic pursuit of embezzled funds by local authorities and the Six Ministries..."

"At that time, the Zhenfu Division prison in the capital was already overcrowded. It truly was a case of 'officials not being able to make a living'."

"The civil service group was pushed to the brink, and they finally revealed their sharpest fangs."

"In June of the third year of the Zhengde reign, an unprecedented political upheaval erupted within the Ming Dynasty imperial palace!"

The sun is blazing in the sky in the picture.

The white jade steps outside the Fengtian Gate of the Forbidden City were tanned to the point of looking like branding irons.

"The morning court session has just ended."

"The six ministries and various departments comprised over three hundred officials of various ranks!"

"The enraged Emperor Wuzong Zhu Houzhao ordered them all to kneel outside the Fengtian Gate in the scorching sun, with no shelter whatsoever!"

"In the sweltering heat of midsummer, under the scorching sun."

"Lu Shen, a principal clerk in the Ministry of Justice, and Zhou Chen, a Jinshi (successful candidate in the highest imperial examination) from the Ministry of Rites, suffered heatstroke and dehydration on the spot and died suddenly on the stone steps!"

The myriad realms and timelines were utterly silent.

Three hundred officials were forced to kneel in the sun, and some died on the spot.

Such violent methods only appeared during the Hongwu reign and the early Yongle reign.

"Subsequently, Emperor Wuzong issued an even more terrifying imperial edict."

"All officials of the fifth rank and below kneeling outside Fengtian Gate had their official hats removed and their official robes stripped."

"Send them all to the Imperial Prison of the Garrison Command!"

"Hand him over to the newly appointed Grand Eunuch Liu Jin of the Directorate of Ceremonial, and have him subjected to severe interrogation overnight!"

The Hongzhi Era of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Youcheng looked at the rows of kneeling civil officials in the sky, and at the court officials who had died from the heat.

His legs went weak, and he collapsed to the ground.

"Three hundred court officials were imprisoned by imperial decree..."

"He's gone mad! Houzhao has gone mad! He's completely ripped apart the heavens of the Ming Dynasty!"

His heart, which had been brainwashed by the civil service for years, simply could not withstand this kind of world-destroying political strangulation.

Inside a modern live streaming studio.

After a brief pause, the barrage of comments erupted in an unprecedented frenzy.

"Holy crap!!! Jun-ge, tell me what happened!"

"Three hundred officials forced to kneel together? All officials below the fifth rank imprisoned? This is definitely not as simple as a corruption case!"

"A purge of this scale would only qualify as a rebellion!"

"What does it say in the Ming Shilu (Veritable Records of the Ming Dynasty)? I just searched it, and it says that someone wrote an anonymous letter of denunciation to Liu Jin, which angered Emperor Wuzong?"

As Zhu Dijun looked at the comment, a cold, knowing smile curled at the corner of his mouth.

"Anonymous whistleblower letter?"

"You actually believe this kind of lie that wouldn't even fool a three-year-old?"

Zhu Dijun grabbed the gavel on the table and slammed it down heavily.

"Family members, today I am here to expose the truth of this history that has been so desperately covered up by civil officials!"

"Based on all the existing clues, my personal deduction is as follows!"

"This is not an anonymous letter incident at all!"

"This was a scheme launched within the Forbidden City by the cabinet in collusion with the Directorate of Ceremonial, the Eastern Depot, the Western Depot, and the Embroidered Uniform Guard—"

"An attempted coup! Even a case of regicide!"

These two words came out.

Not only modern netizens, but even all the emperors of countless worlds and timelines felt a chill run down their spines.

The cabinet, the Directorate of Ceremonial, plus secret service agencies and the Imperial Guard.

This is like setting up a deadly meat grinder in the Ming Dynasty emperor's bedroom!

The era of the Zhengde reign of the Ming Dynasty.

Fifteen-year-old Zhu Houzhao suddenly jumped up from the commander's chair.

He stared intently at the sky, the veins on his neck bulging.

"The Directorate of Ceremonial... the Eastern Depot and the Western Depot... were they involved too?"

He originally thought that eunuchs were the emperor's most loyal dogs.

Now, his descendants tell him that these dogs had long ago exchanged bones with the civil officials of the outer court behind his back.

On the screen above, Zhu Dijun displayed an extremely crucial personnel resume.

Why did I make this deduction?

"Because there was a crucial personnel change during the great earthquake in the third year of Zhengde's reign."

"Li Rong, the Grand Eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial at the time, was the true 'Inner Minister' of the Ming Dynasty's inner court."

"He was directly dismissed by Emperor Wuzong, completely removed from the core of power!"

An image of an old eunuch with a wrinkled face and wearing a python robe appeared on the screen.

"Let's see who this Li Rong really is."

"Family members, he is no ordinary eunuch."

"He was an old man who lived to be eighty years old in the palace!"

"He entered the palace during the Jingtai reign and served through the reigns of the Tianshun, Chenghua, and Hongzhi emperors."

"During the Chenghua era, Emperor Xianzong bestowed upon him a python robe and granted him the special privilege of riding a horse in the palace, allowing him to participate in the military and political affairs of the Ming Dynasty for decades!"

"In terms of seniority, he is undoubtedly a core member of the Emperor's faction, the number one person in the inner court who even the Grand Secretary treats with utmost respect."

Zhu Dijun's eyes were extremely dark.

"Yet this was a veteran who had enjoyed the emperor's favor and wielded immense power over the court, serving three emperors."

"In the third year of the Zhengde reign, he inexplicably sided with the cabinet, becoming the ultimate spy for the civil service to check and balance the Wuzong Emperor!"

Yongle Time and Space.

Zhu Di's eyes instantly turned colder than an ice cave.

"An eighty-year-old veteran of three reigns betrayed his master."

He turned his head and looked at the eunuchs standing trembling outside the hall.

"The benefits offered by civil officials can actually outweigh the favors bestowed by the imperial court."

"These rootless bastards, once their spines soften, are even more despicable than civil officials!"

Zhu Dijun drew several red lines heavily on the screen.

"In the second year of Zhengde's reign, Wang Yue, the former Grand Eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial, was executed by Emperor Wuzong for colluding with the outer court."

In the third year of the Zhengde reign, the chief eunuch Li Rong was dismissed from his post.

"Only at this moment, sixteen-year-old Zhu Houzhao, with the help of Liu Jin and the Eight Tigers, finally gained complete control of the Directorate of Ceremonial!"

He finally discovered a fact that sent chills down his spine.

Zhu Dijun's voice was extremely suppressed, carrying a suffocating sense of despair.

"The factory that his grandfather left behind, the Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs that his father left behind, and the Embroidered Uniform Guard that he is so proud of."

"These were all originally used to protect the emperor and monitor the officials."

"In fact, it has long been thoroughly corrupted and infiltrated by the civil service group from within, turning into a sieve!"

"All it takes is a glance from the Prime Minister."

"The Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs can reject the emperor's edicts, the Eastern and Western Depots can outwardly comply with the emperor's orders while inwardly defying them, and the Embroidered Uniform Guard can send copies of the emperor's secret orders to civil officials without alteration!"

"Zhu Houzhao was not the emperor at all."

"He was a high-ranking prisoner confined in the Forbidden City, a giant gilded cage, under the constant watchful eyes of countless people, both inside and outside the court!"

The entire live stream room was completely silent.

The ancient emperors felt as if the blood in their bodies had frozen.

This kind of all-encompassing betrayal and infiltration is far more despairing than a city besieged by a massive army.

"so!"

Zhu Dijun suddenly raised his head, his eyes flashing with an extremely fanatical light.

"After completely suppressing the coup attempt in the third year of Zhengde's reign."

"July of the third year of Zhengde!"

"Emperor Wuzong, Zhu Houzhao, abandoned all ancestral rules and smashed all regulations!"

"With an extremely violent and resolute attitude, he tore a bloody path through this long-rotten web of power!"

On the screen, a blood-stained, dark gold demon-headed sword cleaved open the map of the Ming Empire.

[Internal branch factory – officially established!]

"One was overseen by Liu Jin and reported directly to the emperor."

"The ultimate intelligence agency that monitors the Embroidered Uniform Guard, suppresses the Eastern Depot, crushes the Western Depot, wields absolute power, and kills no one."

"The Ming Dynasty's Number One Murder Weapon—The Inner Factory!"

"Finally, in the extreme rage of this sixteen-year-old emperor, it revealed its bloodthirsty fangs, capable of crushing everything, to the entire world!"