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

Above the sky, the blood-stained, insider-made ghost-head knife slowly disappeared.

Zhu Dijun leaned back in his gaming chair, picked up his slightly cooled tea, and drank it all in one gulp. His eyes were deep, as if he were looking through the screen at the intricate web of power in the Ming Dynasty.

"Family members."

"We need to understand this coup attempt in the third year of Zhengde's reign, which was completely erased from history books, or even an attempted regicide case."

"We have to rewind the timeline to the first year of the Zhengde reign, to the eve of the establishment of the Leopard House."

The time gears on the big screen began to turn back, freezing at April of the first year of the Zhengde reign.

"As we mentioned before, what was the first major event that Qianlong accomplished in the month that Emperor Wuzong personally funded the construction of the Leopard House?"

"They sent Ma Wensheng and Liu Daxia, those two cunning old foxes who had been hiding for ages and had a long history of misdeeds, straight back to their hometown!"

Zhu Dijun tapped his fingers heavily on the table twice.

"Many readers who enjoy fast-paced, action-packed stories might find this unsatisfying. Why not just kill them outright? Why only drive them away?"

"Because Zhu Houzhao was only fifteen years old at the time! He had just ascended the throne, his sword wasn't sharp enough, and his power base wasn't solid at all!"

"He was facing a powerful and influential group of civil officials who had been operating for the entire Hongzhi reign, and whose influence was impenetrable."

Zhu Dijun's eyes were cold and sharp as knives.

"If it were Emperor Taizu of the Hongwu reign, or Emperor Chengzu of the Yongle reign."

"Forget about letting them retire and return to their hometown; given the filth they've done, their entire family should be executed, and their ancestral graves should be dug up and scattered!"

The era of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Yuanzhang snorted coldly, his grip on the armrests of the dragon throne creaking.

"The descendants are right!"

"These traitors who bring disaster to the country and its people, do they even deserve to retire to their hometowns? If we were here, we would definitely skin them alive, stuff them with straw, and hang them on the Meridian Gate to dry in the wind!"

Meanwhile, in the three time periods of Chenghua, Hongzhi, and Zhengde.

Liu Daxia, Ma Wensheng, and others, who were originally highly respected because of their "famous minister" status, now had ashen faces.

The unreserved exposure by Tianmu laid bare their true colors—concealing military intelligence, destroying nautical charts, and emptying the national treasury for personal gain—to the bloody face of the people of the world.

On the streets and in the teahouses.

Countless people pointed at the sky and cursed loudly.

"What kind of upright officials and virtuous ministers are they? They're just a bunch of bloodsucking beasts clinging to the Ming Dynasty!"

"You corrupt official! Return the money! Spit out the money you embezzled!"

The public outcry turned these civil officials, who usually prided themselves on their integrity, into pariahs, so much so that they dared not even step out of their own homes.

On the sky, Zhu Dijun's debriefing continued.

"In the first year of Zhengde's reign, Emperor Wuzong did indeed regain a significant portion of military power by establishing the Leopard House and promoting his confidants."

"But will the cabinet's bigwigs just sit idly by and wait to be killed?"

"Of course not!"

On the screen, two portraits in crimson official robes appeared.

The Grand Secretary was Li Dongyang, and the Second Grand Secretary was Xie Qian.

"In June of the first year of Zhengde's reign, the cabinet launched an extremely fierce first wave of counterattack."

"Li Dongyang and Xie Qian were directing from behind the scenes, unleashing the Ming Dynasty's top-tier rabid dogs—the Six Ministries of Censors and the Thirteen Circuit Censors!"

"These censors are like mad dogs, jointly submitting a memorial to the throne, frantically impeaching the core members of the new emperor's faction who were just promoted by Emperor Wuzong!"

"This includes Tan You, the Earl of Xinning, who was sent to garrison Xuanfu; General Zhang Jun; Commander-in-Chief Shen Ying; and the garrison eunuch Liu Qing, among others!"

A mocking smile curled at the corner of Zhu Dijun's lips.

"The cabinet's message is clear: Emperor, you want to seize military power? No way! Whoever you promote, we'll tear them apart!"

"But how did Emperor Wuzong (Zhu Houzhao) respond?"

Zhu Dijun almost burst out laughing.

"This fifteen-year-old emperor has resorted to sophisticated scoundrel tactics."

"He glanced at the mountain of impeachment memorials and casually replied, 'Oh dear, what bad luck! These generals and eunuchs have all recently fallen seriously ill and need to rest in bed, so they can't be investigated.'"

Viewers in the live stream burst out laughing instantly.

"What the hell?! Everyone's getting sick! Isn't this just like the modern workplace where everyone takes sick leave if they don't want to work?"

["Zhu Houzhao: Go ahead and bite me, if you succeed, I'll admit defeat! As long as I don't respond, your impeachments are just a piece of paper!"]

"At fifteen, he had already mastered the art of maneuvering in officialdom. This talent is truly extraordinary!"

Zhu Dijun snapped his fingers.

"That's right. In this initial clash over the return of military power, Emperor Wuzong stopped short of defeat and achieved a very tacit draw with the civil official group."

"But those old foxes in the cabinet didn't give Emperor Wuzong a chance to breathe."

"Since the censors couldn't get through to them, they brought in their ultimate outside help!"

On the large screen, the phantom image of an old man dressed in a duke's python robe appeared.

"The Duke of England, Zhang Mao!"

"The absolute core of the Five Military Commands of the Ming Dynasty, the nominal number one position in the Ming military at the time!"

"Liu Jian and Li Dongyang of the Cabinet, together with the Five Military Commissions headed by Zhang Mao, submitted a memorial with extremely strong wording."

Zhu Dijun translated the obscure memorial written in classical Chinese into plain language and posted it on the public screen.

"Family members, this memorial, when translated, is actually just one sentence."

"[Zhu Houzhao, you little rascal! Since you ascended the throne, you spend all your time riding and shooting horses in the palace with those eight eunuchs, neglecting your duties. Don't you want to continue the Ming Dynasty? Shouldn't you tone it down a bit!]"

"Civil officials and nobles joined forces, and powerful figures from both the military and political spheres joined together to exert pressure on a fifteen-year-old emperor from all sides!"

The era of the Zhengde reign of the Ming Dynasty.

Inside the Leopard Chamber Hall, Zhu Houzhao looked at the sky and gave a cold laugh.

He knew all too well what that suffocating feeling felt like back then.

Not a single official in the court stood by him. Everyone was trying to mold him into a puppet using so-called "ancestral rules" and "sacred principles."

"But that's not the most fatal thing."

On the sky, Zhu Dijun's face suddenly darkened, and his voice carried a chilling aura that sent shivers down one's spine.

"July of the first year of Zhengde."

"That is, only one month after the combined pressure from both civil and military forces."

"The cabinet arranged an extremely disgusting and extravagant wedding for Emperor Wuzong!"

Portraits of three women in phoenix coronet and embroidered robes appeared on the big screen.

"The first empress of the Zhengde Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Lady Xia, and two imperial concubines, Lady Shen and Lady Wu."

Why did I use the word "take care of everything"?

"Because during the mid-to-late Ming Dynasty, the emperor's marriages were never a matter of his own decision!"

Zhu Dijun slammed his hand on the table.

"Family members, think about the same old tricks! It's all the same old tricks!"

"What was Emperor Wuzong's personality like? He was a person who yearned for freedom and was romantic and wild at heart."

"Of course he wanted to be able to choose his beloved woman himself, even if it meant emulating his grandfather Emperor Xianzong's exclusive favor towards Consort Wan, who was more than ten years his senior, or emulating his great-grandfather Emperor Yingzong's shared hardships with Empress Qian, he was willing to do so!"

"But the cabinet will not allow it!"

"Ever since Emperor Renzong, the Ming Dynasty's harem has been the ultimate human spy network used by the cabinet and civil service to monitor the emperor 24/7!"

"These three wives, carefully selected by the civil service, were the gentle noose around Zhu Houzhao's neck!"

Upon hearing this analysis, the emperors of countless worlds all felt a chill run down their spines.

Especially Emperor Ming Xianzong Zhu Jianshen of the Chenghua era. He held Consort Wan's hand tightly, feeling extremely fortunate that he had withstood the pressure from the civil officials and protected his beloved.

"Emperor Wuzong, Zhu Houzhao, wasn't stupid!"

Zhu Dijun stared directly into the camera, his eyes filled with admiration and sorrow.

"He looked at the three women who had been forcibly placed into the harem, and he knew perfectly well who their masters were."

"Therefore, Zhu Houzhao made a move that left all historians in later generations speechless, yet it was also extremely decisive!"

"In the second year of the Zhengde reign, the Leopard House had just been completed."

"Zhu Houzhao packed his bags and moved out of the Forbidden City's inner palace overnight!"

"From that day until the sixteenth year of Zhengde's reign, when he was thirty-one years old, he was deliberately pushed into the water and assassinated with poison until his death."

"A full sixteen years!"

"This emperor of the Ming Dynasty never set foot in the inner palace again!"

boom!

This bombshell exploded in the live broadcast room, causing a huge uproar.

Zhu Dijun's voice echoed in the hall.

Why did he remain childless throughout his life?

"Because he never touched those three women!"

"He doesn't touch them, not because he's impotent, but because he's extremely wary!"

"He dared not close his eyes and sleep next to the surveillance cameras sent by the civil service! He was terrified that one day in his sleep, these women would send him to meet his ancestors with a cup of poisoned wine or a white silk ribbon!"

For sixteen years, he treated his wife, whom he had known since childhood, like a thief!

"How can a child be born if there's no physical intimacy? We can't just make it like those fabricated historical accounts by those civil officials, where the empress or imperial concubine conjures up a child out of thin air to inherit the Ming throne!"

After a brief period of silence, the comments section of a modern live stream went completely wild.

"Holy crap!!! This is the truth?!"

"My God! I used to think Emperor Wuzong was just ridiculous for not having children when I read history books, but now I realize that this was a life-or-death defense that lasted for sixteen years!"

["I'm moved to tears. An emperor who doesn't even dare to close his eyes and sleep in front of his wife—what a despairing loneliness that must be!"]

["Suddenly I understand why Jackie Chan is so wary of his wife and daughters now; there's historical precedent for it."]

"I'm dying of laughter! Jun-ge's last line about creating babies out of thin air was brilliant! Luckily, Emperor Wuzong was clear-headed and didn't touch them, otherwise, given the nature of civil officials, who knows which minister's child the Empress might have gotten pregnant one day!"

"If no sexual relations have occurred, the child born will definitely be illegitimate! Emperor Wuzong's move has cut off the civil official group's hopes of 'switching the crown prince'!"

"Even modern marriages have infidelity; did those civil officials in the Ming Dynasty have any shame? What wouldn't they do!"

The era of the Zhengde reign of the Ming Dynasty.

In the main hall of the Leopard Room.

As Zhu Houzhao listened to the analysis on the sky, tears finally welled up in his eyes.

He turned his head and looked in the direction of the Forbidden City's inner palace.

In his eyes, that magnificent palace was a cannibalistic den of demons.

"The descendant of my third great-uncle... understands me... he truly understands me..."

Zhu Houzhao choked up, like a child who had suffered a great injustice, yet also like a lone wolf driven to the brink of despair.

"I will not return to the harem... I would rather have no heir!"

"I will never allow the Ming Dynasty to fall into the hands of a scoundrel with civil official blood!"