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

Just a second ago, the atmosphere in the entire live broadcast room was still immersed in the extreme tragedy and depression of "sixteen years of guarding against thieves and the extinction of the lineage".

The emperors of countless worlds and timelines were still moved by the young emperor's forbearance.

But next second.

On the big screen, Zhu Dijun's serious expression suddenly vanished, replaced by an extremely strange look.

He coughed twice, picked up his teacup to moisten his throat, and a mischievous glint appeared in his eyes.

"However, family members."

"We don't need to think of Emperor Wuzong as too tragic."

"This guy is, after all, a high-level player who treats the Ming Dynasty court like a playground. In this wedding that was forcibly imposed on him by civil officials, he did something extremely immoral and utterly shameless."

Zhu Dijun tapped his fingers on the keyboard.

Four extremely eye-catching modern words popped up on the screen.

[Marriage fraud! Dowry fraud!]

puff!

Inside a modern live streaming studio.

Countless netizens who were holding water cups and wiping away tears for Emperor Wuzong with red eyes sprayed water directly onto their screens.

After a brief pause, the comments section exploded like a mudslide.

"Holy crap?! Give me back my tears!"

[“What the hell?! This is a marriage scam and a dowry scam! Jun-ge, this sudden change in your style is too much!”]

[“A Ming Dynasty emperor, the supreme ruler, engaging in marriage fraud? I never imagined you, Emperor Wuzong, were like this!”]

"I was just feeling sorry for him for not being close to women for sixteen years, but it turns out this guy is treating marriage like a scam!"

The era of the Zhengde reign of the Ming Dynasty.

In the main hall of the Leopard Room.

At the age of fifteen, Zhu Houzhao still maintained the posture of a lone wolf, looking up at the sky with tears in his eyes.

When he heard the words "immoral," "unscrupulous," and "marriage fraud" pop up from the sky, his handsome face instantly turned bright red.

Tears of emotion welled up but were held back in my eyes.

"fart!"

Zhu Houzhao suddenly jumped up from the ground and kicked the copper basin in front of him away.

He drew his Emperor's Sword, pointed it at Zhu Dijun's face on the sky, and angrily cursed him.

"Slander! This is blatant slander!"

"I, the mighty Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, possessing the entire realm, how could I possibly engage in such despicable acts of swindling and deception!"

"You unfilial descendant, return my tears to me!"

Liu Jin and a group of eunuchs outside the main hall shrank their necks, wanting to laugh but daring not to, their whole bodies trembling with suppressed laughter.

On the sky, Zhu Dijun obviously couldn't hear Zhu Houzhao's shouting match from afar.

He smiled and waved his hand, then began to dissect what could be called the most absurd "marriage transaction" in the history of the Ming Dynasty.

"Family members, here's what happened."

"Regarding Emperor Wuzong's first grand wedding, Zhu Houzhao felt utterly disgusted when faced with the three 'surveillance cameras' carefully selected by the cabinet."

"But amidst the disgust, this sixteen-year-old emperor, possessing extraordinary wisdom, suddenly had a flash of inspiration."

"He felt this might be a fantastic opportunity to make money!"

Zhu Dijun's eyes gleamed as he threw out a concept that made all modern finance professionals exclaim that he was an expert.

He wanted to turn this grand wedding into an absolutely perfect "marriage to settle debts"!

The era of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Yuanzhang was stunned.

"Marriage to settle debts? What kind of nonsense is that?"

Although he couldn't understand the word, his intuition told this founding emperor, who had once begged for food, that his grandson was about to start swindling people.

"At that time, Emperor Wuzong was short of money to repair his Leopard House and to support his Imperial Guard, which was used to fight against the civil officials."

Judy Jun slapped a bill onto the screen.

"He summoned Grand Secretary Li Dongyang and Vice Grand Secretary Xie Qian directly to him and made exorbitant demands."

"Emperor Wuzong's original words were roughly: 'I am getting married, this is a matter of national importance for the Ming Dynasty. If we're going to do it, we must do it in a grand way. The cabinet should go to the Ministry of Revenue and allocate funds for me. Let's get 400,000 taels of silver here first.'"

boom!

Four hundred thousand taels of silver!

When this number was revealed, not only the Ming Dynasty cabinet at the time, but even the emperors of countless worlds and timelines gasped in shock.

As mentioned earlier, the three major projects in the capital in the second year of the Zhengde reign only cost a total of 300,000 taels of silver.

A wedding costs 400,000 taels of silver?

"Li Dongyang and Xie Qian turned green with shock."

Zhu Dijun curled his lips in a mocking smile.

"Of course they knew what Zhu Houzhao was going to do."

"This young emperor is paying homage to those old foxes in the Ministry of Works!"

"Corrupt officials in the Ministry of Works can turn 180,000 taels of silver in outstanding construction debts into 180,000 taels with a stroke of their pen. Emperor Wuzong certainly wants to learn that!"

"Zhu Houzhao's plan was very shrewd: once I got my hands on 400,000 taels, I would take out four taels to buy some red cloth and put up some 'double happiness' characters, and the remaining 399,996 taels would be directly deposited into my private treasury!"

"I use your civil servants' money to support my army and manufacture my guns, and then I'll hold a knife to your throats!"

Viewers in the modern live stream room were absolutely laughing their heads off.

"Hahaha! The logic is complete!"

"Defeat magic with magic! If you dare to falsify your accounts, I dare to launder money on official orders!"

["Zhu Houzhao: When it comes to falsifying accounts, you're all too naive. What I'm doing is legal embezzlement!"]

"Eighteen thousand becomes eighteen, four hundred thousand becomes four taels! Zhu Houzhao, the financial mastermind of the Ming Dynasty!"

The Yongle Era of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Di sat on the dragon throne, laughing so hard he was doubled over, unable to even wipe away his tears.

"Good lad! What a shrewd lad, sucking the marrow from the bones!"

"To deal with those hypocrites who spout benevolence and morality but are actually full of debauchery, you have to use such shameless tactics!"

"He wants 400,000 taels for a wedding? How could he even think of that!"

However, on the sky, Zhu Dijun's fingers struck heavily.

"Family members, will those old foxes in the cabinet agree to this?"

"Of course not!"

"Li Dongyang immediately knelt down and started pleading poverty."

He cited numerous historical examples and listed a long list of reasons: "Your Majesty! Money is needed everywhere in the world today. The Tatars are invading the north, requiring war; the south is suffering from floods, requiring relief. The national treasury is so empty that rats could starve to death!"

"【Four hundred thousand taels is absolutely out of the question; the Ministry of Revenue can only scrape together one hundred thousand taels at most. His Majesty is a wise ruler; please bear with it and let's just have a simple wedding.】"

On the screen was a comical image of Li Dongyang weeping and clutching his money bag.

The civil officials from all realms and timelines nodded in approval.

These tactics of "delaying" and "feigning poverty" are their ancestral secrets for resisting the emperor's demands for money.

The emperor has to save face, and once he hears that the country is in disaster, he will definitely be too embarrassed to force the emperor.

but.

They encountered Zhu Houzhao.

A shameless scoundrel who has taken shamelessness to the extreme, the greatest scoundrel of all time!

Zhu Dijun suddenly stood up, his eyes revealing an extremely arrogant and thuggish air.

"Faced with the cabinet's complaints of poverty, fifteen-year-old Zhu Houzhao didn't hesitate and threw the budget approval slip for 100,000 taels of silver in Li Dongyang's face!"

"Zhu Houzhao, with utter blatant arrogance, spread his hands and uttered an extremely shameless remark!"

"Pay up or lose!"

"Either I, the fuck, refuse to go through with this marriage!"

The entire room fell silent.

"Zhu Houzhao's subtext is very clear."

"Didn't you want to force women upon me? Didn't you want to plant spies by my pillow?"

"Can!"

"But if you want to install these three surveillance cameras, you must pay me 400,000 taels of silver for the installation!"

"If you short even a single coin, I will immediately issue an edict to send these three women back to their hometowns. Let's tear off all pretenses and hold a new selection. At worst, I'll remain a bachelor for life, and the Ming Dynasty will die out. Let's see how future generations of history will condemn you cabinet ministers!"

The live stream chat exploded instantly.

"Holy crap!!! Maximum pressure! This is what you call maximum pressure!"

"They have a firm grip on the weaknesses of civil officials!"

"No money, no marriage! That's a ruthless tactic!"

Zhu Dijun placed his hands on the table, a wildly arrogant smile spreading across his face.

"Family members, have you seen 'Let the Bullets Fly'?"

"At this moment, Emperor Wuzong Zhu Houzhao is practically the Zhang Mazi of the Ming Dynasty!"

On the big screen, a line of extremely domineering blood-red dialogue was displayed.

"Zhu Houzhao sat on the dragon throne in the Leopard Chamber, looking down at the Grand Secretary kneeling below."

"His attitude was extremely firm, and his logic was absolutely impeccable!"

Zhu Dijun's voice resounded throughout the hall, resounding with power.

"The wedding can't be held until the money is in our account!"

"We can't have a grand wedding, and we can't even consummate our marriage!"

"How can I be monitored by your civil service group if I don't consummate the marriage?!"

The era of the Zhengde reign of the Ming Dynasty.

As Zhu Houzhao listened to the resounding lines on the sky, the blush on his face had long since faded.

Instead, there was an unprecedented sense of exhilaration and arrogance.

"That's right!"

Zhu Houzhao slammed the Emperor's Sword into the floor tile and burst into wild laughter.

"No money in the account, no wedding night!"

"If you want to stuff those three women into my harem, do you really think I'm some kind of puppet that can be molded at will, without offering some real gold and silver?"

Meanwhile, in the Zhengde era on the other side...

Inside the residence of Grand Secretary Li Dongyang.

This veteran official, who had served three dynasties, was so angry when he saw the words "No money in the account, no wedding night" on the sky that he trembled with rage and collapsed onto the armchair.

"His Majesty... he actually treated such a crucial matter as a wedding as a petty business for common scoundrels!"

"This is an insult to scholarship! An insult to scholarship indeed!"

On the sky, Zhu Dijun picked up his teacup, blew on the steam, and looked as deep and unfathomable as a bottomless abyss.

"Faced with this young emperor who has no martial virtue and has no regard for the dignity of the royal family."

"Li Dongyang and Xie Qian were forced to the edge of a cliff."

"They knew very well that if the wedding were to fall through, the civil service group's arrangements within the harem would completely collapse."

"So, did the Ming Dynasty's cabinet actually provide the 400,000 taels of silver?"

Zhu Dijun paused for a moment, leaving everyone with an extremely suspenseful question.