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

Inside the live stream room.

As the words "Ultimate Monarch Killer" crashed down, the entire modern internet fell into a brief, deathly silence.

Immediately afterwards, the barrage of comments, like a volcano that had been suppressed to its limit, erupted in a super-destructive burst.

"Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit!!!"

"Jun-ge, are you crazy?! That's Wang Yangming! The greatest perfect man of all time, who established virtue, merit, and words!"

"Protest! Protest! How dare you, in your attempt to whitewash the absurd emperor Zhu Houzhao, throw mud at the sage of Neo-Confucianism?"

Those avid readers who grew up reading "Back to the Ming Dynasty to Be a Prince" and those currently following the popular novel "My Years in the Ming Dynasty" are now completely devastated.

Especially for the core netizens aged 30 to 40, Wang Yangming is an inviolable spiritual totem in their hearts.

The long-suppressed haters and Yu Qian fans have finally found a breakthrough to fight back.

They spammed red, abusive comments on the screen, threatening to report and ban this "nonsense" history livestream room.

Faced with this overwhelming cyberbullying.

Zhu Dijun remained unfazed.

He slowly picked up the teacup on the table, blew away the floating tea leaves, and took a sip with great pleasure.

"Family members, what's the rush?"

Zhu Dijun put down his teacup, the smile on his lips gradually turning cold, revealing a sharp edge as if he were looking down into the mists of history.

"I know that many of you have lost your faith and think I'm talking nonsense."

"But the politics of the Ming Dynasty was never about fighting and killing; it was about intricate human relationships and a terrifying web of interests that bound generations together!"

On the big screen, Wang Yangming's statue was instantly shrunk and pushed into a corner.

Instead, there were two portraits of elderly civil officials with white hair.

"Today, I'll throw the evidence right in your faces."

"First, let's look at this first layer of relationships—[fellow villagers and family friends]!"

Zhu Dijun drew a thick red line between the two portraits with his carbon pen.

"One of these two is Xie Qian, the second-in-command of the cabinet, who was just forced to resign by Emperor Wuzong and slunk out of the capital."

"The other one is named Wang Hua, who was the top scholar in the seventeenth year of the Chenghua reign."

Zhu Dijun paused for a second, then his voice suddenly rose.

"And this Wang Hua was Wang Yangming's biological father!"

Myriad Realms and Spacetime

The Zhengde reign of the Ming Dynasty.

The officials who were just roaring angrily suddenly became like roosters with their necks being choked, unable to utter a sound.

Inside the Leopard Chamber Hall, Zhu Houzhao stared at the red line in the sky, a chilling realization flashing in his eyes.

On the sky, Zhu Dijun's cold laughter continued.

"Family members, Xie Qian and Wang Hua are from the same hometown!"

"The friendship between their two families has lasted for fifty years, from their grandparents' generation to their parents' generation and then to their children's generation!"

"Fifty years! Three generations of interests intertwined—what an unbreakable political alliance!"

Judy Jun slammed the gavel.

"As everyone has seen what just happened, Emperor Wuzong Zhu Houzhao overthrew the cabinet and drove Xie Qian out of the capital like a dog!"

"Xie Qian was not only a leader among civil officials, but also a lifelong friend of Wang Yangming's father, and the core protector of their Jiangnan interest group!"

"Now, the protective umbrella has been smashed by the emperor."

"Just think about it with your toes. As beneficiaries of this big tree, as elite representatives of the Jiangnan gentry."

"How could Wang Yangming not hate Emperor Wuzong? How could he stand by and watch his fellow villagers and elders be so humiliated?"

The shouting and cursing in the live stream instantly decreased by a third.

Netizens aren't stupid.

Leaving aside those sacred halos, this is the most realistic picture of the workplace and officialdom.

The era of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Yuanzhang stared coldly at the sky, the imperial brush in his hand broken in two.

"When fellow villagers meet, they secretly form cliques."

"We established the North and South rankings back then to prevent these Jiangnan scholars from forming cliques. We never imagined that in later generations they would have become so powerful that they even dared to assassinate the emperor!"

Zhu Dijun gave no one a chance to catch their breath, his fingers tapping the keyboard again.

The images on the big screen began to scroll wildly like a waterfall.

"The first layer of relationship is just an appetizer."

"Now, let's look at the second, even more terrifying network of interests—the mentor-disciple relationship!"

"This is a unique academic pyramid scheme system of the Ming Dynasty!"

Four names, glowing with a blood-red light, were firmly nailed to the center of the screen.

[Yang Pu - Wu Yubi - Lou Liang - Wang Shouren (Wang Yangming)]

"Many people who read history books will say: 'That's not right, Brother Jun. Wang Yangming passed the imperial examination in the twelfth year of the Hongzhi reign. The chief examiner for that examination was Cheng Minzheng. So Wang Yangming's mentor should have been Cheng Minzheng.'"

Zhu Dijun raised a finger and shook it.

"Wrong! That was just the nominal examiner in the official documents!"

"The true political succession of the Ming Dynasty depended on lineage within Neo-Confucianism and the School of Mind!"

"Have you heard of the Three Yangs Cabinet during the reign of Emperor Chengzu? Yang Pu's academic mantle was passed on to the great Confucian scholar Wu Yubi; Wu Yubi then passed it on to Lou Liang."

"Wang Yangming formally became a disciple of Lou Liang, accepting this system of civil service scholarship that had been deeply rooted since the early Ming Dynasty!"

Zhu Dijun's eyes were like knives.

"They were not just master and disciple; they were political magnates who shared absolute power!"

"So, to whom did Wang Yangming later pass on these academic and political resources?"

The red line on the screen continues to extend downwards.

An unfamiliar name popped up: [Nie Bao].

"Nie Bao was a direct disciple of Wang Yangming and received the true teachings of his philosophy of mind."

"And Nie Bao took on another student."

Suddenly, Zhu Dijun slammed his hands on the table, his eyes flashing with an extremely eerie and fanatical light.

"Family members, Nie Bao's student's name is—Xu Jie!"

boom!

The Jiajing era of the Ming Dynasty.

Inside the Wanshou Palace in the West Garden.

Emperor Jiajing, Zhu Houcong, who was meditating and refining elixirs, suddenly opened his eyes.

Beside him, Xu Jie, who had only recently entered the court and still had a gentle, courteous, and modest demeanor, suddenly knelt on the ground with a thud, his body covered in cold sweat.

Yan Song and his son Yan Shifan stood to the side, revealing extremely sinister smiles.

The modern live streaming room exploded again.

"Holy crap! Xu Jie?! The Grand Secretary who took down Yan Song, the number one ninja turtle of the Ming Dynasty?!"

"My God! This connection actually leads directly to the Jiajing and Longqing reigns!"

"This isn't some kind of lineage; this is practically the underground royal family of the Ming Dynasty!"

Zhu Dijun's voice carried a chilling quality, as if he had seen through an ancient conspiracy.

"That's right, it's Xu Jie."

"But regarding Xu Jie, deep within history lies an extremely bloody and terrifying secret!"

The large screen suddenly went dark, leaving only dark red blood flowing slowly.

"When the Manchus entered the pass, this group of civil officials who usually shouted about loyalty to the emperor and patriotism met their ultimate retribution."

"Xu Jie's family suffered a devastating blow at the end of the Ming Dynasty."

"Their graves were dug up by Tunguska boars, their bodies whipped and their entire Xu family slaughtered!"

"But where did the Xu family's enormous wealth, which was comparable to that of a nation, go?"

Zhu Dijun spoke slowly and deliberately, dropping a bombshell that sent chills down everyone's spine.

"During the Chongzhen era, a traitor named Xu Guangqi stepped forward, claiming to be a descendant of the Xu family."

"He directly and secretly carried out a 'family possession,' taking over all the wealth that the Xu Jie family had accumulated with the blood and sweat of the Ming Dynasty's people!"

"Because that's the blood-stained reward for betraying one's country and one's master!"

This wealth even extended to later generations, transforming into the incredibly valuable Xujiahui area of ​​Shanghai!

Viewers in the live stream felt a chill run from their feet to their heads.

This grand conspiracy theory, spanning hundreds of years and involving dynastic changes and family power struggles, completely shattered their understanding.

"Holy crap! That's where Xujiahui got its name?!"

"It's terrifying to think about! These civil officials are too resilient; they'd still be powerful figures in any different dynasty!"

"The blood of the Ming Dynasty has fed the descendants of these parasites!"

The era of Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty.

Beneath Coal Hill, the haggard-looking Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youjian gazed at the sky and laughed bitterly.

"What a fine Xu family...what a family of loyal martyrs!"

"My national treasury is so full that rats are starving, while your family fortunes could buy the entire Jiangnan region. If you don't die, how can the Ming Dynasty not perish!"

Zhu Dijun didn't give everyone much time to process what was happening.

He suddenly waved his hand, crossed out Xu Jie's name, and pulled out an even thicker, blood-red chain.

"Family members, Xu Jie is dead, but this terrifying network of interests is not over."

"Xu Jie personally mentored an outstanding student."

On the screen appeared a portrait of a powerful and authoritative prime minister.

"He is the one who has been lauded to the skies by countless history textbooks of later generations and hailed as the greatest reformer of the Ming Dynasty—"

"Zhang Juzheng!"

Countless people across countless worlds and timelines were momentarily speechless, their breaths catching in their throats.

Zhang Juzheng! This name carries immense weight!

Zhu Dijun sneered, pointing at the sanctimonious face on the screen.

Don't be misled by history books!

"Yan Shifan pointed his finger at Zhang Juzheng and publicly denounced him as the number one treacherous minister in the land! It's true that Yan Shifan was a scoundrel, but his judgment of people was extremely accurate!"

"Later generations have been praising Zhang Juzheng's reforms, the Single Whip Law, and the Performance Evaluation System, saying they forcibly extended the life of the Ming Dynasty by fifty years!"

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

Snapped!

"That's utter nonsense!"

"Let's look at the results! Who ultimately benefited from Zhang Juzheng's reforms? Who really got the most out of it?"

"They've found a way to shift the taxes that should have been paid by the gentry of Jiangnan onto the shoulders of the impoverished peasants!"

"This completely turned the state's salt and iron monopolies into the private property of civil officials' families!"

Zhu Dijun stared directly at the camera and let out a deafening roar.

"There was no so-called reform led by that scoundrel Zhang Juzheng."

"The Ming Dynasty's national strength will never be drained by internal exploitation! With just that little bit of wild boar hide from Tunguska, even if we try to wear them down, the Ming Dynasty can wear them down to death in the Changbai Mountains and Heilongjiang River region!"

"Family members."

Zhu Dijun leaned back in his chair, his voice gradually turning into a low, warning tone.

"When studying history, it's essential to understand the overall context. You can't treat it like a light novel, focusing only on a single, fragmented point in time."

"That would make it extremely easy to fall into the historical traps that those intellectuals have already dug!"

"Whether it's the Tumu Crisis we mentioned earlier, or the Zhang Juzheng Reforms that are being brought up now."

"You must put the situation of the surrounding countries, the interests of the civil service group, and the counterattack of the imperial power on the same sand table for simulation."

On the screen, the map of the Ming Dynasty began to blaze with flames.

"Once you understand this terrifying network of interests that stretches from Xie Qian, Wang Yangming, and Xu Jie all the way to Zhang Juzheng..."

"Let's turn our attention back to that summer of the third year of the Zhengde reign."

Zhu Dijun's eyes were deep and unfathomable as he posed a fatal question.

"Wang Yangming was exiled to Longchang, Guizhou, after being beaten bloody by Zhu Houzhao with court flogging."

"Did he really just discover the philosophy of mind in a cave?"

"Who instigated this future spiritual leader, on whom the civil service placed such high hopes, to secretly begin weaving that... death net aimed at hunting down the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty?"