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

The oppressive atmosphere in the live stream was instantly shattered by Zhu Dijun's cold laugh.

"Family members, let's keep digging!"

"Emperor Wuzong's crackdown on the Qian family of Zhejiang was the first blow dealt to the powerful clans of Jiangnan. But do you think that's the end of it?"

Zhu Dijun tapped his fingers heavily on the table, and a yellowed fragment of the "Ming Shilu: Wuzong Volume" appeared on the large screen.

"In the fifth year of the Zhengde reign, a seemingly insignificant but actually horrifying bloodbath occurred involving overseas tribute missions!"

"This case directly became the ultimate trigger for Emperor Wuzong's complete purge of the Jiangxi Gang!"

On the screen, a treasure ship with exotic flair slowly sails into the port of the Ming Dynasty.

"In the fifth year of the Zhengde reign, the Kingdom of Malacca sent an envoy to Beijing to pay tribute."

"But during the journey, a horrific massacre occurred within the mission!"

Zhu Dijun's eyes turned cold and sharp. "An envoy named Ya Liu not only cruelly murdered the 21 legitimate envoys traveling with him, but also seized all the enormous sums of money that the imperial court had bestowed upon the Kingdom of Malacca!"

"Such a heinous diplomatic bloodbath has occurred right under the emperor's nose, within the borders of the Great Ming Dynasty. The court is furious, and the Embroidered Uniform Guard has immediately been dispatched to arrest this traitor, Liu!"

"But once they were in the imperial prison for the first trial, the Imperial Guards were all dumbfounded!"

Zhu Dijun grabbed the gavel and slammed it down heavily.

boom!

"This Ah Liu isn't from Malacca at all!"

"He's a genuine Ming Dynasty man! His original name was Xiao Mingju!"

"And his place of origin is exactly what we mentioned in the previous chapter—[Jiangxi! Wan'an!]"

Several large, blood-red characters exploded in the sky, stinging the eyes of all the Jiangxi officials in the myriad worlds.

"This Xiao Mingju was originally a criminal who broke the law in China and fled overseas. After becoming a foreign translator in the Kingdom of Malacca, he took advantage of the tribute mission to escape back to the Ming Dynasty!"

"The first thing he did upon returning to the Ming Dynasty was not to express his gratitude, but to use the stolen money to frantically bribe officials at all levels along the way!"

"From the bottom up, a bloody path to promotion and wealth was bought out!"

Zhu Dijun's voice was filled with extreme disgust.

"Because it involves too many people, has too many victims, and has an extremely negative impact."

"Emperor Wuzong personally issued an edict finalizing the verdict: all accomplices must be beheaded and their heads displayed to the public!"

"The ringleader, Xiao Mingju—executed by slow slicing!"

The Zhengde reign of the Ming Dynasty.

Inside the Leopard Chamber Hall, Zhu Houzhao looked at Xiao Mingju, whose body was mangled and bloodied, on the sky, without a trace of pity in his eyes.

"A fugitive from overseas, carrying a few exotic treasures, can feed my officials and commit murder and robbery within the borders of the Ming Dynasty?"

Zhu Houzhao sneered repeatedly, "These officials, especially those from Jiangxi, are truly a pack of money-grubbing wolves!"

However, Judy Jun on the sky did not stop there.

He picked up his teacup, blew on the floating leaves on the water, and his eyes became extremely deep.

"Family members, let's just kill Xiao Mingju, that's all."

"But Xiao Mingju's identity as a native of Wan'an, Jiangxi, was like a poisonous thorn, deeply piercing the nerves of the sixteen-year-old emperor!"

"He reminded Emperor Wuzong, Zhu Houzhao, of an extremely dark and repressive past in the Zhu family!"

"Emperor Chenghua, Zhu Jianshen, died at the hands of the Jiangxi clique within the civil service, who colluded with the imperial harem and the Imperial Medical Academy."

"The person who treated Emperor Ming Xianzong was Liu Wentai, a physician from the Imperial Medical Academy!"

"This same person, at the end of the Hongzhi reign, used an extremely similar method to kill Emperor Wuzong's own father, Emperor Xiaozong Zhu Youcheng—a master healer of the Ming Dynasty!"

Zhu Dijun slammed his gavel down.

"And behind Liu Wentai, who consecutively caused the deaths of two Ming emperors, stood the powerful Jiangxi civil official clique that controlled the court!"

"And the main culprit, Xiao Mingju, is from Wan'an, Jiangxi."

"Family members, now you understand why the sixteen-year-old Wu Zong hated the Jiangxi gang so much, right?!"

"They seized the right to mint copper coins! They formed cliques to control the court! They even secretly had the imperial physicians poison two emperors!"

"With both old and new grudges combined, if Zhu Houzhao doesn't eradicate this malignant tumor, he will sooner or later follow the same path as his grandfather and father, who were poisoned to death!"

On the big screen, the phantom of Emperor Wuzong Zhu Houzhao drew the Emperor's Sword and slashed down!

"The fifth year of Zhengde's reign!"

"With Liu Jin's cooperation, Zhu Houzhao unleashed the exact same ultimate, devastating attack on the Jiangxi clique as he had used against Yuyao in Zhejiang!"

A dazzling imperial edict crashed down on the heads of all the scholars in Jiangxi.

"[First Cut: The number of candidates for the provincial examinations in Jiangxi Province will be reduced by a full fifty!]"

"[Second Cut: Any official with a Jiangxi household registration will be permanently banned from holding key positions in the Six Ministries in the capital!]"

Zhu Dijun laughed loudly, his laughter filled with unrestrained madness.

"Cut off the fuel supply!"

"You like forming factions, don't you? I'll just shut down your imperial examination system!"

"Don't you like going to the capital to become a high-ranking official? I'll make sure you, a man from Jiangxi, rot in the provinces for the rest of your life, and never set foot in the capital again!"

The chat in the live stream room went completely wild at this moment, with red text scrolling wildly across the screen.

"Holy crap!!! That felt so good!!!"

"A devastating blow! Well done, Wu Zong! This is exactly how these people should be dealt with!"

["Reduce the number of candidates for the imperial examination by fifty and ban them from entering the capital! This is practically a life sentence for the entire Jiangxi civil service!"]

"To kill someone, you must first destroy their spirit! Cutting off these hypocrites' path to advancement is more painful than killing them!"

Three years of Zhengde's reign.

Countless officials from Jiangxi Province, upon seeing the imperial edict in the sky, experienced dizziness, coughed up blood, and fainted.

It’s over.

It's completely over!

The two most powerful political forces in Jiangnan—the Zhejiang faction and the Jiangxi faction—were utterly crushed by Emperor Wuzong's two heavy blows!

however.

Just as the entire internet was cheering for Zhu Houzhao's swift and decisive action...

On the sky, Zhu Dijun suddenly stopped smiling.

He picked up the glass of ice water in front of him and drank it all in one gulp.

The cold liquid flowed down his throat, as if trying to extinguish the flame of hope that had just been ignited in his chest.

Snapped.

The water glass was placed heavily on the table.

"Family members."

"If history ended here."

"If sixteen-year-old Zhu Houzhao had chosen to stop and consolidate his gains after crippling the powerful clans of Zhejiang and Jiangxi."

"The Ming Dynasty can truly be saved."

Zhu Dijun's eyes revealed an extreme sense of regret and heartache.

"As long as he stays calm and doesn't act recklessly, relying on the money and grain that Liu Jin has uncovered, and relying on the salt permits and copper mines that have been recovered."

"He could easily extend the Ming Dynasty's lifespan by another two hundred years!"

The color tone of the large screen suddenly changed from the splendor of war to a suffocating blood red.

Zhu Dijun placed his hands on the table and looked directly at the camera.

"However, he made the same fatal mistake as Zhu Qizhen, the great war god of the Ming Dynasty!"

"He's having it too easy."

"It went so smoothly that he became arrogant and complacent, so smoothly that he believed he could single-handedly take on the entire world!"

In the myriad realms and timelines, the nerves of successive Ming emperors instantly tightened.

Zhu Di suddenly stood up straight, slammed his hand on the table, and thought of the deaths of his descendants Zhu Qizhen, Zhu Jianshen, and Zhu Youcheng.

"What stupid thing has that little brat done now?!"

On the sky, Zhu Dijun spoke slowly and deliberately, each word like a blunt knife cutting into everyone's hearts.

"From the first year of Zhengde to August of the fifth year of Zhengde."

"In less than five years."

"After Emperor Wuzong purged his relatives, suppressed the civil official group, confiscated the property of local powerful families, offended the northwestern border army, and punished the local princes..."

Zhu Dijun's fingers pounded on the keyboard, and a vast network of military elites representing the ultimate military power of the Ming Dynasty appeared on the screen!

"In the fourth year of the Zhengde reign!"

"At this critical juncture, he has once again turned his murderous axe against the last ballast stone of the Ming Dynasty—the military general Xun Gui!"

boom!

The third year of the Zhengde reign of the Ming Dynasty.

Inside the Leopard Chamber Hall, Zhu Houzhao, who had just been beaming with pride, suddenly turned deathly pale, as if he had fallen into an ice cave.

The live stream chat exploded, filled with expressions of horror and disbelief.

"Holy crap?! Full map firing?!"

"Are you crazy?! You've offended every single official, both civil and military?!"

["Emperor Wuzong: The six major sects are besieging Bright Peak, is that it? You don't need to come, I will personally go to each of your mountain strongholds to challenge them!"]

"They took too big a step and ripped themselves out! Who can withstand the backlash from the whole world?!"

Zhu Dijun slowly closed his eyes and let out an extremely heavy sigh.

"The six major vested interest groups have been forced into the same dead end."

"When they realized that whether they were wielding a pen, a knife, or money, none of them could survive."

"The most terrifying alliance of interests in human history has been secretly formed."

The screen went completely dark.

Only a deafening, mournful bugle call suddenly rang out in the darkness.

"August of the fifth year of Zhengde's reign."

"The King of Anhua raised an army."

"A massive coup, aimed at eliminating all of the emperor's confidants, has officially begun..."