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

"Family members, now that we know the Ningxia border troops and the bigwigs in Beijing are involved in smuggling and funding the enemy."

Zhu Dijun stood in front of the big screen, his eyes sweeping across the camera like knives.

"So, when the five imperial envoys dispatched by Emperor Wuzong thoroughly investigated the fields, accounts, and people of Ningxia, and were about to obtain irrefutable evidence, what would these vested interests do?"

Four large, blood-red characters crashed down on the public screen!

Sacrifice the pawn to save the king!

"People in local areas can be exposed. But certain powerful figures in the capital—those in the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Revenue, and the Five Military Commissions—who are responsible for protecting them, absolutely cannot be brought down!"

"Thus, under the remote control of certain individuals in the capital, an extremely absurd and cruel 'physical extermination drama' unfolded precisely on schedule in April of the fifth year of the Zhengde reign!"

Zhu Dijun's slender fingers struck the keyboard heavily.

The large screen instantly transformed into a three-dimensional sand table of Ningxia City.

"Family members, look carefully! The first step in this rebellion wasn't He Jin and his men drawing their swords, but rather the 'perfect coordination' of Yang Ying, the Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Ningxia under the Ming Dynasty!"

"On the fifth day of the fourth month! Just as the Prince of Anhua was holding a grand banquet in his palace to entertain the newly appointed General Jiang Han, the garrison eunuch Li Zeng, and the junior supervisor Deng Guang."

"Yang Ying, the deputy commander responsible for defending the city, suddenly used the pretext of 'defending against Tatar incursions' to take a large portion of Ningxia City's main defense force outside the city!"

In the vast universe, everyone who understood military strategy was stunned.

The Yongle Era of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Di kicked over the imperial desk in front of him and pointed at the sky, cursing loudly.

"Defend against the Tatars? The commander-in-chief is still in the city for a banquet, and his deputy, without asking permission, has taken away the entire main force of the city's defenses?"

"Is this supposed to prevent thieves, or is it just making room for them?!"

On the sky, Zhu Dijun's cold and stern voice provided the answer directly.

"Yes! Yang Ying is clearing the area for He Jin and his gang of assassins!"

"The main force had barely left when the air raid sirens went off in Ningxia city!"

On the sand table, two red arrows, like venomous snakes spitting their tongues, suddenly split apart!

"The first force, led by Commander He Jin and Zhou Ang, along with all their personal guards and elite soldiers, kicked open the gates of the Anhua Prince's residence!"

"They stormed into the banquet hall, completely disregarding any talk of rebellion, and started hacking and slashing! The newly appointed General Jiang Han, the garrison eunuch Li Zeng, and the junior eunuch Deng Guang, these three trusted officials sent by Emperor Wuzong, were chopped into mincemeat on the spot!"

Zhu Dijun suddenly waved his hand, and the second arrow on the sand table shot straight at the Ningxia government office!

"The second force, led by Commander Ding Guang, stormed into the Governor's Office!"

"Governor An Weixue and Vice Minister of the Court of Judicial Review Zhou Dong, who were in charge of investigating the military farms and had just obtained conclusive evidence of the crimes, were dragged into the courtyard by the rebels in their sleep and hacked to pieces!"

boom!

Zhu Dijun grabbed the gavel and slammed it hard on the table, the sound causing everyone's eardrums to ache.

"Cut it out cleanly! Slaughter them all!"

"In just one hour! Emperor Wuzong Zhu Houzhao utterly annihilated the entire 'Central Inspection Team' in Ningxia!"

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

The inner city of the Imperial City of Beiping.

Zhu Houzhao gripped the edge of the parapet tightly, his fingernails already cracked, and blood trickled down the rough blue bricks.

His eyes were bloodshot, and the image of Jiang Han thanking him before leaving flashed through his mind.

"My imperial envoy...my great general..."

"He didn't die by the Tatars' scimitars, but by a premeditated assassination plotted by his own border troops!"

"The entire court of officials were accomplices. How wicked they were!"

Zhu Houzhao bit his lip until it bled, tasting the strong metallic flavor of blood.

Inside the live stream, Zhu Dijun spoke faster and faster, tearing away this bloody veil of shame.

"The killing is over. What's next?"

"He Jin and others rushed into the governor's office and the eunuch's residence, piling up the smuggling ledgers and land investigation evidence that these imperial envoys had painstakingly collected."

"A single fire! It burned everything to the ground!"

On the large screen, raging flames engulfed stacks of thick ledgers.

"This is what they call 'dead men tell no tales'! Destroying the body to cover up the crime!"

"Once the evidence is burned, those officials in the capital will be completely safe!"

Zhu Dijun's lips curled into a mocking sneer.

"But killing an imperial envoy is a crime punishable by the extermination of nine generations of one's family. Someone has to take the blame, right?"

"At this moment, the great traitor, Prince Zhu Zhifan of Anhua, officially makes his appearance!"

The screen then shifts to a trembling, drunken, fat prince being forcibly held onto a large chair by several generals wielding blood-stained swords.

He Jin held the bloodstained knife to the neck of the Prince of Anhua.

"Your Highness, you killed the imperial envoy, and you instigated the rebellion, didn't you?"

Zhu Dijun imitated the tone of the traitorous general at the time, his voice filled with extreme malice.

"Would the Prince of Anhua dare utter a single word of dissent? He wouldn't dare!"

"Thus, these abandoned generals staged a perfect ruse."

"In the name of the Prince of Anhua, they raised the banner of 'Punish Liu Jin and Cleanse the Emperor's Court,' awkwardly packaging a heinous murder case—used to cover up corruption and smuggling—as a 'rebellion of a prince'!"

The entire internet was in an uproar.

The screen was instantly filled with a dense barrage of exclamation marks.

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

"What the hell? A prince's rebellion? This is clearly an armed smuggling ring silencing witnesses!"

"Using vassal kings as scapegoats and using rebellion to cover up smuggling, these Ming Dynasty military generals were even more ruthless than their civil officials when it came to political maneuvering!"

The era of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Yuanzhang trembled upon hearing this and suddenly spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva.

Crown Prince Zhu Biao was shocked and rushed forward to support him.

"father!"

"We're fine..." Zhu Yuanzhang shoved Zhu Biao aside, his tiger-like eyes wide open, staring intently at the sky. "What a brilliant tactic! Truly brilliant! Using our Zhu family descendants as shields to slaughter court officials!"

"Is this world still belonging to the Zhu family?!"

On the sky, Zhu Dijun picked up his water glass and took a sip to suppress the anger in his throat.

"Family members, this isn't over yet. What follows is the most magical and absurd part of this rebellion."

Zhu Dijun pulled up the military map of the area surrounding Ningxia again.

"Now that they've rebelled, He Jin and his gang have to go through the motions."

"He proclaimed himself General Who Punishes the Rebels, and appointed Zhou Ang and Ding Guang as his left and right deputies. Then he drafted a magnificent proclamation to punish the rebels and sent people to distribute it everywhere."

"Call upon the nine border garrisons in the surrounding area, let us all rise up in rebellion and march on the capital to defend the Emperor!"

"And the result?"

Zhu Dijun spread his hands, revealing an extremely speechless expression.

"None of the commanders of the surrounding garrison posts are fools!"

"Everyone in the surrounding camps knows about this petty smuggling scandal involving Ningxia's border guards. We're all making money together all the time, and now that you've been caught, you want to drag us down with you? Dream on!"

On the large screen, the records in the "Veritable Records of the Ming Dynasty" were enlarged.

"It's recorded clearly in the historical records. Not a single garrison in the surrounding areas sent troops to respond!"

"But what's even stranger is that none of the surrounding armies sent troops to attack He Jin!"

"Everyone just watched quietly."

"And He Jin, this so-called 'rebel leader,' after issuing his manifesto, neither ventured out of the city to expand his territory nor attacked the surrounding areas. He just stayed in Ningxia City with his few personal guards... waiting to die!"

A deathly silence spread throughout all realms and time.

This extremely bizarre stalemate completely shattered all the ancients' understanding of the word "rebellion".

Is this a rebellion?

This is clearly a tacit political understanding!

We've burned the evidence for you. We won't run around; we'll just wait here for the imperial court to come and kill us. You shouldn't do anything either; we'll wait for the imperial court officials to arrive before proceeding with the formalities.

Zhu Dijun's eyes darkened as he dropped the final, and heaviest, bombshell.

"He Jin and the others are destined to die; that is their fate as expendable pawns."

"But what about Yang Ying, the deputy commander-in-chief of Ningxia who led the main force out of the city to assist in the clearing operation?"

"This guy's actions are enough to make Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang of the Ming Dynasty turn in his grave!"

Zhu Dijun pointed to a location called "Yangningbao" on the map. It was only a dozen kilometers away from Ningxia City!

"On the fifth day of the fourth month, the rebellion broke out, and flames soared into the sky over Ningxia City."

"Yang Ying, located more than ten kilometers away, commands tens of thousands of the strongest elite troops of the Ming Dynasty's Ningxia defense line."

"Guess what he did?"

Zhu Dijun slammed his hand on the table.

boom!

He immediately ordered—[Disperse on the spot]!

Boom!

A thunderclap struck the minds of all the Ming Dynasty emperors!

"No counterattack was organized! No reinforcements were sent to the General's Mansion!"

"Tens of thousands of elite Ming border troops, under the orders of the deputy commander-in-chief, immediately threw down their weapons, took off their armor, and scattered like birds and beasts, each fleeing back to their homes!"

Modern live streaming rooms have gone completely mad.

【"??????"】

"Disband on the spot?! Are you kidding me?!"

"The commander-in-chief was killed, and the deputy commander led the main force out of get off work? Is the Ming army a makeshift operation?!"

Zhu Dijun raised his head and let out an extremely desolate and bitter laugh.

"Does this look familiar, family members?"

"When Emperor Yongle (Zhu Di) launched his rebellion, Emperor Jianwen issued an edict ordering troops from Liaodong to come to his aid. Upon receiving the edict, the Liaodong commander ordered his hundreds of thousands of troops to disband and flee!"

"The Great Ming general Zhu Qizhen was captured at Tumu Fortress, and Esen later escorted him back to the capital. The Ming troops who were supposed to protect him along the way deserted overnight, completely disbanding!"

"History is a whore who can be dressed up however you like. It's also a quagmire that keeps cycling!"

The era of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Yuanzhang's vision went black, and he collapsed completely onto the dragon throne.

Disband on the spot...

The elite troops of the Ming Dynasty's nine border regions, upon encountering rebels, simply disbanded without even fighting? Is this still the invincible iron army of the Ming Dynasty that he personally created?!

On the sky, Zhu Dijun's eyes turned completely cold.

"This Yang Ying is a very serious problem!"

"When the Minister of Works, Cai Kuan, came to Ningxia to investigate a case, he died at the hands of the Mongols. Yang Ying was one of those who accompanied Cai Kuan on his journey beyond the Great Wall!"

"In the end, Cai Kuan died, but he was completely unharmed."

"After Jiang Han was killed, he precisely took away the main force, then disbanded the army and completely distanced himself from the matter."

Zhu Dijun stared directly into the camera, as if gazing into a vast abyss deep within history.

"It's obvious that Yang Ying is an agent planted in Ningxia by powerful figures from Beijing, and one of the core nodes in that massive smuggling network!"

"He doesn't have to die. Because he wasn't among the pieces of evidence that were burned. As long as he completes the clearing operation, he can continue to be an official."

The screen's color tone instantly darkened.

Only a tattered banner of the King of Anhua remained, fluttering in the flames of Ningxia City.

Zhu Dijun's voice was like a soul-snatching chain in the darkness.

"On April 23rd, Qiu Yue, a guerrilla general in Ningxia, saw that the time was ripe and, with a few dozen servants, easily captured the unsuspecting Prince Anhua and He Jin."

"The Anhua Prince Rebellion, which was so grand and said to have swept the world, ended in such an absurd way after only eighteen days."

"But, family members."

Zhu Dijun suddenly leaned closer to the camera, half of his face hidden in the shadows.

"The evidence was burned, the imperial envoy is dead, and someone has taken the blame."

"Are these civilian officials and border warlords really satisfied?"

"No!"

A blood-stained cleaver, used in the torture of slow slicing, suddenly shattered the entire screen!

"After verifying how weak Emperor Wuzong's control over the regions was, their ambitions swelled to an unbridled degree!"

"Since the Prince of Anhua has raised the banner of 'punishing Liu Jin'."

"Alright, let's seize this opportunity and go with the flow!"

Zhu Dijun slammed his fist on the table, his angry shout echoing throughout the universe.

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

"This bloody incident, which was triggered by the smuggling and cover-up in the border town, has finally gone against the tide, like a venomous python, biting into the most robust bulletproof vest of the Wuzong Sect in the capital—"

"Liu Jin, the most powerful eunuch of the Ming Dynasty!"

"A vast and inescapable net of annihilation is now officially closing in on the sixteen-year-old emperor!"