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

"Bang!"

An extremely precious Ru ware imperial bowl was smashed violently on the gold bricks of the Fengtian Hall.

Broken porcelain shards were scattered all over the floor.

The Ming Dynasty, during the Hongwu era.

Zhu Yuanzhang stared intently at the sky, his withered fingers gripping the armrests of the dragon throne, his nails turning a frighteningly pale from the excessive force.

This decisive and ruthless founding emperor was so angry that his chest heaved violently, and his white beard trembled wildly in the wind.

"Smuggling grain? Smuggling tea?"

"We'll tolerate it! The border region is harsh and cold; we'll just pretend we didn't see any petty gains!"

Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly drew the Emperor's Sword from his waist and cleaved the imperial desk in front of him with one stroke!

Wood chips flying everywhere!

"But weapons! Armor! Those are the trump cards our Ming soldiers use to defend their country and risk their lives!"

"These beasts actually tried to exchange such important military equipment for silver with the Tartars?!"

The main hall was deathly silent.

The officials knelt on the ground, trembling like leaves, not daring to even breathe.

"Let the enemy, wielding swords forged by the Ming Dynasty, turn around and behead our Ming people!"

Zhu Yuanzhang's voice was hoarse, like that of an enraged, protective old lion.

"For money! For that little bit of personal gain!"

"They'd even sell out their own blood relatives! They'd even use their own nation as a bargaining chip!"

He turned his head sharply, his bloodshot eyes fixed on Mao Xiang, the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, below the steps.

"Relay our decree!"

"The Imperial Guards are to be mobilized immediately and keep a close watch on the nine border regions! If even an inch of Ming Dynasty iron is found flowing out of the border..."

Zhu Yuanzhang gritted his teeth and spoke slowly and deliberately.

"Skin them alive and stuff them with straw! Exterminate their entire clan!"

"We'll make them regret being born, even in death!"

At the same time.

The Qin Dynasty, Xianyang Palace.

The dark black dragon flag fluttered in the wind.

Compared to the fury of the Hongwu Emperor, the First Emperor Ying Zheng appeared extremely calm.

He sat upright on the imperial throne, neither losing his temper nor smashing anything.

But it was this silence that made Li Si and Wang Jian, who were standing below, feel as if a guillotine was hanging over their necks, ready to fall at any moment.

Ying Zheng's dark, deep eyes reflected the blazing firelight of Ningxia Town in the sky.

Building upon the achievements of six generations, the Qin Dynasty unified the six kingdoms.

He had seen far too many instances of smuggling and military supply trafficking between the six states during the centuries-long wars.

Lü Buwei rose to power through similar underhanded means.

However, this absurd mutiny in Ningxia served as a deafening wake-up call for this emperor who was considered one of the greatest emperors in Chinese history.

"Li Si".

Ying Zheng spoke slowly, his voice not loud, but it carried an overwhelming pressure that could crush everything.

"The territory of the Qin Dynasty is too vast."

"Even with my keen eye, there are always some things I cannot see."

He leaned forward slightly, his gaze sharp as a sword.

"In that land of miasma in Baiyue, in that bitterly cold place north of the Great Wall."

"Could there also be prefects and generals from the Qin Dynasty, just like the Ming Dynasty's border troops?"

"Using the powerful bows and crossbows of the Qin Dynasty, secretly engaging in bloody dealings with the Xiongnu? Deceiving superiors and subordinates, harboring bandits to enhance their own power?"

Li Si's knees buckled, and he crashed heavily onto the bluestone slab.

"Your Majesty, I... will immediately draft laws and regulations to thoroughly investigate the border troops! If any such traitors are found, they shall be torn apart by chariots and executed in the marketplace—there shall be no leniency!"

The wind swept past Xianyang Palace.

Ying Zheng leaned back in his chair, a chilling murderous glint flashing in his eyes.

The sky, like a mirror, reflected the festering sores of the Ming Dynasty and also illuminated the unseen dark corners of the Qin Dynasty.

Our gaze pierces through the long river of time and space.

The Great Han Dynasty, Weiyang Palace.

Emperor Wu of Han, Liu Che, was playing with a wolf-shaped jade carving he had obtained from the northern desert.

At this time, the Han Dynasty was mobilizing all its national strength to fight the Xiongnu on the grasslands.

In order to win this battle that would determine the fate of the nation, Emperor Wu of Han tacitly approved Zhang Qian's mission and the spies who ventured deep into the desert.

They took some silk, salt, and tea from the Central Plains to trade with the herdsmen along the way, in exchange for water and intelligence about the enemy.

That was the gray area where war was inevitable.

But the bottom line must never be crossed!

"Exchange of intelligence is acceptable."

Liu Che suddenly exerted force with his fingers, forcefully pinching a crack into the jade carving!

"But what if someone dared to act like those Ming Dynasty generals in the sky..."

"Sell the Han Dynasty's hundred-forged steel sword and its eight-ox crossbow to that old dog Yizhixie with a price tag!"

Liu Che sneered and casually tossed the jade carving into the brazier.

Let the raging fire consume it.

"My cauldron is boiling hot."

"My Han Dynasty's Grand Counselor wouldn't mind learning from the Ming Dynasty's Emperor Taizu's method of implicating nine generations of relatives!"

however.

In the Eastern Han Dynasty.

Inside the West Garden of Luoyang, the scene is completely different.

Emperor Ling of Han, Liu Hong, was lounging idly on a soft couch, holding a cup of scarlet wine, a tribute from the Western Regions.

The entire court, and even later historical records, condemned him as a tyrannical and incompetent ruler who sold official positions.

But he doesn't care.

He simply looked at the young emperor with a bloodied head on the sky with an extremely amused, even somewhat pitying, expression.

"Too young, Zhu Houzhao."

Liu Hong downed the wine in his glass in one gulp, the spicy liquid rolling down his throat.

"When I first ascended the throne, I was just as ambitious as you."

"They thought that by holding the imperial seal, they could sweep away the deeply entrenched powerful families and officials of the world."

"And the result?"

A hint of extreme bitterness and madness flashed in Liu Hong's eyes.

"The result is that these hypocritical civil officials have driven us to the point where we can't even afford to eat! They've driven the national treasury to the point where rats could starve!"

"I've been forced to rely on Zhang Rang and his ten eunuchs to fight them! I can only resort to selling official positions to reclaim some of the wealth and power that belongs to the emperor!"

Liu Hong suddenly sat up straight, staring intently at the sky.

"You're following in my footsteps. You're also relying on eunuchs to prolong your life."

"But you lost even more miserably than I did."

The Eastern Han emperor, burdened with eternal infamy, suddenly turned his gaze intensely as he looked at his descendant on the screen, who remained calm and in control throughout.

"Now I'm actually a little curious."

Liu Hong licked his lips.

"If this Zhu Dijun, who is full of schemes and has seen through the art of emperors for thousands of years, were to sit on your dragon throne, Zhu Houzhao."

"Or sit in my seat."

"What methods will he use to dismantle this intricate web of intrigue formed by the entire court?!"

Unlike Emperor Ling of Han's curiosity.

The Song Dynasty at this moment.

Whether it was Emperor Taizu of Song, Zhao Kuangyin, during the Kaibao era, or Zhao Guangyi, who was beaten every few days.

They were all terrified by the bloody truth revealed on the sky!

What were the foundations upon which the Song Dynasty was founded?

It's about valuing literature and suppressing military power!

It was a case of "releasing military power over a cup of wine"!

It is a complete and utter "rule of the world together with the scholar-officials"!

"The civil officials and border generals of the Ming Dynasty were so arrogant..."

Zhao Kuangyin's face turned pale, and he staggered back two steps, grabbing the dragon pillar for support.

"They can control even members of the imperial family and regional princes at will! They can even slaughter the entire family of the imperial envoys sent by the emperor!"

What is the scariest thing?

Those civil officials, in their quest for power, even dared to poison the emperor! They even brought about the extinction of the Ming imperial family!

During the Tianbao era, Zhao Guangyi, who was not yet the future Emperor Chezong of Song, stood to the side, his hands and feet cold.

The military generals of the Song Dynasty were rendered useless by oppression.

But the civil service of the Song Dynasty was even larger and more impenetrable than that of the Ming Dynasty!

"Before the curtain fell, it was said that many emperors of our Great Song Dynasty later... died out."

Zhao Guangyi's voice trembled with extreme fear.

"Could it be...?"

He dared not say any more.

The two emperors of the Song Dynasty exchanged a glance, both seeing unprecedented horror and murderous intent in each other's eyes!

We absolutely cannot let these intellectuals with their pens completely spiral out of control!

These people talk about Confucianism and Mencius's teachings on the surface, but behind the scenes they do all sorts of beastly things that devour people without spitting out the bones!

It wasn't just the emperors of the Song Dynasty.

That night, across countless worlds and across the hearts of hundreds of millions of ordinary people, an unprecedented ideological earthquake was also stirred up.

Streets and alleys.

Originally, when people encountered scholars wearing long, flowing robes, they would always respectfully give way, their eyes filled with envy.

But now.

Those awe-inspiring gazes disappeared.

Instead, there is defensiveness, vigilance, and even a chilling hostility.

Who knows how much filth and depravity these disciples of sages, who spout classical Chinese phrases, actually have inside their bellies?

Are they hiding, as the sky says, a butcher's knife ready to cut off people's heads for money at any moment in their wide sleeves?

The thousand-year-old mask was torn to shreds by the heavens in a single day!

……

Modern live streaming room.

The scrolling speed of the bullet comments has exceeded the limit of what the naked eye can capture.

Zhu Dijun sat in front of the screen, watching the soaring emotional value in the background, a chilling smile curving his lips.

He straightened his posture and began to tap heavily on the keyboard with his long, slender fingers.

Snapped!

The map of Ningxia on the big screen shattered instantly!

A magnificent and imposing Forbidden City in Beiping, yet exuding endless murderous intent, suddenly took over everyone's attention!

"Family members, you've had enough emotional release."

Zhu Dijun's voice was like a cold wind from the far north, instantly freezing the noise in the entire live broadcast room.

"The lid on Ningxia's smuggling activities was tightly covered up by those fires and the heads of a few scapegoats."

"But the real bigwigs in the capital tasted extreme sweetness because of this successful cover-up!"

A huge, blood-red guillotine hovered above the Forbidden City!

"Since they can kill even the emperor's envoy, they can make even a vassal king a scapegoat."

"Then why don't they take advantage of this momentum and just kill that ultimate eunuch in the capital who's been pressuring them to audit the accounts and refund the money?!"

Zhu Dijun suddenly stood up, his eyes like those of a lone wolf finally baring its fangs.

"Next!"

"I will dissect for you the most insidious, far-reaching, and perfectly deceiving all official historical records of a political intrigue and power struggle in the capital!"

"August of the fifth year of Zhengde."

"These civil officials, these eunuchs."

"How exactly did they manage to inflict 3,357 cuts on Liu Jin right under Emperor Wuzong's nose?!"