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

"Family members, after Emperor Wuzong Zhu Houzhao fell into Li Dongyang's trap and revealed his true colors, he immediately made an extremely fatal personnel arrangement that he would regret for the rest of his life!"

Inside the live stream room, Zhu Dijun's slender fingers tapped on the keyboard, and three portraits instantly appeared on the big screen.

Faced with the chaos in Ningxia, Zhu Houzhao selected three people to form a so-called "elite trio" to quell the rebellion!

"Commander-in-Chief, Earl of Jingyang Shenying! Leading 30,000 of the most elite troops of the Beijing Garrison, you are fully responsible for controlling the military forces of the four garrisons of Shaanxi, Ningxia, Yansui, and Gansu-Liangzhou!"

"Governor-General of Military Affairs, former Commander-in-Chief of the Three Border Regions, Yang Yiqing!"

"And the one in charge of supervising the army was Zhang Yong, one of the 'Eight Tigers' most trusted advisors of Zhu Houzhao, from the Imperial Household Department!"

Zhu Dijun picked up a red marker and drew a big red X on Zhang Yong's portrait!

"One general, one minister, and one eunuch."

"This was originally the standard deployment for military expeditions during the Ming Dynasty. It was a system of checks and balances to prevent any one power from becoming too dominant."

"But Emperor Wuzong never dreamed of this!"

Zhu Dijun slammed his gavel down, the sound booming throughout the hall!

"The supervisor he sent, Zhang Yong, was a trusted eunuch he'd known since childhood, someone he considered a close confidant. He had already betrayed him!"

"Before this army even left the capital, Zhang Yong had already become a vicious dog in the hands of the civil service!"

The myriad realms and timelines were utterly silent.

Many ordinary people and officials unfamiliar with this history were all astonished. The emperor's closest eunuch had betrayed him?

A chillingly mocking smile curled at the corner of Zhu Dijun's lips.

"If you don't believe me, go and look up the History of Ming and the Veritable Records of Ming!"

"After Emperor Wuzong Zhu Houzhao passed away, the 'Eight Tigers' who had served him were executed. Liu Jin was subjected to slow slicing, and Ma Jixiang and others were executed along with their entire families. Their fates were all more tragic than the last!"

"But this Zhang Yong is the only exception!"

"Not only did he survive unscathed, but during the later Jiajing reign, he was wildly praised by the civil officials and scholars who controlled the government! They said he 'exposed the treacherous and wicked, and rendered meritorious service to the country!'"

Zhu Dijun pressed his hands firmly on the table, his eyes filled with a terrifying cold light.

"Fellow countrymen! In the Ming Dynasty, how could a eunuch be praised as a good person by all the scholars in the land?!"

"What the hell does this mean?!"

"This proves he was one of those pedantic civil officials who planted traitors around Emperor Wuzong! He's a beast who betrayed his master for personal wealth and glory!"

boom!

These incisive arguments, like heavy hammer blows, shattered the barriers of time and space!

The Ming Dynasty, Zhengde 3rd year.

In the main hall of the Leopard Room.

boom!

Eighteen-year-old Zhu Houzhao kicked the long rosewood table in front of him, knocking it to the ground! Fruits and wines were smashed all over the floor!

His eyes were bloodshot as he stared intently at the trembling fat eunuch kneeling in the corner.

Zhang Yong, a eunuch in the Imperial Household Department.

"Your Majesty... I'm innocent! I'm loyal to Your Majesty!" Zhang Yong was so frightened that he scrambled towards Zhu Houzhao, his head hitting the gold bricks with loud thuds, blood flowing freely.

Zhu Houzhao remained silent.

He slowly drew the Emperor's Sword from his waist, walked step by step to Zhang Yong, and pressed the icy tip of the sword against Zhang Yong's throat.

The sharp blade pierced the skin instantly, oozing a streak of glaring crimson.

"Zhang Yong..." Zhu Houzhao's voice was terribly hoarse, as if two rough stones were rubbing against each other. "When I was the Crown Prince, you served in the Eastern Palace. After I ascended the throne, I handed over the Imperial Household Department to you."

"Gold, silver, treasures, estates, and land deeds. I've given you more than anyone else!"

The young emperor's eyes were filled with bloodshot veins of despair.

"What have I done to wrong you?!"

"You're going to team up with outsiders to take my life?!"

At the same time.

In the fifth year of the Zhengde reign of the Ming Dynasty, in August.

The inner walls of the imperial palace were shrouded in the smoke of battle.

Emperor Wuzong Zhu Houzhao, covered in blood, stared intently at the sky, his teeth grinding together.

"Take it down!"

A fierce roar pierced the night sky!

The Imperial Guards and several surviving eunuchs from the "Eight Tigers" pounced on Zhang Yong like hungry wolves, pinning him down in a pool of blood!

Zhang Yong's face was ashen, and he completely broke down when he saw the murderous glares in the eyes of his former colleagues.

Twenty-year-old Zhu Houzhao threw away the broken, chipped sword, grabbed Zhang Yong by the hair, and lifted him up by force.

"No wonder...no wonder Li Dongyang and the others strongly recommended you to be the military supervisor!"

"No wonder you've been so obedient to the Ministry of War's orders all this way!"

Zhu Houzhao stared intently at Zhang Yong's face, which was contorted with fear, tears mixed with blood streaming down his cheeks.

"I have enemies among all my civil and military officials, but I trust only you few servants."

"As it turns out, even you are one of them."

Zhu Houzhao raised his head and let out a miserable laugh like that of a night owl.

"Excellent! What a brilliant move to expose the treacherous and wicked, a service to the country!"

Inside the live stream, Zhu Dijun's execution continued, each blow drawing blood!

"Besides the traitor Zhang Yong, let's look at another person appointed by Emperor Wuzong—Yang Yiqing!"

On the big screen, Yang Yiqing's resume crashed down.

"According to official Ming Dynasty records, Yang Yiqing made unparalleled contributions in quelling the rebellion of the Prince of Anhua!"

"But by carefully examining the remaining sections of the 'Veritable Records of Emperor Wuzong of Ming,' an extremely terrifying truth will be revealed!"

Zhu Dijun slammed his finger heavily on a line of text on the screen.

"During his tenure as the commander-in-chief of the three regions, Yang Yiqing participated in the embezzlement of military funds and the depletion of treasury funds by the Ningxia military garrison! He himself was a member of the Ningxia smuggling interest group!"

"At that time, the cabinet headed by Li Dongyang strongly recommended Yang Yiqing to Emperor Wuzong."

Emperor Wuzong naively believed that as long as he sent Shenying, a military general, to keep an eye on things, and Zhang Yong, one of his own men, to supervise the army, even if Yang Yiqing had any tricks up his sleeve, he wouldn't be able to escape the Buddha's palm.

Zhu Dijun shook his head with a cold smile.

"But how could he know?"

"This is absolutely not some kind of three-way power struggle!"

"Zhang Yong and Yang Yiqing had already made a dirty political deal in private! The army sent by Emperor Wuzong to quell the rebellion was rotten to the core, starting from the highest levels!"

The entire audience erupted in uproar.

Millions of netizens were chilled to the bone. The Emperor's hand was filled with spies from the opposing team!

"At this point, someone will definitely ask, 'What about General Shen Ying? Was he also part of the civilian bureaucracy?'"

On the big screen, Shen Ying's weathered and battle-hardened face appeared.

"Family members, this is the most despairing part of this tragedy."

Zhu Dijun took a deep breath, his voice filled with deep sorrow.

"Shen Ying comes from a military household in the Northwest. He has an extremely clean background, without any ties to the gentry families of Jiangnan, and his military abilities are exceptionally outstanding!"

"After Emperor Wuzong ascended the throne, in order to counterbalance the deeply entrenched old nobles who had fought in the Jingnan Rebellion in the capital, he specially transferred Shenying from the border to the capital and promoted him to take command of the main force of the capital army!"

"This is the only truly obedient and incomparably sharp sword in Wu Zong's possession!"

"but!"

Four large, blood-red characters filled the entire screen: 【Divine Heroes Cannot Be Sealed】!

"The civil service is all too aware of the threat posed by Shenying. How could they possibly allow the emperor to possess a steel sword that obeys only imperial authority?!"

Zhu Dijun slammed his fist on the table in anger.

"In the early years of the Zhengde reign, Emperor Wuzong personally issued an imperial edict, clearly stating that Shenying had rendered meritorious service in pacifying the border regions, and granting him the title of Earl!"

"And the result?"

"The civil officials of the Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of War are firmly blocking this imperial edict, openly defying it, and resolutely refusing to approve it! They absolutely refuse to acknowledge Shen Ying's military achievements!"

"This forced the saying 'Divine heroes are hard to be bestowed upon' to spread among the people!"

"This is a blatant warning from the civil officials to all military officers: without the approval of our cabinet and the Six Ministries, even if you tear the sky apart for the emperor, you can forget about getting any official position!"

The era of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty.

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

"These pedantic scholars... how dare they strip the emperor of his power to bestow titles and rewards upon military generals!"

"They're trying to usurp imperial power! They want all the military generals in the land to only know the Grand Secretary, and not the Emperor!"

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

"A lone minister, Shen Ying, who is firmly suppressed by the civil service group, is paired with Yang Yiqing, who harbors ulterior motives, and Zhang Yong, a powerful eunuch who has long since betrayed his country."

"This massive army marched out of the capital in a grand procession."

"But, family!"

Suddenly, Zhu Dijun changed the subject, throwing out an extremely absurd yet chilling timeline misalignment.

Three blood-red time points appeared on the big screen!

"On the fifth day of the fourth lunar month, the rebellion of the Prince of Anhua broke out!"

On April 21st, Emperor Wuzong Zhu Houzhao, far away in the capital, finally received the urgent military report delivered by express courier after sixteen days!

"On April 24th, after three days of wrangling and a coup attempt by the entire court, Emperor Wuzong officially issued the imperial edict to send troops on the nineteenth day, and the army set off!"

Zhu Dijun placed his hands on the table, like a lone wolf staring intently at its prey, and approached the camera.

"But family members, do you remember what I said in the last episode?"

April 23rd!

"That was the day before Emperor Wuzong issued the imperial edict to send troops!"

"The guerrilla general Qiu Yue, who is based in Ningxia, has already captured the Prince of Anhua and all the rebel leaders alive with his personal guards!"

The chat in the live stream froze instantly!

At this moment, countless history enthusiasts felt a chill run from the soles of their feet straight to the top of their heads!

Judy Jun's voice, like a death knell from hell, tolled the final chapter of this power struggle.

"The 30,000 main force troops that Emperor Wuzong sent out were not there to fight at all!"

"By the time they finally made it to the Northwest, the rebellion in Ningxia had already been over for more than a month!"

He suddenly grabbed the Longquan sword that was being used as a prop, and the half-blade gleamed with a terrifyingly cold light under the lights of the live broadcast room!

"So here's the question!"

"This army of 30,000 men, wielding the butcher's knife, was actually controlled by the traitor Zhang Yong and the smuggler Yang Yiqing."

"After they toured Ningxia and took over the fruits of victory..."

"When this army of 30,000, armed and exuding a murderous aura, returned to the capital in August of the fifth year of the Zhengde reign..."

Zhu Dijun slammed his longsword onto the table!

"Who will they ultimately point their blades at?!"

The screen went dark instantly.

Only the illusory image of the long sword, gleaming with a cold light, remained, hovering above the throat of every Ming emperor.