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

"Family members, the time has come to May of the fifth year of the Zhengde reign!"

Inside the live stream room, Zhu Dijun's slender fingers tapped rhythmically on the table, producing a series of suffocating muffled sounds.

On the big screen, the map of Ningxia Town was rapidly zoomed in.

"Qiu Yue, with only a few dozen of his household servants and a few hastily recruited vagrants, didn't even fight a proper siege battle; he simply beheaded the so-called mastermind and commander, Zhou Ang, along with dozens of his men!"

"The Ningxia rebellion was quelled so hastily!"

Zhu Dijun suddenly raised his head, his eyes like sharpened steel knives.

"When this news reaches the capital, what do you think Emperor Wuzong Zhu Houzhao, sitting on the dragon throne, will think?!"

The entire room fell silent.

Zhu Dijun sneered, providing the answer for that young emperor.

"A few dozen people dare to launch a rebellion?"

"They occupied Ningxia City for a full eighteen days, and didn't do anything about expanding their territory or deploying troops!"

"The local main force of tens of thousands of troops has disappeared without a trace! The rebels' only 'achievement' was to precisely chop the five imperial envoys sent by the court into mincemeat!"

Three large, blood-red characters crashed and shattered the screen!

[Suppress! Silence! Case!]

"Zhu Houzhao wasn't stupid at all! He immediately realized that this wasn't a rebellion at all; it was clearly a massacre orchestrated by the border warlords to destroy evidence from the audit!"

The fifth year of the Zhengde reign of the Ming Dynasty, the Imperial City of Beiping.

Zhu Houzhao, besieged by the rebels, clung tightly to the blue bricks of the city wall.

Zhu Dijun's words on the sky were like a heavy hammer, striking his heart hard.

Yes! I understood it right away!

So I didn't panic, I was waiting! I was waiting for Shenying to lead the main force of the 30,000-strong Beijing Garrison to Ningxia and bring Prince Anhua and those surviving rebels back to the capital! As long as they were brought back, they could be severely tortured, and the irrefutable evidence of these civil and military officials smuggling and aiding the enemy would be completely confirmed!

On the sky, Zhu Dijun's speech suddenly quickened, like a sudden storm.

"The Martial Sect is waiting for the Divine Hero."

"But the civil service group in the cabinet, led by Li Dongyang, are even more afraid of Shen Ying's arrival in Ningxia than Emperor Wuzong is!"

"As long as Shen Ying, this lone minister, takes over Ningxia, the truth will absolutely not be covered up! These smuggling syndicate members will all lose their heads!"

"Thus, these self-proclaimed disciples of the sage pulled off an extremely outrageous and despicable act that would absolutely not be recorded in the Veritable Records of Emperor Wuzong of Ming!"

Zhu Dijun suddenly flipped open the book "Records of the Ministers of the Qing Dynasty" on the table, and used a laser pen to circle a section of traditional Chinese characters!

"[At the time, it was rumored that the Governor-General led troops from the capital to massacre the city of Ningxia!]"

The chat in the live stream froze instantly.

"Did you understand?! Just as Shen Ying led his army out to war, an extremely terrifying rumor suddenly broke out simultaneously in the capital and the northwest—"

"The Emperor sent Shenying to the Northwest not to quell a rebellion! He sent him to massacre the entire city of Ningxia! He's going to slaughter every last person, leaving no one alive!"

Zhu Dijun slammed his gavel down, his eyes blazing with fury!

boom!

Would Zhu Houzhao issue such a self-destructive order?! Absolutely not!

"This rumor was fabricated by the civil service! Only these pedantic scholars who control public opinion and the postal system could have the power to spread a rumor throughout the capital and the northwestern border overnight!"

The era of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty.

Enraged, Zhu Yuanzhang kicked over the brazier in front of him, sending glowing red charcoal scattering all over the ground!

"Beasts! These beasts!"

"To cover it up, they'd even fabricate rumors like a massacre of an entire city—rumors that would shake the morale of the army and the very foundation of the nation! They're pushing the Ming Dynasty's borders to the brink of destruction!"

On the sky, Zhu Dijun's voice was filled with extreme repression.

"The rumors caused panic throughout the Northwest Army."

"At this point, Yang Yiqing and Zhang Yong, these two undercover agents who had long been in cahoots, used this rumor to pressure Zhu Houzhao into abdicating!"

"They told the emperor: 'Your Majesty! The rebellion in Ningxia has been quelled. You must not send the capital troops there again! Rumors are flying everywhere. If Shenying's army arrives in Ningxia, the border guards will truly believe that the capital troops are going to massacre the city. To save their lives, they will definitely mutini on the spot and perish together with the capital troops!'"

Zhu Dijun gripped the edge of the table tightly with both hands, his knuckles turning white from the excessive force.

"Family members, what a vicious and open conspiracy this is!"

"Now that things have come to this, Zhu Houzhao knows that this rumor was spread by the very people in front of him!"

"But I can say this clearly here today!"

"If Zhu Houzhao had been stubborn and insisted on sending Shenying to Ningxia, this group of unscrupulous civil officials would have definitely instigated a real conflict between the Ningxia border troops and the Ming capital garrison! They didn't care at all whether the Ming border defenses would collapse; they only cared that their smuggling network wouldn't be broken!"

"For the sake of the greater good, and to prevent the Ming Dynasty from killing each other."

The screen instantly went completely gray.

"The Martial Emperor has compromised."

"He gritted his teeth and ordered Shenying to lead 30,000 troops back to the capital via the same route."

Throughout the myriad realms and timelines, everyone could feel the deep-seated frustration and despair that the twenty-year-old emperor had experienced.

Despite seeing through everything and holding considerable military power, he was forced to back down by his ministers who used the safety of the entire country as a hostage!

"Shenying has returned. Zhang Yong and Yang Yiqing are the ones who went to Ningxia to handle the aftermath."

Zhu Dijun picked up his water glass and took a big gulp, his eyes suddenly turning cold.

"But did Emperor Wuzong admit defeat?"

"No! Does he know about Zhang Yong's betrayal? He doesn't! He's certain that as long as Prince Anhua and the masterminds are brought back to the capital alive by Zhang Yong, the truth will come to light!"

"And it was in this tense May that things got even more tense!"

The map instantly switched, and a striking red circle was locked onto the area between Beijing and Ningxia—Shanxi!

"The two princes of the Jin Prince's Mansion in Shanxi, Prince Qingcheng and Prince Yonghe."

"Suddenly, at this extremely sensitive time, he submitted a memorial to the court—requesting the restoration of the imperial guards protecting the Prince's residence!"

Question marks filled the screen in the modern live stream room.

"Holy crap! The Prince of Ningxia rebelled in April, and now the Prince of Shanxi is ordering troops in May? Isn't this blatant robbery?"

"Isn't this tantamount to handing a knife to the emperor's throat? Zhu Houzhao absolutely cannot agree to this!"

"wrong!"

Zhu Dijun's sharp shout was like a thunderclap!

"The civil service group thought the same way at the time! They strongly opposed increasing the number of troops for the prince, and even demanded severe punishment for the officials in the prince's residence who made the suggestion!"

However, Zhu Houzhao simply wrote with a flourish of his pen—[Granted]!

The entire audience was stunned!

Zhu Dijun turned around and wrote four large, blood-red characters heavily on the whiteboard: "[Regional Separatism]!"

"Family members! Why is Emperor Wuzong going against the wishes of the civil officials and sending reinforcements to the princes of Shanxi at this time?!"

"Because the various clues sent back from Ningxia made him fully realize an extremely terrifying reality!"

"The so-called rebellion of the Prince of Anhua was nothing more than a de facto regional separatism orchestrated by local smuggling warlords in collusion with the imperial cabinet!"

The era of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty.

Upon hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang, who was originally furious, suddenly narrowed his eyes.

Then, the founding emperor looked up at the sky and laughed, his laughter filled with endless sorrow and relief.

"Good lad...you finally get it!"

Zhu Yuanzhang pointed to the sky and roared at his son, Crown Prince Zhu Biao.

"Biao'er, listen carefully!"

"Why did we enfeoff nine great border kings back then? Why did we leave those royal palaces and guards in the provinces?"

"This is precisely to prevent these local officials and military officers from colluding with each other and deceiving their superiors!"

"With the troops under the control of the vassal kings, these civil and military officials will not dare to rebel easily! Emperor Wuzong is using the vassal kings to choke Ningxia's route to the capital! He is using them as a check and balance!"

On the sky, Zhu Dijun's analysis was incisive and to the point!

"When Emperor Wuzong reinforced Shanxi, he was clearly telling those civil officials: I know you were the ones who did the Ningxia incident! If you dare to intercept murderers on the way to Shanxi, or try to lead a large army straight to the capital from the northwest, my princes can intercept you halfway!"

"That was an absolutely brilliant counterattack!"

The timeline on the big screen started jumping wildly again.

It was frozen in July of the fifth year of the Zhengde reign!

"The escort team is already on its way back to Beijing."

"Besides the Prince of Anhua, there are two other people who are keeping everyone in the civil service and the smuggling network constantly on edge!"

"The mastermind of the rebellion, He Jin! His deputy, Ding Guang!"

The two silhouettes of prisoners are highlighted.

"As long as these two men enter the capital alive, and are imprisoned in the Northern Garrison's prison, the Embroidered Uniform Guard has a thousand ways to make them reveal the list behind them! Then, the entire Ming Dynasty court will be beheaded!"

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

"In July, Yang Yiqing, the key figure in the smuggling ring, made his move!"

"He instructed Yan Rui, the imperial censor inspecting Shaanxi, to submit an extremely unusual memorial to Emperor Wuzong!"

The memorial strongly demanded that those captured during the Ningxia rebellion be executed on the spot! Anhua Wang, He Jin, Ding Guang, and others must be killed immediately!

Whoosh!

Zhu Dijun shoved the documents in front of him off the table, his angry shout echoing throughout the universe!

"Did you understand?!"

"Treason and rebellion are heinous crimes punishable by the extermination of nine generations of one's family! According to the laws of the Ming Dynasty, the offender must be escorted to the capital for a joint trial by the three judicial departments, and the emperor himself will make the final decision!"

"Now, a mere local censor dares to jump out and demand that he be executed on the spot without trial?!"

"This is blatant murder to cover it up! They didn't even bother to pretend!"

The era of the Zhengde reign of the Ming Dynasty.

On the city wall, where blood and fire intertwined, Zhu Houzhao laughed wildly.

"Yes! When I first saw that folded document, I thought it was utterly ridiculous!"

"I hereby issue an imperial edict rejecting the memorial! Yan Rui is to be fined three months' salary!"

On the sky, Zhu Dijun's eyes turned completely cold, as if they were covered with a layer of ice.

"Emperor Wuzong refused."

"He Jin, Ding Guang, and the Prince of Anhua—these three ticking time bombs capable of shattering half the imperial court—are only a month away from being escorted through the gates of the capital!"

The extremely suppressed drumbeats suddenly roared in the live broadcast room, shaking the hearts of everyone present!

"The civil service group's plan to silence witnesses has completely failed."

"The emperor used the Shanxi princes to block the route. Although Shenying's 30,000-strong Beijing garrison has retreated, they can protect the capital at any time."

Judy Jun's finger pointed straight to the sky!

"When all escape routes are blocked."

"When the guillotine, capable of executing nine generations of one's family, is about to fall on the necks of these vested interests!"

"This group of self-proclaimed noble civil officials, this group of imperial relatives who wield the sword, and this group of imperial relatives in the deep palace."

Four blood-stained characters shattered the screen like a thunderbolt!

[The table is flipped!]

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

"On the very day Yang Yiqing stepped through the gates of the capital city with that meticulously woven, all-encompassing net!"

"A campaign orchestrated by the civil service, with the full cooperation of the capital's powerful officials and the Five Military Commands, and the covert support of the imperial relatives and empresses—"

"The great coup of 1512 erupted brazenly right under the emperor's nose!"

boom!!!

The live stream screen instantly turned extremely blood red! The earth-shattering battle cries, spanning five hundred years of time and space, completely ignited the entire internet!