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

"Family members, let's continue to dismantle this colossal lie that was covered up in the 'Ming Shilu' as 'four eunuchs' night raid'!" Zhu Dijun stood in front of the big screen, his eyes sharp as knives.

On the big screen, the map of the Forbidden City was instantly covered in blood.

"On that bloody night in August of the fifth year of Zhengde, the main force of the rebels did not only rush towards the Inner Factory where Liu Jin was located!" Zhu Dijun picked up a red laser pointer and heavily marked three red circles on the map.

"The civil official group colluded with military generals and nobles, and while launching a coup, they divided their forces into three groups and captured the three most important people to Zhu Houzhao at the time with remarkable precision!"

"Minister of Personnel—Zhang Cai!"

"Yang Yu, Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard!"

"Commander of the Garrison Command—Shi Wenyi!"

Zhu Dijun's voice suddenly rose, like a heavy hammer striking: "Family members, what do these three people represent? They represent the personnel power of the Ming Dynasty, and the absolute intelligence power that the emperor uses to protect his own life and monitor all officials!"

"The rebels are trying to smash Zhu Houzhao's teeth and cut off his hands and feet!"

Myriad Realms and Spacetime

Hongwu reign. Zhu Yuanzhang took a deep breath and closed his weathered tiger eyes. He was all too familiar with this skinning tactic: first, eliminate the powerful, and then the emperor's allies. This was to completely strip the young Emperor Wuzong bare, leaving him with no one to command.

Inside the live stream room, a background sound like war drums suddenly erupted.

"The killings and arrests lasted all night. By the next morning, the civil and military officials who had successfully staged the coup, dressed in spotless court robes, surged into the Fengtian Hall in a grand procession!"

Zhu Dijun slammed his hands on the table, leaning forward: "Are they here to hold court? No! They're here to force the emperor to abdicate!"

On the large screen, a pre-prepared imperial edict appeared as a phantom image.

"The coup plotters, led by Li Dongyang and Yang Yiqing, slammed a pre-written edict in front of the twenty-year-old Zhu Houzhao, forcing him to affix the imperial seal!"

"In that edict, they not only demanded that Liu Jin and his associates be torn to pieces, but also that all the reforms and new policies implemented by the Ming Dynasty since the third year of the Zhengde reign, as well as the investigations into embezzlement, be abolished and erased!"

August of the fifth year of Zhengde's reign.

Zhu Houzhao slumped on the dragon throne in the Fengtian Hall, which was a mess on the ground, looking at the sky. His lips were bitten raw, and blood dripped down his chin.

"Faced with this group of murderous and rebellious officials, did Zhu Houzhao agree to their demands?"

Zhu Dijun slammed his gavel down.

boom!

"No! This young emperor, in the face of dire straits, unleashed the last vestiges of the Ming imperial family's fighting spirit!"

He shoved aside the imperial edict that Li Dongyang offered! To protect Liu Jin, Zhang Cai, Yang Yu, and others who were loyal to him, he picked up his pen, gritted his teeth, and personally wrote an imperial edict filled with bitterness and compromise!

Zhu Dijun turned around and quickly wrote a line of extremely glaring traditional Chinese characters on the whiteboard:

[Liu Jin disregarded my will, deceived me, and acted arbitrarily, thus violating the law and committing cruel and tyrannical acts.]

"Family members, look at these words! In modern terms, it means: Liu Jin and Zhang Cai, that gang of people, failed to understand my intentions as the emperor. Their methods were too brutal, hurting the feelings of civil and military officials and disrupting the rules of the court!"

"Following the words of the civil officials, Zhu Houzhao pinned all the blame on Liu Jin."

Zhu Dijun gave a bitter, cold laugh: "But then, in the imperial edict, he gave his punishment—no beheading! No slow slicing! They were all exiled to Fengyang to guard the imperial tombs of the Ming Dynasty's ancestors!"

The live stream chat exploded with comments instantly.

"Holy crap, is this considered medical parole and retirement from the front line?"

"As long as the person is alive, they can be reinstated at any time! The young emperor is forcibly preserving their lifeline!"

"Yes! Zhu Houzhao was keeping a backup plan! He was waiting for the day he regained power so he could recall Liu Jin and his cronies!"

"But!" Judy Jun roared, his voice like a thunderbolt.

"Do you think Li Dongyang and those civil and military officials who participated in the coup are fools?!"

"They risked the extermination of their entire clan and their heads to launch an armed coup in this vital capital! If Liu Jin is spared today, he will return with his army tomorrow, and it will be all of them, the civil and military officials, who will die!"

A portrait of a eunuch wearing a python robe suddenly popped up!

"Moreover, deep in the memories of these civil officials, the Ming Dynasty had extremely terrifying precedents!"

"Wang Zhi, the supervisor of the Western Depot during the reign of Emperor Xianzong of Ming!"

"Back then, Wang Zhi was also forced to abdicate by a joint petition from civil and military officials, and was eventually exiled to Nanjing. However, a few years later, Emperor Xianzong issued an imperial edict, and Wang Zhi returned to the capital to take control of military and political power, making the civil officials who had impeached him cry out in despair!"

The era of the Chenghua reign of the Ming Dynasty.

Upon hearing his name called, Wang Zhi, who was serving Emperor Xianzong Zhu Jianshen, straightened his back and a cold smile appeared on his lips.

On the sky, Zhu Dijun's voice was icy cold: "With Wang Zhi as a cautionary tale, how could these traitorous civil and military officials possibly agree to let Liu Jin go to Fengyang to guard the imperial tombs?!"

"The civil service has only one answer—they must die! Absolutely no bargaining!"

"Not only did they want Liu Jin dead. To completely extinguish Zhu Houzhao's hopes of a comeback, this group of self-proclaimed upright officials personally plunged the most vicious knife into the imperial power!"

On the large screen, a portrait of a pale-faced, beardless eunuch with a gloomy expression slowly appeared in the background of the Fengtian Hall.

The sign next to it reads in large characters: 【Zhang Rong】!

"Family members, do you still remember Zhang Yong, the traitorous eunuch who led troops back to the capital and betrayed the emperor?"

"This Zhang Rong is Zhang Yong's younger brother!"

Zhu Dijun's speech became faster and faster, like a dense drumbeat striking everyone's heart.

"In order to undermine the emperor's authority, the civil service group specifically selected Zhang Rong from the inner court as their collaborator."

"Immediately afterwards, an appointment that broke all the ironclad political rules since the founding of the Ming Dynasty was forcibly approved by civil and military officials amidst the clash of swords in a mutiny!"

Four blood-red positions slammed down on Zhang Rong's head!

"First, the Grand Eunuch!"

"Secondly, the officers and soldiers are in charge of affairs!"

Zhu Dijun's slender fingers clenched so tightly that his knuckles turned white, and he laughed in extreme anger.

"Don't worry if you don't understand, I'll translate it for you!"

"This means that Zhang Rong, the corrupt eunuch who colluded with civil officials, simultaneously took over the power of approving imperial edicts that originally belonged to Liu Jin, the power of personnel appointment and dismissal held by Zhang Cai, the Minister of Personnel, and the power of intelligence and internal security held by Yang Yu, the Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and Shi Wenyi, the Commander of the Garrison Command!"

boom!

A deathly silence filled all the myriad realms and timelines!

Emperor Yongle, Zhu Di, punched a dragon-carved pillar, the impact shattering his finger bones and causing him to bleed, yet he was completely unaware of it.

"To hand over internal affairs, intelligence, security, and imperial guard to a mere servant?!" Zhu Di's voice boomed like a raging lion. "Have these civil officials gone mad?! They're trying to create a true 'Nine Thousand Years Old' who is completely beyond the emperor's control!"

Inside the live stream, Zhu Dijun laughed loudly, his laughter filled with a desolate mockery.

"Indeed! Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, whether it was Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Di, or even the later absurd emperors, who dared to entrust these four crucial departments to the same person?!"

"Unless one's brain is completely malfunctioning, or one is a puppet with a knife to their throat, what emperor would dare to do such a thing?!"

"The appearance of Zhang Rong marked a fundamental change in the nature of eunuchs in the Ming Dynasty!"

Zhu Dijun stared directly into the camera, his eyes filled with sorrow: "From a vicious dog of the emperor like Liu Jin, who relied on imperial power and opposed civil officials, he has completely transformed into an inner court jailer who relies on civil officials and monitors the emperor!"

"In the later Ming Dynasty, eunuchs who were in cahoots with civil officials and joined forces to suppress imperial power still appeared."

The image on the big screen flashed.

"For example, the famous Emperor Wanli, Zhu Yijun, from history textbooks, who didn't hold court for thirty years!"

"That old man beside him, the so-called 'Inner Minister'—Feng Bao!"

"Feng Bao colluded with Grand Secretary Zhang Juzheng to monitor the Wanli Emperor from childhood to adulthood, and would scold the emperor for spending even a tael of silver more than necessary! Feng Bao's character is exactly the same as Zhang Rong, who is currently serving Zhu Houzhao!"

The Ming Dynasty, spanning countless ages.

Zhu Yijun, who was lying on the dragon bed smoking a pipe, suddenly shuddered, and the pipe fell onto the bedding, burning a large hole in it.

Feng Bao, the eunuch from the Directorate of Ceremonial who was standing next to him, turned deathly pale and his legs went weak, causing him to kneel on the ground.

"Your Majesty...Your Majesty, this servant has absolutely no such intention!"

Zhu Yijun stared intently at Feng Bao, his eyes revealing an extremely violent killing intent that had been suppressed for over a decade: "What a Zhang Rong... what a Prime Minister Feng Bao!"

The images on the screen were pulled back to the eye of the storm in the fifth year of the Zhengde reign.

"Zhang Rong took power, and military power changed hands. These civil and military officials who staged the coup finally felt safe."

Zhu Dijun sat back down in his chair, picked up his water glass, and his eyes revealed a deep sense of disgust.

"Next comes the part that these scholars excel at—going through the motions and putting on a show."

"In order to give this extremely bloody and treasonous armed coup a veneer of 'legitimacy,' these civil and military officials, along with the Empress Dowager in the inner palace and even those relatives who had secretly colluded with them, went through an extremely hypocritical process."

The timeline on the screen is frozen on a glaring day.

[August 14th, the fifth year of the Zhengde reign!]

"As mentioned earlier, the 'Veritable Records of the Ming Dynasty' makes up the absurd claim of an attack on Liu Jin on the night of the 15th of August. In reality, because Yang Yiqing and Zhang Yong returned to the capital ahead of time and took control of the situation, the pace of this power struggle was significantly accelerated!"

"It's the 14th day of the eighth month of the fifth year of Zhengde's reign!"

"The civil service, in alliance with Zhang Rong of the inner court and the imperial relatives, officially issued a document to the entire empire stripping the emperor of all real power!"

Zhu Dijun shoved the documents in front of him to the ground, the pages fluttering in the air.

"From this day forward!"

"That young emperor who ascended the throne at fifteen, attempting to use the Eight Tigers to counter the civil officials, trying to save the Ming Dynasty's finances by investigating land reclamation, and trying to build an army that truly obeyed imperial power..."

"That Zhengde Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Houzhao!"

The three large characters shattered the screen with a deafening crash!

[Puppet! Puppet! Gone!]

Across countless worlds and timelines, billions of people watched Zhu Houzhao, seated on the dragon throne in the heavens, surrounded by eunuchs controlled by civil officials, keeping a close watch on him. They felt as if a thousand-pound boulder was lodged in their chests, making it difficult to even breathe.

This is the cruelty of politics.

Once you lose, you are no longer the supreme ruler. You are merely a clay or wooden sculpture enshrined in a shrine, ready to be smeared by the pens of scholars at any time.

"Power has been seized. The new policies have been abolished. The emperor has become nothing more than a nodding seal."

In the dark live broadcast room, Zhu Dijun's voice was like the evening wind from hell, gently brushing against everyone's eardrums.

"But do you think this August upheaval is over just like that?"

A rusty boning knife suddenly magnifies infinitely in the center of the screen, its blade still covered in sticky flesh and blood!

"Zhu Houzhao's life was temporarily spared, because he still needed to sit there as a figurehead."

"But what about Liu Jin, the powerful eunuch who shielded him from countless open and covert attacks and was hated to the core by the civil service?"

"Three days later!"

That is, August 17th.

"The most horrific and inhumane punishment since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, lasting for three days and three nights."

"It will be cruelly staged at the West Market in the capital, in front of that sixty-year-old eunuch!"