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

"Alright, everyone, we've finished with the gossip and historical tidbits. I know that a lot of people in the live stream are spamming a place name right now—Yingzhou."

As Zhu Dijun stood in front of the large screen, his eyes instantly became incredibly sharp, and even the smile on his lips vanished completely.

"Many longtime history buffs are waiting for me to recount the epic battle that marked the pinnacle of Emperor Wuzong Zhu Houzhao's life, a battle that was also the most brutally smeared by the civil official group—the Great Victory of Yingzhou!"

He wrote those four words heavily on the whiteboard.

"How does the *Veritable Records of Emperor Wuzong of Ming* record this great victory?"

A yellowed screenshot of historical material slammed onto the center of the screen with a "bang," and several shocking battle reports were circled tightly by a red laser pen!

"History records clearly state: On the Ming side, 52 were killed and 563 were seriously wounded! And the opposing Mongol Tatar army? Only 16 were beheaded!"

Zhu Dijun coldly read out the historian's final verdict on this battle:

The historian commented: "The emperor's carriage was almost captured," meaning the Mongols nearly seized the emperor's chariot. The final four-character assessment is: "The gain was not worth the loss!"

The entire internet exploded instantly!

The Yongle Era of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Di looked at the casualty figures on the sky and trembled with rage. He kicked over the incense burner in front of him.

"Absurd! This is utterly ridiculous!"

This emperor, who conquered the Ming Dynasty on horseback, roared at the top of his lungs:

"Both sides committed over 100,000 main field troops! They fought a bloody battle for days and nights in the open terrain of Yingzhou! And you tell me, the Ming side only lost fifty-odd men?? The Mongols lost sixteen?!"

"Is this some kind of war or a street stunt?! Two clans in my Daming Village were fighting over water, and more people died there!"

In the live stream, countless modern netizens also felt their intelligence had been insulted.

"This casualty ratio...do they really think future generations are fools?"

"Sixteen people, probably trampled to death during a group fight!"

Zhu Dijun placed his hands on the table, his eyes like sharp swords that could see through a thousand years.

"Family members, we'll discuss the truth behind the Yingzhou victory later. To understand Zhu Houzhao's extraordinary talent and strategy in Yingzhou, we must first understand one thing—what exactly did the Ming Dynasty experience before this great victory!"

The timeline is rewinding wildly on the screen!

Three large, blood-red characters, amidst the raging flames of war, were fiercely nailed to the public screen!

[Prequel! Transmission!]

"This brings us to two figures who struck fear into the hearts of the Ming Dynasty court and were even considered 'military gods' in Ming Dynasty military history—Liu Liu and Liu Qi!"

Judy grabbed the gavel and slammed it down! Bang!

"Why am I mentioning these two people here? Because the timing of this popular uprising, known as the 'Liu Liu and Liu Qi Uprising,' was just too damn bizarre!"

On the big screen, a glaring time marker was flashing wildly!

[October of the fifth year of the Zhengde reign!]

Zhu Dijun moved close to the camera, speaking very quickly:

"Family members! Do you remember what I mentioned earlier? On August 15th of the fifth year of Zhengde's reign, the civil official group, together with Zhang Mao, launched a coup in the capital, and Zhu Houzhao was completely reduced to a puppet under house arrest! In October, the eunuchs of the Zhejiang Maritime Trade Office were dismissed, and the military power of the anti-Japanese pirate army fell into the hands of local civil officials!"

"And so it was at this critical juncture, at the most crucial moment when the Ming Dynasty's imperial power was completely undermined and the civil service group had taken over all state power!"

"In Bazhou, Hebei, a strategically important location right under the noses of these civil officials, a massive rebellion erupted, sweeping across much of China!"

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

Completely confined to the inner palace, Zhu Houzhao stared intently at the sky, a chilling, cruel smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

"What a coincidence..."

The young emperor gritted his teeth.

"Li Dongyang and his gang of treacherous officials just seized my power, just dismissed Liu Jin, and just shouted 'Restore order' and 'The court is filled with righteousness.' This supposedly peaceful world has been turned upside down by hundreds of thousands of rebels!"

In the live broadcast room, Zhu Dijun posed an ultimate question that would make all emperors throughout history shudder.

"Family members, let's make an extremely humiliating comparison!"

The large screen instantly split in two!

On the left is a portrait of Emperor Yongle (Zhu Di) of the Ming Dynasty, with the elite Doyan Three Guards and Yanshan Iron Cavalry behind him!

On the right are two burly men dressed in tattered peasant clothes, and behind them is a group of refugees carrying hoes and sickles!

"Emperor Yongle (Zhu Di) was the most outstanding commander of the Ming Dynasty! He had the monk Daoyan as his civil official and Zhang Yu and Zhu Neng, among other top-ranking military generals who had fought countless battles, under his command! He also controlled the most elite Beiping Field Army in the entire Ming Dynasty!"

Zhu Dijun slammed his hand on the left side of the screen, drawing a very short red route map.

"And what was the result? Zhu Di launched the Jingnan Campaign and fought against Emperor Jianwen's southern army for a full three years! During those three years, he faced countless close calls and couldn't even completely break through the border of Hebei Province! If it weren't for Emperor Jianwen's madness and Li Jinglong, the undercover agent, opening the gate, it would be questionable whether Zhu Di could even have entered Nanjing!"

Immediately afterwards, Zhu Dijun's laser pointer suddenly moved to the right half of the screen.

A jaw-dropping marching route map, like a raging red venomous dragon, pierced through the entire territory of the Ming Empire in a mere instant!

"And look at these two so-called 'military geniuses of the Ming Dynasty'—the peasants Liu Liu and Liu Qi!"

"The uprising began in October of the fifth year of the Zhengde reign! In just over a year!"

"They led a group of so-called 'rebel peasants' from Bazhou, Hebei, advancing and retreating three times from the capital region! They broke through Shandong! Sweeped through Henan! Headed straight for Shanxi! Finally, they even crossed the Yangtze River, fighting their way all the way to Southern Zhili and Huguang!"

Zhu Dijun's voice exploded across the hall and through time and space:

"Two bandits who haven't even read a military treatise! Leading a group of starving refugees! Within a year, they swept through dozens of provinces of the Ming Dynasty! As if entering an empty land! The imperial army sent out to suppress them was utterly humiliated by them!"

"I ask you all here, is this even reasonable?!"

All realms and timelines were utterly silent!

The Yongle reign of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Di's face had turned as black as the bottom of a pot.

This comparison is just too damn hurtful! He, a mighty ruler, spent three years fighting his way through the starting village. And these two peasants turned the Ming Dynasty into their own backyard in a year?

However, after his anger subsided, Zhu Di's keen political sense immediately became alert.

Something's not right...something's extremely wrong.

Zhu Di narrowed his eyes, staring intently at the exaggerated marching route map.

"Where do bandits get their supplies? Where do they get their warhorses? Why don't they fortify the cities along the way? Hundreds of thousands of troops are roaming across provinces; without the tacit cooperation of local forces, they would have been worn down halfway there long ago!"

In the live stream, modern netizens who had experienced the dark side of the Ming Dynasty officialdom in the previous chapters had long seen through the tricks behind it all.

The comments flashed by like snowflakes!

"Case solved! This isn't a peasant uprising, this is definitely a scripted reality show!"

"Is this some kind of local corruption scheme again? Taking advantage of the emperor being sidelined, they're creating trouble to blackmail the central government!"

"It's chilling to think about! The rebels attacked everyone else, but they didn't touch the core interests of the civilian government!"

Looking at the comments on the public screen, Zhu Dijun clapped his hands hard.

"My family is absolutely right! The eyes of the masses are discerning!"

On the whiteboard, Liu Liu and Liu Qi's names were connected by a thick red line to three large characters—【Shadow! Government!】

"On the surface, this appears to be a vigorous peasant uprising."

"But in reality, this was a 'man-made rebellion' secretly planned by local corrupt forces and powerful gangsters, and even tacitly approved by the civil service, used to coerce the central government!"

A cold, razor-sharp light flashed in Zhu Dijun's eyes, cruelly cutting open the festering wound of history.

"In August of the fifth year of the Zhengde reign, although Zhu Houzhao was forced to abdicate and sidelined, many of the officials he had promoted in the provinces over the past three years were still in power! His land survey policy was still having a lingering effect in many places!"

"These civil officials and local tyrants who controlled the court felt that merely killing Liu Jin and Zhang Cai in the capital was not enough!"

A blood-dripping phantom of a butcher's knife crashed down onto the map of the Ming Dynasty.

"They need a massive upheaval, one that completely shatters the local grassroots!"

"Using the sword of this 'peasant uprising,' these local tyrants and their shadow government legitimately purged those disobedient, loyal, lower-level officials who were part of the imperial faction! Unlike the underhanded political persecution perpetrated by the Zhejiang Maritime Trade Office, this uprising was a physical act of silencing witnesses!"

The entire internet gasped in shock!

In order to purge their political enemies, they actually went so far as to allow displaced people to wreak havoc on the country! The hearts of these civil officials cannot be described as merely poisonous; they are utterly insane!

"Please don't think I'm spouting conspiracy theories. Let's rewind the timeline a little and look at historical precedents!"

On the big screen, another long-forgotten historical record appeared.

During the reign of Emperor Yingzong of Ming (Zhengtong era), Deng Maoqi led a rebellion in Fujian!

"Family members, as early as the reign of Emperor Yingzong of Ming, Zhu Qizhen, a massive peasant uprising broke out along the southeastern coast of the Ming Dynasty. The Deng Maoqi Rebellion was the core of the uprising, which also echoed the Ye Zongliu Miners' Uprising on the Zhejiang-Jiangxi border!"

Zhu Dijun took out a copy of the document and slammed it heavily on the table.

"This peasant uprising, which was described in historical records as 'the most serious peasant rebellion in the southeast since the founding of the Ming Dynasty,' lasted for three years! In the end, it was also suppressed with great difficulty by the imperial army."

"But! Just look at the files on the back and you'll find out what sparked this uprising."

"It was local tyrants and officials who wanted to monopolize smuggling in Fujian and silver mining rights in Zhejiang and Jiangxi! They ruthlessly exploited the common people, even secretly providing them with weapons, using these miners and farmers who were driven to desperation as pawns!"

"When the imperial eunuchs and officials sent to inspect mines and smuggling arrived in the areas, these local tyrants immediately incited the peasants to rebel and beheaded the imperial envoys!"

Zhu Dijun's eyes turned into a bottomless pool of stagnant water.

"This is a common tactic used by the Ming Dynasty's civil service and local powerful families! They nurture bandits to maintain their own power, using the blood and bones of ordinary people to force the emperor to make concessions and protect their enormous smuggling profits!"

The era of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty.

As Zhu Yuanzhang listened to this cruel analysis, his vision blurred, and he suddenly vomited a mouthful of blood!

"Our Great Ming Dynasty...the people we cherish in the palm of our hands..."

Old Zhu's withered fingers gripped the dragon throne, and tears welled up in his eyes.

"It has actually become a weapon in the hands of these beastly bureaucrats, used to blackmail the imperial power and to inflict mutual destruction!"

What could be more absurd or more despairing than this?

On the sky, Zhu Dijun's voice was terrifyingly low.

"Starting in October of the fifth year of the Zhengde reign, half of the northern part of the Ming Dynasty was engulfed in flames. Wherever Liu Liu and Liu Qi's army of refugees went, countless lives were lost."

"At this time, in the Forbidden City, the civil officials were still going through the motions, and even used this as an excuse to demand that Zhu Houzhao issue an edict of self-reproach, admitting that it was his favoritism towards Liu Jin that led to the chaos in the country."

The screen gradually dimmed, leaving only a lonely figure sitting in the empty Leopard Chamber Hall.

The twenty-year-old boy who once aspired to emulate the founding emperor and the founding emperor, wielding the emperor's sword to pacify the world, was now like a lone eagle with its wings broken.