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

"Family members, let's continue watching the power struggle between Emperor Zhengde and the civil service."

Zhu Dijun stood in front of the large screen, his eyes gleaming with a coldness. He typed on the keyboard, and several densely packed photocopies of memorials filled the public screen.

"As we mentioned earlier, in order to regain military power, Zhu Houzhao bypassed the Ministry of War and forcibly adopted 127 border officers as his sons, and bestowed upon them all the surname Zhu! This move was called 'cutting off the fuel supply from under the cauldron.'"

"Faced with the emperor suddenly possessing over a hundred knives, could the civil officials who controlled the court tolerate it? Absolutely not! Thus, a massive, storm-like impeachment campaign rained down on the Forbidden City!"

Zhu Dijun grabbed the laser pointer and drew a red circle around the name on the screen.

"Those leading the charge were all the so-called 'loyal and upright ministers' who are famous in history books! He Jingming, Li Zhong, Wu Yan, Wang Si, Huang Gong, Shu Fen... and behind the scenes, the Grand Secretary of the Cabinet, Yang Tinghe, a powerful minister of the Ming Dynasty, who orchestrated the operation and set the tone!"

"Look at how they're cursing!"

Zhu Dijun pointed to the first memorial, his voice suddenly rising.

"In the seventh year of the Zhengde reign, the emperor had just bestowed the imperial surname upon the emperor. He Jingming, an assistant minister of the Ministry of Personnel and one of the 'Former Seven Masters' of the literary world at the time, immediately submitted a memorial, clearly outlining four major crimes: [Adopted sons should not be kept; border troops should not be retained; Tibetan monks should not be favored; eunuchs should not be appointed]!"

"He firmly placed 'adopting sons' at the top of the four major malpractices!"

Immediately afterwards, the laser pointer moved to the second memorial.

"By the ninth year of the Zhengde reign, Li Zhong, a principal officer in the Ministry of Justice, spoke frankly! He submitted a memorial pointing out: 'Power has not been consolidated, the Crown Prince has not been established, the adopted son has not been reformed, and discipline is deteriorating daily!'"

Zhu Dijun turned around, placed his hands on the table, looked directly at the camera, and his eyes were full of extreme mockery.

"Family members, if we didn't know the truth about the mutiny in Beijing on August 11th of the fifth year of Zhengde's reign, if we hadn't exposed the true nature of Liu Liu and Liu Qi's uprising, wouldn't you also feel, seeing this screen full of memorials and these righteous words, that these were a group of loyal ministers who had devoted themselves to the Ming Dynasty for generations to come?"

The live stream chat was instantly flooded with comments saying "Indeed".

"This is the most terrifying aspect of history!"

Zhu Dijun slammed his hand on the table.

"Because the eunuchs and adopted sons in the history of the Ming Dynasty were thoroughly stigmatized by these literati who wielded the pen!"

"In their writings, the emperor's adoption of a son is portrayed as licentious and immoral, as having male favorites and appointing sycophants to corrupt the court! But what is the reality?"

"These civil officials are jumping up and down in a panic, not because of any morality or etiquette! It's because these 'one hundred and twenty-seven adopted sons,' plus the 'border troops left behind,' have completely struck at the Achilles' heel of this shadow government!"

"The ironclad control that civilian officials had placed over the military has been breached; how could they not be anxious?!"

The Yongle Era of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Di looked at the sky and snorted coldly:

"They spout benevolence and righteousness, but are full of wickedness and debauchery. My great-grandson touched their share of the spoils, and they couldn't sit still. These people have no troops, so they can only rely on the memorials from the court to force the emperor to abdicate."

On the sky, Zhu Dijun picked up his water glass, took a sip, and a smug smile appeared on his lips.

Faced with such overwhelming political pressure, did the 23-year-old Zhu Houzhao back down?

"Of course he refused!"

Judy Jun projected a phantom image of an imperial edict, symbolizing imperial power, onto the screen.

"Zhu Houzhao not only threw these memorials back as if they were worthless, but he also issued an imperial edict to severely punish those who led the petitions! Some were flogged in court, and others were demoted!"

"He endured the condemnation of scholars across the land, steadfastly carrying out his original plan to reorganize the Imperial Guard and regain military power!"

In the seventh year of the Zhengde reign of the Ming Dynasty, inside the Leopard Chamber.

Zhu Houzhao stared at his reflection on the screen, his chest heaving violently. He knew he was dancing on a knife's edge; one wrong step and he would be shattered to pieces. But he had no way to retreat.

"Zhu Houzhao is so stubborn that the conventional methods of the civil service group have completely failed."

Zhu Dijun's speaking speed suddenly slowed down, and the atmosphere in the entire live broadcast room instantly became extremely tense.

"Since you can't win an argument with words, you can't stop them with written petitions."

"So, family, something familiar has happened again."

Four large, blood-red characters, accompanied by a blazing flame animation, crashed onto the public screen!

[Fire! Dragon! Burn! Palace!]

Throughout the myriad realms and timelines, all the emperors sat bolt upright the moment they saw those four words.

"In the past, they burned down granaries to cover up deficits, and they hired Liu Liu and Liu Qi to burn down the county government office in order to destroy the new policy archives."

Judy Jun's gaze turned completely cold, like a lone wolf eyeing its prey.

"This time, since the emperor wouldn't listen, they went straight to the emperor's house and set it on fire!"

A yellowed copy of the "Veritable Records of Emperor Wuzong of Ming" was slammed heavily onto the center of the screen.

The moment in time is frozen in place!

[On the 16th day of the first month of the ninth year of the Zhengde reign! A great fire broke out in the Qianqing Palace!]

Judy Jun picked up the gavel and slammed it down! Bang!

"The cause of this fire is arguably the most bizarre and inexplicable tragedy in the history of the Ming Dynasty!"

"Look at the historical records! Who started this fire? It was Prince Ning—Zhu Chenhao—who was far away in Nanchang, Jiangxi at the time!"

"Right after the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, this Prince Ning, for some unknown reason, sent a batch of so-called 'novel palace lanterns' all the way to Zhu Houzhao!"

Zhu Dijun slammed his finger heavily on a line of small print in the historical record, roaring fiercely:

"But these lamps actually contain gunpowder inside!!"

The live stream chat exploded instantly!

"Not only was there gunpowder! Historical records also state that Emperor Wuzong Zhu Houzhao actually ordered these lamps, which concealed gunpowder, to be hung under the eaves of the Qianqing Palace, with felt curtains set up next to them, and even gunpowder stored directly nearby!"

"Around the second watch of the night on the sixteenth day of the first lunar month, which is about nine o'clock in the evening, the historical record uses three light-hearted words to describe the cause of the fire—'Oops, I didn't pay attention!'"

"It accidentally caught fire!"

A horrific picture of a massive fire unfolds on the screen.

"How badly did the fire spread? It started at nine o'clock at night and burned until dawn the next day! The most important building in the Forbidden City of the Ming Dynasty—the Qianqing Palace, where the emperor lived—was burned to the ground, leaving not a single tile behind! Even the Kunning Palace behind it was reduced to ashes!"

On the sky, Zhu Dijun spread his hands with a cold smile.

"Many family members have noticed that something's wrong, haven't they?"

"But what later historians criticize most, and what countless people condemn as Zhu Houzhao's madness, is his reaction when the fire broke out!"

In the center of the screen, a phantom image of a young emperor appeared, standing in a distant leopard house, watching the towering flames.

"When the Qianqing Palace caught fire, his own home was burned to the ground. At this time, Zhu Houzhao fled to the Leopard House for refuge."

"He gazed at the flames that had engulfed half the sky, neither calling for help to put out the fire nor showing any sign of grief or distress. He simply turned his head, looked at the raging inferno that had consumed his palace, and laughed as he uttered a line that would be remembered for eternity!"

Six large characters struck the screen like a thunderbolt!

"What a spectacular fireworks display!"

boom!

The entire internet fell silent instantly.

In the ninth year of the Zhengde reign of the Ming Dynasty, at the Leopard Chamber.

The young Zhu Houzhao stared intently at the sky, listening to the words he was about to utter, when suddenly he let out a maniacal laugh like that of a vengeful ghost. That laughter was filled with endless humiliation, despair, and an inherent arrogance.

Zhu Dijun's voice echoed throughout the hall, each word filled with anguish.

"Family members, the history books wrote this sentence to prove that Zhu Houzhao was heartless and a thoroughly debauched and incompetent ruler. He even treated his own house burning down as fireworks."

"But! Think about it in the context of the terrifying political environment during the Zhengde reign!"

Zhu Dijun suddenly moved closer to the camera, his eyes bloodshot.

"An emperor, constantly on guard against being usurped, finally manages to adopt a son to reclaim military power. Then, his own palace is engulfed in a massive fire! Why can't it be extinguished? Is it really because the firefighting is too slow? Or is there someone in the Forbidden City who simply doesn't want the fire to go out?!"

"Is this fire burning down houses? This fire is burning down the face of imperial power, a direct death warning to this emperor who is trying to break free of his chains!"

Faced with this deadly threat lurking in the shadows, and with powerful interest groups around him who could kill him at any moment, Zhu Houzhao knew he couldn't save the enemy; he knew he was surrounded by enemy spies!

"If he doesn't smile, is he going to cry like a coward in front of those civil officials?!"

"His words weren't uttered out of madness! He was using this extremely insane and absurd method to mock those treacherous officials who wanted to burn him alive and force him to his death! He was telling everyone: I'm lucky I survived! Your despicable tactics are nothing more than a grand fireworks display in my eyes!"

The live stream chat exploded with a tsunami-like surge of comments.

"Holy crap!! This interpretation is brilliant! A laugh born of rage, utterly sarcastic!"

"My God, I always thought he was genuinely stupid, but it turns out he knew better than anyone else!"

"In this situation, crying is admitting defeat, while laughing is the greatest form of resistance! Wu Zong is both pitiful and incredibly resilient!"

"After the fire was extinguished, the aftereffects immediately became apparent."

Zhu Dijun tapped his fingers on the table with a rhythm so fast it was almost suffocating.

"On the eighteenth day of the first month of the ninth year of Zhengde's reign, just two days after the fire, the civil officials in the court launched a full-scale attack! They brought out the most invincible Confucian doctrine of 'interaction between Heaven and Man,' pointing to the ruins of the Qianqing Palace and interrogating the emperor."

"Heaven is angry! A calamity has struck, burning down the Qianqing Palace! Why is it angry? Because Your Majesty has adopted a son, favored sycophants, and appointed eunuchs!"

"Under immense political pressure, even a strongman like Zhu Houzhao was forced to issue an edict of self-reproach, ordering all officials to reflect on their actions. This fire became the most powerful weapon for the civil service group to completely suppress the emperor and launch a full-scale counterattack in the court."

"What's even more ingenious is that in December, an edict was issued to rebuild the Qianqing Palace, and these civil officials naturally imposed an additional one million taels of tax on the country! The money was paid by the people; the infamy was borne by the tyrannical emperor; and the power was consolidated by the civil officials."

The fire on the screen gradually died down, leaving only a charred ruin.

Zhu Dijun picked up his water glass, but didn't drink it. Instead, he stared coldly at the screen and uttered the last sentence of this chapter.

"We've seen the cause and consequences of the fire."

"Now, let's go back to the very core of this fire, which is also the most deadly source."

A strangely shaped, ancient palace lantern-like phantom floats in the center of the dark screen.

"In the ninth year of the Zhengde reign, Zhu Chenhao, the Prince of Ning, who was far away in Nanchang, Jiangxi, presented a batch of novel palace lanterns containing gunpowder. In the end, Emperor Wuzong ordered them to be hung under the eaves, which set the palace ablaze."

A chilling smile slowly spread across Zhu Dijun's lips.

"Family members, I have just one question."

"Why would Prince Ning present such a deadly lamp? How could Zhu Houzhao, an exceptionally intelligent emperor who grew up in the deep palace, possibly personally order a lamp filled with gunpowder, wrapped in felt, and hung under the eaves of his sleeping quarters?"

The screen went completely black, leaving only Judy Jun's deep, devilish voice.

"Now, everyone, please watch this scene where Prince Ning, Zhu Chenhao, presents a novel palace lantern..."

"Was it a lie fabricated by historians to cover up some far more horrifying truth?"

"Or...really?"