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

Inside the live stream, the chat was flooded with comments because of the "novel palace lantern" that concealed gunpowder. Countless modern netizens, shocked and dismayed, frantically urged Zhu Dijun to quickly uncover the truth behind Prince Ning's offering of the lantern.

At this very moment, under the influence of this live historical broadcast, the course of history in various parallel timelines of the Ming Dynasty is undergoing a dramatic shift, like an earthquake.

The parallel universe of the second year of the Zhengde reign in the Ming Dynasty.

Anhua Prince's Mansion, Ningxia.

The atmosphere inside the main hall was so oppressive, it felt like a powder keg about to explode. Prince Zhu Zhifan of Anhua stared intently at the sky above, his once pampered, plump face now ashen white, cold sweat dripping down his chin and splashing onto the floor tiles.

"Framed...it's all a frame-up!"

Zhu Zhifan slammed his hand on the rosewood table, his voice filled with undisguised fear and rage. His obese body trembled violently as he pointed at the sky and cursed.

"What kind of treasonous culprit am I?! It's clearly stated on the sky that I'm a prince who needs to report even to leave the city. I don't even have a fire poker. What am I supposed to use to rebel? My mouth?!"

Zhu Zhifan was panting heavily, his mind replaying the truth that had been revealed on the sky earlier.

"It's He Jin! It's Yang Ying!"

He gritted his teeth and recited the names of these civil and military officials from Ningxia.

"It's definitely those corrupt local officials who, to cover up their own embezzlement and smuggling, forced me out as a scapegoat! They used my name to kill the imperial envoy, and in the end, pinned the blame for the rebellion all on me!"

Zhu Zhifan grew increasingly terrified. According to the original historical trajectory, three years later, in August of the fifth year of the Zhengde reign, he would be bound by the corrupt officials, escorted to the capital like a dead dog, and ultimately executed, with his body even to be burned as a warning to the public!

"In another timeline, I was betrayed and killed by these villains. In this timeline, I absolutely cannot repeat the same mistake!"

A ruthless glint flashed in Zhu Zhifan's eyes. He thought of Prince Ning, Zhu Chenhao, who had been mentioned on the sky screen earlier.

"Since my rebellion was a hoax, what's so impossible about Prince Ning's presentation of the gunpowder-laden palace lanterns also being a setup by civil officials? What wouldn't those officials do to force the emperor to abdicate? They could stuff gunpowder into the lanterns to kill the emperor, then turn around and say it was Prince Ning who did it, and then legitimately send troops to reduce the power of the princes and confiscate their property!"

"No! I absolutely cannot sit idly by and wait to be slaughtered like pigs in the fifth year of Zhengde's reign!"

Zhu Zhifan rushed to the desk and grabbed a writing brush. He was going to submit a memorial! He wanted to appeal to Emperor Wuzong Zhu Houzhao, who was far away in the capital, for justice!

The same scene is not limited to Ningxia.

Far away in Nanchang, Jiangxi, Prince Zhu Chenhao of Ning was trembling in front of a room full of palace lanterns. He immediately ordered all the lanterns in the palace to be smashed, fearing that some foolish servant or infiltrated civil official spy might stuff a handful of gunpowder inside.

At this moment, the princes and dukes from all over the Ming Dynasty reached an unprecedented and bizarre tacit understanding.

Those royal princes and vassal kings who had previously lived a life of leisure and only knew how to reproduce were utterly terrified by the ruthless methods of the civil official group on the celestial screen.

They finally understood that the emperor's reduction of the power of the princes would at most cost them money and titles, but those civil officials who controlled local power and smuggled goods through customs were going to use their entire families' lives as scapegoats! Not only would they have to settle accounts, but they would also have to bear a huge, fabricated, and infamous stain on their reputation for eternity!

Within just a few days, a flood of urgent memorials, delivered over 800 li (approximately 400 kilometers) in rapid succession, poured into the capital from all corners of the Ming Dynasty.

Inside the Qianqing Palace in the Forbidden City.

In this timeline, during the second year of the Zhengde reign, Emperor Wuzong Zhu Houzhao sat on the dragon throne, looking at the mountain of memorials from the imperial clan, a mocking sneer curling at the corner of his mouth.

He was only seventeen years old at the time, and had only recently ascended the throne. Liu Jin was still helping him to audit accounts and raise money. He had not yet experienced the bloody coup in the fifth year of the Zhengde reign, which stripped him of his military power and killed all his confidants.

But through the celestial canopy, he clearly saw how he, in another parallel universe, was driven to the brink by those officials who spouted benevolence and morality, and in the end, even his own flesh and blood were not recognized, and he drowned inexplicably.

"What a clever scheme, Li Dongyang and Yang Tinghe."

Zhu Houzhao casually flipped open a memorial from the Prince of Chu, "You sidelined me, slaughtered the imperial faction, and then used the imperial family as puppets and scapegoats to cover up your corruption. In another timeline, it was because I was too ruthless towards the imperial family and cut off their path to survival that I was left without a single family member to help me when I was in danger, and I became completely isolated."

Zhu Houzhao slammed the memorial onto the imperial desk.

The contents of the memorials were remarkably consistent: the princes of the empire collectively lamented the oppression of the imperial family by local civil officials, pleaded with the emperor to grant them mercy and allow them to increase the number of guards in their palaces, and even begged to lift the restrictions on the employment of imperial family members so that they could support themselves and no longer be lambs to the slaughter.

"Since your civil service group wants to slaughter the imperial family like pigs, then I will give these pigs the sharpest tusks!"

Zhu Houzhao suddenly stood up, drew the Emperor's Sword from his waist, and chopped off a corner of the imperial desk with one stroke.

"Issue an order to the Cabinet and the Ministry of War!"

The seventeen-year-old emperor's voice carried an undeniable, peerless sharpness.

"All members of the imperial family are my flesh and blood! From this day forward, all princes and dukes are hereby granted partial reinstatement of their guards! Each prince and duke may rebuild a guard force of 5,600 men in each residence! They shall be directly under the Emperor's command and not subject to the control of local civil officials!"

"Members of the imperial clan below the rank of Prince are permitted to possess private armed forces ranging from several dozen to five hundred men, depending on their rank, for self-defense and protection! If any local official dares to storm a member of the imperial clan's residence without cause, they will be treated as treason, and the member of the imperial clan has the right to kill them on the spot!"

The imperial edict caused an uproar in the Ming Dynasty court in the second year of the Zhengde reign. However, under the absolute pressure of Zhu Houzhao and the strong intimidation of eunuchs like Liu Jin and the Imperial Guard, the edict was forcibly implemented.

This was to prevent the mutiny that was manipulated by civil officials in the fifth year of the Zhengde reign! With these fully armed members of the imperial family keeping an eye on things in the localities, those smuggling tyrants and local officials would have to think twice before trying to pull off any "fire dragon burning the granary" or become bandits to kill the imperial envoy. They would have to consider whether they had enough heads left to be chopped off by these princes!

The ripples of history did not stop at the Zhengde reign.

The Hongzhi, Chenghua, Zhengtong, and even Yongle periods of the Ming Dynasty were all undergoing earth-shattering changes.

Yongle Time and Space.

Emperor Yongle (Zhu Di) sat upright in the Fengtian Hall, listening to the story on the screen about how later generations of the imperial family were used as pawns by civil officials. His face was ashen.

When he seized the throne during the Jingnan Campaign, his greatest fear was the potential for rebellion by the vassal kings, so he spared no effort in weakening the military power of the imperial clan. However, he never imagined that by stripping the imperial clan of their power, the ultimate beneficiaries would be those ruthless civil officials! The imperial clan became the perfect tool for the civil service to control imperial power and launch political purges!

"Pass down the imperial decree."

Zhu Di looked down at Crown Prince Zhu Gaochi, his tone cold.

"The prohibition in the Imperial Ancestral Instructions of the Ming Dynasty against members of the imperial clan engaging in agriculture, commerce, or other crafts shall be appropriately relaxed from this day forward."

Zhu Gaochi suddenly raised his head, his face full of astonishment:

"Father, this is an ironclad rule set by Grandfather!"

"Rules are rules, but people are flexible!"

Zhu Di rebuked him sternly.

"If I don't change, am I supposed to watch my descendants become meat on the chopping block of those pedantic scholars? I will allow members of the imperial family to choose their own careers and even become officials! As long as they don't hold military power, let them compete with those Jiangnan gentry for jobs! I want them to become shields protecting the Ming Dynasty, not useless pieces of trash to be bullied at will by civil officials!"

At the same time, in parallel timelines of various dynasties, a wave of military defenses against powerful local officials also emerged.

The Weiyang Palace of the Han Dynasty.

Emperor Wu of Han, Liu Che, looked at the map in front of him and toyed with a military tally in his hand.

"The registrar was killed, the imperial envoy was murdered. The local officials of the Ming Dynasty are bolder than the princes I once was."

Liu Che sneered.

"By imperial decree, all vassal kings and marquises are permitted to retain a small but sufficient elite personal guard directly under their royal residences. If any local governor or prefecture-level official plots rebellion or incites a popular uprising, the vassal king may, upon presentation of this secret imperial edict, directly mobilize troops to quell the rebellion!"

Although Emperor Wu of Han (Liu Che) implemented the "Decree of Grace," he would never allow local powerful families and civil officials to completely undermine the central government. Maintaining a degree of authority over the imperial relatives was a clever move to check and balance the civil service.

The Great Tang Taiji Hall.

Emperor Taizong of Tang, Li Shimin, issued a similar decree. Powerful clans held deep ties in the provinces, and given the example of the Prince of Anhua in the Ming Dynasty, he had to guard against these powerful families using the name of a Li prince to secretly stir up trouble. The self-defense forces held by the various regional princes were the first line of defense against the monopoly of these powerful families.

In the vast universe, thanks to Zhu Dijun's live broadcast, the struggle between imperial power and the civil official group has entered a new phase of armed confrontation.

And the modern internet world.

The live stream footage remained fixed on the burning palace lantern.

Zhu Dijun had no idea how much of a tsunami his few words had triggered in a parallel universe. He remained standing steadily in front of the big screen, his eyes gradually darkening.

"Fellow family members, we have already thoroughly analyzed the weakness and vulnerability of the various regional princes. It is precisely because they lack military power that they are so easily manipulated by the civil service. The central government's strategy of weakening the regional princes is correct, but going too far will lead to tragedy."

"Alright, let's continue with the topic of the victory at Yingzhou."