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

"Family members, let's talk about the matter of Wang Qiong and the eunuch Xiao Jing joining forces to investigate the Beijing Garrison."

Zhu Dijun placed his hands on the table, a cold, extremely sarcastic smile curling at the corners of his mouth.

"Let's play a guessing game!"

On the large screen, a striking line of text appeared: "[In the tenth year of the Zhengde reign, the registered strength of the Ming Dynasty's capital army and surrounding garrisons: 380,000!]"

"380,000 people! This is a new historical high since the Tumu Crisis during the Zhengtong Dynasty!"

Zhu Dijun slammed his gavel down, his sharp eyes fixed on the camera.

"So here's the question: out of these 380,000 registered soldiers receiving the Ming Dynasty's rations and pay, how many are actually capable of taking up arms and fighting on the front lines?"

Four large red options immediately popped up at the bottom of the screen:

"A: 190,000 people. Even if they're receiving salaries without working, shouldn't at least half of them be kept on staff?"

B: 105,000 people.

C: 88,000 people.

"D: Fifty-eight thousand people!"

"Four answers, family members, type your choices in the chat! Let's vote for five minutes to see if you have a clear understanding of the bottom line of corruption within the Ming Dynasty's civil service and hereditary noble families!"

Inside a modern live streaming studio.

After the previous episodes, especially the bloody investigation livestream of the mutiny in August of the fifth year of Zhengde's reign, the entire online audience had long been familiar with the insane ruthlessness of these corrupt officials in the Ming Dynasty.

No one chose option A, even though it still had half an army.

The comments section was filled with extremely pessimistic and angry predictions.

["Whoever chose A is definitely a newbie! If the account books from the mid-to-late Ming Dynasty were even half-reliable, the Ming Dynasty would have conquered the world long ago!"]

"I choose C! These beasts who eat people alive must have gotten their fill from the bones!"

["I'm guessing D! Given the way the civil service group treats military households as slaves to farm and also uses them for smuggling with the Mongols, it's a miracle that any of them survived!"]

The five-minute countdown quickly reached zero.

Voting channels are closed.

Zhu Dijun glanced at the data in the backend, then shook his head with a cold smile.

"Voting is over. Half of the families chose B, and 25% each chose C and D. It seems that the other half of the families still harbor a sliver of hope for those civil and military officials in their bright red robes."

He suddenly grabbed the laser pointer and drew a shocking, blood-red circle on the "D" option on the screen!

The correct answer is D! There are only 58,000 people!

Zhu Dijun's voice swept through the hall like a hurricane.

"Wang Qiong and Xiao Jing, leading their men, defied the assassination threats from the entire court of civil officials and nobles, and turned the capital garrison upside down! In the end, they confirmed one thing in despair—of the imposing 380,000 troops on the roster, only a mere 58,000 were actually capable of wielding weapons!"

A blood-stained abacus phantom slammed hard into the center of the screen.

"Where did the remaining 322,000 people go?" Zhu Dijun gripped the table tightly with both hands, veins bulging on his forehead, his roar shattering the tranquility of the live stream.

"They were either the elderly, weak, sick, or disabled, in their seventies or eighties, unable to even walk steadily! Or they were military households and serfs who had long been taken to their manors by the Five Military Governors and high-ranking officials of the Ministry of War to farm for free! The rest were all fake people who didn't exist! They were just fake names on the ledger!"

"Several million bushels of grain and millions of taels of military pay a year! All of it has been completely divided up by these powerful and wealthy people who shout about loyalty to the emperor and serving the country while secretly lining their own pockets!"

The era of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty.

Inside the Fengtian Hall, the atmosphere was so oppressive it felt like it could crush a person.

When Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang of the Ming Dynasty heard the number "fifty-eight thousand people," his tall body swayed violently, and he almost fell onto his desk.

He gripped the dragon-carved armrests of the throne tightly, his fingernails snapping from the excessive force, and drops of blood dripped from the golden scales onto the floor tiles.

"Three hundred and eighty thousand... three hundred and eighty thousand..."

Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes were bloodshot, like a mad tiger, and a hissing sound came from his throat.

During his reign, the garrison in the capital, along with the surrounding guard posts, numbered a full 200,000 battle-hardened elite troops, ready to draw their swords at any moment! They were an iron wall protecting the heart of the Ming Dynasty!

But now, a hundred years later, during the reign of Zhu Houzhao, a descendant of Zhu Houzhao, the roster lists 380,000 people, but in reality there are only 58,000!

"Embezzling military pay, seizing military farms... a total of 320,000 people's salaries gone unpaid!"

Zhu Yuanzhang kicked over the imperial desk in front of him, drew his imperial sword, and began slashing wildly.

"We could skin and shred the grass and still not exterminate these beasts! They've already gnawed the heart out of the Ming Dynasty!"

The Yongle Era of the Ming Dynasty.

Emperor Yongle (Zhu Di) sat upright on the dragon throne, his face so gloomy it seemed to drip water.

He led five northern expeditions against the Mongols. The Beijing garrison, along with the surrounding guard posts and even the regular troops that took turns coming to Beijing for training, amounted to a formidable army of 500,000 men that could be mobilized at any time to march beyond the Great Wall! That was the source of his confidence in conquering the northern deserts!

As a result, in later generations, the military strength of the most central and important area of ​​the Ming Dynasty, the capital region, declined to such an appalling degree.

Standing in the first row of military generals in the palace, Prince Zhu Gaoxu of Han listened to the explanation from the third prince's descendant on the sky screen, his face full of undisguised disdain.

As a prince who had spent his life on the battlefield and achieved numerous military exploits, he knew all too well what such a terrifyingly high rate of embezzlement meant. He turned to look at the obese Crown Prince Zhu Gaochi, who stood in front of the civil officials, and couldn't help but sneer.

"Boss."

Zhu Gaochi spoke in a sarcastic tone, his voice so loud that the entire hall could hear him.

"How you favor those scholars and look down on warriors in the Eastern Palace is your business. But your ability to dig a pit for your descendants, I truly admire!"

"What do you mean by emphasizing civil affairs and suppressing military affairs? It means that the civil service seized military power, drained the soldiers dry, and emptied the country! Later, when imperial power declined, they couldn't even find a usable weapon! You..."

Zhu Gaoxu swallowed the rest of his sentence. Looking at the absurd account on the sky—380,000 reduced to 58,000—he felt that if he continued speaking, his blood pressure would blow his skull off.

On the sky, Zhu Dijun completely ignored the frenzied tremors of each dynasty.

He picked up his water glass and took a big gulp to suppress his anger, forcing a cold smile that looked more like a grimace.

"Family members, this figure of 58,000 is just a total. Are you perhaps wondering how many of the Ming Dynasty's most elite and luxuriously equipped elite core force—the Twelve Battalions of the Capital—remain in actual numbers? This is the core force left behind by Yu Qian when he defended Beijing."

The numbers on the whiteboard changed again.

[The 12th Regiment has a registered strength of 103,000 men!]

"This elite force, responsible for the defense of the inner palace and the last line of defense for the capital! It's said to number 103,000!" Zhu Dijun's laser pointer slammed into that number. "Wang Qiong's investigation revealed—only 23,000 are actually available!"

The barrage of comments in the modern live stream room instantly exploded.

"My goodness! Not even 20%?! That's like only 20 out of 100 people surviving!"

"The civil service is really pushing the Ming Dynasty to its limits! If the Mongols invade, they won't even be able to muster enough men to defend the city walls!"

Faced with this utterly hopeless situation, Emperor Wuzong Zhu Houzhao had no choice but to resort to the most extreme measures to forcibly prolong his life!

The map on the big screen instantly switched to the nine important border towns of the Ming Dynasty.

Several red arrows, from the four directions of Xuanfu, Datong, Liaoyang, and Yansui, converged on the capital like several raging fire dragons!

"Zhu Houzhao directly robbed Peter to pay Paul! He drew 80,000 field troops from the northwest border defenses and forcibly entered to defend the capital!"

Zhu Dijun slammed his hand on the whiteboard and wrote down a huge number—[15]!

"Twenty-three thousand elite battalions, plus thirty-five thousand available soldiers from surrounding garrisons, and these eighty thousand battle-hardened border troops!"

"Zhu Houzhao managed to assemble an army of nearly 150,000 men! My family, these 150,000 men have practically emptied the entire reserves of the Ming Dynasty's northern defense line! They are practically the entire elite force of the Ming Dynasty in the north!"

Judy Jun approached the camera, her voice hoarse and filled with extreme madness.

"If these 150,000 elite troops are wiped out, the Ming Dynasty's northern borders can truly be said to be completely doomed!"

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

Zhu Houzhao sat behind his large desk, gripping the Emperor's Sword tightly. He looked at his reflection in the sky, knowing it was a desperate gamble after being driven to the brink of despair.

"With troops in place, the organizational structure must be completely restructured!" Zhu Dijun's speech quickened again, and the timeline on the big screen suddenly froze.

[February, the eleventh year of the Zhengde reign!]

"Following the establishment of the Western Office, Zhu Houzhao once again took action, setting up the Eastern Office! At this point, a completely new military command system with Zhu Houzhao as its sole core was fully formed!"

A detailed military organizational chart, like an insurmountable fortress, crashed down in the center of the screen.

"The Central Army! Composed of eunuchs and palace officials skilled in horsemanship and archery, this is the emperor's closest personal guard, personally led by Emperor Wuzong Zhu Houzhao!"

"Eastern Hall! The commander is Xu Tai, the Right Vice-General and adopted son of Zhu Houzhao!"

"The Western Palace! The commander is Zhang Hong, a eunuch from the Imperial Horse Administration and a trusted confidant of Zhu Houzhao who once risked his life alongside him!"

"And the main force of 80,000 border troops transferred from the four garrisons of Xuanfu, Datong, Liaoyang, and Yansui for training was also known as the 'Outer Four Families'! Its commander was Jiang Bin, the adopted son who had killed countless people on the border!"

Zhu Dijun pointed to the organizational chart that contained no names of civil officials or hereditary nobles and burst into laughter.

"Family members, have you clearly seen this command and control system?"

"The entire highest military core of the Ming Dynasty is comprised of adopted sons and eunuchs! Every single military commander is a staunch loyalist to the emperor! There's not a trace of those hereditary military officers in the Five Armies Commandery!"

The screen's light gradually turned into a dark red color, exuding a murderous aura.

Zhu Dijun stopped smiling, crossed his arms in front of his chest, and his eyes became extremely deep.

"The knife has been sharpened to a gleaming shine, and Zhu Houzhao has cleaved 150,000 elite troops into an iron fist."

"But do you think that group of Ming Dynasty civil officials, who have been completely stripped of their military power and are watching helplessly as their smuggling interests are about to be liquidated, will sit idly by and wait for their doom?"