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

On the large screen in the live broadcast room, Peng Ze's fabricated "Great Victory Report" was completely covered by a blood-red X.

Zhu Dijun picked up his thermos and took a sip of water, his eyes sweeping across the camera like sharp blades.

"Family members, Peng Ze's 'subspace victory,' achieved through a scheme that involved getting something for nothing, has fooled all the scholars in the world, and even some historians hundreds of years later. But he cannot fool Emperor Wuzong Zhu Houzhao, who truly holds military power and is sharpening his sword in Xuanfu!"

He slammed his fist on the whiteboard twice.

"Through this utterly absurd battle report, Zhu Houzhao definitively confirmed one thing—the civil service group, high-ranking border generals, and even the high-ranking officials in the Five Military Commissions had completely colluded with the Mongol Tatars! What they were doing on the border wasn't national defense at all, but blatant transnational smuggling and money-for-power transactions! Foreign invasions on the border were the ultimate weapon these traitors used to inflate their political achievements and eliminate dissidents!"

"Faced with this situation that is completely rotten to the core, what is the last thing a Ming emperor can do?" Zhu Dijun slammed his hands on the table, a terrifying light flashing in his eyes.

Four large characters, as if cast from molten iron, crashed onto the center of the screen!

[Royal! Command! Personally! Conquer!]

"Zhu Houzhao decided to go to Xuanda in person, to see for himself the border region that the civil officials had described as littered with corpses. He wanted to witness firsthand whether those touted Mongol-Tatar cavalry were truly invincible!"

The entire internet erupted in a frenzy of comments.

"This is the backbone a Ming emperor should have! The emperor guards the nation's gates, the monarch dies for the country!"

"With 150,000 border troops in my hands, I'm going to sweep them all over the place today!"

"Draw your sword! Chop these smuggling, traitorous beasts to pieces!"

"But wars are never won with just passion."

Zhu Dijun's speech suddenly slowed, revealing a cold rationality.

"As the saying goes, 'An army marches on its stomach.' My family, from the eleventh to the twelfth year of the Zhengde reign, while Zhu Houzhao was battling a verbal war in the Leopard Chamber, where the civil officials were spreading rumors about the Ma family, he simultaneously transformed into the most terrifying logistical machine in the history of the Ming Dynasty, frantically raising military supplies throughout the country!"

A map of the entire supply lines of the Ming Dynasty unfolds on the screen, with red arrows, like capillaries, frantically converging towards Xuanfu and Datong in the north.

Zhu Dijun opened a photocopy of the "Veritable Records of Emperor Wuzong of Ming" and traced the densely packed numbers line by line with his finger.

"Look at this! This is the financial record of the Ming Dynasty's imperial power! This confidence was forged by sheer money!"

Lines of blood-red accounts, accompanied by the crisp sound of a cash register, were frantically bouncing across the public screen!

"In April of the eleventh year of Zhengde's reign! Thirty thousand taels of silver were dispatched from the treasury directly to Jizhou! Fifty thousand taels were allocated to Xuanfu!"

"In June of the same year, an imperial edict was issued ordering the textile bureaus in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Suzhou, Hangzhou, and other places to forcibly requisition 16,700 bolts of silk, all of which were to be used as supplies for the front lines!"

"In July! 70,000 taels of silver were allocated to Datong! Another 100,000 taels were poured into Xuanfu! At the same time, 3,000 military horses and 5,000 packhorses were forcibly transferred from the Imperial Stud!"

"October! Allocate another 60,000 taels to Datong!"

"In the first month of the twelfth year of Zhengde's reign! 250,000 taels of salt permits from the Lianghuai Salt Transport Office were directly converted into 155,500 taels of silver and sent to Xuanfu! In the second month, 300,000 taels of silver were forcibly opened in the Taicang Granary, 100,000 taels of silver were allocated for horse transport from the Taipu Temple, and a total of 300,000 salt permits from Lianghuai and Hedong were all sent to Gansu Town!"

"By July! Another 70,000 taels of silver will be allocated from Taicang to Datong! At the same time, an order will be issued to the Governor of Shanxi to collect the long-overdue grain and cloth, totaling 450,000 taels of silver, within a specified period!"

After reciting these astronomical figures in one breath, Zhu Dijun suddenly grabbed a handful of red chip phantoms and slammed them hard onto the northernmost point of the map.

"By July of the twelfth year of the Zhengde reign, Zhu Houzhao had allocated funds and provisions to various towns in the northwest for this decisive battle, with a total value exceeding one million taels of silver!"

The era of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty.

Inside the Fengtian Hall, Zhu Yuanzhang gasped as he looked at the series of astronomical figures on the sky.

"This kid... he's a fucking madman, and a genius!"

Zhu Yuanzhang slapped his thigh, his eyes filled with extreme admiration.

"Let's pour all of the Ming Dynasty's resources into the frontier! If these 150,000 border troops are well-fed, well-clothed, and well-equipped, let alone a mere few tens of thousands of Mongol cavalry, even conquering the northern deserts would be a piece of cake! This is how the people of the Ming Dynasty should act!"

Yongle Time and Space.

Zhu Di was thrilled, for he understood all too well the exhilaration of channeling the nation's resources into the north.

"Good! This is how you fight a big war! Instead of letting money rust in the national treasury, you should use it to exchange for the heads of the Tatars!"

On the backdrop, Zhu Dijun's voice pounded against the audience's nerves like a war drum.

"Given Zhu Houzhao's almost insane logistical oversight, Zheng Zongren, the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue who was in charge of the grain and provisions for the governors of Xuanfu and Datong, submitted a memorial to Zhu Houzhao with great shock. He reported that the current grain reserves in Xuanfu and Datong were sufficient to feed the local garrison and the visiting troops for four to five years!"

"150,000 elite troops, four or five years' worth of provisions! This isn't just defense; this is preparing for a protracted, annihilation-level war!"

Zhu Dijun suddenly changed the subject, his eyes becoming extremely playful.

"But family members, do you think Zhu Houzhao is satisfied with this? No!"

The timeline on the big screen instantly jumped to [September of the twelfth year of Zhengde]! Just before the outbreak of the Battle of Yingzhou!

"Just as the war drums were about to sound at the most critical moment, Zhu Houzhao, far away in the Zhenguo Mansion in Xuanfu, once again issued an imperial edict to the Grand Secretariat and the Ministry of Revenue in the capital, an edict that was enough to make all the civil officials vomit blood on the spot!"

An enormous number crashed onto the whiteboard like a mountain falling down.

One million taels!

"Zhu Houzhao demanded another one million taels of silver from the Ministry of Revenue as reserve military funds! Not a single tael less!"

The entire live stream was instantly flooded with a long string of "Holy crap!" messages. The viewers were stunned; this was practically ruthlessly draining the Ming Dynasty's treasury dry.

"When the Minister of Revenue and the cabinet leaders received this imperial edict, they were completely devastated!" Zhu Dijun opened a memorial written in ancient Chinese, filled with sorrow.

"Grand Secretary Liang Chu, accompanied by the weeping voices of the entire court, wrote a memorial to Zhu Houzhao. The gist of it was: 'Your Majesty, the remaining funds in the Ministry of Revenue's granary, after all the conversions, amount to a mere two hundred thousand taels of silver! This money is completely untouchable; it's earmarked for year-end salaries and holiday bonuses for officials and soldiers in the capital! The Ministry of Revenue has truly been drained dry; not a single drop remains!'"

In the twelfth year of the Zhengde reign of the Ming Dynasty, I was on duty in the cabinet in the capital.

Looking at his reflection in the sky, Liang Chu's face flushed red, and he trembled with rage. That was their civil officials' salary! It was the last bit of wealth they had to maintain the dignity of the capital! This young emperor, in order to go to the border to fight those elusive Mongols, was even going to steal all their year-end bonuses!

"No money?" Judy Jun sneered, staring directly at the camera, his tone full of knowing mockery.

"Zhu Houzhao wouldn't listen to any of that! The emperor's edict was extremely firm, leaving no room for negotiation—regardless of whether there's money in the imperial granary, the Ministry of Revenue must do everything in its power to get me this one million taels!"

What if the Ministry of Revenue says they can't produce it?

Zhu Dijun slammed his finger heavily on the whiteboard and wrote six chilling characters: "[Establish a system for paying silver to students]!"

"Zhu Houzhao unleashed his ultimate weapon—if you can't afford the money, then I'll issue an edict to fully open up the system of paying silver for students! In other words, you can buy a student's place with money, and you can buy academic success with money!"

Four large, blood-red characters flashed on the screen: 【Selling! Official Positions! Selling! Titles!】

The myriad realms and timelines, the Great Han Dynasty's Weiyang Palace.

Emperor Wu of Han, Liu Che, was originally leaning lazily on his dragon throne when he saw these four words. He suddenly sat up straight, slammed his hand on the imperial desk in front of him, and burst into extremely joyful laughter!

"Hahaha! Good! That's great!"

Liu Che pointed to the sky and exclaimed in admiration.

"This young man of the Ming Dynasty is truly to my liking! What if we don't have money for war? Then we'll squeeze the pockets of those powerful families and corrupt officials dry! Back then, to fight the Xiongnu, I even put a price tag on titles! As long as we can defeat the foreign tribes, reputation is nothing! This tactic of cutting off their supply lines is brilliant!"

Inside the modern live streaming room, the barrage of comments was scrolling wildly.

"Holy crap, is the official team leading the charge in selling cheats?!"

"This move is too ruthless! The quota for students is the bottom line for the civil service's monopolistic class advancement. This is tantamount to directly overturning the civil service's table!"

["Forcing civil servants to spend money, and if they don't, letting wealthy people in to dilute their power! What a brilliant move!"]

As Zhu Dijun watched the comments section, the coldness in his eyes intensified.

"Did everyone understand the logic here? The practice of selling official positions through bribery is not just a simple matter of selling official posts; it's a precise attack on the very lifeblood of the civil service!"

He picked up a marker and drew a chain of interests on the whiteboard.

"In feudal society, the number of examination slots was an absolute monopoly of privilege held by powerful families and civil officials in Jiangnan! They used the examinations to form cliques and engage in corruption. Now Zhu Houzhao says, if you can't raise the military funds, I'll just openly sell the slots. Those wealthy merchants can become officials as long as they pay money to the national treasury!"

"Zhu Houzhao was forced into this situation entirely by these people!"

Zhu Dijun ripped off his tie, pointed at the camera, and angrily rebuked...

"He endured all sorts of disgusting tactics, including civil officials spreading rumors, border troops engaging in smuggling, and attempts to kill off his lineage. He knew better than anyone where all the money in the Ming Dynasty's treasury went! It all went into the private pockets of these Jiangnan gentry!"

"Since the Ming Dynasty has rotted to this state, rather than letting you corrupt officials one day use all sorts of high-sounding reasons to secretly sell official positions and line your own pockets, it's better for the emperor himself to personally become the heartless boss!"

Zhu Dijun slammed his hand on the whiteboard, making a deafening bang.

"Zhu Houzhao's meaning was very clear—I'm directly refusing to let middlemen profit from the difference! This money must flow into the national treasury in full, to be used to make armor and swords for the Ming border army, and to cut off the heads of the Mongol Tatars!"

The light on the screen gradually turned into a ghastly crimson.

The deafening sound of war drums, accompanied by the neighing of thousands of warhorses, surged forth from the depths of darkness.

"150,000 elite troops have been assembled."

"The grain and fodder accumulated over four or five years are piled up like mountains."

"One million taels of reserve military funds are on their way."

Zhu Dijun's voice suddenly plummeted to freezing point, his eyes like those of a ferocious beast about to tear its prey apart.

"In the twelfth year of Zhengde's reign, the last iron-fisted emperor of the Ming Dynasty stood on the Great Wall in Xuanfu, having already staked the entire fortune of the Ming Dynasty on the gamble."

"Dayan Khan and his 50,000 iron cavalry finally stepped into this land they thought they could take whatever they wanted. What awaited them was a bloody massacre, a meat grinder-like massacre whose true history had been ruthlessly erased by the civil service!"