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

When the three characters "Wang Shouren" crashed down from the sky along with the seemingly smiling yet not smiling face of a sage.

The air in the entire Ming Dynasty era froze completely in that instant.

In the fourteenth year of the Zhengde reign of the Ming Dynasty, at a post station in Jiangnan.

Wang Shouren, the Right Vice Censor-in-Chief who had been surrounded by the civil officials like a star, now sat stiffly in his armchair. His usually compassionate and calm face was now deathly pale.

Around him, the officials and advisors who had been flattering him just moments before all took two or three steps back as if avoiding a plague when Tianmu mentioned "Yuyao, Zhejiang" and "fellow townsmen of Jiangnan".

This group of people had not forgotten what Zhu Dijun had said earlier. This Wang Yangming was a fellow townsman of Xie Qian, and his so-called title of "sage" was also fabricated by the Jiangnan civil official group in order to counter the imperial power.

Now that the heavens are about to expose this sage, who dares to get too close? Once the truth is revealed, even without the emperor in the capital taking action, those political enemies who have been tricked by Wang Yangming in the court will definitely jump out and tear him apart at the first opportunity, even if there are people from Jiangnan among them. Who says that Jiangnan civil officials don't fight amongst themselves?

The same scene also occurred during the reign of Emperor Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty.

At this moment, Wang Shouren, the Earl of Xinjian, who was already famous throughout the land and revered as the foremost figure of the Ming Dynasty's School of Mind, was surrounded by a group of fanatical disciples. But when the mocking phrase "the only sage" resounded through the sky, the eyes of countless scholars below changed. Doubt, shock, and even a hint of instinctive scrutiny filled the air.

Wang Shouren gripped the teacup tightly in his hand, cold sweat soaking through the back of his undergarment. He knew all too well what shady things he had done in Nanchang Prefecture back then.

Inside a modern live streaming studio.

Zhu Dijun didn't give the online audience any time to react. He grabbed a red marker, turned around, and forcefully wrote eight huge characters on the whiteboard—enough to blind anyone!

[When a senior executive falls, Zhengde reaps the benefits!]

"Family members! Here, we must mention a bloody truth that even the most renowned Ming Dynasty history experts today are unaware of, a truth that has been smeared for six hundred years by the Manchu Qing Dynasty and the civil officials of Jiangnan!"

Zhu Dijun turned around, slammed his hands hard on the table, and a terrifying light flashed in his eyes.

"These eight words represent Emperor Wuzong Zhu Houzhao's ultimate goal in this game! If Zhu Houzhao's plan in Jiangnan had succeeded this time, the Ming Dynasty's treasury would have been overflowing! There would have been no subsequent financial collapse!"

"More importantly!"

Zhu Dijun ripped off his tie and roared hoarsely, "If it weren't for that sudden upheaval, the Ming Dynasty's imperial power would have completely crushed the smuggling rings in Jiangnan! Not only would there have been no peasant armies forced to join the Liangshan rebellion, but even the Buryat wild boar hides from beyond the Great Wall wouldn't have been allowed to enter! The Han people would never have suffered four hundred years of Manchu rule involving shaving their heads, forcing them to wear different clothes, and exploiting them to the bone!"

The entire live stream room was instantly filled with an overwhelming number of exclamation marks.

Zhu Dijun pointed at the towering statue of the saint on the screen, speaking each word with a sharp, piercing tone: "Therefore, Wang Yangming deserves to die! At this historical crossroads concerning the fate of the Han people for four hundred years, he was not some perfect man of all time; he was one of the ultimate sinners who personally severed the lifeline of the Ming Dynasty and the Han people!"

boom!

Scholars throughout the Ming Dynasty felt as if the sky above their heads had collapsed.

"On what grounds do you say that? How can a hero who quelled a rebellion be considered a traitor to the Han people?"

Zhu Dijun sneered repeatedly and directly opened a highly confidential web map showing the royal family's transaction relationships.

"Family members, let's turn our attention back to Prince Ning, Zhu Chenhao's, Nanchang Prefecture!"

"As we mentioned before, Prince Ning is spending money like crazy in the capital, cultivating relationships with powerful figures. Where does he get all that money? He's keeping a close watch on Jiangnan; he's essentially the biggest front man for the Jiangnan civil official group to amass wealth! It's a huge money laundering center!"

Zhu Dijun's finger slammed heavily on the network of relationships. "Just before Prince Ning raised his army, Wang Shouren was ordered to quell the rebellion in Fujian, and he passed through Jiangxi on his way. During this period, Wang Yangming was a guest at Prince Ning's residence, or rather, through his vast network of intelligence among his fellow townsmen in Jiangnan, he discovered something with extremely deep and far-reaching implications, enough to completely overturn the entire Ming Dynasty's officialdom!"

On the whiteboard, a red ledger was drawn.

"That's an irrefutable ledger of corruption and smuggling! It details how much silver Prince Ning has given to officials in the capital and local areas over the years! Those involved in the smuggling and profit-sharing were all Wang Yangming's close associates and colleagues!"

Zhu Dijun approached the camera, raised three fingers, and his eyes were extremely cold.

"This irrefutable evidence implicates tens of thousands of serving officials during the Zhengde reign of the Ming Dynasty! The vast majority of them are from the Jiangnan civil service! This is a killer list capable of uprooting the entire Ming Dynasty's civil service!"

In the Zhengde era of the Ming Dynasty, countless powerful figures dressed in crimson official robes suddenly collapsed to the ground, their legs giving way.

"Faced with this evidence, what would a truly loyal minister do? He would send it to the emperor with the utmost urgency, wouldn't he?"

Judy Jun let out a chilling burst of maniacal laughter.

"But what did Wang Yangming, the great master of Neo-Confucianism, do? He knew all too well that if this account book fell into Zhu Houzhao's hands, the entire Jiangnan gentry would be wiped out!"

"Therefore, risking execution, he immediately contacted the implicated high-ranking officials and pleaded the dire consequences. Subsequently, without obtaining an imperial edict, he forged one to borrow troops, forcibly launching an extremely hasty so-called 'suppression of the rebellion'!"

"Later historical records have embellished Wang Yangming's forty-three days of suppressing the rebellion as if it were divine intervention, a masterpiece of military strategy! It's all utter nonsense!" Zhu Dijun kicked the live-streaming table.

"His attack was so swift and urgent not for the sake of the Ming Dynasty, but because he was racing against time! He wanted to lead his troops into Nanchang before the emperor could personally send someone to take over the Ning Prince's residence, and burn that crucial account book completely and utterly! He was killing someone to cover his tracks! He was destroying evidence!"

The entire internet was in an uproar. The shock in the comments section overflowed the screen. All logic had completed a terrifyingly closed loop at this moment!

Zhu Dijun gave no one a chance to breathe. He pulled up another portrait—that of the Grand Eunuch Zhang Yong.

"The account books were burned, but the matter was not over. When Zhu Houzhao heard the news of the Prince of Ning's rebellion in the capital, he immediately sent Zhang Yong, the eunuch he considered his most trusted confidant, as the vanguard to go south ahead of time to investigate the case."

"And the result?"

A flash of extreme mockery crossed Judy Jun's eyes.

"Zhang Yong arrived in Jiangxi and met with Wang Yangming. In this secret confrontation, the two completed one of the most sordid political deals in Ming Dynasty history!"

"Wang Yangming could not possibly produce the real account book that implicated even one percent of the officials. He only provided a carefully altered, incomplete forged account book. And this fake account book contained only the names of marginalized figures who had lost power in the court struggles—a group of scapegoats pushed out by the civil officials of Jiangnan to take the fall!"

Zhu Dijun's fingers gripped the eunuch portrait tightly.

"Zhang Yong, the eunuch who had rendered great service in the execution of Liu Jin, had long since been completely bought off by the civil official group. He looked at the list of scapegoats, exchanged a knowing smile with Wang Yangming, and the two tacitly agreed that this pile of scrap metal would be enough to return to the capital and report to Zhu Houzhao!"

The dark conspiracy, vividly described by Judy Jun, is like a venomous snake coiled around the neck of every viewer.

"but!"

Zhu Dijun suddenly raised his voice, and the sound exploded in the hall.

"Zhang Yong and Wang Yangming miscalculated one thing. They thought they had done everything perfectly, but they underestimated the emperor sitting on the throne's terrifying intuition about the smuggling network at the border and in the provinces!"

Did Zhu Houzhao believe Zhang Yong's memorial? He didn't believe a single word of it!

On the big screen, a grand scene appeared: Emperor Wuzong Zhu Houzhao, dressed in military attire, leading a large army rapidly southward.

"Family members, recall the history we discussed before. In the fifth year of the Zhengde reign, the Prince of Anhua in Ningxia rebelled. Zhu Houzhao sent people to investigate, uncovering a shocking secret of smuggling by the border troops. In the twelfth year of the Zhengde reign, after the great victory at Yingzhou, Zhu Houzhao personally supervised the battle and uncovered a profit chain involving Buryat wild boar hides and border smuggling rings!"

Zhu Dijun placed his hands on the table, his eyes bloodshot as he stared at the camera.

"Having experienced these bloody betrayals, Zhu Houzhao knew all too well! The Prince of Ning was forced to raise an army in Jiangxi; how could this possibly be a simple rebellion by a vassal prince? There must be the biggest scheme and source of wealth hidden behind this by the Jiangnan civil official group!"

"This is the real reason why, after receiving news that Prince Ning had been captured alive, Zhu Houzhao not only did not stop, but also hurriedly led his army to march south of the Yangtze River!"

"He didn't go sightseeing! Nor did he go to compete with Wang Yangming for military merit!"

Judy Jun roared at the top of her lungs.

"He's going to confiscate their property! He's going to get that real account book that could completely wipe out the entire Jiangnan civil official group and instantly fill the Ming Dynasty's treasury!"

In the fourteenth year of the Zhengde reign of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Houzhao, who was on his way south, sat in his imperial carriage, listening to the sounds from the sky, and clenched his fists. His fingernails dug deep into his flesh, drawing blood.

On the sky, Zhu Dijun's eyes suddenly turned extremely sorrowful.

"However, this ambitious Emperor Wuzong of the Ming Dynasty was ultimately too late."

"When he arrived in Jiangnan, all he found were account books reduced to ashes and a bunch of scapegoats meticulously fabricated by Wang Yangming and Zhang Yong. The Jiangnan interest groups survived unscathed in this near-perfect cover-up."

The image on the large screen gradually dimmed, leaving only a tattered list burning with black smoke, suspended in mid-air.

Zhu Dijun stood in the darkness, his voice becoming extremely cold.

"Since Wang Yangming burned the real account book, and since the 'History of Ming' revised by the Manchus and the civil officials is full of lies."

"So next, we'll take the most basic, original archives from the Ming Dynasty and carefully peel back this bloody onion. Let's see which top figures in the court were actually involved in the Ning Prince Rebellion, and what unspeakable, dirty names the Qing Dynasty historians were desperately trying to cover up."