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

"Furthermore, let's set aside the stigmatized southward campaign of Emperor Wuzong (Zhu Houzhao). Let's move the timeline forward and talk about Zeng Guofan of the Xiang Army, who drastically altered Wang Yangming's philosophy of mind!"

On the big screen in the live broadcast room, Zhu Dijun's eyes were as cold as ice.

"Their paths to 'sanctification' are exactly the same! Moreover, this Zeng Guofan is a complete traitor who changed his surname to Han; he is a descendant of the Yongzheng Emperor's sons, not the fabricated history you see on so-called encyclopedias, Baidu, and Douban platforms!"

Zhu Dijun slammed his fist on the table, causing the microphone to emit a dull echo.

"Trampling on the flesh and blood of their compatriots, using the most insidious means to boost their own reputation, and then, with a stroke of the pen, transforming themselves into eternal saints!"

"But within the mess that is the Ming Dynasty, the evil of humanity displayed by Wang Shouren is more chilling than wild boar hide!"

The setting is the fourteenth year of the Zhengde reign of the Ming Dynasty.

The land south of the Yangtze River, under the celestial canopy, was now shrouded in an eerie stillness.

At this time, the people of the Ming Dynasty had no idea who Zeng Guofan would be hundreds of years later, but they now truly saw clearly what kind of horrifying beast Wang Shouren, who was praised to the heavens by the civil service group, really was!

If it were merely a matter of serving different masters, a life-or-death struggle between the imperial faction and the civil service group, people could still reluctantly accept the notion of "the great loyalty between ruler and subject."

But what Wang Shouren did was to kill people indiscriminately among his acquaintances!

Liu Yangzheng was his junior fellow student who discussed academic matters with him, and they were close friends who entrusted each other with their studies. Lou was his junior fellow student, and Prince Ning, Zhu Chenhao, was his brother-in-law!

Faced with this relationship, if you, the great sage Wang, are truly righteous and awe-inspiring, you can simply sever ties and fight it out on the battlefield.

But he just wouldn't!

He insisted on using the guise of a "close friend" and "senior brother" to trick Liu Yangzheng on the ship, instigating Prince Ning to rebel prematurely. Then, he turned around and led his troops to slaughter all his trusted friends, even leaving his junior sister, Lady Lou, with her family destroyed!

What's even more chilling is that scholar named Ji Yuanheng!

Those were your personally trained disciples, Wang Yangming! They were loyal servants who risked execution to secretly infiltrate Nanchang Prefecture to run errands for you, all for your ambition!

The results of it?

Once the matter was settled, in order to make that shady deal with the eunuch Zhang Yong and to bury the real smuggling ledger forever, this most loyal student was simply used as fodder by Wang Shouren to fill the hole, and was silenced without hesitation in the dark and hopeless prison!

Even the iron pole that works for him can unleash gold coins without hesitation.

In his eyes, aren't other people even less than pork on a chopping board?

On this day, the entire Ming Dynasty reached an extremely terrifying consensus.

Wang Shouren is a man you should never befriend!

Panic even swept through the entire Ming Dynasty officialdom. Those officials who came from Jiangnan with Wang Shouren, especially those from Yuyao, Zhejiang, instantly became plagues that everyone avoided.

You can't trust a single person from Yuyao! This is a den of bastards who are always ready to stab you in the back and fleece you for money! Anyone who dares to befriend them will suffer the same fate as Liu Yangzheng and Ji Yuanheng!

The story takes place in the fifth year of the Jiajing reign of the Ming Dynasty.

The Hall of Supreme Harmony in the Forbidden City, Beijing.

The young emperor Zhu Houcong, who had been on the throne for five years, sat high on the dragon throne.

Inside the spacious white marble plaza and the Golden Palace, civil and military officials gathered together. But at this moment, the atmosphere in this highest power center of the Ming Dynasty was like a frozen pool of water.

Everyone's gaze turned uncomfortably toward that spot inside the hall.

On the sky, the stern accusations of Zhu Dijun, a descendant of the Prince of Zhao, were like steel knives, stripping Wang Shouren bare of his despicable role in the Ning Prince Rebellion of the fourteenth year of Zhengde, leaving him with nothing but his underwear.

In the imperial court, a group of high-ranking officials from Jiangnan, who were originally standing beside Wang Shouren according to their official ranks, were present.

At that moment, everyone involuntarily took two or three steps back.

Within the vast court hierarchy, Wang Shouren was effectively isolated, becoming a solitary island covered in poisonous thorns.

These high-ranking civil officials slightly raised their chins, their faces all displaying the extreme contempt and disgust that scholar-officials were most adept at.

It was as if getting even a little closer to this "maniac who preys on acquaintances" would leave an indelible stain on one's official robes.

Not only that.

The way the Six Ministries, Nine Ministers, Supervising Secretaries, and Censors looked at people had completely changed. Those colleagues from Yuyao, Zhejiang, standing in the queue felt like they were being pricked by thorns.

The officials around them all stared at them with extremely vigilant, thief-like eyes, as if they were afraid that these people from Yuyao might drag them into prison one day for the sake of promotion and wealth.

After all, he was a grandmaster of a school who could sell off even his nominal junior brothers, direct disciples, direct junior sisters, and junior sister husbands at will.

What can't he sell among his fellow villagers, disciples, and grand-disciples?

Zhu Houcong sat on his high throne, taking in the ugly spectacle of the dogs fighting amongst themselves below.

He casually picked up a memorial from the imperial desk and threw it onto the gold brick, making an extremely jarring, crisp sound.

The young Jiajing Emperor smiled gently, pointing to the sky in mid-air, his voice echoing leisurely in the hall.

"Wang Shouren, my dear Wang."

"You are the renowned master of Neo-Confucianism in our Great Ming Dynasty. Every official in the court praises you as a man of integrity and virtue."

Zhu Houcong leaned forward slightly, but his eyes were like those of a venomous snake flicking its tongue.

"How will you explain these things mentioned on the celestial screen to me, and to all the officials of the Ming Dynasty?"

Wang Shouren, kneeling before the prince, was deathly pale.

He slightly raised his head and saw the "righteous" and "upright" expressions on the faces of his colleagues from Jiangnan.

An extremely violent surge of frustration and anger rushed to the top of his head, making him so angry that his nose almost twisted out of shape.

Wang Shouren clenched his teeth so tightly that his fingernails dug deep into the flesh of his palms inside his wide sleeves.

Pack!

You bunch of hypocrites, keep pretending!

So, you officials are all clean, while I, Wang Shouren, am filthy?!

Hey!

Back when Prince Ning was rampant with smuggling in Jiangnan, which of you didn't have thousands or tens of thousands of taels of dirty money in your homes? On which page of Prince Ning's account books are the names of you upright officials?

If it weren't for the fact that I risked the extermination of your entire family back in Nanchang Prefecture to burn those real account books that could have killed you all to the ground, and then just randomly found one percent of unlucky souls to take the blame...

You bunch of bastards were skinned alive and stuffed with straw by the border troops under Emperor Wuzong back in the fourteenth year of Zhengde's reign!

Now that the storm has passed and you've killed Emperor Wuzong, and the heavens have exposed my sordid deeds, you're still pretending to be so noble and virtuous?!

But Wang Shouren dared not utter a single word of these vulgarities that were enough to overthrow the Ming Dynasty court.

The account books have been burned, and there's no way to prove anything now. If he dared to make accusations in the main hall, the entire court could drown him on the spot with their spittle, without the emperor even lifting a finger.

Wang Shouren slammed his head heavily against the gold brick, and blood instantly seeped from his forehead.

"His Majesty!"

He raised his hoarse voice and put on an extremely indignant and wronged expression.

"This matter is entirely fabricated and a complete slander! It is a deliberate smear campaign by Zhu Dijun, the future descendant of the Prince of Zhao! Your Majesty, my loyalty to the Ming Dynasty and to the late Emperor is as clear as day!"

However, he had barely finished speaking.

Suddenly, an extremely unrestrained roar erupted from the procession of the imperial princes!

Because of the emergence of the live broadcast, Zhu Houyu, the Prince of Zhao Kang of the Jiajing era, who had been summoned to the capital by special decree, could no longer suppress his fury.

The speaker on the screen, Zhu Dijun, is a true descendant of the King of Zhao!

Zhu Houyu suddenly jumped out of the line of princes and rushed to Wang Shouren in a few steps.

He completely disregarded any princely decorum and directly raised his right foot, which was clad in a heavy court boot.

With a vicious flying kick, he brutally struck Wang Shouren in the chest!

boom!

The kick was extremely powerful. Wang Shouren, who was nearly sixty years old, let out a shrill scream. He rolled three or four times on the floor of the Golden Palace like a kite with a broken string. His official hat fell off, his hair was disheveled, and he was in a very sorry state.

"You, surnamed Wang! Who the hell are you saying is slandering you?!"

Zhu Houyu's eyes were bloodshot as he pointed at Wang Shouren, who was lying on the ground vomiting blood, and cursed him.

"My descendants will display all the local gazetteers, your memorials to quell the rebellion, and your eulogies on the heavenly screen! The evidence is irrefutable!"

"You old dog, how dare you claim innocence?"

Zhu Houyu grabbed Wang Shouren by the collar and yanked him up from the ground, spitting all over his face.

"Since you call it slander! Then tell His Majesty the truth about Prince Ning's rebellion back then! Confess all the shady dealings you did with the eunuch Zhang Yong in Jiangxi!"

"What account books were burned? Which corrupt officials in the court were you covering up? Don't try to fool people with your utterly hypocritical pseudo-Confucianism again!"

This statement came out.

The air pressure inside the entire Fengtian Hall instantly dropped to absolute zero.

Even Emperor Jiajing, Zhu Houcong, on the dragon throne, slightly suppressed his smile.

The civil officials standing in the rows on both sides had completely changed their expressions from watching the show to observing it all.

Those high-ranking officials who were corrupt during the Zhengde reign, who took bribes from Prince Ning's smuggling activities, and who may even have been involved in the drowning incident during Emperor Wuzong Zhu Houzhao's southern tour.

The moment Zhu Houyu pressed him for the "real ledger" and "who he was covering for," an extremely intense and sinister murderous intent flashed in his eyes!

A nauseating stench of blood filled the air inside the main hall.

That fool, Prince Zhao Zhu Houyu, dared to question the bottom line in public!

It seems... Wang Shouren absolutely cannot be allowed to live.

What kind of bullshit master of the Mind School? Isn't this just a brand that we, the literati of Jiangnan, forcibly promoted to you by spending money, manpower and effort in order to resist the imperial power?

Now your signboard is not only infamous, but it could also become a powder keg that ignites the lives of our entire race at any moment!

Since you are no longer useful, and have even become a hidden danger.

Then they should disappear completely from this world!

Despite the excruciating pain in his chest, Wang Shouren, whose collar was being grabbed, still managed to instantly and keenly sense the terrifying killing intent converging from all directions.

He was all too familiar with that look.

When Ji Yuanheng looked at him in despair from the death row, he also gave him the same emotionless, murderous gaze.

What goes around comes around. The very knife that cut off all future troubles was finally placed against the neck of this "perfect man of all ages."