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

Inside the live stream room, the lingering shadow of the eerie green incense burner dissipated.

The darkness on the big screen was instantly engulfed by an extremely violent red flame effect. The firelight reflected on Judy Jun's mocking face, making it look extremely eerie.

"Family members, in the last episode we talked about how the Jiajing Emperor, in order to retaliate against Empress Dowager Zhang, even set off a fire in the Forbidden City that almost burned that old witch to death."

Zhu Dijun slammed his hand on the live-streaming table, making a deafening noise.

"But in reality! When it comes to playing with fire, the Ming Dynasty's civil service is the true ancestor!"

Zhu Dijun grabbed a red marker and wrote six large characters on the whiteboard in a flamboyant style: "[Great Ming Fire Virtue Star Lord]!"

"If you look back at the more than two hundred years of history of the Ming Dynasty, you will discover an extremely chilling, ironclad rule that even the gods would find incomprehensible!"

Zhu Dijun opened his mouth and started a furious roll call.

"It all started with the fire in the palace of Emperor Yongle (Zhu Di)! When Zhu Qizhen, the war god of the Ming Dynasty, was restored to the throne, the granaries on the border caught fire! Emperor Xianzong sent people to check the accounts in the provinces, and they caught fire! Emperor Xiaozong sent people to audit the accounts, and they caught fire! When Emperor Wuzong (Zhu Houzhao) went south to check the smuggling accounts, he still caught fire!"

Zhu Dijun approached the camera, his eyes filled with hostility.

"These Jiangnan literati, these powerful officials who control the court, whenever they encounter an audit or a disobedient emperor, their first reaction is to set fire! A huge fire burns everything to the ground, leaving no evidence! And when it came to this Taoist Emperor Jiajing, who trampled the civil service group underfoot, he naturally couldn't escape this series of fire attacks either!"

One after another, the scorched archives of the "Veritable Records of Emperor Shizong of Ming" appeared on the screen like snowflakes.

"Let's see what kind of ruthless physical destruction these desperate civil officials unleashed against Jiajing!"

"In the first month of the first year of the Jiajing reign! The emperor had only been on the throne for a short time when he went to the southern suburbs for a sacrificial ceremony. Immediately afterwards, a fire broke out in the three small chambers behind the Qingning Palace! This was a show of force to the new emperor!"

The red timeline was jumping wildly on the screen.

"The 26th day of the first month of the tenth year of the Jiajing reign (1531 AD)!"

Zhu Dijun's finger was firmly poking at the first file.

"A sudden fire broke out in the eastern wing of the Imperial Palace! Thirty-five rooms were destroyed, and dozens of people were burned to death on the spot!"

"What was the cause given by the civil officials? They said it was a palace maid named Guo who got drunk and started a fire!"

Zhu Dijun let out an extremely grating, cold laugh. "Incredible! In the Forbidden City, a palace maid got completely drunk and caused a massive fire that burned down thirty-five rooms? Did she drink alcohol or gasoline? Emperor Jiajing was forced to issue a 'Fire Alarm Question' to defend himself, and ultimately ordered that all the reconstructions must be done with bricks! Why bricks? Because he knew that wooden houses would eventually be burned to death!"

The tenth year of the Jiajing reign of the Ming Dynasty.

Inside the West Garden Abode, Zhu Houcong, already in his twenties, stared at the sky, his fingers gripping the handle of his whisk so tightly that his knuckles cracked. The fire had been so strange that he knew there was a traitor in the palace, but unfortunately, the investigation ended with Guo Shi.

"That's it? This is just the beginning!"

Zhu Dijun kicked the chair next to him away.

"On February 28th, the 18th year of the Jiajing reign (1539 AD), Emperor Jiajing embarked on an extremely dangerous southern tour, passing by the Weihui Imperial Palace in Henan!"

A phantom image of a palace collapsing in a sea of ​​fire instantly appeared on the screen.

"The emperor was out in the most vulnerable position! A huge fire suddenly broke out in the palace, so large that it was impossible to extinguish! And the cause? History records it as 'a palace maid's candle ignited the fire'! Screw the candle! It burned down the entire palace; this is blatant murder!"

"If it weren't for Lu Bing, the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard at the time and Zhu Houcong's wet nurse, who risked his life to hold back the falling red-hot wooden beams and carry Jiajing out of the inferno, the Ming Dynasty's number one homebody would have died on the spot! In order to protect the emperor, palace maids Li and Xia were burned alive in the palace!"

Zhu Dijun's eyes were bloodshot, like those of an enraged lion.

"Family members! Do you understand why Jiajing later refused to leave the capital, even to the point of never attending court? If you went out, the imperial palace would be set on fire! While you were sleeping, flames would leap onto the roof! Who would dare to go out?!"

Another, even more shocking piece of historical material suddenly appeared.

"In April of the twentieth year of the Jiajing reign! A great fire broke out first at the East Grassland. The fire was extremely fierce and burned for a full two hours, only stopping when it got dark and a torrential rain began! Rumors had already started spreading in the capital that the fire was going to burn down the ancestral temple!"

"And that very night! The Imperial Ancestral Temple really did catch fire!" Zhu Dijun slammed his fingers heavily on the table, making a loud thud.

"The fire started at the Renzong Temple and spread all the way down! It burned the ancestral tablets and temples of nine ancestors, including Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang and Emperor Chengzu Zhu Di, to the ground!"

Inside the Fengtian Hall during the Hongwu reign.

Zhu Yuanzhang slammed his hand down on the bronze imperial desk in front of him, shattering it, and his eyes bulged out instantly.

"They burned down our ancestral temple?! These beasts burned down all the ancestral temples of the Zhu family?!"

The founding emperor was so angry that he trembled and drew his imperial sword, striking directly at a pillar in the main hall.

In the sky, Zhu Dijun's voice carried a chilling aura that sent shivers down one's spine.

"What's most incredible is that all nine ancestral temples were destroyed, but the temple of Emperor Ruizong, the emperor's biological father whom Jiajing risked his life to bring into the Imperial Ancestral Temple, remained completely intact! It stood alone!"

"Family members, carefully consider the psychological manipulation behind this!" Judy Jun roared at the top of her lungs.

"These civil officials set fire to all the ancestral temples of the Zhu family, leaving only the temple of Jiajing's biological father intact! This is using physical means to wage a propaganda war! The next day, the court and the public were in uproar, and scholars all over the country were saying: This is the wrath of Heaven! The ancestors are angry! Because the emperor insisted on putting his biological father into the Imperial Ancestral Temple, Heaven sent down a great fire as punishment! Forcing Jiajing to issue an edict of self-reproach!"

In the modern live streaming room, the barrage of comments instantly erupted into an extremely fierce united front.

"Holy crap! This is a conspiracy! They deliberately left your father's temple exposed, so you can't defend yourself!"

"To kill someone, you must first destroy their spirit! These civil officials are utterly venomous snakes in their manipulations!"

"This isn't the Ming Dynasty, this is Gotham City!"

Judy Jun didn't stop at all; the timeline was still advancing wildly, and the entire screen was filled with a blinding crimson!

"In the twenty-sixth year of the Jiajing reign! Another great fire broke out in the inner palace! The fire was extremely fierce, burning the Empress's palace to the ground!"

"The thirteenth day of the fourth month of the thirty-sixth year of the Jiajing reign! The most devastating one!"

A horrific image of the Forbidden City's three main halls reduced to ashes was displayed directly on the screen.

"History records say that a thunderstorm struck the Fengtian Hall! Thunder and fire! This fire reduced the core of the outer court of the Ming Dynasty—the three main halls of Fengtian, Huagai, and Jinshen, along with the Fengtian Gate, the Wenwu Tower, the Meridian Gate, and fifteen palace gates—all to utter ruins!"

Zhu Dijun pressed his hands firmly against the podium.

"Even the place where court was held was burned down! Court assemblies had to be moved to the Wenhua Hall! In the end, Jiajing spent a full 3.3 million taels of silver and five years to repair it, and he even renamed the three main halls Huangji, Zhongji, and Jianji to suppress the fire! And what was the result?"

Another fire scene was captured on the screen.

"On the night of November 25th, the 40th year of the Jiajing reign! A fire broke out in the Wanshou Palace in the Western Garden, where the Jiajing Emperor resided for a long time! What was the cause? The Veritable Records actually say that it was caused by the Jiajing Emperor and his concubine playing with fireworks in their fur-lined tent! Bah!"

Zhu Dijun spat directly onto the ground.

"A paranoid emperor who spends all his time cultivating immortality and refining elixirs, and who is wary of assassins to the core, would actually do something as idiotic as playing with fireworks inside a flammable fur tent in winter?! The palace, his clothes, and his treasures were all burned down, forcing Jiajing to hastily move to the Yuxi Palace!"

"On the same day! The Imperial Horse Stables also caught fire! More than ninety rooms were destroyed! What are they trying to do? They're even sealing off all the horses the emperor used for his escape! A comprehensive, multi-faceted murder!"

"In the forty-fifth year of the Jiajing reign, a year before his death, on June 24th, a fire broke out in the palace. A palace maid, Yang, burned to a crisp while protecting the emperor!"

Forty-five years. The emperors of the Jiajing reign of the Ming Dynasty lived in a powder keg that could have cooked them alive at any moment.

In a parallel timeline, 14 years into the Zhengde reign of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Houzhao, who had just led the border troops to cleanse the capital, stood there, holding a bloodstained sword, staring at the sky with his lips tightly pressed together. He had previously thought his cousin was too useless staying in the palace, but now he understood everything.

In this Forbidden City, this kid's situation is ten thousand times more dangerous than when he faced the Mongol cavalry on the Yingzhou battlefield!

With a group of civil officials who specialize in murder and arson, it's no wonder that the emperors of the Ming Dynasty were all like fire deities.

Inside the live stream, the dense barrage of comments paused briefly.

Zhu Dijun turned around and wrote down, word by word, the official closing statement about these fires from the "Veritable Records of Emperor Shizong of Ming".

"Family members, after witnessing so many deadly fires that nearly cost us our lives, let's examine the reasons given by this group of civil officials who control the government and compile history."

On the whiteboard, five cold excuses appeared.

"First, architectural reasons: the entire structure is made of wood, with dense connecting corridors, making it extremely easy for the virus to spread."

"Secondly, the reasons for using fire: frequent use of fire for palace lighting, sacrifices, and heating."

"Thirdly, the reason for the veneration of Taoism: the emperor built many Taoist temples in the Western Garden, which involved too much fire."

Fourth, the cause of the lightning strike: the main hall was too tall and did not have a lightning rod.

Fifth, management reasons: the prohibitions were lax, and the emperor himself took the lead in violating them.

Judy Jun took two steps back, pointed at the five excuses, and suddenly let out an extremely wild and cold laugh. The laughter echoed in the hall, revealing undisguised contempt.

"Do you understand? None of these reasons mention 'assassination' or 'arson to force a resignation'!"

"If something goes wrong, it's either due to outdated equipment or a natural disaster. At worst, it could be due to your personal conduct, Emperor Jiajing, that you set it on fire while playing with fireworks! Or it could be some long-dead, nameless palace maid who violated regulations!"

Zhu Dijun slammed his hand on the table.

"In the historical records, written in the context of a scholar-official from Jiangnan, our Ming Dynasty's civil service was portrayed as incorruptible and honest! They only knew the Four Books and Five Classics; how could they possibly commit such a despicable act as arson and burning down the palace? The sun and moon bear witness!"

The moment the phrase "as clear as the sun and moon" was uttered, millions of netizens in the modern live stream burst into laughter.

The screen was filled with a barrage of comments, all of which were extremely sarcastic and provoked by this dark humor.

"Hahaha! What the hell is this, claiming it's completely innocent! It burned from Zhu Di to Zhu Houcong, and you're telling me it's due to the aging of the wooden structure?"

"Other dynasties didn't use wood to build houses, right? How come we didn't see fires all the time during the Han and Tang dynasties?"

[“Civil service group: Those who know, know; those who don't, we'll make one up for you in the ‘Records’!”]

"This is hilarious! After burning down the East Grassland, they burned down the Imperial Ancestral Temple, but still managed to leave the Ruizong Temple intact. Did this lightning strike have eyes? It even has GPS navigation!"

Netizens aren't fools. When an excuse has been used for over two hundred years, even a fool knows it's the standard formula for physical destruction used by the Ming Dynasty's civil service.

Zhu Dijun looked at the comments on the screen and stopped sneering. His face darkened completely, and all his muscles tensed up, like a fully drawn bow.

"But that's the truth."

He stared intently at the camera.

"This is the tragic state of affairs after the Ming Dynasty's imperial power was completely surrounded by civil officials. You could defend yourself against the ministers who led the coup outside Zuoshun Gate, but you couldn't prevent lamp oil from being poured on the inner palace, or even inside the fur-lined tents where people slept!"

"Jiajing Emperor didn't attend court because he could die at any moment if he stepped out of that private residence! He controlled all power through secret edicts and petitions, using Yan Song as a front man to divert all the hatred from the civil officials!"