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

The fire effects on the big screen were suddenly swallowed up by a giant black ink blob.

Zhu Dijun stood in front of the podium and slammed the laser pointer in his hand heavily on the table.

"Family members, let's continue talking about the Jiajing Emperor! In the first year of Jiajing's reign alone, the power struggles in the Ming Dynasty court were like a battle of gods, with the situation changing rapidly and extremely dangerous!"

Judy Jun strode to the new timeline whiteboard.

"In April of the sixteenth year of the Zhengde reign (1517), Jiajing forcibly entered the city and ascended the throne using eleven characters at Liangxiang Post Station. The following year, the first year of the Jiajing reign (1522 AD),..."

The red timeline is frozen at the beginning of the first lunar month.

"The new year has just begun, and what greeted the fifteen-year-old new emperor was a devastating fire! A sudden fire broke out in the rear hall of Qingning Palace!"

Judy Jun gave a mocking sneer.

"We already thoroughly explained the methods used to start the fire in the previous chapter. As soon as the fire started, all the civil and military officials swarmed around it like flies smelling blood. Using the pretext of a 'celestial anomaly,' they frantically submitted memorials to the emperor, urging him to obediently abide by the etiquette established by Yang Tinghe!"

"How did the fifteen-year-old Jiajing Emperor handle this? Not only did he not fly into a rage, but he also went with the flow, issuing an edict to abolish the corrupt practices of the Zhengde era and reduce redundant officials and servants. It seemed like he was bowing down to the civil service group, but in reality, he was using the civil service as a tool to purge the old forces in the court!"

The timeline is suddenly pulled back one step, set in February.

"In February, Jiajing Emperor formally established Lady Chen as Empress. Immediately following this, in the first phase of the Great Rites Controversy, he made an extremely restrained concession—honoring Emperor Xiaozong of Ming as his late father and referring to his own father, Prince Xingxian, as his own son, Emperor Xingxian!"

Zhu Dijun tapped the words "Ben Sheng" heavily with his fingers.

"On the surface, Yang Tinghe won; the civil service group forced the emperor to become Emperor Xiaozong's son. But all of this was merely a tactical compromise by Jiajing when he had no other bargaining chips!"

"Because in the very following March, a shocking event occurred in the Ming Dynasty court that was far more insidious and far-reaching than the beating at the Zuoshun Gate!"

Four large characters, seemingly soaked in black blood, crashed onto the public screen—【Record of the Compilation】!

"In the first year of the Jiajing reign, Grand Secretary Yang Tinghe spearheaded the official launch of the compilation project for the 'Veritable Records of Emperor Wuzong of Ming'!" Zhu Dijun suddenly kicked aside the stool beside him. "My family! Emperor Zhengde, Zhu Houzhao, has only been dead for less than a year, and these civil officials haven't even had time for his bones to cool completely before they're already eager to give him their final verdict!"

A yellowed list of Ming Dynasty officials' resumes was slapped directly onto the screen.

"Open your eyes and take a look at this list of leaders for compiling history! It's so impressive it's downright terrifying!"

Zhu Dijun grabbed the pointer and lashed it hard across the first row.

"Supervised by: Grand Tutor, Duke of Dingguo, Xu Guangzuo!"

"Chief Officials: Yang Tinghe, Junior Tutor and Grand Tutor to the Crown Prince, Minister of Personnel, and Grand Secretary of the Hall of Literary Glory! Jiang Mian, Junior Guardian and Grand Guardian to the Crown Prince, Minister of Revenue, and Grand Secretary of the Hall of Diligent Governance! Mao Ji, Junior Guardian and Grand Guardian to the Crown Prince, Minister of Revenue, and Grand Secretary of the Hall of Military Prowess! Fei Hong, Grand Guardian to the Crown Prince, Minister of Revenue, and Grand Secretary of the Hall of Military Prowess!"

"Is this some kind of history revisionism?!"

Zhu Dijun roared in the live stream, his eyes twitching wildly with extreme anger.

"This is the entire cabinet mobilized! The four most powerful Grand Secretaries of the Ming Dynasty have personally taken charge and are overseeing the operation! These are the people we just uncovered in the Leopard Chamber assassination, the masterminds suspected of using the Imperial Medical Academy to murder Emperor Wuzong and forging an imperial edict to massacre Jiang Bin and the border troops!"

"Let the murderer write the victim's biography and death report!"

Zhu Dijun gripped the edge of the podium tightly with both hands, his eyes sharp and murderous.

"What are they trying to do? They want to use the pen of official history to completely whitewash all the heinous crimes and dirty deals they committed at the end of the Zhengde reign!"

Parallel universe. The fourteenth year of the Zhengde reign of the Ming Dynasty.

In the military camp outside Beijing.

Having just learned of his tragic future death, Emperor Wuzong Zhu Houzhao stared intently at the sky above, his knuckles turning a ghastly pale from the extreme force he was exerting.

"Yang Tinghe... Jiang Mian... Mao Ji..." Zhu Houzhao forced out these names through gritted teeth, drawing blood from the corner of his mouth.

Jiang Bin and Qian Ning, who were kneeling beside them, were already terrified.

"Your Majesty! These beasts not only want our lives, but they also want to ruin our reputation for posterity!"

Jiang Bin roared, tears mixed with blood streaming down his face.

"I know."

Zhu Houzhao drew the sword from his waist, the blade reflecting his eyes, which were now completely consumed by madness.

"They want to use history books to kill me? I'll first chop their entire family to pieces with my steel blade!"

Inside the modern live broadcast studio, Zhu Dijun's commentary pace quickened.

"However, history is always full of dark humor! Not long after the revision work began, the Jiajing Emperor launched a counterattack against the Great Rites Controversy!"

The team roster on the screen instantly turned mostly red.

"From the first year of the Jiajing reign to the third year, as the debate over rites intensified, a fierce infighting and reshuffling occurred within the Grand Council! Yang Tinghe, Jiang Mian, and Mao Ji, the three Grand Secretaries who had fiercely opposed Jiajing in the Great Rites Controversy, were successively forced to resign and leave their hometowns in disgrace by this teenage Daoist emperor!"

"This led to Fei Hong, who was ranked last, being promoted to the top executive and becoming the core leader of the later stages of compiling the 'Veritable Records of Emperor Wuzong of Ming'!"

Zhu Dijun coldly pointed out Fei Hong's name.

"The compilation work lasted for three and a half years. In June of the fourth year of Jiajing, this Veritable Record, which concerns the life and death of Zhu Houzhao, finally faced the final draft."

A blood-red document dialog box popped up on the big screen.

"Just as the manuscript was about to be completed, the compiler Lin Shi stepped forward. He made a crucial suggestion to the vice president Dong Qi—when recording the two major events of dynastic change, namely 'welcoming Emperor Shizong' and 'executing Jiang Bin,' the great achievements of the cabinet and Yang Tinghe must be absolutely affirmed!"

"Dong Qi relayed this suggestion to President Fei Hong. Fei Hong slapped his thigh and immediately approved it!"

Zhu Dijun grabbed the gavel and struck it with a resounding crack that shook the entire courtroom.

"Do you understand the logic behind this?! Although Yang Tinghe was banished back to his hometown by the emperor, in the face of the common interests of the civil service group, they still wanted to use history books to portray Yang Tinghe as a great and loyal minister who saved the day!"

"Suspected of poisoning the emperor? Not mentioned!"

"Abolishing the selfishness of border generals? It wasn't mentioned!"

"The brutality of the massacre at Leopard House? All packaged as 'eliminating traitors and rectifying the court'!"

With a sudden wave of his hand, Judy Jun erased all the names on the whiteboard, leaving only a huge black hole.

"To highlight the 'correctness' and 'loyalty' of these civil officials, they had to smear the deceased Emperor Wuzong Zhu Houzhao to the extreme! Zhu Houzhao personally leading troops to kill people in Yingzhou was absurd! Zhu Houzhao cracking down on smuggling was incompetent! Zhu Houzhao using eunuchs instead of civil officials was a chaotic government!"

"All the blame should be placed on this thirty-one-year-old emperor who died from complications after falling into the Qingjiangpu River and from the imperial physician's medicine!"

The live stream chat exploded instantly, with netizens' anger almost bursting the screen.

"Holy crap! Is this the true value of official history books? Is this how history can be dressed up however one pleases?"

"The murderer wrote a defense of innocence for himself, while conveniently portraying the victim as a deserving scoundrel! It's so surreal!"

["I feel sorry for Wu Zong for a second. He's dead, but these bastards keep pinning him down and attacking him!"]

As Zhu Dijun looked at the screen filled with a flurry of comments, a chillingly sinister glint appeared in his eyes.

"so!"

He held up one finger, pointing it directly at the camera.

"Never, ever believe the nonsense in TV dramas and those pedantic novels about 'historians recording events truthfully' and 'not changing a single word'!"

"So how should we interpret the historical records of the Song and Ming dynasties? And what exactly are the official histories of the Qing dynasty?"

Zhu Dijun pulled over a chair, sat down heavily, and leaned forward like a hungry wolf ready to devour its prey.

"In the next chapter, I'll tear away the filter of civil service that has shrouded China for thousands of years. Let's see just how disgusting these pens can be—their methods of killing without shedding blood!"