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

Zhu Dijun stood in front of the whiteboard in the live broadcast room, which was filled with the political codes of the Ming Dynasty. He drew an extremely crude vertical line in the center of the whiteboard with a black marker.

This line, like a bottomless chasm, cleaved the Ming Dynasty court in two.

"Family members, let's continue with the Great Rites Controversy. While Zhu Houcong and the civil service group led by Yang Tinghe were fiercely fighting over who would control the legitimate discourse in the country, the entire political landscape of the Ming Dynasty had rapidly split into two extremely polarized factions because of this struggle!"

Zhu Dijun wrote the three characters "[Protestant Faction]" heavily on the left side, and added "[Imperial Party]" in parentheses next to them.

"This faction is mainly composed of officials like Zhang Cong, Gui E, and Fang Xianfu, who have just passed the imperial examinations or have been marginalized and lower-ranking officials in the court! Their banner is 'respecting human relationships,' and they firmly support the emperor's veneration of his biological father!"

"Why do they support it? Because they've seen through it all! As long as they follow the emperor to overthrow those old fogies, they can seize power and completely control the core authority of the country!"

Then, Zhu Dijun's pen tip jabbed heavily to the right, writing "[Protective Faction]", followed by "[Cabinet Party]" in parentheses.

"This faction's lineup is terrifying! It's absolutely centered around cabinet heavyweights like Yang Tinghe, Mao Ji, and Mao Cheng, as well as high-ranking officials from the Six Ministries! They cling desperately to the Cheng-Zhu school of Neo-Confucianism and the precedents of the Han and Song dynasties, insisting that Jiajing address his own father as 'Imperial Uncle'!"

Judy Jun tossed the marker aside with a cold laugh. "Are these two factions really arguing about etiquette and law? Bullshit! This is just a blatant power struggle!"

"In the first year of the Jiajing reign, this fifteen-year-old Taoist priest emperor began to reveal his chilling political skills! He directly used the 'Great Rites Controversy' as a sharp scalpel, and began a systematic personnel purge and power restructuring of the civil service!"

On the big screen, Yang Tinghe's name was marked with a huge red cross.

"The first step was to weaken the Grand Secretary! Yang Tinghe was practically all-powerful at the time, but Jiajing managed to pry open a breach in the rock! He forcibly promoted officials from the Rites Controversy faction, and directly forced Yuan Zonggao, a former official who had followed him from Anlu, Huguang, all the way to Beijing, into the cabinet!"

"This move, striking at the heart of the matter, immediately shattered the cabinet's previously closed power structure! The emperor had driven a nail into Yang Tinghe's seemingly impregnable fortress of ministerial power!"

Zhu Dijun slammed his hands on the table, speaking rapidly. "Second step: a complete overhaul of the six ministries! Your cabinet can veto imperial edicts, can't it? Fine, I'll just cripple your entire executive branch!"

"Despite the condemnation of the entire civil service, Jiajing forcibly dismissed a large number of opposition officials, including Lin Jun, Minister of Works, and Peng Ze, Minister of War! No sooner had he driven them away than he installed his own confidants and followers in the Six Ministries. The entire administrative apparatus of the Ming Dynasty began to fall step by step into the control of imperial power!"

In the sixteenth year of the Zhengde reign of the Ming Dynasty, at the Western Garden.

Fifteen-year-old Zhu Houcong looked at himself in the sky above, a cold smile creeping onto his lips.

"Yang Tinghe, do you think you can control me with just a few words from the classics? I'll pull out all your teeth, cut off your hands and feet, and see what you'll use to fight me then!"

Inside the modern live-streaming room, Zhu Dijun's gaze suddenly darkened, revealing a chill that went straight to the top of his head.

"Family members! Faced with the emperor's extremely ruthless method of seizing power, will Yang Tinghe and his gang of old foxes who have controlled the court for over a decade sit idly by and wait for their doom? Will they just watch as the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Works are taken from them?"

The screen went black instantly. Four blood-red characters slammed onto the public chat: 【Great Ming Military God】!

"No way! So, right in the first year of the Jiajing reign, at the most crucial moment of the emperor's purge of the Six Ministries, that extremely familiar, specialty-level 'passive skill' of the Ming Dynasty was triggered again!"

Judy Jun kicked the chair next to him aside and yelled at the top of her lungs:

"In the first year of the Jiajing reign! Right outside the gates of Beijing in Shandong! A rebellion that shocked the court and the public broke out!"

"That's right! This rebel named Wang Tang is the next generation of military genius of the Ming Dynasty, following in the footsteps of Liu Liu and Liu Qi! And his background is even more fantastical—he's a miner!"

In the modern live stream room, when millions of viewers heard the words "miners" and "Shandong," the entire internet's DNA instantly stirred. The barrage of comments erupted like a volcanic eruption.

"Holy crap! This recipe is so familiar! This taste is so familiar!"

"The fifteen-year-old emperor was just about to consolidate his power when hundreds of thousands of rebels suddenly appeared near the capital? The civil service group's mechanism for spawning these monsters is really well-timed!"

["Emperor Yingzong of Ming seized military power, and Deng Maoqi emerged in Fujian! After Emperor Wuzong of Ming was deposed, he purged members of the imperial faction, and Liu Liu and Liu Qi emerged in the north! Emperor Jiajing purged the Six Ministries, and Wang Tang emerged in Shandong! Is this the legendary 'Three Consecutive Strike' of the Ming Dynasty?!"]

"This is hilarious! Do these civil servants have some kind of ancestral guide on how to scientifically create a rebellion and force the emperor to abdicate?"

Not only modern netizens, but also emperors from all dynasties in the Ming Dynasty's multiverse were furious.

Inside the Fengtian Hall during the Hongwu reign, Zhu Yuanzhang slammed his hand on the imperial desk, sending the inkstone flying. "These beasts! These ungrateful bastards! They stir up local rebellions the moment it comes to seizing power! Do they really think the Zhu family can't see through this rotten game of using others to kill us?!"

Enraged, Zhu Di of the Yongle reign drew his sword and cleaved the screen in two.

"Miners again! Bandits again! These civil officials, in order to protect their own official positions, don't care about the lives of the Ming people at all!"

In the sky, Zhu Dijun picked up a modernly printed collection of historical materials and slammed it heavily on the podium.

"Here, regarding this Wangtang Uprising, we are now verifying through various channels and we see two completely different versions of the timeline. One version says that it broke out in April of the first year of Jiajing's reign, while the other version, which is the authoritative academic mention in Bai Shouyi's 'General History of China', is November of the first year of Jiajing's reign."

"And if you use AI software like Doubao, KIMI, or Qianwen to search now, they'll give you a split personality, simultaneously spewing out two contradictory answers: one for April and one for November!"

Zhu Dijun stared coldly at the camera. "For the sake of historical accuracy, we are explicitly using the November version here! Why? Because there is irrefutable evidence from the Ming Dynasty government! Volumes 20 and 37 of the *Veritable Records of Emperor Shizong of Ming*! And Volumes 50 and 51 of the *Comprehensive Mirror of the Ming Dynasty*!"

"November was precisely the time when the Jiajing Emperor's reshuffle reached its climax, and Yang Tinghe was driven to the brink of desperation! This wasn't a coincidence; it was a perfectly timed counterattack!"

A crimson military route map was cut directly from the screen.

"Look at this mining strategist's incredible skills!" Zhu Dijun's laser pointer raced across the map. "In November of the first year of the Jiajing reign, Wang Tang raised an army in Yanshen Town, Qingzhou, Shandong!"

"How many people were there at the beginning? Only a few dozen miners!"

"But family, a miracle happened! These few dozen starving miners, who had received no military training, suddenly swelled into a huge army in just a few months! Local artisans, merchants, and impoverished farmers joined the ranks as if they had received a script in advance!"

"What's even more terrifying is the fighting power of the royal court!"

The red light from the laser pointer stretched across the map of Shandong, forming a raging, blood-red line. "After the uprising broke out, Wang Tang led his troops in a mobile warfare mode throughout Shandong! He attacked and plundered Laiwu, Tai'an, Xintai, Dongchang, Yanzhou, and Jinan!"

"During this raging campaign, the local Ming Dynasty garrison troops were like paper, completely overwhelmed and utterly crushed! The rebels not only defeated the government forces but even killed Yang Hao, the deputy commander of Linqing, on the spot!"

A brutal mockery swirled in Judy Jun's eyes.

"A miner, leading a group of refugees, killed a fourth-rank imperial military officer! Is that all? No!"

The red light suddenly crossed the provincial border and plunged directly into the heart of Henan!

"Wang Tang's army turned towards Jinxiang and Yutai, directly crossing provincial borders into Henan! They attacked and plundered Kaocheng, Xiangfu, and Fengqiu! On the outskirts of Kaocheng, the rebel army directly confronted the main force sent by the imperial court, and after a bloody battle, they utterly defeated the government troops! More than 800 fully armed Ming Dynasty soldiers were killed on the spot!"

"This battle has thoroughly shaken Henan and the Baoding region! The southern gateway to the capital is now in grave danger!"

The entire room fell silent. Even the chat in the live stream stopped.

Zhu Dijun gripped the edge of the podium tightly with both hands, his knuckles turning white, and he let out a soul-stirring roar at the camera.

"I ask you all here: You started as a few dozen miners, traveled thousands of kilometers, and crossed two provinces!"

"Where did they get their siege equipment for conquering cities and seizing territory?!"

"Who secretly supplied their tens of thousands of troops with provisions along the way as they roamed across provinces?!"

"They always manage to precisely avoid the encirclement of the Ming army's main force and accurately find the weak points in the defense of the garrisons. This kind of military intelligence network, which even the Minister of War would drool over, is some kind of insider providing them with a complete map cheat code?!"

"Do you really think rebellion is child's play?! Without the local gentry and the powerful civil officials providing them with money, food, weapons, and intelligence, Wang Tang and his dozens of miners wouldn't even be able to leave Qingzhou before being wiped out on the spot by the local constables!"

The Xuande reign of the Ming Dynasty.

Emperor Xuanzong Zhu Zhanji watched the horrific defeat unfold on the sky, his palms sweating profusely. He finally understood: his leniency towards civil officials had resulted in them turning the state apparatus into a tool for personal venting. To maintain their power, they were willing to sell out the life of a fourth-rank military officer, and to have over eight hundred Ming soldiers die in a meat grinder meticulously orchestrated by their own people!

"How did the imperial court ultimately handle this massive, man-made rebellion?"

Zhu Dijun's voice was as cold as ice.

"At this time, the cabinet stepped forward to demonstrate its 'loyalty.' The Ming court urgently appointed Yu Jian, the Grand Censor in charge of grain transport, and Lu Gang, the Grand Commandant, to oversee military affairs in Shandong, Henan, and other provinces, and mobilized a large force to encircle and suppress them."

"Under the combined suppression of the regular army at all costs, the uprising was swiftly quelled in February of the second year of the Jiajing reign."

Zhu Dijun straightened up, adjusted his collar, and a chilling smirk curled at the corner of his mouth.

"The Fujian miners' uprising during the reign of Emperor Yingzong of Ming and the Liu Liu and Liu Qi uprising during the reign of Emperor Wuzong of Ming were both orchestrated and promoted by the civil official group. This time, you want to say it's an accident because the common people couldn't survive? I absolutely don't believe it."

He stared directly at the camera.

"So, family members, do you believe this matter has nothing to do with the civil service?"