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

"Family members, the year has come to the third year of the Jiajing reign! This year is considered by most to be the absolute peak of the Great Rites Controversy, the most devastating clash between imperial power and the civil service!"

Zhu Dijun stood in front of the live broadcast booth, grabbed a red marker, and drew a huge blood-red exclamation mark on the whiteboard.

"I mentioned the flogging at Zuoshun Gate before. Today, we'll break down the timeline and examine the deadly information hidden within this bloody incident under a microscope. Please forgive any repetitions, as this event directly determined the course of the entire mid-to-late Ming Dynasty!"

The chat was filled with rapidly scrolling comments, and millions of viewers instantly became excited.

"Don't worry, Brother Jun! Watching these hypocrites get punished is something I could watch ten times over!"

"Yes! History textbooks used to just gloss over it, but today we're going to see rivers of blood!"

"A grand discussion to reach its climax! Front row snacks and soft drinks are ready!"

Zhu Dijun tapped the whiteboard, and the timeline on the large screen clicked to freeze at February of the third year of the Jiajing reign.

"The air in the imperial court has been thick with tension for the past month!"

Zhu Dijun ripped off his tie and swept his eyes across the camera like knives.

"Yang Tinghe, the most powerful minister of the Ming Dynasty, who held absolute power at the end of the Zhengde reign and even dared to plot against Emperor Wuzong Zhu Houzhao, is now completely finished!"

"He clung to the patriarchal bottom line of the Great Rites Controversy, refusing to allow Jiajing to posthumously honor his biological father. But he never dreamed that this fifteen-year-old Taoist emperor would play by his own rules! Jiajing used the Li Yangfeng case and the Nanjing plague as a series of traps to forcefully seize the legal right, cornering Yang Tinghe!"

"At this point, Yang Tinghe was forced to resort to the last and most shameless tactic a civil official could use against the emperor—threatening to resign!"

Zhu Dijun sneered and held up one finger.

"He thought he was the pillar of the Ming Dynasty, that the young Jiajing Emperor, who had only been on the throne for three years, couldn't manage the country without him. He submitted his resignation, waiting for the emperor to weep and beg him to stay, and then obediently bow his head on the matter of acknowledging him as his father!"

"But how did Jiajing approve it?"

Four sharp characters instantly appeared on the public screen: 【准尔致仕】!

"Get out! If you want to leave, then get out now!" Jiajing Emperor didn't even offer a polite word, approving on the spot! The arrogant Grand Secretary Yang slunk away back to his hometown in Sichuan with his bedding packed up!

"But do you think the civil service has given up?"

Zhu Dijun kicked the edge of the live broadcast platform hard, making a loud bang.

"Yang Tinghe is down, and the faction protecting the emperor has completely gone mad! Their commander-in-chief has been eliminated; this is a life-or-death moment where their livelihoods are at stake!"

A long scroll of memorials from the Ming Dynasty, densely covered with signatures, appeared on the large screen.

"Minister of Rites Wang Jun directly led more than 250 high-ranking officials to submit a joint memorial! More than 250 people! How many officials were there in the entire capital of the Ming Dynasty? This was an all-out effort! They used the collective power of the civil officials to pressure the emperor, insisting that Jiajing must address Emperor Xiaozong as 'Imperial Father' and demote his own biological father, Prince Xingxian, to 'Imperial Uncle'!"

"Faced with a collective coup by more than 250 high-ranking imperial officials, this was tantamount to the entire state apparatus issuing an ultimatum to the imperial power. If it were Emperor Jianwen or Emperor Daizong of Ming, they would have been so terrified that they would have issued an edict of self-reproach overnight!"

Zhu Dijun gripped the table tightly with both hands, his eyes revealing extreme rage.

"But Jiajing's response was only four words—'Keep it in the archives, don't issue it!' I won't look at it, approve it, or reply! I'll leave you all to dry like dried meat!"

The Hongzhi reign of the Ming Dynasty.

Emperor Xiaozong Zhu Youcheng sat on the dragon throne, his expression extremely complex. That was Yang Tinghe, whom he had personally promoted, yet he had been forced to abdicate by a fifteen-year-old boy who had used a dull knife to cut his flesh. More than two hundred officials had joined forces to force the emperor to abdicate, but this young emperor had remained as steady as a mountain; his forbearance and composure even far surpassed that of his uncle!

In the modern live stream room, the timeline scrolls to [March].

"By March, the situation at court had reached its breaking point. Finally, Jiajing issued an edict."

Two lines of black text on a yellow background appeared on the large screen:

His biological father was honored as the late Emperor Gongmu Xian.

The birth mother is honored as the Holy Mother of the Holy Family, Empress Dowager Zhang Sheng.

"Family members, look carefully! There are two extra words here—【本生】!" Zhu Dijun grabbed a red pen and circled those two words heavily, the red light blinding. "This is Jiajing's tactical compromise on the brink of disaster! By agreeing to add the words '本生,' he is essentially acknowledging in the patriarchal system that he was adopted by Emperor Xiaozong of Ming as his son, and that Prince Xingxian is merely his 'blood father.'"

"This retreat sent the civil service into a frenzy! They thought the emperor had finally backed down, and that they, the scholars, had won the three-year-long battle of the Great Rites Controversy!"

Zhu Dijun suddenly leaned closer to the camera, a cold, bloodthirsty smile curling at the corner of his mouth.

"But if the wolf takes a step back, why?"

"It's to crush the other person's throat even more!"

The timeline suddenly accelerated, jumping wildly, and finally came to a bloody stop in July.

The background color of the entire live broadcast room instantly turned into an extremely oppressive dark red.

"Three months of forbearance! During these three months, Jiajing thoroughly investigated all the most troublesome and vocal figures in the court! By July 12th, this rapidly developing dictatorial behemoth had completely dropped its pretense!"

Judy grabbed the gavel and slammed it down hard!

boom!

"Jiajing issued his final edict: strip him of the title 'Bensheng'! I'm not playing this game anymore! Prince Xingxian is my biological father, my only biological father! I am the legitimate heir of the lineage, and anyone who dares to utter a single word will die!"

"This slap, in front of the entire world, drove the entire civil service organization completely mad!"

The image on the big screen suddenly changed.

The Forbidden City was shrouded in gloom. Outside Zuoshun Gate.

The dark red official robes stretched out in a continuous line.

"July 15th! Family members, remember this day! Yang Tinghe's son, Yang Shen, the top scholar of the Ming Dynasty! He, along with He Mengchun, Zhang Chong, and others, spearheaded a campaign to unite 229 civil and military officials!"

Zhu Dijun pointed at the phantom images of the crowd kneeling outside Zuoshun Gate on the screen and roared.

"I mentioned before that they were wailing and lamenting, but you have no idea how terrifyingly powerful this tactic is! It's called 'Shaking the Gate and Crying in Admonition'!"

"More than two hundred high-ranking Ming Dynasty officials, in broad daylight, were wailing and crying while frantically banging their heads against the Zuoshun Gate! Some even went forward and shook the large pillars of the Zuoshun Gate with all their might! The cries and the banging on the gate made the tiles of the entire Forbidden City tremble!"

"Yang Shen, as the leader, even shouted at the top of his lungs outside the door: 'The state has nurtured scholars for 150 years; today is the day to uphold integrity and die for righteousness!'"

"Family members! What are they doing?!" Zhu Dijun's roar was like a powder keg exploding. "They are using the power of the group to engage in political bullying! They are using an extremely extreme method to tell the whole world: the emperor sitting inside is a tyrant who doesn't even abide by the rules of our ancestors! If we don't bow our heads and admit our mistakes today, the entire machinery of the Ming Dynasty will immediately come to a standstill!"

In a parallel Zhengde era of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Houzhao gripped the wine pot, his eyes bloodshot, his blood boiling as he watched.

"Good! These beasts are using their numbers to force me to abdicate! They did the same thing to me back then! Zhu Houcong, have your cousin kill them all! Leave no one alive!"

Above the sky, the background sound effects of the live broadcast room instantly changed to a dull, grating sound of wooden sticks hitting flesh.

boom! boom! boom!

Did Jiajing compromise?

Zhu Dijun suddenly waved his hand, and the screen was instantly filled with the blood-red character "kill".

"Compromise my foot! The best way to deal with these shameless civil officials is to completely tear apart their dignity! Jiajing didn't even send eunuchs out to reason with them; he directly unleashed the coldest and most brutal state violence machine of the Ming Dynasty—the Embroidered Uniform Guard!"

"Arrest warrant issued! Fully armed Imperial Guards stormed out of the palace gates like wolves! No trial needed! No need for the three judicial offices to examine them! The Emperor orders their immediate arrest!"

"The 134 ringleaders were immediately shackled and thrown into the death row of the Imperial Guard prison like dead dogs! The remaining high-ranking officials of the fourth rank and above were all suspended from their duties pending punishment!"

Zhu Dijun pressed his hands firmly on the podium, close to the camera, his eyes filled with a violent light.

"Don't you like banging on doors? Don't you like dying for your principles? Today, Jiajing will grant your wish!"

"More than 180 people! Their pants were pulled down in public by the Imperial Guards, and they were forced to sit on the blue bricks outside the Zuoshun Gate! They were flogged! Beaten mercilessly!"

"Fellow countrymen, the Ming Dynasty's court flogging wasn't done with thin bamboo sticks on the buttocks; it was with wooden clubs covered in iron, capable of shattering bones! One blow, and the skin was torn open! Ten blows, and the flesh was a bloody mess! When more than 180 people were being beaten at the same time, the sound of bones breaking, mixed with their piercing screams, completely drowned out their self-righteous moral slogans!"

Zhu Dijun's finger pointed directly at the screen.

"Jiajing showed no mercy! The beatings turned the blue bricks outside Zuoshun Gate a deep red! Seventeen high-ranking officials were beaten to death on the spot, their internal organs spilling out!"

"Seventeen lives lost! Limbs and dismembered bodies littering the ground!"

The Hongwu reign of the Ming Dynasty.

Looking at the blood-soaked Zuoshun Gate in the sky, Zhu Yuanzhang felt no cruelty, but instead burst into hearty laughter.

"Well done! What rules did we establish back then? A subject must do his duty! Daring to unite and threaten imperial power, he deserves to die! This kid truly has the spirit of our Zhu family!"

In the modern live streaming room, the comments section has completely gone crazy.

"Holy crap! That's awesome! It's so awesome it's giving me goosebumps! Even though I've heard it before!"

"Is this the true value of a dictatorship? I'm in love!"

"What kind of integrity does a civil official have? A few blows and they're all rotten flesh! Jiajing was awesome!"

Zhu Dijun picked up the blackboard eraser and roughly wiped out all the names of Yang Tinghe, Wang Jun, and Yang Shen from the whiteboard.

"What was the result of this massacre? The opposition completely collapsed! The once deeply entrenched civil service, capable of deposing and installing emperors, was beaten to a pulp by this court beating. The backbone that the Ming Dynasty's scholar-officials were so proud of was broken into eight pieces outside Zuoshun Gate!"

"Imperial power, in an extremely bloody and barbaric manner, completely and utterly overwhelmed the power of the prime minister!"

"In the Great Rites Controversy, Jiajing Emperor won! He won completely!"

The live stream chat was filled with jubilation, with everyone cheering for this ultimate power struggle.

But Zhu Dijun put down the blackboard eraser, stood in front of the podium, and didn't smile at all.

He crossed his arms, resting his chin on them, and stared coldly at the camera.

"Everyone thinks that Jiajing's decisive and ruthless actions were exactly like those of a protagonist in a wish-fulfillment novel, right?"

He suddenly lowered his voice eerily, as if a demon were whispering in his ear.

"But think about it carefully. From the very beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang established a basic system of checks and balances between imperial power and the power of the prime minister. Even if it was flawed, it was still barely keeping the country running. But today, this system has been completely shattered by this beating."

"When an emperor who has just turned fifteen suddenly discovers that as long as he is unreasonable, as long as he dares to use a knife, and as long as he kills people ruthlessly, he can make all the civil and military officials kneel at his feet like dogs and lick their wounds."

Zhu Dijun suddenly moved closer to the camera.

Will he ever again abide by the rules of this world?