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

"Family members, I left a foreshadowing at the end of the last chapter. Although the Great Rites Controversy resulted in flogging in court and Jiajing used Wang Xian to stabilize the northern border, how could the group of civil officials in the Ming court who had been stripped of their power possibly swallow this insult?" Zhu Dijun stood in front of the whiteboard, holding a blackboard eraser, and roughly erased the names of Wang Xian and Ma Fang.

The light on the big screen instantly turned into an extremely oppressive, dark yellow.

"When they couldn't force Jiajing to acknowledge his father through normal political channels in the capital, they immediately activated another traditional Ming Dynasty 'passive skill'—using someone else's knife to kill someone!" Zhu Dijun grabbed a black marker and wrote four large characters heavily on the left side of the whiteboard—"The Ganzhou Incident"!

"In the fourth year of the Jiajing reign! Just as the mutiny in Datong was suppressed by the Taicang silver and Wang Xian was locked in a fierce battle with the Mongols in the northern frontier, a cataclysmic, hellish storm suddenly erupted on the vast northwestern border of the Ming Empire!"

A massive map of the northwestern frontier was suddenly unfurled, with a red laser pointer firmly fixed on the coordinates of [Hami Guard].

"Family members, those who know a little history know that Hami was the absolute gateway for the Ming Dynasty in the Western Regions! The Ming Dynasty used it to defend against the invasion of nomadic forces from Central Asia, which was equivalent to the breastplate of the entire northwest defense line!"

Zhu Dijun suddenly kicked the edge of the live broadcast table.

"But in the third year of the Jiajing reign, this breastplate was smashed by the strongman Sutanmansur of Turpan! After occupying Hami, Mansur immediately sent an envoy named Xieyihuxian to Suzhou of the Ming Dynasty to test the waters and demand the commencement of tribute trade!"

"What kind of person is this Xie Yihu Xian? He's just a Hami Hui traitor who plays both sides between Turpan and the Ming Dynasty, profiting from both sides! He thought he could still get rewards by flattering Ming officials like before. But he picked the wrong person!"

A portrait of a Ming Dynasty official with a stern face, wearing a scarlet official robe, is slammed onto the center of the screen—Chen Jiuchou, the Governor of Gansu!

"Chen Jiuchou was a pure hardliner! Looking at this foreign envoy swaggering on his territory, and recalling the Jiajing Emperor's policy of 'abolishing tribute' against the Mongols, he directly pulled in the garrison eunuch Dong Wenzhong and did something extremely ruthless, but also extremely deadly—kill the envoy!"

Zhu Dijun's roar echoed in the live broadcast room:

"From the end of the third year to the beginning of the fourth year of the Jiajing reign, Chen Jiuchou directly set up a series of traps, luring and capturing Xie Yihuxian and his group of envoys, and beheading them on the spot! His motives were simple: first, to cut off Turpan's internal collaborators in Gansu; second, he especially wanted to use this head to curry favor with the court!"

In modern live streaming rooms, the screen is instantly flooded with comments.

"Holy crap! In times of war, you don't kill envoys, this guy's ruthless!"

"Kill them if you want, the spirit of the Ming Dynasty is still intact, just do it!"

["Wait, Brother Jun just said 'fatal'? Could the Ming Dynasty's military strength at that time withstand Turpan's retaliation?"]

As Judy Jun looked at the comments, a mocking cold light, as if he were looking at a corpse, shone in his eyes.

"Just do it? Family, you've overestimated the fighting power of the Ming Dynasty's border troops in the early years of the Jiajing reign!" The screen suddenly transformed into a reconstruction of a battlefield with rivers of blood.

"Upon learning of the envoy's murder, Mansur went berserk! In April of the fourth year of the Jiajing reign! Under the pretext of avenging Xie Yihuxian, he personally led tens of thousands of troops, overwhelming the Ming Dynasty's Gansu garrison with overwhelming force!"

"On April 24th! The scouts sent out by the Ming Dynasty encountered the vanguard of Turpan at Gushan River. When they returned to report, they were terrified! By May, Mansur's main force swept through like locusts, completely besieging the important town of Suzhou! Another army frantically attacked and plundered Ganzhou! The Ming Dynasty's northwest defense line was on the verge of collapse!"

In the myriad realms and timelines of the Ming Dynasty during the Hongwu era.

Zhu Yuanzhang stared intently at the illusory image of Suzhou City on the sky, his fists clenched so tightly his knuckles turned white. "Foolish! Killing the envoy may have been satisfying, but to provoke a powerful enemy when the border defenses are weak and supplies are insufficient is gambling with the lives of the entire Northwest! This Chen Jiuchou is brave but lacks strategy!"

In the sky, Zhu Dijun grabbed the pointer and lashed it heavily against the coordinates of the city wall of Suzhou.

"The enemy is at the city gates! Chen Jiuchou has no way out! He can only resort to his last resort—scorched earth! All soldiers and civilians retreat into the city, blocking the city gates! Mansur's army, unable to plunder food outside, is starving and their eyes are green with hunger. They are attacking the city walls like madmen! Chen Jiuchou personally stands on the city wall to supervise the battle, and directly orders the large red cannons to be brought up and bombard the Turpan camp below the city!"

The booming sound of cannons echoed in the live stream room as background noise.

"A bloody battle! A meat grinder-like bloody battle! The Ming Dynasty's northwestern border army, with its broken weapons and emaciated bodies, stubbornly withstood the fiercest first wave of Turpan's offensive! By June of the fourth year of the Jiajing reign, Mansur's army, unable to break through after a prolonged siege, coupled with the scorching heat causing their horses to lose weight, and fearing the arrival of Ming reinforcements, could only plunder before slinking away in disgrace!"

Zhu Dijun slammed his hand on the whiteboard.

"The defense of Suzhou was a narrow victory! In July and August, Chen Jiuchou's reports of victory flooded Beijing like snowflakes! Logically speaking, even if he recklessly provoked the conflict in the early stages, shouldn't the emperor reward him for his meritorious service in defending the territory?"

He suddenly lowered his voice in an eerie way, and a chilling smirk appeared on his lips.

"But family members, don't forget. Right now, the Ming Dynasty court is a truly chaotic and corrupt place!"

The battle on the big screen instantly ended, replaced by the oppressive atmosphere of the imperial court deep within the Forbidden City. Two groups of figures in official robes were tearing at each other like hungry wolves.

"The victory report had just been delivered to the Ministry of War when the Ming Dynasty's factional strife meat grinder immediately went into full swing!" Four large, blood-red characters slammed onto the public screen—"The Prison of the Frontier."

"The first wave to jump out and attack were the old faction left behind by Grand Secretary Yang Tinghe! These people were just looking for an excuse to attack Jiajing's border defense policies. They used Chen Jiuchou's memorial to impeach him relentlessly: Your Majesty! Chen Jiuchou arbitrarily killed tribute envoys, provoking trouble on the border! This has brought foreign invasion and caused widespread suffering in Gansu! Although we didn't lose this battle, it was all his fault! He must be severely punished!"

Zhu Dijun moved closer to the camera and poked his finger straight at the screen.

"The second wave of those who jumped out were Zhang Cong and Gui E, the newly appointed officials who supported Jiajing's recognition of his father as his father! Logically, the new officials should be opposed to the old party, right? But at this critical juncture, Zhang Cong and his group have inexplicably sided with Yang Tinghe's remnants! They also demanded the execution of Chen Jiuchou!"

The chat room was instantly stunned.

"Holy crap? How did our arch-rivals join forces? What kind of magical plot is this?!"

"The civil officials are fighting like dogs, how come they all ended up attacking a military general who is fighting desperately on the front lines?"

"Because of interests! Because of damn political calculations!"

Judy Jun roared at the top of her lungs.

"Zhang Cong and his cronies know exactly what's going on! Chen Jiuchou's predecessor was someone promoted by Yang Tinghe! By killing Chen Jiuchou, they can not only legitimately undermine the political base of Yang's faction, but also use this as a pretext to thoroughly implement the 'closed-door policy' established by the Jiajing Emperor!"

"In the eyes of these civil officials, the loss of Hami, the deaths and injuries of the soldiers and civilians in Suzhou, and the bloodshed of the frontier soldiers are all unimportant! What matters is who can use this war as a pretext to crush their political enemies and seize back their voice in the court!"

The era of the Zhengde reign of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Houzhao, inside the Leopard Chamber, looked at the sky and smashed the wine cup in his hand on the ground with a "crack," shattering it into pieces.

"These heartless beasts! The peace that border generals risked their lives for has become a stepping stone for their factional strife! The backbone of the Ming Dynasty has been broken by these civil officials who only know how to fight amongst themselves!"

Zhu Dijun gripped the podium tightly with both hands, his eyes filled with a deathly stillness.

"The eighteen-year-old Jiajing Emperor sat on the dragon throne, looking at the noisy courtiers below, and finally made an extremely ruthless decision."

On the large screen, a cold, illusory imperial edict descended.

"In order to establish the national policy of completely severing trade with the Northwest, and to balance the infighting among factions in the court, Jiajing directly issued an edict: Chen Jiuchou, the governor of Gansu, was sentenced to imprisonment and interrogation by the Embroidered Uniform Guard for arbitrarily killing a tribute envoy! He was ultimately stripped of his official post and exiled to the frontier! All Northwest officials implicated in this case were also punished!"

"They won the war, but lost the political arena. The civil officials who were flogged at Zuoshun Gate finally completed their extremely twisted revenge on the northwestern border!"

Zhu Dijun grabbed a rag and, with extreme slowness and force, rubbed the three characters "Hamiwei" on the whiteboard into a blurry ink stain.

"This Ganzhou Incident effectively sentenced the Ming Dynasty's border defenses to a suspended death sentence. Chen Jiuchou's fate chilled the hearts of all the border generals. From that day on, no border general dared to take the initiative in the face of foreign invasions, and no one dared to bear even the slightest political risk for the court."

"Hami Garrison was completely abandoned, and the Ming Dynasty's northwestern defense line was forced to retreat to within Jiayuguan Pass. The entire Western Regions, during the Jiajing reign, completely broke away from Chinese control and became a playground for foreign tribes!"

The entire online audience was silent. An extremely intense sense of frustration and anger welled up in everyone's chest.

Zhu Dijun casually tossed aside the rag, turned around, and gazed through the screen as if looking at the young emperor deep within the Forbidden City who thought he had everything under control.

"Jiajing thought he had quelled the factional strife with a regional prison and gained control of the Western Regions defense line. But he had no idea that the civil official group was plotting a series of extremely insidious killings."

Suddenly, a strange water clock sounded in the background. Tick-tock, tick-tock.

"The external threats have been dealt with, and the military officers on the border have been imprisoned. These scholars, driven to the brink, are finally about to offer their most vicious pledge of allegiance to the one thing that Jiajing cares about most and that is most untouchable."

Zhu Dijun's voice sounded like it was possessed by a demon.

"Guess who they're going to kill next?"