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

"That is—"

Zhu Dijun braced himself on the podium with both hands, leaned forward, and his eyes were so sharp that they seemed to pierce through the screen and into the eyes of every emperor watching the live broadcast.

"That means you must personally cultivate a large, highly organized team of grassroots cadres with an absolutely unified [belief]!"

A row of bold, gold-plated characters instantly appeared on the screen.

[Faith and Organizational Level!]

"Family, let's rewind the timeline a bit." Zhu Dijun straightened up and tugged at his collar. "When I talked about the Zhengde Reform before, I mentioned the extreme micro-management of Emperor Wuzong of Ming, Zhu Houzhao."

"Zhu Houzhao was actually an exceptionally intelligent man. He astutely perceived the deadlock of the civil service group's superficial compliance at the grassroots level. So what did he do to forcefully push through the 'rice fine law'? He personally bypassed the cabinet and the Six Ministries, forcibly placing hundreds of thousands of grassroots officials who did not belong to the traditional imperial examination system in the local areas!"

"He attempted to use these hundreds of thousands of people to replace the original civil officials and gentry, to help him collect grain from the people, audit accounts, and carry out reforms."

Judy Jun spread his hands and let out an extremely mocking sneer.

"Doesn't this sound a lot like the teacher's 'Imperial Power Goes to the Countryside'? Don't you think Zhu Houzhao has just touched the threshold of the correct answer?"

"But what was the result? The veteran players, back in the game, successfully overthrew the old world with the help of grassroots officials, while Emperor Wuzong of Ming, Zhu Houzhao, was brutally killed in the Leopard Chamber by the civil official group, along with his desk!"

Zhu Dijun grabbed the pointer and slammed it hard onto the whiteboard.

"Why is it that both of them bypassed bureaucracy to build up their grassroots teams, yet one achieved a monumental success while the other ended up with his death and the end of his policies?"

"Because the hundreds of thousands of men that Zhu Houzhao recruited were not warriors with any real faith! What drove them to serve the emperor was merely profit and power!"

"The emperor granted them official positions and privileges. Once these people were in the provinces and out of Zhu Houzhao's sight, what do you think they would do when faced with the real gold, silver, land, and beautiful women offered by the local gentry and landlords?"

The live stream chat was instantly flooded with comments.

"Is there even a need to guess? Just go along with the landlords!"

"It's just a different facade; they're still tyrants who plunder the people's wealth!"

"The dragon-slaying boy instantly transforms into a vicious dragon."

Zhu Dijun nodded, his gaze cold and hard.

"That's right! A group without faith wouldn't last three months against a vast and corrupt network of vested interests before being completely assimilated! They would turn around and collude with the vested interests, turning the privileges Zhu Houzhao granted them into new tools for extorting money from the common people!"

The setting is the second year of the Xining era of the Song Dynasty.

Wang Anshi gritted his teeth, his eyes twitching violently from extreme pain.

faith.

These two words were like a red-hot iron nail, smashing hard into the top of his head.

"I see... I see!"

Wang Anshi raised his head and let out a mournful laugh, his official hat tilting to one side with his violent movement.

"When I implemented my reforms, what I lacked most was precisely this 'faith'!"

Emperor Shenzong of Song, Zhao Xu, was deathly pale, his hands gripping the armrests of the dragon throne tightly.

Wang Anshi suddenly turned around and pointed to the empty hall.

"Your Majesty! When I implemented the new laws, the old faction in the court vehemently opposed them. In order to push the laws through as quickly as possible, I had no choice but to promote a large number of people who were willing to support the new laws. Lü Huiqing, Zhang Dun, Cai Que..."

Wang Anshi's voice trembled violently, every word laced with blood and tears.

"I thought they agreed with my grand ambition of enriching the country and strengthening its military. But looking back now, were these people really working for the Song Dynasty? Were they really working for reform? They were just using the name of reform to seize power from the old party and amass their own wealth!"

"With such corrupt officials at the top, the lower-level clerks who implemented the Green Sprouts Act and the Market Exchange Act have taken the means of accumulating wealth to the extreme! They have no faith; they are all opportunists! How can opportunists possibly build a strong and prosperous Song Dynasty for Your Majesty!"

Wang Anshi suddenly knelt down, his forehead hitting the blue bricks hard, and he wept uncontrollably.

The Ming Dynasty, a parallel timeline of twenty-six years during the Hongwu era.

The Fengtian Hall was deathly silent.

After Zhu Biao's death, Zhu Yuanzhang chose his fourth son as the new crown prince.

Zhu Di stood aside, not daring to even breathe loudly.

Zhu Yuanzhang remained with his hands behind his back, looking like a stiff sculpture.

"Belief……"

This iron-blooded emperor, who had crawled out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood and slaughtered all the corrupt officials in the world, felt a deep sense of powerlessness for the first time.

He thought of his Imperial Guards.

In order to rectify the officialdom and to avoid deception by the civil service system, he established the Embroidered Uniform Guard, allowing these imperial guards to patrol the country on his behalf.

Just a few years ago, he personally investigated and dealt with Mao Xiang, the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and later executed Jiang Huan.

Why?

Because the Embroidered Uniform Guard, like a rotten blade, had also decayed. They extorted, fabricated charges, and formed cliques to eliminate dissidents in the provinces; their greed and wickedness were in no way inferior to those civil officials who deserved to die.

"it's useless……"

Zhu Yuanzhang's voice was hoarse, as if he were talking to himself, "No matter how sharp a knife is, without that divine aura, it will rust after a while."

He turned to look at Zhu Di.

"Fourth brother, even if we skin them alive, the officials of our Great Ming Dynasty will still be greedy. Because they study to become officials just to get promoted, make money, and secure positions for their wives and children. These people have no compassion for the people of the world."

In the sky above, Zhu Dijun's voice continued to rise, carrying a penetrating power that made people's blood boil.

"What is the belief of that group of instructors?"

"It is to serve the people! It is to overthrow all oppressors, so that all the suffering peasants in the world can have enough to eat, warm clothes to wear, and stand tall as human beings!"

"For this belief, they could eat grass roots and tree bark in the snow, charge into a hail of bullets, and not even glance at a room full of dollars and gold bars!"

"Family members, this is a complete annihilation on a dimensional level!"

Zhu Dijun swung his arm forcefully.

"Feudal emperors dreamed of having a grassroots army that was absolutely obedient, absolutely incorruptible, and as easy to command as their own limbs. But these feudal emperors could never, ever achieve that!"

He stared intently at the camera, as if judging those high-ranking emperors through a screen.

"Because the foundation of a feudal empire is exploitation! The emperor is the biggest landowner and the biggest beneficiary in the world!"

"The emperor can't possibly tell his people that our faith is to overthrow exploitation. Because when that day comes, after they overthrow the local tyrants, evil gentry, and unscrupulous merchants, their final target will be you, sitting on the dragon throne!"

The Qin Dynasty, Xianyang Palace.

The bamboo slip in Ying Zheng's hand fell to the ground with a "thud".

For the first time in history, an incredulous shock flashed in the eyes of this emperor who was considered one of the greatest emperors in history.

"The biggest landowner in the world... Indeed, the royal family is the biggest landowner in the world, only the era is different, and the title is different."

Ying Zheng muttered to himself.

He always believed that he was the nation, and that all the people under heaven were his subjects.

But Zhu Dijun, a descendant of Zhu Dijun, shattered the sacred filter of feudal imperial power with this slap.

The so-called Qin Dynasty, the so-called Han Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty.

In essence, it was nothing more than a massive spoils-sharing group. The emperor sat at the top eating the meat, the officials in the middle drinking soup, while the common people at the bottom couldn't even lick the bone scraps.

The emperor is the biggest thief!

The Great Han Dynasty, Weiyang Palace.

The nonchalant look on Liu Bang's face vanished completely. He rubbed his cheeks vigorously, only to feel a chill run down his spine.

"The plan to wipe out the imperial family... This teacher of later generations followed a blatant scheme to eliminate all imperial families in the world."

Liu Bang gave a wry smile and looked at Lü Zhi.

"So it wasn't that we didn't use this tactic; it was that by using it, the banner of the Han Dynasty was torn down by the powerful and wealthy on the spot!"

In the live broadcast room, Zhu Dijun finally let out a long sigh of relief.

He pulled over a chair, plopped down, and gulped down a mouthful of water from the teacup next to him.

His voice was slightly hoarse from the intense emotional outburst he had just experienced.

"Alright. Let's shift our focus from those gods and back to the quagmire."

Zhu Dijun put down his teacup and tapped his fingers on the table with a rhythmic sound.

"The red path for veteran players is unique. For the feudal Ming Dynasty, which was mired in the quagmire of historical cycles, it was a visible but absolutely impassable road to heaven."

"Zhu Houcong was unable to leave the Western Garden to cultivate immortality, and Zhu Houzhao was unable to leave the clerks by force."

"But this dilapidated house of the Ming Dynasty, leaking from all sides, always needs to be repaired. Next, we'll continue talking about the Jiajing era, which had its good and bad aspects. You can continue listening, my friends, for lessons to be learned about your future direction."