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

Zhu Dijun picked up the teacup, drank the remaining water in one gulp, and then slammed the teacup heavily onto the table.

The soul-stirring crimson on the big screen receded like a tide, replaced by a dark, mottled, and leaky map of the Ming Dynasty.

"Family members, we've had our fill of watching the red-clad dimensional reduction attack, but we also need to keep our feet on the ground."

Zhu Dijun grabbed a black marker and drew a huge abacus on the whiteboard.

"As we just said, feudal emperors, constrained by their class, could never overturn the table. They could only act as patchers and repairmen."

"But among this group of paperhangers, Jiajing, this eighteen-year-old Taoist priest, is definitely an extremely ruthless player who pushes the limits!"

A shocking bill suddenly appeared on the big screen.

"The first move: political distancing and cultivating a public image! Historically known as 'refusing to serve the lackeys'!"

Zhu Dijun grabbed the pointer and lashed it hard at the bright red numbers on the bill.

"In the early years of the Jiajing reign, Censor Lei Yinglong submitted a memorial exposing an extremely absurd expense in the palace. The Court of Imperial Sacrifices spent over 16,000 catties of meat and over 5,000 shi of grain annually just to feed the palace's hawks, hounds, insects, and birds!"

"Who left this mess?"

Zhu Dijun sneered and pointed directly at the screen.

"It was Emperor Zhengde, Zhu Houzhao! It was that bloodsucking hole left by his Leopard House, which was full of birds and beasts!"

"After reading this memorial, Emperor Jiajing, without any further words, immediately issued an edict: 'Remove them all! Release the hunting dogs and hounds, and stop supplying them with feed! This is to demonstrate frugality and care for the people!'"

The era of the Zhengde reign of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Houzhao, inside the Leopard Chamber, spat out a mouthful of wine, glared at the room full of strange and exotic animals, and slammed his fist on the table in anger.

"Bullshit! How much does it cost me to keep a few hawks and hounds? The silver those civil officials embezzled could support a hundred Leopard Houses! This Zhu Houcong brat, is he trying to glorify himself by stepping on his cousin's face and win over the hearts of the civil officials?!"

On the sky, Zhu Dijun analyzed Jiajing's motives with remarkable precision.

"You think Jiajing was really stingy with those meat buns? Wrong! He was sending a strong political signal to all the civil officials in the land—I am not my absurd cousin, I am a wise ruler who listens to your advice! With this one move, he not only saved money, but also gained an excellent public image for free!"

He suddenly scribbled two large characters on the whiteboard: "Make Money!"

"But simply saving money isn't enough. The Ming Dynasty was a dilapidated house leaking from every angle. In the first month of the lunar calendar, the capital suffered a severe famine, and Emperor Jiajing ordered all major temples and almshouses to distribute porridge. Throughout the year, taxes and grain rations in Shanxi, Sichuan, Zhejiang, and other places were reduced or exempted multiple times for disaster relief. What does disaster relief require? It requires a ton of pure silver!"

A salt transport line running through the north and south of the Ming Dynasty suddenly unfolds on the screen.

"The second strategy: reorganize the salt administration of Lianghuai! Seize the Ming Dynasty's purse strings!"

Zhu Dijun spoke at an extremely fast pace, delivering information like cannonballs.

"During the Zhengde era, the salt administration was in complete disarray, and smuggled salt was rampant. The Jiajing Emperor intervened forcefully, restoring the old system! He divided the salt tax into two categories: 'regular shares' and 'accumulated shares.' This regulated the salt merchants' tax payments and cleared the bottleneck in the border grain transport! What is this called? This is called forcibly taking the fat meat from the mouths of civil officials and smugglers and stuffing it back into the national treasury!"

In modern live streaming rooms, the bullet comments scroll rapidly.

"The Taoist priest is quite adept at managing the economy; salt tax has always been a vital source of income in ancient times."

"Saving first, then making money—that's a very solid strategy."

"Once the economy is running smoothly, the next step will be for Jiajing's ambitions to be fully exposed!"

Zhu Dijun slammed his hand on the whiteboard, and the map on the big screen instantly zoomed in, locking onto the southwestern border.

Three blood-red coordinates appeared—[Mangbu].

"The third move, an extremely powerful geopolitical reshuffle—the conversion of native chieftains to imperial officials!"

"An internal strife broke out among the chieftain families of Mangbu in Sichuan, who fought tooth and nail for territory. According to past practice, the Ming court would try to smooth things over and wait until the fighting was over before recognizing a new chieftain."

Zhu Dijun's eyes turned cold, like a knife.

"But Jiajing wouldn't have it! He was going to strike while the iron was hot! He directly ordered the abolition of the Tusi system in Mangbu! He established Zhenxiong Prefecture and appointed officials directly from the court to govern it!"

Weiyang Palace of the Han Dynasty

Liu Bang suddenly sat up straight, slapped his thigh, and shouted:

"Good lad! Insidious and ruthless! Taking advantage of the infighting among local warlords to stab the central government in the back—that's a slick move!"

"Although this reform of replacing chieftains with centrally appointed officials was later thwarted due to resistance from the chieftains."

Zhu Dijun placed his hands on the podium.

"But this was an extremely strong strategic shift by the Ming Dynasty on its southwestern frontier! Jiajing used his actions to tell all the chieftains under heaven—the emperor had the final say on the Ming Dynasty's territory!"

With the Southwest Strategy finalized, the screen switched back to the inland villages of the Central Plains.

"Family members, in the last chapter we just discussed how feudal emperors couldn't achieve 'imperial power not extending to the county level.' So how did Jiajing deal with this deadlock?"

One after another, ancient stone tablets appeared as phantom images on the screen.

"The fourth measure: Implement village covenants! A low-budget version of grassroots organization from the feudal era!"

"Without instructors, the Jiajing Emperor resorted to the tools of his ancestors—Confucian ethics! He implemented a large-scale village covenant system in Huizhou and other places. He erected 'Village Covenant Steles' at the entrance of villages, engraving rules of loyalty to the emperor, filial piety, and obedience on stone. He used the power of local gentry and clans to brainwash the people, barely maintaining social order at the grassroots level!"

The era of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at the stone tablets and sighed heavily. "There's no other way. Sending officials won't work, and the so-called 'red players' tactics of later generations are useless. I can only use this set of ethical principles to keep the people's minds in check. That grandson of Zhu Houcong has certainly perfected the art of mending."

Zhu Dijun frantically tapped the whiteboard with his pointer.

"If the local level can be stabilized through village covenants, how can the vast civil service bureaucracy be stabilized?"

Two government orders appeared on the screen.

"In March, enact the Long-Term Service Law! Stipulate that local officials, especially prefects, must serve for a period of three to nine years! Don't you dare think about getting promoted and leaving as soon as you've made your share of the profits. Stay here and clean up the mess you've made!"

"In June, an imperial edict was issued banning harsh punishments! Those judicial officials who abused torture were to be severely punished! This policy of appeasement was used to win over the hearts of scholars throughout the land!"

Zhu Dijun took a deep breath and turned around abruptly.

All the policy charts on the big screen went out instantly, replaced by the extremely oppressive imperial court deep inside the Forbidden City.

Two figures dressed in crimson official robes, like two ferocious beasts exuding an extremely dangerous aura, slowly emerged from the shadows of the main hall.

"My lords, the platforms for the economy, the frontiers, the grassroots, and administration have all been set up. But Jiajing knows very well that as long as the cabinet remains in the hands of those old officials who are at odds with him, these policies of his can become worthless at any time!"

Zhu Dijun's voice carried a strong, bloody undertone.

"In May of the fifth year of the Jiajing reign! The power center of the Ming Dynasty was shaken to its core!"

He pounded the keyboard, and a figure lit up on the left: "Yang Yiqing, a veteran of three reigns and a cunning old fox skilled in political balancing, has returned to the cabinet as Grand Secretary!"

The figure on the right lit up, carrying a ferocious aura that seemed ready to crush everyone's throats.

"Zhang Cong, the ruthless henchman who emerged from the Great Rites Controversy! His power completely crushes the Six Ministries!"

"One is cunning and shrewd, used to appease the old party and maintain the superficial balance of the court! The other is ruthless and vicious, used to tear apart all political enemies who dare to oppose Jiajing, paving the way for complete control of the cabinet!"

"With these two joining forces, the entire civil service of the Ming Dynasty was utterly defeated and couldn't even lift its head!"

The emperors of countless worlds and timelines all gleamed with admiration upon seeing this exquisite system of checks and balances.

But Zhu Dijun didn't stop. He grabbed the blackboard eraser and wiped away all the writing on the board, leaving only one large character in the center of the whiteboard—"heart".

"Do you think this is the pinnacle of Jiajing's control over the empire? No, he was far more insane than anyone imagined. He not only wanted to control the power of the civil officials, but he also wanted to directly insert his hand into the minds of all the scholars in the land!"

An imperial stone tablet, radiating boundless pressure, crashed into the center of the screen.

"In October of the fifth year of the Jiajing reign! The emperor himself picked up his brush and wrote a masterpiece that thoroughly established the ideological imprint of the mid-to-late Ming Dynasty—'The Admonition on Respecting Oneness'!"

Zhu Dijun zoomed in on the camera, his eyes filled with an extremely frightening gaze.

"He ordered this inscription to be distributed to every level of academy throughout the country! From the Imperial Academy to remote county schools, the first thing every scholar preparing for the imperial examinations did upon waking each day was to memorize this article that emphasized Confucian orthodoxy and the art of rulership!"

"Jiajing was using this extremely violent method to declare: 'The truth of the world rests solely with me! Those who do not agree with the *Jingyi Zhen* are not even qualified to take the imperial examinations!'"

The modern live-streaming room was completely silent.

"The ultimate level of PUA... starts with brainwashing from the very origins of the imperial examination system."

"That's brilliant! Breaking your spine isn't enough; you also need a brain transplant."

Zhu Dijun sneered and threw down the marker.

"The Great Rites Controversy's punishments stung the body, the sweetness of the new policies appeased the officials, and the 'Admonition on Respecting One' completely imprisoned the mind. The eighteen-year-old Jiajing Emperor, like a true god, sat completely atop the clouds of the Ming Empire."

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

"However, when this mad dog Zhang Cong was completely out of control, and when the old fox Yang Yiqing also began to feel the threat of death."

In the background, there was an extremely piercing sound of swords being drawn.

"A cabinet meat grinder, even more ruthless than the Great Rites Controversy, is about to officially begin!"