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

"Family members, I'm telling you, that amnesty edict of the twelfth year of the Jiajing reign ignited the last ton of gunpowder on the Ming Dynasty's northwestern defense line. Did you all think that with the court backing down, those warlords in Datong would finally quiet down?"

Zhu Dijun stood in front of the big screen and curled his lip in utter contempt.

"Talk about integrity with warlords? Talk about peace with these ruthless border thugs? The brains of those idiots in the Ming cabinet are so full of water they could flood the Forbidden City!"

He wrote four large, blood-red characters heavily on the whiteboard: "[The Thirteenth Year of Jiajing]".

"The extremely dire consequences of the Datong Mutiny erupted in that year on a nuclear fission-like scale! The aftershocks of this mutiny, which tore apart the Ming Dynasty's defenses from within, not only did not cease, but continued relentlessly in various large-scale and small-scale forms until the fall of the Ming Dynasty!"

Zhu Dijun grabbed the laser pointer and pressed the red dot firmly onto the Datong defense line map in the center of the screen.

"Remember Guo Jian, the scarred Guo we talked about earlier? Although he was killed by Liu Yuanqing, his former subordinates, along with rebel leaders like Wang Fusheng and Wang Bao, have now completely seized control of the actual military and political power in Datong Town!"

"What were these traitors thinking when they killed the governor and drove away the viceroy? They were afraid! Because they knew that the court's pardon was only a temporary measure, and once the national treasury recovered, the court's army to quell the rebellion would absolutely skin them alive!"

Zhu Dijun moved closer to the camera, each word seeming to be squeezed out from between his teeth.

"In order to protect themselves and consolidate their local tyrant status in Datong, in May of the thirteenth year of the Jiajing reign, these Ming generals, who were paid by the Ming court, committed an extremely heinous act that shattered the bottom line of all Chinese history!"

Four gold-plated black characters exploded on the screen: "[Goulu Rukou]!"

"The rebels directly took real gold and silver from the Datong treasury and used huge sums of gold coins to bribe the Mongol tribes outside the Great Wall! They sent people out of the pass to the Mongol tents, begging like grandsons to attack the Mongol Khans like Dalai Lama, Jinang, and Anda—please, come and attack our Great Ming!"

boom!

Inside the modern live stream room, the barrage of comments exploded across the public screen like an avalanche.

"Holy crap?! What the hell did I just hear?!"

"Taking the country's money to hire foreign enemies to attack their own country?!"

"Traitor! This guy is a complete collaborator!"

"These warlords have abandoned all sense of honor for the sake of their own military power!"

Throughout countless worlds and dynasties, emperors went completely mad the moment they heard the words "the barbarians invade."

The Weiyang Palace of the Han Dynasty.

Emperor Wu of Han, Liu Che, overturned the long imperial desk in front of him, causing the bronze cauldron to crash to the ground with a loud thud. His eyes were bloodshot, and he looked like a madman, drawing his long sword and frantically slashing at the gauze curtains in the hall.

"A humiliating disgrace! A humiliating disgrace!"

Liu Che roared hoarsely, veins bulging on his face.

"My mighty Han soldiers, enduring ice and snow, ventured deep into the northern deserts, pursuing the fleeing enemy to the ends of the earth! These beasts of the Ming Dynasty actually paid the descendants of the Xiongnu to invade and plunder?! I will exterminate these ungrateful traitors! Kill! Slaughter them all!"

The era of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Yuanzhang did not roar; he simply gripped the armrests of the dragon throne tightly, his fingernails breaking off, and drops of blood dripping from between his fingers onto the gold bricks.

"This is the million-strong garrison army we've planned..."

Old Zhu let out a bitter laugh, a laugh as chilling as an owl's.

"Taking the salaries of our Great Ming Dynasty, they go and lead the way for the Tartars... What a fine Datong Town, what a vital border town! Zhu Houcong, what excellent soldiers you've raised, what excellent soldiers you've raised!"

On the sky, Zhu Dijun's cold laughter was like slaps to the faces of all the Ming emperors and ministers.

"Family members, it's written clearly in black and white in the 'Records of the Suppression of the Datong Rebellion'! Under the guidance of the rebels, a full 50,000 elite Mongol cavalrymen marched straight in! They crossed the Great Wall as if it were empty land!"

"What are the Ming Dynasty's government troops doing? They're fortifying their defenses and clearing the fields! They're shutting down their gates and refusing to come out! The entire defense line is paralyzed! Some Ming generals are even watching from the city walls as Mongol cavalry burn, kill, and plunder Ming civilians outside the city, and they don't dare utter a single word!"

Zhu Dijun slammed his fist on the podium.

"This is exactly what those warlords wanted: to 'use barbarians to bolster their own importance'! As long as the Mongols exert pressure on the border, the Ming court will absolutely not dare to take action against the Datong rebels. Instead, they will have to continue sending them money and grain, begging them to defend the city! The Datong rebels have completely tied the fate of the nation to their own smuggling and warlord interests!"

The scene on the screen was engulfed by raging fire. Villages inside and outside the Great Wall were reduced to ruins, and the remains of Ming Dynasty people were exposed in the wilderness.

"But the Ming Dynasty is not completely dead after all."

Zhu Dijun abruptly changed the subject, drawing a sharp arc on the map with his red marker, cutting from Datong towards Ningxia.

"In August of the thirteenth year of the Jiajing reign (1554)! The Mongol Jinang tribe, having received their payment, grew increasingly greedy. They launched another large-scale invasion from Huamachi, which is today's Yanchi area in Ningxia!"

Three names appeared on the screen in turn: Governor Tang Long, General Liang Zhen, and General Liu Wen.

"Although the Ming Dynasty's officialdom was corrupt, there were always a few tough guys. Unlike the cowards in Datong who cowered in the city, Governor-General Tang Long of the Three Border Regions quickly made military deployments. Under the personal command of Generals Liang Zhen and Liu Wen, the Ming border army finally clashed head-on with Jinang's iron cavalry at Huamachi!"

The screen displayed a brutal battle scene of cold weapons fighting fiercely. Firearms roared from the Ming army ranks as swordsmen and shield-bearers fought to the death against a hail of Mongol arrows.

"The Ming army won this battle. History records it with an extremely resounding name—the Great Victory of Pacifying the Barbarians!"

Just as some viewers in the live chat breathed a sigh of relief, preparing to flood the screen with celebrations for the Ming Dynasty's revenge, a few left viewers breathed a sigh of relief.

Zhu Dijun grabbed the blackboard eraser and ruthlessly drew a big X over the words "Great Victory".

"Family members, don't get excited. Do you know how many heads the Ming army took in this so-called 'Great Victory of Pacifying the Barbarians'?"

Zhu Dijun held up four fingers, his eyes filled with an indescribable sorrow and mockery.

"Over four hundred! An entire three-border governorate mobilized its most elite generals and troops to repel a wave of Mongol attacks, and in total, only four hundred-odd Tartar heads were chopped off!"

He turned around abruptly and stared intently at the camera.

"If four hundred heads had been beheaded, in the hands of Wei Qing or Huo Qubing of the Han Dynasty, they wouldn't even have been worthy of being reported as a victory! In the hands of Emperor Taizong of Tang, Li Shimin, this would have been called a tactical skirmish! But in the Jiajing era, these four hundred heads were treated as a lifeline by the Ministry of War and the Grand Secretariat, and were touted as a 'great victory in suppressing the barbarians'!"

In the Zhenguan era of the Tang Dynasty, Li Shimin, who had just calmed down, let out a cold snort.

"You dare call it a great victory after beheading four hundred? The Ming Dynasty's field battles have become so incompetent, no wonder they can be easily manipulated by those rebels."

"Why are you blowing it?"

Zhu Dijun's voice echoed in the hall, "Because the Ming Dynasty is desperately seeking victories! The entire northern border has become a punching bag, passively taking hits. Although the Battle of Huamachi was a tactical victory, it cannot fundamentally change the Ming Dynasty's ultimate strategic passivity! The Mongols can come and go as they please; if they lose, they run back to the grasslands; if they win, they plunder and leave!"

The smoke on the screen gradually dissipated, and the scene switched back to the Ministry of War in the Forbidden City.

Under the dim light of an oil lamp, a civil official dressed in a blue robe was hunched over his desk, his eyes red as he sketched something on a huge piece of parchment.

Zhu Dijun's voice became low and calm.

"That's the magical thing about the Ming Dynasty. In its rotten mire, there are always people trying to mend things."

A name appeared in the corner of the screen—[Xu Lun].

"Xu Lun, the Chief Clerk of the Military Affairs Department of the Ministry of War. He was a truly pragmatic civil official. In the thirteenth year of the Jiajing reign, seeing the devastated borders depicted in the battle reports, he sifted through all the Ministry of War archives and interviewed countless retired generals from the frontier. In the end, he compiled a top-secret map that was a milestone in the military history of the Ming Dynasty!"

A massive, detailed scroll map, depicting the contours of mountains and rivers, the density of passes, and the distribution of watchtowers, suddenly unfolded on the screen.

【The Map of the Nine Borders】!

"From Liaodong, Jizhou, and Xuanfu, all the way to Datong, Yulin, and Gansu! Xu Lun meticulously mapped out the terrain, defensive blind spots, and strategic locations of the nine key border towns of the Ming Dynasty!"

Zhu Dijun picked up the pointer and pointed to the extremely detailed map.

"Xu Lun's original intention in drawing this map was to address the increasingly severe border defense situation. He attempted to find a way to defeat the Mongol cavalry by clarifying the geography. This map later became a top-secret operational reference for every border commander in the mid-to-late Ming Dynasty!"

He dropped his pointer and let out a desolate sigh.

"What's the use of a perfectly drawn map or a brilliantly planned tactic?"

"The Ming Dynasty's solid walls aren't on the map, but in the hearts of those who guard the passes! You, Xu Lun, have drawn the most impregnable defenses in the world, but the garrison commander of Datong, who was stationed there, turned around and used the blueprints to make a deal with the Mongols!"

The Chongzhen reign of the Ming Dynasty.

As Zhu Youjian gazed at the exquisite "Nine Border Map" displayed on the sky, tears welled up in his eyes. He had seen similar detailed maps when he ascended the throne. He knew which passes were most important and which city walls needed repair. But he simply couldn't mobilize troops or raise the necessary funds.

The picture is real, and so is the despair of the Ming Dynasty.

In the modern live streaming room, the chat became extremely quiet.

Zhu Dijun pulled up a chair, sat down heavily, picked up the teacup but didn't drink.

"In the thirteenth year of the Jiajing reign, the border troops led the way and achieved a minor victory at Huamachi, and the map of the nine border regions was completed."

He looked up, and the dim light shone on half of his face.

"The Ming Dynasty's northern defenses have been completely turned into a sieve for passive defense. As for the Jiajing Emperor sitting in the Western Garden, the outside world is too chaotic, too dirty, and too damn disgusting."