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

Inside a modern live streaming studio.

Countless netizens, upon hearing the earlier description of the possible assassination plot against the Ming Dynasty's civil service, burst into carefree laughter on the public screen. The comments section scrolled wildly like boiling water.

[“A traditional skill of the Ming Dynasty emperors: the Fire God descending to earth, or perhaps easily soluble in water!”]

"Throughout the entire Ming Dynasty, the only ones who didn't experience these unnatural death packages were Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang (the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty), Emperor Zhu Gaochi (the fat emperor of the Ming Dynasty), and Emperor Chongzhen who hanged himself on Coal Hill. Who else died from either being burned or from being frightened after falling into water?"

"Being an emperor in the Ming Dynasty was tough. It was all because the Zhao brothers, Zhao Da and Zhao Er, started this evil saga. The 'Axe Shadow and Candle Shadow' incident plagued China for a thousand years; it's all a legacy of the Song Dynasty's corrupt civil officials! The civil official group felt the imperial power was no longer obeying, so they resorted to physical extermination!"

Zhu Dijun cleared his throat as he watched the screen rapidly refreshing with sarcastic comments.

"Family members. The comments are extremely accurate. If the civil service of the Ming Dynasty is really pushed to the limit, they will resort to any underhanded tricks. But before we talk about the assassination that shocked the court and the Gengxu Incident, we must first understand another extremely crucial monster-like figure in the power struggle of the Ming Dynasty."

He wrote two large characters heavily on the whiteboard: 【夏言】.

"Let's first look at how Baidu Encyclopedia defines him."

Zhu Dijun tapped the screen with the back of his hand, displaying an extremely detailed introduction.

"Xia Yan, courtesy name Gongjin, was a native of Guixi, Guangxin Prefecture, Jiangxi Province. He passed the imperial examination in the twelfth year of the Zhengde reign. He was a politician and writer in the mid-Ming Dynasty. He later became a Grand Secretary of the Wuying Hall and the Grand Secretary of the Cabinet. The encyclopedia describes him as having accomplished a complete cabinet, suppressed eunuchs, rectified officialdom, and strengthened border defenses. However, he was upright, bold, and strong-willed, which eventually led him to gradually lose the emperor's favor."

Zhu Dijun grabbed a red marker and drew a huge circle over the two characters "Jiangxi," with so much force that it almost pierced the whiteboard.

"Family members, pay attention to this place of origin! That's right, this powerful Prime Minister Xia is also from Jiangxi!"

Myriad Realms and Spacetime

The 20th year of the reign of Emperor Yongle of the Ming Dynasty.

Inside the Fengtian Hall, Zhu Di, along with his three sons and his grandson Zhu Zhanji, stared at the glaring words "Jiangxi People" on the ceiling, his brows furrowed deeply.

Zhu Gaosui couldn't hold back and cursed on the spot: "Damn it! Why are there Jiangxi people again? Have all the people from other parts of the Ming Dynasty died? Ever since those three old men, the Three Yangs, these Jiangxi folks have repeatedly appeared in the Ming Dynasty's officialdom, occupying the most important high positions!"

Zhu Gaoxu was a straightforward person, and he nudged his third brother's arm forcefully.

"Third brother, this isn't just about a few officials coming out of Jiangxi. Listen to the list that the descendants of Tianmu just compiled!"

Zhu Gaoxu counted on his thick fingers, his face trembling with the fat on it.

"Starting from the Emperor himself, there were Xie Jin, Hu Guang, Yang Shiqi, Chen Xun, Chen Wen, Peng Shi, Fei Hong, and then that brat Zhu Houcong, Xia Yan and Yan Song! All of them served as Grand Secretaries or Grand Secretaries in the Ming Dynasty! Below them were Jin Youzi, He Wenyuan, Peng Hua, Yin Zhi, Gui E, and other high-ranking officials at the ministerial level!"

He slapped his thigh and yelled in a rough voice:

"This is what they call 'half the civil and military officials are from Jiangxi'! Holy crap, no wonder these officials dare to be so arrogant, it turns out that all the power is passed down through generations within the Jiangxi clique! Now I finally understand why future generations are so wary of Jiangxi, the birthplace of these southern civil officials!"

Zhu Di remained silent, his face grim, staring intently at the sky. His initial intention in appointing Xie Jin and Hu Guang was to appease the gentry of Jiangnan and to balance the northern and southern examinations. He never dreamed that generations of his family would cultivate a terrifying regional faction capable of directly confronting imperial power.

In the sky, Zhu Dijun casually tossed a rag into the chalk box.

"Let's put aside the extremely complex factional struggles within the Jiangxi clique for now, and just look at Xia Yan's early official career. You'll then understand why he was able to stand out in the hellish power struggles of the Jiajing era."

He grabbed the pointer and pointed at the resume on the screen.

"In the twelfth year of the Zhengde reign, Xia Yan passed the imperial examination and was appointed as a messenger in the Ministry of Personnel. This was a low-level, sinecure of the eighth rank. In the thirteenth year of the Zhengde reign, he was ordered to go to Huguang, Yunnan and Guizhou for inspection. During these three years, he witnessed firsthand the tyranny of local powerful families and princes and saw through the corruption at the grassroots level."

A blood-red timeline stretched rapidly across the screen.

"October of the fifteenth year of Zhengde! After three years of hard work, Xia Yan finally ushered in the first nuclear-level turning point in his life. He was promoted to [Supervisor of the Ministry of War]!"

Zhu Dijun moved closer to the camera, tapping his fingers loudly on the table.

"Fellow family members, those who understand the official system of the Ming Dynasty know the prestige of a Censor. A seventh-rank official! The rank isn't high, but the power is terrifying! This is called a censor! It's the ultimate legal platform for criticizing others in the Ming Dynasty! No matter if you're a minister or a prince, as long as they find something wrong with you, they can legally impeach you to death!"

"The moment Xia Yan arrived at this post, he immediately showed the whole world what a born mad dog looks like!"

Zhu Dijun pulled up a yellowed file and pasted it onto the screen.

"When Jiajing had just ascended the throne, Xia Yan directly submitted a memorial requesting the emperor to thoroughly eliminate the various malpractices left over from the Zhengde reign. Jiajing was worried about not having a place to establish his authority at the time, so he directly instructed him to investigate corrupt officials and officers who had impersonated others."

"Xia Yan didn't even blink, wielding the Emperor's sword to strike at the very heart of the Ming warlords! In just a few months, through a frenzied offensive, he directly dismissed 3,200 officials and servants who were merely figureheads and freeloaders! They were all removed from the system!"

"Immediately afterwards, he presented Jiajing with nine political proposals, each one incisive and sharp, effectively cleansing the chaotic and corrupt court. Jiajing, seeing this, thought, 'This young man is capable; he has the courage to take action even when he has a weapon.' He immediately assigned him to the most critical task in the Ming Dynasty at the time—'Investigating the Imperial Family's Estates!'"

The Weiyang Palace of the Han Dynasty. Liu Che raised an eyebrow. Investigating the lands of imperial relatives? In any dynasty, this would be a capital offense. This official named Xia Yan is quite audacious.

The live stream chat was filled with exclamations of surprise.

"Holy crap, they start by disarming troops and surveying land. This is like putting your life on the line!"

"Having offended both the army and the imperial family, is Xia Yan tired of living?"

"A true stubborn warrior!"

"Did Xia Yan chicken out? He doesn't even know the meaning of death!"

Zhu Dijun shouted at the top of his lungs.

"He not only investigated, but he also painstakingly recovered every piece of the private property that had been seized by the royal family and returned it all to the common people! He even forcefully proposed to the emperor that an ironclad law must be enacted to completely restrict the disorderly expansion of royal estates!"

He drew a heavy upward arrow on the whiteboard.

"By the intercalary fourth month of the second year of the Jiajing reign, Xia Yan, relying on his stubbornness and competence, was promoted to Right Censor of the Ministry of War. During this period, he was practically the 'honey badger' of the Ming Dynasty officialdom, biting anyone he could get his hands on!"

The names of several top nobles of the Ming Dynasty appeared one after another on the big screen.

"He impeached Ministers Wang Qiong and Wang Xian for bribing eunuchs! He stood up to the eunuch Zhao Ling! He even directly targeted the arrogant and domineering Marquis of Jianchang, Zhang Yanling, the maternal uncle of Emperor Zhengde, accusing him of corruption and bribery! He completely humiliated these bigwigs!"

Zhu Dijun grabbed a half-full bottle of water and took a sip, his eyes filled with intense disbelief.

"Family members, what's the most amazing thing? Once, the Jiajing Emperor wanted to use his connections to get a maidservant who served his birth mother, Empress Cixiao, into inheriting the title of Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard."

"It's all up to the emperor's word. As long as the emperor is happy, who in the entire court would dare to provoke him? Xia Yan would!"

Zhu Dijun slammed his hand on the table.

He threw the memorial directly in front of Jiajing, arguing vehemently and pointing his finger at the emperor, saying: "Your Majesty, this is against the rules! Indiscriminate rewards will only corrupt the court!"

"These memorials stunned the entire court. Xia Yan's reputation for being upright and outspoken spread throughout the capital. He was hailed by scholars across the land as the backbone of the Ming Dynasty!"

All realms and time were silent.

In a parallel Zhenguan era of the Tang Dynasty.

Li Shimin's hand, holding the wine cup, froze in mid-air, a hint of extreme admiration flashing in his eyes.

"What a forthright and unyielding official! He has the spirit of Wei Zheng. He dared to defy the emperor for a spot in the Embroidered Uniform Guard. It's not that Jiajing was too foolish to tolerate him."

Li Shimin drank the wine in his cup in one gulp.

"This isn't over yet."

In the sky, Zhu Dijun's voice rang out again, "In May of the third year of Jiajing's reign, Xia Yan's mother passed away, and he returned to his hometown to observe the mourning period according to the customs of the Ming Dynasty. In May of the seventh year of Jiajing's reign, the mourning period ended. He was fully recovered and returned to the capital to continue his post as Right Supervising Secretary of the Ministry of War."

"Upon his return, he was immediately given an important position by the emperor! He was successively promoted to Left Supervising Secretary of the Ministry of Rites and then to Supervising Secretary of the Ministry of War. In the intercalary tenth month of the seventh year of the Jiajing reign, he was ordered to go to Qingyang Mountain to investigate the merits and demerits of suppressing the rebellion. In the second month of the eighth year of the Jiajing reign, he returned to the capital to report on his mission. In the twelfth month of the same year, he was directly transferred to the position of Supervising Secretary of the Ministry of Personnel!"

Zhu Dijun wrote the four characters "简在帝心" in red ink on the whiteboard.

"The Supervising Secretary of the Ministry of Personnel! This is the absolute bigwig among the censors, wielding the super privilege of impeaching all officials and rejecting imperial edicts! My family, from passing the imperial examination in the twelfth year of Zhengde to the eighth year of Jiajing, in just over a decade, Xia Yan, through his uprightness and fearlessness in the face of power, carved out a bloody path for himself in the Ming Dynasty's officialdom!"

He dropped the marker and gripped the podium tightly with both hands. The admiration on his face suddenly receded like a tide, replaced by an extremely dark shadow.

"But, family members, do you remember the final evaluation of him from Baidu Baike just now?"

As Zhu Dijun zoomed in on the camera, every word he uttered conveyed extreme cruelty and irony.

"Ultimately, they gradually lost favor."

"So how did you lose favor? Let me continue."