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

"Alright, everyone, let's continue with the story of Xia Yan, the 'Honey Badger' of the Ming Dynasty's officialdom, and his rise through the ranks!"

Zhu Dijun stood in front of the large screen, forcefully loosening his tie, his eyes flashing with a sharp light that seemed to see through political maneuvering. He grabbed a red marker and drew an extremely steep upward curve on the whiteboard.

"We've already talked about how Xia Yan criticizes everyone and everything at the grassroots level. But folks, the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty is a giant cesspool. You absolutely cannot become the Grand Secretary just by being stubborn and a righteous critic! To climb to the pinnacle of power, you not only need to know how to bite, but also how to lick!"

Four large golden characters suddenly appeared on the screen: [Heaven and Earth Divide Sacrifice].

"The year is February of the ninth year of the Jiajing reign! A bizarre debate erupts in the Ming court regarding sacrificial rituals. The Jiajing Emperor suddenly has a whimsical idea: he feels that worshipping Heaven and Earth together is not grand enough, and he wants to worship them separately!"

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

"In the eyes of feudal officials who valued ancestral laws, this was utterly heretical! The court officials vehemently opposed it! Who was the most vehement opponent at the time? It was Huo Tao, the Minister of Justice! At this point, Xia Yan astutely perceived Jiajing's political need to establish absolute imperial authority. What did he do?"

Zhu Dijun sneered and moved closer to the camera.

"He immediately changed his tune, abandoning his prickly and outspoken nature, and instead submitted a memorial strongly supporting the emperor's wishes! Jiajing was overjoyed and immediately threw Huo Tao, who had led the opposition, into prison. He then entrusted Xia Yan with the core, highly profitable projects of overseeing the construction of the Temple of Heaven and the Temple of Earth, which would allow him to gain favor with the emperor every day!"

"From this moment on, Xia Yan officially transcended the realm of ordinary censors; he became a weapon wielding imperial power, used by the emperor to check and balance the court! In April of the ninth year of the Jiajing reign, a famine struck Yansui, and Xia Yan was even able to directly recommend Li Rugui for the position of governor! This is imperial favor!"

In a parallel Zhenguan era of the Tang Dynasty.

Li Shimin gazed at the sky, his fingers lightly tapping the wine cup: "Observing words and expressions, catering to the emperor's wishes. This Xia Yan is indeed not just a pedantic scholar who only knows how to remonstrate to the death. Knowing how to leverage the emperor's power is the ticket to becoming a powerful minister."

Inside the modern live stream room, the comments section began to scroll wildly.

"Isn't this just the beginning of the dragon-slaying boy growing dragon scales?"

"Got it, before they criticized people to build a persona, now they agree with them to gain power!"

"Poor Huo Tao, he became Xia Yan's stepping stone to power!"

"The moment Xia Yan took office, he immediately ran into another behemoth in the Ming Dynasty court!"

Zhu Dijun's fingers furiously tapped on the keyboard, and a portrait of a gloomy-faced civil official was pushed to the opposite side of Xia Yan.

[Zhang Cong, the Grand Secretary, was the reformer of the Jiajing New Policies of the Ming Dynasty mentioned earlier!]

"Family members! Zhang Cong, the number one mad dog of the Ming Dynasty's cabinet, has met Xia Yan, the number one honey badger of the Ming Dynasty's officialdom! The clash between these two beasts in the arena of power is like Mars colliding with Earth!"

"How did Zhang Cong rise to power? Through the Great Rites Controversy! He considered himself the most meritorious official of the Jiajing Emperor, holding the highest position in the court, and everyone in the court gave him face. Only Xia Yan stood tall and refused to be subordinate to Zhang Cong! Zhang Cong was jealous of Xia Yan's favor, and Xia Yan resented Zhang Cong for promoting Peng Ze but not him!"

Zhu Dijun's eyes turned cold, and he uttered a few words:

"In July of the tenth year of the Jiajing reign! The life-or-death duel between the two erupted completely!"

A blood-stained memorial instantly appeared on the screen.

"Xue Kan, the Director of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, lost his mind and submitted an extremely reckless memorial, saying that Emperor Shizong had no sons and that a member of the imperial clan should be made crown prince! When Jiajing saw this, he thought it was an insult to his lineage! He was furious on the spot and ordered a thorough investigation into the mastermind behind it!"

"Seeing his chance, Zhang Cong immediately joined forces with Wang Hong, Peng Ze, and their gang to fabricate charges, insisting that Xia Yan was the mastermind behind this treason case! If they could pin this mudslinging on him, Xia Yan would be doomed!"

In a parallel Hongwu era of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Yuanzhang sneered:

"Party infighting and using others to do one's dirty work. This method is crude, but it is most deadly when the emperor is in a rage. Let's see how Xia Yan breaks this deadlock."

On the screen, Zhu Dijun's rapid-fire speech bombarded the entire internet.

"Faced with Zhang Cong's nuclear strike, Xia Yan displayed terrifying mental fortitude! He neither cried nor made a scene, stubbornly sticking to his principles before the emperor and refusing to confess! Jiajing was already somewhat wary of Zhang Cong's absolute power, so he ordered a face-to-face confrontation and a joint trial by three courts!"

"The truth has come to light: it was all Zhang Cong's doing behind the scenes! Jiajing Emperor utterly detested this kind of factional strife that deceived the emperor, and with a stroke of his pen—Zhang Cong was dismissed! Xia Yan was released without charge!"

"What do you call this? This is called a comeback from the brink of defeat! Stepping over the corpse of the former prime minister, Xia Yan achieved the most unbelievable rocket-like promotion in the history of the Ming Dynasty!"

Golden rays representing official ranks overlapped wildly on the screen.

"In March of the tenth year of the Jiajing reign, he was promoted to Junior Chamberlain and concurrently served as a Hanlin Academician, lecturing to the Jiajing Emperor on the classics every day! In July, the Temple of Heaven and the Temple of Earth were completed, and he was promoted to Vice Minister of Rites! In September, he directly succeeded Li Shi as Minister of Rites!"

Zhu Dijun slammed his hands on the podium.

"Family members! From a seventh-rank censor, to a second-rank minister of the Six Ministries in less than a year! This is an unprecedented and unparalleled miracle in the more than two hundred years of history of the Ming Dynasty!"

"How did Xia Yan rise so quickly? Because he mastered the most crucial ultimate advancement code of the Jiajing era—[Qingci] and [Immortal Aura]!"

A portrait of Xia Yan appeared on the screen. This time, he was no longer wearing a red official robe, but a Taoist robe, exuding an air of otherworldly elegance.

Historical records describe Xia Yan as having delicate features, a beautiful beard, and a resonant voice! Standing there, he looked like a celestial being! Even more remarkable was his exceptional writing ability; he could quickly compose extremely ornate memorials and petitions, spending his days accompanying Jiajing in his Taoist practice and poetry writing! Jiajing even bestowed upon him a special silver seal, allowing him to directly submit confidential memorials!

"At this time, Xia Yan possessed both the background of the Qingliu faction and the favor of the Emperor's party. He also cleverly pleaded for Yu Xili and Shi Jin, officials who had been convicted in the Great Rites Controversy. Although he was unsuccessful, he greatly boosted the goodwill of the Jiangnan civil officials! He completely overshadowed Li Shi and Zhai Luan in the cabinet!"

The live stream chat was flooded with "666" comments.

Xia Yan's masterful maneuvering in the officialdom—capable of simultaneously stepping on powerful officials, wielding influence over upright officials, and keeping his boss happy—left everyone speechless.

But Zhu Dijun's eyes suddenly turned cold at that moment. He grabbed the blackboard eraser and ruthlessly wiped away all the luster on the whiteboard, leaving only a blood-red character for "greed".

"But, my family. Power is a poisonous cup; too much of it can make one lose their mind. When the dragon-slaying boy kills the dragon, he sits on its bones, and his scales grow even more grotesque than the dragon's."

A series of brutal actions to suppress dissent flashed quickly across the screen.

"In the fifteenth year of the Jiajing reign, Liu Shuxiang, the Prefect of Yingtian Prefecture, was framed and imprisoned. This was because Liu Shuxiang had a long-standing feud with Xia Yan, who, along with his old enemy Huo Tao, implicated each other, ultimately forcing the Emperor to demote Huo Tao! Following this, Xia Yan seized the opportunity, relying on his power, to directly demote and exile both physicians Zhang Yuanxiao and Li Sui, whom he disliked!"

"Those who obey me prosper, those who oppose me perish! Is this still the same Xia Yan who once rallied the Zhengde Emperor to eradicate corruption and advocate for the people?! No, he is now a power-hungry tycoon completely corrupted by authority!"

Zhu Dijun boldly typed four characters on the whiteboard: "Grand Secretary of the Wuying Hall".

"In the fifteenth year of the Jiajing reign, Prince Zhu Zairi was born. To reward Xia Yan, the emperor bestowed upon him the titles of Grand Tutor to the Crown Prince and Junior Tutor. In the intercalary twelfth month, Xia Yan officially entered the palace representing the supreme power of the Ming Dynasty, concurrently serving as a Grand Secretary of the Wuying Hall and joining the cabinet's affairs!"

"In the seventeenth year of the Jiajing reign, something even more absurd happened." Zhu Dijun's lips curled into an extremely sarcastic sneer.

"In April, Xia Yan accompanied Jiajing to visit the imperial tombs. On the way back, Xia Yan's personal cook accidentally set fire to the camp, burning down the tents of Marquis Wuding, Guo Xun, and Grand Secretary Li Shi! This was blatant dereliction of duty and a major safety incident!"

"Logically, Xia Yan, with your immense power, would have been fine if you had simply taken the blame and apologized. But what did Xia Yan do? He held his head high and refused to admit his mistake! He shifted all the responsibility onto his subordinates, and even the emperor couldn't stand it anymore and directly reprimanded him!"

The Weiyang Palace of the Han Dynasty.

Emperor Wu of Han, Liu Che, looked at the sky, slowly shook his head, and coldly commented:

"An arrogant army is bound to be defeated, and an arrogant minister is bound to die. This man dares to deny responsibility even when the emperor's tent was burned during his tour; he has become so arrogant that he is unaware of his own mortality."

Zhu Dijun pointed to the timeline of the eighteenth year of the Jiajing reign on the screen.

"In the winter of the seventeenth year of the Jiajing reign, Grand Secretary Li Shi, who had always been suppressed by Xia Yan, died of illness out of frustration. Xia Yan naturally took over the seal of the Grand Secretary, wielding absolute power!"

"By the first month of the eighteenth year of the Jiajing reign! Xia Yan's arrogance had reached an absolute peak since the founding of the Ming Dynasty!"

Zhu Dijun's fingers furiously pounded the keyboard, and three large, gold-plated characters crashed onto the center of the screen with overwhelming force—【Shang Zhuguo】!

"Because of his merit in presenting the memorial for the sacrifice to the Supreme God of Heaven, Xia Yan was directly promoted to Junior Tutor and Grand Master of the Palace! And that's not all; relying on the Emperor's favor, he added another title to his own name in the imperial edict—[Shangzhuguo]!"

Zhu Dijun slammed his hand on the table, making a deafening thud.

"Family members! In the two hundred years since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, neither Li Shanchang, a founding hero, nor Yang Shiqi, a veteran of five reigns, has ever dared to bestow upon himself the title of 'Shangzhuguo'! What is Xia Yan doing? He is declaring to the whole world: I am the ruler of this Ming Dynasty!"

Inside the live stream, viewers across the internet felt a chill run down their spines. This wasn't just arrogance; it was blatantly pushing the boundaries of the Jiajing Emperor's authority by risking the lives of their entire families.

Zhu Dijun picked up the cold tea and drank it all in one gulp. The red light in the entire studio gradually dimmed, replaced by a layer of eerie green light, like that of a venomous snake.

"Xia Yan indeed stood at the pinnacle of power. He crushed Zhang Cong, subdued Huo Tao, controlled the Six Ministries, and monopolized the Qingci (a type of official document). In his eyes, all the civil and military officials were nothing but ants."

Judy slowly turned around, her eyes filled with a terrifying gaze, as if staring into an abyss.

"But he forgot that the ladder he climbed was called pandering to superiors; the knife he used to strike his political enemies was called framing and fabricating charges."

"Just as Xia Yan, dressed in his dazzling official robes, was swaggering around the Forbidden City, there was a man in the shadows behind him—an old fox more patient than Zhang Cong, more cunning than Huo Tao, and more adept at pleasing the emperor than Xia Yan himself—kneeling on the ground, his eyes fixed on Xia Yan's neck with an extremely greedy gaze."