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

Zhu Dijun took a sip of the cold tea and slammed the glass down on the table. He turned around, pulled out a densely formatted Excel spreadsheet from his computer, and projected it directly onto the large screen.

"Family members, as we just mentioned, in July, the Mongol Tatars and their colluding civil officials staged a charade, murdering the peace delegation and forcibly initiating a meat grinder on the border. But this is only the bloodshed on the border. In the capital of the Ming Dynasty, the power center of the Forbidden City, a terrifying reshuffling, akin to a magnitude 10 earthquake, is brewing!"

Zhu Dijun grabbed the red laser pointer and pressed the red dot firmly onto the August timeline of the table.

"In August of the twentieth year of the Jiajing reign! Two earth-shattering events occurred in the capital!"

Four white characters on a black background suddenly appeared: "[The Empress Dowager has passed away]!"

"The first thing in August! Empress Dowager Zhang, the Empress of Emperor Xiaozong of Ming and the nominal mother of Emperor Wuzong of Ming, has passed away!"

Zhu Dijun moved closer to the camera, his cold smile as sharp as a knife.

"Logically speaking, Jiajing ascended the throne as a regional prince, so legally he should address this Empress Dowager Zhang as 'Auntie.' The old bastard has died; it's a national mourning period, it has to be a grand and solemn affair, with the whole country in mourning, right?"

"But what did Jiajing actually do?"

Zhu Dijun drew a downward arrow sharply on the whiteboard.

"Downgraded! Drastically downgraded! Emperor Jiajing has extremely harshly reduced all the standards of Empress Zhang's funeral! The coffin is the worst, the ceremony is simplified, and even the number of days for officials to mourn has been forcibly cut by more than half!"

"Why did Jiajing do this? It was for revenge! Family members, do you remember the Great Rites Controversy? When Jiajing first entered the capital, Empress Dowager Zhang and Yang Tinghe were in cahoots, and they wouldn't even let him and his own mother, Empress Dowager Jiang, pass through the main gate of the Ming Palace! That was a blood feud!"

"Jiajing endured for twenty years, outliving Yang Tinghe and all the troublemakers of the Great Rites Controversy. Now that his aunt is finally dead, he doesn't even want to pretend anymore. He wants to use this extremely shabby funeral to tell the court and the public: The Heaven of the Ming Dynasty only recognizes my birth parents, Zhu Houcong. What nonsense about the legitimacy of the previous dynasty, all of you, step aside!"

"Of course, it's unfair to criticize Jiajing for acting so irrationally, which is inconsistent with his past as a master of political maneuvering. He could have simply said that with the start of the border war in Ming Dynasty, everything unnecessary could be simplified. Why make it seem like he's being petty to outsiders?"

"But family members, the Empress Dowager's death was just a small appetizer used by Jiajing to establish his authority."

Zhu Dijun slammed his pointer down on the next line of the form with a loud thud.

Five glaring, blood-red characters slammed onto the center of the public screen—【Xia Yan has been dismissed】!

"The second major event in August completely changed the political landscape of the latter half of the Ming Dynasty! Xia Yan, the Grand Secretary who controlled the government and called himself the 'Shangzhuguo' (Pillar of the State), was kicked out of the Forbidden City by Jiajing Emperor, ordered to retire, and sent back to his hometown!"

"This is the absolute core of power in the Ming Dynasty! How did Xia Yan manage to fall from grace?"

A sense of absurd humor shone through Zhu Dijun's eyes. He rested his hands on the podium, looking directly at the camera.

"The reason is absolutely hilarious. It's because of two hats!"

An image appeared on the screen. The Jiajing Emperor was dressed in a Taoist robe, and on his head was a strangely shaped Taoist crown woven from spices and leaves.

"Jiajing was obsessed with cultivating immortality, and he created this contraption called the 'Fragrant Leaf Crown.' He believed it to be a supreme treasure for communicating with the gods, so in a moment of mercy, he bestowed one upon Xia Yan and Yan Song of the Grand Secretariat, so that they could wear it during court assemblies!"

"Xia Yan's deep-seated, ingrained obsession with civil service etiquette finally flared up completely at this moment!"

Zhu Dijun slammed his hand on the table.

"Xia Yan not only refused to write the sacrificial eulogy for Jiajing, but he also refused to wear the incense leaf crown even at the cost of his life! His reasoning was extremely firm: for the Grand Secretary of the Ming Dynasty, a first-rank official, to wear such a superstitious Taoist hat would be unbecoming of a minister! It would be shameful!"

"What a principled Prime Minister Xia! But let's see how Xia Yan's nemesis, our master of scheming, Yan Song, handled things."

The large screen instantly split in two, with Xia Yan on the left, looking aloof, and Yan Song kneeling on the right.

"Yan Song not only wore the fragrant leaf crown securely on his head! To show how much he valued the emperor's favor, he even went so far as to cover this tattered straw hat with a layer of extremely precious transparent gauze!"

"When Yan Song was summoned to the emperor's presence, he immediately knelt down on the bluestone slab upon seeing Jiajing, tears streaming down his face. He wailed to Jiajing, 'Your Majesty's fragrant leaf crown is too precious. I was afraid it would get dusty and dirty, so I specially made a light veil to cover it and kept it as an offering every day!'"

Viewers across the internet were speechless, utterly shocked by Yan Song's obsequious face on the screen, a display of shamelessness that pushed the boundaries of acceptable behavior.

"Family members! The contrast is too stark!" Judy Jun roared at the top of her lungs.

On one side was Grand Secretary Xia Yan, who always wore a sour face and lectured the emperor with ancestral rules; on the other side was Yan Song, who practically worshipped even the emperor's excrement. Emperor Jiajing, already short-tempered, flew into a rage upon seeing Xia Yan's arrogant and defiant attitude!

"Jiajing Emperor issued a decree: Xia Yan was disrespectful and arrogant to the emperor! He was immediately dismissed from his position as Grand Secretary and forced to retire! Yan Song, who was wearing a fragrant leaf crown and weeping bitterly, stepped over Xia Yan's corpse and officially entered the cabinet! This marked the beginning of his twenty-year-long autocratic career of controlling the Ming Dynasty!"

In a parallel Jiajing era of the Ming Dynasty.

Xia Yan sat in the dilapidated carriage, listening to the verdict from the heavens, his face ashen, looking ten years older in an instant. He hadn't lost to any grand political ideals, but to a tattered straw hat and a face thicker than a city wall.

"But, family members."

Just as the live stream was relentlessly mocking Xia Yan for losing his official position due to his stubbornness, Zhu Dijun's voice suddenly turned extremely cold, even carrying a chilling and murderous aura.

He grabbed a marker and drew a thick red line on the whiteboard connecting the August [Xia Yan's dismissal] and the July [Long Dayou's murder case].

"Is history really such a coincidence? Could a mere hat really bring down the current prime minister?"

As Zhu Dijun zoomed in on the camera, every word seemed like a death deduction squeezed out from between his teeth.

"I'm going to make an ultimate conjecture that's not explicitly recorded in historical texts, but which, when deduced logically, is both extremely reasonable and extremely terrifying!"

"Let's turn our attention back to July. What gave Long Dayou, the border general, the audacity to execute the peace envoy sent by the Mongol Tatar Khan? Killing an envoy is a capital offense, punishable by the extermination of the entire family! Where did a border general get such audacity?!"

"Behind him, there must be a powerful figure in Beijing who can wield absolute power, is willing to take responsibility, and even desires this outcome!"

Zhu Dijun's fingers frantically tapped the keyboard, and two extremely glaring place names were blurred onto the screen.

[Guangxin Prefecture, Jiangxi], [Jiangnan Smuggling Network]!

"Where is Xia Yan from?! He's from Jiangxi!!"

"We've been talking about this since the reign of Emperor Yingzong of Ming, Zhu Qizhen. There was an extremely terrifying faction in the Ming Dynasty's officialdom: half of the civil and military officials were from Jiangxi! And behind the Jiangxi clique, who stood? It was the vast smuggling tycoon network throughout the southeastern coast and the Jiangnan water towns!"

Zhu Dijun slammed his fist on the podium, making a deafening bang.

"What does the Mongolian grasslands lack? Salt! Tea! And even military ironware and gunpowder! These things are all prohibited items under the official laws of the Ming Dynasty, punishable by the extermination of nine generations of one's family! However, smuggling groups in Jiangnan make a fortune by secretly transporting these contraband items out of the Great Wall!"

"This is a blood-soaked chain of profit! Every tael of silver they earn is extracted by sucking the blood of the Ming Dynasty's border guards!"

On the screen, countless smuggling wagons laden with goods silently passed through the dilapidated gaps in the Great Wall in the shadows of the night.

"Now, Altan Khan wants to open a peaceful trade agreement with the Ming Dynasty! Once the trade is legalized, Ming tea and salt can be sold to the Mongols openly through official channels. Then, the monopolistic profits held by the Jiangnan smuggling groups will evaporate overnight!"

A violent red light swirled in Judy Jun's eyes.

"Family members! Cutting off someone's livelihood is like killing their parents! As the Grand Secretary and the political spokesperson chosen by this Jiangnan interest group, can Xia Yan just stand by and watch peace arrive?!"

In a parallel Hongwu era of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Yuanzhang stared intently at the sky, his withered hands suddenly crushing the armrests of the dragon throne to pieces. Splinters pierced his flesh, but he was completely unaware, only letting out an extremely mournful laugh.

"What a good official... our great Ming Dynasty's worthy chief minister! He dares to jeopardize peace on the border for the sake of merchants' ill-gotten gains!"

"The knife that Long Dayou used to cut off Shi Tianjue's head was actually in the hands of Xia Yan and his gang of civil officials!" Zhu Dijun loosened his tie and roared.

"They need war! They need the Mongols to continue their fierce battle against the Ming Dynasty along the Great Wall! Because only when the Ming Dynasty is in a state of war, with martial law at the borders and official trade banned, can their shady smuggling network continue to operate at full speed!"

After a brief period of silence, the live stream chat erupted like a volcano.

"Holy crap!! This is the truth!! No wonder a prime minister could be dismissed because of a label!"

"This is terrifying to think about! Xia Yan is using the lives of Ming Dynasty soldiers to fill the pockets of smugglers!"

"This isn't just embezzlement, it's treason! Jiajing's dismissal of him was lenient; he deserves to be executed by slow slicing!"

Xia Yan felt that she had done a flawless job.

Judy Jun let out an extremely desolate cold laugh, casually broke the chalk in half, and threw it on the ground.

"He thought that by shielding his patron from the pressure of the smuggling trade, the emperor wouldn't be able to touch him without evidence. But he underestimated Jiajing's political acumen, and he also underestimated that Jiajing was a madman who didn't play by the rules! Jiajing didn't need to investigate the smuggling ledgers; he only needed to use the pretext of a fragrant leaf crown to directly remove this thorn in his side!"

The lights in the entire studio gradually dimmed, leaving only a faint green glow on the screen, which shone on Yan Song's sinister old face.

"In August, Xia Yan made a dejected exit. Yan Song, wearing the fragrant leaf crown wrapped in light gauze, ascended to the highest peak of power in the Ming Dynasty's cabinet."

Zhu Dijun pulled over a chair and sat down heavily.

"But, family members. This high-stakes gamble of power has come at a terrible price. Xia Yan is gone, but the gates to the border trade market have been completely locked shut because of Long Dayou's stab."

He raised his hand, pointing to a grassland scene that gradually appeared on the screen. Anda Khan stood before an altar full of bones, drew his scimitar, and pointed it south.

"Since we can't obtain the tea and salt we need through trade and smuggling, we'll have no choice but to personally seize them from the Central Plains!"

Judy Jun's voice was extremely suppressed, as if he were tolling the death knell.