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

"Alright, everyone, let's continue analyzing the ultimate secret hidden behind this night of palace terror!"

Zhu Dijun grabbed the blackboard eraser and roughly wiped the writing off the whiteboard. Then he took out a black marker and drew a timeline accurate to the hour.

"We've already discussed the motives and basic process of the palace maid's assassination of the emperor. But if we magnify this Renyin Palace Coup under a microscope, down to each hour, you'll discover just how horrifying this so-called 'palace maid's revenge killing' truly is!"

He pressed down heavily on the first node on the whiteboard.

"The 21st day of the tenth month of the 21st year of the Jiajing reign. Early morning!"

"Let's establish the background first. The location is Yikun Palace, the palace of Consort Cao, Jiajing's most favored concubine. The time is late at night, from the end of midnight to the hour of Chou, which is 11 PM to 2 AM in modern time! Jiajing stayed overnight at Yikun Palace, but he had no idea that a hunting net targeting him had been silently laid!"

Zhu Dijun spoke faster, his fingers tapping on the keyboard, projecting a floor plan of the Ming Dynasty Forbidden City onto the large screen.

"During this time, Jiajing was fast asleep in his bedchamber. Strangely enough, he was only attended to by a few personal maids. There were no eunuchs on duty in the palace! No imperial guards! Yang Jinying and sixteen other maids had already secretly plotted. Taking advantage of the quiet of the night and the locked palace gates, they sneaked into the vicinity of the emperor's bed like ghosts."

He wrote four large characters on the whiteboard: "Clear division of labor."

"This was no spur-of-the-moment decision! Some held his hands, some held his feet, and some used a pre-twisted yellow velvet rope to put a noose around Jiajing's neck! These sixteen women had become a sophisticated killing machine!"

"It's early morning, around 2 AM!"

Zhu Dijun slapped his hand on the podium.

"An incident broke out! The palace maids worked together to tie the rope! But as we mentioned before, in the chaos, the rope became a knot that couldn't be tied! Jiajing woke up and struggled, but was so frightened that he fainted."

"The plan has stalled! These palace maids, who have suffered abuse in the deep palace for years, are instantly broken down. Some are so frightened that their hands go limp, while others are at a loss. Just then, the palace maid Zhang Jinlian has a mental breakdown. She believes she is doomed, so she secretly runs out of Yikun Palace and heads straight for Kunning Palace to inform Empress Fang!"

The light spots on the big screen moved frantically from Yikun Palace to Kunning Palace.

"At 2:30 AM, Empress Fang received a secret report and was greatly alarmed. She immediately rushed to Yikun Palace with her personal eunuchs and maids from Kunning Palace! By the time she and her men kicked down the door, the scene was already in complete chaos. In desperation, a maid fought back and punched Empress Fang, but it was too late. The maids scattered and were surrounded. Jiajing was unconscious and barely breathing."

"At this critical moment, what did Empress Fang do? She immediately ordered someone to untie the knot around Jiajing's neck to protect the emperor, and then urgently summoned the imperial physician to the palace for emergency treatment!"

Zhu Dijun grabbed the pointer and pointed it sharply at the fourth node on the timeline.

"From the end of Yin hour to the beginning of Mao hour! That is, between three and four in the morning! At this time, the reinforcements finally arrived! The eunuchs in charge of the inner court, Zhang Zuo and Gao Zhong, led the eunuchs into the palace and captured and bound all sixteen palace maids involved in the assassination attempt on the spot!"

He stared intently at the camera, his eyes revealing a sharp insight that seemed to see through the mystery.

"Family members, pay attention to this extremely crucial detail! Those arresting people are all eunuchs from the inner court! Where are the imperial guards outside the Ming capital? The palace is sealed off; the imperial guards only guard the palace gates! According to the rules of the Ming Dynasty, the imperial guards are not allowed to enter the concubines' sleeping quarters without permission; they can only be deployed on the perimeter and block the roads. Throughout the entire process, not a single guard carrying a knife rushed into the palace to protect the emperor!"

The comments section was completely stunned.

"From 5 a.m. to 7 a.m.! From 4 a.m. to 8 a.m.!" Judy Jun's pointer slammed heavily on the whiteboard, making a harsh thud.

"Jiajing remained unconscious and completely unable to govern or answer questions. During this power vacuum that lasted for several hours, Empress Fang became the supreme ruler of the entire Ming Dynasty's harem, and even the entire empire!"

"This woman is ruthless to the extreme! She didn't even wait for Jiajing to come to his senses before taking full control of the interrogation and fabricating charges against him! She falsely accused Consort Cao and Consort Wang of knowing about the plot beforehand and being accomplices in the murder! But family members, historical records generally agree that Consort Cao was completely innocent! She didn't participate at all! Empress Fang used this murder to eliminate her most favored rival in love with remarkable efficiency!"

Zhu Dijun pulled up a chair, sat down, and took a big gulp of water. The studio lights shone on his cold, hard profile.

"Before Jiajing could even wake up, the case was quickly settled, and he was sentenced to death by a thousand cuts and extermination of his entire clan. Half a day later, Jiajing finally awoke slowly, still shaken. By then, the sixteen palace maids, Consort Wang, and Consort Cao had all been dealt with! Their families were exiled. Jiajing knew that Consort Cao was innocent, but because of Empress Fang's great contribution in saving him, he could only swallow his anger and accept this injustice!"

"So, let's summarize the apparent logic behind this palace coup!"

Four lines of stark white text appeared on the large screen:

The assassin was a palace maid.

It was Zhang Jinlian who betrayed them and fled.

The one who orchestrated the rescue and used others to commit the crime was Empress Fang.

The people arrested and sealed off were eunuchs from the inner court. The imperial guards remained outside the palace the entire time.

"This is the entire overt process of the Renyin Palace Coup." Zhu Dijun suddenly paused, and the entire live broadcast room fell into a deathly silence. A few seconds later, a chilling and eerie smile appeared on his lips.

"But, family members, this is only the apparent beneficiary. Empress Fang eliminated her rival with a knotted rope. But in reality, there is another, deeply hidden, ultimate beneficiary in this murder case that nearly led to Jiajing's death, who profited immensely!"

Zhu Dijun suddenly stood up, grabbed a blood-red marker, and wrote a name in the center of the whiteboard that no one expected.

"Xu Jie! And the vast group of civil officials in Jiangnan behind him!"

boom!

The moment these words were uttered, the entire universe erupted in chaos.

A parallel universe in the 22nd year of the Jiajing reign of the Ming Dynasty.

At this time, Zhu Houcong had just experienced the Renyin Palace Incident. Due to extreme physical weakness and fear of the Forbidden City, he had moved to the Wuyi Hall in the Western Garden.

He had been sitting cross-legged on the prayer mat, listening to the explanation of Empress Fang's ruthless methods on the screen, still feeling resentful. But when the name "Xu Jie" was displayed on the screen, Jiajing's eyes narrowed sharply, and he sprang up from the prayer mat as if he had been electrocuted.

"Who?!"

Jiajing's voice became shrill and distorted. Due to the excessive force, he coughed violently, and even the not-yet-completely-faded ligature mark on his neck turned bright red.

"Xu Jie? The Jiangnan civil official group?!"

Jiajing's bloodshot eyes were fixed on the sky. What was Xu Jie's status at this moment? He was merely the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel in the Ming Dynasty! A third-rank official!

In Jiajing's eyes, Yan Song was a vicious dog he used to control the court, and Xia Yan was a stepping stone he had just kicked aside. As for Xu Jie, he was usually obsequious and seemed to be just a guy trying to survive in the power struggles between factions.

"How dare future generations like Judy Jun spout such nonsense!"

Emperor Jiajing kicked over the bronze incense burner in front of him, scattering incense ash all over the ground. Huang Jin was so frightened that he scrambled over and kowtowed.

"Xu Jie was implicated in the assassination attempt on my harem? These scoundrels from Jiangnan have already reached into my bedchamber?!"

Jiajing's hands gripped his dragon robe tightly, his eyes a mixture of rage and utter terror. If this were true, the Ming court would have long since become a cannibalistic den of monsters.

Not only were viewers in the Jiajing era completely dumbfounded, but those in the modern-day live stream were also utterly stunned. The screen was instantly flooded with huge question marks.

"Holy crap?! Announcer, are you crazy?! Xu Jie?!"

"Isn't Xu Jie the same Xu Jie who endured twenty years of hardship in the late Ming Dynasty to defeat Yan Song?!"

"That's right! The records say that Xu Jie and those Taoist priests like Shao Yuanjie and Tao Zhongwen outwardly flattered each other to save their own lives, but inwardly they were political enemies! They were the absolute opposite of Confucian officials and Taoist priests! How could he possibly be in league with these people?"

"Host, are you just making this up to get attention?"

Zhu Dijun stood in front of the large screen, watching the barrage of questioning comments flood the screen like snowflakes, his sneer growing stronger. Far from being flustered, he exuded an extreme confidence that seemed to see through the fog of history.

"I know many people don't believe it."

Judy tapped the pointer lightly on the table. "After all, you all received incorrect information and data. I didn't believe it at first either."

He turned around, zoomed in on Xu Jie's seemingly honest and kind portrait, and dragged it to the center of the screen.

"Confucian officials fighting against alchemists? Loyal ministers enduring hardship to overthrow the Yan faction? My fellow citizens, in the Jiajing era, this ultimate meat grinder that devours people without spitting out the bones, where can you find any pure and innocent white lotus flowers!"

Zhu Dijun pressed his hands firmly on the podium, his entire body close to the camera, every word he spoke exuding an extreme sense of pressure.

"When we lay bare the political accounts of the Ming Dynasty court, the smuggling networks in Jiangnan, and the tax extortion stemming from Jiajing's pursuit of immortality, we will discover an extremely tight, chillingly tight chain of vested interests!"

He picked up a red pen and drew a heavy red cross next to Xu Jie's portrait.

"Let me tell you slowly, how exactly did these Jiangnan civil officials, who claimed to be the sons of saints, use a group of palace maids to carry out a bloodless political reshuffle, and then completely devour the foundation of the Ming Empire piece by piece!"

The studio lights instantly switched to an extremely deep, eerie green. Zhu Dijun looked at the camera and posed a question that left the entire internet speechless.