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

"Family members, at the end of the last chapter, I posed a question: At this critical juncture when the Ming Dynasty was about to slide into the abyss, after that extremely dangerous Renyin Palace Coup, who says that Confucian officials didn't resort to underhanded tactics?"

Zhu Dijun stood in front of the large screen, and the lights in the entire studio were instantly switched to an extremely dark, murky green. He grabbed the blackboard eraser and roughly wiped away all the border lines on the whiteboard. Then, with a black marker, he drew a huge exam room partition in the center.

"The twenty-third year of the Jiajing reign! The year of Jia Chen!"

Zhu Dijun's pointer lashed out hard at this year, producing a piercing crack.

"This is the year the Ming Empire has completely rotted away! We're not even looking at the border anymore, because the civil service is too busy to care about the Mongols and Tatars in the north. They're staging a ruthless, ultimate spoils-dividing ceremony right in the very heart of Ming power, a ceremony that utterly disgraces all the scholars in the land!"

Five stark white characters crashed down on the screen—【Jiachen Imperial Examination Scandal】!

"On the Ding Si day of the third month! The results of the imperial examination of the Jia Chen year of the Ming Dynasty have been officially released!"

Zhu Dijun pressed his hands firmly against the podium, getting close to the camera.

"Fellow family members, what is the imperial examination? Since its inception and stabilization, from the Song Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty, it was the only channel for countless poor scholars to study diligently and change their fate! It was the last fig leaf for the imperial court's talent selection ceremony! But this year's imperial examination list has completely shattered the worldview of the entire court and all scholars across the land!"

A faded gold list was dragged onto the big screen. Zhu Dijun's fingers frantically tapped the keyboard, and two names were highlighted with extremely glaring red circles.

"The top scorer in this exam is Qin Minglei, but he's not the main character today. The main characters today are two other people on the list—Zhai Ruxiao and Zhai Rujian!"

Two portraits of smug young Confucian scholars popped up.

"Who are these two people? What makes them so dominant on the charts? Let me tell you!"

Zhu Dijun suddenly turned around and, with an extremely glaring red pen, wrote a famous and powerful name above the two of them—[Grand Secretary Zhai Luan]!

"That's right! These two eldest sons are the biological sons of Zhai Luan, the current Grand Secretary of the Cabinet! In this year's imperial examinations, Zhai Ruxiao and Zhai Rujian not only passed both the provincial and metropolitan examinations, but the second son, Zhai Ruxiao, was even directly selected as the third-ranked scholar in the highest-level palace examination! He achieved the highest rank of Tan Hua!"

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

"Holy crap?! A double yolk?!"

"These genes are just too damn amazing! Did all the top students in the country come from the Zhai family?"

"They're not even going to act anymore, are they?! This is blatant backroom dealing!"

"Young Master Zhou, you're a Ming dynasty patron, aren't you? Why should the efforts of generations of my family be defeated by your ten years of hard study!"

In a parallel Hongwu era of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Yuanzhang sat slumped on the dragon throne, staring intently at the red and golden list displayed on the sky. His withered hands suddenly tore the memorials before him to shreds.

"We established the imperial examination system to select talented individuals from among the common people! To prevent the powerful and wealthy from controlling the government for generations! This Zhai Luan dared to extend his reach into the examination hall?! He's even polluting the last bastion of integrity in our Ming Dynasty! He deserves to be torn to pieces! His entire family should be executed!"

"If the common people don't believe it, do you think the officials in the court and those students who failed the exams will believe it? Public opinion was in an uproar!"

Zhu Dijun slammed his hand on the whiteboard, sneering repeatedly. "This is an extremely rare and shameless case of cheating involving two sons of high-ranking officials who both passed the imperial examinations—a top-tier case of corruption!"

The screen suddenly switched to the dark examination room.

"How on earth did these people cheat? Folks, did they bring in cheat sheets? Hire someone to take the exam for them? That's so damn low-level!"

Zhu Dijun's eyes revealed a desolate look that reflected his disillusionment with the darkness of officialdom.

"When your own father is the Grand Secretary, you don't even need to cheat yourself; countless officials eager to climb the ranks will rush to feed you!"

A portrait of Jiang Rubing, dressed in an examiner's uniform, was displayed on the screen.

"The chief examiners, Jiang Rubing and his gang! These scoundrels accepted an enormous amount of political bribes, providing the ultimate VIP service in the examination hall! They specially arranged excellent exam seats for the Zhai brothers, making it convenient for someone to cover for them and pass the papers to them! A smooth ride all the way, guaranteeing them third place!"

Zhu Dijun grabbed the pointer and pointed it directly at the camera.

"What do you call this? This is called targeted transfer of benefits within the Ming Dynasty's bureaucratic system! You, Chief Minister Zhai, are the head of the cabinet, and I, as the examiner, give your son the green light. In the future, won't I, Jiang Rubing, be able to walk sideways in the court? This is a sure-fire way to make money!"

"but!"

Zhu Dijun's voice suddenly rose, like thunder splitting the darkness of the studio.

"Zhai Luan doesn't have absolute power in the court! He's forgotten that beside him lurks a venomous snake, one that devours people without spitting out the bones, its fangs now gleaming!"

Yan Song's gloomy and withered old face appeared faintly in the shadows of the screen.

"At this time, Yan Song had just ousted Xia Yan and was riding high. But he wasn't the boss yet; the Grand Secretary Zhai Luan was still above him. Yan Song dreamed of sitting in the top seat of the cabinet! Now, Zhai Luan had actually gone so far as to cheat in the imperial examinations—wasn't that just handing his neck to Yan Song's blade?"

Judy Jun let out a wild laugh that could blow the roof off.

"Yan Song didn't need to jump out and accuse anyone himself. He only needed to give a slight signal from behind, and the group of officials and censors he kept under his command immediately went berserk like mad dogs smelling blood, collectively submitting memorials and frantically impeaching those involved in the examinations, exposing the Zhai family's dirty secrets!"

What was the Jiajing Emperor's reaction?

A portrait of a Taoist priest in a gloomy robe flashed by. "Jiajing has just been strangled by a palace maid and is currently in the Western Garden suffering from a severe case of paranoia. He already felt that the entire court was plotting against him. Now, look, the Grand Secretary is leading the way in cheating in the imperial examinations, deceiving the emperor and his subordinates! This is digging up the very foundation of the Ming Dynasty!"

As the timeline raced forward, Zhu Dijun drew an enormous death cross on August 15th with a red marker in his hand.

"In August of the twenty-third year of the Jiajing reign! Enraged, the Jiajing Emperor issued an iron-fisted imperial edict, ordering the Embroidered Uniform Guard to investigate thoroughly! The investigation revealed everything!"

"The outcome was extremely severe! Jiang Rubing and other examiners were imprisoned! Zhai Ruxiao and Zhai Rujian, those two good-for-nothings who rose to power through their fathers' connections, were stripped of their Jinshi qualifications, stripped of their official status, and permanently barred from employment! As for the Grand Secretary Zhai Luan, who had been trying to control everything behind the scenes and enjoying the protection of his father's authority, he was directly dismissed from his post and exiled to the army!"

The chat room erupted in cheers.

"Yan Song's tactic of using someone else to do his dirty work was truly masterful!"

"They deserve it! These corrupt officials in the examination system should all be executed by slow slicing!"

"While the Jiajing Emperor may not be good at much else, he certainly has a knack for managing civil officials."

"Zhai Luan is out of the picture, his political career is over. So, who will reap the rewards of victory next?" Zhu Dijun pulled up a chair and sat down heavily, the lights in the entire studio turning an extremely oppressive blood red.

"On the Dingwei day of September! A major cabinet reshuffle!"

On the big screen, the rankings of the three Grand Secretaries of the Cabinet were suddenly displayed.

"Xu Zan, Minister of Personnel, concurrently Grand Secretary of the Wenyuan Pavilion! Zhang Bi, Minister of Rites, concurrently Grand Secretary of the Dongge Pavilion! But these two are merely supporting characters! The true, absolute core, ranked first, is Yan Song!"

An uncontrollable rage surged in Zhu Dijun's eyes as he grabbed a piece of chalk and frantically drew circles around Yan Song's name.

"Yan Song, this Jiangxi native who rose to power by writing flattering edicts to curry favor with the emperor, bestowing veils upon the Xiangye Crown, and climbing over the corpses of Xia Yan and Zhai Luan, has officially become the de facto Grand Secretary of the Ming Empire! The Ming court has entered a twenty-year-long period of 'Yan Song's Party dictatorship'!"

"After Yan Song came to power, the political atmosphere of the Ming Dynasty went completely to extreme sycophancy and corruption."

Zhu Dijun clasped his hands tightly together on the table, his voice so low it sent chills down one's spine.

"When the emperor wanted to cultivate immortality, Yan Song would scour the country for rare treasures, precious trees, and fragrant incense; when the emperor was short of money, Yan Song's faction would relentlessly exploit local governments, engaging in corrupt practices such as issuing bribes, issuing salt permits, and venturing into the black hole of smuggling!"

"But that's not the most absurd thing!" Judy Jun suddenly stood up, pointing his pointer at the end of the timeline.

"November! In this surreal year when the Ming Dynasty's borders were being ravaged by the Mongols, the national treasury was empty, and powerful ministers held absolute power, the Jiajing Emperor actually issued another imperial edict that shattered the court and the public!"

A familiar image of someone wearing a Bagua Taoist robe was smashed onto the center of the screen—Tao Zhongwen!

"The alchemist Tao Zhongwen is hereby promoted to Junior Tutor!"

Viewers across the internet were completely dumbfounded when they saw the words "Young Master".

"Grand Tutor?! One of the Three Sovereigns?! A First-Rank Official?!"

"Letting a charlatan be the country's senior advisor and the crown prince's tutor?! What kind of hellish joke is this?!"

"Are the civil service officials of the Ming Dynasty supposed to be living in peace and not rebelling? This is practically defecating on the coffin lid of Confucius and Mencius!"

In a parallel Zhengde era of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Houzhao looked at the sky and spat out the wine in his mouth. No matter how much he usually fooled around, no matter how much he built the Leopard Chamber and favored eunuchs, he would never dare to use the top civil official honor of the Three Sovereigns to reward a Taoist priest.

"Zhu Houcong...you're truly an idiot. I personally chopped off the heads of the Mongols in Yingzhou, and I didn't dare to appoint myself as a Junior Tutor. Yet you actually granted a fortune teller the rank of First Rank?!"

"pity"

Zhu Houzhao sneered and said:

"It's a pity that this person was also an undercover agent sent by the civil service. He was completely fooled. Alas, cousin, why didn't you learn from my mistake? Later generations all say that you were a master strategist, ranking among the top emperors of the Ming Dynasty and even many emperors. Where did your wisdom in the Great Rites Controversy go? Did you become stupid from practicing Taoism?"

[Modern Live Streaming Room]

"This is the ultimate distortion of power in the Jiajing era!" Zhu Dijun slammed his hand on the podium.

"The emperor's favor reached its peak, and metaphysics completely influenced and even dominated the direction of the court! Inside, Yan Song controlled the government and engaged in rampant corruption, while outside, alchemists like Tao Zhongwen used talismanic water and the lie of immortality to drain the empire of its lifeblood. The load-bearing walls of the Ming Dynasty have been eaten away by these vermin and are now riddled with holes."

"But Jiajing didn't know at the time that the Taoist priest he appointed was a carefully selected spy from the Jiangnan civil official group. As a result, he was fooled and deceived like an idiot for more than 20 years, until Lan Daoxing was exposed and he realized that he had been tricked!"

The lights in the entire studio gradually dimmed, leaving only the intricate web of relationships on the whiteboard emitting a faint glow.

Zhu Dijun stared coldly at the screen. Suddenly, his gaze fell on the name that had remained silent and completely transparent in the corner.

"Did you think the Ming Dynasty's civil service was completely wiped out in this reshuffle? Did you think all the Confucian officials had their spines broken by Yan Song and were trampled underfoot by Tao Zhongwen?"

Zhu Dijun's lips curled into an extremely chilling, sinister smile. He pointed his finger and emphasized the name—[Xu Jie].

At this time, Xu Jie was in the position of Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, playing the subservient role.

He lowered his voice, each word sounding like a death knell.

"He watched Xia Yan die, he watched Zhai Luan be exiled, he watched Yan Song wield absolute power, and he watched Tao Zhongwen command the winds and rains. Not only did he not curse, but he smiled more respectfully than anyone else."