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

"Family members! In the last chapter, we witnessed the appearance of Qi Jiguang and Tan Lun on the southeastern coast. But as I said, the swords of great generals are often broken by their own people. Today, let's see how the ultimate meat grinder of the Ming Dynasty court chews up a prime minister!"

Zhu Dijun stood in front of the large screen, grabbed the blackboard eraser, and forcefully wiped away the coastal map. With a backhand stroke, he used a blood-red marker to slam four glaring characters into the center—[Xia Yan's Death].

The studio's cold blue lights instantly turned into a somber scarlet.

"When you see the name Xia Yan, you will definitely feel familiar with it. We talked about the palace coup in the 21st year of Jiajing's reign. He was brought down by Yan Song and Jiajing because of his incense leaf crown and his refusal to write Qingci (a type of petition), right? Many people think that he was just a corrupt official who worked for the Jiangnan smuggling tycoons and deserved to die."

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

"But that only sees the surface! When evaluating Xia Yan, an extremely complex historical figure, we must not use a simple categorization of loyalty and treachery. I'll tell you a revolutionary underlying logic—in the early Jiajing reign, Xia Yan was not a lackey of any civil official group at all; he was the most steadfast member of the Emperor's faction!"

A portrait of Xia Yan in his youth, wearing a bright red official robe, was dragged onto the screen.

"During the Great Rites Controversy, Xia Yan was a key figure in helping Emperor Jiajing stand up against Yang Tinghe and his group of old-school civil officials! Jiajing trusted him immensely, appointing him to the Grand Secretariat in the fifteenth year of his reign, and directly bestowing upon him the titles of Junior Tutor and Pillar of State in the seventeenth year of his reign. His favor was unparalleled in the world!"

"But, family, the world is too dazzling!" Judy Jun slammed his hand on the podium.

"Where is Xia Yan from? He's from Jiangxi! When he took the position of Grand Secretary, faced with the enormous smuggling profits and vast wealth offered by the Jiangnan civil official group, he couldn't resist! He transformed from a vicious dog of the imperial party that helped the emperor bite people into the head of the Jiangnan civil official group's interests!"

A progress bar suddenly appeared at the bottom of the screen, displaying four characters: "【Three Expulsions and Three Returns】".

"It was precisely because of this extremely agonizing shift in identity that Xia Yan experienced a rollercoaster of ups and downs in the Jiajing era, a period rarely seen in the history of officialdom in ancient China!"

The pointer in Zhu Dijun's hand is stuck at the first node on the timeline.

"The first time! In the eighteenth year of the Jiajing reign! When Jiajing went to Dayu Mountain to inspect the imperial tombs, Xia Yan, as the Grand Secretary, was actually late! What's worse, his memorial didn't use the silver seal personally bestowed by the emperor! How volatile was Jiajing's temper? He immediately turned on him and ordered Xia Yan to retire and get out of office!"

"But no sooner had Xia Yan left the capital than Jiajing's anger subsided. Realizing that the court needed a leader from Jiangxi to keep an eye on the others, he immediately issued an edict summoning him back! And reinstated him to his original position!"

"Expelled for the second time!"

The red pointer swept across the middle.

"This is the 21st year of the Jiajing reign, which we mentioned earlier! Taking advantage of the solar eclipse and the 'fragrant leaf crown' incident, Yan Song launched a fierce attack, and the Jiajing Emperor directly dismissed Xia Yan from his post and placed him on idleness! Yan Song successfully rose to power!"

The live stream chat was flooded with comments like "the tragedy of the 'Fragrant Leaf Crown'."

"At this point, everyone thought Xia Yan was completely finished. The Yan faction held absolute power in the court, Yan Song was installing his cronies on a massive scale, and engaging in rampant corruption. But! My family! You have greatly underestimated the Emperor Jiajing's mastery of checks and balances!"

Judy Jun let out an extremely absurd cold laugh.

"December of the twenty-fourth year of the Jiajing reign! The Jiajing Emperor, hiding in the Western Garden, was refining elixirs, coldly watching Yan Song's power grow ever stronger. He sensed something was wrong; this dog was becoming disobedient. What to do? Unleash another vicious hound to bite him!"

On the big screen, an imperial edict was suddenly unfurled.

Without a word, Emperor Jiajing immediately issued an edict summoning Xia Yan back to court! He was once again appointed Grand Secretary! And his rank was directly above Yan Song's!

"Xia Yan returns to the capital for the third time to join the cabinet! How satisfying was this scene?"

Zhu Dijun drew a little figure kneeling and kowtowing on the whiteboard.

"When Yan Song learned that Xia Yan had returned, his legs went weak with fear. To save his life, this powerful Grand Secretary Yan actually brought his son Yan Shifan to Xia Yan's residence, knelt down with a thud, and kowtowed to Xia Yan, crying and begging for forgiveness! Xia Yan, on the other hand, remained as arrogant as ever, completely ignoring him!"

The comments section was filled with cheers of "The male protagonist of the wish-fulfillment novel is back!"

"If Xia Yan's return was merely to vie for power with Yan Song, then he would be a complete politician. But during the years he was sidelined and dismissed, he witnessed the devastation of the Ming Dynasty's northern border being trampled into ruins by the Mongols, and he saw the bloodshed at Mutianyu! This extremely arrogant fellow from Jiangxi, deep down, still retained a trace of the responsibility of the Ming Dynasty's chief minister!"

An extremely thick memorial was enlarged in the center of the screen—[Fourteen Strategies for Defending the Borders].

"After Xia Yan's comeback, he didn't engage in factional strife; instead, he did something extremely hardcore! He strongly promoted the 'Fourteen Strategies for Defending the Borders'!"

Judy Jun pointed at the densely packed terms and conditions on the screen and roared:

"He solemnly declared to the emperor: the nine border garrisons must absolutely not employ those pampered soldiers who are only interested in military merit! We must carefully select generals who are capable of fighting! Secondly, and most importantly, the court must pay the soldiers in Xuanfu and Datong their wages and rations on time and in full! Anyone who dares to withhold the border troops' pay will be beheaded!"

"At this moment, Xia Yan truly wanted to save the Ming Dynasty from its border crisis!"

The studio lights dimmed instantly, and the mockery on Zhu Dijun's face vanished, replaced by an extreme sense of desolation.

"But he forgot that the Ming Dynasty, this dilapidated vehicle, had long been reduced to just the chassis by the powerless emperor and the civil service. You want to step on the gas, but everyone below is slamming on the brakes!"

"In the first month of the twenty-seventh year of the Jiajing reign! The fuse that would determine Xia Yan's fate was finally lit!"

Three bloody words were slammed onto the whiteboard: "Recapture the Hetao region."

"Zeng Xian, the Governor-General of Shaanxi's Three Border Regions, a true iron-willed general, submitted a memorial requesting permission to send troops to recover the Hetao region and drive out the Mongols! Xia Yan, after reading the memorial, was filled with fervor and, with the full support of the cabinet, strongly advocated for war!"

"But would Jiajing be willing to fight?!"

Zhu Dijun grabbed a half-used piece of chalk and drew an extremely satirical Tai Chi symbol on the whiteboard.

"Jiajing had no money! Wars required funds from the national treasury, but he wanted to save his own money to build palaces for cultivating immortality! Even more absurdly, Jiajing consulted a sorcerer through spirit writing, and the diviner told him: 'Inauspicious! We cannot fight!'"

In a parallel Zhenguan era of the Tang Dynasty.

Li Shimin smashed the dragon head on the imperial desk with a single punch, his eyes wide with rage:

"Matters of state and military importance hinge on the blade, and this foolish emperor actually consults ghosts and gods?! How could the generals of the Ming Dynasty have such a beastly master!"

"Just when Jiajing was extremely dissatisfied with Xia Yan, Yan Song, that venomous snake who had been kneeling on the ground pretending to be a grandson, revealed his deadly fangs, which he had been brewing for three years!"

Zhu Dijun interlaced his fingers, his voice as deep and resonant as a judge from hell.

"Yan Song was too insidious. He didn't even bother with policy. He directly attacked the two most sensitive issues that the Ming emperor absolutely could not touch!"

"The first move: label him as forming a faction! Yan Song falsely accused Xia Yan of 'colluding with close attendants and coercing the emperor and the masses'! He pinned the label on Xia Yan, accusing him of conspiring with the border general Zeng Xian to stage a coup!"

"The second tactic was to fabricate corruption! Yan Song, in collusion with Lu Bing, the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard who had just been offended and killed by Xia Yan, forged a fatal piece of evidence, falsely claiming that Xia Yan had secretly received a huge bribe from Zeng Xian through a relative!"

"The third tactic is to destroy his spirit! Yan Song spread rumors in Jiajing's ear, saying that when Xia Yan was dismissed from his post a few years ago and returned to his hometown, he spent his days 'slandering the court' and cursing the emperor for being incompetent!"

The live stream chat exploded instantly.

"Three consecutive fatal blows! These are crimes punishable by the extermination of nine generations of one's family!"

["Yan Song truly lives up to his reputation as a workplace killer; when he strikes, he goes straight for the graves of his ancestors!"]

"Jiajing was already annoyed by Xia Yan's insistence on fighting, and upon hearing Yan Song's slander, his severe paranoia flared up on the spot! The emperor's attitude changed drastically, and he immediately issued an edict to imprison and execute Zeng Xian! As for Xia Yan, the Grand Secretary, he was ordered to retire, stripped of all official positions and gifts, and escorted back to the capital for trial!"

The scene on the big screen switched to a grim execution ground.

Amidst the swirling snow, the executioner's warrant was hurled heavily to the ground.

"The second day of the tenth month of the twenty-seventh year of the Jiajing reign. The West Market of Beijing."

Zhu Dijun pulled up a chair and sat down, the red light of the entire studio focusing on his profile.

"The Ming Dynasty has been established for nearly two hundred years. No matter how fierce the infighting among the Grand Secretaries of the Cabinet was, most of them were dismissed from office and returned to their hometowns, or at worst, they died in prison. But Xia Yan broke this rule."

"This 67-year-old Grand Secretary was led to the execution ground in the West Market with his hands tied behind his back. The Jiajing Emperor not only wanted to kill him, but also to use the most humiliating method of 'public execution,' that is, to publicly behead him in front of a large crowd, to demonstrate his extreme authority to the world."

Historical records state that Xia Yan knelt on the execution ground, but did not weep and beg for mercy like a civil official. He raised his head, looked at the gloomy sky, and left behind only an extremely desperate last word.

A line of pale white text slowly scrolled across the center of the screen.

Heaven is ruthless; how cruel is creation!

"With a swift stroke, the Grand Secretary, who once held immense power in the Ming Dynasty, was beheaded. His wife, Lady Su, was exiled and eventually drowned herself in despair. All their property was confiscated."

The entire universe was deathly silent.

In a parallel universe of the Ming Dynasty, during the Hongwu reign.

Zhu Yuanzhang closed his eyes. Even though he hated powerful ministers, seeing a chief minister who advocated for the repair of border defenses end up being beheaded in the middle of the city filled him with extreme disappointment for his descendants.

Xia Yan is an extremely contradictory person.

Zhu Dijun casually tossed the blackboard eraser onto the table. "He was stubborn, arrogant, and rude. While in power, he indulged in pleasure and accepted tributes from smuggling tycoons. But when the Ming Dynasty was on the verge of collapse, his inherent courage made him stand up and try to stop the chariot sliding into the abyss. In the end, he was crushed into a pulp by the wheels."

"With Xia Yan dead and Zeng Xian dead, no one in the Hetao region dared to mention its recapture again."

On the big screen, Yan Song's face, covered with age spots, was magnified infinitely, with an extremely sinister smile on his lips.

"After the twenty-seventh year of the Jiajing reign, the Ming court completely lost its last shred of checks and balances. Yan Song seized power, and Yan Shifan controlled the selection of officials, plunging the Ming Dynasty into an absolute dark period that lasted for more than a decade. Even the emperor only consulted Yan Song when it came to alchemy."

Zhu Dijun raised his hand and pointed to a blurry figure in the corner of the screen who was always looking down.

"The emperor pursues immortality, powerful ministers hold sway, and loyal officials are executed. It seems the Ming Dynasty is utterly beyond saving."

He moved closer to the camera, and a chilling, eerie smile suddenly appeared on his lips.

"But family members, what if we look back now and examine Xia Yan's third comeback, 'Fourteen Strategies for Defending the Border,' from the perspective of dark conspiracy theories?"