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

The blood-red lights in the studio flickered rapidly, as if breathing. Zhu Dijun pressed his hands firmly on the podium, staring at the camera, a chilling smile playing on his lips.

"Family members! In the last chapter, we deduced the military and political conspiracy behind the 'Fourteen Strategies for Defending the Borders,' explaining how Xia Yan touched Jiajing's sore spot. But do you really think that Jiajing was so impatient, even shameless, to drag the Grand Secretary out into the street to be beheaded simply because of smuggling on the border, military power, and the failed attempt to assassinate the emperor?"

He suddenly stood up, grabbed the blackboard eraser, smoothed the whiteboard, and wrote three bloody characters in the center with a black marker: "Kill Xia Yan".

"Let me tell you a terrifying underlying logic! In reality, besides the attempted regicide and collusion with border generals and Jiangnan gentry in smuggling, which were mentioned earlier, there were three other, even more fatal, core secrets that directly threatened Jiajing's lifeline!"

Zhu Dijun's pointer slammed heavily onto the whiteboard, making a piercing crack.

"Today, let's uncover the first truth that has been hidden by history—the feudal princes!"

The image on the screen suddenly reversed, revealing a huge genealogical chart of the Ming Dynasty's imperial family.

"To understand Jiajing's extreme panic when he killed Xia Yan, we must rewind the timeline two generations!" Zhu Dijun pointed the red light in his hand to a name at the very top of the genealogy chart: "The reign of Emperor Xianzong of Ming, Zhu Jianshen!"

"At that time, the civil service in the Ming Dynasty was already extremely arrogant. If it weren't for the forceful interference and backroom deals by powerful ministers, the rightful heir to the throne should have been Jiajing's own father—Prince Xingxian, Zhu Youyuan! He would have been the crown prince and ascended the throne!"

In a parallel timeline of the Ming Dynasty, during the reign of Emperor Xianzong.

Zhu Jianshen sat on the dragon throne, the veins on the back of his withered hands bulging. He looked at the sky, his eyes revealing a sense of helplessness and extreme rage stemming from his association with civil officials.

"Unfortunately, history has no 'what ifs'!"

Zhu Dijun's voice was as rapid as war drums: "The civil official group forcibly seized Zhu Youyuan's legitimacy, placing the throne in the hands of Zhu Youcheng! It was then passed to Emperor Wuzong, Zhu Houzhao. And after Zhu Houzhao was brutally murdered in the Leopard Chamber by the civil official group led by Yang Yiqing, the baton of the throne dramatically fell into the hands of Zhu Houcong, a member of the lesser lineage!"

Four large characters were displayed on the screen: "[The Great Rites Controversy]".

"Family members, now look back at this momentous Great Rites Controversy! Why did Jiajing, upon ascending the throne, insist on defying the world and fighting to the death against Yang Tinghe and his cronies, insisting on enshrining his own father in the Imperial Ancestral Temple?! This wasn't some kind of filial piety about saving face! This was Jiajing's extremely frantic attempt to seize the ultimate legitimacy of the Ming Dynasty's throne! He wanted to prove to the world that he wasn't an adopted emperor, that his father was rightfully the emperor!"

Zhu Dijun pulled over a chair and sat down heavily, and the lights in the entire studio turned an extremely oppressive dark red.

"But even though the legitimacy was seized, did Jiajing's insecurity disappear? Not at all! In this Forbidden City filled with murderous intent, he was just an outsider prince! And in the twenty-fourth year of Jiajing's reign, when Xia Yan returned to power and attacked Yan Song, two extremely consecutive major rebellions within the imperial clans erupted in the Ming Dynasty, shattering Jiajing's mind!"

The first blood-stained urgent document was dragged to the center of the big screen—[The Case of the Chu Prince's Father-Killing]!

"The 18th day of the first month of the 24th year of the Jiajing reign! Wuchang, Huguang! The Prince of Chu's Mansion!" Zhu Dijun dissected this tragic human drama, word by word.

"Zhu Yingyao, the heir apparent of the Prince of Chu, a young nobleman who had been pampered in the royal palace since childhood, did something that terrified the entire Ming Dynasty—he physically exorcised his own father, the Prince of Chu, Zhu Xianrong!"

"The cause is utterly absurd! Zhu Yingyao had an affair with Song Yao'er, a musician in the Prince's mansion. This is outrageous and lewd! Prince Chu, Zhu Xianrong, was furious, severely reprimanded the heir apparent, and demanded that the eunuch Liu Jin be held accountable!"

"And what happened? Not only did the Crown Prince refuse to admit his mistake, but he also conspired with Liu Jin to go all the way and set up a trap to poison his own father! When the poison failed, Zhu Yingyao ordered his men to rush in and kill the old Prince of Chu on the spot in an extremely cruel manner!"

In a parallel Hongwu era of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly stood up and kicked over the heavy rosewood imperial desk in front of him.

"Beast! Treason!"

Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes were bloodshot, and the veins on his neck were throbbing.

"How could our Zhu family produce such beasts! Father kills son, son murders emperor and father! The imperial family of the Ming Dynasty has been turned into fat pigs and demons who know nothing of human ethics!"

"When this case came to light, the entire Ming Dynasty court was utterly astonished!"

Zhu Dijun frantically typed on the keyboard, and a sketch of a slow, slicing execution flashed on the screen.

"After committing the murder, Zhu Yingyao brazenly seized power by forging an imperial edict, concealing the truth for several months! When the matter came to light, Jiajing was furious and immediately issued an edict ordering Zhu Yingyao to be taken to Beijing and beheaded as a warning to the public! His imperial clan status was also revoked! After this case, Jiajing's control over the imperial clan reached an abnormal level, strengthening the restrictions on their fiefdoms and strictly prohibiting them from privately keeping assassins!"

Zhu Dijun casually broke the chalk in half and threw it on the table.

"But you think that's the end of it? Before Jiajing could recover from the bloodshed at the Prince of Chu's residence, an even bigger bombshell exploded on the northern military defense line!"

The screen instantly panned north, focusing on Datong, Shanxi, one of the nine strategically important border towns. Five stark white characters pierced the audience like sharp swords—[The Case of the Dai Prince's Rebellion]!

"From January to March of the same year! In the Prince Dai's Mansion in Datong! General Zhu Chongzhuo and a group of imperial clan members were unhappy because the court had reduced their stipends, causing their living standards to decline. What did they do?"

Judy Jun let out an extremely absurd laugh:

"These idle vagrants, living off the government's stipend, have brazenly robbed Liu Yong, the prefect of Datong, of his belongings in the street! This is a blatant act of defiance against the authority of the state!"

"The prefect was robbed, and the Prince of Dai and the governor jointly submitted a memorial to the emperor. The Jiajing Emperor issued an edict fining Zhu Chongzhuo and his gang a year's salary and ordering the Prince of Dai to strictly control them. Logically, this should have been the end of the matter, right?"

The pointer lashed hard across the map, sparks flying.

"Wrong! Utterly wrong! Zhu Chongzhuo harbored resentment, feeling that the court had wronged him! Thus, a member of the imperial family who received the Ming Dynasty's imperial stipend secretly colluded with the heretical White Lotus sect! He even sent people out of the pass to contact Altan Khan of the Mongols on the grasslands! Their plan was to coordinate an attack from within and without, directly leading the Mongol cavalry to breach Datong City! This is known in history as the Rebellion of the Dai Prince!"

At that moment, viewers across the internet felt their scalp tingle.

"Holy crap! The Ming Dynasty's imperial family is colluding with foreign enemies to attack the Ming Dynasty?! What kind of ultimate traitor is this?!"

"The Prince of Chu's mansion murdered its father, and the Prince of Dai's mansion led the Qing army... no, the Mongol army into the pass! Is this 24th year of the Jiajing reign cursed?"

"Datong again! Isn't this the place where Xia Yan strongly advocated the Fourteen Policies, offered military pay, and changed generals?!"

"Some knowledgeable viewers in the comments have figured it out!"

Zhu Dijun suddenly turned around, placed his hands on the podium, stared intently at the camera, and his eyes revealed a chilling coldness.

"Family members! This is the ultimate dead end I'm going to reveal to you today! Different positions lead to completely different perspectives!"

"Yan Song saw an opportunity to suppress Xia Yan. Ordinary officials saw the lawlessness of the imperial family and the rebellion of princes. But what did the Jiajing Emperor, sitting in the Western Garden, see?!"

All the images on the screen spun wildly, eventually freezing on a raging fireball.

"Don't forget! At this point in time, it has been 24 years since Jiajing ascended the throne, and he has already experienced a total of eight deadly fires! Especially during his southern tours, there were three consecutive fires at the imperial palaces, which almost burned him to a crisp! When he returned to the Forbidden City, he encountered the attempted assassination of the emperor during the Renyin Palace Coup, and sixteen palace maids almost strangled him!"

Zhu Dijun's voice became hoarse and strained due to the extreme emotional outburst.

"In Jiajing's eyes, the whole world is a bunch of devils who want him dead! Now, the Chu prince's patricide and usurpation of power proves that the imperial family doesn't even care about kinship and dares to kill at any time! The Dai prince's collusion with the Mongols to rebel in Datong proves that the imperial family dares to sell out the country and seize cities for profit!"

The blood-red laser pointer drew a heavy cross on the map of Datong, tightly encircling the three names: [Dai Fan], [Zeng Xian], and [Xia Yan].

"And at this extremely sensitive and terrifying juncture! Xia Yan, as the Grand Secretary, actually forced the implementation of the 'Fourteen Strategies for Border Defense' in the court! He wants to send a massive amount of military funds from the national treasury to Datong! He wants to replace all the garrison commanders of Datong and Xuanfu with his own people!"

In a parallel Jiajing era of the Ming Dynasty. Inside the Wuyi Hall of the Western Garden.

Zhu Houcong's body trembled violently like a sieve. He gripped the prayer mat tightly, his eyes bulging, and his fingernails cracked and bled.

"My throne...my life! They want my life!"

Jiajing let out a desperate roar, like that of a wild beast.

On the sky, Zhu Dijun's narration became the final straw that broke the camel's back for imperial power.

"What did Jiajing see?! He didn't see Xia Yan strengthening the army and protecting the country! He saw a powerful Grand Secretary, in league with a border general who held considerable military power, frantically amassing troops and funds in Datong, a place where a rebellion by the imperial clan had just occurred!"

"In an instant, Jiajing's mind would conjure up an extremely terrifying equation: the money of the Jiangnan civil official group + Xia Yan's central power in the cabinet + Zeng Xian's elite border troops in Datong + a certain Ming prince with ulterior motives = a new Ming emperor!!!"

boom!

The lights in the entire studio went out instantly, leaving only Zhu Dijun's ghostly eyes flashing in the darkness.

"This is the ultimate reason why Jiajing was willing to bear the infamy of a tyrant and still have Xia Yan beheaded in the street! Xia Yan not only threatened the smuggling business, but he also inadvertently stepped on Jiajing's extremely fragile 'imperial succession' super high-voltage line!"

"In this cannibalistic hell, anyone who dares to touch military power, anyone who dares to associate with the Great Harmony, must die!"

Judy Jun took a step back and disappeared into the shadows. A few seconds later, his extremely deep voice came from the darkness, like a cold dagger pressed against the throats of all the spectators.

"But that's only the first reason."