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

A parallel Yongle era in the Ming Dynasty.

The charcoal fire inside the Fengtian Hall crackled and popped, but it couldn't dispel the chill that filled the hall.

Emperor Yongle (Zhu Di) sat on his dragon throne, staring intently at the temporarily blacked-out sky above him. In the past few days, from the Tumu Crisis to Jiajing's pursuit of immortality, from the Ming Dynasty's borders being infiltrated to the collusion between southeastern merchants and Japanese pirates, his descendant Zhu Dijun had used an extremely cruel scalpel to thoroughly dissect the Ming Dynasty's seemingly glamorous facade.

But what truly terrified Zhu Di was not that Jiajing had been fooled by civil officials for twenty years, but that the descendant of Zhu Dijun on the celestial screen, after deducing this extremely dark political logic, insisted on adding, "I'm just talking nonsense, everyone should treat it as a novel for fun."

Zhu Di slammed his hand on the imperial desk and stood up abruptly.

"Fun? He dares to treat this as fun?!"

Zhu Di sneered, his eyes flashing with bloodthirsty killing intent. He knew all too well the methods of the Ming Dynasty's officialdom. He could deduce from the comments on the screen that even though the so-called modern era no longer had the Manchus riding on the heads of the Han people, the remnants of the Eight Banners forces were definitely still lurking!

They are threatening future generations who try to set things right! This forces descendants like Zhu Dijun, who have seen through history, to resort to conspiracy theories and storytelling as get-out-of-jail-free cards!

"Third brother."

Zhu Di turned his head and looked down at Prince Zhao, Zhu Gaosui, who was standing straight.

"What's your take on this? Are those power-money deals and smuggling networks described in the novel just fictional entertainment, or a bloody truth?"

Prince Zhao, Zhu Gaosui, who was called out, immediately stepped forward. Ever since his father forced him to go through the past cabinet historical materials and Jiangnan tax records, he had been enduring these days as if he were soaking in ice water.

Combining the spoilers from the sky with an extremely dark, conspiracy-themed perspective, he looked at those seemingly obvious plot points with growing unease. Countless seemingly absurd rumors were not baseless at all; they were a cannibalistic ledger hidden beneath the surface!

"Father! I believe every word you said is true!"

Zhu Gaosui's voice boomed in the main hall.

He raised his head, meeting Zhu Di's gaze without yielding an inch.

"That conspiracy theory in the Heavenly Curtain is simply a trump card forcibly erased from history books! Your son has deduced that after the death of his nephew Zhu Zhanji, the civil official group led by the Three Yangs launched an extremely frenzied counterattack! They verbally proclaimed benevolent governance, but secretly they were frantically opening up smuggling routes along the Ming Dynasty's borders!"

Zhu Gaosui became more and more excited as he spoke, gesturing heavily with his hands in the air.

"That was a money-making den stretching from Jiangxi and Huizhou all the way to Datong and Xuanfu! Over a century! These civil officials, through marriage alliances and the transfer of benefits, smuggled a network that strangled the Ming Dynasty! By the Jiajing era, this network of interests had become deeply entrenched and irreversible. When the emperor wanted to regain power, the civil officials cut off his financial resources and even tried to kill him! Nobles were torn apart, and generals were assimilated!"

Zhu Gaosui gritted his teeth and spat out the final ending that Tianmu had given him.

"For money, they colluded from within and without, selling the Ming Dynasty's territory to barbarians beyond the Great Wall! This led to the sinking of the Central Plains and the near extinction of the Chinese nation! It wasn't until generations of people like Hong Xiuquan, Sun Yat-sen, and others, mentioned in later historical accounts, sacrificed their lives and shed blood that these monsters who leeched off the nation were finally crushed!"

The Fengtian Hall was deathly silent.

The eldest son, Zhu Gaochi, the second son, Zhu Gaoxu, and even the guards beside them, all lost all color in their faces when they heard the words "the land of China is sinking".

Anyone with a modicum of sense who has witnessed the Ming Dynasty's internal rot, which drained the nation's lifeblood, understands that the eventual downfall and extinction of the country was not an exaggeration.

Zhu Di looked at his third son and nodded slowly, a hint of relief in his eyes. His third son had finally grasped the harsh realities of political logic.

He turned around and fixed his gaze on his eldest son, who was standing at the front and was so fat that his neck was almost invisible.

"My lord," Zhu Di's voice deepened, carrying an undeniable sense of authority, "If you were Emperor Jiajing, in the twenty-fourth year of your reign, with an empty treasury, internal officials deceiving the emperor, external forces like Altan Khan's army at the gates, and Japanese pirates rampaging in the southeast, how would you break this deadlock?"

Zhu Gaochi wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and quickly stepped forward, bowing respectfully.

His mind raced through countless principles of governance found in classical texts, combined with the accusations against Jiajing displayed on the sky earlier.

"Replying to Father Emperor."

Zhu Gaochi spoke clearly and distinctly, displaying the standard demeanor of a crown prince.

"If I were in that position, the first thing I would do is immediately halt all religious ceremonies! I would stop all unnecessary Taoist projects and royal procurement, ensuring that the common people are not burdened by even a single penny!"

He thought this answer would win Zhu Di's approval, so he spoke even louder.

"The second matter is to return the gold and silver to the state! Jiajing's biggest mistake was his habit of transferring the national treasury's silver from the Taicang granary into the imperial treasury as his private stash. I will do the opposite! I will directly open the imperial treasury and return all the money to fill the national treasury deficit! I will also distribute all the overdue military pay owed to the border troops!"

Zhu Gaochi straightened his chest, and the fat on his face trembled.

"As long as the royal family sets an example by cutting spending, the national treasury will quickly recover! Then, I will issue an edict to exempt the disaster-stricken areas from taxes. With the superiors setting an example, official corruption will be rectified, and the country will be at peace. Then, dealing with the smuggling tycoons in the south and the Mongol Tatars in the north will naturally fall into place!"

Benevolent governance. Concession. Winning people over with virtue.

This logic sounds flawless.

But Zhu Gaochi, the Prince of Han, standing next to him, nearly ground his teeth to powder upon hearing this long-winded speech. He kept his head down, his face flushed red, and a torrent of curses raged in his mind.

Boss, are you fucking brainless?!

At a time like this, you're still reciting the Four Books and Five Classics?!

You've been staring at the sky for so long, were you looking at it with your eyes closed?!

Zhu Gaoxu roared inwardly.

Military power! Military power! The most damn dangerous thing is military power!

Do you think that by taking money from the imperial treasury to fill the national treasury, civil officials will be grateful and pay the soldiers' salaries? Wrong! You're like a fat sheep willingly jumping into a wolf's den! The moment that enormous sum of silver reaches the Ministry of Revenue, those corrupt officials will find an excuse to divide it up clean the very next day! The soldiers on the front lines won't even see a single copper coin!

You think you can win people's hearts by stopping the religious ceremonies? Have you completely forgotten what Jiajing Emperor experienced in the palace?!

Eight fires at imperial palaces and the Forbidden City! Once, a palace maid strangled the emperor with a rope!

How did Zhu Zhanji, the eldest nephew, die?! And how did the other Ming emperors mysteriously fall into the water, fall ill, and die?!

That group of civil officials from Jiangnan, driven by the lure of huge profits from smuggling, even dared to drag Xia Yan, the Grand Secretary who wielded immense influence in the court, out into the street to behead him! You fatso, if you were to become the Jiajing Emperor, without an absolutely loyal and forceful regime to back you up, would you dare hand over all your money?

The day after you hand it over, the imperial physician will be able to brew you a bowl of yellow peach kernel soup and send you to your death!

It's a real shame you only reigned for ten months in the future, otherwise the Ming Dynasty would have been ruined by your self-righteous benevolence! No wonder later generations despised you, calling you Emperor Fei of Ming, for initiating the false "Reign of the Fat Cricket" that was touted as the heavens by civil officials, and for causing the deaths of your nephew and grandson.

Zhu Gaoxu glanced coldly at Zhu Gaochi, who was still smugly pleased with himself, and couldn't hide the contempt on his lips.

Sitting on the dragon throne, Zhu Di remained expressionless after hearing his eldest son's reply.

He simply nodded calmly, without uttering a single rebuke. But the instant he lowered his eyes, a profound despair and disappointment flashed in them.

I can't see through it.

The eldest son has lived half his life, fought alongside him in the Jingnan Campaign, and served as regent for so many years, yet deep down he remains a simple politician brainwashed by those pedantic scholars and officials.

Do they really think that by issuing an imperial edict and allocating a sum of money, the people of the world will submit to their commands?

Imperial power was never maintained by imperial edicts. The true nature of imperial power was the blood on the Embroidered Spring Blade, the smoke from the muskets of the Three Great Camps, and the absolute violence of confiscating property and exterminating families for disobedience!

Without a knife to the throat of a civil official, any order you issue will be twisted into a tool to make money for them the moment you step out of the palace gates!

Zhu Di felt a tightness in his chest.

He looked at the chubby Zhu Gaochi, then glanced at the fierce-looking Zhu Gaoxu, and a dangerous thought suddenly popped into his mind.

Is Gao Chi really suitable to take over the mess left by the Ming Dynasty?

Faced with the ruthless and bloodthirsty smuggling ring of civil officials in later generations, such a benevolent ruler would only be crushed like a soft persimmon. Perhaps the Ming Dynasty should really consider bypassing the eldest son and passing the throne directly to Zhu Zhanji, who was decisive and ruthless by nature, or perhaps to the second son, who was even more violent?

Zhu Di leaned back on the dragon throne, feeling utterly exhausted. The prospect of the Ming Dynasty's shattered future weighed heavily on him, making it hard to breathe.

Just then, the image of that arrogant, sharp-tongued, and incisive young face on the sky suddenly appeared in his mind.

"Sigh..." Zhu Di sighed deeply in his heart.

If only a descendant of Zhu Dijun from later generations could descend directly into this Fengtian Hall. With someone who could see through the maggots in the hearts of civil officials so clearly, how could the Ming Dynasty have ended up in such a state as it did in later generations?

"If these descendants can be used by me..."

Zhu Di's thoughts were only halfway through.

Suddenly, an extremely piercing electronic alarm sounded from the holographic screen above the main hall! The previously black screen seemed to be torn apart, exploding into a chilling, deathly white light.

Zhu Dijun's face was suddenly thrust into the camera, a chilling, sinister smile curling at the corner of his mouth.

"Family, the fun part of the novel is over. Let's move on to another conspiracy theory about why Xia Yan must die."

Zhu Di was stunned. No way? There were more experts? Was the Jiajing era always full of hidden talents?