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

The studio lights flickered incessantly, and the table showing the smuggling of salt merchants from Jiangnan that covered the large screen was like a bleeding bill, nailed firmly to the retinas of everyone throughout history.

Under the vast sky, people from all dynasties were dumbfounded.

Although they didn't understand what "capital accumulation" or "logistics loop" meant, there was nothing new under the sun; they knew what it meant for officials to force the people to rebel. Especially the ordinary people living near the border towns of Jiubian, the Great Wall, and the coastal defense, their eyes were bloodshot as they looked at the salt, iron, and gunpowder being transported out of the pass on the forms.

With each shipment of goods transported to the grasslands by the smuggling rings, the foreign swords grew sharper, increasing the chances of border residents being destroyed and killed. This was tantamount to trading the lives of ordinary Ming citizens for a single brick in the courtyard of a wealthy Jiangnan gentry!

Resentment festered across the land in every time and space. The common people had no voice, no weapons; the only weapons they could use to protest against these smuggling gangs and corrupt officials were the cheapest and most poisonous nursery rhymes.

"Family members, do you think smuggling rings only existed during the Jiajing era of the Ming Dynasty? Wrong!"

Zhu Dijun slammed his hand on the holographic keyboard, and the table on the big screen was instantly covered by three nursery rhymes from various dynasties with distorted handwriting and strong resentment.

"Let's see how the common people of various dynasties used their blood and tears to sing about the true nature of these ghouls!"

Zhu Dijun grabbed the pointer and lashed it hard at the first children's rhyme belonging to the Tang Dynasty.

"He snatches mud from swallows' beaks, shaves iron needles, scrapes gold from Buddha's face, searching meticulously for something out of nothing. He searches for peas in quail's crops, slices lean meat from heron's legs, and extracts fat from mosquito's bellies. What a skillful old gentleman!"

Judy Jun's voice was filled with biting sarcasm:

"Look at this poem, 'Sarcastic View of Those Who Are Greedy for Petty Gains'! The corrupt officials of the Tang Dynasty would even scrape the mud from a swallow's beak and the iron from the tip of a needle! It was precisely because of this bone-sucking exploitation by the government that the common people were driven to the brink of extinction, which led to the later armed salt smuggling gangs wielding machetes!"

He wrote two names heavily on the whiteboard—Huang Chao! Wang Xianzhi!

"What were these two gentlemen doing? They were salt smugglers! Why did they smuggle? Because all the legal salt was monopolized by officials and merchants in collusion! Ordinary people couldn't afford salt, so they had to buy smuggled salt. The officials forced the people to rebel, the people rebelled and smuggled, and in the end, they used hundreds of thousands of troops to turn Chang'an into a sea of ​​blood!"

The pointer suddenly swung and struck the second Yuan Dynasty nursery rhyme.

"To appease the thief, one tael of gold and one drum; to welcome the official, two drums and one gong; the tael and drum seem the same, the official and the thief are not concerned with quantity."

"The common people of the Yuan Dynasty saw things most clearly!" Zhu Dijun laughed loudly, but his laughter sent chills down everyone's spine. "The pomp and circumstance used to welcome corrupt officials were exactly the same as those used to escort thieves! Why? Because officials and bandits were one and the same! This chaotic situation directly gave rise to the super smuggling giants of the late Yuan Dynasty—Fang Guozhen and Zhang Shicheng! When the government itself became the biggest thief, smuggling and piracy became the order in the eyes of the common people! What is this called? This is called the complete bankruptcy of the regime's credibility!"

Finally, he pointed to the nursery rhyme from the Song Dynasty.

"Break the bamboo tube, spill the vegetables, and the world will be a better place. Kill the chrysanthemum greens, cut the vegetables, eat the lamb, and the lotus leaves will remain!"

A red laser pointer frantically circled several words.

"Tong Guan is the leader! Cai Jing is the leader! Gao Qiu is the leader! He Zhizhong is the leader! The common people naively thought that if these four powerful and treacherous ministers were removed, the world would be better. But what is the reality? These powerful nobles control the government, the law is completely corrupt, not only has the land defense line been crushed by the Jurchens, but maritime smuggling is also rampant! In the end, it is the lowest of the low who suffer!" (Note 1)

In a parallel universe of the Qin Dynasty.

The palace was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

Qin Shi Huang, Ying Zheng, stood with his hands behind his back on the jade steps of the main hall, his gaze as sharp as a sword fixed on the nursery rhymes displayed on the sky depicting smuggling and collusion between officials and merchants. He turned his head and coldly looked at the few royal princes standing below.

"Fusu, Gao, Huhai."

Ying Zheng's voice was flat, yet it carried an overwhelming majesty.

"You have all seen this celestial curtain of the future. I ask you, if such a tycoon, who monopolizes lifelines and colludes with the enemy for smuggling, were born in my Great Qin, how would you deal with him?"

Fusu stepped forward, cupped his hands in greeting, and replied:

"Father, I believe that we should investigate this matter strictly according to Qin law, eliminate his associates, and recover the embezzled funds to uphold the law of the country."

Hu Hai swallowed hard and stammered in agreement:

"Big brother is right...we'll arrest them all and send them to build the Great Wall."

Ying Zheng sneered, a look of extreme disappointment and tyranny flashing in his eyes.

"National law? Building the Great Wall?"

Ying Zheng kicked over the bronze cauldron in front of him, scattering the ashes of the burning incense all over the ground.

"The law is written for the living! There is only one way to deal with these traitors who leech off the empire's lifeblood and supply salt and iron to the enemy beyond the Great Wall."

He drew the Emperor's Sword from his waist, its blade pointing directly at the sky outside the palace.

"Kill! Kill them all, until they are childless and without descendants! Exterminate their entire clan, ten generations at a time! Crush the bones of these smugglers and pave the road with them, skin the officials they bribed and hang their skins on the city walls! My Great Qin will not tolerate such treacherous and despicable scoundrels!"

In a parallel universe of Emperor Wu of Han.

Weiyang Palace.

Emperor Wu of Han, Liu Che, had bloodshot eyes, like a lion that had been thoroughly enraged. He swept all the imperial seals and bamboo slips off his desk and onto the ground.

"They deserve to die! They all deserve to die!"

Liu Che roared angrily, his voice echoing throughout the hall.

He stared intently at the routes of profit transfer on the sky, and suddenly a knot in his mind that had troubled him for many years was untied.

He waged war against the Xiongnu with the full force of the nation, nearly emptying the treasury and leaving the people destitute. Yet, why did the Xiongnu always recover so quickly after being decimated? Why were their arrows becoming increasingly sophisticated, and why were they even able to enjoy tea and use ironware from the Central Plains?!

It turns out there was a traitor among them! Powerful families and merchants from the Han Dynasty were continuously supplying these barbarians with resources along the border!

"Summon the Commandant of the Capital Region! Summon the Embroidered-Robed Envoy!"

Liu Che slammed his fist into a pillar, breaking his finger and drawing blood.

"Investigate the border markets thoroughly! Investigate the merchant caravans of those powerful families in Guanzhong! Anyone who dares to smuggle a single grain of salt or a piece of iron to the Xiongnu, I will have their entire clan exterminated and their flesh fed to wild dogs!"

In a certain Yongle era of the Ming Dynasty.

The atmosphere inside the Fengtian Hall was so oppressive that it felt like water was about to freeze.

Zhu Di sat upright on the dragon throne, his face so dark it seemed to drip ink. Not long ago, the secret police had exposed the smuggling ring's operating model, and the Imperial Guards, following the clues, directly seized a large quantity of ironware and gunpowder destined for the northern frontier from the grain transport boats on the Grand Canal.

In the center of the main hall, three people were kneeling.

Yang Shiqi, Yang Rong, and Yang Pu.

These three civil officials, later known as the "Three Yangs" and who shone brightly during the reigns of Emperors Ren and Xuan, were now kneeling pale-faced on the cold gold bricks, shackled with heavy wooden chains. Behind them knelt a large group of former students and officials from Jiangnan who had participated in the smuggling trade.

As Zhu Di watched the historical footage of Fang Guozhen and Zhang Shicheng rising to power at the end of the Yuan Dynasty being played on the screen, a cruel sneer curled at the corner of his mouth.

He turned his head and looked at Crown Prince Zhu Gaochi, who was standing to the side covered in sweat.

"Boss."

Zhu Di's voice was low and hoarse, yet it carried an undisguised murderous intent.

"You've heard the nursery rhymes on the canopy, and you've seen the smuggling schemes of the future Jiajing-era Jiangnan tycoons. Now, their students and even relatives are reaching right under my nose."

Zhu Di stood up and walked down the jade steps to Zhu Gaochi.

What's your opinion on this matter?

Zhu Gaochi trembled and knelt on the ground with a thud. He knew that his father, the emperor, had truly decided to kill them. The Three Yangs were not only important officials in the court, but also his trusted confidants in the Eastern Palace.

"Father..."

Zhu Gaochi forced himself to speak.

"Smuggling and colluding with the enemy are heinous crimes. However, the three Lord Yangs were unaware of this; it was all done by their incompetent students who used their names to commit these misdeeds. I believe the ringleaders must be punished, but... could we show leniency and spare them from being implicated?"

"Unaware?"

Zhu Di suddenly turned around and kicked the student next to Yang Shiqi in the chest. The student coughed up a mouthful of blood and fainted on the spot.

"How could they not feel the heat when accepting bribes of ice and charcoal from the salt merchants of Jiangnan! Were those customs documents used to smuggle goods under the guise of official ships printed by these students themselves?!"

Zhu Di was furious.

"Boss, you're too soft! You always try to protect these civil officials, thinking they can help you govern the country! Look closely, they're governing the Ming Dynasty, but they're the ones enriching themselves!"

Zhu Di grabbed Zhu Gaochi by the collar and forcibly lifted him up.

"If I don't slaughter countless people in Jiangnan today, when I die, the Ming Dynasty's border troops will become like the Jiajing Emperor in the heavens, mere watchdogs of these beasts! Embroidered Uniform Guards, heed my decree!"

"Your subject is here!" Ji Gang appeared as if by magic.

"Drag these students and officials involved in the case out of the Meridian Gate immediately and execute them by slow slicing! As for the Three Yangs..." Zhu Di coldly stared at the three kneeling men, "Kill them all. I don't want to leave trouble for future generations. The Three Yangs are only good if they are dead!! Eldest son, if you dare to plead again, I will depose you as crown prince as well!"

Zhu Gaochi's face was ashen, and he couldn't utter a single word.

Then Zhu Zhanji, the grandson of the sage, stepped forward and said:

"Grandfather is right. Don't forget what Zhu Dijun, the descendant of my third uncle, said. It was the Three Yangs who started the smuggling on the border. My death, my son Zhu Qizhen's Tumu Crisis, the tragic death of my grandson Zhu Jianshen, and the tragic deaths of my descendants Zhu Youcheng and Zhu Houzhao are all related to the border army's collusion with the smuggling group in Jiangnan."

"I have not forgotten that one of the reasons for the downfall of my Great Ming Dynasty and the sinking of the Central Plains was the collusion between those beasts, the Three Yangs, and others."

Zhu Gaoxu patted his elder brother on the shoulder and said, "Elder brother, your nephew sees things more clearly than you do. Don't forget how you died. That good sister-in-law can't be allowed to live, otherwise she might be sent away with a bowl of medicine one day. I even suspect that the selection of the future empress of our Great Ming Dynasty was influenced by the civil official group, and then the background of the empress was fabricated to be that of an innocent commoner."

Zhu Gaosui, who was standing to the side, put down his brush and blew on the still-wet writing, saying:

"Brother, I'm not criticizing you as a brother, but how can you be so selfish? You only think of yourself, without considering your nephew, grandson, and especially that brat Zhu Qizhen, who has been unfairly maligned. If it weren't for my descendants clearing his name, who knows how long he would have carried that infamy. History teaches us that if you can't be a good crown prince, you should quickly hand it over to your nephew or the second son. Don't bring shame upon the Zhu family and the people of the Ming Dynasty. The crown prince carries the weight of two capitals and thirteen provinces!"

----split line----

Note 1: With increasing evidence that Emperor Huizong of Song was not as incompetent as portrayed by the civil official group, but was betrayed by an internal coup, please take a closer look at the Jin army's marching map, combined with the Song Dynasty's horse consumption, food and logistical support, and the smooth sailing southward.

Therefore, I doubt the authenticity of this nursery rhyme.

The above is just my personal opinion.