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

The studio's dark, golden light was extremely thick and oppressive, making it hard to breathe.

Zhu Dijun pressed his hands firmly on the podium, his chest heaving violently, his bloodshot eyes staring intently at the camera.

"Family members, we just left you in suspense. The national treasury is empty, the north is riddled with holes, and the Jiajing Emperor is hiding in the Western Garden practicing alchemy and cultivating immortality. At a time like this, who the hell will be blamed for this terrible situation?"

Zhu Dijun struck the holographic keyboard twice with extreme violence, and four bloody characters crashed onto the large screen—【Reverse Selection】!

"He didn't use private tycoons as scapegoats, nor did he sacrifice corrupt officials like Yan Song as a sacrifice! Jiajing and his favored ministers turned their swords against the last remaining group of people in the Ming court who could actually get things done—the upright officials!"

Judy Jun suddenly grabbed the pointer and slammed it onto the screen.

"The officialdom during the Jiajing reign degenerated into a vicious cycle where bad money drove out good! Political disputes turned into baseless framing and exclusion. Dare to tell the truth? Dare to get things done? Fine, I'll kill you!"

The screen instantly switched to the Forbidden City during the Jiajing era.

"At that time, Emperor Jiajing not only had the old fox Yan Song by his side, but also a new favorite—General Qiu Luan!"

Zhu Dijun's face was full of disdain.

"What kind of person is Qiu Luan? During the Gengxu Incident, facing Altan Khan's army, he was so frightened that he bribed the Mongols with a large sum of money overnight, begging them not to attack him! This cowardly and greedy man actually managed to become the most favored person in the Ming military by deceiving Jiajing!"

A red laser pointer drew the first timeline on the big screen: "[February, Hu Song retires]".

"Minister of Works Hu Song! He's a man of integrity and outspokenness, a real tough nut to crack."

Zhu Dijun sneered repeatedly.

"He did two things in court that offended all the powerful and influential people in the Ming Dynasty! First, he submitted a memorial strongly opposing Prince Yi's overstepping of regulations to expand his mansion! What kind of time is this? The common people are selling their children to pay the capital's taxes, and Prince Yi actually wants to occupy the common people's land to build his mansion!"

"Secondly, he was determined to fight General Qiu Luan! Qiu Luan, wanting to feel safe in the capital, insisted on transferring the elite border troops from the nine border regions to the capital to protect the emperor. Hu Song got angry and directly confronted Qiu Luan in the face, yelling: 'The border defenses are already weak. Are you withdrawing troops because you think Anda's invasion isn't fast enough?!'"

Zhu Dijun spread his hands:

"And what was the result? His wise and insightful advice was no match for the emperor's favoritism and the whispers of sycophants. Jiajing Emperor simply wouldn't listen, while Qiu Luan and Prince Yi were secretly plotting against him. Seeing that the court was beyond saving and that honest officials had no way out, Hu Song had no choice but to feign illness and resign, packing his bags and fleeing in the dead of night to save his life!"

A parallel Hongwu era of the Ming Dynasty.

Inside the Fengtian Hall, when Zhu Yuanzhang heard the words "Prince Yi," his old face instantly turned purplish-red, like an enraged lion.

"Prince Yi? He's a vassal king we enfeoffed in Luoyang!"

Zhu Yuanzhang kicked the dwarf violet in front of him, shattering it into pieces; wood chips flew everywhere.

"These unfilial descendants! The world is in chaos, yet instead of defending the country, they're forcibly seizing farmland to build their own mansions! Hu Song stopped him; this little beast dares to collude with treacherous officials to oust court officials!"

Zhu Yuanzhang drew the Emperor's sword from his desk, pointed it at the kneeling Crown Prince Zhu Biao and several princes, and roared with bloodshot eyes:

"Listen up, all of you! If any of their descendants dare to levy exorbitant taxes and levies to build a royal palace during a time of national crisis, we'll skin them alive!"

On the sky, Zhu Dijun's scalpel did not pause, directly plunging into the next, even more bloody historical record.

The screen timeline jumps—[April, Shangda Festival, imprisoned and sentenced to death].

"Hu Song escaped; he's lucky to be alive. The next one didn't even survive!" Zhu Dijun's voice was chillingly cold. "Right Vice Censor-in-Chief Shang Dajie! This man wasn't just a civil official; he was in charge of the capital's defense and border affairs—a truly frontline officer!"

A yellowed Ming Dynasty prison file is highlighted and enlarged.

"Shang Dajie understands military affairs. He advocates relying on fortified cities for defense and counterattacks, which is completely opposite to Qiu Luan's strategy of retreating at all costs and only wanting to line his own pockets! The two had an extremely fierce conflict over defense." Zhu Dijun gritted his teeth, broke the marker in his hand, and splashed the ink on the podium.

"But those who do the work can never beat those who tattle! Qiu Luan went straight to Jiajing and falsely accused Shang Dajie of disobeying military orders and plotting treason! And our self-proclaimed supremely intelligent Jiajing Emperor actually believed it!"

On the holographic screen, a loyal official dressed in scarlet robes was stripped of his robes by the ruthless Imperial Guards, pinned down in the mud, and dragged toward the eerie and terrifying gates of the imperial prison.

"In April, Shang Dajie, the highest-ranking official in charge of the capital's defense, was imprisoned and sentenced to death!" Zhu Dijun angrily pointed at the camera. "With the army pressing in, they killed their own general on the eve of battle! This kind of idiotic operation actually happened in the Ming Dynasty court! It wasn't until Qiu Luan's own embezzlement and cowardice were exposed and he fell from power that Shang Dajie's injustice was finally redressed! But the man was already ruined!"

A parallel Chongzhen era of the Ming Dynasty.

The old, crooked tree on Coal Hill let out a mournful wail in the cold wind.

Zhu Youjian stared intently at Shang Dajie, who had been dragged into the imperial prison, on the sky. He felt as if his very marrow had been drained, and collapsed onto the cold, muddy ground.

His eyes were bloodshot, his withered fingers dug deep into the soil, his nails curled and bleeding, yet he felt no pain whatsoever.

"Those who do real work are imprisoned and sentenced to death... while those who spread rumors and disrupt the government receive the emperor's favor..."

Zhu Youjian's voice trembled like a tattered rag in the wind. He thought of the one who was forced to leave the pass and died in battle, and of the countless governors who died because of his suspicion and the framing of civil officials.

"Retribution...this is the retribution for the Ming Dynasty!" Emperor Chongzhen suddenly looked up at the sky and let out a mournful laugh, tears streaming down his face.

"The poisonous roots of reverse selection sown during the Jiajing era have finally strangled the Ming Dynasty in my hands! Every single official in the court is worthy of death!"

The live stream chat was already flooded with a dense barrage of angry comments.

"Imprisoning and sentencing the highest-ranking general defending the capital to death—what's the difference between this and the Southern Song Dynasty's execution of Yue Fei?!"

"Those who do the work get punished, while those who shirk responsibility get promoted and made rich. This court is so rotten it's suffocating!"

"The ultimate example of Gresham's Law: Jiajing Emperor deserved to be strangled by a palace maid!"

Zhu Dijun was speechless, or should he say he was angry at their lack of ambition and saddened by their misfortune?

"Did you think it ended with Qiu Luan purging the military officials? No! On the civil side, that old traitor Yan Song has also raised his butcher's knife!"

The red light on the large screen flashed again, and the timeline froze at [October].

"The military generals are all dead; now it's the turn of the civil officials in the central government!"

Zhu Dijun wrote six large characters on the whiteboard with great force: "[Li Mo was stripped of his official rank]".

"Li Mo, the Minister of Personnel! He holds the power of selecting and recommending officials in the Ming Dynasty. Under extreme pressure, with the entire court filled with Yan Song's faction, this old man remained stubbornly unyielding, refusing to submit to Yan Song's faction or to submit the list of his cronies to the court!"

Zhu Dijun walked off the podium with a cold smile, facing the camera directly: "Yan Song couldn't handle Anda, but couldn't he handle a mere Minister of Personnel? That old fox played an extremely insidious game of flattery to kill and framing! Yan Song directly submitted a secret memorial to Jiajing, fabricating a crime—favoritism, forming cliques, and selling out favors!"

On the large screen, the Jiajing Emperor sat in the Bagua formation, looking at the secret memorial with a gloomy expression.

"Jiajing was traumatized by the Great Rites Controversy among the civil service. What did he fear most? He feared his ministers forming factions!"

Zhu Dijun let out a wild laugh that seemed to lift the roof off, "Yan Song's knife has precisely stabbed Jiajing in the heart of his artery! Jiajing was furious and, without listening to Li Mo's explanation, directly issued an edict to strip the Minister of Personnel of his official rank and dismiss him from office!"

On the holographic projection, the official hats of the Ming Dynasty fell to the ground and were crushed by corrupt officials wearing black boots.

Zhu Dijun walked back to the podium, placed his hands on the table, leaned forward, and was enveloped in a pale spotlight.

"From February to October, in just over half a year, Hu Song, who dared to criticize the princes, was dismissed; Shang Dajie, who dared to defend the capital, was imprisoned; and Li Mo, who dared to block Yan Song's path to wealth, was stripped of his official robes."

His voice was lowered to an extreme, carrying a chilling intent that seemed to pierce the very flesh of history.

"This was the central government of the Ming Dynasty in the thirtieth year of the Jiajing reign. A huge makeshift team composed entirely of corrupt officials, smuggling agents, and sycophants completely took over the steering wheel of the empire."

"In the imperial court, no one dared to mention resisting foreign enemies anymore, and no one dared to mention thoroughly investigating smuggling. The Ming Dynasty, this dilapidated carriage carrying tens of millions of people, had completely lost its last brake."

The studio alarm suddenly blared again, accompanied by the faint sounds of roaring waves and clashing swords.