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

The blinding white light in the studio gradually dimmed. Zhu Dijun's chest heaved violently, and he squeezed the black marker in his hand so hard that it cracked.

He stared intently at the camera, the initial fervor in his eyes replaced by a deep, somber gloom.

"Family members, I know you are all waiting for the Qi Family Army to emerge out of nowhere, and for that devastating blow that will crush the Japanese pirates."

Judy Jun's voice was terribly hoarse.

"But before discussing the birth of Qi Jiguang's army, there is a shameful chapter in the history of the Ming Dynasty that I must uncover today!"

He slammed his hand down on the holographic keyboard:

"I know this is extremely embarrassing, even disgusting enough to make one want to vomit. But as descendants of the Chinese nation, this national humiliation, created by the Ming Dynasty's officialdom, is something we must remember with our teeth clenched, no matter how painful it may be!"

On the large screen, the timeline of the thirty-fourth year of the Jiajing reign was circled in blood red by a laser pointer.

"Before recounting this humiliating disgrace, we must first take one last look at the last rays of light on the Jiangnan defense line!"

Zhu Dijun slammed his pointer heavily onto the three characters "Wangjiangjing" on the screen map.

"In May of the thirty-fourth year of the Jiajing reign! Zhang Jing, the anti-Japanese pirate governor we mentioned earlier who was unjustly executed, fought the last truly decisive battle for the Ming Dynasty before his death—the Great Victory at Wangjiangjing!"

The virtual battle report unfolded with a bang.

"Zhang Jing, under immense pressure from Yan Dang's Zhao Wenhua demanding war, refused to budge. What was he waiting for? He was waiting for the elite troops from Guangxi and Huguang—the invading soldiers—to fully assemble! By May, the time was ripe, and 30,000 troops surrounded the more than 5,000 Japanese pirates who had emerged from Zhelin to invade the territory!"

Zhu Dijun wrote a string of numbers on the whiteboard in an extremely violent manner:

"The Ming army surrounded the enemy from three sides and beheaded over two thousand in one battle! Countless remaining Japanese pirates were burned or drowned! In the end, fewer than two hundred survivors escaped back to their stronghold in Zhelin! This was an unprecedented and resounding victory in the fight against the Japanese pirates in the southeast!"

Just as the live stream chat was filled with comments like "Zhang Jing is awesome" and "Great victory," Zhu Dijun poured cold water on him.

"But what was the result?!"

Zhu Dijun suddenly kicked the side of the podium.

"The battle had just been won, and the news of the victory hadn't even reached the capital yet. Zhao Wenhua, that eunuch's adopted son from Yan's faction, had already submitted a false accusation to Jiajing from the front lines, falsely accusing Zhang Jing of 'fearing the enemy and missing the opportunity'!"

On the big screen, Zhang Jing's image after his great victory was instantly replaced by a prison uniform and shackles.

"After the great victory in May, Zhang Jing was directly escorted to the capital and beheaded in the West Market in October! Yan Song and his son, along with Zhao Wenhua, embezzled all the credit for the victory at Wangjiangjing! They used the blood of frontline generals to stain their official hats and plumes!"

The entire live stream went silent instantly, followed by a screen full of barely suppressed rage.

"What kind of hellish joke is this? Winning means being beheaded, while shifting blame gets you promoted?"

"Those who do the work will not have a good end; it would be an injustice if the Ming Dynasty did not fall!"

"They've destroyed their own Great Wall! Those bastards like Yan Song are even more deserving of death than the Japanese pirates!"

A parallel Chongzhen era of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Youjian knelt on the muddy ground of Coal Hill, looking up at the image of Zhang Jing's head falling to the ground on the sky, letting out a cruel, beast-like laugh.

"Kill the general... even if you win, you must kill the general..."

Emperor Chongzhen frantically dug his withered fingers into the soil, his nails curling and bleeding.

"The backbone of the Ming Dynasty was broken by the emperors of the Zhu family and these treacherous officials! I killed Yuan Chonghuan, Jiajing killed Zhang Jing... It turns out that the Ming Dynasty had long since become an execution ground for loyal ministers!"

On the sky, Zhu Dijun's eyes were red-rimmed, but his voice was as cold as a poisoned ice blade.

"With Zhang Jing's death, the Ming Dynasty in Jiangnan completely lost its strategic commander who could coordinate the overall situation. The morale brought by the great victory was completely uprooted."

He pressed his hands firmly against the podium, zooming in on the camera, "And in the summer of that year when Zhang Jing was wrongfully executed, a super magical show unfolded in the Jiangnan region, a show that left the entire world's military history bewildered!"

Four large, blood-dripping characters crashed onto the holographic screen—[Fifty-Three Japanese]!

"In June! A mere fifty-three Japanese pirates—some historical records say seventy, or even a hundred!"

Zhu Dijun roared out.

"These dozens of pirates, wearing loincloths and carrying samurai swords, landed in Shangyu, Zhejiang! Just these few dozen people, my family! What have they done?!"

A red laser pointer drew a terrifying, blood-red serpent on a map of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui provinces.

"These fifty-three men didn't raid the beaches, nor did they engage in guerrilla warfare. They were like they had some kind of cheat code, frantically infiltrating the interior of the Ming Dynasty!"

Zhu Dijun grabbed the blackboard eraser and slammed it wildly on the whiteboard. "Over eighty days! They traversed the three provinces of Zhejiang, Anhui, and Southern Zhili! They conquered more than twenty prefectures and counties along the way!"

The images on the large screen were completely out of control.

Dozens of pirates, brandishing their swords, ran wildly down the official road. On the other side, hundreds upon hundreds of regular Ming Dynasty garrison soldiers, upon seeing those few tattered Japanese swords, immediately threw down their spears and turned tail and ran, crying for their fathers and mothers.

"In every county town along the way, officials and soldiers stayed indoors, leaving the people at their mercy!"

Judy Jun pointed at the screen with a look of disdain.

"The Ming generals and lieutenant generals, with thousands upon thousands of regular troops following behind, dared not engage in battle! These fifty-three men slaughtered over four thousand Ming regular soldiers along the way!"

A few dozen men, eighty days, traversing three provinces, killed four thousand enemies! The casualty ratio was a staggering one to eighty!

The live chat had completely stopped. All the modern netizens staring at this outrageous data were utterly blank in their minds.

"You think this is outrageous enough? The worst is yet to come!"

Zhu Dijun smashed the holographic map with a single punch, and the camera zoomed in on the center of Jiangnan—[Nanjing]!

"These fifty-three men, after burning, killing, and looting their way through, actually managed to reach the gates of Nanjing!"

On the large screen, the majestic Nanjing city wall rises from the ground. This is the place where Zhu Yuanzhang established his dynasty, the secondary capital of the Ming Dynasty, and the most important political and military center in the south!

"At this time, the Minister of War was in charge of Nanjing, and the Ming Dynasty's regular army, both inside and outside the city, numbered a full 120,000! 120,000 men!"

Judy Jun's voice was utterly ripped apart by extreme anger.

"But what did these 120,000 men do when faced with a mere 53 people outside the city?!"

In the scene, 120,000 Ming Dynasty soldiers were huddled on the city walls. All thirteen gates of Nanjing were tightly shut, blocked with sandbags and massive logs!

"An army of 120,000 men was blocked at the gate by 53 men! The Minister of War in Nanjing ordered a citywide curfew and the city gates to be closed! Even censors and officials stood on the city walls, strictly ordering the soldiers not to fire arrows or cannons, for fear of provoking the Japanese pirates outside the city!"

Zhu Dijun, enraged, laughed in a mocking manner; his laughter echoed in the studio like the wailing of a vengeful ghost.

"Provoke them? They only have fifty-three people, while you have 120,000! You could drown them with a single spit from each of you!"

On the holographic projection, these fifty-three Japanese pirates swaggered around outside Nanjing, committing murder and arson. They brandished their blood-stained samurai swords, swaggering beneath the city walls, and even took off their clothes to bathe in the city moat! Meanwhile, the Ming army generals on the city walls didn't dare utter a single word!

"Finally, these fifty-three men calmly set fires and looted outside Nanjing for three whole days! They amassed a fortune of gold and silver, and then swaggered away without a care in the world!"

Zhu Dijun gripped the edge of the podium tightly with both hands, his knuckles turning white.

"One hundred and twenty thousand elite troops watched these fifty-three men depart. This was the regular army of the Ming Dynasty's secondary capital! This was the military defense of the Jiajing era!"

A parallel Hongwu era of the Ming Dynasty.

"puff--"

A mouthful of black blood suddenly spurted from Zhu Yuanzhang's mouth, splashing onto the gilded dragon-carved imperial desk.

"Father!"

Crown Prince Zhu Biao and several other princes were so frightened that they collapsed to the ground.

"Get out of here!"

Zhu Yuanzhang shoved Zhu Biao aside and stood up unsteadily. His cloudy eyes were fixed on the closed gates of Nanjing in the sky, and a terrifying death aura that could freeze the entire Yingtian Prefecture erupted from his body.

"Nanjing...our Nanjing..."

Old Zhu let out a hissing sound, like the grinding of cast iron, from his throat.

"Our capital, built on the bones of millions, after fighting Chen Youliang and Zhang Shicheng... was humiliated by fifty-three people blocking our door?!"

120,000 to 53! They remain inside! They dare not fire an arrow!

"These beasts... these spineless cowards!"

Zhu Yuanzhang drew his imperial sword and, like a madman, began hacking and slashing wildly inside the Fengtian Hall. Gold bricks shattered, and deep craters were carved into the dragon pillars. Like a wolf that had completely lost its mind, Zhu roared to the sky:

"Where is the Minister of War? Where is the Commander-in-Chief of the city?! What use are you bunch of useless bastards?!"

Old Zhu suddenly turned his head, his gaze like two sharp blades piercing the kneeling founding general below.

"Xu Da! Tang He! Mao Xiang!"

Zhu Yuanzhang's words were filled with anguish, like the death knell of the deepest hell.

"Surround the entire Ministry of War! Find all those descendants who will serve as officials in Nanjing! Execute them by a thousand cuts! Burn them alive! Our Ming Dynasty cannot afford this disgrace! Fifty-three people… a colossal disgrace! A disgrace for all time!"

The parallel Yongle era of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Di sat upright on the dragon throne, his facial muscles completely stiff. His hand gripped the hilt of his sword tightly, blood seeping from between his fingers.

"An army of 120,000 men was terrified by just 53 people..."

Zhu Di took a deep breath, but he couldn't suppress the burning rage in his chest. He recalled his five campaigns against the northern deserts, leading hundreds of thousands of cavalry to sweep across the grasslands.

Now, his descendants and his generals are being made fools of by dozens of pirates in the water towns of Jiangnan.

"Completely ruined... The Ming Dynasty's garrisons are rotten to the bone."

Zhu Di's voice was terrifyingly low.

"If the Jiangnan region is full of cowards who flee at the first sign of trouble, how can the Ming Dynasty withstand the swords and spears of the world?"

On the sky, Zhu Dijun ripped off his tie and slammed it heavily to the ground.

"Family members, although this farce of fifty-three Japanese pirates invading Nanjing was ultimately annihilated at Hushu Pass by the governor's army, the Ming Dynasty's true colors have been completely exposed in this chaotic retreat!"

Zhu Dijun typed four extremely cold characters on the holographic keyboard: "[Wargarry Corruption]".

"It proved one thing to the whole world, to all smuggling tycoons, and to all pirates at sea: the Ming Dynasty's regular military machinery was completely paralyzed! The soldiers were incapable of fighting, the command was utterly incompetent, and the morale was low! If a few dozen people could wreak havoc in Jiangnan, what about the thousands or tens of thousands?!"

The studio alarms fell silent, replaced by a deathly stillness, an eerie silence that preceded a storm.

"Conventional methods can no longer save the Ming Dynasty. Relying on those civil officials who embezzle military pay? Relying on those cowardly hereditary military leaders? That's all a pipe dream!" Zhu Dijun straightened up, his eyes blazing with extremely fanatical fighting spirit.

"In this desperate situation where even the gates of the capital were trampled underfoot by pirates, a man driven to madness finally decided to completely smash the rotten pot of the Ming Dynasty's military system."

He drew a large red exclamation mark on the whiteboard.