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 completely disappeared, and the entire space was enveloped in an intense, almost overwhelming, scarlet red.

Zhu Dijun braced his hands on the podium, his chest heaving violently like a fully drawn bellows. He stared intently at the camera, then slammed his pointer down on the holographic control panel.

"Family members, before we wait for the Qi Family Army to descend like gods, besides the national humiliation we just witnessed, we must continue to observe just how utterly devastating this rotten southeastern land has been tormented by those living devils—the Jiangnan gentry and smuggling tycoons!"

The timeline on the big screen jumped wildly like a runaway horse, soaring directly to the darkest period from the 34th year of the Jiajing reign to the 35th year of the Jiajing reign.

Zhu Dijun grabbed the red laser pointer, which he used like a bloodstained dagger to viciously stab into the coastal map of the Ming Dynasty.

"Didn't smuggling rings like to nurture bandits to enhance their own power? Didn't the Yan faction want to use Japanese pirates as dogs to launder money? Well! These bastards have finally screwed up! They've raised a monster that can devour the heavens and the earth!"

The holographic keyboard emitted a series of loud bangs, and three enormous black-and-white portrait frames slammed into the center of the screen—[Xu Hai]! [Chen Dong]! [Ma Ye]!

"Xu Hai alone isn't enough! That bastard also brought Chen Dong and Ma Ye from the Japanese islands! Tens of thousands of genuine Japanese and ronin, along with tens of thousands of bankrupt farmers and hooligans forced to live by the gentry of Jiangnan, have completely taken root along the coast!"

Zhu Dijun angrily cursed:

"They didn't even bother to loot a wave before running away! They built a series of strongholds in Zhelin and Chuanshawa in Songjiang, using them as their base, and went out to plunder and burn everywhere!"

On the holographic map, dozens of blinding red lights spread wildly like cancer cells.

"This is a complete and utter collapse!" Zhu Dijun's pointer swept wildly across the map. "Look at Zhejiang! Jiaxing, Huzhou, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Taizhou! These are the most crucial silk and grain producing areas of the Ming Dynasty, repeatedly breached and looted by the Japanese pirates! The city walls are burned to black ash, and the canals are full of headless corpses!"

The pointer swung upwards sharply.

"Look at Southern Zhili! Suzhou, Songjiang, Changzhou, Yangzhou, Tongzhou! The financial and tax centers of the Ming Dynasty are in ruins! Even worse, the Japanese pirates have cut off the lifeline of the Grand Canal! The grain transport is directly blocked! Grain ships from the south can't even reach Beijing! The Jiajing Emperor is practicing alchemy in the Western Garden, and even the silver used for alchemy and the rice for offerings are almost running out!"

The pointer slammed down again, pointing straight south.

"Think only Jiangsu and Zhejiang are being attacked? Wrong! These pirates have tasted the sweetness of the Ming Dynasty being a toothless fat pig, and large numbers of Japanese pirates are landing in the south! Zhangzhou and Quanzhou in Fujian! Chaozhou in Guangdong! The entire thousand-mile coastal defense line is filled with piercing alarms and the wails of the people!"

The chat rooms across the entire network were overwhelmed by the suffocating map, leaving viewers breathless.

"Most of China's coastline is glowing red?! Is this the late Southern Song Dynasty or the late Qing Dynasty?!"

"They've gone too far! The gentry kept a dog that bit people, but the dog turned into a wolf and confiscated all of its owner's possessions!"

"It's no wonder Jiajing cut off the food supply! It's such a pity for so many innocent people who died tragically!"

A parallel Hongwu era of the Ming Dynasty.

Inside the Fengtian Hall, Zhu Yuanzhang was like a live volcano ready to erupt at any moment.

He stared at the coastal map on the sky, densely covered with red lights, each red light like a blunt knife, cutting madly into his heart.

"Jiaxing, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Quanzhou..." Old Zhu's withered hands gripped the dragon robe at his chest tightly, his teeth grinding together, a trickle of blood flowing from the corner of his mouth.

"Half of the Ming Dynasty's territory, the economically vital land we painstakingly built... it's all rotten! It's all been ruined by these unworthy descendants and corrupt officials!"

Xu Da and Tang He knelt below, their fierce eyes filled with tears. These veteran generals, who had fought their entire lives, had never seen the Ming Dynasty's defenses so thoroughly breached!

"deliver an imperial order!"

Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly drew his Emperor's Sword and pierced through the gold brick beneath his feet with a single strike.

"All those who served as local officials in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong during the Hongwu reign shall be imprisoned and thoroughly investigated! Anyone who shows even the slightest sign of embezzling military farm land or protecting smugglers shall have their entire family executed! We must eradicate this cancer that has nurtured the Japanese pirates during the Hongwu reign!"

On the backdrop, the scarlet lights of the studio grew increasingly thick.

"This is a sure-fire dead end! The garrison troops have deserted, and the logistics of the visiting army are a complete mess. In this inferno where whoever goes in will die, and whoever fights will be screwed over, the Ming court, in order to clean up the mess, has forced a young man in his twenties onto this meat grinder!"

Zhu Dijun suddenly kicked the side of the podium.

Four dazzling golden characters, like a blazing sun piercing through the darkness, crashed onto the center of the screen—【Qi Jiguang】!

"In the thirty-fourth year of the Jiajing reign (1555), Qi Jiguang was promoted to Assistant Military Commissioner of Zhejiang, and soon after, he was promoted to Vice Commander. Where was his defense zone?"

The laser pointer heavily circled three dead zones on the map.

"Ningbo, Shaoxing, and Taizhou! These were the core disaster areas where the Japanese pirates landed and looted!"

"At this time, Qi Jiguang was full of passion, possessed unparalleled military strategy and martial arts skills, and was ready to crush the Japanese pirates! But he soon encountered the most brutal and disgusting social beating of his life!"

Zhu Dijun pressed his hands firmly on the podium, his anger turning into a mocking laugh, which revealed his utter contempt for the Ming Dynasty's military system.

"He thought he could lead troops into battle. But when he turned around, he realized that the regular garrison soldiers the Ming Dynasty had given him were worse than stray dogs!"

The large screen instantly switched to a scene of a brutal, muddy battlefield.

Qi Jiguang, clad in bright armor, mounted his warhorse and charged forward, brandishing his long sword and roaring with all his might. Behind him, hundreds of Ming garrison soldiers in tattered uniforms, instead of forming ranks to meet the dozens of ronin wielding samurai swords charging towards them, let out a terrified scream.

They threw away their rusty spears and shields, and scattered faster than rabbits! Some even ran off their pants in their haste to escape!

Qi Jiguang was left alone on the front lines, his face blank. He was only able to break through the encirclement under the desperate protection of his personal guards.

"They'll crumble at the slightest touch! They'll flee at the mere sight of the enemy!"

Zhu Dijun struck the back of a fleeing Ming soldier on the screen with a stick.

"At that moment, Qi Jiguang was utterly desperate! He understood! This wasn't a problem of formations and weapons at all! These garrison soldiers were treated like slaves by civil officials, their pay was withheld by military leaders, and they were often starving. They even had to kneel and kowtow to gentry!"

Zhu Dijun moved closer to the camera, his knuckles pounding the podium with a thunderous sound.

"A bunch of beggars who can't even get enough to eat, a bunch of cowards whose spines have long been broken by civil officials. You could give them a Gatling gun, and they'd throw it away and desert!"

"Relying on the Ming Dynasty's existing military system to suppress the Japanese pirates is utter nonsense! It's a dead end leading to your coffin!"

The parallel Yongle era of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Di sat upright on the dragon throne, his facial muscles twitching spasmodically.

"The Ming Dynasty's regular army has actually deteriorated to this extent..."

Zhu Di's voice was hoarse and broken.

"Encountering only a few dozen petty thieves, hundreds of people actually threw down their weapons and fled. What a group of civil officials, what a group of Jiangnan gentry, what a group that supports Japanese pirates for their own benefit!"

He overturned the imperial desk and glared angrily at the assembled officials:

"Is this Ming Dynasty really going to be defended by these useless cowards who can't even hold a sword properly?! Civil officials are corrupt, military generals are incompetent—Jiajing's court is utterly rotten!"

On the sky, Zhu Dijun casually tossed the blackboard eraser into the wastepaper basket.

The studio lights changed from scarlet to an extremely cold, iron-gray.

"After this crushing defeat, Qi Jiguang did not shift the blame to the Ministry of War like other generals, nor did he follow the crowd and become a corrupt official."

A fierce, fervent fire ignited in Judy Jun's eyes.

He bypassed the Ministry of War and slammed a report onto the desk of Hu Zongxian, the Governor-General in charge of the Anti-Japanese War!

On the screen, a virtual military report suddenly appeared.

"This memorial contains only one sentence: The soldiers of the Ming Dynasty's garrisons are all hopeless bastards! I want to train a new army! I want to recruit soldiers myself! I want to build an absolute armed force that breaks free from the Ming Dynasty's existing quagmire!"

Zhu Dijun grabbed a black marker and drew a huge exclamation mark on the whiteboard with great force.

"Hu Zongxian was a smart man. He knew what kind of army the Ming Dynasty was like, so he approved it! He gave Qi Jiguang the authority to recruit soldiers!"

"but!"

Zhu Dijun suddenly lowered his voice, each word carrying a chilling edge.

"Qi Jiguang knew all too well the situation of the common people in Jiangnan during the Ming Dynasty. He didn't want those cunning and scheming scoundrels in the streets; he also absolutely didn't want those chubby, pampered young masters in the city who would wet their pants at the sound of swords."

The studio alarm suddenly went off again, this time accompanied by an extremely savage, beast-like heavy breathing sound.

Zhu Dijun leaned forward, his eyes like those of a hungry wolf locking onto its prey.

"To deal with those Japanese pirates who kill as easily as drinking water, ordinary people won't do. What Qi Jiguang is looking for is a group of madmen who have been driven to the most extreme and insane by this messed-up world of the Ming Dynasty, who don't even care about their own lives."

The image on the big screen suddenly cut off, plunging into an extremely deep darkness.

"When Qi Jiguang turned his attention to recruiting soldiers to that desolate and dangerous place where tens of thousands of people dared to gather and frantically hack each other with hoes and hunting forks in order to seize a few dilapidated iron mines."

Zhu Dijun's voice was like a detonating dynamite.

"The seed of the Ming Dynasty's strongest heavy infantry regiment has finally been planted."