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

The extremely cold spotlight in the studio gradually faded, turning into a dark red color like rusted iron and blood.

Zhu Dijun stood behind the podium, grabbed the blackboard eraser, and wiped everything off the whiteboard. The chalk dust, under the light, resembled ashes dancing in the air.

"Alright, family, let's continue digging." Judy Jun's voice was no longer a high-pitched roar, but rather extremely suppressed.

"Previously, we mentioned that in the thirty-sixth year of the Jiajing reign, 'the underworld was deserted, and evil spirits roamed the human world.' But do you think that life was any better for ordinary people in the thirty-seventh and thirty-eighth years?! You're sorely mistaken! It was even more despairing!"

He slammed his fingers on the holographic keyboard, and the map of the southeastern coast on the large screen shrank instantly. His gaze traveled northward, fixing on the nine important border towns along the Great Wall.

"Let's turn our attention back to the north of the Ming Dynasty!"

Zhu Dijun grabbed a black marker and wrote several large characters on the whiteboard with great force: "[Major Anti-Corruption Campaign in Border Grain Supply]!"

"In the first month of the thirty-seventh year of the Jiajing reign! The imperial court finally did something that seemed like a decent thing: thoroughly investigate the embezzlement of grain and salary funds in the nine border regions!"

On the large screen, a pile of dusty account books from Jizhou Town crashed onto the center of the holographic projection.

"You wouldn't believe it until you investigated! The investigation revealed a massive hole in the sky! The long-standing deficit in border grain supplies for the entire Jizhou garrison is a bottomless pit!"

Zhu Dijun frantically drew circles on the ledger with his infrared laser pen.

"This time, the imperial court acted swiftly and decisively, dismissing dozens of officials, including grain officials, governors, and military officers! Those who should be dismissed were dismissed, those who should be imprisoned were imprisoned, and countless others were demoted and had their salaries reduced!"

His voice suddenly lowered, like a thunderclap about to explode:

Let's see how the "Veritable Records of Emperor Shizong of Ming" records this event.

Volume 455 of the Veritable Records of Emperor Shizong of Ming (January to February): A special investigation into the money and grain supplies and smuggling in border towns across the country was launched.

1. In the first month of the lunar calendar, the Ministry of Revenue and the Censorate, by imperial decree, deliberated and agreed on new regulations for investigating and cracking down on the smuggling of goods and grain in border towns.

Original text: The Censorate ordered officials to patrol the nine border regions to investigate and eliminate the abuses of border merchants smuggling goods and government troops illegally crossing borders to supply the enemy. First, investigate the Xuan-Da and Ji-Liao garrisons. It was found that merchants receiving government silver to buy grain often smuggled cloth, iron pots, and ironware into the enemy's horses, and that grain officials were accepting bribes and concealing these activities. Therefore, it was decreed that: merchants receiving silver must first provide a guarantee, and payment will only be made after all grain has been stored in the granary; those smuggling prohibited ironware across the border will have their goods confiscated and the offenders exiled to the border garrisons; officers guarding forts and watchtowers who privately traded with the enemy would be dismissed and their heads displayed at the border.

• Targets of the investigation: three main smuggling groups: border merchants, grain officials, and border guards.

• Strict control over prohibited items: pig iron, iron pots, weapons, sulfur, silk, and official salt (Ming Dynasty law strictly prohibited them from leaving the pass into Mongolia). Only grain was allowed to be transported by official channels, and smuggling was prohibited.

2. In February, Yang Bo, the Governor-General of Xuanfu and Datong, submitted a memorial outlining the long-standing problems in border defense in Datong (as recorded in the original historical record).

Original text: The various garrison troops in Datong were arranged in two-person shifts, one guarding the garrison while the other sneaked out to the border to trade in private markets, exchanging iron for sheep and cloth for horses, thus leaking border intelligence. Local strongmen in the border fortresses harbored smugglers, guiding enemy cavalry into the border for trade. The Right Guard had been besieged for a long time, and the city's food supplies were running low due to unscrupulous merchants smuggling rice and grain out to supply the enemy. It is requested that an imperial censor be dispatched to Datong to investigate and interrogate the ringleaders and dismantle the private market shacks. Emperor Shizong agreed and ordered Zhou Sisheng, the Imperial Censor of Zhili, to go to Datong to investigate the smuggling.

II. Volumes 457-458 (March-April): Strict crackdown on smuggling of supplies by the enemy during the siege of Datong Right Guard (the most important task of border defense smuggling this year).

1. In March, the Imperial Censor of Shanxi reported a major smuggling case in Youwei (Veritable Record, April 12th).

Original text: It was discovered that twenty-three unscrupulous merchants, including Zhang Tong, from the Datong Left Guard, had hoarded over three thousand shi of millet and ten thousand jin of pig iron, which they were smuggling out of the border to sell to the Anda tribe. Garrison Commander Li Huai had accepted bribes and allowed the goods to escape through hidden fortifications. Imperial edict: Zhang Tong, the ringleader, was beheaded at the Datong border market; all accomplices were exiled to the malaria-infested areas; Garrison Commander Li Huai was arrested and imprisoned in the capital; the salary of the Datong Central Route Assistant Commander was revoked; and a one-month deadline was set for investigating all merchants in the region who were smuggling goods to the enemy.

• A landmark case of the year: Border officials colluded with grain merchants to steal grain to supply the enemy, which directly led to Emperor Jiajing issuing an edict: during wartime, all grain along the border must be strictly prohibited from being smuggled out of the country, and violators would be severely punished.

2. In April, a crackdown was launched on salt smuggling (smuggling of salt from Changlu and Lianghuai into the border to exchange for horses).

Original text: The remaining salt from Lianghuai and Changlu was reassigned to the Jizhou garrison. Salt merchants were prohibited from using the pretext of opening border grain rations to smuggle salt across the Great Wall into Xuanfu and Datong to exchange for cattle, sheep, and horses. Anyone smuggling salt beyond their permitted salt permits across the border would have all salt confiscated, the merchant exiled to the border, and officials in the transport department held jointly liable for negligence. Following the memorial of Censor Wan Minying, this order was uniformly implemented in all garrisons of Jizhou, Liaodong, Xuanfu, Datong, Yansui, and Ningxia. Supplement: Salt was a major smuggling commodity for border defense during the Ming Dynasty. Mongolia lacked salt, and border merchants profited tenfold by exchanging salt for livestock.

Volume 459 (May): Censors and officials are ordered to conduct a comprehensive investigation of smuggling along the borders.

Record of the first day of the fifth month (May 1st): Six secretaries were dispatched to form a team to investigate smuggling along the nine border regions.

Original text: The Imperial Censors Wei Yuanji, Liu Yilin, and Liang Menglong were dispatched to the border regions of Ji-Liao, Xuan-Da, and Shaanxi to investigate three malpractices: 1. Government troops smuggling military equipment and ironware across the border for trade; 2. Unscrupulous merchants crossing borders to smuggle rice, salt, and tea to the enemy; 3. Powerful local magnates establishing black markets in border areas. Due to years of severe famine in Liaodong, the collection of taxes and provisions was temporarily suspended, but strict investigations were launched into island refugees and Shandong merchants smuggling goods across the sea to Liaodong and then reselling them to Mongolia (Liaodong's dual sea and land smuggling network).

In late May, Wang Yu, the Governor-General of Ji and Liaodong, submitted a memorial to the throne regarding smuggling by land and sea in Liaodong.

Original text: Liaodong is a coastal region. Merchants from Dengzhou and Laizhou in Shandong Province would sail across the sea to the Liaodong Peninsula in small boats to transport cloth and iron pots ashore. These goods would then be smuggled out by Liaodong border soldiers in exchange for Mongolian horses. Desperados on the islands would gather to engage in smuggling, colluding with border troops as guides. Due to famine in Liaodong, the partial sea ban on Dengzhou and Laizhou was temporarily lifted, but a system of inspectors was established: each coastal village had an inspector and a magistrate to register boat owners and their population. Anyone going to sea without an official permit would be arrested for smuggling, and their goods would be confiscated.

Volume 460 (June-December): New Regulations for Smuggling at Sea in Liaodong, and Tighter Measures to Ban Tea Trade in the Three Border Regions of Shaanxi.

1. June, the Year of Ji-Mao: ​​Legislation on Maritime Transport and Smuggling in Liaodong (Key Entries in Transcript)

Original text: At the request of Governor-General Wang Yu, sea transport from Dengzhou and Laizhou to Liaodong was temporarily opened to alleviate famine, but strict prohibitions were imposed: official ships were permitted to transport grain, but civilian ships without official permits were to be punished as smugglers who colluded with foreign powers or the enemy; coastal patrol offices and naval units in Dengzhou and Laizhou were to patrol the sea day and night to apprehend smugglers, with a reward of five taels of silver for each smuggled ship captured, and the perpetrators to be sent to the Shandong Provincial Surveillance Commission for sentencing. Background: Opening up official sea transport to alleviate famine, but strictly preventing the use of sea transport to facilitate large-scale smuggling through land and sea, was a landmark decree of the 37th year of the Jiajing reign (1558) for the joint efforts of coastal and border defense in combating smuggling.

2. Autumn and Winter: Shaanxi and Yansui Crack Down on Smuggling of Tea and Horses from Western Regions (October)

Original text: Reiterating the established rules: Those who smuggle private tea from Hanzhong, Taomin, and other places out of the border to sell to Mongolia and the Western Regions will be exiled to the army if they smuggle more than 100 catties, and permanently stationed on the border if they smuggle more than 300 catties; border soldiers who steal and sell official tea out of the country for trade will be punished with the same severe punishment as those who smuggle tea. This year, the Shaanxi Salt Commissioner seized more than 80,000 catties of private tea, which was all burned, and more than 40 merchants involved were exiled to the border.

The live stream chat instantly erupted with cheers and applause.

"Holy crap! Finally, they're doing something decent!"

"Kill these corrupt officials! Those who embezzle military rations deserve to be executed by slow slicing!"

"Won't Yan Song be able to protect his subordinates this time?"

"Feeling good? Do you feel like the Ming Dynasty is standing up for itself?"

Judy looked at the comments with a mocking expression, her eyes filled with icy sarcasm.

"Family members, if the history of the Ming Dynasty were really this exciting, then it would just be a fantasy novel! Reality is far more disgusting than any fiction!"

His roar was deafening.

"These dozens of people who were arrested were all low-level thugs doing shady work! Some peripheral officials of the Yan faction were indeed held accountable, but! The core corrupt high-ranking officials, the government giants who received the largest share of the smuggling ring's profits, are completely unscathed! Not a single hair on their heads was lost!"

Zhu Dijun pressed his hands firmly on the podium, staring intently at the camera:

"What do you call Jiajing and Yan's faction doing? They're passing the buck! They're double-crossing each other! The money has already been spent by those above on things like cultivating immortality and building gardens. Now that there's a hole in the books, they're dragging these low-level scapegoats out to appease public anger!"

A parallel Hongwu era of the Ming Dynasty.

Upon hearing the words "corruption of military rations," Zhu Yuanzhang's already furious chest heaved violently.

"Back then, we made a rule: anyone who embezzled sixty taels of silver would be skinned alive and stuffed with straw!"

Old Zhu drew his Emperor's Sword and slashed a deep white mark on the jade steps in front of him, roaring with bloodshot eyes.

"Dozens of grain officials! How many hundreds of thousands of shi of military rations must they have embezzled! That bastard Zhu Houcong only targets the underlings, not the root cause. What will the soldiers on the nine borders eat and drink? He's trying to starve our Great Ming's iron wall to collapse!"

On the backdrop, the dim red lights in the studio suddenly flickered, turning into an extremely oppressive, deathly gray.

"The Ming Dynasty court is playing dirty tricks here, thinking it can appease the people."

A cruel, cold smile curled at the corner of Zhu Dijun's mouth.

"But they forgot that the Nine Garrisons in the North not only have corrupt officials, but also a smuggling ring as powerful as, or even more powerful than, Wang Zhi in the South! This includes the big merchants, landlords, members of aristocratic families, corrupt officials in the capital, some eunuchs, and even members of the local royal family, etc."

The red pointer drew a sharp arc in the air before slamming onto the whiteboard.

"You think investigating a few dozen grain officials is enough? These border merchants and corrupt officials, whose livelihoods were cut off and who were discarded by the court after being used, have committed an utterly heinous act!"

The timeline on the large screen jumped wildly, freezing at February to March of the thirty-seventh year of the Jiajing reign.

Four large characters, as if cast in blood, crashed down with a deafening roar—【Great Defeat at Panjiakou】!

"In February or March! Xin'ai, the leader of the Mongol Tatar tribe and son of Altan Khan, led the main force of the Tatars in an extremely bizarre and deadly surprise attack on the nine border regions of the Ming Dynasty!"

On the holographic screen, a massive Mongol cavalry force, obscuring the sky, roamed outside the Great Wall.

"Why is it so strange? Because these Tatars are like they've got a cheat code to unlock the entire map!"

Zhu Dijun roared out.

"They used a feint attack, ignoring the heavily defended areas, and their main force directly and precisely breached the Panjiakou defense line of Jizhou! They then forcefully crossed the Luan River!"

In the scene, the Mongol cavalry, like a black tidal wave, easily tore through the seemingly impregnable Ming army's pass.

"This is Jizhou! It's the absolute core of the Ming Dynasty's defense of the capital!"

Zhu Dijun grabbed a marker and frantically drew the Mongol marching routes on the map, each stroke imbued with deadly fury.

"After breaking through Panjiakou, the Tatars advanced rapidly! Qian'an! Jizhou! Yutian! They burned, killed, and looted along the way! Their advance even approached the important town of Santunying in eastern Beijing! The entire capital region was completely shaken! Emperor Jiajing in the Forbidden City was so frightened that he even forgot about his alchemy furnace!"

The live stream chat exploded instantly.

"Holy crap?! How did they get in? Aren't there heavy troops stationed at the Nine Borders?!"

"Isn't that incredibly precise? This marching route is like having a map of the Ming army's defenses in your hand!"

"Holding a deployment map? Be confident, remove the 'like'!"

Zhu Dijun slammed his fist on the control panel, producing a dull thud.

"Family members! We just raided the northern smuggling border and shut down corrupt officials, and the Tatars have precisely targeted our weakest point in the defenses! What a coincidence!"

"From January to October, wherever they searched, the Mongol Tatars would strike with pinpoint accuracy."

His eyes were bloodshot, and he stared at the camera through gritted teeth: "Because those smugglers and corrupt officials within the Ming Dynasty, whose livelihoods were cut off, directly became guides for the Tatars! They sold out the Ming Dynasty's defenses in Jizhou, including the true state of its grain supplies!"

The parallel Yongle era of the Ming Dynasty.

"Bang!"

Zhu Di kicked over the heavy gilded screen in front of him, his whole being resembling a raging tiger.

"Qian'an! Jizhou! Santunying!"

The emperor on horseback nearly ground his teeth to powder, and a hoarse sound, like the grinding of cast iron, escaped his throat.

"When I moved the capital to Beijing, it was precisely to ensure the emperor could guard the nation's gates! Jizhou is my vital strategic location! These traitorous merchants, deserving a thousand cuts, dare to bring the Tatars to my doorstep to run wild!"

He suddenly drew his sword, pointed it at the sky outside the hall, and roared:

"Is the cabinet a bunch of dead men?! Are the generals guarding the borders dead?! A few merchants sold out the defenses, and they're just letting the Mongols roam freely in the heart of the capital region like it's their backyard?!"

On the sky, Zhu Dijun ruthlessly tore off the last fig leaf.

"With things escalating to this point, how will the imperial court handle this?" Zhu Dijun spread his hands with a mocking expression.

"Yan's faction continued to shift blame! They directly arrested and imprisoned Wang Yu, the then Governor-General of Ji-Liao! Wang Yu took the blame for everything, and the fatal flaws in the Ji-Zhen border defense system, riddled with holes, were completely exposed to the world!"

The studio lights began to flicker violently, turning into an extremely oppressive scarlet red.

"Family members, you think this is the end of it?! You're sorely mistaken! Once the Ming Dynasty's border defenses are proven to be flimsy, how could these predatory wolves possibly back down!"

The timeline on the big screen, like a runaway horse, cuts directly into the summer and autumn of the thirty-seventh year of the Jiajing reign.

"The Tatars, emboldened by an insider's tip-off, have once again embarked on a frenzied series of invasions! They've turned the northern border of the Ming Dynasty into a veritable buffet!"

Zhu Dijun's pointer lashed across the map on the big screen like a storm.

"June! Xin'ai invades Datong again!"

"In August! Anda's main force directly invaded Tumu Fortress! Ming Dynasty guerrilla general Dong Guozhong fought a bloody battle beneath the city walls, ultimately sacrificing his life! Even his bones were trampled to pieces by horses' hooves!"

"September! The Tatars attack Xuanfu again!"

"The Xuanda defense line and the important town of Datong have been repeatedly plundered every year!"

Zhu Dijun roared, veins throbbing on his forehead.

"The common people were killed and robbed, the border troops were exhausted to the extreme, and their food and provisions had long been depleted by corrupt officials and the war! The Ming Dynasty's nine border cavalry were reduced to cowards who could only cower inside the city walls and take a beating during the Jiajing reign!"

A parallel Chongzhen era of the Ming Dynasty.

The old, crooked tree on Coal Hill swayed wildly in the cold wind.

Zhu Youjian collapsed in the mud. Upon hearing the words "Tumu Fortress" and "Xuan-Da University being used as an ATM," he felt as if he had been struck by lightning and collapsed.

"Traitors...smugglers acting as guides for foreign enemies..."

Emperor Chongzhen frantically pounded his withered hands on the frozen mud, his fingernails curling and oozing black blood. He raised his head and let out a mournful howl as shrill and desolate as a night owl.

"Hahahaha! So my Liaodong wasn't the first to fall apart! It turns out the eight great Shanxi merchants, Shandong merchants, and Shaanxi merchants were using the trade of supplying intelligence and gunpowder with wild boar hides—a skill passed down from our ancestors during the Jiajing era!" Emperor Chongzhen's tears mingled with blood as he cried out.

"The Ming Dynasty was rotten to the core! These scholars and merchants, who would sell out their ancestors for money, deserved to be slaughtered by foreign invaders!"

The image on the holographic screen suddenly changed, and the camera moved directly across the Loess Plateau, zooming out towards the vast Northwest.

"Datong and Xuanfu were destroyed. Did Anda Khan's ambitions get fulfilled? No!"

Zhu Dijun picked up a red pen and drew an extremely large blood-red circle in the upper left corner of the map—Qinghai.

"That year, Anda led his main force across Gansu and directly into Qinghai! He rampaged across the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, subjugating all the local tribes!"

"What does this mean?!"

Zhu Dijun slammed his fist on the holographic control panel, causing the large screen to shake violently.

"This means that Mongol influence has completely extended into the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau! The Ming Dynasty's northwestern border defense has instantly transformed from a single-line defense into a massive, three-dimensional, semi-encircled pressure system! The defensive pressure has increased exponentially! The Ming Dynasty has been completely strangled!"

All the special effects lights in the studio went out at that moment.

Only a cold, pale spotlight remained, shining intently on Judy Jun's tall yet endlessly sorrowful figure.

He casually tossed the marker into the wastebasket, placed his hands on the podium, and stared directly at the camera with bloodshot eyes like searchlights.

"Family members, put the two big pots, one in the southeast and one in the northwest, together. Do you understand?"

Zhu Dijun's voice was extremely hoarse, and every word sounded like a blunt knife cutting into his nerves.

"In the South, smuggling rings, driven by their own enormous profits, colluded with Japanese pirates to commit murder and arson in the most prosperous land of Jiangnan, taking the lives of millions of people."

"In the north, Yan Song's faction and the upright officials in the court are engaged in power struggles at the top. Meanwhile, the border merchants and smuggling rings, after having their profits confiscated, are ruthlessly leading the Tatars to slaughterhouses, sending hundreds of thousands of innocent people from the Ming capital region to the slaughterhouse!"

He slowly turned around and looked at the holographic map of the Ming Dynasty, riddled with holes and covered in blood.

"The entire border defenses of the Ming Dynasty, from south to north, are as flimsy as paper, easily breached. The defenses have never been protecting against external enemies; they've long been hollowed out by the corrupt officials within the Ming Dynasty itself!"

Zhu Dijun turned around abruptly, his eyes flashing with a chilling light:

"This is the true face of the Jiajing era. Reality isn't a mindless wish-fulfillment novel; there are no divine interventions, no easy sweeps. It's filled with extreme darkness, absurdity, madness, and incredibly convoluted twists and turns. Within such a rotten-to-the-bone state apparatus..."