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

"Family members, let's continue!"

Zhu Dijun grabbed a half-used piece of chalk and wrote the three characters "Yu Dayou" heavily on the whiteboard.

He turned to face the holographic camera, his expression extremely mocking.

"Before I tell you about Qi Jiguang leading the Yiwu troops in a devastating attack, I must show you the utterly heinous and disgusting things the Ming Dynasty court did at this critical juncture of life and death!"

The holographic screen suddenly lit up, and a yellowed imperial gazette was smashed in the center.

"As we discussed earlier, in the Battle of Cengang, Yu Dayou led his combined land and naval forces in a fierce battle against several thousand elite Japanese pirates. The terrain was treacherous, and the pirates' firepower was overwhelming; it was a brutal meat grinder battle!"

Zhu Dijun banged loudly on the podium.

"And what happened? Those civil officials in the Ministry of War of the Ming Dynasty, sitting in the capital drinking tea, complained that Yu Dayou was fighting too slowly! They issued an imperial edict, stripping Yu Dayou of his military power and sending him to the capital for imprisonment!"

The live stream chat exploded instantly, filled with question marks and "Holy crap!"

Judy Jun spread his hands and laughed loudly.

"Can you believe it? While the generals at the front are fighting a bloody battle, the imperial court at the rear has directly arrested their commander! Hu Zongxian, as the Governor-General of Zhejiang and Zhili, is so anxious he's jumping up and down, submitting several memorials to try and protect Yu Dayou, but it's all useless!"

"Who finally stepped in to get Yu Dayou out? It was Lu Bing, the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard! Lu Bing secretly pulled strings, spending a fortune and bribing officials at all levels, just to barely save Yu Dayou's life!"

He grabbed a red marker and drew a big X next to Yu Dayou's name.

"His life was saved, but he couldn't stay in the southeast! The imperial court exiled this most brilliant naval strategist of the Ming Dynasty to Datong in the north to defend against the Mongols!"

"Sending naval commanders to eat sand beyond the Great Wall! This is the Ming Dynasty's top-notch micromanagement!"

A parallel Hongwu era of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Yuanzhang kicked over the imperial desk in front of him, scattering the memorials on it all over the floor.

"Absurd! Utterly absurd!"

Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes were bloodshot as he pointed at the sky and cursed loudly.

"Replacing generals on the eve of battle is one thing, but to actually send a commander skilled in naval warfare to the northern frontier to ride horses! Are those idiots in the Ministry of War filled with shit?!"

Zhu Biao stood to the side, too frightened to even breathe.

"Back when we fought Chen Youliang, naval battles were incredibly difficult! How many years would it take to train a commander who understood naval warfare!"

Zhu Yuanzhang was so angry that he stomped his feet.

"That bastard Zhu Houcong, he just lets his subordinates run rampant! Does he care about the Ming Dynasty's coastal defenses?!"

The parallel Zhengde era of the Ming Dynasty.

Inside the Leopard Chamber, Zhu Houzhao took a large gulp of Western Region wine and laughed so hard he almost fell over.

"Great! Have fun!"

Zhu Houzhao grabbed a dancer next to him and pointed at the sky, making loud jokes.

"My cousin is truly a genius! Those who fight naval battles in the south are sent to guard the Great Wall in the north, so why aren't those who guard the Great Wall in the north being sent to the south to row boats? The mouths of Ming Dynasty civil officials are more effective than those of the foreign cannons; they can even spit loyal ministers into prison!"

On the sky, Zhu Dijun casually tossed a piece of chalk into the trash can.

"It wasn't just Yu Dayou. Due to poor defenses, tax deficits, and frequent disasters, a number of local civil and military officials in both the north and south were being relentlessly impeached by censors and officials. One day they were demoted, the next they were transferred."

"But what about the core Yan Song faction leaders? Yan Song remains firmly in control! Accountability is merely superficial; it's all lower-level officials taking the blame! No heavyweight figure in the court dares to challenge the Yan Song faction. The political center of the Ming Dynasty is still dominated by the Yan Song faction!"

The image on the big screen suddenly changed.

The chaotic and corrupt scene in the imperial court was instantly erased, replaced by a mining area surrounded by barren mountains and treacherous waters.

That's Yiwu, Zhejiang.

"Those at the top are playing power games, while the hard-working people at the bottom can only find ways to survive!"

Zhu Dijun's voice suddenly rose, revealing an extremely fervent emotion.

"Qi Jiguang witnessed firsthand the garrison troops crumble at the first encounter, and he completely abandoned that rotten ancestral system. With the military pay that Hu Zongxian had shamelessly demanded, he initiated the greatest reorganization in the military history of the Ming Dynasty in Yiwu!"

On the holographic screen, countless shirtless, dark-skinned, and burly miners are lined up in neat rows.

"Qi Jiguang's criteria for selecting soldiers were extremely simple and brutal!"

Zhu Dijun held up four fingers.

"First, no city slickers! Second, no cunning old hands who've worked in government offices! Third, only choose those dark-skinned, calloused-handed farmers and miners with eyes that exude both honesty and ruthlessness!"

"Why? Because only these kinds of people, if you give them a full meal, will dare to risk their lives for you!"

He turned around and typed rapidly on the keyboard, and a complex formation diagram shot directly into the air.

It was a small battle formation consisting of eleven people.

"The fighters were chosen, but how to fight? Qi Jiguang came up with a tactic that was later lauded, but seemed extremely bizarre at the time—the Mandarin Duck Formation!"

The large screen immediately displayed a holographic simulation of the battle.

"Family members, listen carefully! This isn't a martial arts novel. There's no one-on-one fight, and you don't need to have exceptional martial arts skills!"

Zhu Dijun grabbed the pointer and pointed it directly at the two soldiers at the very front of the formation who were holding long bamboo poles with countless branches.

"This is called a wolf-tooth mace! It's made from poisonous bamboo and is incredibly heavy. It's not for killing people; it's for disgusting them!"

"The Japanese pirates' samurai swords are very sharp and have extremely strong slashing power. But when they strike a wolf-headed serpent, it's all branches and twigs; they can't cut through them at all, and might even get entangled!"

The pointer slid backward.

"Behind the wolf-spear soldiers were four soldiers carrying long spears. The wolf-spears blocked and entangled the Japanese pirates, while the spearmen behind them didn't need to worry about anything else—just keep their eyes closed and thrust forward!"

"With the shield bearers in front blocking arrows, and the halberd bearers behind providing cover and finishing blows, the eleven squads are a perfect unit!"

Zhu Dijun pressed his hands firmly against the podium, getting close to the camera.

"We have the tactics, but how do we ensure these men won't desert once they're on the battlefield? Qi Jiguang established an extremely bloody system of collective punishment!"

"If the captain dies in battle, all eleven heads in the team will be chopped off! This is called beheading as a public spectacle! If one person retreats, the entire team will be punished!"

"Under this system, Qi Jiguang's army was completely transformed into a ruthless, tightly-knit meat grinder!"

The chat room across the entire network instantly erupted in excitement.

"Holy crap! This is basically an ancient version of an infantry special forces squad!"

"Each role has its own responsibilities: tank, controller, damage dealer, and support—it's all there!"

"This system of collective punishment is too harsh. Who dares to run away? If you do, your teammates will kill you first!"

The parallel Yongle era of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Di suddenly stood up from the dragon throne and walked a few steps to the center of the hall.

He stared intently at the demonstration of the Mandarin Duck Formation on the sky, gesturing incessantly with his hands.

"Wonderful! Wonderful!"

Zhu Di slapped his thigh, making a crisp sound.

"The Japanese pirates excel at close-quarters combat, and this wolf-tooth spear is a weapon specifically designed to counter such close-quarters fighting! With a long spear at the rear, every inch longer is an inch stronger. This Qi Jiguang is a master of military strategy and countermeasures! Our Great Ming Dynasty actually has such a brilliant commander!"

On the backdrop, the studio lights instantly turned a blinding blood red.

"After a thousand days of training, the moment of bloodshed has finally arrived!"

Zhu Dijun ripped off his tie, his voice filled with extreme pressure and explosive force.

"In the 40th year of the Jiajing reign! A large force of Japanese pirates, numbering tens of thousands, divided into multiple routes and launched a major invasion of Taizhou, Taozhu, Xinhe, and other places in Zhejiang!"

"These Japanese pirates are extremely arrogant! They think they're facing the same old garrison troops who used to tremble at the mere mention of their name and collapse at the first touch. They swaggered ashore, ready to once again turn Zhejiang into a wasteland!"

The large screen instantly switched to the brutal battlefield.

The dark, swarming Japanese pirates, brandishing sharp samurai swords and shrieking, launched a frenzied charge towards the Ming army's positions.

"And the result?! They crashed into a wall of sighs built of spears, wolf-tooth rifling, and iron discipline!"

Zhu Dijun roared, veins bulging on his forehead.

"The Battle of Xinhe! Qi Jiguang's wife, who stayed behind to defend the city, even mobilized the women in the city to wear military uniforms and defend the city, using this feint to scare away the Japanese pirates. The main force of the Qi Family Army returned to reinforce, and with one charge, they cut the Japanese pirates outside the city into pieces!"

"The Battle of Flower Street! Qi Jiguang's army, braving the torrential rain, deployed their troops in a double-pronged formation in the extremely narrow streets. The Japanese samurai swords were completely unable to maneuver, pinned against the walls by the wolf-like soldiers, while the spearmen in the rear launched a frenzied thrust! The elite Japanese soldiers were pierced through like candied hawthorns!"

In the scene, the soldiers of Qi Jiguang's army are expressionless, marching in neat steps and shouting loud slogans.

Without the slightest hesitation, he mechanically thrust the spear forward again and again.

Large numbers of Japanese pirates fell in despair in pools of blood, unable to even touch the hem of the Ming soldiers' clothes.

"The Battle of Baishuiyang! The Battle of Xianju!"

Zhu Dijun frantically tapped the map of Taizhou with his pointer.

"Qi Jiguang led this newly formed army of only a few thousand men, fighting nine tough battles in succession throughout Taizhou!"

"Nine battles! Nine victories!"

Zhu Dijun slammed his hands on the holographic control panel, and huge golden characters crashed onto the entire screen.

"A perfect record of victories! Not a single defeat!"

"Qi Family Army beheaded and captured thousands of Japanese pirates! They rescued tens of thousands of Ming civilians who had been kidnapped! And Qi Family Army's own casualties were shockingly low!"

"What is 'dimensional reduction attack'?! This is dimensional reduction attack!"

Zhu Dijun burst into wild laughter, his voice echoing throughout the studio.

"These beasts who have been running rampant along the southeast coast for decades have finally met their match! The Yiwu miners are using their weapons to tell the world that the people of the Ming Dynasty are not lambs to be slaughtered!"

The emotions of the entire online audience were completely ignited at this moment.

In front of countless screens, netizens were frantically typing on their keyboards.

"Awesome!!! These are true heroes who fought against the Japanese pirates!"

"After being so frustrated for so long, I finally witnessed a great victory!"

"Nine battles, nine victories! Long live Qi Shaobao! The Qi Family Army is awesome!"

"Kill all these Japanese pirates, leave no one alive!"

A parallel Chongzhen era of the Ming Dynasty.

Under the old crooked tree on Coal Hill, Zhu Youjian knelt in the mud, watching the Qi Family Army slaughtering everyone in the sky, and cried like a child.

"Good...well done..."

Emperor Chongzhen frantically gripped the frozen earth with his withered hands, laughing and crying at the same time.

"My Great Ming Dynasty once had such an invincible army... such an unparalleled military force! If I had had Qi Jiguang by my side back then, with the Qi Family Army guarding Liaodong, what would I have feared of the Jurchens! What would I have feared of the bandits!"

He desperately banged his head against the ground.

"How did the Ming Dynasty lose such a powerful and invincible army? How exactly did they lose it?!"

On the sky, the intense battlefield effects gradually faded.

The studio was restored to its cold, white light.

Zhu Dijun, panting heavily, picked up a bottle of mineral water and drank it all in one gulp.

He casually wiped his mouth, looked at the screen full of cheering comments, and did not join in the celebration.

"Family members, don't be too happy yet."

He grabbed the eraser and wiped the entire map of Taizhou off the whiteboard.

"After the great victory at Taizhou, the massive Japanese pirate raids in Zhejiang were indeed completely cut off by Qi Jiguang's swift and decisive attack. The pirates were terrified and never dared to launch a large-scale landing in Zhejiang again."

Judy Jun slid her finger down on the holographic map.

The red warning line instantly crossed the border of Zhejiang and spread wildly southward.

"But! These pirates weren't completely wiped out! They couldn't stay in Zhejiang any longer and had to change their targets!"

"Pick on the weak. With Qi Jiguang's army as a tough nut to crack in Zhejiang, the main fleet of the Japanese pirates turned their ships around and fled south in groups."

Zhu Dijun wrote the names of two provinces heavily on the whiteboard.

Fujian and Guangdong!

"Japanese pirates from eastern Zhejiang poured into the entire Fujian province! They vented all the frustration and anger they had suffered in Zhejiang on the people of Fujian!"

On the holographic screen, Xinghua, Zhangzhou, and Quanzhou in Fujian Province instantly lit up with extremely dense red dots of war.

"The main battlefield for the Ming Dynasty's resistance against Japanese pirates shifted directly from the Jiangnan region to Fujian!"

Zhu Dijun approached the camera, his voice extremely low, carrying a strong sense of bloodshed.

"If Zhejiang is a meat grinder, then Fujian, which is next, is a complete hell."

"The garrisons in Fujian were worse than those in Zhejiang, and the local officials were even more corrupt. When tens of thousands of desperate Japanese pirates stormed into Fujian, that was the real hellish start."

"Qi Jiguang's army is about to launch a cross-province operation. In Fujian, Qi Jiguang will encounter the most dangerous and utterly frustrating power struggle of his life. Are you ready to see how the Ming Dynasty's officialdom treats its troubleshooters?"