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

The bright spotlight shone on Zhu Dijun's tall figure, and on the holographic screen behind him, the text of Zou Yinglong's memorial was magnified one by one, presenting a dark red sense of oppression.

"Let's break down Zou Yinglong's memorial, which is hailed as the 'first shot in the downfall of Yan.'"

Zhu Dijun held a laser pointer and scanned the entries in the memorial one by one.

"What crimes are listed inside? Greed and tyranny, accepting huge bribes, and impersonating royalty! They are all economic crimes and capital offenses that violate the rules of etiquette! Moreover, this document has an extremely bizarre and illogical feature."

He turned around, stared at the camera, and asked a question.

"If you were to file a complaint, would you write about the many loyal officials killed by Yan's faction over the past twenty years, such as Yang Jisheng and Shen Lian—these are all well-known bloody cases?"

The live stream chat was flooded with comments:

"Of course I'll write it! This is the biggest problem I've ever faced!"

"Write down 'He harmed loyal officials,' and kill him on the spot!"

"wrong!"

Zhu Dijun roared decisively, his fingers slamming heavily on the table.

"If it were written, this memorial wouldn't just fail to kill Yan Song; Zou Yinglong would be executed by slow slicing on the spot!"

He explained the underlying political logic with a cold smile.

"Who killed Yang Jisheng and Shen Lian? On the surface, it was Yan Song who framed them, but who stamped the final execution edict? It was Jiajing! The emperor does not make mistakes. If you criticize Yan Song's faction for persecuting loyal officials in your memorial, it is tantamount to pointing your finger at Jiajing and cursing him—'You are a foolish ruler who listened to slander and killed good people.'"

"Xu Jie understood his master all too well. That's why Zou Yinglong's memorial didn't mention a word about the errors in the political line, and avoided mentioning the persecution of loyal officials. The whole memorial only focused on one point—Yan Shifan took the emperor's money and built a mansion that was even more magnificent than the imperial palace!"

The screen then displayed that deafening line from before: "My money!"

"Not touching the emperor's sore spot, but striking at his weak points. This isn't impeachment, this is outright legal beheading!" Zhu Dijun spread his hands.

"The most brilliant part is that the entire document criticizes the son, Yan Shifan, but never mentions the father, Yan Song. Why? To save face for Jiajing. After all, Yan Song was a veteran minister whom the emperor had served for twenty years, and criticizing Yan Song would be a slap in the emperor's face. By punishing the son to protect the father, Jiajing felt satisfied, and the matter was settled."

"Upon receiving the memorial, the Emperor ordered the Embroidered Uniform Guard to arrest Shi Fan and imprison him, and Le Song to retire."

After reading this conclusion from the transcript, Zhu Dijun casually tossed the chalk into the wastepaper basket, where it traced an arc.

"A single, fatal blow. The edifice of the Yan Party collapsed with a deafening roar."

"And then what happens after the downfall? Time to divide the spoils. That's the ultimate core of the conspiracy theory I'm going to tell you about today."

He paced back and forth on the podium with his hands in his pockets, his tone becoming extremely calm and rational.

"Yan Song was sent back to his hometown, and Yan Shifan was exiled to the army. Xu Jie was promoted to Grand Secretary of the Cabinet in due process. The Veritable Records recorded four words: 'All decisions of state affairs were made by Xu Jie.' The Ming Dynasty thus entered the era of Xu Jie as the sole leader."

"Next, Zhang Juzheng entered the cabinet. He was Xu Jie's most favored protégé and deputy. The Qingliu faction began to systematically fill the power vacuum. Officials in the Ministry of Personnel, the Ministry of Revenue, and the Ministry of War who originally belonged to the Yan faction were dismissed and their properties confiscated in batches. The vacated positions were all filled by Xu Jie's people."

The large screen displayed a table of personnel changes in the Six Ministries of the Ming Dynasty. The green blocks, representing the corrupt officials, rapidly engulfed the entire territory like a virus.

"After the corrupt officials were overthrown and these upright officials came to power, did the lives of ordinary people in the Ming Dynasty improve?"

A strong sense of sarcasm flashed in Zhu Dijun's eyes.

He wrote a set of glaring data on the whiteboard.

"Let's look at this 'wise' Grand Secretary Xu. Was he clean himself? During the Longqing and Wanli reigns, Hai Rui went to Jiangnan to implement new policies and investigated land annexation. Can you guess how much land Grand Secretary Xu Jie had annexed in his hometown of Songjiang Prefecture?"

"Two hundred and forty thousand mu!!"

Zhu Dijun raised his voice, making it booming.

"Two hundred and forty thousand mu of fertile land! Most of the land in Songjiang Prefecture belonged to the Xu family! Tens of thousands of tenant farmers were their serfs! This is ten times more ruthless than the lowest-ranking corrupt official in Yan Song's faction! When Yan Song fell from power and his property was confiscated, the total wealth of the entire country was not as valuable as the land owned by the Xu family!"

The live stream room fell into complete silence.

Everyone was shocked by this number.

"240,000 mu...that's practically the richest person in a province!"

"This is what they call a virtuous and upright official?! This is the loyal and virtuous person who brought down treacherous ministers?!"

"The dragon-slaying youth is, in fact, the dragon himself..."

A parallel Chongzhen era of the Ming Dynasty.

"puff--"

Zhu Youjian could no longer withstand this mental blow and spat out a mouthful of black blood onto the snow.

Two hundred and forty thousand mu. In the late Ming Dynasty, the national treasury was so empty that it could not pay the soldiers on the border. The emperor wore patched clothes and even had to sell the gold and silver utensils in the palace to make ends meet.

Meanwhile, the Grand Secretaries of the Ming Dynasty, these scholars who were full of poetry and etiquette, seized 240,000 mu of fertile land in Jiangnan that did not need to pay taxes.

"They're all parasites... all evil spirits sucking the marrow from the bones of my Great Ming Dynasty!"

Emperor Chongzhen lay in the mud pit, his eyes vacant as he stared at the gray sky.

"The Ming Dynasty did not fall to the Jurchens, nor to the bandits. It died at the hands of these corrupt and exploitative civil officials! Yan Song was greedy, Xu Jie was greedy, the Donglin Party was greedy! They didn't care who was emperor; they only cared about their own land and money!"

Wang Chengen knelt to the side, weeping as he tried to help the emperor. Zhu Youjian shoved him away and rolled around in the snow like a madman, laughing maniacally.

In the studio, Zhu Dijun gave his final closing remarks.

"Yan Song and his son were essentially 'white gloves' kept by Jiajing. They amassed wealth for the emperor and took the blame for interfering in state affairs. After twenty years, public resentment reached its peak, and Jiajing simply removed the white gloves and threw them into a brazier to quell the anger."

"Xu Jie and Zhang Juzheng seized this opportunity and carried out an extremely perfect and legal coup."

He walked to the center of the holographic screen, where the cover of the "Veritable Records of Emperor Shizong of Ming" on the large screen was gradually swallowed up by the flames.

"Afterwards, the 'Veritable Records of Emperor Shizong of Ming' was compiled under the supervision of Xu Jie and Zhang Juzheng. History is like a little girl who can be dressed up however one pleases. In this book, Xu Jie became a saint who endured humiliation and saved the world; Yan Song became an unpardonable devil; this dirty deal, full of political murder, bribery, witchcraft, and the division of power, was whitewashed as a victory of 'divine will' and 'loyal and upright ministers'."

Zhu Dijun pressed his hands on the edge of the podium, his gaze fixed intently on the millions of viewers outside the camera's view.

"This was the political landscape of the late Jiajing era. On this enormous power game table, there were no pure or corrupt factions, only interest groups from different factions vying for power. The common people? The overall situation of the country? They were nothing more than chips in their hands."

"Alright, everyone. The Yan faction has fallen, and Jiajing's life is nearing its end. But the world is far from peaceful. In the next episode, we'll see who can stand up and drive the final nail into this broken coffin on this Ming Dynasty territory, which has been riddled with holes by the civil service."

The live stream screen went black, leaving only a barrage of comments that lingered in the air, leaving viewers deeply moved and amazed.