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

As soon as the screen went black, the barrage of comments in the modern live streaming room was met with an unprecedented tsunami of information.

The dense text surged wildly, devoid of the previous jokes and laughter. The phrase "When a dynasty prospers, the people suffer; when a dynasty falls, the people suffer" was like a rusty, dull knife, slowly cutting back and forth on the nerves of millions of netizens.

"A single sentence in the book encapsulates the despair that has uprooted countless ordinary people."

"Don't even mention it. Look at the recent news, how many Indians have they let in from the border? Millions! They're constantly running rampant on our territory. Isn't this just a repeat of the early stages of the Five Barbarian Invasions?"

"And then there was the An Lushan Rebellion. Regional warlords carved up the country, and foreign mercenaries usurped power. History really is a cycle."

"Damn it, I see now. If things continue like this, it won't be twenty years, maybe ten at most! These netizens will probably be setting up longevity tablets for Bai Qi, Ran Min, and Huang Chao at home! When it really comes down to survival, who the hell cares about propriety and shame? The God of Slaughter will be the only savior!"

In the studio, Zhu Dijun watched the topics scrolling across the secondary screen, his eyelids twitching twice. A sense of resentment. An extremely profound and deep-seated resentment of reality was creating a strange resonance with the Ming Dynasty of hundreds of years ago.

He reached out and unscrewed a bottle of Nongfu Spring water, tilting his head back to gulp down half of it. As his Adam's apple bobbed, the cold water slid down his esophagus, suppressing the burning sensation in his stomach.

"Family members, calm down."

Zhu Dijun put down his water bottle, tapped the microphone, and said, "I'm going to the restroom. I'll be back in ten minutes. In these ten minutes, go wash your faces and clear your heads. What's coming next will completely overturn your preconceived notions about the succession of imperial power in the Ming Dynasty."

The live stream room displayed a countdown sign that read, "[The host is taking a break to pee; more exciting content in ten minutes]".

Ten minutes passed in the blink of an eye.

When the studio lights came back on, Zhu Dijun had changed into a dark gray shirt, and a few drops of water still clung to his forehead. He strode onto the stage, grabbed a marker, and with his back to the camera, scribbled three words on the whiteboard in a flamboyant style.

[Conspiracy Theory]

"Ladies and gentlemen, our program has always emphasized empirical evidence. But in today's segment, I'm going to take you through a high-level game."

Zhu Dijun turned around, placed his hands on the edge of the table, and stared into the lens like a scanner.

"This isn't some baseless, street-stall literature; it's a historical retrospective analysis based on the extreme selfishness of human nature and an absolute drive for self-interest!"

The holographic screen suddenly lit up, displaying a genealogical chart of the Ming Dynasty imperial family right in the center. Below the name of the Jiajing Emperor, most of the lines that had originally extended were now marked with red crosses. Finally, only two lonely branches remained.

"Prince Jing, Zhu Zaizhen. Prince Yu, Zhu Zaiji." Zhu Dijun's laser pointer rapidly switched between the two names.

"In the forty-fourth year of the Jiajing reign, Zhu Houcong, the emperor who cultivated immortality, had only two sons left who were still alive. The position of crown prince was to be chosen between the two. In principle, this was a family matter of the Zhu family. But in the political arena of the time, this was a gamble with one's life and fortune."

He pressed the Enter key, and a vertically formatted classical Chinese text appeared on the large screen.

"Let's look at the 'Veritable Records of Emperor Jiajing of Ming,' which is the most crucial and authoritative official document for studying the Jiajing reign. How is the ninth day of the first month of the forty-fourth year of Jiajing recorded?"

Zhu Dijun cleared his throat and read it aloud, word by word:

"On the day of Dingwei, King Jing died. His personal name was Zaizhen, the fourth son of the Emperor… He died at the age of twenty (actually twenty-nine). His wife, Lady Wang, had no heir. Upon hearing the news, the Emperor suspended court for three days and posthumously named him Gong."

After finishing reading, he casually tossed the pointer in his hand aside, the metal striking the table with a crisp, unusual sound.

"Do you understand now? This is the most skillful technique of historians throughout history—the Spring and Autumn Annals style!"

Judy Jun opened his arms wide, his tone full of mockery.

"A prince of the mighty Ming Dynasty, in the prime of his life, at the age of twenty-nine! Suddenly died in the princely residence in De'an. The cause? Only one word: 'died.' No cause of illness was written, no sudden illness was recorded, no details such as poisoning or assassination that might evoke such associations were all omitted! A clean and simple death, shrouded in mystery."

The comments section started to get active.

"Medical conditions were poor in ancient times; people could die from a cold. Isn't that surprising?"

"The prince lives a life of luxury every day; he might be suffering from the diseases of affluence."

"That's right, the explanations given by traditional historians are usually these few sets of statements."

Zhu Dijun held up three fingers and broke them off one by one.

"First, he lived a life of extravagance and indulged in excessive sexual activity. Historical records do indeed show that King Jing was greedy and tyrannical in his fiefdom, and his private life was extremely unrestrained. He ruined his health at a young age."

"Secondly, the prince suffered from acclimatization issues. He had grown up in Beijing and was suddenly sent to the Jianghan Plain. The hot and humid climate of the south, coupled with the rampant schistosomiasis and epidemics at the time, was too much for the delicate bodies of the royal family to handle."

"Third, genetic defects. Emperor Jiajing himself took heavy metal mercury pills every day, resulting in an extremely high mortality rate for his children. Even Prince Yu, who eventually became emperor, only lived to be thirty-six. The family's poor health is no one else's fault but theirs."

As he lowered his hand, Zhu Dijun's expression tightened. The studio's white light cast deep shadows on his sunken eye sockets.

"Each of these three reasons is valid on its own. But when placed in the context of the life-or-death factional struggles at the end of the Jiajing era..."

He snorted and drew a huge question mark on the whiteboard, completely covering up his previous conclusions.

"That's too much of a coincidence. It's so coincidental that it's as if someone had a script and was arranging this prince's death for God."

The image on the large screen was violently distorted, the previous official record torn apart and replaced by a complex web of vested interests. There were three key elements: the Yan faction, the Jiangnan civil official group (Xu Jie), and the change of imperial power.

"Family members, bring your workplace vigilance against backstabbers. Let's re-examine the chain of interests surrounding Prince Jing's death from a conspiracy theory perspective." Zhu Dijun grabbed an infrared pen and pointed directly at the first node on the left.

"The starting point of the interest chain: the deep entanglement between the Yan faction and Prince Jing!"

"In the mid-to-late Jiajing period, Yan Song and his son saw that the emperor's health was deteriorating day by day, and they had to find a way out. Prince Yu's side was already surrounded by Xu Jie, Gao Gong, and their group of upright officials, and the Yan faction couldn't get in. What to do? Put their bets on Prince Jing!"

Zhu Dijun drew a hidden line on the screen, indicating the transfer of benefits.

"Prince Jing's birth mother, Consort Lu, whispered in Yan Song's ear in the palace. In return, Yan Song paved the way for Prince Jing's expansion of power in the court. Prince Jing was enfeoffed in De'an, a fertile land in Hubei!"

"Once the prince left the capital, this guy was like a hungry wolf leaving the sheepfold. In the Jiangnan and Huguang areas, he rampantly seized farmland and forcibly enclosed lakes and ponds. He even tried to interfere with the tax collection of important commercial towns like Shashi in Jingzhou."

Zhu Dijun tapped the podium, his voice rising.

"Without Yan Song in the cabinet suppressing the impeachment petitions from various regions, would a prince dare to so blatantly monopolize the spoils?"

He wrote the words "white gloves" on the whiteboard.

"What do you call this? This is the ultimate alliance between powerful court officials and local princes! The Yan faction uses Prince Jing as a weapon to amass wealth and check the upright officials, while Prince Jing uses the Yan faction as a shield. But these two have forgotten the most fatal point."

Zhu Dijun's eyes became extremely sharp.

"They've shaken up the core of other people's interests: the Jiangnan gentry and financial magnates, and the civil service group that represents their interests."

The live stream fell silent instantly, as viewers keenly sensed the presence of blood.

"Xu Jie owns 240,000 mu of fertile land, and every household among these civil officials is a major landowner. You, Prince Jing, are running south and seizing land—whose flesh are you robbing? The lifeblood of these gentry!"

Zhu Dijun turned around abruptly and fixed the infrared pen's light spot firmly on the name that remained silent on the right side of the relationship network—Xu Jie.

"A dramatic drama of using someone else to do the dirty work has begun."