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

The studio's overhead lights were switched to a dim amber hue. Judy Jun finished the last drop of water from the bottle and casually tossed the empty plastic bottle into the wastebasket.

On the right side of the screen, the public chat in the modern live stream showed a strange stuttering and gap, with a large tsunami of text engulfing the entire screen.

"It's chilling. These scholars who passed the imperial examinations by studying the Four Books and Five Classics don't even blink when it comes to assassinations and coups!"

"Xu Jie was a master manipulator. He placed the Jiajing Emperor under house arrest, framed the Yan family, and even managed to expand his own family's land holdings to 240,000 mu amidst the chaos. In modern business, that kind of manipulative ability would make him a cancerous executive who could oust the chairman and seize all the company's shares overnight!"

"What's most disgusting is that he's portrayed as a great incorruptible official in history books! He even left behind a reputation for integrity and uprightness! What PR company wouldn't be awed by his ability to whitewash public opinion?"

"When I used to read web novels, the protagonist would transmigrate to the late Ming Dynasty, and I always thought he could dominate without a system. Now I understand, if you go back to the Ming Dynasty without any cheat codes, forget about saving the country, you won't even survive the first round of political maneuvering by those old idiots."

"Even the top ten most cunning and ruthless strategists, like Emperor Jiajing, were ruined by them. For us ordinary folks who can't even calculate our mortgages, transmigrating into their world would be like turning us into fertilizer."

Zhu Dijun looked at the netizens' lamentations without offering any rebuttal. The adult world has no fairy tales, and the Ming Dynasty's officialdom was a primitive jungle where cannibalism reigned supreme.

In the same time and space, during the Hongwu era of the Ming Dynasty in a parallel universe.

Beneath the high dome of the Fengtian Hall, the wind whistled through the doorposts, swirling fallen leaves across the floor tiles. Zhu Yuanzhang sat upright behind his desk, surprisingly refraining from flipping the table or cursing. This founding emperor, who had fought his way through mountains of corpses and seas of blood, unusually raised his hands and clapped them three times forcefully.

The applause echoed in the empty hall, extremely jarring.

"it is good."

Zhu Yuanzhang cheered loudly, his voice rough.

"That was a brilliant deal!"

Crown Prince Zhu Biao, Prince Qin Zhu Shuang, Prince Jin Zhu Gang, Prince Yan Zhu Di, and Prince Zhou Zhu Su stood in a row below. The princes looked at each other, none of them daring to speak.

Zhu Yuanzhang pointed at Xu Jie's name on the sky, spitting as he spoke:

"Biao'er, Second Brother, Third Brother, you all better listen up! Learn from their methods!"

He slapped his thigh.

"The civil officials' treason is undeniable. But look at their patience! They've endured hardship for over twenty years, even offering their own granddaughter to their enemy as a concubine, all for the chance to strike decisively! Such cunning, such ruthlessness—they are talents rarely seen in a century!"

Old Zhu stood up, walked around the imperial desk, and stood before the assembled civil and military officials. The group of officials in red and green robes all shrank back in unison.

There's just one thing we don't understand.

Zhu Yuanzhang stopped in front of Li Shanchang, lowering his voice, "You scholars, we can understand killing the emperor and usurping the throne for power and profit—people die for wealth, birds die for food, after all. But after you seized power, why did you have to torture the people to death? 240,000 mu of tax-exempt land! The entire county's people became your family's serfs! Do you think you're the only human beings in the world, while the people toiling in the fields are all livestock?"

Li Shanchang's back was soaked with cold sweat, and he remained silent. The entire court remained deathly silent.

The officials present outwardly appeared obsequious, but in their hearts they were no different from the gentry of Jiangnan in later generations. They despised the common people, and in their pyramid of interests, the bottom level was merely the fuel to support the top.

Time and space shifted, to a parallel Yongle era in the Ming Dynasty.

The sun blazed down outside the Hall of Supreme Harmony. Zhu Di, clad in heavy armor and with a sword at his waist, strode up the steps of the palace.

Crown Prince Zhu Gaochi moved forward with his large, imposing figure, followed by his grandson Zhu Zhanji. Further back, Prince Han Zhu Gaoxu and Prince Zhao Zhu Gaosui stood side by side, exchanging knowing glances.

Zhu Di stopped and flicked his whip, pointing directly at the holographic light and shadow in mid-air.

"Did you see that clearly? That's the nature of civil officials!"

Zhu Di turned around and lashed his horsewhip heavily against the white marble railing beside him, sending stone chips flying.

"Boss, you hang out with those pedantic scholars all day, spouting nonsense about morality and righteousness. If you start believing those bastards, our Zhu family descendants won't even know how they died!"

"No, we've already reached that kid Zhu Houcong. We all know how the descendants of the Zhu family died in later generations. If even the emperors died like that, let alone the princes and other lower-ranking members of the imperial family."

Zhu Gaochi was panting heavily, wiping the sweat from his forehead with his wide sleeves. He had spent most of his life being supported by the "Three Yangs" and their group of civil officials, and originally thought he had found the key to governing the country. Now, the heavens had stripped away that mask, and he had become the most conspicuous target.

"I have long ago instructed you on your grand plan of branching out and expanding your branches."

Zhu Di approached Zhu Gaochi,

"That plan to rebuild the Ming Dynasty overseas must be accelerated! Ships must be built, and funds and provisions must be provided! Eldest son, the legitimate throne of the Ming Dynasty will be passed down to you and your eldest grandson's lineage. But!"

Zhu Di pointed his riding whip at Zhu Gaoxu and Zhu Gaosui.

"None of you are allowed to hinder the grand plan that your second and third sons are going to develop overseas! If this plan falls through, I won't even wait for these civil officials to kill you; when I get to the underworld, I'll skin you alive first! Your grandfather, your uncle, and countless other descendants of the Zhu family, the common people, will line up in the afterlife to settle accounts with you!"

Zhu Gaochi hurriedly knelt down and repeatedly agreed. He turned his head and exchanged a glance with his son, Zhu Zhanji.

Zhu Zhanji helped his father up, his young face revealing a resolute ruthlessness. Father and son had reached a consensus in this battleground of power. Since their lineage had enjoyed the glory of the throne, they had to eradicate the hidden threats. Leaving the trouble for future generations and relying on "the wisdom of posterity" was nothing but a coward's excuse. If they didn't eliminate the threats now, their descendants would only suffer even more.

Our focus shifts to the Qin Dynasty, two thousand years ago.

The black dragon banners of Xianyang Palace fluttered in the wind. Qin Shi Huang, the First Emperor of Qin, stood with his hands behind his back, his black dragon robe trailing on the smooth brickwork. He gazed up at the sky, his eyes devoid of any emotion, only the weariness of someone who had witnessed countless vicissitudes of life.

Ying Zheng was all too familiar with this trick being played out in the sky.

Lü Buwei, Lao Ai, the former nobles of the six states, and the guest ministers from Guandong in the court—weren't they all ruthless wolves who devoured people without spitting out the bones? In terms of cunning, the Qin court far surpassed that of the Ming Dynasty.

Ying Zheng turned his head and glanced at Prince Fusu, Huhai, and several princesses standing below the throne.

Looking at Fusu's deeply poisoned Confucianism, his kind but weak demeanor, and then at Huhai's foolish pursuit of pleasure, it was clear that the Qin dynasty, entrusted to such hothouse flowers, could not withstand the first wave of backlash from the remnants of the six former states and powerful ministers.

Ying Zheng sighed deeply. He had mentally considered countless succession plans, and for the first time ever, he had even considered breaking with ancestral tradition and letting his daughter inherit the throne. But could his current offspring truly shoulder the heavy responsibility of this legacy?

In the studio, Zhu Dijun was unaware of the undercurrents swirling in the parallel universes. He grabbed a red marker and drew a glaring timeline on the whiteboard.

"Fellow family members, in the forty-fourth year of the Jiajing reign, the civil service group successively eliminated Prince Jing and Yan Song and his son. The 'pure stream' faction, led by Xu Jie and Zhang Juzheng, completely seized control of the empire's administrative power. But!"

Zhu Dijun slammed the pen tip hard onto the whiteboard, leaving a bright red dot.

"Don't underestimate that emperor who ranks among the top ten in terms of political intrigue. Even when Jiajing was imprisoned in the Western Garden to refine elixirs, he was still a tiger that would bite. In the forty-fourth year, this tiger launched an extremely ruthless counterattack from the brink of defeat."

He turned to face the camera and threw out an obscure term for reform.

In February of the forty-fourth year of the Jiajing reign (1555), the Imperial Censor Wen Ruzhang submitted a memorial proposing a new policy to be piloted in Jiangnan—the Ten-Section Brocade Method!