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

In the holographic projection, the Forbidden City was covered in a blanket of snow.

Faced with the mad dogs-like impeachments from the court officials, Jiajing initially wanted to protect Hu Zongxian. The emperor issued an imperial edict, clearly stating: "Zongxian is not a member of Yan's faction, and has made meritorious contributions in resisting Japanese pirates. He should not be investigated further."

Zhu Dijun's speech became increasingly rapid, filling the entire studio with a sense of pressure.

"But the censor system led by Xu Jie went completely berserk! The six censors and thirteen circuit censors, hundreds of people took turns to bombard the Western Garden with memorials like snowflakes."

He ripped his hands apart in mid-air with a violent tearing motion.

"A pack of wolves devours a tiger! Jiajing couldn't hold on any longer. His purse strings were already tightly controlled by the cabinet, and if he were to completely break with the entire civil service for the sake of Hu Zongxian, he wouldn't even be able to leave the Western Garden. In the end, Jiajing compromised. He personally approved the arrest of Hu Zongxian and imprisoned him in the Imperial Guard's prison!"

Zhu Dijun moved closer to the camera, pointing his finger at the words "Imperial Prison" on the screen.

"Pay attention to this timing! Don't think that Hu Zongxian still has any hope of turning things around after being imprisoned by the Embroidered Uniform Guard. Do you still think the Embroidered Uniform Guard is the vicious dog in Jiajing's hands?"

He pulled up a list of the commanders of the Embroidered Uniform Guard throughout history.

"The original head of the Embroidered Uniform Guard was Lu Bing, Jiajing's wet nurse. When Lu Bing was alive, the Embroidered Uniform Guard only listened to the emperor. But now Lu Bing is dead! The current Embroidered Uniform Guard, from top to bottom, has long been fed money and official positions by Xu Jie! They are a bunch of traitors who eat the emperor's rice but work for the cabinet!"

The scene cuts to a dark and damp prison cell.

Hu Zongxian, with disheveled hair and wearing heavy shackles, lay prone on a pile of hay. He bit his finger and used his blood to write a long self-defense statement on his torn prison clothes.

"While in prison, Hu Zongxian wrote a heart-wrenching 'Memorial of Defense,' recounting his immense military achievements in pacifying the southeast. He earnestly hoped that the Embroidered Uniform Guard would deliver this letter to Emperor Jiajing's desk."

Zhu Dijun took a deep breath, his tone extremely cold, "But he never knew until his death that the jailers in the imperial prison turned around and handed his blood-written letter to Xu Jie's men. That self-defense letter, which boasted so many military achievements, was thrown directly into the fire and burned to ashes."

"With no way to seek help and no avenue for appeal, on the night of November 3rd, amidst heavy snowfall, Hu Zongxian, a renowned general who resisted Japanese pirates and preserved half of the Ming Dynasty's territory, was 'forced to commit suicide' in prison. Before his death, he left behind a final poem: 'The precious sword is hidden in its scabbard, a mournful song shakes the stars!'"

The live stream chat froze, then erupted in a torrent of fury. There were no flowery words, only a screen full of vulgarities; netizens vented their hatred for these pedantic and pedantic officials in the most direct way.

"With Hu Zongxian's death, Xu Jie sent an extremely terrifying political signal to the whole world."

Zhu Dijun turned around and drew a heavy cross on the whiteboard.

"No matter how great your contributions to the nation, no matter how many national wars you have won, as long as you are labeled as a member of the 'Yan Party' or the 'Emperor Party,' as long as you disobey the call of the Jiangnan purists, there will only be one outcome—the destruction of your family and the death of your loved ones! This is to establish a rule for all generals in the Southeast military: from now on, the Ming Dynasty will not belong to the Zhu family, but to the Wen family!"

As this sentence was spoken, the light and shadow on the big screen changed rapidly, and a crown symbolizing the absolute power of civil officials appeared.

"Put away the swords, it's time to hold a victory celebration."

Zhu Dijun returned to the console and pulled up a personnel appointment list.

"After Hu Zongxian's death, Xu Jie's three-year probationary period came to an end. The court bestowed upon him the title of 'Shangzhuguo,' which was the highest honor bestowed upon a civil official during his lifetime! This old fox, Xu Jie, even submitted several memorials to decline the honor, making sure to cultivate a reputation for humility and concession, before finally accepting it 'reluctantly.'"

"Look at the team he assembled."

The laser pointer rapidly jumped across the names.

"Li Chunfang, Yan Ne, Guo Pu, Chen Yiqin. These people were either Xu Jie's classmates or his protégés. They all entered the cabinet and were in charge of the six ministries. In the cabinet of the Ming Dynasty, you can no longer find a single neutral person who dares to speak for the emperor."

Judy Chu, with one hand in her pocket, looked down at the camera.

"Jiajing Emperor was completely transformed into a high-ranking prisoner under house arrest. He nominally continued to practice Taoism in the Western Garden and did not meet with his ministers. In order to whitewash the situation, the official history, the Veritable Records of Emperor Shizong of Ming, states that the emperor 'trusted his ministers, entrusted military and political affairs to Xu Jie, and retained the power to approve major death sentences.'"

Don't believe this load of nonsense!

Zhu Dijun snorted coldly.

"What do you mean by entrusting power to Xu Jie? That's called having your power forcibly stripped away! Even the Imperial Guards protecting you are from the Cabinet. What difference does it make whether you approve it or not? If you don't approve it, the memorials from the censors could flood your luxurious residence!"

"At this point, the governors and viceroys of the Ming Dynasty underwent a large-scale purge and rotation. Xu Jie sent his protégés and former officials, who came from Jiangnan and belonged to the same community of interests, to key military and economic centers such as Guangdong, Guangxi, Xuanda, and Zhejiang, like casting a net."

The studio lights returned to their most glaring brightness, making Zhu Dijun's shadow impossible to hide.

He placed his hands on the podium, delivering his final closing statement on this decades-long, thrilling power struggle during the Jiajing reign.

"This was the fatal turning point that led to the decline of the Ming Dynasty. The emperor pursued immortality, and the cabinet seized power. After the greedy Yan Song faction was broken, the upright clique put on a mask of hypocrisy and engaged in even more vicious deeds than Yan Song."

"They monopolized free speech, seized land, and undermined imperial power. The Ming Dynasty, a dilapidated ship riddled with holes, was now being propelled at full speed toward the abyss by the infighting bureaucracy."

Zhu Dijun patted the chalk dust off his hands.

"Next, we will talk about the Jiajing period, Hai Rui's memorial to the throne, and another truth that was erased by the civil official group led by Xu Jie—the flooding of Beijing."

[Modern Live Streaming Room]

Many netizens were stunned once again. They knew about Hai Rui's memorial to the throne, but what about the flooding of Beijing?

Have those bastards in the civil service gone mad?

At that time, how many people were in Beijing during the Ming Dynasty? They actually wanted to flood the city just to kill Jiajing, who had survived countless fires.

[“Brother Jun, is this real? Beijing is flooded?”]

"It's true, during the reign of Emperor Jiajing, Beijing experienced two major floods, but what was unexpected was that the fires didn't extinguish the floods; instead, they had to be submerged."

"These beasts wreak havoc on the people of Jiangnan, and now they're going to wreak havoc on the people of Beijing in the north. They deserve to die! Old Zhu was too merciful. We should learn from Bai Qi and Huang Chao!"

Meanwhile, in a parallel timeline of the Ming Dynasty, 12 years after the Zhengde Emperor...

Zhu Houzhao was completely dumbfounded when he saw his cousin's officials trying to flood Beijing. He thought the civil officials had already reached a low level of moral depravity, but these bastards were telling him that what he thought was the bottom line was just a small fry. What was Beijing compared to that? During the Song Dynasty, their predecessors had betrayed Emperor Huizong's family. If the Ming imperial family hadn't been scattered throughout the country, they would definitely have followed suit.