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

The color temperature of the live stream light panel was changed, and the cool white light shone on Zhu Dijun's profile, making the shadows on his cheekbones appear sharp and angular.

"In the previous two episodes, we thoroughly dissected the grand drama of the spoils division in the first year of the Longqing reign and the confiscation of the north and south in the second year of the Longqing reign. Today, let's move forward to the third year of the Longqing reign, 1569 AD."

Zhu Dijun wrote a line on the whiteboard: Gao Gong Du Xiang.

"These three words are the core anchor of all the political events in the three years of the Longqing reign. If you understand them, you can connect all the subsequent events such as the grand review, the trade fair, the salt administration, and the suppression of bandits. If you don't understand them, you can go through the 'Veritable Records of Emperor Muzong of Ming' until you're blind, and you'll only think that the court officials of that time were arguing every day as if they were on drugs."

He unscrewed the bottle of mineral water and took a sip, leaving only the bottom of the bottle.

"At the beginning of the third year of the Longqing reign, who was left in the cabinet? Li Chunfang, a top scholar in the imperial examination, a peacemaker who started out writing 'qingci' (a type of petition); Gao Gong, a former official of the Yu family, who had just returned half a year ago and was still sharpening his sword; Zhang Juzheng, caught in the middle as an invisible person; and there was one more—Zhao Zhenji."

Zhao Zhenji's name was highlighted separately.

"This Mr. Zhao is no ordinary person. He is a great Confucian scholar of the Taizhou School of Neo-Confucianism, a former Chancellor of the Nanjing Imperial Academy, and a veteran official during the Jiajing reign. In the early years of the Longqing reign, Xu Jie brought him into the cabinet with a clear purpose—to keep an eye on Gao Gong and preserve the last stronghold of Jiangnan civil officials in the court. What does he hold in his hands? The Censorate."

Zhu Dijun drew a box next to Zhao Zhenji and wrote "Supervisory Power".

"The Censorate, to put it bluntly, is the Ming Dynasty's mouthpiece. If an official wants to impeach someone, a single memorial is submitted, and regardless of whether the investigation is substantiated, that person's reputation is ruined. After Xu Jie stepped down, the Jiangnan faction was outnumbered in court, but Zhao Zhenji, relying on the Censorate, managed to hold out against Gao Gong for over half a year. When Gao Gong wanted to install his own people in the Six Ministries, the officials collectively submitted memorials against it. When Gao Gong wanted to investigate Xu Jie's land holdings in his hometown of Songjiang, the censors launched a massive impeachment campaign against Gao Gong for abusing his power."

He put down his pointer and placed his hands on the edge of the podium.

"Can Gao Gong tolerate this situation?"

Someone in the comment section chimed in: "I can't stand it, absolutely can't stand it."

"Yes, I can't stand it. But Gao Gong's methods are much more direct than Xu Jie's. Xu Jie played the role of boiling a frog in lukewarm water, while Gao Gong played the role of cracking a walnut with a hammer."

Zhu Dijun pulled up a photocopy of the memorial.

"In the third year of the Longqing reign, Han Ji, a protégé of Gao Gong and a supervising secretary of the Ministry of Personnel, submitted a memorial impeaching Zhao Zhenji for 'abusing power for personal gain and protecting Xu Jie's old clique.' Zhao Zhenji thought, 'You're attacking my people? Fine, I'll impeach Gao Gong for 'abusing power and forming cliques for personal gain.' The two sides attacked each other, and the memorials piled up on Emperor Muzong's desk like a small mountain."

He paused for a moment and looked at the camera.

"Guess who Emperor Muzong supported?"

The comments were scrolling by rapidly, all of them saying "Gao Gong".

"That's right. When Emperor Muzong Zhu Zaihou was Prince Yu, Gao Gong was his tutor. They went through thick and thin together for more than ten years. When Jiajing frequently targeted Prince Yu, how many arrows did Gao Gong take for him? This trust is something that Zhao Zhenji, a parachuted-in Confucian scholar, could not match."

Zhu Dijun held up one finger.

Emperor Muzong wrote five words: "Zhao Zhenji retires."

"Note that this is not a transfer, not an assignment to another region, but retirement—directly sent back to his hometown. The last cabinet minister with a background in Jiangnan was ousted. From then on, the cabinet consisted only of Li Chunfang, a mere figurehead; Zhang Juzheng, a silent and taciturn man; and Gao Gong, a sharp-tongued but ineffective one."

He drew a timeline on the whiteboard, marking the key milestones of the third year of the Longqing reign.

"After Zhao Zhenji left, Gao Gong did something unprecedented—he concurrently served as Minister of Personnel."

This sentence silenced the comment section for two seconds, then a barrage of question marks erupted.

[Can the Minister of Personnel really join the cabinet? Isn't that against the rules?]

"A violation? According to the ancestral rules of the Ming Dynasty for two hundred years, the Minister of Personnel could not serve in the Grand Secretariat, and the Grand Secretary of the Inner Cabinet could not concurrently serve in the Ministry of Personnel. Why? Because the Ministry of Personnel was responsible for the promotion and evaluation of officials throughout the country, while the Inner Cabinet was responsible for policy decisions. Combining these two powers is like having one person act as both referee and player—who can check and balance you then?"

Zhu Dijun tapped on the table.

"Emperor Muzong broke this rule himself. From then on, Gao Gong held the two scepters of power: personnel appointment and political decision-making. The official hats of all civil and military officials in the country were in his hands. If you obeyed, you would be promoted and made rich; if you disobeyed, you would be given a low score in the capital examination and sent to the frontier to eat sand."

He redrawn the power structure diagram of the Ming Dynasty court.

"This was the final outcome of the political reshuffle in the third year of the Longqing reign—Gao Gong became the sole prime minister. The last nail in the hands of the Jiangnan civil officials in the court was removed, and the power of supervision, personnel appointment, and administration was unified. Emperor Muzong used Gao Gong as a knife to peel away the Jiangnan network of interests left by Xu Jie, layer by layer, from the central government to the local level."

Zhu Dijun then changed the subject.

"To peel an onion, you have to peel it from the outside in. The outer layer consists of the officials who speak out in the imperial court, the middle layer consists of the Xu family's protégés in the local area, and the core is the Xu family clan of Huating, Songjiang."

He pulled up a list of official transfers from the third year of the Longqing reign.

"Let's look at the outer layer first. The Capital Inspection. This was the system used by the Ming Dynasty to evaluate officials in the capital, held every three years. In the third year of the Longqing reign, Gao Gong personally presided over the Capital Inspection. The result—dozens of censors and supervising secretaries who had impeached Gao Gong that year were all dismissed or transferred to other posts. Who replaced them? They were all Gao Gong's protégés."

"What's even more ruthless is that Gao Gong set a new rule: officials who submit memorials must first report to the cabinet for record-keeping."

One person in the live chat directly cursed: "Isn't this just censorship?"

"Yes, that's censorship. From then on, if officials in the censorate wanted to impeach the cabinet, they had to submit a draft of their memorial to the cabinet first. If the cabinet said no, their memorial simply couldn't be submitted. The power of public opinion completely fell into Gao Gong's hands, and there was no other voice in the court."

Zhu Dijun picked up the red pen and drew an X over the two characters "科道".

"Now let's look at the middle level. The imperial inspectors in various regions are investigating local officials who are affiliated with Xu Jie. Salt merchants in Lianghuai and maritime merchants in Yuegang, as long as they have any business dealings with the Xu family, are either demoted, exiled, or have their ill-gotten gains confiscated. These people used to monopolize local resources by relying on Xu Jie's network of connections, and now they have to give back everything, including their principal and interest."

"The core layer—the Xu family clan."

Zhu Dijun retrieved a summary of judicial files from the third year of the Longqing reign.

"Gao Gong appointed Cai Guoxi as the military commissioner of Suzhou and Songjiang. The first thing this official Cai did upon taking office was to investigate the farmland owned by Xu Jie's three sons in Songjiang. How much did they find? Tens of thousands of hectares. Usury, seizing farmland, beating people to death—the evidence was irrefutable. All three of Xu Jie's sons were arrested and imprisoned, and their property was confiscated."

He leaned back in his chair, his tone indifferent.

"Back then, Xu Jie brought down Yan Song and confiscated Yan Song's property. Now, Gao Gong is bringing down Xu Jie and confiscating Xu Jie's property. History is sometimes just that neat and orderly."

The Ming Dynasty, in a parallel timeline of the Jiajing era, forty-five years later.

The Western Garden Abode. Jiajing leaned back on his couch, listening to the narration playing in the sky, his chapped lips twitching slightly.

"Xu Jie's son has been arrested."

Jiajing muttered something, his voice so hoarse it sounded inhuman.

"When I was alive, this old man cut off my supply of elixirs, sealed off my imperial treasury, and drove away all my spies. Now, Gao Gong has avenged me."

Gao Gong stood below the hall, bowing as he listened to the instructions.

"High arch".

Jiajing shouted.

"Your subject is here."

"Listen carefully. That high arch in the sky, it's done a good job. But if you get to that point—"

Jiajing raised his eyelids slightly, a chill emanating from his cloudy pupils.

"Don't just focus on the tens of thousands of acres of land owned by the Xu family. In Songjiang, Suzhou, and Hangzhou, every gentry connected to Xu Jie should be dealt with without exception. What I want is not just to confiscate one family's property, but to uproot the entire area."

Gao Gong kowtowed: "Your subject obeys the decree."

Zhu Dijun's live stream is still ongoing.

"Having finished discussing the political purges, let me mention a minor incident. In the third year of the Longqing reign, there was an imperial censor named Zhan Yangbi who submitted a memorial advising Emperor Muzong against squandering money in the harem—namely, excessive jewelry and extravagant textile production. What was the result? He was dismissed from office and returned to civilian life."

He shrugged.

"A censor advised the emperor to be frugal and was dismissed. In the Hongwu reign, Zhu Yuanzhang would have given this censor a bonus. In the Longqing reign, he'd be kicked out immediately. Why?"

Zhu Dijun drew an equal sign on the whiteboard.

"Because this was the condition of the deal between Emperor Muzong and Gao Gong. Gao Gong guaranteed not to restrict the emperor's palace expenditures and not to use the 'competing with the people for profit' rhetoric to disgust the emperor; Emperor Muzong allowed Gao Gong to reorganize the court and clean up the Jiangnan region without interfering. You don't care how much money my harem spends, and I don't care how many people your previous dynasty killed."

The comment section erupted in uproar.

What do you call this? It's called perfect harmony between ruler and subject!

To put it bluntly: you do your greed, I'll do mine, and we won't interfere with each other.

The poor people are being attacked from both sides.

"One last thing."

Zhu Dijun erased everything on the whiteboard, leaving only one line: "The royal family continues to suppress."

"In the third year of the Longqing reign, the imperial court was also engaged in another matter: a strict investigation into princes' unauthorized use of their fiefdoms, their private armies, and their encroachment on official lands. The annual stipends of members of the imperial clan were reduced, and the estates of meritorious nobles were investigated. On the surface, this was anti-corruption, but what was it actually about?"

He pointed at the camera.

"The princes and nobles of the Zhu family were the last bastions of imperial power in the provinces. They had land, people, and resources. Gao Gong's suppression of them was tantamount to seizing territory for the northern civil officials—taking back the land resources of the imperial family and nobles and distributing them to the northern gentry and the landlords of the Central Plains. It was the same tactic as the clearing out of imperial estates in the first year of the Longqing reign, just with a different group of people eating them."

Zhu Dijun turned off the projector and stood up.

"That concludes our discussion of the political reshuffling. Next time, we'll talk about the most exciting event of the third year of the Longqing reign—the grand military review in the capital. One hundred thousand troops lined up on the training ground, and Emperor Muzong himself attended in full armor. The scene was grand enough. But the grander the scene, the more cunning the calculations behind it."