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

"September of the third year of the Longqing reign, Beijing. Training ground."

Without wasting any words, Zhu Dijun directly displayed a reconstruction of a Ming Dynasty military parade in Beijing on the screen.

"One hundred thousand troops of the Beijing Garrison were arrayed in formation. Emperor Muzong Zhu Zaihou, dressed in military attire, personally reviewed the troops on horseback. The elite troops of the Jizhou Garrison, trained using the new methods of Qi Jiguang and Tan Lun, gave a demonstration. The generals of Xuanfu, Datong, Jizhou, and Liaodong were present. Envoys from various Mongol tribes and overseas tribute envoys were all brought to watch."

He paused.

"The largest military parade in the mid-to-late Ming Dynasty. Historical records describe it as follows: the military was well-disciplined, the morale was high, and the surrounding foreign tribes submitted to the Ming."

"Sounds pretty inspiring, right?"

Zhu Dijun abruptly changed the subject.

"But as usual, let's look at the ledgers."

A detailed list of military expenditures for the third year of the Longqing reign popped up on the holographic screen.

"How much did this grand military parade cost? Over 200,000 taels of silver were awarded as rewards alone. Adding in troop deployment, transportation, repairing the training grounds, and manufacturing new weaponry, the total cost approached 500,000 taels. Where did this money come from?"

Zhu Dijun drew a circle on "Lianghuai Salt Tax" and "Yuegang Merchant Tax" with a red pen.

"The salt tax and maritime trade tax in Jiangnan were essentially used to stage a military show in Beijing with the money earned in the southeastern coastal areas."

He walked to the whiteboard and wrote three lines.

"The grand review has three purposes. The first is to establish authority internally."

"How many years has the Beijing Garrison been rotten since the Jiajing era? They draw salaries without working, exploit soldiers, and their training is just for show. After Qi Jiguang and Tan Lun were transferred to the north, they used the methods of training the Qi Family Army to reorganize the Beijing Garrison. The grand review was an inspection—to see if the new training methods were effective, and to eliminate the old, weak, and vacant positions in public, thus establishing the authority of the newly appointed generals."

"But more importantly, the entire parade's coordination, rewards, and punishments were overseen by civil officials from the Ministry of War. Military officers stood below, listening to orders. This sent a clear signal—command of the army was in the hands of civil officials, and military officers were only there to do the work."

Zhu Dijun tapped on the second line of text.

"Secondly, it's a deterrent to the outside world. The Mongol envoys were invited to observe the ceremony, not to watch the spectacle. Altan Khan has been much quieter on the Xuanda border in recent years, but the Tatars in the Hetao region are still causing trouble. By deploying 100,000 troops and having the artillery battalion fire a volley, we are telling those people on the grasslands: Stop probing, sit down and talk."

"This directly paved the way for Anda's tribute ceremony two years later. After the grand review, Anda voluntarily returned thirteen members of the traitor Zhao Quan's gang. This was a pledge of loyalty."

He walked up to the third line of text.

"Thirdly, to create momentum for the northern military and political groups."

"Who were the main figures in the grand military parade? Qi Jiguang, Tan Lun, and Wang Chonggu. These people were all northern civil officials and border generals from Gao Gong's faction. With the military parade, their status rose accordingly. Who in the court would still dare to say that the northern clique only knew how to fight but not how to govern? The banner of military merit stood there firmly."

Zhu Dijun turned around to face the camera.

"There are three purposes, each more practical than the last. But have you noticed—the money for the grand parade came from Jiangnan, while the prestige came from the North. Can those gentry in Jiangnan accept this?"

Someone in the live chat replied: "[Balance my ass, I'm grinding my teeth to powder.]"

"You have to swallow your pride, even if it breaks your teeth. They control the military; what are you going to do about it?"

Zhu Dijun switches to the next image—the northern border.

"After discussing the grand parade, let's talk about another major event in the north: the pilot mutual trade program in the Hetao region."

"In the first month of the third year of the Longqing reign, Ma Fang, the general of Datong, defeated the Anda tribe. In the fourth month, Lei Long went beyond the Great Wall and inflicted a great defeat on the Hetao Tatars. After the battle, Anda became even more docile. In the eighth month, the court approved a small-scale trade in the Hetao region. Xuanfu and Datong opened for trade, exchanging silk and tea for horse hides."

He marked several trading points on the map.

"History records portray this event with warmth and compassion—turning hostility into friendship and promoting ethnic integration. But what is the underlying logic?"

Zhu Dijun drew a chain of interests on the whiteboard.

"The profits from the first year of the Longqing reign all came from the Southeast maritime trade. The people in Yuegang made a fortune. What about the Northern Group? Apart from military funding, they had no independent source of income. Gao Gong could not rely on the Ministry of Revenue to support the border troops in the long term—that would mean the Northern Group's lifeline was in the hands of the people from Jiangnan."

"Therefore, he had to establish pilot mutual markets before the full implementation of the tribute system. He needed to secure the trade route from the Central Plains to the grasslands. Once the market was fully open, the local civil officials of Xuanfu and Datong would be the only middlemen. The export channels for tea, ironware, and cloth, as well as the pricing power for imported horse hides, would all be in the hands of the Northern Group."

He tapped the whiteboard.

"This is a private financial channel that the Northern Group has created for itself, to counter the silver advantage of the Southern Sea Merchants. The two interest groups, one based on the sea and the other on land, each make their own money."

"There's another layer. Less trade means less war, and less war means less room for corruption in military spending. Gao Gong isn't afraid of border generals being greedy for money; what he's afraid of is that these generals, fueled by war, will grow powerful and become uncontrollable independent warlords. Once trade is open, there will be fewer battles, and the warlords will have no legitimate reason to expand their military power."

The Ming Dynasty, in a parallel Hongwu era.

Zhu Yuanzhang stood with his hands behind his back on the steps of the Fengtian Hall, staring at the sky.

"Fourth brother, did you hear me?"

Zhu Yuanzhang turned his head to look at Zhu Di.

"Gao Gong's move is similar to how you left the Doyan Three Guards to graze livestock outside the Great Wall when you launched the Jingnan Campaign and attacked Beiping. Keep them fed, but don't let them starve and bite. Give them some treats regularly, and use trade instead of war."

Zhu Di nodded:

"Father is right. When I was in Beiping, I traded horses with the Uriyangkhai, which saved me 300,000 taels of military expenses a year. But the key is that the trade routes must be controlled by our own people. Who can open the market, who can't open the market, and what the prices should be—if you control these three things, those people on the grasslands will have to listen to you."

Zhu Yuanzhang snorted:

"Gao Gong managed to hold on. But what happened after he died?"

After he finished speaking, neither the father nor the son uttered a word.

In the sky, Zhu Dijun had already switched to the southeast coast.

"Now that we've finished talking about the North, let's look at the South. In the third year of the Longqing reign, a tough battle was fought along the southeastern coast—the suppression of the pirate Zeng Yiben."

A portrait of Zeng Yiben appeared on the screen. He was a dark-skinned, burly middle-aged man with a curved knife at his waist.

"This Zeng Yiben was no ordinary pirate. He commanded hundreds of ships and thousands of men, entrenched along the coast of Guangdong and Guangxi. He plundered Jieshiwei and breached the city walls. Even more deadly was that Zhou Yunxiang, a Ming Dynasty deputy general, killed his superior and defected to Zeng Yiben with a group of soldiers."

"This has caused a huge uproar. Pirates and rebels combined mean that an independent armed force has emerged at sea, not controlled by any faction."

Zhu Dijun drew Zeng Yiben's activity range on the map.

"In May, Guo Cheng led a large army to encircle and suppress the rebellion. Zhou Yunxiang was killed and Zeng Yiben's fleet was completely annihilated. The large-scale maritime rebellion forces along the southeast coast were completely eliminated."

He put down his pointer and looked at the camera.

"Suppressing pirates and protecting the people is certainly a good thing. But why did Zeng Yiben have to die? It wasn't because he robbed a few villages. It was because he bypassed Yuegang."

The comment section fell silent for a moment.

"Zeng Yiben's smuggling route was in Guangdong and Guangxi, bypassing Zhangzhou Yuegang. He traded directly with foreign merchants, hoarded large amounts of silver, and armed himself. What did the imperial court call this? They called it 'an out-of-control civilian maritime force'."

Zhu Dijun held up one finger.

"After the opening of trade during the Longqing era, there was an ironclad rule in the Ming Dynasty: all maritime trade had to be registered and taxed through Yuegang. Zeng Yiben's decision to bypass Yuegang was tantamount to opening a private route outside the system. Once this private route grew, Yuegang's monopoly would collapse. The trade profits of the gentry in Jiangnan and the officials and gentry in Fujian would be diverted."

"So Zeng Yiben wasn't wiped out by the government troops. He was strangled by the entire vested interest group. The Jiangnan maritime merchants wanted him dead because he was a competitor. The imperial court wanted him dead because he was out of control. Gao Gong wanted him dead because the military victory in suppressing the pirates would benefit the Northern Group."

He spread his hands.

"Everyone wants him dead, so he has to die."

Zhu Dijun walked to the whiteboard and wrote the last line: Reform of the Ministry of War.

"In the third year of the Longqing reign, there was another military system reform—the Ministry of War added two vice ministers, one in charge of Xuanfu, Datong, Jizhou, and Liaodong, and the other in charge of the three border regions of Shaanxi. The military affairs of the nine border regions were divided into two major areas, and the generals of each garrison could not transfer troops across regions. The distribution of military pay and the storage of grain and fodder were all under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of War."

"The intention behind this reform is extremely clear: to dismantle the independent power of the border generals. A general can only govern his own town. Want to unite other towns to rebel? No way. The power of deployment is in the hands of the civil officials in the Ministry of War. You only have the power to command troops, not the power to deploy troops, the power of finance, or the power of diplomacy."

He leaned against the podium and made a concluding gesture.

"The military layout in the third year of the Longqing reign can be summarized in one sentence: two sets of military interest chains were formed in the north and south. The northern border defense was operated by the civil officials and governors of the Nine Garrisons, while the southern coastal defense was controlled by disbanding the navy and monopolizing Yuegang. Military power was completely handed over to the central civil officials, and military generals were reduced to tools."

Zhu Dijun picked up his water glass, found it was empty, and casually put it down.

"Wait, let's continue with the last piece of the puzzle from the third year of the Longqing reign—the full implementation of the salt tax reform. That was where the real bloodshed began. The last lifeline of wealth for the Jiangnan gentry was uprooted by Gao Gong."