For many things, the person involved will not realize it until everything comes to light.
Thinking back again, Cheng Jinyang confirmed that the old man’s body had indeed been in trouble for a long time, so he had arranged so many funeral arrangements.
For example, let yourself go to clan school first, and then enter Tianluo, so that you can get to know Cheng Yuexian and Cheng Huaiyan, and at the same time establish personal connections with the second and third families. Is this a coincidence? It looks like it, but it’s not.
Another example is the “rebellion” of uncle Cheng Qingxin. Although the uncle’s own choice was involved, who can say that it did not include the old man’s instruction and permission?
On the underground pipeline train, Cheng Huaiyan had already compiled the list of clan members and handed it over to Cheng Jinyang.
At present, the remaining tribesmen are sent to the urban area in 6 batches, including:
There are a total of 7 sixth-grade supernatural beings including the second uncle and the third uncle.
There are 38 people with seventh-grade powers, including cousin Cheng Huaiyan.
There are a total of 202 eighth-grade superpowers including himself.
There are a total of 487 ninth-grade supernatural beings, including cousin Cheng Yuexian.
In addition, the concentration of supernatural bloodline is not enough for the ninth level, but there are still 290 people who participate in maintaining the running of clan affairs on a daily basis.
A total of 1,024 people, this is the current full list of members of the Cheng family in the city of God. However, considering that there were more than 2,000 people in the clan before the war, it means that after this war, more than half of them were killed or separated.
Of course, as long as the lost tribesmen are not captured by Long Xiang’s army, it is possible to find them back in the future.
What suffered even more heavy losses was the family property.
Due to the “draft network” of the Cheng and Xing family’s family property business, the headquarters and warehouse are located in Pukou District. It is impossible for the huge materials inside to be temporarily transferred away. They must have fallen into the hands of Long Xiangjun.
Of course, the most valuable asset is still people. As long as the clan’s dragnet killers and trap dealers are still around, sooner or later they will be able to rebuild another brand new dragnet… But when it comes to people, another problem arises.
There are no fifth-grade superpowers left in the Cheng family in the divine capital.
The prerequisite for joining the noble clan is that the family must have a fifth-grade superpower. This is not an explicit rule, but a consensus formed by all the noble clan.
In fact, it does not mean that having a fifth-grade superpower will immediately transform the family into a noble clan; nor will one immediately be expelled from the noble family if one loses a fifth-grade superpower. The situation here is similar to that of officialdom. It is difficult to get to the top, and it is also difficult to get down once you get there. In short, the circulation between different classes is very poor.
For example, the Wuxing Shen family and Shen Shiju have become fourth-grade supernatural beings. The Wuxing Shen family is still a commoner from a poor family. In terms of resources and strength, it cannot even match the fifth-grade family.
Why? A carrot and a pit. Under the situation that the existing overall market resources are divided up by all the nobles, if the Wu Xing Shen family wants to join the ranks of the nobles, there must be some families who want to eat less or even not eat. Who specifically will bear the loss?
There is not a strong centralized leader who finds a family and says, “Wu Xing and Shen are better than you, please step back.” It is a long process of all families competing against each other.
In the same way, if the Cheng family in the city of God lost its last fifth-grade superpower user, he would not be expelled from the noble family immediately. No one has the qualifications or willingness to do such an offending thing. After all, the resources owned by the established fifth-grade family are there. If you really want to risk it to disgust someone, and both sides will lose, there is no way to do it.
But the mysterious thing about the overall atmosphere is that once your family doesn’t even have a fifth-grade superpower, everyone will lower your family’s rating even though they don’t say it openly.
Therefore, in the next few years or even more than ten years, the Cheng family in the city of God will inevitably encounter increasing resistance in various fields: the fifth-grade families who usually interact with you will gradually refuse to interact with you; the business partners with whom you cooperate Partners and employers gradually cease cooperation or end employment.
The first to react must be the family finance. As income decreases and finances deteriorate, the family’s operating conditions will inevitably decline further, leading to another decline in influence in the gentry circle.
To use an analogy, it’s like a stock in a bear market: bookmakers quietly finish selling, and the stock price begins to fall. More people began to be bearish on the stock, so the price fell further… and finally fell to a price that even stock experts didn’t recognize. No one knew why it fell like this.
Of course this takes time. Therefore, he must make good use of this precious buffer period, and use the remaining resources of the family as soon as possible before the family irresistibly sinks to its lowest point, so that he can grow strong enough to support it.
Some things can be postponed, and some things must be done as soon as possible, such as trying to maintain existing alliances and gaining support from the court, etc.
After clearly planning the current difficult situation and the future direction, Cheng Jinyang, who took over the position of family patriarch at the critical moment, had to start doing the first thing:
Negotiations with Xing Shuhe, the leader of the Xing clan.
The Xing family in Hejian is not close to the Cheng family in the divine capital in terms of blood relationship. However, the highly complementary abilities of the two families determine that they will inevitably become close allies.
Even after the Cheng Clan in the Divine Capital entered a period of decline, the Xing Clan in Hejian was the ally least likely to give up cooperation, but the two clans were expected to gradually change from an equal status of helping each other to a status of host and guest with clear distinctions between strengths and weaknesses.
Cheng Jinyang thought to himself that there was nothing he could do to stop it, but he had to at least try his best to reverse the decline and gain more benefits for his family.
Since Mr. Cheng was on his deathbed, the head of the Xing family, Uncle Xing, was also in the hall, so when they evacuated later, he boarded the same subway train with everyone else and was assigned to the last car.
It just so happens that I can take this opportunity to talk to the other party.
When he came to the rear carriage, he spoke to the Xing family members at the door. Not long after the other party went in to report, he soon came out and opened the door to greet him.
Cheng Jinyang entered the carriage and saw Uncle Xing talking to Xing Yunzhi. Seeing him coming over, Uncle Xing said:
“Qingfeng, go back to the back first.”
“Yes.” Xing Yunzhi left the carriage, leaving the conversation to them.
Cheng Jinyang said a few polite words, but seeing that the other party was unmoved, he simply stated his purpose:
“…My grandfather passed away, and people in the clan were panicked. Our two ancestral properties were lost in Pukou District and failed to be rescued. The road ahead will definitely be difficult. At this critical moment, I still hope that the two clans can continue to work together. Let’s help the economy and get out of the current predicament as soon as possible.”
Of course, Xing Shuhe knew everything about the situation of the Cheng family in the divine capital. Seeing that this junior neither showed weakness to gain sympathy nor put on airs and bluffed, but communicated with him in a neither humble nor arrogant manner, I couldn’t help but think more highly of him.
“I am the same generation as your grandfather, but after all, you are now the head of the Cheng family, so I will call you my nephew.” Uncle Xing said, stroking his beard, “Actually, your grandfather also communicated with me about your relationship before he passed away. It’s over.”
Cheng Jinyang’s expression remained unchanged, and he thought to himself: Could it be that grandpa has already paved the way for me here in advance?
That’s right, since he had already made a handover plan, it was impossible not to make any arrangements for allies.
“Next, the cooperation between the Hejian Xing family and the Shendu Cheng family will not end.” Uncle Xing said calmly, “At the same time, the original profit sharing ratio will not change.”
“Oh?” Cheng Jinyang was surprised. This condition… is simply extremely generous.
But the more favorable the conditions, the more uneasy he felt. To make Uncle Xing still willing to abide by the agreement after his grandfather passed away, what kind of price did his grandfather offer?
“Of course, you should be able to guess it even if I don’t tell you.” Uncle Xing didn’t intend to keep telling the truth, and said, “Your grandfather has agreed that your engagement with Yuan Zhi will be put on hold indefinitely until you reach the fifth rank.”
Cheng Jinyang:? ? ?
(Zhang Tai plays with face.jpg) Damn it, I’m going to break off the engagement all day long, just stay there and don’t move! When my seed explodes, I will drive Susanoo over and send you all to the sky! !
