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 ethnic studies 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 seems like it, but it is 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 his 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.
There are 1,024 people in total, which is the current full list of members of the Cheng clan 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, so it is impossible for the huge materials inside to be temporarily transferred away, and they must have fallen into the hands of Long Xiangjun.
Of course, the most valuable asset is human beings after all. As long as the dragnet killers and trap dealers of our clan are still there, sooner or later another brand new dragnet can be rebuilt... 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 clans.
In fact, it does not mean that having a fifth-grade superpower will immediately transform the family into a noble clan; nor will one be expelled from the noble clan immediately after losing a fifth-grade superpower. The principles here are similar.
In the 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 among different classes is very poor.
For example, the Wuxing Shen family and Shen Shiju have both 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? Every carrot is a pit. When 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 families who have to eat less or even not eat. Who will bear the losses?
?
There is not a strong centralized leader here 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? The Cheng family in the city of God has lost its last fifth-grade superpower, so he will 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 possessed by the old fifth-grade family
Where is it? If you really want to go all out, who will be disgusted, and both sides will lose? There is no way to do it.
But the mystery of 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 won'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 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's finances. As income decreases and finances deteriorate, the family's operating conditions will inevitably decline further, causing the influence in the gentry circle to decline again.
To use an analogy, it's like a stock in a bear market: the bankers quietly finished selling, and the stock price began to fall. More people began to be bearish on the stock, so the price fell further... and finally fell to a level that even stock experts didn't recognize.
The price, no one knows why it dropped like this.
Of course, this takes time. So you must make good use of this precious buffer period. Before the family uncontrollably sinks to its lowest point, use the family's remaining resources as soon as possible to grow strong enough to support it.
Some things can be postponed? Some things must be done as soon as possible, such as trying to maintain existing alliances and gaining support from the court, etc.
Once again 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 head of the Xing clan.
The Hejian Xing Clan is not close to the Cheng Clan in the City of Gods in terms of blood relationship. However, the highly complementary nature of the two clans’ abilities determines 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. However, the two clans are 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, Xing Shuhe, 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 arrived at the rear carriage, he spoke to the Xing family member at the door. Not long after the other party went in to inform him, he soon came out, opened the door, and greeted 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."
"Yeah." Xing Yunzhi left the carriage, leaving the conversation to them.
Cheng Jinyang said a few polite words, but when he saw 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 could not 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.
We need to work hard to 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 capital city. Seeing that this junior neither showed weakness to win sympathy nor put on airs and bluffed, but communicated with him in a neither humble nor overbearing manner, he couldn't help but feel sorry for him.
Looked a little higher.
"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, before your grandfather passed away, he had already communicated with me about your relationship.
It’s over.”
Cheng Jinyang's expression remained unchanged, and he thought to himself: Could it be that grandpa has paved the way for me in advance here?
That's right, since he had a handover plan in advance, 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. How could Uncle Xing still be 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."