Return to the Day When My Pregnant Wife Jumped Off the Building-Chapter 418: Military Talent_1

"Power."

Xiao Ming shook his head, "This barrier was broken a long time ago. As long as one becomes a high official, one has power, but the power of an ordinary major family, no matter how great, does not mean that it can become a noble family."

"Then it’s the heritage. ’Shi’ means generation after generation, right?"

"Heritage of what?"

"Of course, the surname and status!"

Xiao Ming shook his head again, "It’s the foundation."

This is a very vague, even metaphysical concept, like the essence, energy, and spirit in a person. The foundation is the temperament of a family.

Power, wealth, surnames, and status, no matter how many generations they are passed through, are just external appearances. But with an unforeseen event, a family can collapse in an instant.

The descendants of ancient emperors who became officials after dynastic changes are not few, but who can be called a scion of a noble family?

The reason why noble families are noble is that their unique family foundation has been passed down from generation to generation.

To achieve this, even if there are only three generations, and the family is poor, one still qualifies to be called a noble family.

If you can’t do it, even if your ancestors traced back to the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, you’re only worthy of being called a family."

Qingfeng’s brows knotted in frustration, "Uncle, I understand what you’re saying, but what does this have to do with whether or not we should make Jiang Nanxi a sworn follower?"

"The connection is, noble families can easily cultivate sworn followers because they have a profound foundation. It possesses a natural, powerful cohesion. There’s no need for the family head to take action personally to gain a large number of loyal subordinates.

And in my house, even if you include Mingyue, Yu, and Hanqing among our numbers, we only have about a dozen people. Where can we find such a foundation?

I want sworn followers, but I can only rely on myself, to cultivate them with care, with emotions, with methods, and even with charm.

Exerting a great deal of effort and paying a hefty price, only for an enemy to kill them with a single shot, that’s a seriously disproportionate investment.

This business is too much of a loss; I refuse to engage in it."

Qingfeng opened his mouth wide and after a while, he dejectedly said, "After all is said and done, you’re just too soft-hearted to bear it.

Do you know how Grandpa described you?"

"I know." Xiao Ming laughed. "I may have the demeanor of a wolf, but I’ve got the heart of a dog, right?"

"As long as you understand!"

Qingfeng slumped weakly into the sofa beside him, "At this rate, it’s uncertain whether you can achieve the goal of becoming the head of the Infinite Society, but it feels like the number of women who could become my aunts will certainly keep increasing.

Maybe one day you’ll go too far, exhaust yourself, and that’s when you’ll really lose!"

Xiao Ming kicked him, laughing and scolding, "You little rascal, do you think a black eye isn’t appealing and are craving symmetry?"

"You’re the uncle and have the right to discipline the younger generations, so of course, you hit whenever you want." Qingfeng sat up, his expression serious, "But if you’re wrong, you’re wrong, and I’ll still speak out even if I get hit!"

Knowing the kid meant well, Xiao Ming wasn’t angry and took a sip of his drink, "You say I’m soft-hearted, I’ll admit to that, but to say I’m wrong, kid, your cunning isn’t advanced enough to discern right from wrong yet!

The reason Jiang Nanxi was easily suppressed by me wasn’t because she’s dumb, but because I happen to know the reason for her personality flaws and where her most vulnerable point lies. With a gentle push, I obviously won easily.

In fact, being able to secure the position of one of the Ten Residence Bodhisattvas at such a young age, she couldn’t possibly be a fool. In terms of intelligence and strategies, second only to Jianwei, ten of you combined wouldn’t stand a chance against her.

If we were on the ancient battlefield, she would be a general capable of leading an army alone. How thoughtless would I have to be to cultivate her as a disposable sworn follower?"

"Is she really as formidable as you say?" Qingfeng was obviously skeptical, "Then why did she still make the foolish move of plotting against you and Cui Zhibo at the same time?"

"Foolish? Which of your eyes sees this as foolish?"

Xiao Ming’s expression grew serious, "When I called her foolish at that time, it was to exert complete pressure on her in the situation, to give her the illusion that she could never outfight me.

In this conspiracy, her predicting that I would ask to meet with the ’Saint’ and attempting to kill two birds with one stone is enough proof that she had a very thorough understanding of me, taking my personality and habits into account.

If I hadn’t known her like the back of my hand, was unaware of the internal situation of the Red Lotus Society, didn’t recognize Cui Zhibo, or even didn’t know the true nature of the Hao, Wu, An, and Chang families, there was a very high probability I’d fall for it.

Even if I still managed to win in the end, it would have been a pyrrhic victory, not as effortless as it turned out.

In other words, my victory over her included an element of luck.

From an individual strategy point of view, her only mistake was failing to discover the traitor among her ranks, allowing Cui Zhibo to take the initiative.

You always consider yourself clever, but if you were in her shoes, could you come up with such a good plan? You probably wouldn’t even have the courage to think of it!"

Qingfeng frowned and pondered for a while, finally changing his expression, "So you’re saying, if she had been a bit more careful this time, and it wasn’t you she was plotting against, she could have succeeded?"

Xiao Ming nodded, "Speaking of which, I don’t want to personally cultivate sworn followers, but with her and Shizuka’s characters, how could they not have their own? All I need to do is keep them tightly bound to me, what difference does it make from having my own sworn followers?"

Qingfeng’s eyes suddenly sparkled to the extreme, and he gave a mischievous chuckle, "Just keeping them by your side isn’t enough, you’ve got to tie them to your belt."