A Windfall

While Garfield was recovering, he stayed on Calagua Island, while Radis returned to his own territory. Harry became another manager.

Both men were clever, and that was precisely why they valued their lives so much.

If they didn't want to become soldiers like Mada and Radis, their only option was to join Li Qingye and become managers.

Harry and Garfield quickly realized that if Li Qingye's method of controlling others remained undiscovered, all of Luzon would soon become Homo sapiens Company's backyard.

In that situation, Garfield and Harry both understood that their best choice was to join the company. That way, they might at least keep some of their own interests intact.

As for freedom, people had different opinions about it.

Some treated it as worthless, while others treasured it. Men like Garfield and Harry were typical self-serving pragmatists.

The former meant losing their freedom but living in comfort, with their families safe and sound. The latter meant gaining freedom but possibly losing their lives, and eventually becoming inhuman soldiers, while their families might never know what had happened.

Garfield and Harry both chose the former.

With Garfield and Harry joining them, and Mada and Radis under control, only Patriarch Jacques Fernando's faction remained within the Fernando family.

In fact, if the entire Fernando family's power were quantified—

Patriarch Jacques controlled roughly 20% of its power and resources; Mada had around 10%, Garfield around 12%, Harry 15%, and Radis 8%.

The remaining 35% belonged to scattered branches. Some were indirectly affiliated with one faction or another, while others chose to serve the Patriarch, making them neutral.

Those small factions that served the Patriarch weren't necessarily loyal to Jacques himself. They were loyal to the head of the Fernando family, not to Jacques as an individual. The distinction mattered.

In other words, if Garfield took the position of Patriarch, those small factions would naturally switch their allegiance.

Of course, most of Jacques's faction were currently in the Manila area, so now wasn't the time to move against him.

Garfield and Harry, uncle and nephew, first had to fully consolidate the power of Mada and Radis. Only then would they be ready to advance on Manila.

While Harry and Garfield were recuperating and training here,

they also coordinated remotely with Chen Jianxiong and Fili, while putting out word that they had wrested some benefits from Mada and would need to spend some time negotiating in Darte Port.

As Li Qingye swallowed up the Fernando family's power in southern Luzon, Homo sapiens Company grew increasingly brazen in the area.

December 15, 2018.

Homo sapiens Company now had six subsidiaries: Haitian Agriculture, Coral Building Materials, Coral Construction, Abundant Home, Jade Energy, and Pacific Resources.

Haitian Agriculture focused on marine cultivation and aquaculture, as well as the processing of seafood.

Coral Building Materials absorbed the Fernando family's local assets: one cement plant with an annual output of 1.5 million tons, one steel mill with an annual output of 500,000 tons, six lumber mills, three brickworks, and two hardware factories.

Coral Construction likewise absorbed the Fernando family's three local construction companies and eight real estate companies.

Abundant Home took over the Fernando family's 37 supermarkets, 59 farmers' markets, 5,736 retail outlets, 22 office buildings, 127 warehouses, 13 ports, four restaurant chains, six transportation companies, and more.

Jade Energy absorbed the Fernando family's three local thermal power plants and 17 small hydroelectric stations.

Pacific Resources absorbed the Fernando family's four local copper mines, with combined reserves of around 2.7 million tons; two nickel mines, with combined reserves of around 140,000 tons; one iron mine with reserves of around 4.3 million tons; seven gold mines, with combined reserves of around 80 tons; and two coal mines with reserves of 12 million tons.

It was a massive windfall.

Although these companies were nominally joint ventures with Homo sapiens Company, all the shareholders were their own people. In practice, they were no different from wholly owned subsidiaries.

In addition, there were 21 rural banks—commercial banks in the Luzon countryside—and one savings bank slated for consolidation. These, too, were Fernando family assets.

However, the banking industry attracted considerable scrutiny, so even after consolidating them, Homo sapiens Company wouldn't hold shares openly at first.

Clearly, the assets of a single Fernando family had nearly left Homo sapiens Company overstuffed.

And in Luzon, there were four other local kingpins of roughly the same standing as the Fernando family.

This distorted situation had created Luzon's appalling wealth gap.

After swallowing up so many industries at once, Homo sapiens Company suffered from severe indigestion. Fortunately, Garfield and the others cooperated fully, while the soldiers played a huge role.

Fang Xin Cheng had also been so busy lately that he could barely keep his feet on the ground. He was practically numb with exhaustion.

Although these were all subsidiaries, Homo sapiens Company itself existed as the parent company, and there were countless matters to sort out.

These included appointing subsidiary personnel, internal restructuring, and transferring accounts.

Even though Homo sapiens Company had launched recruitment drives in Yangcheng, Hong Kong, and Manila simultaneously, hiring over a thousand managerial staff in just over three months, it still had a huge shortage of professionally qualified employees.

However, the consolidation process also rapidly trained a large group of middle managers. Li Qingye selected the most suitable candidates from among them and appointed them as subsidiary executives.

At this stage, it wasn't the right time for Homo sapiens Company to expand externally. Its internal consolidation was still incomplete.

But that didn't mean Li Qingye's sights were fixed on Luzon.

Over those three months, Li Qingye had selected five more people suited to becoming managers from among the gangs controlled by the Fernando family and the small families in southern Luzon, bringing them into the [Web].

The Web was a special organization directly subordinate to Li Qingye. It currently had only eight official members.

Chen Jianxiong, Garfield, and Harry were among them.

To keep Chen Jianxiong's power in the Security Department in check, Li Qingye appointed two deputy heads for the department, both managers from the Web.

He also assigned a deputy to Fili in the Internal Affairs Department.

As for Garfield, his official position in Luzon made him unsuitable for joining Homo sapiens Company. Harry, however, was a good fit, and was appointed deputy general manager of the company.

Of the two other managers, one also held an official position in Luzon, while the other was in charge of a subsidiary.

With the new deputies, Chen Jianxiong felt much less pressure and finally had the time to improve the intelligence networks in other regions.

The Security Department's capabilities had grown enormously. It now had 473 official employees.

Of course, not all of them were soldiers. Soldiers made up only around 20% of the total, but they were the backbone and key links in every chain.

Because the department used a system of one-to-one contact, many of the intelligence agents who joined it didn't even know who they were working for.

This was to prevent leaks. Even if someone was captured or defected, at most they could only expose the one soldier serving as their intelligence contact.

Trying to get information out of the soldiers was pure wishful thinking.