Zhang Tie had not imagined that Zhang Haitian would die so soon.
Zhang Tie remembered that he met Zhang Haitian last time before he was about to leave Youzhou Province at the order of Xuanyuan Order. It was just over 2 years ago. When Zhang Tie held his second rotating chakra ceremony, Zhang Haitian had already been in poor health. He always coughed and bent his back. Additionally, he even used crutches to walk. Zhang Tie had sensed it at that time. Before Zhang Tie left Youzhou Province for the Western Theater of Operations of Taixia Country, Zhang Tie even paid a visit to Zhang Haitian once again. Zhang Haitian looked pretty good at that time. Zhang Tie even told Zhang family members to leave some secret medicines and medicaments to Zhang Haitian. Unimaginably, he had heard such a news only after coming back for a few days.
It was Zhang Lin, the father of Zhang Su, Zhang Tie's cousin, Zhang Tie's eldest son, the eldest son of Zhang Tie's first wife, Zhang Tie's eldest uncle and the master of Zhang's old mansion.
Of course, it was in the past. After Zhang Tie promoted to a knight; especially after Zhang Tie and his brother merged the Long Wind Shipyard of Huaiyuan Palace, Zhang Tie and his brother had become the real core of Zhang family, both inside and outside the family had been controlled by Zhang Tie and his brother.
Jinwu Shipyard was the largest shipbuilding enterprise in Youzhou Province. It ranked top 5 in Northeast Military Region. This enterprise was always managed by the old man's uncles and cousins. Zhang Tie didn't care about it at all. Zhang Yang just assigned a financial director to it symbolically. All the other affairs were left to the old mansion.
Compared to the scale of all-purpose medicament of Jinwu Business Group, although Jinwu Shipyard was larger, its annual profit was less than 1% of that of Jinwu Business Group. Zhang Tie and Zhang Yang didn't care about such an enterprise at all. In Zhang Tie's opinion, that shipyard was used to settle the relatives of Zhang Haitian.
Zhang Haitian the old man had 11 children, including 5 daughters and 6 sons. Zhang Ping ranked the 8th in seniority. Therefore, besides two uncles and one sister-in-law, Zhang Tie and Zhang Yang had 4 elder aunts and 3 elder uncles, 10 elder uncles, elder aunts, younger uncles and younger aunts. Plus the spouses of these uncles and aunts, Zhang Tie and Zhang Yang had over 30 elders at home. They also had 20-30 cousins in the same generation. As for juniors, as Zhang Tie's cousins were all young and in their peak fertility stage, Zhang family would have some juniors almost every year. Besides Zhang Tie's parents, Zhang Tie and Zhang Yang didn't know how many juniors there were in Zhang family.
After Zhang Tie became famous and powerful, of course, these relatives wanted to benefit from him. In order to avoid troubles, after annexing the Long Wind Shipyard of Huaiyuan Palace, Zhang Tie and Zhang Yang decided to hand the management of Jinwu Shipyard to Zhang Haitian's subordinates through negotiation in order to solve all the troubles. If their relatives wanted to benefit from Zhang Tie's glory, they could just join Jinwu Shipyard. Those who were capable could find their own positions in Jinwu Shipyard; those who were not capable could also find a job close to home in Jinwu Shipyard. By then, Zhang Tie and Zhang Yang would live in peace.
Those who were able to stand out from Jinwu Shipyard could enter Jinwu Business Group or other higher positions; those who were not able to stand out could just stay in their own enterprises. If these people could lose tens of millions of gold coins of Jinwu Shipyard, Zhang Tie and Zhang Yang would not care about it at all. They had even negotiated that they would set up a clan foundation and give some money to those people to maintain their lives and the dignity of Zhang family each year. By then, Zhang family members would not dare to say anything about it.
Although Zhang Tie and Zhang Yang didn't explain it to them, Zhang Tie's uncles were not idiots. Of course, they all knew that if they ruined Jinwu Shipyard, the juniors in the old mansion would not be favored by Zhang Tie and Zhang Yang. Therefore, the business of Jinwu Shipyard should be considered for their juniors even if they didn't consider for themselves. Therefore, over these years, Zhang Tie's family members had been running Jinwu Shipyard diligently. Zhang Su's father, Zhang Lin, was the general manager of Jinwu Shipyard. All the other uncles had joined the board of directors of Jinwu Shipyard. All the major events in Jinwu Shipyard were decided by the board of directors. Over these years, although Jinwu Shipyard was not as popular as Jinwu Business Group, it also made a profit of 1 million gold coins a year.
After seeing Zhang Lin, Zhang Tie left some words to Mountain Lifting Hermit. After that, he hurriedly boarded the airboat and headed for Golden Light City with Zhang Lin and Zhang Su.
Zhang Chengxu and Zhang Chengze didn't follow them. As disciples of Iron-Dragon Sect, they had no right to visit their relatives casually; especially when their elders were in poor health or had passed away. Sect rules were as strict as iron. Even though Zhang Tie was the head of Iron-Dragon Sect and the old man was in Youzhou Province, Zhang Tie would not make an exception for them.
"Previously, the old man lived in Embracing Tiger City. However, as the old man's health deteriorated, he suddenly requested to return to his old mansion in Golden Light City a couple of days ago. Therefore, all the family members are in Golden Light City now …"
As Zhang Clan originated from Golden Light City of Huaiyuan Palace, the old man's request to return to Golden Light City indicated that he was leaving for his hometown.
On the airboat, Zhang Lin was talking with Zhang Tie while Zhang Su listened on one side with red eyes. Compared to Zhang Tie who grew up in Blackhot City and didn't have a deep relationship with the old man, as the eldest grandson of Zhang Clan, Zhang Su was the favorite of the old man at home. After hearing that the old man had passed away, Zhang Su felt very sad. Since Zhang Tie came out of his secluded cultivation and saw Zhang Su, Zhang Su's eyes had been red.
"I've just come back a few days ago. Previously, I wanted to visit the old man after dealing with the affairs in Iron-Dragon Sect. How could the old man's health deteriorate so fast …"
"The old man was very happy when he heard that you came back a few days ago. Previously, he couldn't even walk on the bed; additionally, he ate very little every day. However, on the day you came back, he suddenly became spirited as he walked around the garden with crutches and drank two bowls of millet porridge with sugar. Previously, we thought that the old man could recover his health; unexpectedly, the old man started to be in a coma on the second day after you came back to Youzhou Province. As a result, he completely collapsed at once …"
(To be continued.)
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