Chapter 2019: Hold One's Troops

Lee Kun-hee and Lee Meng-hee were definitely old foxes.

There was no doubt about that.

Neither of the brothers was a fool. To become the helmsman of a chaebol, if one lacked cunning and depth, they would have been devoured by others long ago, leaving not even bones behind.

If they intended to delegate power, Zhao Fusheng would believe it. But as for the Lee brothers losing control over Samsung and CJ Group, Zhao Fusheng simply could not believe it.

Thus, Zhao Fusheng now believed Dong Chenxi's words by seventy or eighty percent.

"When I first saw these materials, my initial reaction was the same as yours—that Samsung and CJ were about to fall into chaos."

Dong Chenxi smiled bitterly. "At that time, I even thought about whether we should enter the market and pick up some bargains."

"And then?"

Zhao Fusheng laughed and asked her.

"Then I felt that something seemed off."

Dong Chenxi said frankly, "I sent people to check the whereabouts of Lee Kun-hee and Lee Meng-hee, and also looked into the recent movements of Samsung and CJ. I think this is a play put on by those two old foxes for all the chaebol families in South Korea."

"A play?"

Zhao Fusheng was stunned, looking at Dong Chenxi with some surprise.

He really hadn't expected Dong Chenxi to make such a judgment.

"What is their purpose in putting on this play?"

Zhao Fusheng asked in confusion. "Lee Jae-yong, Lee Boo-jin, Lee Jae-hyun, Lee Mi-kyung—they're practically fighting each other to the death. Just from these reports, I can guess how brutal the struggle between Samsung and CJ has become."

"Yes."

Dong Chenxi nodded. "It looks very brutal, as if the two companies have completely lost control, with a group of juniors fighting for power and profit, right?"

Faced with Dong Chenxi's question, Zhao Fusheng remained silent.

The reason was simple: he suddenly realized that Dong Chenxi's words carried a deeper meaning.

As she said, the chaos at Samsung and CJ seemed to have reached an irreconcilable state.

But there was one premise: that was while Lee Kun-hee and Lee Meng-hee were still alive.

In other words, the current situation was as if Lee Kun-hee and Lee Meng-hee had suddenly died, and the two groups, having lost control, had fallen into conflict, so the children were desperately fighting each other.

But the reality was that those two old men were alive and well.

What the hell is going on?

For a moment, even Zhao Fusheng furrowed his brow.

Clearly, he felt that Dong Chenxi's speculation seemed to have some merit.

"My opinion is that we should stay put."

Dong Chenxi said slowly to Zhao Fusheng, "Just watch the situation. If Samsung and CJ continue to be in chaos, we'll wait and see. If they quickly integrate, it has nothing to do with us, does it?"

In her view, the most dangerous choice at this moment was actually to get involved.

Because once you choose a side, it means you've gained a few more enemies.

But if you stay put and sit on the sidelines, you instead maintain a detached posture.

"Alright."

Zhao Fusheng made a decisive decision and said to Dong Chenxi, "Since that's the case, I'll listen to you. We'll do nothing and just watch."

After a moment's thought, he said to Dong Chenxi, "Also, haven't the stock prices of Samsung and CJ been fluctuating recently? You can send them a letter of inquiry directly as a shareholder."

"What for?"

This time, Dong Chenxi was somewhat surprised, not understanding Zhao Fusheng's intention.

Zhao Fusheng sneered, "No matter what tricks those two old foxes are playing, since they want to put on a show, I'll help them fan the flames!"

"You're not..." Dong Chenxi looked at Zhao Fusheng in astonishment.

Zhao Fusheng chuckled, "That's right, to shake the mountain and startle the tiger."

No matter what tricks Lee Kun-hee and Lee Maeng-hee were playing, it didn't matter much to Zhao Fusheng. As Dong Chenxi said, as long as Zhao Fusheng didn't reach out, whatever the Lee brothers did had little to do with Future Group.

The ocean is vast because it admits all rivers; the cliff is steep because it is free of desire.

Whatever the matter, many people fail because their desires are too great.

Being in the game, one naturally cannot avoid various entanglements.

Conversely, if one stays out of the game, they might lose some immediate benefits, but they can absolutely maintain a detached position and remain invincible.

Even if there seems to be a loss in the short term, in the long run, it's a gain.

This is like Future Group now. Although it seems that Zhao Fusheng and Dong Chenxi have decided to stay out of the game, and Future Investment seems to have missed the opportunity to expand its influence in Samsung and CJ Group,

But don't forget, no matter how large Future Investment is, it is ultimately a Chinese enterprise.

Unlike the Jewish consortiums backed by the Korean American daddy, Future Investment does not have sufficient support behind it.

If the other side really tore off all pretense and resorted to shameless tactics, Zhao Fusheng couldn't guarantee what might happen.

The later experience of Huawei abroad was enough to prove all this.

Within the bounds of the rules, Zhao Fusheng could only use this method to tell the two old foxes, Lee Kun-hee and Lee Meng-hee, not to take things too far; otherwise, he might not be polite.

…

"By the way, Jingdong and Gome have started."

Dong Chenxi said to Zhao Fusheng, "But right now, Gome is completely crushing Jingdong."

This matter had previously been personally followed by Zhao Fusheng, so naturally she had to report to him.

Zhao Fusheng chuckled: "It's okay, I know."

If he remembered correctly, in about another month, Huang Guangyu would be thrown into prison.

That would be the time for Liu Qiangdong to really show his skills.

Of course, this wasn't to say that Liu Qiangdong's abilities were insufficient; it was just that Huang Guangyu was too important to the entire Gome.

Although his wife Du Juan, including his former rival and now subordinate Chen Xiao, were all very capable people, the problem was that Zhao Fusheng knew very well that for the whole of Gome, Huang Guangyu was the backbone of the company from top to bottom.

This might sound ridiculous, but it was indeed the case.

It was like Zhao Fusheng: if something happened to him, then the Future Group would definitely run into trouble.

Though it wouldn't go bankrupt, it would certainly stagnate and stop moving forward.

Because this was a company he had built with his own hands, bearing his deep imprint from top to bottom.

Under such circumstances, if he left, naturally the entire company's development would also fall into stagnation.

"Do you really trust Liu Qiangdong that much?"

Dong Chenxi still couldn't understand Zhao Fusheng's thinking. Although Liu Qiangdong was indeed capable, his enemy was Huang Guangyu.

Dong Chenxi really couldn't see any hope of Liu Qiangdong winning.

It was like a child holding a stick, seemingly strong, confidently challenging an adult holding a machine gun.

At first, the adult might see the child's behavior as nonsense and simply ignore it.

But if the child's behavior became excessive and annoying, the adult only needed a burst of bullets to take care of the troublesome child.

The stark contrast in strength determined that in this struggle, Jingdong had no chance of winning.

Unless Zhao Fusheng personally stepped in.

Otherwise, with funding alone, Gome could wear Jingdong down.

This was no joke.

The reason Huang Guangyu had used connections to meet with Zhao Fusheng was precisely to confirm from Zhao Fusheng whether this time Zhao Fusheng would personally step in for Liu Qiangdong.

And after receiving a negative answer from Zhao Fusheng, Huang Guangyu decisively chose to strike!

In the business world, when facing opponents stronger than yourself, you must learn to be patient; a small lack of patience can ruin a great plan. Huang Guangyu understood this principle better than anyone.

He knew that if Zhao Fusheng's Future Investment made a move, even with his abundant capital, he couldn't oppose Zhao Fusheng.

After all, if Zhao Fusheng lost Jingdong, he still had other businesses, while if he lost Gome, he would have no retreat.

But fortunately, Zhao Fusheng seemed to regard Jingdong merely as one of his investments; in other words, Jingdong was Jingdong, and Future Group was Future Group.

Only with this answer did Huang Guangyu make a move against Liu Qiangdong.

And in the eyes of everyone outside, it seemed that Liu Qiangdong and Jingdong Mall really couldn't get past this hurdle this time.

So far, apart from Zhao Fusheng, only Liu Qiangdong himself was full of confidence.

And his confidence came from Zhao Fusheng.

In Liu Qiangdong's view, Zhao Fusheng never did anything without certainty. Since he chose to believe in him this time, he must be able to defeat Gome.

Little did he know, the reason Zhao Fusheng believed in him was simple: in the history Zhao Fusheng knew, Huang Guangyu eventually ended up in prison, and Gome fell into internal strife, unable to attend to external matters.

It was during this period that Jingdong expanded wildly, successfully listing on the NASDAQ in the United States and becoming one of the giants in the domestic e-commerce sector.

As they say, the waves behind drive on those before, and the front waves die on the shore.

This saying holds a lot of truth.

No matter the industry or the person, to rise, one must step on the corpses of peers.

It's said that a general's success is built on ten thousand bones; Zhao Fusheng deeply agreed.

Even Future Advertising, from Ninghai to Binzhou, from Binzhou to the capital, hadn't it achieved its present success by stepping on the failures of those advertising companies?

Why had Baidu been covertly antagonizing Future Group? Wasn't it because when Future Advertising entered the capital, it had unceremoniously crushed Baidu's advertising company?

Even today, Baidu's advertising business was far behind Future Group.

This was competition!

The victor is king, the loser a bandit.

The winner takes all, while the loser gets nothing.