Homo Sapiens

Thonburi.

The atmosphere had grown increasingly tense over the past few days. The families that intended to remain neutral, especially the Huashang Clans, had mostly closed their doors to visitors. They clearly wanted no part in the struggle for the throne.

Of course, not all Huashang Clans were so content to stay on the sidelines. The Xu Family, for example, was secretly backing one of the Zheng Family’s heirs.

Meanwhile.

The local families and various factions had also chosen their candidates to support and were beginning to make their moves.

However, these factions were further divided into smaller sub-factions. Some were taking the opportunity to place their bets, while others stayed out of it.

Among them, some army corps from the northeast and northwest did not participate, choosing to watch from the sidelines.

The central army corps, on the other hand, was split into three factions. Along with the northern, northeastern, and southern groups they controlled by proxy, they were embroiled in a mix of open and covert strife.

Likewise, the naval and air force factions had their own schemes.

Amidst this tense stalemate, a gunshot rang out in Thonburi. General Shunbo, who held at least nominal control over the six army corps, was shot in the head at his residence.

The stalemate was shattered in an instant, and a bloody storm immediately erupted.

Domino, who had already secretly traveled from Chiang Mai to Thonburi, watched with a smile as the blood-crazed factions tore each other apart.

The moles embedded within the various factions quickly seized the opportunity to eliminate dissidents and seize control of a large number of troops. They then secretly coordinated with one another to purge anyone not on their side from the opposing factions.

This white-hot slaughter lasted for three days and three nights, claiming several thousand lives.

In this great weeding out, many factions were caught in the crossfire and swiftly eliminated from the game.

The naval and air force factions were no exception.

After this great purge, the middle and upper echelons of power were completely replaced.

As for the Zheng Clan, they were ”accidentally” wiped out almost to a man. Besides two of the wives and their children still hiding in Europe, the only members left in the country were from distant, collateral branches.

「December 15, 2020.」

Qiu Yingle, dressed in a white suit and escorted by security personnel, appeared on the streets of Thonburi in an armored vehicle.

That very day, she finalized a series of collaborations to shape the commercial operating environment, integrated a host of local subsidiaries and shell companies, and swiftly concluded negotiations for ”deep cooperation” with many local factions.

This sudden turn of events stunned the major world powers, who had been watching from the sidelines, waiting to see which faction they could support.

Apparently, none of these world-class powers had anticipated that the long-declined Shinawatra Clan would make a comeback at such a critical juncture, much less that they would so quickly find their footing and consolidate the various internal factions.

After all, their prior assessments of this internal struggle had estimated that the situation wouldn’t become clear for several months.

Before the various parties could react, Qiu Yingle, representing the ”Shinawatra Clan,” held a swift round of telephone conversations with the leaders of the other factions.

That same day, the southern and northeastern groups announced their ”deep cooperation” with the Shinawatra Clan.

The internal strife ended with lightning speed. Almost imperceptibly, the Shinawatra Clan, now wielding immense power, ”miraculously” stabilized the somewhat chaotic local situation overnight.

Of course, this rapid stabilization was also thanks to the key personnel from the branch company led by Domino, as well as the black and white chess pieces planted everywhere, who all played a huge role in stabilizing the situation.

Therefore, to outside observers, it seemed as if, by a strange twist of fate, the Shinawatra Clan had simply lucked into a massive windfall.

This also caused many restless external powers, ill-intentioned neighbors, and internal factions with their own hidden agendas to put away their little schemes.

After this overnight transformation, a new chapter had finally begun.

...

Qiu Yingle was now so busy she could barely touch the ground. Her first move was to use the branch company’s key personnel to form her own core team.

She put Bawei, formerly of the Chiang Mai Province subsidiary, in charge of the branch’s internal affairs. Wunan, from the Ubon Province subsidiary, was tasked with managing the branch’s finances.

Naturally, she kept a firm grip on the branch’s security and a portion of its personnel authority.

She also promoted Salif, who had been covertly recruited, to be the head of the branch’s commercial intelligence department.

In reality, this meant having Domino take over the local intelligence network and establish a comprehensive commercial intelligence department for the company.

At the same time, she established a comprehensive training academy for administrators, appointing herself as the headmaster. She required all security personnel and mid-to-high-level corporate managers to undergo retraining at this school.

This was, in fact, her way of accelerating the ”New Human” transformation within the organization, swiftly cutting through the tangled mess of all unstable elements.

For security reasons, she did not move into the Thonburi office building. Instead, she set up a temporary branch office inside a secure base in the nearby suburbs.

「The next day.」

The Royal Group was already in complete internal disarray. Its chairman had died in Munich, Germany, and the other board members had also suffered heavy casualties. Aside from the hidden agents, most of the management team had been purged as well.

Qiu Yingle acted without hesitation, directly inserting a large number of her own people into the Royal Group.

Although the Shinawatra Clan possessed a vast industrial empire, it didn’t mean she would use the family’s power to merge with the Royal Group. Doing so would be more trouble than it was worth, appear unseemly, and could easily provoke internal opposition.

What she needed to do now was to ride this favorable wind and swallow the Royal Group whole.

Inside the temporary office.

”This is the restructuring plan. I need you to implement the adjustments as soon as possible.”

After seeing the plan, the expressions of the economic department members present changed slightly.

Among them, Zheng Dong, one of the representatives for the Chinese Merchants, glanced covertly at the woman before him, then stole a look at Wunan before finally looking at the others.

He noticed that the representatives from the other factions were all silent. As for the representatives of the local factions, with the exception of two who had ties to the Zheng Clan, none seemed to have any intention of objecting.

As for the Chinese Merchant representatives he led, since the plan did not affect the Huashang Clans’ industries, they naturally had no desire to offend her.

This so-called restructuring plan involved stripping away the industries that originally belonged to the Zheng Family to form the Jinlan Group. It also involved spinning off some of the economic assets owned by local factions to create the Chiang Mai Group and the Ubon Group.

Since none of the factions who stood to lose dared to speak up, and neither Zheng Dong nor the family behind him had any skin in the game, he certainly wasn’t going to be the one to stick his neck out.

As for the Zheng Clan’s opinion, all the capable members of their family had already been purged. All that remained were the old, weak, sick, and disabled. It was questionable whether the family line could even continue.

Seeing that everyone remained silent, Qiu Yingle said with a smile, ”Since no one has any objections, let’s proceed with this plan!”

”No problem,” Wunan said, being the first to stand up and show their support.

Then, she discussed some of the details with them.

For example, how to handle and reassign the old employees who had been running side deals, and the management structures for the three new groups.

Immediately after, Qiu Yingle produced another proposal.

It was an infrastructure plan. After getting her hands on the assets of the Zheng Clan and some of the local factions, she naturally wasn’t going to let that money sit in a bank.

This was especially true for the vast foreign currency funds stored in overseas banks, totaling 72.3 billion US dollars. Of this, the Royal Group and the Zheng Clan held 23.1 billion US dollars in foreign currency, with the remainder held by local factions.

Leaving such a huge sum of assets in foreign banks was simply a waste.

Therefore, Qiu Yingle planned to invest around 60 billion US dollars over five years through a major infrastructure initiative. The goals were to further perfect the branch company’s local industrial chain and to improve the region’s infrastructure.

At the same time, this was a way to win the hearts and minds of the people. The infrastructure initiative would create a large number of jobs, lower the domestic unemployment rate, and raise the standard of living for the common people.

Furthermore, the major infrastructure projects could be used to promote internal consolidation.

Besides, it was all confiscated foreign currency, so there was no reason to feel bad about spending it.