John did not say much about the family's strategic adjustment, especially the economic adjustment. www.biquge.info After all, he has not been in the family decision-making level for a long time, and he will not be able to replace Cornelius III and Harold for a while to take the family's economic dominance.

Today, there is a clear division of responsibilities among the five people in power in the Vanderbilt family. William is the family's undisputed leader in politics, while Alfred is in charge of the family's philanthropic and educational affairs. Cornelius III oversees the family's financial investments, real estate and media businesses, and he also holds the all-important family trust. Harold, on the other hand, controls the family's traditional core business, the New York Central Railroad.

As for John, he is somewhat similar to an "echelon cadre", although he has entered the decision-making level, he is not responsible for many affairs. Whether it is age, seniority, comprehensive strength or influence, it is a cut below the other four. Absorbing him into the decision-making level, in addition to filling the vacancy of old Frederick, is mainly for the sake of cultivating new blood in the family.

At present, in addition to taking over the family's affairs in Europe from Frederick Sr., John is more assisting Harold in the railroad business. Despite the fact that FedEx has developed well in the past two years, in the eyes of most family members, it is nothing more than a subsidiary of the New York Central Railroad, a supplement to the family's rail transportation business.

In addition to his main business, John's several successful investments in Hughes Aircraft, Kaiser Shipbuilding and Caterpillar made the 67-year-old Corconelius III very much admired. He had hinted that he would hand over the family's financial investment business to John when the war was over, just as he now left the media business to Cornelius Jr.

John was not very interested in it, though. The family's financial industry was originally founded by Cornelius Sr. to finance the construction of the railroad, and over the years it has been infiltrated by the Morgan and Rockefeller families. Cornelius III was only one of the majority shareholders and did not control the financial institutions.

So this kind of chicken ribs should be left to Cornelius the Younger (Cornelius III's eldest son) to inherit. Now, Cornelius Jr. is also the CIO of FedEx, and John and he have always worked well together, and they can't afford to make each other unhappy about it. What's more, after Cornelius III retired, there is a good chance that Cornelius Jr. will also enter the family decision-making level. It's even less worthwhile to hold a grudge over that.

Of course, John was not without his gains in this family meeting. At the meeting, for the first time, he made clear his dominance over the use of his family's military resources. In other words, in the future, he will not only be able to mobilize the family's public resources in the military, but also the private resources held by other family members.

Previously, William handed over John only the connections that the family had cultivated in the military over the years. The entire Vanderbilt family, six or seven hundred people, no less than 100 of them have military experience alone (during World War I, most of the adult males in the family joined the army), how can they only have this resource. It's just that most of it is in the personal hands of those family members, and it is not under William's allocation.

Now that the Compulsory Military Service Act has been implemented, the Vanderbilt family has at least 40 young men of school age to enlist in the military. John, as the one with the highest military rank and the best development prospects, naturally became their leader. This is a major event related to the growth and life safety of an entire generation of male members of the family, and the private resources in the hands of other family members will naturally be open to him.

Don't underestimate the private resources of these family members. Although many of the people in the Lao Fan family are hedonistic and profligate rice worms, these people have followed their parents in and out of various social occasions since they were young. Let them do the business may not succeed, and the contacts are definitely all good hands.

Not to mention anything else, the connections he made when he served in the 15th Infantry Regiment were enough to blind the eyes of future generations of military fans. Even if you don't count Marshall, Stilwell, Ridgway, Weidemeyer, Walker, Magrud, Connor, and other famous generals from the "China Gang" in history, there are a large number of powerful figures who occupied key positions in the middle and late stages of World War II alone.

This is just Reilly's alone, how many six or seven hundred people in the family add up? Even though John had prepared himself in advance, he was still taken aback by the information that had been put together in his hands after the meeting. Lao Fan's family is an old wealthy family, this heritage really has nothing to say.

Even John didn't look through it, but just took a cursory glance and found a major surprise. There was a sister from Grandpa George (Cornelius Sr.'s youngest son, who died of pneumonia during the Civil War) and was married to Colonel Harry Cresswell, a former military attache at the U.S. Embassy in Japan.

This Cresswell himself is nothing, just an old colonel who is about to retire. But John knew that his assistant during his tenure in Japan would be a great man in the future - Maxwell Taylor, chief of staff of the Army, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, chairman of the Special Committee on Counterinsurgency (the highest decision-making and coordinating body for the United States to intervene and invade third world countries against national liberation movements in the 60s).

Although now, Taylor is still his major battalion commander in the 2nd Field Artillery Battalion of the 12th Infantry Division in Texas. But it wasn't long before he was recommended by Colonel Cresswell and a group of old bosses who appreciated him, to work in the Secretariat of the Army Staff. Since then, he has entered Marshall's sight and began to write a glorious military legend.

John thought maybe he could do him a favor and borrow Cresswell's hand to make Taylor owe him a favor. Isn't it just to transfer him to the General Staff Secretariat, which is not too difficult for John.

First of all, there is a shortage of personnel in all departments of the Army General Staff. Second, Colonel Smith, Marshall's secretary to Chief of Staff, owes him a favor. Had it not been for John's explicit rejection of Marshall's offer to serve as Marshall's secretary, Smith would have been on the bench on the Joint Army and Navy Committee by this time.

John: This almost indirectly saved Smith's political life. Now, just asking him to help transfer a major to the secretariat to do chores, is there any reason for Smith to refuse? Anyway, this is not a difficult thing for him, the secretary of the chief of staff.

As for using Smith's favor so easily, the future chief of staff of the Allied High Command, John did not feel any pity at all. Because he knows very well that for people like Smith, there is no humanity to talk about on big issues.

Historically, the reason why Smith was reused by Marshall and Eisenhower was because he had a cold personality, was unsentimental, and was a competent housekeeper and thug. He could mercilessly dismiss an old friend who was displeased with his superiors, and that was exactly what Eisenhower needed.

Therefore, taking the favor that Smith owes him in exchange for Taylor's favor, John still thinks it is very cost-effective. Don't mention it, let's take the fact that he is going to the 82nd Infantry Division at the moment. At the beginning, Taylor served as the chief of staff of the 101st Airborne Division before he became the commander of the 82nd Division. That is, it won't be long before John becomes a colleague with him. Being able to make some good karma in advance is also good for John's development in the 82nd Division in the future.