Chapter 212: Being in the Jianghu
Zhang Xuhao is a person who has been abandoned long ago. In the past six months, he has stood in the center of the stage built by capital, and has demonstrated with practical actions that he is not the indispensable real protagonist.

Shen Nanpeng is more optimistic about Meituan's Wang Xing. Even if he arranges for Ele.me and Dianping to merge with them, he and Zhang Tao will be out.

Small shareholders led by Zhu Xiaohu only want to make money. Regardless of whether Ele.me and Dianping acquire Meituan or are acquired by Meituan, the key is to end the money-burning war as soon as possible.

So when Xie Jingxing stepped forward to take the lead, since Zhang Xuhao would be kicked out sooner or later, he would rather do it now and was willing to bear the risk cost for it.

Then the interests of all parties are aligned, and the false protagonist is driven off the stage.

Zhang Xuhao and Kang Jia immediately went to Hangzhou with the 41% stake in Ele.me held by the founding team, treating Alibaba as their last straw and fantasizing about a comeback.

They have to face the 34% stake held by Sequoia China, GSR Ventures, and Tencent Capital, as well as the 25% stake held by Grapefruit Taihe, totaling 59% stake.

The shining all-star team of investors has now turned into robbers who have usurped the throne.

"You owe me a favor."

"Come on, we need to calculate who owes whom a favor."

"You really don't want to suffer any loss. What are you going to do next?" Teacher Ma on the other end of the phone spoke in a relaxed tone and sounded in a good mood.

Xie Jingxing sat on the bed and yawned lazily: "It all depends on your ability. If Wang Xing takes the initiative to invite me, I have no reason to refuse."

"Haha, you are welcome to join us, let's do business together." Teacher Ma laughed heartily.

"Wish me success, we'll talk later."

Xie Jingxing suddenly remembered something and added: "You can arrange for someone to invite Zhang Xuhao to dinner."

Teacher Ma replied indifferently, "Okay", and the call ended there.

The premise for Alibaba to get involved in Ele.me is that Meituan itself wants to do mobile payment, but it is hesitant and reluctant to accept Alibaba's large follow-up investment.

Now the situation has changed rapidly. Ele.me and Dianping have merged and completely sided with Tencent. Meituan is under increasing pressure and has lost the choice of having to straddle two boats. In all likelihood, Wang Xing will passively turn to Alibaba for support.

There is no possibility that Mr. Ma will come up with 1 or 2 billion US dollars to get involved in Ele.me. Zhang Xuhao should calm down at Alibaba's Hangzhou headquarters and think clearly about his own weight before coming back.

Xie Jingxing washed his face, changed his clothes and walked out of the bedroom. Su He and others were discussing the details of the merger and acquisition plan in the living room.

"Boss Shen, can you chat for a few minutes?"

He walked over and patted Shen on the shoulder. The two of them went to the small study and closed the door. He asked bluntly, "Wang Xing wants to acquire Dianping, right?"

“…We should think that Meituan has been under a lot of pressure recently. If it can integrate the group-buying market first, it can devote all its energy to the food delivery business.” Shen Nanpeng analyzed in a pretentious and objective manner.

Xie Jingxing shook his head: "I wanted to replace Zhang Xuhao when Ele.me raised its Series D round of financing at the beginning of the year. At that time, Didi and Kuaidi had just merged, and President Su asked Wang Xing to meet with him."

"What do you mean?" Shen Nanpeng cooperated with the supporting role.

“If Wang Xing had the idea of ​​acquiring Dianping, it should have started from that time.”

Xie Jingxing paused for a moment and looked at him straight in the eyes: "But he never contacted me afterwards, and Meituan never conducted a new round of financing."

"So he is very likely to combine the financing with the acquisition of Dianping.com, introduce strategic investment from Tencent, and imitate Didi in not standing alone on either side of BTA. Apart from you, I am the only one who can broker this deal."

Shen Nanpeng is not good at playing dumb, so he gave the answer indirectly according to logic.

Xie Jingxing remained noncommittal. Sure enough, Tencent or Peng Zhijian personally didn't hold back their words, and up till now they haven't revealed the feasibility of a merger between Dianping and Ele.me.

No matter how strong Meituan's health was, it burned through 2 billion yuan in half a year without making a sound, which made Zhang Xuhao unable to hold back and took the lead in launching the E round of financing.

Just think about it and you will know that it is abnormal. There must be some bastards working secretly to give Wang Xing the confidence to raise large sums of money at any time and without any harm.

"Have you been waiting for Zhang Xuhao to start the E round of financing?" Shen Nanpeng was also unhappy.

Xie Jingxing shrugged: "It's almost the same. It doesn't matter which one of Meituan and Ele.me raises funds first."

"Have you discussed this with Tencent in advance?" Shen Nanpeng continued to ask.

Ele.me first raised funds, which meant merging with Dianping and replacing Zhang Xuhao. The core reason was that he was unable to find billions of funds to fill the huge hole of crazy burning of money and mergers and acquisitions.

If Meituan raises funds first, Wang Xing will have to take money from Taihe Capital if he wants to acquire Dianping but does not want to accept a large follow-up investment from Alibaba.

This guy couldn't have done this if he hadn't reached an agreement with Tencent in advance, which means that his efforts to bring Peng Zhijian and Wang Xing together were completely in vain.

Shen Nanpeng took a deep breath to relieve his depressed and frustrated mood.

"You overestimated me. At the beginning, I was as optimistic about Meituan as you were. Otherwise, why would it have been delayed until now? I would have pushed Ele.me to acquire Dianping a long time ago." Xie Jingxing said frankly.

Shen Nanpeng's blood pressure rose, and he became more and more convinced that Dianping was the bait from the beginning to the end, and one of Ele.me and Meituan would eat it.

The young genius in front of him only needs to sit back and wait for someone to take the bait. He is truly a monster.

"Until now, I am still optimistic about Meituan, and I am willing to promote the merger of Ele.me and Meituan if there is a chance in the future."

Xie Jingxing continued to explain: "If Wang Xing fails to acquire Dianping, he will immediately start a new round of financing. As the old saying goes, it is better to make enemies than to make enemies. Mr. Shen, please help me connect with Wang Xing so that I can invest in him."

"I try my best."

Shen Nanpeng did not refuse, and it was almost a foregone conclusion that Meituan would turn to Alibaba. The battle in the field of food delivery group buying turned into a proxy war in the online car-hailing industry.

If possible, bringing Xie Jingxing into the Meituan board of directors might make it possible for the second Didi to emerge.

He pondered for a moment and then asked, "Have you ever considered going into battle yourself after the merger?"

"Issue a certain amount of equity to Zhang Tao. If that doesn't work, we can think of a way to provide some human resources support."

Xie Jing Xing hurriedly shook his head to reject the proposal, and his handsome hairstyle became messy.

Shen Nanpeng laughed and said jokingly: "You can do it. Yunhe Logistics seems to be developing very well."

"To be honest, I joined more than 300 internal work groups of Yunhe Logistics and opened an internal email address specifically for all employees. All work reports must be replied to within 24 hours. With the strong support of several of my own relatives, Yunhe Logistics did not encounter any problems."

Xie Jingxing spoke from the bottom of his heart. He had previously gone to a branch of Yunhe Logistics to inspect the intelligent integrated system of the storage center, and there were more than a dozen people following him.

The general manager of the branch demonstrated to him the unmanned and fully automatic cargo packaging and delivery in the main control room. Several technical experts followed closely behind him, ready to provide emergency assistance in case of system failure.

He knew that the system that the general manager had demonstrated to him, which cost tens of millions to develop, was the company's highest technical level at present and could not be used as a daily standard. Once, in the financial work group of Yunhe Logistics headquarters, he accidentally peeped at the human resources director of the branch company reporting the overtime pay of grassroots employees, and only then did he roughly know the real situation of the system.

As a result, within two minutes, a "smart guy" posted more than a dozen messages in the group, overwhelming the message about reporting additional overtime pay.

He wanted to scold someone but didn't know who to scold. The branch's human resources manager was at odds with the headquarters' financial department and deliberately posted a message in the group. Was there a conflict between the branch's human resources manager and the branch's general manager?

If I criticize my employees this time, would it be a disguised encouragement for them to be less willing to speak the truth in the work group with him in the future? After thinking about it, I can only pretend I didn't see it.

Things like this happen every day. When you stand high up, you naturally can't see many things.

Over the past six months, his positioning in Yunhe Logistics has gradually changed from the upper limit to the lower limit. He is not only considering leading the company forward, but also taking preventive measures.

Xie Jingxing felt that he was not good at this kind of work, so there was no need for him to do it himself.

…………

At noon, the door of the hotel suite opened and Liu Chih-ping walked in, exhausted.

Peng Zhijian hurriedly stood up to greet him, but only received a nod in response. He watched the boss walk straight into the study without stopping. He sat back on the sofa feeling exhausted.

"Sorry, I'm late. How was your conversation?" Liu Chih-Ping casually put his suitcase at the door of the study and greeted them.

Xie Jingxing had nothing to say after seeing such an attitude. Shen Nanpeng was thinking about whether to poach Peng Zhijian to Sequoia. After this incident, this guy had a hard time in Tencent.

The little disturbance disappeared without a trace, and the three of them went straight to the point.

"The latest plan we are discussing is that after the merger, Ele.me will hold 35% of the shares in the new company, Dianping will hold 65% of the shares, and Grapefruit Capital will buy back the shares of small shareholders of both parties who want to exit."

Shen Nanpeng plays a neutral role: "The valuation of the new company after the merger is calculated at 50-60 billion US dollars, and Yunhe Logistics will hold a 10% stake."

"Including the shares held by Taihe and Xiyou, my total shareholding is about 30%."

Xie Jingxing took over the conversation: "Yunhe Logistics can provide three aspects of support to the new company after the merger. First, deep and long-term cooperation in crowdsourcing distribution, as well as local logistics warehousing and distribution business such as flowers and medicines."

"Secondly, we provide food supply services for ToB enterprises such as universities and hospital cafeterias, including pre-prepared food products. Yunhe has already cooperated with Ele.me in this business."

"Finally, we provide value-added services such as management software technology, food supply chain, and brand services to restaurant merchants."

Liu Chih-Ping fell silent for a moment, thought for a while and asked, "So Yunhe Logistics' investment in Ele.me, oh no, in the new company after the merger, will be paid in the form of physical assets?"

"Half and half. Yunhe will transfer its assets related to these businesses to the new company after the merger. Ask a third-party financial team to appraise their value, and the rest will be supplemented with cash." Xie Jingxing said calmly.

Liu Chih-Ping tilted his head to look at Shen Nanpeng, and said with a half-smile: "Xiao Xie, you shoot the arrow first and then draw the target."

"Mr. Xie has a long-term strategic vision. These businesses are worth careful consideration. I personally am optimistic about them." Shen Nanpeng said in a friendly manner.

Xie Jingxing insisted on getting 30% of the shares of the new company after the merger, which was like incorporating Ele.me and Dianping into Yunhe Logistics, which was the same as Liu Chuanzhi's Lenovo and CAR.

On the surface, the equity is dispersed and there are many external financial investment institutions holding shares, but in essence it is no different from the relationship between a parent company and its subsidiaries.

Shen Nanpeng was somewhat resistant to such an operation, but Xie Jingxing gave too much, including crowdsourcing distribution, B2B food supply chain, and even catering service providers.

These are businesses that Wang Xing has just had ideas about but has not yet started to act on.

Yunhe Logistics not only builds a complete foundation based on its core logistics business, but also goes a step further and expands into the boundaries of pre-prepared meals by leveraging the business attributes of its parent company Yunshan Group.

It can be said that if the entire business ecosystem is closed, in the future, if ordinary people want to open a restaurant, they only need to make a call to Yunhe Logistics’ marketing.

From food supply to customer flow, every link of production and sales can get a complete set of solutions.

Shen Nanpeng can vaguely foresee what kind of local life service giant will emerge in ten years, with a starting market value of 1 trillion yuan, and the upper limit of its market value will be the number of urban and rural populations in China that need to be fed.

"That's about it. If you have no problem, please ask Zhang Tao to come and talk." Xie Jingxing said calmly.

Shen Nanpeng stood up and said goodbye tactfully: "I'll go call him."

"Hard."

Liu Chih-Ping watched him leave the study and close the door, with a genuine smile on his face as he jokingly said, "Xiao Xie, you look terrible when you eat."

"Boss Liu, you have no choice but to do things in the underworld. I never thought that I would end up in this situation today." Xie Jingxing sighed.

Driving away the founders of startups and becoming the largest actual controlling shareholder will inevitably be accused of laying eggs under someone else's guise in the venture capital circle.

This kind of operation is as serious as forcibly delisting and privatizing a company after its listing, and is likely to arouse public anger.

Old Liu deliberately pointed out that he shot the arrows first and then drew the target, implying this point, to help test Shen Nanpeng's attitude.

Fortunately, Lao Shen is a pure capitalist. He has no joy, anger, sorrow, or happiness. He only cares about eating and not about being beaten. He is happy as long as he can make money.

Xie Jingxing couldn't help scratching his head. All the founders, whether they were capable or not, followed Huang Zhang's example of being too stubborn to bend down. But as long as Wang Xing lowered his head, Yunhe Logistics would become Meituan's most loyal strategic partner.

Liu Chih-Ping is very optimistic. Tencent is not an investment institution. The stronger the strategic partner is, the better. It is also a good thing to repay the favor.

"What about Zhang Tao? Should we provide some manpower support?" he asked.

Xie Jingxing was prepared: "I just talked about this with Mr. Shen. Let's transfer Liu Lin over. She is very familiar with the personnel work of Ele.me."

"No problem. There is also Peng Zhijian. He has been following both the Ele.me and Dianping projects for a long time. It would be okay for him to be the vice president and coordinate resources." Liu Chih-ping added.

Xie Jing Xing was slightly stunned, and then he declined without thinking: "General Manager Peng has worked in your strategic investment department for many years. It would be difficult for you, General Manager Liu, to give up. It would be enough for me to transfer two people from Yunhe."

"That's good. Zhang Tao has decent experience and ability, and he is steady in his work. He will not go off track if he sets a good goal." Liu Chih-Ping did not insist.

In fact, Peng Zhijian did nothing wrong, but he was unable to see the overall situation due to the limitations of his own perspective.

Tencent wants to play the whole game, so what can he do as a chess piece on the board?

Zhang Xuhao was a person who had been abandoned long ago, and he was also a necessary sacrifice for the overall situation.

Xie Jingxing was respectful to himself and others. In response, Peng Zhijian took the initiative to submit his resignation report. Whether he started his own business or switched to another company, he would not do too badly.

If he wanted to set up his own fund and Tencent invested some money, Liu Chih-Ping felt disappointed and thought to himself that we are all in the same boat.

(End of this chapter)