Yixiong concluded that the young man was very outgoing. He did not hesitate to talk at length about his background and family. Yixiong was somewhat not too surprised to learn that the young man was actually from the same root clan as Shanquan, namely the Duanmu family of the Nandao clan. Just like Shanquan, he looked simple, far different from the image of the Duanmu family who came from the Nandao clan. Not all members of the Duanmu family of the Nandao clan lived like aristocrats.
Yixiong thought back to Shanquan's story about his family background. In the old world, where their ancestors came from, many clans bore the surname "Duanmu." Of the many Duanmu clans, there were five that were very prominent. The five clans were the great clans that were dominant in all aspects of life in society in the old world. The clans were Zhongshan, Beigu, Shiya, Donghu, and Nandao.
Actually, not everyone was willing to leave the old world. The number of people willing to emigrate was far less than the population in the old world. The group that was willing to move was also divided into several social strata. Important people who hold control in society belong to the elite. Those people, all members of their families, servants, and family members of their servants, would get a prime place in every fleet that would sail through the sky in search of a new world. That prime place was in the first, second, third, and so on until the sixteenth ship in each fleet. The seventeenth ship to the last ship was filled with ordinary people.
The 21st Fleet, led by the Great Admiral Mazheng Baohe, was one of the many fleets transporting people who would emigrate to the new world. Like other fleets, the 21st Fleet was enormous. Comprising three hundred giant ships, each of which could carry an unusually large number of passengers.
Since the Zhongshan, Beigu, Shiya, Donghu, and Nandao Clans were important clans, all members of the Duanmu family belonging to those five notable clans had priority on occupying the leading ships in the 21st Fleet. So it shouldn't be possible for Duanmu's family members to be passengers on the less essential vessels of the 21st Fleet. However, plans were not always in line with reality.
There were twelve young men from the Duanmu family who were late to the place where the giant ships were taking off. Five of the twelve youths surnamed Duanmu were from the Nandao Clan. The other four youths were from the Zhongshan, Beigu, Shiya, and Donghu Clans, respectively. The other three, also surnamed Duanmu, were from clans that were not among the elite. They could be together with the elite Duanmus because they were the servants of one of them.
The youth's reasoning made no sense to their family members, who had already boarded the main ships. The youths said they had to help the less fortunate people who wanted to join the colony's ships but couldn't because of various obstacles. Yixiong did not know if the youths had succeeded in helping those poor people. Shanquan himself didn't seem to know any further about the fate of those less fortunate.
What Yixiong knew, of course, from what Shanquan had said, was that the young men had finally boarded the last ship of the 21st Fleet. The giant ship was so big and roomy. The youths then found their life partner on the ship. Indeed, according to historical records, there were many single men and women on the ship. They then breed on the ship along the way.
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The descendants of the five youths who came from the Nandao clan then divided their line into five clans. Each clan was descended from each of the five youths. The splinter clans of the Nandao Clan were Zhongnandao, Beinandao, Shinandao, Dongnandao, and Tiannandao.
There were also members of the Nandao Clan who refused to join any of the new five clans. Those who insisted on it still declared themselves to be members of the one and undivided Nandao Clan. The members of the new five splinter clans referred to them as Zhennandao.
Their descendants became important figures during the migration from the old world to the new world. Duanmu Jingkang was a member of the Zhongnandao clan. Meanwhile, Duanmu Shanquan was a member of the Tiannandao Clan. Even though they were split into five different clans or six clans, if the root clan was counted, the relationship between those clans was very close. Such circumstances made it difficult for the other clans to shake the influence of the Nandao Clan and its five splinter clans.
The Duanmu family, who settled in the new world, consisted entirely of sixteen clans. They were the five main Duanmu clans, namely Zhongshan, Beigu, Shiya, Donghu, and Nandao. Then the five new clans that previously were part of the Nandao Clan. The last six clans were the less important Duanmu clans in the old world.
In short time, the people from the six Duanmu Clans, namely the Nandao Clan and its five splinter clans, or rather the Duanmu Clan from the last ship in the 21st Fleet, dominated the new world. It could be said that they were the rulers of the new world. The family members belonging to the six clans received extraordinary privileges.
Family members from the other four Duanmu clans, who belong to the elite group, although not in power, still got some privileges. The rest, the six insignificant Duanmu clans, were about the same standing as the other commoners. The difference was that sometimes they get a bit of ease when trouble or disaster befell them.
The new world was vast. Thousands of times larger than their old world. In addition, the composition of land and water in the new world was inversely proportional to the composition of land and water in the old world. However, during the first two thousand years there, the human community only dared to stay around where their ancestors landed, which was about five hundred kilometers east of this gigantic city. After they felt ready, they ventured to move forward in all directions. They valiantly spread to all corners of the new world.
Like the other families, the sixteen clans were also scattered throughout the new world. Although in reality their distribution was not evenly distributed at all, they were present in almost all regions. Most of Duanmu was concentrated in the central region. Duanmu family members were infrequent in areas far from the center of power, for example, in Yuandong. The Duanmu family in Yuandong was one of the few Duanmus living there. Yixiong had heard Shanquan say that his family had lived in Yuandong for more than twenty generations.