I Became the Crown Prince of a Ruined Country

30 – People First or Money First

The next day, we also unpacked at the mansion given to us by Pyeongwon-gun.

The family members sighed deeply, as if they had already grown fond of them even though they had only been together for a few months, or if they were gloomy at the thought of returning to being former warriors.

Family members looking back at the mansion with eyes dripping with regret. How can you not know their heart? So I decided to give them a choice.

“Those who want to leave may leave.”

“Yes?”

“Go, Young master?”

“Leaving? What do you mean?”

In their eyes looking at me in astonishment, I felt bewilderment rather than joy.

Even in this situation, rather than resenting me, my family members tried to accept it because it was inevitable. This was all I could give them back right away.

“Go to Pyeongwon-gun’s territory and live like ordinary people. For the time being, you’ll have to live quietly there, but after time passes, you can go anywhere you want again. Pyeongwon-gun also allowed it.”

Could it be that he couldn’t even think of a life other than a serviceman serving the royal family?

They looked at each other while their fisheye was dumbfounded, and no one could step forward properly. In particular, I was rolling my eyes quickly to check Hankyung right next to me.

“There’s nothing to worry about. It’s my fault for not protecting you properly. Don’t worry about Hankyung or me. Think for yourself.”

As I urged each of them to make their own decisions, Seok, who often served as my escort, raised his hand.

“Seok, is there anything you still want to ask?”

“If we all leave, what will Young master do?”

In the meantime, I have lived in a position of being cared for.

I’ve been through a long time, but I still don’t know how to continue my daily life in this era.

How to cook, how to clean, how to do laundry…. All of these things were unfamiliar to me.

“I’ll have to do it myself.”

“Then I’ll stay. I’m not very good at cooking either… But it’ll help with the work.”

It is always at the forefront to orient the crowd. As soon as Seok stopped starting like that, those who came forward saying that they would stay too soon followed.

But not everyone was like that. Even in this atmosphere, there were some who said they wanted to leave.

I stopped the other family members from glancing at me and told him step by step what to do.

The departing person greeted me one last time and asked.

“Young master, don’t you hate us?”

“That can’t be the case. It’s the result of my inability to fulfill my responsibilities, so who am I going to hate? After I leave, don’t worry about me anymore and work hard.”

After seeing off some of the deserters, I looked back at the family members who were waiting.

Well over half of them were holding the spot.

I came as a hostage and only had a short time together, about half a year at most, but I managed to win the trust of people as good as me.

‘There will be more in the future. I won’t lose any more.’

I lost a few people, but there were also people who gained a new heart.

I approached Jung who was hesitantly separated and held his hand.

“Let’s go.”

§

Until I crossed over to the hostel in the same castle, I was constantly thinking and thinking.

Raising money for the immediate primary goal is good. But setting goals is something anyone can do.

The real question was how to earn it.

The easiest way to think of was business. To become a merchant. In fact, wealthy people who were not royalty or nobility accumulated wealth as merchants in almost 100 cases.

Then should I start a business?

This is something to think about further.

First of all, three things are needed to start a business.

The first is the product. Shouldn’t there be an item to trade in order to become a merchant or not?

The second is whether or not there is a market. Even if there is a product, if there is no market, it is just junk or cumbersome baggage.

The third is manpower. In fact, it is no exaggeration to say that this is the most important thing.

It is said that only in the 21st century it is possible to purchase goods and introduce them to the market through the extremely developed Internet, but in this place, which is not pre-modern but ancient, everything had to go through the hands of people from one to ten.

And all of this had a condition that had to be preceded. Securing funds, the 0th factor.

The cost of producing or purchasing a product, the cost of transporting and promoting the product to the market, the cost of distribution and promotion, and the daily expenses of the people who will be in charge of this process.

Everything is money. Money.

“Is that why you came to see me? Ask for a loan?”

After hearing my brief story, Nogucheon immediately asked.

“Slightly similar, but different.”

It’s true that I need Nogucheon, but it wasn’t to borrow money from him.

If you simply needed money, you would have gone to a professional moneylender rather than Nogucheon. Loan business was a very active business at this time.

High-ranking people with a lot of extra money preferred the easy and stable usury loan business rather than running a separate upper house. For example, Maeng Sang-gun of the National Sagunja also raised money for the maintenance of diners through loan business.

But the reason I came to Nogucheon was because I needed people right away, not money.

You need money to save people, but you also need people to save money.

It was ironic that it was not a circular error that had no answer, such as whether the chicken or the egg came first.

But what can I do? People were more important to me than money. What should I do if I have money right now, I can’t do proper activities because I’m trapped in the fence of being a hostage.

Therefore, it was impossible to even start without an agent to represent me.

“I’m not here to borrow money, I’m here to offer you a partnership.”

Like Noh Gu-cheon said, I had no intention of simply asking him to lend me business funds.

The reason I found Noh Goo-cheon was to attract him as my partner, or co-founder.

“Did you say partnership?”

At my words, Nogucheon’s attitude changed quite a bit.

At present, my trust in Handan is literally 0 points. No matter how much I did the basic work so that Pyungwon-gun would not be greatly damaged, as a result, I had abandoned Pyeongwon-gun’s favor.

I had a bad breakup with Pyeongwon-gun, the most loved person in Jo Nara, and then I had a bad relationship with Gunsin-gun, so who would believe me?

At least, since I’ve known Nogucheon since before that, even if he secretly visits me like this, he’ll meet me.

‘On the other hand, Nogucheon has higher reliability than others.’

The other day, when I was in close quarters, Nogucheon responded to the match squarely without cheating against me, who was a novice in close quarters.

I was a little better if it was simply the melee, but I had no choice but to open my eyes and be defeated when Nogucheon played tricks as I did not know any tricks.

‘But Nogucheon didn’t.’

Even that could be a misunderstanding as a result of misjudging my hand-to-hand skills, but at least the Nogucheon I saw was someone who knew the right way.

“Hmm…You know Gongja is strong in competition, but business isn’t that easy.”

I know.

Business is war.

Why would the feudal lords engage in usury over a business that could earn bigger profits?

That’s because the market is a battlefield where success is not guaranteed even with great power and enormous wealth, and even they can fall.

It was a negative tone, but to me it was a green light that Nogucheon answered. First of all, I have an idea to share a story.

This was the realm of persuasion.

“It’s still too early for business. I know that. So what I’m trying to do may be more like a moneylender than a business.”

“You’re interested. May I hear your story?”

Nogucheon said he would listen to the story, but I held back for a moment. There is also a point that leaving a little bit of leeway rather than speaking right away increases the concentration of the other person, but there was a lot of hesitation about whether it was okay to reveal an idea that could be said to be a base for me.

Knowing that, Nogucheon spoke again to open my mouth.

“I’ll bury today’s work here today. Don’t worry.”

“Um…”

My business fund is all about ideas.

If Nogucheon listened to me and did it alone without my knowledge, I couldn’t find any way to punish him.

But as Nogu-cheon, he would be reluctant to stab me in the back. If I hold a grudge and decide to become a water ghost, even that would be embarrassing.

And if you get stuck here, there are many more things to do in the future, but they won’t even start. In order to gain trust, I must first believe in that person.

“I’ll tell you.”

“I’m looking forward to it.”

“I will do business with money.”

After I had said this far and closed my mouth, Nogucheon said as if he was dumbfounded.

“Yes, we do business with money. I know that much, Gongja.”

Did that sound like a little teasing? But I was serious. It’s 100% pure without any jokes.

“Again, I’m going to trade money as a commodity. In other words, money is a commodity we deal with, not a medium for our commerce.”

Even after I said this, Nogucheon couldn’t get a sense of it at all. Seeing him frowning, saying he didn’t understand, I laughed.

Yes, this is correct.

The reason I came up with this idea was because of my early experience of moving to Cho Nara.

In the process of exchanging Yan currency for Zhao currency, I realized the blind spot in the currency exchange market.

At that time, currency was considered only as a medium for the transaction of goods and as a means for the government to manage the national economy. Although there was an exchange rate, it was slow to reflect, and the exchange itself was recognized almost like barter, so there was no fee.

However, in the future, currency itself will become a commodity.

The laws of different countries have different values. Therefore, the value of a country’s currency fluctuates, and profits can be obtained by securing it when the value is low and exchanging it when the value increases.

To put it vulgarly.

‘Hwanchiji.’