Chapter 27: Guanxi is Essential for Business
Living attached to the Cheonpung Merchant Group, I found myself feeling a touch guilty.
I handed the signed manuscript I had prepared in advance to Lim Seha.
“What is this?”
Lim Seha examined the title of the book I had given him.
[Romance of the Three Kingdoms]
At the sight of the title, Lim Seha showed a slight reaction and asked me.
“This is a novel I wrote during that time.”
“You were writing novels back then?”
“After failing the imperial examinations, I was trying to soothe my troubled mind—
“But you never even participated in the imperial examinations, did you?”
When I tried to deliver the words I had prepared, Lim Seha cut me off sharply.
“Let’s just say that. After all, it’s a fact only you know.”
At my words, Lim Seha chuckled softly.
Then, after flipping through the book, he spoke again.
“Is this the answer to the one you promised to tell me when the time came?”
Lim Seha lifted the [Romance of the Three Kingdoms] I had given him lightly and asked.
“It’s roughly correct.”
“Good. I don’t usually read novels, but I’ll give this one a try.”
“Please let me know your thoughts after reading it.”
“Thoughts? What do you mean?”
“Whether this novel can be sold through our group.”
Lim Seha’s eyebrows twitched slightly.
“Are you entrusting this novel to our group?”
“Yes.”
“Do you believe this novel will sell?”
“It will sell.”
I answered without hesitation.
“Not just sell. If we do it properly, not just the Hyeongju region, but the entire Central Plains will be abuzz.”
“Quite confident, aren’t you?”
“It’s a book worthy of that confidence.”
The Romance of the Three Kingdoms was the most popular book in Chinese history.
It had already been proven, and moreover, it had been verified by the activities of the author and the people of the Zhuge Clan.
Since failure was impossible, I spoke with conviction.
At my words, Lim Seha stared at me fixedly.
He looked as if he couldn’t understand where such confidence was coming from.
“And considering our relationship, I’m making this proposal to the Cheonpung Merchant Group first, not to any other.”
“This book is already approved by the Zhuge Clan, as you can see from the title. It’s being printed directly by the Zhuge Clan, and the clan is currently searching for a group to distribute it. I’m proposing it to the Cheonpung Merchant Group first.”
“The Zhuge Clan?”
At the mention of the Zhuge Clan, Lim Seha looked at the book with a slightly surprised expression.
“They’re participating in producing this novel… No, it makes sense that the Zhuge Clan would be involved with a book featuring the Zhuge family.”
Impressed by the fact that the Zhuge Clan had participated, Lim Seha nodded in understanding.
Then, suddenly calling out my name, he spoke.
“Munhyuk, I may have stepped into the martial world, but I am, without a doubt, a merchant.”
Who could have forgotten that?
Lim Seha knew I knew that as well.
But why was he bringing it up as if explaining something obvious?
“Merchants see only immediate profit and rush forward without looking back. Because of that, most merchants are treated like swindlers and looked down upon, simply for being merchants.”
While saying this, Lim Seha smiled bitterly.
“I wanted to become a merchant different from those people. Someone who builds trust before profit, so that the words ‘trustworthy’ naturally come out when people hear the name Cheonpung Merchant Group.”
It was true that in this era, there was the saying “the four occupations,” so merchants were indeed looked down upon.
Yet even Lim Seha, the young master of the Cheonpung Merchant Group and its de facto successor, held such thoughts.
I felt anew just how deeply rooted the public’s perception of merchants was.
“So, I wanted to do people business rather than money business.”
“People business?”
“Yes.”
Lim Seha nodded.
“Many merchants treat people as a means to make money. But I want to obtain people rather than money.”
“……”
“For several years, I have been building trust within the Cheonpung Merchant Group. Thanks to that, people who don’t even need to come to us come to our group with goods. And those who have built trust through that process, we don’t refuse them either.”
Lim Seha clearly had a strong reputation.
Both within the Cheonpung Merchant Group and when I occasionally saw him in the streets examining goods, the surrounding merchants would rush to give him even more without hesitation.
“Business is people, and people are business. I want to obtain people through business.”
Lim Seha’s gaze lingered on me for a moment.
“Thanks to meeting and trading with countless people, I can claim to have developed a bit of an eye for people.”
When Lim Seha looked at me and shared his business philosophy, I didn’t understand why this conversation had suddenly turned to that, but I met his gaze.
“Do you understand why I’m saying this?”
After saying that, Lim Seha looked at me expectantly.
“……”
I didn’t know.
I really didn’t know.
I had roughly understood Lim Seha’s business philosophy.
Build trust, obtain people, and through those people, obtain more.
It was clearly something like that.
But why was he suddenly saying it?
I had only come to ask him to sell the book if he liked it after reading it.
Yet why was he talking about his business philosophy, and why was he saying he had an eye for people?
Was it because of mentioning the Zhuge Clan?
I tried to figure out why Lim Seha would suddenly say such things, but nothing came to mind.
“Of course.”
Still, feeling the need to say something, I answered that I understood.
“Thank you. As expected, you understand my intentions.”
At my words, Lim Seha smiled satisfiedly and spoke.
“I would love to have a drink in honor of sharing a boat with you, but unfortunately, there are still tasks left, so I’ll have to postpone it.”
“No, it’s fine. Since you’re busy, it can’t be helped. I’ll wait whenever.”
At my words, Lim Seha smiled faintly.
“Since the Zhuge Clan is involved, I’ll have to visit them later to discuss it. I’ll let you know the details of the distribution after consulting with the Zhuge Clan.”
At those words, I paused for a moment.
For some reason, it seemed Lim Seha had already decided to sell my book.
“Wait a moment.”
I opened my mouth, still not understanding the situation.
Lim Seha hadn’t even read the book.
And he hadn’t said he would take responsibility for selling the book through the group.
Yet it sounded as if he was going to distribute it.
Since I couldn’t understand the meaning, I asked Lim Seha.
“Does that mean you’re going to distribute it? You haven’t even read my book yet. Can you decide without reading it?”
At my words, Lim Seha smiled faintly.
“Since it’s a book written by you, it must be valuable. And we’ve already boarded a ship, haven’t we?”
At Lim Seha’s words, I recalled the Chinese concept of guanxi.
I had only heard it slightly from an acquaintance who was doing business in China, not knowing it precisely.
But that acquaintance had said that in China, without being incorporated into the guanxi network, business itself would be difficult to run.
He had also said that to enter that network, one had to endure all sorts of humiliation.
Now, thinking carefully about Lim Seha’s words, it seemed that “boarding a ship” meant already being incorporated into guanxi.
Even in China, where one barely enters the guanxi network after enduring humiliation and hardship, I had unknowingly been incorporated without realizing it!
“Hah… that’s right.”
Having roughly understood the situation, I let out a dry cough.
And it wasn’t bad that I had formed a relationship with Lim Seha.
“Anyway, I’ll let you know the details after discussing with the person from the Zhuge Clan.”
Thus, I had drawn the Cheonpung Merchant Group into distributing [Romance of the Three Kingdoms].
***
“Heh heh heh! How is this possible!”
Ma Sonsa sighed in admiration while reading the book.
Ever since the Zhuge Liang had been mentioned, I had wondered what the content was that made the clan people speak of it so highly.
Driven by that curiosity, I had wanted to rush to where Munhyuk was performing, but the performance times had overlapped with work hours, and I had missed it every time.
That curiosity had grown, and now that Munhyuk had brought the first edition of the book, Ma Sonsa returned to his room after finishing all his duties and carefully opened the book.
And after just a few pages, he realized.
“This isn’t some cheap novel that’s been floating around the market!”
It was completely different from other martial arts novels.
This book captured the era.
What the times were like then, and what the lives of the common people were like.
And the background of an era where people had no choice but to make such choices.
The book seemed to come alive, telling its contents.
Especially what Ma Sonsa was most amazed by was the ability of the character Zhuge Liang.
The imperial court was corrupt, dividing power among themselves.
When those with ambitions tried to do something, they were unjustly accused to consolidate their power.
In the book, they were called turbid water, the turbid current.
Traditional Confucian scholars, who valued righteousness, naturally opposed them and called them clean water, the clean current.
But the clean current was purged by the turbid current, and hundreds of Confucian scholars were executed or exiled.
It was an era of confusion where only those not belonging to the turbid current could rise in office.
Within that confused era, Zhuge Liang appeared.
If you rose in office, you would be purged.
Zhuge Liang knew that.
So he built his reputation in the countryside and quietly waited for the moment to unfold his ambitions.
And he appeared.
“Liu Bei, the benevolent.”
After meeting Liu Bei, Zhuge Liang began to unfold his ambitions.
Thus appeared the “Three Kingdoms Division of the World.”
Based in Jing Province and Yi Province, he allied with the great power Sun Quan to restrain the treacherous Cao Cao.
After building up his power based in Jing and Yi Provinces, he revived the Han Dynasty.
This was the basic outline of the “Three Kingdoms Division of the World” that Zhuge Liang had told Liu Bei.
Upon hearing that, Ma Sonsa immediately unfolded a map.
Indeed, if Zhuge Liang’s strategy succeeded, the Central Plains would be divided like a pot.
It was an unbeatable strategy for Liu Bei, who had no power.
Ma Sonsa was amazed, and amazed again.
How could he have come up with such a strategy?
“But… would Sun Quan willingly ally with Liu Bei?”
Ma Sonsa paused while flipping through the book.
The structure of dividing power based in Jing and Yi Provinces and allying with Sun Quan to restrain Cao Cao was flawless.
But the world didn’t always move according to strategy.
It seemed difficult to ally with Liu Bei, whose power was not yet established, no matter how much one thought about it.
Ma Sonsa thought that and turned the pages.
Zhuge Liang knew that too and focused on building power for the time being.
But the world is unpredictable.
The treacherous Cao Cao called Liu Bei and Sun Quan traitors and led a hundred thousand troops to invade.
A situation on the brink of explosion.
Liu Bei was defeated at Xinye, and most of Jing Province fell to Cao Cao.
Liu Bei’s forces were weaker than before, like a candle in the wind.
At that moment, Zhuge Liang moved.
Zhuge Liang went to Sun Quan and saw that Sun Quan’s subordinates were already in despair and ready to surrender.
In front of those who had already given up, Zhuge Liang persuaded them with eloquent words.
Every time Ma Sonsa turned a page, he mulled over Zhuge Liang’s words, and at the same time, he recalled the author of this book, Munhyuk.
After all, the words of admiration were the same as if Munhyuk, the author, were speaking through Zhuge Liang’s mouth.
In the end, Zhuge Liang persuaded Sun Quan.
At the end of the book, with the words “Red Cliff One,” Munhyuk’s signature was stamped.
“What will happen? How will he stop Cao Cao’s hundred thousand troops?”
Since Ma Sonsa couldn’t predict the future, he stared at the book intently.
Liu Bei’s army had only about twenty thousand troops.
Even if they allied with Sun Quan, Sun Quan’s forces were only thirty thousand.
Combined, it was only fifty thousand.
Though fifty thousand troops was not a small number, in front of Cao Cao’s hundred thousand troops, it looked small and pitiful.
If there was a second part, he wanted to read it immediately.
But there was no second part, so he didn’t know what would happen.
Ma Sonsa worried and worried about how Zhuge Liang would resolve the situation, but since he wasn’t Zhuge Liang himself, he couldn’t come up with a solution.
Then, Ma Sonsa recalled that there were people who had heard Munhyuk’s stories before.
Unable to contain his curiosity any longer, Ma Sonsa set out to find them.
Thus, Ma Sonsa caught a Zhuge Clan person who had heard the story and asked.
“Hey!”
“You’ve heard the story, so you should know, right? How are you going to defeat Cao Cao’s hundred thousand troops?”
The Zhuge Clan person Ma Sonsa had caught was suddenly startled by the sudden appearance of the Grand Elder, but realizing that it was because of Munhyuk’s story, he calmed down and said.
“Um… I don’t know that either.”
“You don’t know? Didn’t you go every day to listen?”
“That’s right, but… that’s…
The Zhuge Clan person who had heard Munhyuk’s story trailed off.
“What do you mean? Tell me.”
At Ma Sonsa’s urging, he eventually had no choice but to speak.
“This person doesn’t tell the story.”
“What do you mean? Doesn’t tell the story?”
“From what I heard, at first he told the story of the Northern Expedition, but after that, he only told up to the ‘Three Kingdoms Division of the World’ and then went back to the beginning.”
“What? Why?”
“Perhaps… it’s because he was writing that book? We’ve been guessing that among ourselves…
At those words, Ma Sonsa looked disappointed and asked again.
“So, there’s no one who knows that story?”
“At that time, it was not long after the person told the story, so none of the clan people had heard it, and those who had heard it had forgotten the details. So we’re very curious about that story.”
“Heh heh heh… How can there be no one?”
That was when.
“Munhyuk has come!”
“What!? Where, where?”
“It seems he came to see the lord, and before that, he stopped by?”
Like fans who had found their idol, the Zhuge Clan people began to bustle about.
The noisy commotion naturally reached Ma Sonsa’s ears, and since he hadn’t found the source of his curiosity, Ma Sonsa, even though he was inside the clan, used light kung fu to hurry toward the lord’s residence.
To meet the author of the book, Munhyuk.