The Fierce Teacher of Zhenguan: Starting with Teaching the Crown Prince to Make a Comeback

Chapter 79 Credit
Li Yichen chuckled.

"Money and food don't fall from the sky."

Li Yichen met his bewildered gaze and spoke in a calm tone, as if stating a perfectly ordinary fact.

"But there is a force that can make people willingly send mountains of money and grain to His Highness, even fearing that they are too slow or too little."

Li Chengqian's breath hitched, and he almost thought he had misheard.

He leaned forward instinctively.

"Willingly? Delivered? Yichen, are you talking nonsense? The world is bustling, all for profit; the world is bustling, all for gain. If there is no profit to be made, who would entrust their life and fortune to you?"

"Profit?" The strange smile on Li Yichen's lips deepened.

“Your Highness is absolutely right, it is indeed ‘profit’. But this ‘profit’ is not the same as that ‘profit’. It is not the copper coins and silk that we can see and touch right now, but a kind of… expectation, a kind of trust, a kind of… ‘credit’.”

“Credit?” Li Chengqian repeated the word that was both familiar and unfamiliar to him.

It is familiar because the classics often mention that "a person cannot stand without integrity."

It felt unfamiliar because he had never associated those two words with real money and food.

"You mean... loyalty, integrity, and righteousness? What... what does this have to do with money and grain? Do you think that just because I say I'm trustworthy, people will hand over 150,000 strings of cash and 200,000 shi of grain? That's utterly absurd!"

“Your Highness,” Li Yichen said, his gaze intense, as if guiding an innocent child to glimpse the underlying secrets of how the world works.

"What I wish to discuss with Your Highness today is precisely this seemingly ethereal yet incredibly weighty 'credit.' It is not simply a virtue, but a power that can be measured, accumulated, lent out, and even... created out of thin air!"

"Create wealth out of thin air?" Li Chengqian frowned, his face full of "you're lying to me" expression.

"If credit could be converted into money and grain, then why were there empty treasuries and widespread famine throughout history? Wouldn't those self-proclaimed benevolent rulers have already become the richest people in the world?"

"Good question!" Li Yichen was not annoyed at all; on the contrary, he nodded approvingly, as if Li Chengqian had asked the key question.

"This is precisely the crux of the problem. Most people, including many emperors and generals, regard credit only as a moral constraint, but they are unaware of its power as a tool and for accumulating wealth. Your Highness, please follow my line of thought. Let us temporarily set aside the teachings of the sages and look at the role that the word 'credit' has played in the long river of history from a different perspective."

He paused briefly to make sure the prince's attention was fully engaged before beginning his history lesson.

"Does Your Highness know that when King Wu of Zhou attacked King Zhou of Shang, the eight hundred feudal lords gathered at Mengjin, and they arrived unexpectedly? Were they truly all there because they admired the benevolence of King Wen and King Wu and hated the tyranny of King Zhou of Shang?"

Li Chengqian subconsciously replied, "Naturally, it is in accordance with the will of Heaven, to relieve the people and punish the guilty..."

"Hahaha!" Li Yichen let out a low but mocking laugh, interrupting the Crown Prince's textbook-like reply.

"Your Highness, you are too naive. The eight hundred vassal lords each have their own agendas. The reason they were willing to bring their troops and provisions here is less because they believed in the benevolence of the Zhou Dynasty, and more because they believed in the strength of the Zhou Dynasty and the promise of a share of the spoils after the destruction of Shang! The Zhou Dynasty used its accumulated prestige and strength, as well as the promise of enfeoffment after the destruction of Shang, to leverage the armies and resources of the eight hundred vassal lords! This is one of the earliest and most naked applications of 'credit'—political credit!"

Li Chengqian's pupils contracted slightly. He had never heard anyone interpret King Wu's conquest of Zhou in such a way, deconstructing the sacred "mandate of heaven" into an alliance based on "trust".

This statement was outrageous, yet... it subtly revealed a chilling truth. "This..." He opened his mouth, wanting to refute it, but found himself at a loss for words.

Li Yichen didn't give him time to think and continued to throw out even more shocking examples.

"Take, for example, how was Duke Huan of Qi, the first hegemon of the Spring and Autumn Period, able to unite the feudal lords nine times and bring order to the world? Guan Zhong devised a plan for him. Respecting the king and repelling the barbarians were one aspect, but more importantly, Guan Zhong established a 'commercial credit' system for Qi that merchants from all over the world could trust! He standardized weights and measures to ensure fair trade. He established 'light currency' to facilitate circulation. He even allowed merchants from other countries to borrow money in Qi, with Qi's national strength as collateral! Why did merchants from all over the world flock to Linzi? Because they believed that doing business in Qi would not be cheated, and that the money they lent would be returned with interest! This trust brought in a flood of market taxes for Qi, making Qi's ability to allocate resources unparalleled among the feudal lords! Duke Huan of Qi was able to subdue the enemy without fighting, relying not only on swords and spears, but also on the immense financial power brought by this 'credit' system!"

Li Chengqian listened intently, these were aspects he had never deeply considered when reading the Spring and Autumn Annals and Guanzi.

He murmured, "So... Guan Zhong's accumulation of wealth was not simply about competing with the people for profit?"

"Your Highness is wise; you understand immediately!"

Li Yichen struck while the iron was hot.

"This is the second level of credit: commercial credit. It reduces the cost of transactions, expands the scale of transactions, and allows wealth to flow like water, ultimately converging on the place with the highest credit."

He changed the subject, his tone becoming somewhat playful.

"Of course, for every credit that is built, there is one that is overdrawn and ultimately gets burned. Does Your Highness know why the alliances of the six states of Shandong were repeatedly defeated by the Qin's alliances at the end of the Warring States period?"

"Naturally, it's because the Qin army is sharp and powerful, and the ruler and his ministers are of one mind..."

“It is true that their military prowess is sharp,” Li Yichen interrupted again, his eyes gleaming with insightful wisdom.

"But were the six states truly all cowardly and devoid of courage? Not at all. One of the root causes lay in the bankruptcy of 'national credibility'! Especially those rulers, who changed their orders from morning till night. Today they swore an alliance with Zhao to attack Qin, tomorrow they were bought off by Qin for a small gain and broke their promise. Over time, there was no trust among the six states. The so-called alliance was nothing but a disorganized mess, each with its own selfish calculations of sending the others to their deaths while they reaped the benefits. This extreme lack of 'credibility' prevented them from forming a united force, and they were ultimately defeated one by one by Qin."

Li Chengqian felt a chill run down his spine.

Attributing the downfall of the six states to the collective bankruptcy of their "national credit" is a perspective that is both too sharp and too cruel.

He seemed to see those treacherous kings struggling in the quagmire of trust, ultimately sinking together.

"So... credit is related to the fate of the nation?" His voice was somewhat hoarse.

"Indeed!" Li Yichen affirmed emphatically.

"From an individual's livelihood to a merchant's trade, and even the rise and fall of a nation, everything hinges on this word 'trust.' But it is by no means an empty moral slogan!"

Those with good credit can "borrow" future wealth to do things today. But those with bad credit, even with mountains of gold and silver, may be abandoned by everyone and find it difficult to move an inch!

Seeing Li Chengqian's thoughtful expression, he knew that the time was right and it was time to introduce a more core concept.

"Your Highness, let's return to our initial question. What kind of credibility does the Crown Prince's Palace, or rather, Your Highness, possess?"

(End of this chapter)