My lady, I'm going to rebel.

Technology investment?

Everyone thought Mu Zheng was so amazing that they couldn't understand just two words he said.

Mu Zheng smiled secretly, what I want is that you don’t understand.

Mu Zheng has thought it through. Helping you raise horses is not free. He must at least make a fortune from it.

After all, you are going to meet the future emperor in the future, and it would be rude to come empty-handed.

"Brother, what does it mean to invest?"

Seeing the eager eyes of Gong Wen and others, Mu Zheng grabbed an empty plate on the table and said, "If this is a cake..."

"Wait, what's cake?"

"Okay, let's say this is a piece of cake and everyone wants to eat it, but it's only the size of a plate. Who gets to eat it? Who doesn't? Who gets to eat more? Who gets to make that decision?"

Everyone was silent, because everyone knew that no matter what answer you came up with in the end, it would offend people.

"Since no one dares to speak up, let's try another way." Mu Zheng threw two beans on the plate. "This cake is made of beans. Your family contributed two handfuls of beans, so you can have two bites of cake. His family contributed three handfuls of beans, so he can have three bites of cake. In short, whoever contributes more beans gets to eat more."

When everyone heard this, they immediately understood.

"We call these beans shares. The shares you invest are the basis for your earnings." Mu Zheng poured all the beans on the table into the plate. "When you have some spare money in the future, you can add shares. Look, isn't this plate full? The cakes I can make are getting bigger and bigger. Isn't this better than the limited average share?"

"Hahaha! Great! This is a brilliant move." Liao Min'an couldn't stop laughing. As expected, scholars have quick minds. From now on, all the ugly people in the village will go to school to avoid a miserable life.

"What about you? What does technology investment mean?" Xie Junfei has always been thinking about Mu Zheng.

"That's easy to understand. Without that pastry chef, you wouldn't be able to make the finished product no matter how many beans you have. Shouldn't you give him a bite to eat?"

Mu Zheng said this as a matter of course. The people present were stunned at first, but there was no special reaction. Only Xie Junfei's face was not very good.

Technology investment? It means they don't have to pay a penny, but they still want to contribute a few beans.

After saying that, Mu Zheng sat down leisurely, chewing the beans one by one, making them crunchy.

The operation of investing in technology is very normal and well accepted in modern society, but in ancient society, people needed time to react.

Soon, Gong Wen was the first to speak, "Brother, look at what you said. In the countryside, even if you want to host a banquet, you still have to take care of the cook, not to mention that you are leading us to make a lot of money."

"Yes. Brother Mu, I just don't know how much of the shares you have invested?" Liao Min'an was more practical.

"One percent!" Mu Zheng said calmly.

Hearing this, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Ten percent is not a lot, it's just a little money taken out of everyone's pocket, which is totally fine.

"Okay. I agree." Liao Min'an spoke first.

"I agree too." Then came Gong Wen, then everyone else, and finally Xie Junfei. He looked at Mu Zheng deeply and said, "Do a good job!"

This reminded Mu Zheng of a popular short video meme on the internet: "Boss, can I invest? I'll definitely work hard!"

Oh, shame!

Seeing that no one objected, Mu Zheng was also very happy. This one percent may not seem like much at the moment, but he believed that he could turn it into a lot soon.

Moreover, when he proposed the crowdfunding, he hadn't expected much from the people of Xiejiabao. He simply wanted someone to take care of Yunniang, and for him to have a clear path home after the storm. He even hoped that the people of Xiejiabao would give up joining the Lu family's army.

……

Although the general direction of the business has been determined, it is not so fast to implement it, after all, there is a lot of preparatory work to be done in the early stage.

Mu Zheng also took advantage of this time to learn archery from Gong Wen and others. Although there are great differences between cold and hot weapons, they have similarities in shooting.

Soon, Mu Zheng got the hang of it, and his accuracy was even better than some villagers.

Yunniang also woke up on a beautiful afternoon. When she saw Mu Zheng, she burst into tears. In the end, Mu Zheng had to give her a passionate kiss on the forehead in exchange for her shy smile.

Meanwhile, news of the Lü army trickled into Xiejiabao. As expected, more and more peasants joined the fray, some rebelling, others taking advantage of the chaos to loot. In short, the entire Langya region was practically paralyzed, and perhaps only remote villages like Xiejiabao could find a moment of peace.

"Brother, you don't know how expensive rice is right now. If we don't go buy horses now, I'm afraid we won't be able to raise enough money for the journey."

Mu Zheng felt helpless when he heard Gong Wen's complaints.

Wang Mang truly had bad luck. During his reign, natural and man-made disasters led to barren land and skyrocketing prices. The price of rice rose from a few dozen coins per dan during the reign of Emperor Wen of Han to 2,000 coins per dan. Indeed, it was beyond the reach of ordinary people.

But, buying a horse?

Mu Zheng wanted to go back on his word.

Now that Yunniang has woken up, is it necessary for him to stay in Shandong, the villain's nest, and take risks?

You know, Lu's army will suffer a crushing defeat in three months, and then the government will start searching for rebels everywhere, and the whole Langya will be in panic.

However, because some officers and soldiers took advantage of their power to make a fortune and bully the people, social contradictions were soon intensified, and a new round of resistance broke out.

There is simply no peace.

"Well, you don't want to join the Lu family army now?" Mu Zheng asked.

"No!" Gong Wen waved his hand. "Listening to Brother Mu's words is like reading a year's worth of books. In this society, making money is the bottom line."

"But the Lu family army has already broken through Langya. Maybe they will live a prosperous life in the future." Mu Zheng was still guiding.

"They just rebelled, just like the women in our fort. They just got married, but they didn't live a good life. There's nothing to envy." Gong Wen replied.

Uh.

Mu Zheng choked, it seemed that what this kid said made sense.

"But……"

"Don't say but, you don't know, in order to raise capital, Uncle Liao mobilized everyone to sell a lot of stored grain, and Mo Lu's father pawned all his deceased wife's hairpins, saying that it was to support Brother Mu."

Ok!

Mu Zheng shut up.

Who told him to paint business in such a rosy picture earlier? It really lived up to the saying: if you make a date, you have to finish it even if you cry.

Finally, the departure date was set for two days later.

After knowing this, Yunniang stopped crying and just lowered her head, obviously having a lot on her mind.

Mu Zheng hugged her tightly in his arms, scratched her nose, and said softly, "Don't worry, I won't encounter the same thing as last time. And this time, Gong Wen and the others will accompany me. You don't know how superb his archery skills are."

Yunniang hummed softly, "It's all my fault for being useless. I've only slowed my husband down."

Mu Zheng was surprised that Yunniang would have such an idea. It seemed that this woman still remembered that he had said he wanted to go to Chang'an. Faced with such a well-behaved and sensible girl, Mu Zheng felt even more pity for her.

Perhaps because she felt that saying this would put pressure on Mu Zheng, Yunniang suddenly fell into his arms and said, "My husband, you can go without worry. The people in Xiejiabao are very nice, and Sister Zhou Qiao is also very good to me. I will wait here for you to come back and give birth to your children."

Mu Zheng gave Yunniang a big kiss: "My dear wife, wait for me to go home!"

He thought to himself that as long as he could deal with the horse issue, he would take Yunniang away from Shandong, this troubled place, and never come back.