Faced with Yuan Xingchi's imposing presence, Ping Qing Sheng finally fell silent.
Indeed!
How far could the Emperor's military orders reach?
The nation of Wa was now fragmented, and the entire ruling class of Wa was focused on their own interests.
Under such circumstances, it was almost impossible for them to mobilize their own forces to resist Yuan Xingchi and his men.
"Alright, tell those people to speed up. I believe my lord should have already received the ore we sent back. The various major families have invested so much money, and now it's time for them to see a return!"
As Yuan Xingchi spoke, he gave a look to Feng Yuanbao, who stood beside him.
"Rest assured, sir. I will have people monitoring them day and night!"
Looking at the Wa people toiling under the whips, Feng Yuanbao's face was filled with smiles.
As expected, these wild monkeys couldn't be allowed to live too comfortably. Ever since he followed Li Bao's suggestion and divided them all into units of a hundred men, the management of these Wa prisoners of war had clearly become much easier.
"I naturally trust you with this matter, but listen carefully. I handed them over to you for work, not for you to slaughter them all. You need to be mindful of your actions! Especially those corpses, can't you dig a pit and bury them after killing someone?"
Yuan Xingchi truly didn't know what these guys were up to with the management system that Feng Yuanbao and Li Bao had devised. The two individuals who seemed perfectly fine initially had become like different people after arriving in Wa.
In the beginning, these prisoners of war were merely forced to labor under the whip, but later on, the situation changed completely.
No one knew which wicked soul came up with the idea. They actually organized these prisoners of war into hundred-man teams, and then assigned numbers to each of these teams.
Each day, they ranked the teams based on the amount of ore they dug. The top ten teams would each receive an extra piece of fish meat when they ate dinner.
The last ten teams, in addition to being punished with half their food rations, would have one person randomly selected to be executed on the spot.
Under this high-pressure policy, although the Wa people's mining speed was indeed increasing, the cost was that over a dozen corpses had to be discarded every day.
Yuan Xingchi didn't care about the lives of those few Wa people. The main reason was that these fellows were becoming increasingly lazy.
The execution soldiers would simply discard the bodies outside the camp after killing them, not even bothering to bury them.
Because of this, the wolves near the camp had stopped hunting. Every night when it was time for executions, they would line up outside, waiting.
While it saved the effort of burying corpses, Yuan Xingchi was genuinely worried that this method used by these scoundrels would sooner or later contaminate the water sources near the camp.
After all, a plague, once it broke out, was no laughing matter.
No matter what, this was Wa after all. Even with the large quantities of medicine they carried on their ships, it was still incomparable to their own country.
If anything went wrong, the price they paid would be too heavy.
"Rest assured, sir. I understand. I will instruct them when we return. After they are killed tonight, they will be buried in a sand pit!"
After hearing Feng Yuanbao's words, Yuan Xingchi almost rolled his eyes to the sky. Bury them in a sand pit, why didn't he suggest throwing them directly into the sea?
What was the difference between burying them in a sand pit and not burying them at all?
"Roar—woo—"
As soon as Feng Yuanbao finished speaking, the howling of wolves could be heard from the mountain forest outside the camp.
"Did you hear that? Your guests are about to have their meal!"
After giving the fat man an annoyed glare, Yuan Xingchi was too lazy to talk to him anymore. This person, who seemed benevolent and kind in the Great Song Dynasty, had become so beastly after arriving in Wa.
"Sir, this is the gold and silver that our furnace has refined today. Would you like to see it personally?"
Seeing Yuan Xingchi getting a little angry, Feng Yuanbao immediately said with a sly grin.
"You handle this kind of thing yourself. Keep the account books tidy and clear. It will be convenient for handover later!"
After the initial period of excitement, Yuan Xingchi suddenly realized that when faced with gold and silver, he felt pretty much the same. This stuff was only somewhat shocking when he first saw it.
After getting used to it, he now felt that looking at gold was no different from looking at pig iron. It wasn't that the items were not attractive enough, but rather that in this desolate wilderness, no matter how much money there was, there was nowhere to spend it!
As for the cities of the Wa people, did they have to spend money for anything they wanted?
If Li Bao, the butcher, and his ruffians were put in front, any life that dared to ask for money would probably have their money, along with their own wealth, moved back to the camp by Li Bao before dawn.
During this process, it was possible that some miscellaneous heads would be added.
As for those Wa people, it was even simpler. If they were given a bowl of fish porridge mixed with sand, they would wake up smiling. As for wages, was that something they should consider?
"Yes!"
Feng Yuanbao naturally didn't know what Yuan Xingchi was thinking. In any case, he himself was still very excited every day when he looked at the molten gold and silver flowing out of the furnace.
After all, Han Mo had made it very clear to him before coming here that no matter how much gold and silver was refined here each year, he would eventually get his share.
Although this share was a bit too embarrassing to mention, when placed against this massive base number, the situation became completely different.
Based on their refining situation over the past few days, if they could maintain their current speed every day, by the end of the year, he alone could earn over a hundred thousand taels of silver!
Although such a speed of earning money was indeed incomparable to the past, he still preferred his current life compared to his previous one.
On one hand, he didn't have to worry about the oppression from the imperial court, and on the other hand, he didn't need to deliberately curry favor with anyone.
Of course, there was also a most important reason, which was that the feeling of being able to decide someone's life or death with a single word made him extremely intoxicated.
Power has always been the best hallucinogen!