"Join your Eastern Changzhou?" that was the last word spoken by the Queen Spider as an outsider.
Day Seventy.
The process to move the Mineral Stones from inside the cave went smoothly with the help and guidance from the Yulan Confer Spider Tribe.
Each and every spider hung a pair of bamboo lights as they move. The light they gave out helps the worker to fill their bamboo bucket until its almost pouring out due to excessive weight. Luckily, to prepare them for this, Mu Qing Lang taught Han Xi and others many days ago on the method to craft the trolleys.
Due to the limited resources usable for wheel-making, Mu Qing Lang taught the artisan method to bend a bamboo without breaking them. The artisans learned this technique quickly, allowing the preparation of Bamboo trolley to be created without taking a break.
Hence, food delivery came without any delay.
Food for one hundred people came first in the afternoon, efficient enough to show the Queen Spider how well the people in Eastern Changzhou work together. One has to know that even the Yulan Emperor had difficulties in preparing so many foods for his people.
Compared to Mu Qing Lang?
All he face was neither supply difficulties or spoilage, but instead, the food was somewhat far from here and difficult to be transported! Such kind of might in food alone, what kind of mighty being can compete with him?
For the next five days, food supplies continue to come while Mineral Stones was taken back to the Eastern Changzhou for melting. Because the workload expanded by threefold, even the three new platoons have to stop their training and come back to help.
With three hundred additional soldiers, moving the mineral stones home is undoubtedly faster, but it also brings a worry to the workers. As it was mentioned before, ten days of employment worth one Eastern Sea Spiritual Pearl, but with more soldiers coming here to fight for their work, won't it be finished before ten days period end?
Unfortunately, their evaluation is hugely inaccurate.
From what Queen Spider said, she's the two-hundred and fifty-fifth Queen of the Yulan Three Spider Tribe. Because the queen that manage the tribe lived until her last day, each Queen Spider lifespan is far longer than ordinary Yulan Spiders.
At least, Mu Qing Lang assumes that they might have lived inside there for not lesser than two hundred and fifty years. Would they be that pitiful like now? Mu Qing Lang estimates there's nothing less than a million corpses here.
To make sure that the workers from Mushan Village feel at ease to work, Mu Qing Lang promised them something else. His carriage will take in everything they brought. To make it easier for the recording workers, Mu Qing Lang moved his carriage to their back so the materials can be stored inside his carriage on the spot.
Of course, to not allow them to take it easy and relax for the few remaining days, Mu Qing Lang did not promise them that their pay will be given no matter what happened.
On their sixth day, which is the Seventy-Sixth Day Mu Qing Lang in this world, the Donghai-Orcs finally came. The moment they found out the humans have been mining the cave in a larger scale hundredfold past their numbers, they immediately attacked.
Not even comes with proper equipment, how dare they attack?
"Capture them!" Mu Qing Lang's command is higher than the mountain itself. Four squadrons, not even one dare to slack, attacked at captured the twenty orcs without difficulties.
"Humans! How dare you come here and take over the cave! We Donghai-Orcs will not let you off with this." the eldest of the Donghai-Orcs, likely a Strong Orc argue with Mu Qing Lang.
"Please calm down. If you did not attack us, will we retaliate? Eastern Changzhou always holds the virtue of sharing with others. If you're willing to put aside all your anger, I don't see why we won't share the resources with you." Mu Qing Lang said.
To show them he's no sprouting bullshit, Mu Qing Lang only had his men stripped them off from weapons but not their food or other collecting baskets.
"You promise?" the Strong-Orc pointed at Mu Qing Lang as he speaks. That action immediately alerted the soldiers and more than ten weapons aimed at him.
"Of course! But in return for that, I hope Donghai-Orcs is willing to resell them back to Eastern Changzhou if we need them. Do you think we can try to negotiate on these matters?" Mu Qing Lang revealed a part of his hidden intention to see how the Donghai-Orcs reacts to his sentence.
"Impossible! The Donghai-Orcs value these metals greatly. It is impossible for you to try to persuade us on selling them!" the Strong-Orc rejected Mu Qing Lang's offer immediately without the need of consideration. This simply shows them how important the Mineral Stones to the Donghai-Orcs.
"Fine." Mu Qing Lang put aside his intention to negotiate and agreed to words spoken by the Strong-Orc.
"Bring their tools over, I will show them what they had lost because they are reluctant to share!" Mu Qing Lang made his way to the side of the Donghai-Orcs. On both hands held the alloy made from 70 Confer Stone / 30 Water Gravel composition twin [Jian].
"Throw!" the weaponry is ordered to be thrown at him with strength. In exchange, Mu Qing Lang will break them one after another.
"Again! Don't stop!" the Twin Jian crushed each and every weapon as they came. Either broken into two, chipped, or bent, there's not a single weapon managed to survive this ordeal.
The performance is capable of shadowing anything else the Donghai-Orcs is so proud of. Witnessing the birth of a twin-handed weapon capable of crushing all of their own without a dent on it, speaks everything Mu Qing Lang wanted to say!
"Those who submit shall live, those who don't will end up like these pile of scrap when our main force came into your village!"
"This... What do Chief Mu plan to do with us? Are you going to kill all of us to keep it quiet from the Donghai-Orcs?" the Strong-Orc finally understand the differences between them and Eastern Changzhou, but unfortunately for them, there's no medicine made to cure regrets.
"I told you before, the Mushan Village and Donghai-Orc Village found this cave first, but we Eastern Changzhou is the one that made it safe for all of us to collect the products within."
" If the twenty friends from Donghai-Orc Village has no issue with us, why not you took the twenty bamboo baskets of mineral stones here? I'm sure you will be surprised by both the sturdiness of the bamboo basket and how much it actually holds."
Mu Qing Lang pointed his palm to the side of his carriage, where bamboo baskets filled with mineral stones are waiting to be taken.
"The Donghai-Orcs greatly admires the kindness of Chief Mu to forgive our rashness and return it with generosity. This Strong-Orc will make sure our chief knows about both compassion and greatness shown to us today." the Strong-Orc did not hesitate to accept Mu Qing Lang's generosity.
Very quickly, the orcs collected the twenty bamboo baskets and left the area in a hurry. Whether they're impatient to share what happened to them back to the village or afraid that Mu Qing Lang changed his mindset, only themselves know the answer.
"Continue!" Mu Qing Lang swung his hand towards the cave, ordering them to increase their productivity. Even Yulin received a special mission to deliver a message back to Mushan Village to inform them that Eastern Changzhou needs workers urgently.
On day Seventy-Seventh morning, Yulin returned with 500 additional workers, all of them briefed and ready to work. That day after the Donghai-Orcs left, Mu Qing Lang ordered those pulling the Bamboo Trolleys to bring more bamboo baskets over.
They continued. Working day and night without anyone complaining, it was busy for both villages and the cave itself. At the end of day Seventy-Ninth, the first hundred workers got their first payroll.
One hundred Eastern Sea Spiritual Pearls is distributed to a hundred people and to reward them, Mu Qing Lang allowed them to visit Eastern Changzhou and shop if they wanted.
"Look! There are so many things to be purchased here!" a hundred workers who got their first payment of one single pearl enjoyed the different treatment gave to those paying customers.
After putting this issue into the discussion for a few days, Mu Qing Lang and Fengbu finally agreed with the currency replacement using Small Xian Pill for smaller purchases. For every Eastern Sea Spiritual Pearl, they can be exchanged into ten Small Xian Pills or a hundred packets of 1 kilogram Fine Wheat Flour.
This also means that that day onwards, Eastern Changzhou will extend their hand to grab and monopolized the industry of agriculture, especially Xian-Ren Grass, Chang-Er Bronze Wheat, and Prairie's Baneseed.
Unless tasked to handle the plants on behalf of Eastern Changzhou's Chief, Mu Qing Lang himself, anyone caught with related plants could be demoted from settlers to outsiders, or from Platoon Soldiers into Captive's Militia Unit.
But for now, none of these mean anything for those treated like a king. A hundred workers completely engrossed themselves with foods, medicine, and specialized amenities before returning to their worker's quarters. They became the first batch of spending customers in Eastern Changzhou, and that will not be the last.
"Han Yu, I'll return to Eastern Changzhou. Please protect them while I'm not around." Mu Qing Lang instructed the platoon leader to continue monitoring them after he left.
"Subject will use his life to make sure everything will be done!" Han Yu replied with the etiquette promising to be one of the Martial Officers.
"And Queen Spider, let me bring you and your tribesmen back to Eastern Changzhou, and I'll show you to your new home."