"Is giving the Koreans four taels of grain a day too much?" Inside the Government-General of Korea, the newly appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Chosen Army, Tanaka Giichi, asked the industrial and commercial representatives involved in the development of Korea with a pleasant countenance.

Relying on the support of the Army, the representatives spoke quite cautiously. "These Koreans are very cunning and always try to escape. If we invest too many troops to guard them, the military expenses would be too high. However, if they eat too little, they won't be able to work."

Tanaka Giichi laughed, "There are as many Koreans as we want; the key is how to make them do more work. Regarding the use of Koreans, please recognize one thing clearly. The Koreans sent to you are either criminals or political prisoners who oppose the Great Japanese Empire. Ultimately, they are people who have no need to survive. We must make them do the most work in the shortest amount of time; this is the best way for them to atone for their sins."

Although the representatives looked respectful, they felt a bit uneasy after hearing Tanaka Giichi's words. These people came to Korea to make money, not to slaughter Koreans. Working people to death was one thing, but using Korean laborers with the intention of working them to death from the start was a mindset they couldn't adjust to immediately.

Seeing the doubts in the representatives' hearts, Tanaka Giichi stopped smiling and said, "Gentlemen, if the railway opens a day late, or the mine starts operations a day late, how much loss will you suffer? Everyone must think for themselves, and also think for the work of the Great Japanese Empire."

A representative tentatively said, "But... both railways and mines require skilled workers. These Koreans are not skilled workers. To improve labor efficiency, we need to recruit more workers from home to come to Korea."

Tanaka Giichi nodded. "The Ministry of War can help you with this matter. As long as the work progress can be completed faster, we will do our best to support you. As for the Korean laborers you mentioned, everyone, don't have any concerns, use them boldly."

After seeing off the representatives, Tanaka Giichi breathed a slight sigh of relief. He had heard that the People's Party's troops not only fought wars but also undertook a lot of infrastructure construction within China. In this matter, Tanaka Giichi was quite envious, while also extremely contemptuous. If the Army could operate enterprises, presumably the use of Koreans would be more effective. The Ministry of War now controlled Korea. Before the defeat in Manchuria, the Ministry of War still hoped to digest Korea and make Korea a part of Japan. The failure in Manchuria made the Ministry of War change its mind. Mantetsu had operated in Manchuria for so long, yet weren't they still killed cleanly by the locals? Japanese are Japanese, Koreans are Koreans, and Chinese are Chinese. This is an unchangeable fact.

Thinking of this, Tanaka Giichi turned to the current Governor-General of Korea, Hasegawa Yoshimichi, and said, "Hasegawa-kun, regarding the establishment of the Korean Development Corps mentioned last time, I wonder how you have arranged it?"

Hasegawa Yoshimichi was an Army General, and his stance was naturally completely consistent with the Ministry of War. Even so, after hearing Tanaka Giichi's words, his brows couldn't help but furrow. After the Ministry of War obtained the development rights to Korea, they discussed a proposal for a Japanese Development Corps. In general, it meant plundering land in southern Korea, giving a portion to local Korean landlords who defected to Japan, and handing the other portion to conscripted poor and landless Japanese farmers to cultivate.

Theoretically, this method could solve the problem once and for all. By wiping out all the local Koreans who didn't defect to Japan and having Japanese cultivate the land on a large scale, it wouldn't take long for Korea to belong completely to Japan. But the practical effects were obvious. Because of the Manchurian War, Japan had increased its plunder of grain in Korea, and had already encountered many small-scale resistances. If the Japanese Ministry of War's plan continued to be pushed, one could imagine how large-scale the Korean resistance would be in the future.

Seeing Governor-General Hasegawa Yoshimichi behaving like this, Tanaka Giichi sneered, "Hasegawa-kun, just send those rebellious Koreans to the mines. No matter how you look at it, mines need people to work. Not just mines, too many places need Koreans to labor."

"But the original plan wasn't like this..." Hasegawa Yoshimichi was still quite hesitant. The plan after Japan initially conquered Korea was to do their best to absorb the locals to be loyal to Japan, spending decades to thoroughly digest Korea. Such a sudden change really completely altered Japan's original policy. It wasn't that Hasegawa had any thoughts of protecting Koreans, but sending troops to suppress them was also a very expensive matter. The resulting casualties would trigger more costs. Economically speaking, this tough approach wasn't cost-effective.

Even though he was entrusted with important tasks and represented the attitude of the Ministry of War, Tanaka Giichi's status could not compete with Hasegawa Yoshimichi. He tried his best to persuade, "In the short term, we must gather enough grain for the five divisions of the Chosen Army, and we must also have enough minerals shipped back to the homeland. Does Hasegawa-kun have a better way? Just let these Koreans eat idle rice?"

"Military suppression also needs the support of the locals," Governor-General Hasegawa replied. "Now the military scrip issued by the Ministry of War in Korea is already causing complaints everywhere. If we continue to adopt high-pressure measures and trigger unrest throughout Korea, what action will China take?"

Tanaka Giichi replied, "The Great Japanese Empire endured huge humiliation to reach an agreement with China, just to prevent China from having the opportunity to intervene in Korean affairs. Koreans rising up in rebellion isn't a bad thing. After wiping them out, the remaining Koreans will naturally submit to the Great Japanese Empire. This is also a good way to discover enemies."

After saying this, Tanaka Giichi lowered his voice, "Hasegawa-kun, the Ministry of War has more plans this time. Since those in the homeland claiming to be for parliamentary politics have gained the upper hand, our Ministry of War must prove in Korea that our methods can create a Kingly Way Paradise for the Great Japanese Empire. Only in this way can we obtain new opportunities in the future. At this time, shouldn't our Army unite and complete our mission without fear of hardship or fatigue?"

Hearing Tanaka Giichi solemnly say "Kingly Way Paradise", Hasegawa Yoshimichi couldn't help but smile bitterly. Whether the Ministry of War's plan could create a Kingly Way Paradise for the Great Japanese Empire was unknown, but creating an eighteen-level hell for Koreans was completely imaginable.

Seeing Hasegawa Yoshimichi's hesitant appearance, Tanaka Giichi simply told the truth, "What we want those industrial and commercial representatives to do this time is to find effective ways to consume Koreans, letting them do their best for the Great Japanese Empire in the mines. As long as we can find this way, we can maximize help for the Great Japanese Empire to get out of its predicament sooner. It not only reduces the Great Japanese Empire's consumption but also provides more wealth to the Great Japanese Empire. Didn't Britain use this method when conquering the world? What else do you have to hesitate about?"

As the Governor-General of Korea, Hasegawa Yoshimichi naturally hoped for as few troubles as possible. If a major incident occurred that couldn't be cleaned up, ultimately he, the Governor-General, would have to take responsibility. But the attitude of the Ministry of War could not be ignored. Out of helplessness, Hasegawa Yoshimichi first agreed to temporarily implement the Ministry of War's method in the mines. See how the effect turned out. If the effect was passable, then continue to push other plans.

In June in Korea, the weather finally got hot.

Japan had built some mines in Korea by now, but limited by Japan's technological level and its thirst for raw materials, the mines didn't use the tunnel method much; many were open-pit mining after direct blasting.

There were many such pits in northern Korea. Li Yongchang (Lee Young-chang) was one of the newly sent laborers. He was arrested in Pyongyang on the grounds of "economic crimes". The more specific reason was that he refused to sell his family's wooden furniture to the Japanese. Korea didn't have the habit of using banknotes originally, let alone military scrip with credibility low to a heinous degree. So Li Yongchang resisted, then was arrested, and finally sent to the mine.

Here, he was no longer called Li Yongchang, but laborer number 2018 wearing shackles. Japanese were responsible for mining with metal tools. Li Yongchang was assigned a basket with a wooden frame. His daily job was to transport ore from the bottom of the pit to the edge. The amount of ore transported determined the amount of food Li Yongchang could eat. Because a blast had just been carried out, a lot of fine dust in the pit had not yet completely settled. Li Yongchang was already walking down along that extremely solid path under the angry shouts of the overseer and the driving of leather whips.

Many people were coughing; Li Yongchang was also coughing. Some people coughed because of choking on dust, while others coughed because of illness. Everyone's clothes were tattered. Being cut by the sharp corners of the ore was certainly a reason, but tearing off clothes to wrap around the iron shackles on their feet to prevent the skin from being worn too badly was the most important reason.

After more than a month of labor, Li Yongchang didn't even have the ability to think. Every day it was just those two steamed buns and a little kimchi. Hunger stripped Li Yongchang of the strength to think so much. All his groggy brain could understand was that he must work every day. If he didn't finish the work, he would starve. Starving would lead to sickness. The result of sickness or attempting to escape would be disappearing from the mining area forever. Especially those who escaped; they were all shot dead on the spot.

The personnel in this mining area was fixed, and every number was fixed. Because Koreans were shot dead every day for trying to escape, and sick Koreans were taken away because they could no longer work, new Koreans were sent here every day.

The decision power of whether one was sick lay in the hands of the Japanese doctors in the mining area. Any Korean who feigned illness, or whose illness was not serious, would be punished in public, either whipped or starved. And those Koreans who fell seriously ill never returned after being taken away. Among the Korean laborers, no one believed what the Korean foremen said, that they would really be taken for treatment after falling seriously ill. The Japanese foremen were so cruel to Koreans who weren't sick; what attitude would they have towards those seriously ill Korean laborers? Everyone simply didn't dare to imagine.

Almost subconsciously looking up at the sun, he saw the sun hadn't set yet. Putting down the basket and letting the Japanese workers and Korean foremen load ore into it, Li Yongchang just wanted to pant a few more times. His body was already numb; the only thing he could still feel was whether his physical strength was enough to carry the heavy ore.

"2018, move faster!" The Korean foreman wore a face towel to prevent dust, so his shouting voice was quite muffled. There were numbers on both the basket and the wooden frame. Although the turnover frequency was quite high, the foreman didn't need to know everyone. Carrying the heavy basket on his back, Li Yongchang dragged his shackles and walked towards the road climbing out of the pit.

Inside the overseer's room built near the mine pit, several Japanese were doing calculations.

"We still have to continue buying barbed wire..."

"More baskets and wooden frames are damaged..."

"Why did I hear recently that the price of mine slaves sold by the Ministry of War is going to rise..."

"The cost of opening new pits..."

"The cost of explosives..."

"Shackle wear is quite large..."

The calculation of various miscellaneous expenses was the summary of experience over these days. After a crackling round of abacus calculations, the person in charge of the mine looked at the final numbers and frowned deeply.

"Uncle, if we add the approval fee to the Ministry of War, the money we can earn is actually not much," the young man next to him couldn't help but say.

The Japanese man called "Uncle" certainly knew this. His gaze patrolled back and forth on a series of lists, trying to find a way to reduce costs. Every time he saw the consumption and wear of baskets and wooden frames, his brows couldn't help but furrow deeper. But this wasn't a problem he could solve. Since slave labor was used, naturally one couldn't expect this bunch of "mine slaves" to pay attention to tool consumption. This was really an unavoidable loss.

But right now, they really couldn't give the mine slaves any chance to escape. This bunch were criminals sent by the Ministry of War. The Ministry of War wanted to see the person if alive and the corpse if dead. A while ago, to improve efficiency, mine slaves were put in charge of digging ore, and incidents of mine slaves trying to attack guards with tools occurred. In the exchanges among mine owners, such things were mentioned many times. In the end, the result of everyone's discussion was to only let mine slaves carry ore.

Besides this kind of thing, this group of mine owners also reached a consensus in their exchange of experience that they must improve the food supply for those relatively honest mine slaves. Some mines adopted extreme food supplies, resulting in personnel changing too fast. Incidents of mine slaves collectively trying to escape occurred. The Ministry of War dispatched a large number of troops to catch the mine slaves back and kill them. The mine owners involved were fined a large sum of money. If they could maintain a batch of honest mine slaves, it would really be of great benefit to the effective operation of the mine. After all, buying mine slaves from the Ministry of War also cost money.

Seeing his uncle so anxious, the young Japanese whispered, "Uncle, I heard that Chinese mining baskets use a very special rattan, which is very strong and durable. The price is not high, and some mines have already bought and used them. Not only mining baskets, their barbed wire price is also lower than domestic ones..."

This news wasn't any special secret. Chinese goods, or rather the People's Party's goods, sold quite well in Japan. For example, the price of hot bulb engines was at least twenty percent lower than in Japan. Plus, the People's Party provided abundant accessories. From the generators that the hot bulb engines could drive to the gas generators that provided fuel, the quality greatly exceeded Japan's crudely made products. The price was quite a bit lower. In this wilderness, mechanical maintenance was a big problem. Once a mechanical failure occurred, it often delayed a lot of work. If they got two spare mechanical devices, it could solve the problem, but this would greatly increase the cost. It was extremely uneconomical from a cost accounting perspective.

So the cheap and durable Chinese hot bulb engine was a very essential product.

The only difficulty lay in the fact that these products could only be obtained by "very well-connected" Japanese merchants. The Ministry of War was very strict on this.

"Let's try again and see if we can make the Ministry of War loosen their bite," the Japanese mine owner said with a sigh.