At Uchiha Takashi's order, the villager who had kept pushing his luck panicked and immediately begged him for mercy.
"My lord, I was wrong! My lord, please, spare me! My lord, I was wrong! My lord!"
Yukimichi Uchiha said, "What are you standing around for? Didn't you hear the Third Elder's order? Get rid of him already. All that yelling is annoying."
Two Uchiha clansmen immediately stepped forward. Cold steel flashed. "Aah..." After a scream, everything fell silent.
Almost everyone watched the scene in terror. Only the village chief, who had seen much of the world, avoided having his legs go weak with fear.
"Well... everyone, get moving! Don't keep the Uchiha lords waiting!" The village chief immediately called to everyone.
The Uchiha clansmen stood off to the side with their arms crossed, watching the villagers hurry about.
It was winter, so there was no need to worry about planting crops. The villagers could leave as soon as they gathered their belongings.
In truth, Uchiha Takashi had always been rather worried that such heavy-handed methods might provoke resistance among the villagers, which would be detrimental to ruling them.
But now his view had changed. As long as his fist was strong enough to maintain his rule, who cared whether these villagers resisted?
The hundreds of villagers finished packing in just an hour. After all, this place was too poor, and the villagers barely owned anything. At most, they only needed to pack their clothes and bedding.
Uchiha Takashi turned around. "Yukimichi, spread your men out around these people. Try to reach the village tomorrow. I'll scout ahead."
Yukimichi Uchiha said, "Understood." ...
It was already getting late. The sun sank in the west, spilling its last light over the earth.
In the dense forest, Uchiha Takashi moved at high speed, his scarlet Mangekyō Sharingan surveying everything around him.
He had not come merely to scout the route. He also wanted to see whether there were any special resources here.
Things like various minerals and new crops, but unfortunately, he found none.
There were no special resources anywhere between Uchiha Village and the village where they were taking in new villagers.
Of course, that excluded anything buried deep underground. Uchiha Takashi's Mangekyō Sharingan could discover anything near the surface.
"Third Elder." A voice suddenly sounded by his ear.
Uchiha Takashi took a closer look and realized that he had already reached the outskirts of Uchiha Village without noticing.
"Fū Uchiha?" Uchiha Takashi looked at the man greeting him. It was indeed Fū Uchiha.
Looking at the sheet of paper in Fū Uchiha's hand, Uchiha Takashi asked with some puzzlement, "What are you heading out to do?"
Fū Uchiha answered respectfully, "Third Elder, I'm going to inspect that iron mine to the south. The original inhabitants here said it was abandoned a long time ago. I'm going to see how much ore is left.
"We have a little manpower to spare now, so we can mine some iron during the farming off-season."
Only then did Uchiha Takashi remember that there was indeed such an iron mine, though it had been abandoned long ago.
The drastic population decline had caused a labor shortage. There were barely enough people to farm the fields, so who had the time to bother with an iron mine?
But now, with so many members of the Uchiha Clan having moved here, the manpower problem had been resolved. They could even clear another stretch of land without any trouble.
On top of that, it was not the busy farming season, so everyone was idle. Fū Uchiha had therefore thought of going out to see whether mining could resume.
Uchiha Takashi said, "We might as well go take a look together. If it can be mined, we should resume operations as soon as possible."
Uchiha Takashi thought of the alliance they had reached with the Hyuga Clan, which required them to supply a certain amount of iron ore. That meant the clan's iron ore proceeds would decrease.
The Uchiha Clan already relied on processing iron ore and selling it to the Ninja Cats to be made into ninja tools, then reselling those for a profit. Any disruption to their iron ore would certainly affect the clan's finances.
Naturally, having another iron mine to work would be ideal.
Fū Uchiha nodded, and the two headed toward the iron mine the villagers had described.
But as soon as they reached the vicinity of the mine, they discovered that mountain bandits had already occupied it.
Looking at the stockade on the mountain, Fū Uchiha frowned. "Even somewhere this poor has mountain bandits?"
Uchiha Takashi crossed his arms. "I didn't expect there to be mountain bandits here either. But since they built their stockade on our iron mine, that's their bad luck."
"Third Elder, do you mean to wipe out the mountain bandits here?" Fū Uchiha asked tentatively. "Perhaps we could try persuading them to surrender?"
Uchiha Takashi shook his head. "I have no liking for these people who have committed all manner of evil. Bringing them into our village would only undermine its unity and hinder our development.
"But considering how valuable people are, we could use them as tools for mining minerals in the future. After all, our precious Uchiha manpower must be put to more important uses. We can let them do the mining."
Fū Uchiha nodded, then reached for the sword at his waist, ready to act, only for Uchiha Takashi to smack him on the forehead. "What are you doing?"
Hō Uchiha tilted his head and asked in confusion, "Aren't we supposed to deal with these mountain bandits right now? That's our iron mine!"
"Did you understand what I just said? I said to keep them here as tools to mine iron ore. If you go over there alone, even if you beat every last one of them down, will the iron have been mined?
"Will we have them under control? No. If I charge up there now, the only thing I can do is kill all those bandits. Getting them under control would be rather unlikely.
"After all, we don't have shackles or any other tools on hand to restrain them. If we take this group back to the village with only the two of us watching them, what happens if someone escapes and leaks the news?
"So what we need to do is return to the village immediately and send a squad here to capture them and escort them back. Once the iron mine is reestablished, we can throw them back here. Understand?"
Fū Uchiha looked enlightened, then raised a thumb. "As expected of the clan leader. You really have a good head on your shoulders.
"If it were me, I would definitely have charged up there already, and then all sorts of problems would have cropped up, just as you said, Clan Leader."
Uchiha Takashi turned around, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly. "That's why you need to learn... There are so many things you'll only understand after learning them. You need to think more..."
"You're right to admonish me, Clan Leader." ...
As they spoke, the two returned to the village. Once they were back, Fū Uchiha went straight to the storehouse to fetch supplies without another word.
Though the village storehouse was small, it had everything it needed. What Uchiha Takashi found hardest to understand was why it even contained all sorts of tools for imprisoning people-and in considerable quantities, too.
What exactly had this village's former chief done?
At that moment, Uchiha Takashi suddenly felt that letting that village chief die as he had was far too easy on him.