Forming The Plan

"Dig deeper you damned bastards, do you want to spend the night in hunger?!" the shouts of the second captain came from the other tunnels, he was infuriated with how lacking his own miners were.

On the side where Meng Hao was however, the Miners were exhausting themselves digging religiously, making sure to follow every step that Meng Hao was doing, they dug, cleaned, and placed all their tools and baskets neatly, they didn't show any signs of exhaustion even though they felt unbearable pain. 

Because the pain of exhaustion is far more merciful than the barbed whip the guard had.

Seeing the workers being productive and having gone beyond the quota the guard spoke, "Stop, for now, rest up," he said.

This was the first time he ever asked the miners to rest, usually, they'd work them to the bone and more. But now they're asking them to rest? This must be a ploy, that is what everyone thought.