Guan Yi, deputy director of the Supervisory and Governor's Office, quietly came to Li Xiao's side. He had a heavy face and wanted to speak but stopped.

"The casualties in our army must be very serious." Li Xiao spoke first.

"Well, lord, after this battle, our army's shield soldiers were killed in battle, 158 injured, 165 gunmen, 212 injured, 211 injured, 32 injured, 33 auxiliary soldiers, 60 injured, 5 Xuanhu heavy cavalry, 12 injured, 7 Feiyazi killed in battle, 16 injured, and 6 muskets in the hands of Lumi Gun, 3 killed and 3 injured. 126 killed in battle, 210 injured, Du Shaoru's army killed 135 injured, and 195 injured..."

Li Xiao's face suddenly twitched.

In this battle to defend the city, nearly two-thirds of the casualties were already there, which was extremely tragic and life was hanging on the line.

Now that I think about it, although the successful defense of the city this time was mainly due to the hard training and strong brainwashing of daily life, the officers and soldiers under him had outstanding and strong combat effectiveness, the fundamental reason was that there were also many lucky elements.

If the enemy soldiers attacked the city for the first time, they would use today's siege method to concentrate their superior forces to break through the walls; if the enemy soldiers had more blasting wooden boxes made of fierce tin oil and black gunpowder, thereby blowing out more gaps on the city wall; if hundreds of enemy cavalry dispatched to suppress their cavalry in time, then now they would probably have been dead and destroyed, so they could only summarize the reasons for the failure of this battle in the underworld.

After all, it was still because my troops were not strong enough and the lack of powerful firearms troops that made the battle to defend the city so difficult and lucky.

Li Xiao secretly swore in his heart that he must try his best to make his troops stronger in the future and give priority to developing a more powerful firearm unit so that he will no longer be so passive.

After all, not every battle can be so lucky.

"All soldiers who died and were injured in battle were issued pensions and bounties according to our army's rules, including Jin Dakui's tribe and Du Shaoru's tribe." Li Xiao, with a heavy face, sighed and then asked: "What's the situation of the seizure?"

Seeing Li Xiao’s questioning, Guan Yi’s face became much more relaxed. He hurriedly reported: “Sir, our army has seized a lot of people in this battle. A total of 335 Ming soldiers were captured, 256 Jurchen Tartars’ heads, 143 Mongolian Tartars, and 187 Han Army, 550 intact armor were seized, including 45 Baiboyala armor, 92 exquisite iron armor, 171 ordinary iron armor, and the rest were all cotton armor..."

"It would be fine if those who surrendered to the Ming army and surrendered to the Tartars, but they dared to be enemies with our army. I really want to kill them all!" Li Xiao interrupted Guan Yi, and he looked hateful, and paused and said, "Now they have surrendered to the Ming Dynasty again, and they will be detained on the spot. After the war, the chief of his resident will redeem it themselves."

"Ha, sir, I'm going to do it now." Guan Yi chuckled.

"How many people have to gather that the Tartars gave up?" Li Xiao thought for a while and asked.

"Sir, our army has collected a total of 2,860 people, including 1,140 strong men, 925 strong women, 320 old men, and 275 old women. The rest are all children. The students have asked them all, and there are about 100 people who are willing to go home." Guan Yi quickly replied.

"That's as planned before, those who are willing to go home will be given a week's ration and let them go. All the rest will be incorporated into our military households. Among them, the strong men are all assigned to be auxiliary soldiers, and they will be trained immediately starting tomorrow." Li Xiao said without hesitation.

"Student obeys the order." Guan Yi nodded, then lowered his voice and asked, "Sir, what should we do with the corpses of these people?"

"Collaborate together, set up a tomb of charity ten miles outside the city, and buried it together." Li Xiao finished speaking this sentence in a low voice, sighing without realizing it.

"I got the order." Guan Yi sighed, then bowed and said goodbye, and went down to make arrangements.

Li Xiao stood on the city wall for a while, then went to the clinic and took a group of generals to inspect the wounded soldiers.

Due to the fierce battle, there were many wounded soldiers. The beds of wounded soldiers in the clinic were lined up outside the house. The screams of pain came one after another, making people feel heavy.

Some of the slightly injured soldiers have gone to the military camp to set up beds to allow the seriously injured to rest.

As for Zu Dale and Li Xiao packed up an empty room for him in the Qianhu official hall and asked him to rest alone.

Seeing Chen Mazi and his friends busy with nurses, Li Xiao didn't bother them much. After he comforted some of the wounded, he led the generals to leave.

Li Xiao then wanted to return to the Qianhu Official Hall to rest, but at this time, a lot of noise came from afar.

Li Xiao saw that Wei Zhenfu An Qian, with more than ten fort soldiers, came hurried towards him, one tall and one short.

"An Zhenfu, why is this?" Li Xiao asked loudly as he saw An Qian and others approaching.

"Mr. Li, according to the reports from other people, it was these two who helped the Tartars to make a blasting wooden box, which collapsed the north and south walls of our Jinjiazhuang Fort. Therefore, they captured these two people and handed them over to the Lord for their own actions." Li Xiao stopped and An Qian introduced him hurriedly.

A serious expression immediately appeared on Li Xiao's face.

But his heart suddenly jumped wildly.

These two people can make blasting wooden boxes, aren’t they the shortage of talents in our army?

This is simply a gift from God to himself!

"So, you two helped the Tartars make this explosion wooden box?" Li Xiao was excited, but still asked expressionlessly.

Two craftsmen with a look of fear looked at each other, then thumped and stood on the ground.

"Mr. Li, the Han army commander forced me and if he did not make this blasting wooden box, he would take my lives. I was afraid of death and dared not to go anywhere!"

After the two of them finished speaking, kowtowed like pounding garlic.

Seeing that these two people were honest-looking people, the serious expression on their faces suddenly dropped a lot. He whispered: "It's understandable that you are being coerced by others. Let's get up and talk."

The two craftsmen looked at each other but did not dare to get up.

"Mr. Li asked you to get up, didn't you hear it?" An Qian shouted.

Both of them trembled all over, and then kowtowed again, saying thank you sir, before standing up.

"I don't know what the two craftsmen call them, but what role they used to do, and how they fell into the hands of the Tartars?" Li Xiao asked with a smile.

"Sir, my surname is Song Da. I used to be in charge of refining sulfur in the Fire Equipment Bureau of Fushi, Nanzhen. I was just because the court owed craftsmen's salary for years. I was helpless and secretly fled back to my hometown in Xuanfu Middle Road this year. However, I didn't expect that the Tartars attacked the village some time ago and captured my whole family." The tall Song Da said first.

"Mr. Li, named Yu Neng, was in the Weapon Bureau of Wanquandusi, and was in charge of making coke for the purpose of refining refined iron. The villain was not lucky. A few months ago, he returned to the east to visit relatives, and when the Tartars invaded, he led his family to the mountains. He finally heard that the Tartars had gone to Datong and Shanxi, and came out of the mountains below and returned to the village. He wanted to return to the town, but he was worried that there would be many Tartar bandits on the road, so he wanted to return after the Tartars retreated. But he didn't expect that he had been in the village for a week and the Tartars came to attack the village again. The little one had no time to escape and became a captive to the Tartars." The short Yu Neng sighed to Li Xiao with a look of fear.

Everyone, including An Qian, was surprised to find that the young Li Qianhu had a happy smile on his face at this moment.

"An Qian, please step back. I have something to say to these two craftsmen." Li Xiao made a gesture to An Qian.

After An Qian and others retreated, Li Xiao smiled and said to the two: "Two, it's not difficult to let you go, but you have to agree to this official's condition."

"Please tell me." Seeing that there was room for reversal, the two of them asked urgently.

"You two have been in our army since then. However, our army is in a hurry to lack two such talents. If you agree, everything you have done in the past can be eliminated, otherwise..."

Before Li Xiao finished speaking, Song Dayu Neng and the others had already knelt down again. Song Da shouted: "I am grateful if I don't kill me. Now I have to pay so much attention to it. I have to take in the army. What else can I say? I must do my best to serve you for you and stop until you die!"

"Get up, get up, the two are willing to join our army. I welcome you very much. I will follow me to the official hall and let me talk in detail." Li Xiao smiled brightly and helped the two of them up.

Li Xiaoyan and the other two went to the Guanting Courtyard and asked them to sit in.

The two of them were favored by this honor and looked very embarrassed. Seeing Li Xiao enthusiastically requesting him, they sat down with a sign.

Li Xiao then talked to them about his family. The two hurriedly told Li Xiao that because they made a blasting wooden box, the Han army leader decided to save the lives of the two and did not let them rush to the battlefield, so the whole family was kept.

Li Xiao thought to himself that this technical talent would be treated preferentially wherever he went. But this would be fine. Their families were all in the army, and the two would work harder.

At this time, Song asked Li Xiao carefully: "Sir, I want to ask, will our army stationed in Jinjiazhuang Fort, or will it return to Shandong after the war?"

"Our army is all Shandong soldiers. After the Tartars left the pass, they would return to Shandong." Li Xiao replied.

"Oh, that's it." Song Da responded, but his face was full of regret. Yu Neng next to him also looked thoughtful.

Li Xiao noticed something strange and asked, "Why, do you two have any ideas?"

"Sir, I'm thinking, it would be great if I could stay in Jinjiazhuang Fort for a long time." Yu Neng said with his head scratching.

"Oh, why is this?"

"Sir, you don't know that when the two ****s were ordered to make this blasting wooden box, they had explored the boundary of Jinjiazhuang Fort everywhere. Later, they found that in the junction of the border mountains and Tangquan River, in addition to a large number of open-pit coal mines, there are also a large number of sulfur-generated ore, which are of high purity. If they can be mined, they can be a good raw material for making gunpowder."

Song Da’s words made Li Xiao’s heart beat wildly.

High-purity sulfur is an important raw material for making black gunpowder!

The ingredients of black gunpowder, one sulfur, two charcoal, are indispensable. However, saltpeter and charcoal are much easier to obtain than sulfur.

This high-purity sulfur ore is very rare in China, a sulfur-deficient country, but it is quite difficult to find.

You should know that the current firearms bureau of the imperial court now produces gunpowder, charcoal and saltpeter, both of which are produced in China. Only the sulfur used is basically imported from sulfur balls and other places. The prices are high and the road is long, and there are many pirates to hijack it, but it is not easy to get it.

I thought I was searching for such a treasure land without looking for it, but I didn’t expect that I had been lying quietly within my control. This was simply a huge pie that fell from the sky!

Li Xiao was originally determined to return to Shandong and started to re-exercise.

After seeing off Song Dayu Neng and the others, Li Xiao was like an anxious lion, paced back and forth in the yard.

There was only one thought in his heart at this moment.

That is, such a treasure land must be firmly controlled in your own hands!

So, what should we do?

Li Xiao walked in the yard for a long time, and gradually came up with a plan in his mind.
Chapter completed!