Li Fen heard that Zhao Tai had raised troops to go north and really planned to fight for Jinan, so he immediately decided to send troops to Jinan and persuade Zhao Tai to return to Lunan by force.
There are more than 20,000 Mongolian troops in Jinan City. Not counting the reinforcements sent by Wo Kuotai, plus his 40,000 horses alone, the strength of the Mongolian troops is twice that of Zhao Tai.
According to the art of war, attack in five ways. Zhao Tai has fewer troops and horses than the Mongolian army. How can he capture Jinan?
At this time, Li Fen gave an order, and the Li army gathered outside Yidu City took their equipment and quickly assembled outside the city.
Li Jun's cavalry jumped on their horses and galloped westward first. The remaining infantry made preparations and then followed the cavalry towards Jinan.
In the southern border of Jinan Prefecture, in the shadow of Mount Tai, 30,000 Zhongyi soldiers set up a company camp on the back of the mountain.
At this time, a group of scouts galloped back from a distance, returned to the camp, and quickly went to the commander's tent to report the military situation.
In the commander's tent, Zhao Tai stood in front of the map with his hands behind his hands. The curtain behind him was suddenly raised, and military advisor Wang Bin stepped in.
"Commander, the scouts are reporting urgently!" Wang Bin saluted and said, "Li Fen is coming to Jinan with 40,000 troops."
Zhao Tai stroked his beard and said, "Wo Kuotai sent 10,000 troops, Li Fen brought 40,000 troops, plus the 20,000 troops in Jinan City, the Shandong Mongolian army will reach 70,000 troops, which will be twice as many as mine!"
Wang Bin said: "The ten thousand people in Wokuotai are now restrained by Wu Xian. Should the commander send troops to stop Li Fen and prevent him from approaching Jinan?"
Zhao Tai smiled and shook his head, "Now that the Mongolian army is no longer so afraid of the thunder, it is impossible for me to repeat the battle of Zhengzhou. Now with the strength of the Mongolian army in Jinan, I want to capture Jinan and attack very hard." Difficulties can only be overcome by outsmarting us. Li Fen came at the right time. If he hadn't come, I would not have been able to capture Jinan."
Wang Bin knew that Zhao Tai had a plan to force Li Fen to rebel. "The commander-in-chief means to use Li Fen to seize Jinan."
Zhao Tai nodded slightly, "Yes, I want to force Li Fen to rebel, let him have an internal conflict with Kublai Khan, and then take the opportunity to occupy Jinan. Now I not only want Li Fen to come to Jinan, but it is best to let him enter Jinan City." "
Li Fen led the army to the eastern suburbs of Jinan in a mighty manner and set up camp outside the city, forming horns with Jinan City.
After the army set up camp, Li Fen immediately led a group of subordinates to enter the city from the east gate and came to the camp to pay homage to Kublai Khan.
At this time, Kublai Khan learned that Li Fen was coming with his troops, and he was very happy. He held a banquet in his mansion to entertain Li Fen and his party.
The Mongolians' hospitality is relatively simple. They roast two goats, prepare a few pots of kumiss, and then start the feast.
After three rounds of drinking, the atmosphere of the banquet became more and more lively. Kublai Khan drank a bowl of wine and laughed: "Haha~ Marshal Li came with 40,000 troops. Zhao Tai only had 30,000 troops. How could he capture Jinan?"
After Li Fen drank a few glasses of wine, he also entered a state of drunkenness. He suddenly stood up and saluted: "Your Majesty, Zhao Tai's intention to seize Jinan is undoubtedly overestimating his own capabilities and wishful thinking. If the Prince can trust his humble position, I am willing to use my sharp tongue to wake up Zhao Tai and make him quit Jinan obediently."
"Oh?" Kublai Khan became interested when he heard this and asked in a deep voice, "Marshal Li, is there any way to make Zhao Tai withdraw his troops?"
For Kublai Khan, there is no need to fight Zhao Tai at the moment. He only needs to guard Jinan. When Ogedai captures Kaifeng, the victory of the war will inevitably belong to Mongolia.
Therefore, for Kublai Khan, time was on his side. The longer he delayed, the greater the Mongolian army's chance of winning, and there was no need to rush to fight Zhao Tai.
Li Fen said that there was a way to make Zhao Tai retreat, and Kublai Khan was naturally very interested.
"Not bad!" Li Fen said with a smile: "With the current situation, Zhao Tai is simply unable to capture Jinan. If the prince believes it, he can defeat the enemy with a single letter."
Li Fen didn't want to see Zhao Tai take Jinan, nor did he want to see Zhao Tai defeated. What he wanted most was to maintain the current status quo and force Zhao Tai back to Lunan.
For Zhao Tai to maintain a certain strength, Mongolia must rely on Li Fen, and may even hand over Jinan to Li Fen.
In this way, he can respect himself and continue to make a fortune in silence.
Seeing that Li Fen was quite confident, Kublai Khan thought that the later the conflict between him and Zhao Tai broke out, the more beneficial it would be for him, so he nodded and said: "Since Marshal Li is sure, there is no harm in giving it a try."
After the banquet, Li Fen returned to the camp and wrote a long letter to Zhao Tai, and then called Yang You, "Take this letter, go to the camp in Zhongyi Town, and hand him over to Zhao Tai. "
Yang You took the letter and asked: "Commander, after reading the letter, will Zhao Tai really withdraw his troops?"
Li Fen said with a smile: "Xiao Zhao is too ambitious, but he does not have the strength to support his ambition. An important town like Jinan is too big and too important for him to grasp. After he reads my letter, he will probably withdraw his troops." .”
Yang You accepted the letter and said, "I understand, I will leave for the Zhongyi Town camp later."
After speaking, Yang You came out of the tent, while Li Fen stood with his hands behind his back, "Zhao Tai! I hope you will not be ignorant of praise."
In the shadow of Mount Tai, in the camp of Zhongyi Town, Zhao Tai took the letter submitted by Yang You and started to read it.
In the letter, Li Fen persuaded Zhao Tai to stop, believing that it was impossible for Zhao Tai to capture Jinan with only 30,000 troops.
In addition, Li Fen also earnestly persuaded Zhao Tai in his letter that taking Jinan would be of no benefit to Zhao Tai.
If Zhao Tai did not take Jinan and huddled in Lunan, the Mongols would not regard him as a major threat, and the main force of the Mongolian army would not enter Jinan.
In this case, Zhao Tai can continue to rely on the Southern Song Dynasty to engage in smuggling trade with Li Fen, and the two of them will make a fortune together.
If the Mongols ordered Li Fen to attack Zhao Tai, the two could continue to fake the fight and develop their strength in silence.
If Zhao Tai attacks Jinan, the situation will be completely different. Mongolia will regard Zhao Tai as a major concern and will definitely send an army into Shandong.
In this way, Zhao Tai was asking for trouble, and Li Fen would also be greatly affected by the entry of the main force of the Mongolian army into Shandong, and would be unable to continue to separate Yidu.
Therefore, Li Fen tried his best to persuade Zhao Tai to give up attacking Jinan.
Zhao Tai read the letter with a sneer on his face. He looked at Yang You and suddenly said in a deep voice: "General Yang, now I have something I want you to do. I don't know if you are willing to do it."
Yang You said in a deep voice: "If you have anything to do, commander-in-chief, just ask, I will do my best in this humble position."
Zhao Tai nodded with satisfaction, "I know that you are working hard and suffering as an undercover agent next to Li Fen. I hope to end this life of fear as soon as possible. Now the opportunity has come, as long as you help me win Jinan and Shandong , you can legitimately do things for me."
Yang You's face was full of surprise, "How can I help the commander seize Jinan with such a humble position?"
Zhao Tai smiled and said: "You can! I now order you to report to Kublai Khan the evidence of collusion and secret transactions between Li Fen and me, so that Kublai Khan will believe that Li Fen will join forces with me to seize Jinan." "
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