After the Mongolian army occupied Jinan and defeated Li Fen and Wuxian, the forwards entered Tai'an from Jinan and entered the boundaries of Yanzhou, where they encountered resistance from the loyal army.
Seeing this, Kublai Khan launched a frontal attack. The main force bypassed Yanzhou, descended from the canal, and captured Tengzhou.
Now the Mongolian army is located between Yanzhou and Pizhou. The next step is to eliminate the enemies of Yanzhou first or to attack Pizhou directly. This is the main issue for today's discussion.
At this time, the guards cleaned up the bodies and the women were driven out of the lobby, leaving behind a group of Mongolian generals.
Wu Lianghatai and other Mongolians were discussing fiercely as if nothing had happened, while Yang You, Zhang Rou and others were unable to recover for a while and remained silent.
Kublai Khan glanced at everyone and asked: "My army is stationed in Tengzhou. Should you encircle and annihilate the enemies in Yanzhou, or attack Pizhou directly?"
When Wu Lianghatai was a pioneer, he went to Yanzhou to survey the terrain. The situation there was relatively complicated. The Zhongyi Army built many fortresses and strongholds relying on the mountains.
These fortresses and fortresses are all located in dangerous locations, which are not easy to conquer, and it is not cost-effective to defeat them.
In order to prevent the Mongolian army from attacking, Zhao Tai did not develop the fertile soil along the canal, but instead established various guard posts in dangerous places.
Therefore, in Yanzhou and Yizhou, the camps established by various guard posts were located in dangerous locations. The fact that these guard posts were built on dangerous points meant that the land was relatively barren and lacked harvest.
At present, the soldiers and civilians of the guard station are generally in extreme poverty. This is because the clan members who moved here abandoned their homes and businesses and built cottages after arriving at the guard station, consuming their only family property.
Nowadays, they are still struggling to make ends meet, have little accumulation, and are literally penniless.
Now there is no food stored in the stronghold. The Mongols spent all their efforts to defeat it and killed and injured the soldiers, but they could not get food and property, so they were basically unprofitable.
When Wu Lianghatai led the Mongolian army to attack Yanzhou, they encountered these guard posts. He led his troops to pull out several mountain strongholds and lost dozens of Mongolian warriors. However, they only captured a few stones of grain, which could not make up for it. consumption.
Although there were not many casualties, the key point was that there was nothing after the attack. The Mongolian army had no other gains except to vent their anger and slaughter all the men, women, old and young in the fort.
Poverty is not a good thing, but the many guard stations controlled by the Zhongyi Army have turned poverty into a kind of protection.
So Wu Liang stood up and said: "Your Majesty, there are so many fortresses in Yanzhou that I feel dizzy just looking at them. There is nothing to capture if they are broken. I don't think there is any need to attack. Now that we have occupied Tengzhou, we should attack Pizhou directly."
Kublai Khan stroked his beard. Although he led the main force of the Mongolian army and came with the overwhelming force of Mount Tai, and was much stronger than Zhao Tai, he was still a little afraid of Zhao Tai in his heart.
"Abandon the enemy in Yanzhou, what if Zhao Tai attacks and disturbs my queen's rear path?" Kublai Khan asked.
Wu Lianghetai said: "Your Majesty has left more than ten thousand cavalry to monitor. Those barbarians who dare to leave the fortress will be destroyed directly. With the power of our Mongolian horse army, the enemies of Yanzhou will not have time to escape, so they dare to come out."
Kublai Khan nodded slightly, already making up his mind, but he still asked Yang You, Zhang Rou and others, "What do you think?"
Yang You came to his senses and said, "I agree with Wu Liang's idea of uniting thousands of households in Taiwan."
Zhang Rou hated Zhao Tai so much that he stood up and saluted, "The prince's army entered Shandong, and both Li Fen and Wuxian fled without a fight. I am now worried about whether Zhao Tai will still be in Pizhou or whether he has escaped." !”
Zhang Rou was originally the largest Han warlord in Hebei, but now he is forced to survive by Zhao Tai.
Now that the Mongolian army is coming, Zhang Rou wants the Mongols to kill Zhao Tai to pieces.
This time Mongolia declared that it would only attack Shandong and eliminate the remnants of the Jin Kingdom, which led to a change in the attitude of the Southern Song Dynasty court towards Zhao Tai.
Mongolia had spies in Lin'an. Judging from the intelligence obtained, the Southern Song Dynasty originally wanted to recruit Zhao Tai, but because of Mongolia's statement, the Southern Song Dynasty court wanted to take advantage of Zhao Tai's crisis and completely absorb Zhao Tai's army and territory.
Zhao Tai could not accept such harsh conditions for a while, so the two parties have not yet reached an agreement.
In this case, if Zhao Tai wants to stick to Pizhou, the situation can be said to be quite dangerous.
Therefore, it is indeed possible for Zhao Tai to escape Pizhou.
Kublai Khan stood up when he thought of this. He was worried that Zhao Tai would escape, so he immediately ordered: "Wu Liang joins the stage!"
Wu Lianghetai punched his chest, "This is my humble duty!"
Kublai Khan looked at him and said, "I order you to quickly order five thousand cavalry to go south to Pizhou to check the situation in Pizhou and see if Zhao Tai's fellow has escaped!"
There were many soldiers and horses from Zhao Tai, Wuxian, and Li Fen behind Kublai Khan. He did not dare to advance easily, so he decided to send cavalry to Pizhou to investigate first.
If Zhao Tai is in Pizhou, and he wants to capture the thief and the king, his army will move forward to surround Pizhou and attack.
If Zhao Tai had already escaped, he would first wipe out the loyal troops in Yanzhou and other places, wait until the rear was cleared, and then pursue Zhao Tai to prevent the army from going deep and encountering Zhao Tai.
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Just as the Mongolian army occupied Tengzhou and discussed the battle plan, Zhao Tai was not idle in Pizhou.
Wang Bin, the right-hand military advisor of the shogunate in Zhongyi Town, believed that the Southern Song Dynasty was unable to rescue, and guarding Pizhou was serving as a barrier for the Southern Song Dynasty, which would not be of much benefit to the Zhongyi Army. Therefore, he suggested that Zhao Tai abandon Pizhou and make way for the Mongols to move south to attack the Song Dynasty.
Zhao Tai was very tempted by this strategy, but after careful consideration, he decided to defend Pizhou.
Without him, the elite troops of the Southern Song Dynasty in the Huaihe River rushed forward to Bianjing. If they gave up Pizhou, Mongolia could directly enter the Huaihe River.
By then, not only will the Song army in Kaifeng be finished and unable to retreat, but Jiangnan and Lin'an will also be exposed to the Mongolian front, causing the people to lose their lives and the situation to completely collapse.
Now the Song army was like a punch, and Zhao Tai had to buy them time to withdraw their punches and return to defense.
Furthermore, if Zhao Tai retreats, it will definitely affect his reputation in Jianghuai and make people think that he is a warlord who cannot afford the world, which will not be conducive to his subsequent plans.
Therefore, Zhao Tai decided to stick to Pizhou, but he did not stick to it blindly, but hoped that by sticking to it, he would establish a reputation that would spread all over the world. At the same time, he would also buy time for the Southern Song Dynasty to adjust and minimize the losses of the people in Huaihe and Huaihe.
Finally, if Zhao Tai avoids fighting, the Mongolian army will not be able to leave Shandong without defeating Zhao Tai's main force or trapping him.
At that time, Kublai Khan will definitely attack everywhere, causing a huge blow to the soldiers and horses scattered throughout Shandong.
Zhao Tai attracted firepower in Pizhou and also protected Wu Xia and Li Fen's troops in disguise from being pursued and beaten by the Mongols.
In mid-November, after evacuating all the people in Pizhou City and their relatives to Haizhou, Zhao Tai built an altar outside Pizhou City and announced to the world that he would stick to Pizhou and block the Mongolian cavalry.
