Kublai Khan watched Zhao Taiyuan escape and had no choice but to order a halt to the pursuit.
He glanced angrily to the north, finally pulled the reins of his horse, and then led the cavalry back.
Although Kublai Khan knew that it was impossible for the three towns in Shandong to surround Yan Zhongji while also ambushing a large number of soldiers and horses in Yizhou, he led his cavalry to pursue them all the way. Both men and horses were exhausted, and he was already deep in the army alone, so he did not dare to take risks. .
After all, the lives of him and the warriors of Qie Xue's army are very valuable, not that a barbarian like Zhao Tai can compare.
The general trend is in Mongolia. Kublai Khan can only comfort himself and cannot be hasty.
The Mongolian cavalry gathered on the road could only pull their reins and retreat with Kublai Khan.
On the way back to the army, everyone in the Mongolian army was suffocating. They released their anger on the corpses of the Zhongyi Army soldiers. Along the way, the equipment and armor of the Zhongyi Army were picked up, and the corpses were dragged by war horses and finally gathered up. In one place, a "Jingguan" was built to show off martial arts.
On the other side, Zhao Tai led the remnant troops to flee, and found that there were soldiers and horses ambushing him. He was frightened and drove away the pursuing reinforcements, and then slowly slowed down his horse speed.
At this time, the loyal army, which was running continuously, was approaching its limit. As soon as the spirit of the troops and horses relaxed, many cavalrymen immediately rolled off their horses. The horses were also tired and fell to the ground, foaming at the mouth.
The skin and flesh on the inner side of Zhao Tai's thighs were worn out. The general helped him off the horse and immediately sat down on the big stone.
"Your Majesty, he is a brother of the Yizhou Guards!" A man stepped forward to report.
Zhao Tai took the kettle and took a sip, then wiped his mouth and said, "Bring it here!"
Not long after, several men wearing various colored leather armors were led in front of Zhao Tai. They only had equipment. At first glance, they were all miscellaneous.
Several people bowed to meet, and the leader of the general said: "Han Zhongguo, a thousand-household guard in Cangshan, Yizhou, pays homage to the king."
Zhao Tai wanted to stand up, but found that his legs were very weak, so he gave up his efforts and raised his hands and said: "Han Qianhu doesn't need to be polite. How can you come here to support me when you bring so many soldiers and horses?"
Han Zhongguo, who was in his forties and looked quite capable, saluted and said, "Reporting to your Majesty, it was the military advisor who gave the order to support the King's breakout. Not only the ministers, but also the guards in Yizhou, Tengzhou, and Haizhou received the order to support the King's breakout. "
Zhao Tai nodded, thinking that he should be the one who sent out the pigeon message and ordered Wu Xian and Li Fen to fight back. Wang Bin and Wang Wentong knew that Zhao Tai was about to break out, but they didn't know the direction, so they sent orders to the various guards.
Han Zhongguo continued: "There are ambushes on several official roads from Pizhou to Yizhou. I lead five hundred Cangshan Guards to be in charge of this road and have been waiting here for half a month."
Wang Bin and the others didn't know where Zhao Tai would break out of the encirclement. This arrangement was very reasonable. However, Zhao Tai couldn't help but secretly thought it was a fluke when he heard that there were only 500 people to respond.
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"Kublai Khan will not be reconciled to my commander's breakout. He will definitely come back when the follow-up troops arrive." After resting for a while, Zhao Tai regained his strength. He struck the ground with his sword and stood up. "It is not suitable to stay here for a long time. Send the order." , wait until you get to a safe place before resting."
At that moment, Zhao Tai mounted his horse again and led his subordinates towards the depths of Yimeng Mountain.
But he said that Kublai Khan's army retreated temporarily, and before the soldiers and horses returned to Pizhou, they encountered the infantry that was catching up, so the army turned around again and pursued Zhao Tai.
Just as Kublai Khan expected, once Zhao Tai emerges from Pizhou, he will be a fish in the sea.
Tens of thousands of Mongolian troops marched around the Yimeng Mountains for half a month. Although they pulled out some loyalist military guards, they could not even catch up with Zhao Tai's hair.
The roads in the mountainous areas were rugged and supplies were not readily available. Tens of thousands of Mongolian soldiers had to eat their horses and chew them, which consumed a lot of food. There was no food supply in the mountains, so the transportation pressure was too great.
Kublai Khan had little to gain in the Yimeng Mountains, and his dispersed troops were often attacked, so he had no choice but to withdraw from the Yimeng Mountains.
In central Shandong, when Zhao Tai broke through the encirclement, Wuxian and Li Fen from the north discovered that the Mongolian cavalry was heading north. The timid Xue Ma army had not yet reached Yanzhou, so the two men started fighting again.
In less than half a month, the Mongolian army once again recaptured Jinan, Yidu and other places. However, although the city was owned by the Mongolian army, the main forces of the three towns were never eliminated by the Mongolian army, and Shandong fell into a stalemate.
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Pizhou City.
Since Zhao Tai broke through, the main forces of the three towns disappeared from the Mongolian army.
Although Kublai Khan knew that Zhao Tai's main force was in Haizhou and Yimeng Mountain, there was nothing he could do.
The Mongolian army marched into the mountains to suppress Zhao Tai, but Zhao Tai could not be found in the mountains. When they advanced towards Haizhou, the loyal army withdrew to the large coastal islands, but the Mongolian army also did not suffer defeat.
Now tens of thousands of Mongolian troops are staying in Shandong, but they have achieved nothing, which makes Kublai Khan quite depressed.
However, Kublai Khan was not the only one who was depressed at this time. The Mongol Khan was trapped in Kaifeng City and was also quite distressed.
The Song army's field combat ability was low, but it was quite capable at defending the city.
In Wokuotai's plan, after Kublai Khan cleared Shandong, he quickly went south to invade Huainan, cutting off the connection between Kaifeng and the Southern Song Dynasty, and the Kaifeng defenders would collapse.
Wokuotai originally thought that as long as he surrounded three men and one was missing, he would be able to capture Kaifeng very quickly, but he didn't want Song general Quan Zicai, who was guarding Kaifeng, to be a tough opponent.
After the Mongolian army arrived in Kaifeng, Quan Zicai stayed behind closed doors and assumed a posture of defending Kaifeng to the death.
At first Wokuotai didn't take it seriously, thinking that the morale of the Kaifeng defenders must be in chaos if they knew that the Mongolian army had invaded Huainan.
Now the Song army is not fleeing, but as long as the Mongolian army launches an attack, they can quickly capture the city wall.
Unexpectedly, Wokuotai urged the army to attack for many days, but could not shake the Song army's defense.
This caused problems with Wokuotai's plan, and both Mongolian armies failed to complete their scheduled tasks.
Of course, Ogedai did not admit that he had problems along the way, but blamed Kublai Khan.
In the Mongolian army's tent, Wo Kuotai was pacing back and forth, looking quite agitated.
When all the civil and military personnel who followed the army saw the Great Khan in this state, they all stood aside with their heads bowed, not daring to touch Wokuotai's bad luck.
"What happened to Kublai Khan! This Khan gave him a hundred thousand troops to clear out Shandong within three months, but up to now, he has not solved Zhao Tai!" Wo Guotai complained, "Now this Khan wants to besiege Kaifeng, if he can't go south with all his strength and defeat the Huainan Song army, how can we fight this battle?"
Kublai Khan had an army of 100,000, 50,000 of which went south to attack the Song Dynasty, and 50,000 of which stayed in Shandong to encircle and suppress Zhao Tai.
The 50,000 people currently staying in Shandong failed to destroy Zhao Tai. Instead, they allowed Zhao Tai to escape and made no progress in Shandong.
Although the 50,000 people who went south were overwhelming at first, they were not strong enough after all. After Zhao Fan crossed the river at home and stabilized the river defense, they could not pose a fatal threat to the Southern Song Dynasty.
Obviously, the Mongol Empire was too optimistic about this southern expedition, thinking that the Southern Song Dynasty was similar to the countries in the west and could be destroyed in one or two years.
Now it seems that although the Southern Song Dynasty was weak, its strength should not be underestimated.
At this time, facing Wo Kuotai's complaints, many civil and military officials in the big tent could not help but whisper.
Yang Weizhong pondered for a while, then suddenly came out and said: "Great Khan! I thought that although the army's southern expedition was hindered, it would not be difficult to win!"
Wo Kuotai raised his eyebrows and said, "Oh? Tell Ben Khan quickly."
