After Zhao Tai returned to Yecheng, he quickly formulated Qi's next strategy.
The first is to recuperate, the second is to blockade and alienate the Mongolian tribes, and the third is to secretly prepare to attack the Song Dynasty.
After Zhao Tai captured Guanzhong, Qi unified the north.
Since the outbreak of the Mongolian-Jin War, the Northern Kingdom, which had been in chaos for decades, finally ushered in peace.
After defeating Mongolia, Qi State did not take any new military actions.
Zhao Tai not only suppressed his voice to take advantage of the victory to use troops against the Southern Song Dynasty, but also rejected the minister's request to persuade him to proclaim himself emperor.
Zhao Tai continued to hold the title of King of Qi, making everyone in the world confused about his thoughts.
Qi State did not continue to raise troops, and Zhao Tai did not proclaim himself emperor. In 1242, almost no major events happened in Qi State.
Of course, Zhao Tai did not really do anything, but focused on people's livelihood and the blockade of Mongolia.
The Southern Song Dynasty was a big country that had been at odds with Mongolia for fifty years, and its strength should not be underestimated.
Although historically speaking, the Song Dynasty was extremely useless, but from a global perspective, it was definitely a superpower.
If Qi wanted to destroy the Song Dynasty, the first thing was to increase its own strength, the second thing was to deal with Mongolia, and the third thing was to make careful preparations in advance.
To be sure, Zhao Tai decided to spend three to five years building up his strength.
In this year, Zhao Tai continued to migrate people from Hedong, Hebei, and Huainan to Henan, bringing the registered population of Henan to more than four million.
At the same time, after the war, there was a stable environment. It took Qi more than a year to complete the household registration and land registration again.
Qi State now controls the north, with a population of more than 20 million, and nearly 60% of the country's land is official land that Qi State can use for distribution.
These data only count the areas actually controlled by Qi State, and the hidden population and property of many princes are not included in the statistics.
With such a foundation, if there is no war, Qi will be able to enter a prosperous age in less than twenty years.
While Qi was recuperating, the Song Dynasty in the south was not idle.
During the period when Zhao Tai regained the Central Plains, Hedong, and Guanzhong, the Song Dynasty had been watching on the sidelines. When Zhao Tai unified the north, they finally became anxious and understood that war was inevitable.
In fact, when the Qi army attacked Mongolia and unified the north, if the Song Dynasty took action, it would definitely not be so easy for Zhao Tai to complete the unification.
Now that they see Qi unifying the north, they are anxious. It can be said that it is already a bit late.
Although the national power of the Southern Song Dynasty has always been stronger than that of Qi in terms of population and economy, the Emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty, Zhao Yun, was an indecisive person.
Zhao Yun was intimidated by Zhao Tai several times and did not dare to take action. It was not until Qi unified the north that he truly felt fear and finally understood that war was inevitable.
Zhao Tai was showing off his power on the Yangtze River before, but Zhao Yun was indeed frightened and did not participate in the Mongolian-Qi War.
However, his refusal to participate in the war was not entirely out of fear of Zhao Tai.
At that time, Zhao Yun had two considerations.
The first consideration is that Mongolia had shown great strength before. Zhao Yun felt that the Mongolian-Qi war would be protracted and would not end in a short time.
So there is really no need for the Song Dynasty to enter the war prematurely. It is better to wait for a while to decide.
The second consideration was also based on his judgment that Zhao Tai would not be able to unify the north in a short time.
He felt that by the time Zhao Tai defeated Mongolia and turned his attention to attack Song Dynasty, he might have died, so he subconsciously avoided the situation.
Now due to the emperor's indecision and poor performance, the Southern Song Dynasty missed the best opportunity to align the country.
Zhao Tai regained Hedong, the Central Plains and Guanzhong in just two years, which greatly shocked Zhao Yun and the Southern Song Dynasty court.
Although the Qi State has not shown any intention to attack the Song Dynasty, the monarchs and ministers of the Song State have felt tremendous pressure.
Under this pressure, the ruling class of the Southern Song Dynasty had to give up some benefits to supplement the military expenditure of the Southern Song Dynasty.
To the east of the Shandong Peninsula, on the vast sea, ten ships loaded with food were riding the wind and waves on the sea.
This fleet did not sail close to the coast, but far away from the coast. It seemed that they deliberately avoided the coastal waters of Shandong and did not want to be discovered.
"Ms. sir, in one more day, we can bypass Shandong and arrive in Liaodong!" An official walked up to Jia Sidao and said.
Jia Sidao looked far into the sea with deep eyes, "Qi State attaches great importance to fishery and maritime trade. Everyone should be careful and try to avoid their fishing boats and merchant ships!"
The official nodded, "Don't worry, Sir. There are people watching on Wangdou. If we find Qi's ships, we will avoid them immediately."
Jia Sidao nodded. He tightened his cloak and felt the sea breeze was a bit strong. "Well, if anything happens, report it to my officer immediately!"
After finishing speaking, Jia Sidao turned around and entered the cabin.
One general is incompetent and a thousand troops will be exhausted.
If the emperor of a country is incompetent, the entire country will suffer.
Zhao Yun was an indecisive emperor who was easily affected by external influences and changed his mind.
When Zhao Tai launched a war to unify the north, Zhao Yun was affected and did not choose to support Mongolia.
If Mongolia retreats to the grassland and Zhao Yun is threatened by Qi, he will think of supporting Mongolia.
Previously, the Southern Song Dynasty only needed a small amount of money and grain to ensure its own security by supporting Mongolia. But now, even if the Southern Song Dynasty spends a lot of effort, it may not be able to achieve much results.
Now that the Southern Song Dynasty thought of supporting Mongolia, it was definitely a little late, but Jia Sidao still brought his ships with him, hoping to form an alliance with Mongolia again.
Liaodong, the mouth of the Liao River.
After receiving the news that the Southern Song Dynasty would send ships to transport supplies to Mongolia from land and sea, Kublai Khan brought a group of Mongolian cavalry to Liao Dynasty, preparing to meet with the Southern Song envoys.
After the Mongols retreated to the grasslands, life was very difficult.
Because of the large population on the grasslands and the difficulty of self-sufficiency in food, the relationship between various Mongolian tribes gradually became tense.
Last year's civil strife in Hetao ended quickly, but it was the first time that various Mongolian tribes attacked each other to compete for pasture and cattle and sheep.
Last autumn and winter, Guyuk reluctantly organized various Mongolian tribes to go south to plunder, but did not achieve any results. In addition, Qi State blocked the border, which resulted in Mongolia being unable to obtain resources from the south. The internal conflicts in Mongolia became even more acute. At any time, It may be a point of swordsmanship.
This year, there have been several tribal conflicts within Mongolia due to cattle, sheep and pastures.
In order to compete for cattle, sheep and pasture, various Mongolian tribes gradually divided into three camps.
The first camp is the Mongolian Khan Guiyou. He occupies Mobei and has the support of many nobles.
The second camp is Meng Ge, and all the Mongolian tribes in Monan basically gather around him.
The last one is Batu, who controls the Hetao. Because there has been a civil strife in the Hetao, the population has dropped sharply, and there are enough pastures and cattle and sheep. The food shortage in Batu is actually lighter than Guyu and Mengge.
Now on the grassland, Guyu and Meng Ge are already at war with each other and may start a war at any time.
Kublai Khan came to the mouth of the Liaohe River and waited for Jia Sidao, hoping to obtain supplies and support from the Southern Song Dynasty to allow Meng Ge to reunify Mongolia.
