At the end of October, heavy snow began to fall in the north, and all units of the Qi army guarding the front line became nervous.

After entering winter, the rivers in the north would be frozen, and the Mongolian cavalry rushed into Hebei, making it difficult for Qi to resist.

Early in the morning, officials came and went in the political hall, reporting on the situation in various places.

At this time, Zhao Tai was sitting and listening to the reports of the ministers.

Wang Bin stood in front of the map, pointed at the map, and introduced to everyone: "We have been operating in Shandong for many years, and all states and counties in Shandong have relatively rich experience in resisting Mongolian plunder. Back then, Kublai Khan led an army of 100,000 people.

We did not gain much advantage even though we maintained strong walls and cleared the country. Therefore, I believe that after winter, the targets of the Mongolian army's plundering should be Hebei or the Huaihe River."

Zhao Tai asked: "Are these two prefectures and counties ready?"

Wang Bin pondered and said: "Your Majesty, the situation in these two places is quite complicated. Shandong was able to quickly fortify its walls and clear out the wilderness, mainly because it had a small population and could bring most of the people into the fortified city. Hebei and Huainan have large populations and lack of strongholds like Shandong.

, villagers can only live in the nearest county town, and the walls of most county towns are relatively low and there is a risk of being breached."

Zhao Tai touched his short beard under his jaw and asked, "How is our cavalry recovering? What if we allow the cavalry to maneuver and reinforce the cities at any time without giving the Mongolian army time to attack the city?"

In the Battle of Langshan, Qi State lost nearly half of its cavalry, but Wokuotai fled in a hurry, and Qi State captured a large number of horses in Dong'an.

Although the defense of the county town is poor, the Mongolian army must make some preparations before attacking the city. It will take at least two or three days to attack a well-defended county town.

If the Qi army's cavalry could gallop to nearby reinforcements before the Mongolian army completed preparations to attack the city, or when it first started to attack the city, the Mongolian cavalry would have no choice but to stop attacking the city to avoid being surprised by the Qi army's horse army.

Wang Bin said: "The horse army has expanded to 30,000 people, but 20,000 of them have only been trained for less than two months, and there are only 10,000 usable cavalry."

Zhao Tai understood the implication. Qi would definitely suffer losses this winter. The Mongolian cavalry would most likely be able to find cities where Qi's defenses were weak and there was no time for reinforcements.

Since losses are inevitable, we can only reduce losses. "Do you think the Mongolian army will focus its attack on Hebei or Huainan?"

Wang Bin said: "It's hard to say. We have stationed a lot of troops in Hebei, but Huainan may not freeze, and if it freezes, the time will be shorter than that in Hebei."

Zhao Tai stood up, walked a few steps in the lobby, and then ordered: "Instruct all prefectures and counties to fortify their walls and clear the fields in winter to protect the people within their borders. Then order all frontline troops to dig ice on the Yellow River to delay the Mongolian army from crossing the river.

time."

Everyone quickly accepted the order, "Obey!"

Zhao Tai glanced at everyone, showed a smile, and reassured everyone: "Don't be nervous! As long as we survive this winter, we will have a whole year to carry out production and train the army. By next winter, the offensive and defensive positions will inevitably change.

.”

~~~~~~~~

South Bank of the Yellow River.

Batu and Meng Ge were stationed on the bank on horseback, looking at the Yellow River in the distance. Qi soldiers were cutting ice in the river. Batu said: "It seems that the Qi army wants to use this to delay our attack."

Meng Ge looked solemn. The ice age of the Yellow River was only less than three months, and the Mongolian army could only use these three months to find and attack the weak points of Qi's defense.

If we include the time they spent entering Qi State and withdrawing, the time they could use to destroy Qi State was actually very short.

Now that the Qi army is digging ice on the Yellow River, the Mongolian army will undoubtedly be pressed for time.

Meng Ge looked up at the sky. The sky was covered with dark clouds and heavy snow was falling. "In this weather, it is useless for them to cut ice. In three days at most, the Yellow River will freeze."

In mid-November, under the continuous heavy snow and extremely cold weather, the entire border of Mongolia and Qi and the Yellow River from Weizhou to Xuzhou froze.

In the Caozhou section of the Yellow River, at the Qi army camp, and above the watchtower, bursts of urgent alarm bells suddenly sounded.

In the camp, Qi general Li Huan hurriedly put on his armor and came out of the tent, and came to the camp wall with a large group of soldiers.

At this time, the ground began to shake. Everyone looked up and saw countless black shadows climbing over the embankment on the north bank and then rushing down the river. Cavalry covered the ground.

"Quick! Defend!" Li Huan was shocked when he saw this, and he quickly raised his arms and shouted, "The Mongolian army has crossed the river, defend!"

A large number of Qi troops poured out from the tents and quickly gathered at the wall of the village. Then they picked up their weapons and stared closely at the Mongolian cavalry who were killing them in the wild.

The soldiers of the Qi army looked nervous and prepared to fight. However, when the Mongolian cavalry saw the Qi army camp, they fled away. In the end, tens of thousands of Mongolian troops rushed directly to both sides of the Qi army camp and headed towards Shandong.

Li Huan looked at the Mongolian cavalry galloping past with uncertainty in his heart. After a moment of reaction, he quickly ordered, "Quick, light the beacon smoke as a warning!"

Hebei, Yecheng.

Zhao Tai hurried to the top of the city and stared at the plume of smoke rising into the sky.

Wang Bin said in a deep voice: "Your Majesty, the Mongolian army crossed the river from Caozhou and headed for Jinan."

Zhao Tai stared at the beacon smoke with a solemn expression, "Give me the order and all the troops will be stationed in place. This must be the Mongolian army, trying to mobilize my army with a false shot."

On November 20th, the Mongolian army entered Shandong. Batu fired a false shot in an attempt to mobilize the Qi army in Hebei to rescue Shandong. The Mongolian army wandered around Shandong for three days, causing wars to rage all over Shandong.

On the 24th, three days after Batu entered Shandong, Meng Ge crossed the river from Weizhou and entered Hebei.

On the 26th, the Mongolian army that crossed the river ran 400 miles in two days, directly passed through the Yellow River line where the Qi army was focused on defending, and surrounded Xingzhou.

Zhao Tai saw the beacon fire in Yecheng and hurriedly ordered his cavalry to rush to the rescue. Meng Ge stayed in Xingzhou for a day, then turned south and attacked Yecheng, prompting the Qi army and horsemen to rush back for reinforcements.

When Meng Ge's army came to Yecheng, Batu, who was wandering around Shandong, turned north and entered the border of Hebei.

On the 28th, Batu's army entered Cangzhou and attacked Nanpi County. Without breaking through, they immediately moved north and rushed into Youzhou.

On November 2, Batu's army marching north suddenly appeared in Xianghe County. Batu used Ross mercenaries as the vanguard and entered the county in half a day.

Batu immediately massacred the city, slaughtered all the people in the city, and then burned the city and walked eastward.

Zhao Tai saw the beacon fire in Yecheng and knew that Batu had appeared in Youzhou, where Qi's defense was weak, so he immediately sent his cavalry to help Youzhou.

On the fifth day, Batu captured Yongji County again, massacred the city and left.

On the seventh day, the Qi army and its cavalry entered Youzhou, but failed to attack Yutian, and immediately retreated with their troops.

At this time, after Meng Ge stayed outside Yecheng for a few days, he began to wander around Hebei again.
Chapter completed!