Li Fen obtained a large amount of materials from Zhao Tai and resold them, making a lot of money.

He was not aware of Zhao Tai's sinister intentions, but was blinded by the huge benefits and hoped to expand his business with Zhao Tai.

From this first transaction, he made 30,000 yuan. Li Fen took part of it and distributed it to his subordinates to stabilize people's hearts. Then according to Zhao Tai's request, he sent people to purchase horses, intending to get them from Zhao Tai as soon as possible.

Here, I got the second batch of low-priced goods.

Li Fen adopted Peng Huizu's suggestion and sent many groups of people with goods to different tribes to sell goods and exchange horses.

If a large amount of purchases were made in a Mongolian tribe, it would indeed easily attract the attention of the Mongols, and it would also be easy for the Mongols to know the number of Li Fen's army and horses. However, if he purchased scattered, it would be difficult for the Mongols to count them.

In this way, Li Fen sold some war horses to Zhao Tai, which was difficult for the Mongols to detect for a while.

In the previous battle in Huainan, Li Fen lost a lot of troops and horses. Now he bought some horses to supplement his military strength, which did not arouse the suspicion of the Mongols.

Now that the Mongols are powerful, if Li Fen takes the initiative to rebel, Li Fen will definitely not do it. Zhao Tai can only use benefits to induce Li Fen to sign a secret agreement with him to engage in smuggling trade, and then sends Yang You to inform the Mongols, thus forcing Li Fen to

Not contrary.

Yang You was a relative of Li Fen, and he stood up to "exterminate relatives for justice." After further investigation, the Mongols had no choice but to believe him.

The Mongols were powerful, and seeing Li Fen's double-dealing, they would not tolerate him making a secret agreement with Zhao Tai and selling horses to Zhao Tai.

As a result, Li Fen had no choice but to rebel.

Li Fen had 80,000 troops at his disposal, and the smuggling trade could restore his strength to a certain extent. When he was about to fight the Mongols and could no longer hold on, Zhao Tai sent troops to rescue him.

At that time, Li Fen will have to thank Zhao Tai, thinking that Zhao Tai is a brother he can handle.

Li Fen couldn't have imagined what he did, and he couldn't realize that the crisis was coming.

Of course, Zhao Tai is not ready yet, and Li Fen's strength has not recovered, so it is not the time to force Li Fen against him yet.

What Zhao Tai has to do now is to expand the smuggling trade with Li Fen.

This would not only allow Li Fen to make money, fatten him up and increase his strength, but also obtain scarce resources war horses from Li Fen to increase the combat effectiveness of Zhao Tai's army.

After Zhao Tai signed a secret agreement with Li Fen, Zhao Tai initially completed his layout and prepared to leave Donghai Island and return to Suining to prepare for the Mongolian attack.

Suining, Sizhou, and Suzhou under Zhao Tai's rule were on the north bank of the Huaihe River, close to the Southern Song Dynasty, and behind the Guanhe defense line of the Jin State. They were not on the front line. Logically speaking, they were not the main targets of the Mongolian army's attack. However, Zhao Tai had previously pulled

If you have too much hatred, if you don't keep it all, the Mongolian army will come to attack you.

At the end of September, as winter was about to enter, the entire Jin Kingdom became nervous.

Along the Yellow River, various cities in the Jin Kingdom were actively preparing for war and preparing defensive materials.

Suining City was no exception. Zhao Tai took a boat and docked at Suining Wharf. As soon as he got off the boat, he saw a large number of civilians transferring supplies from warehouses near the dock to Suining City.

Outside Suining City, a large number of civilians were sweating profusely digging trenches and building fortifications.

Zhao Tai arrived in Suining and returned to the commander-in-chief's residence. He immediately summoned his subordinates to inquire.

Zhao Taidao: "I was just at the dock and saw civilian workers carrying supplies, and fortifications were also being built outside the city. How are your defense preparations going?"

Chen Zhongdao: "Reporting to your Majesty, the new army has been training for several months and has a certain combat strength, but it does not have the ability to fight in the field for the time being! Therefore, we can only rely on the city to defend this Mongolian offensive! Although Suining is located in the rear,

But there is no guarantee that we will not be attacked by the Mongolian army, so we are moving materials from outside the city into the city and building fortifications outside the city! The work has just begun now, but it should be completed before the Yellow River freezes."

Originally, Chen Zhong and other Song Dynasty officers should be returned to Zhao Fan and others at this time.

However, there is no reason for Mr. Zhao to return the people he borrowed based on his ability.

Not long ago, Zhao Tai wrote to Qiu Yue, the envoy of the Lianghuai Zhizhi, Zhao Kui, the envoy of the Huaidong Zhizhi, and Quan Zicai, the envoy of the Huaixi Zhizhi, applying for concession on the grounds that Mongolia was about to invade the south and the army had not yet formed combat strength.

Those Song Dynasty officers will stay until the spring of next year, waiting for the Mongolian troops to retreat, and then let them go back.

Along with the letter, there were also gifts given to them by Zhao Tai. The three of them wanted the Kingdom of Jin and Zhao Tai to withstand Mongolia, so they had no objections.

Although the Song army won the last battle in Huainan, the victory was very difficult. The Southern Song Dynasty saw the strength of Mongolia, so they did not want to fight Mongolia again for the time being.

This required Zhao Tai to serve as a barrier to block the Mongols for the Song Dynasty.

Zhao Tai nodded slightly: "In addition to our own supplies, supplies from people's homes in each town must also be transferred to the city. In addition, the city must be prepared to gather the people into the city!"

Wang Wentong saluted and said: "Don't worry, Mr. Sir, arrangements for your humble position have already begun."

Zhao Tai nodded and immediately asked: "What is Kaifeng's reaction to this Mongolian attack?"

"My lord, the Privy Council has issued an order to dispatch six thousand of our elite troops to Zhengzhou, Kaifeng and other places to set up defenses!" Wang Wentong said.

Zhao Tai pondered: "What is Kaifeng's plan to defend against the enemy?"

It will be October soon, and for more than a month at most, the Yellow River will be frozen, and the Mongolian iron hoof will definitely move south. The Jin Kingdom must have a plan to defend against the enemy.

Wang Wentong said in a deep voice: "At the beginning of the year, in the Battle of Sanfeng Mountain, the Jin soldiers suffered a disastrous defeat. More than 100,000 elite field warriors were slaughtered by the Mongols. Now the soldiers and horses recruited from various places in the Jin Kingdom are mainly new soldiers, and there are no field battles with the Mongols.

Ability! Therefore, the plan formulated by the Privy Council to defend against the enemy is to fortify the walls and clear the fields, and defend the city behind closed doors until the next spring, when the ice and snow melt, and the Mongols retreat!"

Zhao Taiwen smoothed his beard. Facing the southern invasion of the Mongols and losing the ability to fight in the field, the only strategy the Jin Kingdom could adopt was to hold on to one road.

Now they will definitely not be able to fight in the field. The Jin army can only hold on to the city and let the Mongolian army loot and attack the city. As long as they persist until the Yellow River thaws, the Mongolian troops will withdraw, and they will have peace for more than half a year.

Wang Wentong said: "According to this strategy of the Privy Council, the Jin army can only defend passively and mainly protect several key cities such as Kaifeng, Luoyang, Zhengzhou, Xuzhou, and Shaanzhou. They cannot be lost! Now the Jin army does not know that the Mongols are crossing the river.

In the end, wherever we attack, we can only divide our troops to defend, and we will need to send reinforcements from here."

Zhao Tai pondered for a while, he was not well developed yet and needed Jin Guo to support him from the front for a while.

Thinking of this, Zhao Tai nodded, "Yes, six thousand men and horses can be deployed to guard the Guanhe defense line. However, Suining must also be prepared. There must be more defensive materials in the city, and the workshops outside the city must be evacuated by then.

Enter the city!"

Wang Wentong saluted, "I understand your humble position!"
Chapter completed!