In the Southern Song Dynasty, Qi merchants exchanged salt, cloth, and copper coins from the Southern Song Dynasty to purchase the copper utensils from the Southern Song Dynasty.

In order to cast bronze cannons, the Southern Song Dynasty also raised money and purchased copper ingots on a large scale.

This caused copper prices to rise in the Southern Song Dynasty, and many cities experienced money shortages.

Because copper and copper coins have become scarce in the market, the purchasing power of copper coins has greatly increased.

At this time, various business houses in Qi State took copper coins and quietly purchased refined iron, tea and other goods in the Southern Song Dynasty, paying 30% less than usual.

In Haizhou, Zhao Tai came to the shipyard of Qi State.

In order to develop Qi's shipbuilding industry, Zhao Tai sent officials to the Southern Song Dynasty to invite businessmen from the Southern Song Dynasty to set up shipyards.

At that time, shipbuilding merchants in Taizhou, Quanzhou and other places in the Southern Song Dynasty did not pay much attention to it. Only Li Shijie came with a few small workshops.

Now a few years have passed, relying on the steady flow of orders from Qi State, the scale of Li Shijie's shipyard has surpassed that of the Li family who stayed in Taizhou.

Li Shijie was originally a commoner and did not have much say in the family. Now that his wealth has surpassed that of the Li family in Taizhou, many clan members have come to join him, further expanding the scale of the shipyard.

"Your Majesty, now we are building three ships at the same time and five are undergoing modification." Li Shijie said: "It only takes about three months to build a ship, and one month to modify it."

Zhao Tai nodded slightly, "At this rate, by the end of October, there will be more than twenty ships built and modified."

After Zhao Tai inspected several shipyards, he went to the Shuijun Yingzhai on Dongshan Island.

Standing in the harbor, Zhao Tai could see that hundreds of large ships were moored inside, and there were warships shuttled on the sea, conducting water drills.

At this time, Zhao Tai was standing on the shore, accompanied by Lu Wende and others.

"How is the gunboat training?" Zhao Tai asked while watching.

Lu Wende said: "Your Majesty, don't worry. According to your Majesty's request, I have mobilized 6,000 soldiers to conduct gunboat drills in advance. Now that one ship is launched at the shipbuilding yard, we can take one away."

Zhao Tai nodded with satisfaction, "The navy must train more during this period. Whether it can intimidate the Southern Song Dynasty depends entirely on the navy officers and soldiers."

Lu Wende clasped his fists and said, "Don't worry, Your Majesty, I will do my best."

~~~~~~~

Central Plains, Kaifeng.

In the Mongolian army camp, the Mongolian envoys who returned from Lin'an did not return directly to the grassland. Instead, they first went to the camp of Batu and Meng Ge and informed them of the results of their trip to the Southern Song Dynasty.

This joint attack on Huainan with the Southern Song Dynasty was proposed by Batu and Meng Ge after summarizing their last experience. When Yang Weizhong returned from the Southern Song Dynasty, he naturally wanted to inform them of the attitude of the Southern Song Dynasty.

At this time, several people were sitting on the carpet in the big tent, with barbecue and drinks in front of the table.

Batu asked: "Prime Minister Yang, what's the attitude of the Southern Song Dynasty?"

Yang Weizhong said: "In the Southern Song Dynasty, Zhao Yun only promised verbally that if we invade Huainan, they will send troops to capture the city of Huainan."

Meng Ge frowned, "Is it just a verbal agreement?"

Yang Weizhong nodded: "The Song army was defeated so miserably before that they did not dare to sign an alliance with us rashly for fear of being attacked by the Qi army."

"If it's just a verbal agreement, it's completely non-binding!" Brother Meng was a little dissatisfied.

Batu said: "The southerners are really as timid as rats."

Yang Weizhong said: "Although the Southern Song Dynasty verbally agreed, in my opinion, unless Mongolia gains an advantage in Huainan, the Southern Song Dynasty may not send troops!"

Brother Meng said: "Huainan is the land of the Southern Song Dynasty. They want to regain Huainan, but they are unwilling to take risks. The people of the Southern Song Dynasty are really irresponsible."

Batu was also very angry, "I think we should not unite with the Southern Song Dynasty, and simply attack the Southern Song Dynasty directly. With the power of Mongolia and the weakness of the Southern Song Dynasty, we will attack Sichuan all the way, all the way to Jinghu, and turn the Southern Song Dynasty into the land of Mongolia.

Come and destroy Qi again."

This time Batu and Meng Ge proposed to jointly attack Huainan and agreed that after the war, the land and population of Huainan would belong to the Southern Song Dynasty, and Mongolia would completely help the Southern Song Dynasty.

Therefore, they were particularly angry when they learned that the Southern Song Dynasty was unwilling to take risks and hoped that the Mongolian army would first open up the situation in Huainan before sending troops to cooperate.

Yang Weizhong knew that what Batu said was angry. With Qi on his side, how could Zhao Tai watch Mongolia attack the Southern Song Dynasty?

If Mongolia really attacked Song Dynasty, Zhao Tai would probably wake up laughing.

At that time, Mongolia attacked the Southern Song Dynasty, and Qi State took Hedong and the Central Plains. Mongolia was immediately in a dilemma.

Yang Weizhong said: "The southerners are indeed weak, and they are really lacking in wisdom and strategy!"

After Batu vented his anger, he drank a glass of wine and put down the glass heavily, "Brother Meng, what do you think? Should we carry out the plan as planned?"

Brother Meng pondered for a long time and drank a glass of wine, "If we let Zhao Tai go this year, the offensive and defensive momentum will change."

Batu heard the words, drank another glass of wine, and understood what Meng Ge meant.

~~~~~~~

Meng and Qi were locked in a confrontation over the Jiahe River. After the time entered September, the Mongolian troops originally stationed on the south bank of the Yellow River gradually moved southward and arrived at the north bank of the Huaihe River.

Because it was difficult to keep the news of Mongolia sending envoys to the Southern Song Dynasty secret, the Mongolian army did not hide their intentions and directly stated that they would attack Huainan this winter.

The Mongolian army mobilized a large number of troops to the Huaihe River line, and the news spread to Qi State and the Southern Song Dynasty at the same time.

In Lin'an City, Zhao Yun convened ministers to discuss and asked whether they should take advantage of the Mongolian attack on Qi to take back the land of Huainan.

For the southern regime, Sichuan, Jingchu, and Huainan are the bottom line of defense.

The loss of any of these three places indicates that the southern regime cannot continue to maintain the separatist regime and will be destroyed.

Zhao Yun stood in the main hall, staring at the map of Huainan, and asked: "My dear friends, the Mongolian army is stationed on the north bank of the Huaihe River. Please tell me whether I should take action to capture Huainan."

Several important ministers in the hall looked at each other, and Qiao Xingjian said: "I think your Majesty's previous decision was a wise one. We should first see how the Mongols fight before deciding whether to take action."

Zhao Yun was silent for a moment, feeling that this was indeed safer, but then he remembered a question: "Back then, Shi Songzhi led my 300,000-strong army to cross the river to attack the Qi army. As a result, the food routes and retreat routes were cut off, and 300,000 soldiers were killed.

The army was defeated. Now if we cross the river to attack Huainan, can the navy solve this problem?"

Jia Sidao came out of the queue and saluted: "Reporting to Your Majesty, our Song Dynasty has now manufactured bronze cannons and equipped many gunboats. Our navy has advantages in both numbers and warships. Now we have artillery, plus

I was on guard against the Qi army's navy, and I thought the navy could fight."

After hearing this, Zhao Yun couldn't help but become more confident, "Okay! Pass on my will and let the Mongolian Communists lead their troops into Huangzhou, and then mobilize the Forbidden Army troops to assemble along the river. Now I will wait for the Mongolian army to take action. If they can open up a situation in Huainan
Chapter completed!