"Great Khan, the Mongols can only survive as long as the grassland is there. This is the motto of Genghis Khan! If the Great Khan does not counterattack Alibu, he will contact the kings to occupy the entire grassland!"

Tacha'er was very angry, raised his voice, and said: "What are we waiting for? Are we waiting for the incompetent Hebichi and Hedan to break through the Song people's defense?! When we get the grassland back, I can only bring 20,000 warriors.

Conquer Chengdu for the Great Khan."

The reason for these words was because news came from Xingqing Mansion that Hedan was slightly defeated by the Song army, and said that there was no way to break through the Song army's defense line in the short term.

Tachaer had completely forgotten that he led an army of 100,000 to attack Fancheng and confronted the Song army for several months before retreating in despair.

He felt that Hedan was too incompetent.

"The Great Khan said that Brother Alibu was not as stupid as the descendants of Genghis Khan, and believed that Li Xia's threat was more terrifying. Then he should defeat Brother Alibu first, and then deal with Li Xia with all his strength. As long as there is grassland behind him, the Mengyuan people will always be

There is still a chance to come back..."

Kublai Khan listened to these complaints-like advice with a cold face, and always remained calm.

Until finally, he drove the Mongolian kings and Mongolian ministers out, turned his head, looked at his former guard chief An Tong, and asked: "Do you remember the last time that we talked about whether we should fight Ali Bu Ge or Li Xia first?"

?"

"It was on the twenty-second day of the first lunar month, the Great Khan." An Tong replied, "It has already passed the twenty-fifth day."

"Twenty-five days is enough for me to destroy the Dali Kingdom." Kublai Khan murmured, "But what progress have our warriors made?"

"no progress."

"There has been great progress. Shi Tianze was severely defeated in the Yellow River, He Bichi died when the Song army attacked the camp, Sodu and Dong Wenwei were surrounded and annihilated in Wuguandao, and Yelv Zhu designed a sneak attack on the Song army but was ambushed."

An Tong knelt down quickly, trembling from the anger in Kublai Khan's words.

"Great Khan, the warriors broke their axes while cutting down the fence, but as long as the fence is cut down, everything in the yard will be the wealth of the Great Khan."

Kublai Khan was very satisfied with An Tong's knowledge. He showed his coldness at the right time and then quickly showed his generous side.

"Get up. Do you know what's different between this time and the twenty-fifth day ago?"

An Tong said: "I was young and stupid, so I thought there was no difference. At most, twenty-five days and nights had passed."

Kublai Khan smiled.

He thought to himself, the difference is that before he was thinking about whether to fight Ali Buge or Li Xia first, but now he is thinking about... what should he do if he can't fight Li Xia for the time being?

A big difference.

It used to be "too late", but now it may be "too late".

"Go and call those Han ministers in."

~~

"Your Majesty, I believe it is absolutely impossible to withdraw our troops now."

Liu Bingzhong came out and said loudly: "Once the troops are withdrawn, your Majesty will admit that the attack on Li Xia cannot be defeated. Aren't you afraid that the prince will be alienated?!"

Kublai Khan's eyes narrowed slightly again.

He originally felt that Tachaer's advice was reasonable. He should first withdraw his troops and defeat Brother Alibu to ensure the foundation of the grassland, and then turn around and attack Li Xia wholeheartedly.

However, Liu Bingzhong hit another key point.

For example, the Zhang family in Shuntian and the Yan family in Dongping have relatives in Sichuan and Shaanxi.

These princes may not be spying on the situation, sensing who has the potential to take over the world, and leaning towards that person in their hearts.

If nearly 200,000 troops jointly attack Li Xia this time but fail in the end, there is no guarantee that these princes will not have different intentions.

Kublai Khan glanced at the Jinlian shogunate officials in front of him.

Liu Bingzhong, Yao Shu, Li Dehui, Wang E, Zhang Yi, Wang Pan...

I saw that all of them were gentle and polite, but they seemed to have no power.

Is the prince disengaged?

Who knows if these literati will become disengaged?

He then laughed and said: "Secretary Cong is right. The Han people have a saying that refers to my current situation, which is called 'dilemma.' What does Secretary Cong think we should do?"

This idiom "Kublai Khan" is pronounced with a clear accent, which shows that it is not that Kublai Khan cannot learn Chinese, but that it is not necessary.

Liu Bingzhong responded: "There are two options. One is to continue to attack Li Xia. He has only occupied Sichuan and Shaanxi for a short time and has not accumulated enough money. As long as he continues to fight, he will definitely be defeated."

"But if this happens, Brother Alibaba will occupy the grassland and the Mongolian warriors under my command will be alienated. What should I do?"

"Annihilate Li Xia to ensure that no force can threaten the Central Plains. Then we can use the power of the Central Plains to attack the grassland."

Kublai Khan smiled.

If Liu Bingzhong's wishes were followed, the grasslands would be lost and even fewer Mongolians would be willing to support him.

Wouldn't that mean that the wishes of these Han people were followed, and the Central Plains would really become a Han dynasty?

"What about the second way?" Kublai Khan asked.

His expression seemed very generous, but the majesty of the Mongol Khan was overwhelming.

Because he could see that the Han officials in the Jinlianchuan shogunate had selfish motives...

~~

Gaolanshan County, Zicheng County.

The county seat faces Lanzhou City across the Yellow River.

To the north is the main camp of the Mongolian army, where the Song and Mongolian sides have been confronting each other for some time.

Originally, the Mongolian army had blocked the Song army further west in Liangzhou, but Yelvzhu wanted to use his plan to feint a retreat and ambush the Song army.

That sneak attack took place on Ice Grass Terrace.

According to Yelvzhu's plan, the Song army pursued Hedan's baggage, Haran Shu, and suddenly moved around to the rear of the Song army, forming an encirclement with Hedan.

Unexpectedly, the Song army did not fall into the trap, but was far away from He Dan, keeping a long distance from the main force of He Dan.

When Haran used the magic technique, Su Ya suddenly led his troops out of Ice Grass Terrace, but was unable to get support from He Dan, and was defeated in the end.

The morale of the Mongolian army was depleted, so the Song army took advantage of the victory to pursue it, pulling the defense line near the Yellow River, and kept watch with Lanzhou to help.

He Dan lost his energy and did not dare to attack, so the two sides began to confront each other.

This battle benefited young cavalry generals like Yang Ben and Song He a lot.

If it hadn't been for Li Zengbo, they would have all chased He Dan, and they would have probably had their heads chopped off and piled under Lanzhou City.

After this battle, Yang Ben seemed to have matured a lot overnight.

If before regaining Hexi, he wanted to make great achievements like Huo Qubing, now he cares more about the process of guarding the territory or opening up the territory and expanding the territory, rather than the result of confining the wolf to Xu.

Li Zengbo made him understand that if he had too much fanaticism in his mind, but ignored the battlefield and the soldiers, and forgot to keep calm, the general would die on the battlefield sooner or later, and would also kill his soldiers.

Fighting is not for merit, but for survival.

In the end of the battle, countless people died, and those who survived would naturally have merit...

On this day, Yang Ben inspected the defense line and suddenly frowned.

"Peng Youyu!"

"exist!"

"You have one less soldier under your command. Where did he go?"

Peng Youyu looked back and asked the soldier next to him: "Where are the new soldiers?"

"No...don't know."

Yang Ben's face turned cold.

This group of people was not originally under his command, but because Yang Ben's troops had suffered too many losses, Li Zengbo replenished them with the troops left by Li Zeyi.

There was a deserter today.

"Why don't you find it for me?!"

"General, the new soldier's name is Li Bing. When he was in Lanzhou, he approached the prince and asked him to join the army."

"I don't care whether he is a new soldier or a veteran, he will be brought back and dealt with by military law!"

~~

On the Yellow River, the Song army had built ice walls one after another.

Today, Lu Xiaoyou was leading the troops to supervise the construction of fortifications. Some of his soldiers came over and said that they had caught a deserter.

When he saw it, he turned out to be Li Zeyi's old subordinate, and Lu Xiaoyou was furious.

"Bang."

"You damn thing, you said you wanted to maintain peace, begged the king to join the army, received military pay, and now you want to run away?"

Lu Xiaoyou punched again.

Li Bing was beaten so hard that he fell to the ground.
To be continued...