Since Wuchang continued to advance eastward, Zeng Zhilin's troops had changed from all water transportation to both land and water, and the troops traveling by land were not as fast as the soldiers and horses on the water going downstream. Therefore, after leaving Wuchang, the Western Route Army was divided into two. The main force along the land route was still under the command of Zeng Zhilin, and he hurried to Jiangzhou. The main force of the First Fleet of Jiangfang and the baggage and pontoon units of the First Fleet of Jiangfang who took the waterway were under the command of He Haisheng, deputy commander of the First Fleet of Jiangfang.

On the evening of the 15th day of the third lunar month of Jianlong, He Haisheng led the waterway troops to the Qiyang River. After arranging the defense of the fleet, He Haisheng took a few relatives to abandon the boat and went to Jiangbei to meet Xu Shao'an, who had been waiting here for almost a day, to discuss the crossing of the river on the Zhongjun Road. Although the task was urgent, and there was not much time left for him to cross the river and conquer Jiangzhou, for the sake of safety and efficiency, Xu Shaoan still accepted He Haisheng's suggestion and decided to rest the army for a night, and then carry out the construction of the pontoon bridge and the crossing of the river the next day.

In the early morning of the 16th day of the third lunar month of Jianlong, under the escort of the ships of the First Fleet of Jiangfang and under the command of the supervisor who was familiar with the design and use of the pontoon bridge, hundreds of giant boats and thousands of giant bamboo rafts gradually lined up in a long snake formation under the control of boatmen and sailors, and were connected and fixed one by one by a large number of craftsmen according to the previous design, and finally became a whole.

Because the relevant boatmen, sailors, and craftsmen had already carried out many drills and actual operations on the Yuezhou River before the southern expedition, it only took one day for the nearly 1,500-meter-long giant pontoon bridge to go from being dispersed to being connected and forming and having the function of crossing the river. By the evening of the 17th day of the third lunar month of the third year of Jianlong, more than 29,000 people and a large number of baggage under Xu Shao'an's department crossed the Yangtze River safely and advanced in the direction of Jiangzhou.

As early as when Li Yu ordered all the prefectures and counties along the Yangtze River to be on strict guard to prevent the Zhou army from attacking, Xie Yanbao, the assassin of Jiangzhou in Jiangnan, felt a little unsure. When he heard that the Zhou army had really begun its southern expedition, especially after receiving the news that Wuchang had been lost, Yang Shouzhong had surrendered the city, and the Zhou army had come straight to his Jiangzhou, Xie Yanbao became even more nervous and shaken, and began to have the idea of emulating Yang Shouzhong. Now, seeing that the pontoon bridge that could not be built in the eyes of the monarchs and ministers of Jiangnan has steadily crossed the river, and nearly 70,000 troops around the Great Zhou Dynasty are approaching Jiangzhou step by step, and its forward is only less than one hundred and fifty miles away from the state capital, but Xie Yanbao has no hesitation in his heart. In the blink of an eye, the Jiangzhou assassin who was deeply trusted by Li Yu put behind the "untimely" ideas such as refusing to defend the city and repaying the favor of the king, and decided to learn from his colleague Yang Shouzhong, and wanted to "be better than the blue out of the blue", and surrender the city without waiting for the Zhou army to attack the city.

However, deciding to surrender is one thing, and putting it into practice is not as simple as making a decision. Although Xie Yanbao is the highest military and political governor in Jiangzhou and the locality, if he really wants to surrender the city, it is not up to him to touch his upper lip and lower lip alone. After all, there were other officials and officials in this city, as well as commanders and deputy envoys who controlled the soldiers and horses, and if they could not obtain their consent, it would be impossible for them to successfully welcome the Zhou army into the city on their own. So, on the afternoon of the day when he received the news that the Zhou army had crossed the river, Xie Yanbao summoned a group of his subordinates to his mansion to discuss surrender.

Originally, according to Xie Yanbao's estimate, in the face of the surrender of Yang Shouzhong in Wuchang, the completion of the feat of erecting a pontoon bridge that was impossible in their eyes, and the situation that tens of thousands of troops rushed to Jiangzhou, even if they were not frightened and took the initiative to surrender, they would at least agree to their idea of surrendering. But to Xie Yanbao's surprise, the words "Kaicheng surrender" were only spoken, but the other side of the box had already angered Hu Ze, the commander of Jiangzhou.

Hu Ze stood up and angrily reprimanded Xie Yanbao and said: "We have been favored by the Li family in the past generations, and now the national disaster is at the head, it is the time for our generation to be loyal and serve to death, and An Ke will abandon the society for his own selfishness. You want to emulate Yang Shouzhong, but we don't want to follow you to the filthy act of betraying the Lord for glory and abandoning the land to survive. Moreover, although Yang Shouzhong sacrificed the city to the enemy, he also knew that he was invincible after experiencing the Battle of White Beach and the Zhou army's artillery bombardment of the city, so he surrendered. And Xie Tingshi, you want to take the initiative to sacrifice the city without a fight, which is even more unbearable than Yang Shouzhong, how can we listen. ”

As he spoke, Hu Ze turned to the generals around him and asked, "I don't know if your colleagues think what Hu said is right or not, are you willing to be loyal to the country with Hu and thank Junen with death?" ”

Before Hu Ze's voice fell, the deputy commander Song Deming and the captains next to him responded in unison: "What Commander Hu said is very right, we are willing to work with Commander Hu to be loyal to the country and thank Junen with death." ”

Seeing Song Deming and other generals clamoring forward, Xie Yanbao realized that the situation was wrong, and hurriedly called his subordinates to take Hu Ze and Song Deming down. It's just that without waiting for his personal soldiers to make a move, Song Deming and others have already rushed up. Everyone first punched, kicked, slashed and chopped with axes, and dispersed the Xie Fu's personal soldiers, who were not opponents at all, and then rushed into the inner room of the Xie Mansion's back hall, pulled out Xie Yanbao, who was hiding here, and cut it in half with a knife.

This side killed Xie Yanbao, who wanted to surrender without a fight, and with the support of a group of generals and colonels, Hu Ze was immediately promoted as the assassin of Jiangzhou, and the order was solemn and did not dare not listen.

Although he killed Xie Yanbao, who was greedy for life and afraid of death, and replaced him because of a moment of anger, Hu Ze was not carried away by the anger, and he didn't care about fighting with Zhou Jun, but quickly calmed down and prepared to go all out to defend the city.

Although he had not fought with the current Zhou army before, as a general under Liu Rengan, the envoy of the Shouzhou Festival, Hu Ze had participated in the offensive and defensive battles of Shouzhou City, and had seen the skills of the Zhou army under Chai Rong and the great power of primitive firearms. Hu Ze knew that the Zhou army he was about to face was far stronger and sharper than the Zhou army under Shouzhou City, and it was not easy to defend Jiangzhou City. Therefore, after being elected as the assassin of Jiangzhou, Hu Ze strengthened the city defense, inspected the school soldiers and horses, and thought hard about the strategy of breaking the enemy.

It stands to reason that the best way to deal with this kind of enemy, which is superior to oneself in terms of strength and combat power, is to take advantage of the fact that the Zhou army has just begun to cross the river and has not yet gained a firm foothold, and decisively attack, attack the enemy in the middle of the crossing, and burn the pontoon bridge, so as to break the enemy's grasp a little. It's a pity that the good opportunity to attack halfway was wasted by Xie Yanbao, who was afraid of the enemy like a tiger and had ill intentions. Now, the Zhou army has crossed the river, and the giant pontoon bridge has been dispersed again, down the river, it is impossible to destroy it - although Jiangzhou also has a navy, but the Wuchang navy, which is far more powerful than the Jiangzhou navy, has been almost wiped out in front of the Zhou army, but where does the Jiangzhou navy with 100 ships have the ability to defeat the Zhou army and destroy the pontoon bridge. However, the only way to do this is to take advantage of one's familiarity with the local terrain while strictly defending the city, and send troops and horses to harass or ambush the Zhou army, so as to frustrate its sharp and exhaust its divisions, and then stick to the one method of waiting for reinforcements.