The Runzhou side surrendered without a fight, and Shen Chengli, the general of the Wu Yue Army, who led 6,000 partial divisions to the east to sweep along the river, also had good news. After the persuasion was successful, the soldiers captured the Jiangyin army without blood, and all the military villages along the Yangtze River in the south of the Yangtze River surrendered without a fight, and now Shen Chengli is leading his soldiers to Runzhou to join the main force, and it is expected that it will arrive in one or two days.

On the sixth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar in the second year of Jianlong, Shen Chengli's department arrived at the city of Runzhou. The next day, Mutel and Qian Yu ordered Shen Chengli to lead 5,000 soldiers and horses to garrison Runzhou, and he led the main force of the Southern Route Army to set off westward, and on the evening of the eighth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar in the second year of Jianlong, he joined forces with the left route army of the southern expeditionary army led by Wang Kunjun and Xu Shao'an from the west, and the 80,000-strong army Chen soldiers were under the city of Jinling.

Originally, according to the idea of the generals of the Southern Expeditionary Army, after the arrival of the Right Route Army, nearly 130,000 horses and horses of the Southern Expeditionary Army would gather under the city, and Jinling City would naturally be just around the corner. It only needs to concentrate all the artillery pieces in one place, and bombard the walls of Jinling City, and then the infantry charge in, and Jinling City will be in hand. But Wang Kunjun, Xu Shao'an and others, who were heavy ministers of the Later Zhou Dynasty and aspired to the world, considered not only the problem of the Battle of Jinling itself, but the entire Jiangnan. In their view, on the one hand, Jinling City, as the capital of the Southern Tang Dynasty, has been in a relatively calm state since the Five Dynasties, and its prosperity and population are different from other cities conquered by the Zhou army before. Jinling is not only the political, economic, and cultural center of the Southern Tang Dynasty, but also the most prosperous city in the Southern Tang Dynasty, and will also be the central city of the Central Plains Imperial Court to rule the Southern Tang Dynasty and even the entire region south of the Yangtze River in the future. If it is bombarded with artillery without any scruples, its economic losses are far from comparable to those of state cities like Wuchang and Jiangzhou. Moreover, the population here is dense, and the incidental casualties caused by the shelling are naturally worse than those in Wuchang and Jiangzhou. Huge economic losses and heavy casualties will leave a shadow in the hearts of the surviving gentry and common people in Jinling City, and even leave the seeds of hatred, which will be very unfavorable to the future management and rule of the Central Plains Imperial Court. Moreover, it is conceivable that a city that has been bombed to ruins will have a difficult time becoming a regional center, and even if it can be restored to the pre-war level, the investment of the imperial court will be an unusually large number, and it is by no means the best choice.

On the other hand, even in this era, Jinling City is still an ancient city with a long history, known as the "Ancient Capital of the Six Dynasties" and the "Capital of the Ten Dynasties" - since the Southern Song and Ming Dynasty did not exist in this era, perhaps it would be more accurate to call it the "Capital of the Eight Dynasties" - there are many ancient buildings and cultural relics in the city. If these historical verifications and cultural treasures are destroyed in their own hands, they are afraid that they will be scolded by future generations, which is unacceptable to Wang Kunjun, Xu Shao'an, and even Zhang Weixin and Li Junwu in Kaifeng, as well as all the members of the crossing team who are determined to create Zào history and hope to leave a name in history. Therefore, after careful consideration, repeated consideration, and weighing, the crossing team committee made a decision: this attack on Jinling City, we should try to avoid using heavy artillery, heavy explosives and other lethal weapons, especially weapons with huge destructive power, but mainly light weapons and cold weapons such as knives, spears and arrows.

Giving up heavy artillery and heavy explosives is equivalent to giving up the most advantageous technical equipment of the Zhou army. Giving up the most advantageous technology and equipment means that in many places that could have been achieved overnight by artillery explosions in the past, now they need to rely on the bravery and wisdom of the soldiers to seize them, and if necessary, they may need to fill them with their lives. As a result, the casualties of the Zhou army must have increased significantly, and the time taken to conquer Jinling City will inevitably be greatly extended. And such an outcome is obviously not what the crossing team and the soldiers involved in the siege want to see. Therefore, at the same time as making the relevant resolutions, Wang Kunjun and Xu Shaoan, who were in charge of the front combat command, also changed the mode of attack from forceful attack to political persuasion, hoping to make efforts in many ways to urge Li Yu in the city to surrender, so as to keep Jinling City without increasing the casualties of the Zhou army.

Of course, as the party that occupies the initiative and absolute advantage on the battlefield, the Southern Expeditionary Army's persuasion of Li Yu was not a blind verbal persuasion, let alone sacrificing the interests of the Later Zhou court in exchange for Li Yu's compromise, but only a relatively mild and implicit coercion and inducement. As for the candidates for persuasion lobbyists, Wang and Xu believed that the lobbyists for persuasion could be either people from the Southern Expeditionary Army, or people from within the Jiangnan Imperial Court and close to Li Yu. After all, the fortress is the easiest to be breached from within. The same persuasion rhetoric, spoken by the cronies of the persuaded person, is far more powerful than the envoy sent by the Southern Expeditionary Army, and it is also easier for the persuaded person to accept. Therefore, this time to persuade Li Yu to surrender, Wang Kunjun and Xu Shaoan decided to pass through the influential ministers within the Jiangnan court. As for the specific execution candidates, they were initially locked in the body of Huangfu Jixun, who was deeply trusted by Li Yu and entrusted with the command of the Shenwei Commander of the Army.

According to Zhang Weixin's story to Wang Kunjun and others before the Southern Expedition about the destruction of the Southern Tang Dynasty by the Northern Song Dynasty in his previous life, as well as the detailed information provided by the local "Dark Feather" branch after the Southern Expedition, although this Huangfu Jixun has some ability to govern the local area and some political achievements, he has limited ability in military affairs and does not have any decent military exploits. This time, he was named the commander of the Shenwei Unified Army by Li Yu, completely because the old generals in the DPRK died and surrendered, and there was really no one to use, so he relied on him as the son of Huang Fuhui, a famous general in the south of the Yangtze River, and by virtue of his father's fame, he became a general who controlled the military power of the Jinling garrison. Although when he was appointed, Huangfu Jixun had pointed out that he was loyal to Li Yu and swore to the death, but in fact this guy was a death-fearing ghost who was arrogant and lascivious and cherished wealth and wealth. Not only did he not intend to die for Li Yu and the Jiangnan Imperial Court, but hoped that Li Yu could surrender as soon as possible in order to save his own life and glory. Such a person is the best choice to persuade Li Yu to surrender.

Just when Wang Kunjun, Xu Shao'an and others mobilized the "dark feather" forces in the city through secret channels and tried to get in touch with Huangfu Jixun in order to implement the policy of persuading surrender, an urgent message from the Right Route Army, pasted with three chicken feathers representing 100,000 urgency, and three red letters "S" painted representing the top secret level, not only completely disrupted their plan to capture Jinling City, but also made them greatly shaken whether to continue to implement the siege policy of protecting the city and persuading them to surrender.

On the tenth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar of the second year of Jianlong, Wu Pingdong, deputy general of the Right Route Army of the Southern Expeditionary Army and commander of the Fourth Synthetic Infantry Division of the "Flying Dragon Army", reported urgently: Zeng Zhilin, the deputy commander of the founding uncle, the deputy commander of the Dianqian Division, the general of the Right Jin Wuwei, the defense envoy of Yanzhou, and the commander of the right route army of the Southern Expeditionary Army, was assassinated on the evening of the ninth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar of the second year of Jianlong while discussing surrender with General Jurong, and was seriously injured and in danger. Fu begging Song Guogong quickly sent generals and good doctors south to Jurong to stabilize the morale of the army and treat General Zeng.