Zeng Zhilin was assassinated, seriously injured and in danger, and this news caused the brothers who were in a meeting to discuss the next step in seizing Jinling. Wang Kunjun, who was originally sitting on the chair, stood up, walked a few steps, and snatched the report from Wang Baoshan, commander of the First Synthetic Infantry Division of the "Flying Dragon Army", who was reading the report, and watched it carefully; Xu Shaoan also stood up suddenly, pointed to the messenger standing aside, and asked: "It's just a county town, and the guards will surrender if they want to surrender, what is there to talk about." Even if you really need to talk, just send a commander to talk to him, Lao 26 is the commander of the first army, where is he needed to do this kind of thing personally. Moreover, since it was a negotiation between the two sides, the Right Route Army should have been prepared in case the other side was cheating, why did Lao Twenty-six be assassinated and injured, and those personal guards around him were all dead"; Mutel stepped forward and intervened and said, "Jurong County surrendered by fraud and injured the twenty-sixth brother. I implore the fifth brother and the starling brother to give the brother an arrow, and the brother will not return Jurong County if he does not step on the ground. ”

Seeing Xu Shaoan staring at the messenger delivering the letter, there was a tendency to screw off the other party's head. And Mutel is already full of blood, and he can't wait to slap Jurong County into powder. After reading the entire report, Wang Kunjun sighed secretly in his heart, and while signaling the two of them to be calm, he handed the report to Xu Shao'an, so that they could understand the ins and outs of the matter, and not to spill their anger on irrelevant people.

Speaking of which, on the one hand, Zeng Zhilin's assassination was because some officials in Jiangnan used conspiracy to secretly send dead soldiers to assassinate him, taking advantage of the opportunity of negotiations between the two sides. On the other hand, it is also too rigid with Zeng Zhilin's policy of winning the hearts of the people and killing less people formulated before the southern expedition of the crossing team, especially after the battle of Jiangzhou, when attacking cities and conquering places, he could not be lenient and severe, and he could not use both grace and power, but blindly emphasized the soldiers who surrendered without a fight, and the soldiers seized the state and county without blood. So much so that after hearing that Jurong County intended to surrender, he accepted the other party's request for face-to-face negotiations despite the opposition of the generals and guards around him, and had a great deal to do with the negligence and relaxation of vigilance on the security issues at the negotiation site.

According to Wu Pingdong's report, since the division of troops between the Right Route Army and the Left Route Army, they have played triumphantly all the way, and all the military villages of the Jiangnan Army have surrendered without a fight along the way, among which Lishui County is led by the county commander of the local garrison and a group of subordinate officials out of the city to greet him, so that Zeng Zhilin, who is the commander of the army, has earned enough face. In fact, since Zeng Zhilin launched an infantry attack on Jiangzhou City in advance in order to avoid killing and injuring too many civilians in the city, and buried Hu Ze, who died defending the city, and Song Deming, who was seriously wounded, his reputation as a benevolent and handsome general has been spreading. After that, the Chizhou commander made Ge Yan be persuaded by Song Deming to surrender, and Dangtu, Wuhu and other prefectures and counties surrendered, although it was the general trend, but it was also related to Zeng Zhilin's name.

When the Right Route Army entered the outside of Jurong City, the first reaction of the Jurong County Order and the commander stationed in the area was to ask who the commander of the Tanma Zhou Army was. After learning that it was Zeng Zhilin, who was known as a benevolent commander and a righteous general, he made the decision to surrender the city and not to resist. In other words, the officials and guards of Jurong County really wanted to surrender to Zeng Zhilin. The reason for the subsequent mutation is entirely because one person got in the way, first turning voluntary surrender into face-to-face negotiations, and then turning face-to-face negotiations into assassinations. And this insidious and vicious guy who got in the way is none other than Lu Xuan, the Marquis of Lingbo of the Jiangnan Army, who led 8,000 sailors to reinforce Runzhou, but was defeated and lost by Mutel's troops, and only escaped with more than 100 people.

Lu Xuan, who was originally driven to the ship by Muttel like a lost dog, planned to return to Jinling with more than 100 henchmen and more than 1,000 sailors who were responsible for guarding the ship to ask Li Yu for his guilt. He never thought that he and his subordinates would not be far from Jingjiang Village, the landing site, by boat, when they encountered the old Houzhou navy patrolling along the river. Under the circumstance that the troops, combat strength, and morale of the army are weaker than those of the other party, the fate of Lu Qi, the remnants of the army that has just experienced a fiasco, the number of troops is insufficient, and the number of warships is also very different. If it weren't for the experienced captain who operated the Lu Qizuo ship, he rushed to the beach before the warship was completely destroyed, so that the people on board had a chance to run to the shore, I was afraid that this Marquis of Lingbo Duyu would become the Marquis of Shenjiang Duyu.

However, Lu Qian just chose a life this time. Not only did he pay the price of having his left arm broken, but there were only a dozen or so of his relatives who followed him, and the rest of his relatives were either buried in the belly of the fish or were shot to death by Zhou Jun's arrows on the riverbank.

Although he was almost alone and injured, Lu Xuan's mind of returning to Jinling to ask for guilt did not change. In his opinion, as a courtier, he failed to complete the important task assigned by the lord of the country, and he should return to the court to receive the punishment. It is said that only one arm is broken, and even if both legs are broken, he must let his subordinates carry him back. But the problem is that he, Lu Xuan, wants to go back to Jinling to apologize for his crimes, but his relatives and followers are unwilling to give their lives in vain for the sake of loyalty to the mediocre and incompetent lord. What's more, at this time, the Zhou army's more than 100,000 troops were slaughtering in many directions, and Jinling City was already in a catastrophe, and there was no need to go back. So, they took turns to persuade their master not to return to Jinling, but to the southeast, to his cousin Zhen Xiang, who was a county magistrate in Jurong County, more than 50 miles away from Jinling City, to take refuge for a while, and then make plans after the situation stabilized.

The bitter persuasion of his entourage, the chaos of the current situation, the threat of the Zhou army coming to the city, and the psychological impact of escaping death after two catastrophes made Lu Qian have a deeper and clearer understanding of life and death. He felt that he was able to live until now because he was favored by God, and he should keep this remnant body and continue to do something far more meaningful and valuable than death for the Jiangnan court and the people of Jiangnan, so as to live up to God's favor. Even if you die immediately after doing something big, you will die vigorously and well. Therefore, after a fierce ideological struggle, Lu Qian finally accepted the advice of his subordinates, gave up the idea of returning to Jinling to kill him, and turned around and went to Jurong in the southeast.

Just a few days after Lu Qian arrived in Jurong and took refuge in the mansion of his cousin Zhen Xiang, the commander of Jurong County, Zeng Zhilin's department approached the county seat. When Lu Qian learned from his personal entourage that the Zhou army was about to come to the city, his cousin and the commander of the garrison in the city intended to surrender the city, his first reaction was to sigh, lamenting that his ambition was difficult to pay, and lamenting that he had no chance to leave a name in history. However, the sigh and emotion only lasted for a moment, and as his entourage reported to him that the commander of the Zhou army who led the army this time was the famous "benevolent and handsome general" Zeng Zhilin, and after learning more about Zeng Zhilin's situation and rumors, Lu Juan's ambition that had just been thrown aside was quickly recovered. Because he saw an opportunity from this news, an opportunity to do great things, an opportunity to leave a name in history, and an opportunity to obtain a great credit sufficient to compensate for his sin of losing his teacher and land.

So, after careful weighing, careful consideration, and comprehensive analysis, Lu Qian immediately sent someone to invite his cousin Zhen Xiang to his room, and began to discuss the current situation with the other party as a brother and an important minister of the court, discuss the Zhou army that is about to come to the city, and discuss how to do things to protect Jurong City without losing the face of the lord of the country, the court and himself.

To be able to save the face of the lord, the court and himself when the city surrendered, Zhen Xiang naturally couldn't ask for it, and immediately asked this cousin who was older than himself, had a higher official position than himself, and had more experience than himself. And Lu Qian took this opportunity to propose to his cousin that all the prefectures and counties that had taken the initiative to surrender to the Zhou army before either first exchanged secret letters with the other party and then offered the city, or directly opened the city and surrendered after getting rid of the opponents. Cousin, since you want to be different, since you want to be praised, since you want to save more face for the lord, the court and yourself, then it is better to propose to the Zhou army that the heads of the two sides negotiate face-to-face in the neutral area, and then surrender the city after reaching an agreement. In this way, not only can you save some face for the lord, the court and yourself, but also because you can "do things that others have not done and do things that others have not done", it is possible for you to be praised by the officials and people of the world, and even go down in history in the future

Zhen Xiang listened to this, thinking that what his cousin said was very true, and while thanking the other party for his advice, he began to arrange for his right-hand man to send a letter to the Zhou army, stating his sincerity in surrendering and hoping to negotiate before the formal surrender, so as to show the sincerity of both sides on this matter.

Judging from the comparison of strength and the difference in status between the two sides, these requirements of the Jurong County Order are very excessive, completely inconsistent with the etiquette law, and seem very arrogant. But Zeng Zhilin, who was immersed in the praise of "benevolent and handsome generals", did not feel resentful at all, but admired the courage and character of Jurong County Order. Therefore, he ignored the persuasion of his staff, advisers, generals, and personal guards, insisted on accepting Zhen Xiang's conditions, and preliminarily agreed that the two sides would negotiate on surrender matters on the ninth day of the fifth lunar month of the second year of Jianlong in a neutral area between Jurong County and the camp of the Zhou army's right army. At the same time, the two sides also agreed that both sides would only bring 10 personal entourage, that the camp tent used for the negotiation would be provided by the Jurong County side, and that the personal entourage would not enter the tent during the negotiation.