Chapter 326: Death of Zhang Jin, Pacification of Jiaozhou Cangwu County, Guangxin City, this place is Shi Xie’s hometown and also the seat of Cangwu government. However, at this time, Guangxin was already surrounded by Qin Zhen's troops. The battle to pacify Jiaozhou was definitely the least challenging battle Qin Zhen had ever fought in his life. Because Zhang Jin was too easy to bully, even worse than the Yellow Turban Army. After all, although the Yellow Turban Army was a motley crowd, they had a large number of soldiers, and there were always many elite soldiers among the hundreds of thousands of soldiers. Even the major generals have some courage and can pose some threat to them. But Zhang Jin was completely powerless to resist and posed no threat at all. If it weren't for his subordinates Xue Zong and Xu Jing who gave advice, Zhang Jin wouldn't have been able to resist for even a few days. Since the battle of Gaoyao, Zhang Jin suffered defeat after defeat and retreated all the way to Guangxin.

When Qin Zhen arrived at the foot of Guangxin City and took a look, he immediately ordered to take soil to fill the canal in preparation for a strong attack. Because Guangxin City looked like it had not been fought for many years and was in a state of disrepair. The east and west walls have different colors, and most of the deer antlers outside the city have been damaged. Except for a few main roads outside the city, there are weeds and dead branches everywhere. This kind of city is no different from other big cities. It can be attacked directly with just a little preparation. He first set fire to burn the weeds outside the city on the southeast sides, and then ordered the soldiers to fill the moat there. Upon seeing this, Zhang Jin quickly ordered his soldiers to shoot, but the arrows from the city were sparse. Seeing this situation, Zhang Jin intended to order his generals to go into battle and attack Qin Zhen's engineering team. However, the generals had already been frightened by Taishi Ci and others, so how could they dare to leave the city to fight? So Zhang Jin had no choice but to watch Qin Zhen work. In three days, Qin Zhen had filled up most of the river and the road was now smooth. When he arrived here, Zhang Jin learned from his previous experience and ordered people to bring in a large amount of supplies for defending the city. He personally observed from the city wall every day, waiting for Qin Zhen to lead his troops to attack the two southeast gates. Unexpectedly, after Qin Zhen filled the moat, he did not take any action. After a few days, he launched dozens of catapults. Also because Jiaozhou is rich in trees, the wood needed in the Central Plains can be found everywhere here. The only disadvantage was that the stone bullets used to hurl stones at the upper city were hard to find here. But Qin Zhen had experience when he attacked Jiangdong. Since there were no stones to mine, he made pottery bullets. Compared with stone bullets, pottery bullets are more brittle and are extremely easy to break after hitting the city wall. But if someone is hit by this thing, they will either die or be injured, and the broken pieces can also cause great damage to the soldiers defending the city. In just a few days, Qin Zhen fired thousands of stone bombs, set up catapults outside the city, and threw them crazily at the city. At one time, dozens or even hundreds of pottery shells, accompanied by the sound of wind, smashed onto the walls of Guangxin city with a loud bang.

The generals under Zhang Jin had never seen such a scene before, and were so frightened that they dared not stick their heads out. However, when the pottery bullets reached the city, they shattered immediately, and earth and rocks flew everywhere, injuring countless archers. When Zhang Jin saw this, he was horrified and hurriedly asked everyone for advice, but Xu Jing and Xue Zong were not good at military affairs. Only Shi Huang, the governor of Cangwu, had some knowledge of military affairs. When he saw Qin Zhen attacking the city with catapults, he said: “You can build a wooden house on the wall, cover it with soil and rocks, and leave a hole for shooting arrows.” "If the enemy is throwing stones, send the soldiers inside to hide. If the enemy is attacking the city, shoot from inside the house!" "With this defense, even if the enemy throws rocks up the wall, it will be difficult to hurt our soldiers!" When Zhang Jin heard this, he was overjoyed and ordered his men to dismantle the houses overnight and build houses on the walls, which caused complaints from the people in the city. The next day, Qin Zhen launched another stone-throwing attack on the city. The soldiers on the city walls then hid in their houses, which indeed reduced a lot of damage. Seeing that the situation had improved somewhat, Zhang Jin felt relieved, thinking that Qin Zhen would find it difficult to break into the city. However, because Qin Zhen did not go into battle and only threw stones onto the city every day, the people in the city had no means of counterattack and their morale plummeted. Before Zhang Jin could respond, Xu Jing came to Zhang Jin and said: "Now Liu Bei has numerous elite soldiers and generals under his command. How can we resist him with our few soldiers in Jiaozhou?" "If this continues, people's minds will change and you will be defeated sooner or later. It is better to surrender now." "Jing boasts that he has some face and is willing to go out of the city to surrender. This will surely allow Qin Zhen to save your life." Speaking of Xu Jing, he was also one of the famous scholars in the late Han Dynasty. He and his brother Xu Shao founded Yuedanping and became famous throughout the world. When Dong Zhuo was in power, Xun Shuang, Han Rong, Chen Ji and others were ministers and county governors. Later, when the princes were fighting against Dong Zhuo, Xu Jing joined the army. After Kong Rong died, he went to Chen Yi, the governor of Yangzhou. After Chen Yi's death, Sun Ce rose in Jiangdong, and Xu Jing went south to Jiaozhi. Xu Jing also has another identity, he is Zhang Jin's recommender. It is because of his recommendation that Zhang Jin was able to take up the post of Governor of Jiaozhou. In the original history, Xu Jing was later recruited by Liu Zhang, and came to Liu Bei's army, and eventually became one of the three highest officials in Shu. Therefore, he likes to discover and promote talents, and his circle of friends are all bigwigs. Even after Zhuge Liang took office as prime minister, he would bow respectfully whenever he met Xu Jing. Naturally, he had good intentions at this time, fearing that Zhang Jin would be directly killed by Qin Zhen after his defeat. But when Zhang Jin heard his words, he flew into a rage and pointed at Xu Jing and said: "I respect your reputation, so I always treat you as a guest of honor!" "Now Qin Zhen has come here without any orders, but intends to do something unjust." "Why didn't you go outside the city to persuade them to leave? Instead, you persuaded me to surrender. What's the logic of this?" "If everyone in the city is like you, Xu Wenxiu, I will die without a burial place!" After shouting angrily for a while, he detained Xu Jing on the grounds of disturbing the morale of the army.

When everyone saw this, they were all shocked and rushed forward to persuade them. Xue Zong hurriedly said: "Mr. Xu advised the envoy out of public interest and did not commit any serious crime!" "If you don't listen to my advice, then forget it. Why did you take Lord Xu into custody?" "I hope you will take back your order, otherwise the soldiers in the city will be in chaos!" You should know that Xu Jing is not just a simple celebrity. He has a kind character and often helps his relatives and friends. He enjoys a very high prestige among the soldiers. Zhang Jin had already lost the support of the army, and now imprisoning Xu Jing was simply courting his own death. But Zhang Jin was so angry that he could not listen to these words. He glared at him and said, "Xu Wenxiu wants to harm me, and now Xue Jingwen wants to follow him?" After hearing this, Xue Zong fell silent, sighed in his heart, and simply left the house. That night, as the news of Xu Jing's detention spread, the soldiers all became dissatisfied. That very night, many soldiers climbed down the city wall with ropes and surrendered to Qin Zhen's army. When Qin Zhen heard that Zhang Jin dared to detain Xu Jing, he smiled and said to everyone: "I am besieging here but not attacking, firstly to wait for Gongjin's trust, and secondly to win the hearts of the people in the city." "Now that Gongjin's heart has not yet arrived, the people in the city are already divided. Zhang Jin's death is imminent." "Pass on my military order. Prepare food at 11:00 . tomorrow and attack the city at 11:00 . This city must fall within three days!" Compared with the sharp drop in morale of the Jiaozhou soldiers in the city, Taishi Ci, Xu Sheng and others outside the city had already been full of fighting spirit. After all, this is most likely the last chance to gain credit in the southern expedition to Jiaozhou, and they certainly can't let it go! After receiving the order, everyone went down to prepare, and waited until the next morning after breakfast to leave the camp at sunrise. The soldiers on the city wall thought that Qin Zhen would continue to throw stones and fire bullets, and most of them were not mentally prepared. Unexpectedly, as the war drums sounded, Qin Zhen's soldiers rushed towards the city carrying ladders. The sudden attack frightened the soldiers so much that they quickly began to resist. Fortunately, Guangxin City was higher and larger than the main city, and Zhang Jin had prepared supplies for defending the city in advance, so they were able to withstand the first wave of attacks. However, this time, the main attacking troops under Qin Zhen's command were soldiers from Nanyue. Most of these cannibals are willing to sacrifice their lives. Even if they are injured several times, they will still climb up the wall and bite the soldiers guarding the city. After a fierce attack in one day, Qin Zhen lost more than a thousand soldiers and horses, and the casualties were almost one to one. The soldiers on the city wall became more frightened upon seeing this, and began to surrender in large numbers. There were even many generals defending the city who directly opened the city gates and led their soldiers to defect from the city. Overnight, the number of soldiers in the city decreased by more than 1,200. Until the second half of the night, the South Gate was almost unguarded. After Zhang Jin got up, he heard that the soldiers were fleeing in large numbers. He was furious and directly ordered the establishment of a supervision team. He also ordered the soldiers to report on each other, and anyone who dared to defect would be executed immediately. So on the second day, Qin Zhen continued to attack the city, but most of the soldiers were lazy and did not want to resist.

Zhang Jin was shocked when he saw this, and hurriedly asked the prefect Shi Huang to lead the soldiers to resist Qin Zhen's troops. It can be said that Shi Huang was very unlucky. He could have met any other superior, but he had to meet Zhang Jin. Seeing that Zhang Jin was unable to command the army, he had to go to the city himself to resist Qin Zhen's attack. Although the generals did not obey Zhang Jin's orders, they did not dare to disobey Shi Huang's military orders. In desperation, the generals had to order their soldiers to fight hard. After resisting for a day, they finally repelled Qin Zhen's attack. Shi Huang was not young anymore. Seeing Qin Zhen's fierce attack, he said to Zhang Jin: "Now the morale of our troops is low, and this city is difficult to defend. You may as well retreat to Yulin to resist." "The land of Yulin is dangerous and has many dense forests. We can set up an ambush on the road to defend against the enemy." "Otherwise, relying on this city and this army alone, it may be difficult to hold out until Qin Zhen withdraws!" He thought that he couldn't bear it any longer, so he decided to get rid of Zhang Jin, the plague god, first. After Zhang Jin left, Qin Zhen could leave if he wanted to, but if he continued to attack, he would lead his people in surrender. At that time, without Zhang Jin's interference, he could surrender calmly without bearing the blame. But Zhang Jin was also a weirdo. Hearing the low morale, he said: "It doesn't matter. I will burn incense and pray tonight, and I will ensure that the soldiers fight to the death tomorrow!" "The land of Yulin is remote and full of mountains. I don't want to go there." "Let's resist here. I don't think Qin Zhen can break through our defenses!" After saying this, he closed himself off from his surroundings, changed into Taoist robes, and began to burn incense and pray. Seeing this, Shi Huang felt helpless and had to leave the county magistrate's mansion. Unexpectedly, as soon as he left the house, he heard a piece of news that Jiaozhi Prefect Shi Xie had been persuaded to surrender by Liu Bei's army. Now, in addition to Qin Zhen's navy, there are two other armies coming to support. When Shi Huang heard what he said, he was horrified and hurried into the mansion to inform Zhang Jin. However, after hearing this, Zhang Jin just cursed Shi Xie and made no other arrangements. Shi Huang looked at Zhang Jin like this and said that he really couldn't lead him, so he had to order the news to be blocked. But when he gave the order, it was already too late, as the news of Shi Xie's surrender to Liu Bei's army had already spread throughout the city. The generals had long been dissatisfied with Zhang Jin, and now when they heard that Shi Xie had surrendered, they immediately became dissatisfied. Qu Jing, who was previously pointed out by Zhang Jin to go down to the city to fight Taishi Ci, was particularly like this. He gathered everyone together and said: "We are facing a powerful enemy. We are fighting desperately outside, while Zhang Jinshang is burning incense and praying in the mansion." "Now that Lord Shifu has surrendered, the only land left in Jiaozhou is Cangwu County." "If we fight again, we will surely die at the hands of the enemy when the city is breached."

"Since Zhang Jin is unjust, I want to kill him and let him leave the city to surrender. What do you think?" The generals had long had dissenting ideas, but they had no one to take the lead. Now that Qu Jing had proposed it, naturally all the generals would agree. Immediately, everyone gave up defending the city and marched towards the county governor's mansion with their troops. As for the people inside the mansion, Shi Huang saw what was happening and hurriedly asked questions, but was captured by the generals. Zhang Jin was horrified when he heard the noise, and tried to climb over the wall in a hurry, but was caught by Qu Jing and killed on the spot with a single blow. After killing Zhang Jin, Qu Jing mounted his horse and led the people out of the city and joined Qin Zhen's army. When Qin Zhen saw that Zhang Jin was dead, he was overjoyed. He quickly ordered his men to enter Guangxin City and post notices to reassure the people. No further details will be given. At this point, Guangxin fell, and the entire Jiaozhou area was brought into the sphere of influence of Liu Bei's army. (End of this chapter)