Decapitations of enemy generals were relatively rare on the battlefield. Even in the Three Kingdoms era, such glorious moments usually revolved around that whole group of top-tier warriors. The only exception was probably Lü Bu.
After all, when Lü Bu first appeared, he looked down upon the world and instantly slew several enemy generals. Later, it took Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei joining forces to defeat him. After that, Lü Bu achieved little of note. Even after wine and women had sapped him past his prime, no one ever played the dueling game with him anymore—they simply ganged up on him whenever they saw him.
Yu Jin's combat strength was indeed considerable. As one of the Five Elite Generals, he was stronger than Old Cao's clique of relative-generals. Unfortunately, he ran into Huang Zhong. He did not even know whose hand he died by, while Huang Zhong had no idea whom he had killed.
Speaking of the Five Elite Generals, they were Zhang Liao, Yue Jin, Yu Jin, Zhang He, and Xu Huang. All were first-rate battlefield commanders, and none were merely reckless brutes. They were all intelligent, capable of independently commanding tens of thousands of troops in major campaigns.
But Zhang Liao had followed Lü Bu in defecting to Wang Yan, while Zhang He had been captured alive after losing in battle and had also joined Wang Yan, even persuading Gao Lan to come along. They had already been unable to form a complete group, and now Yu Jin had been killed by Huang Zhong. There was also Dian Wei, who had gone ever further down the path of becoming a musclehead and was quite comfortable serving as a Black Armored Colonel.
It could be said that Old Cao's fortune had been thoroughly plucked bare by General