He was particularly praised as a capable vanguard, but his most famed accomplishment came with his supporting role in the defence of Hefei against Sun Quan's forces at the Battle of Xiaoyao Ford of 214–215.

[3] Yue Jin was born in Yangping Commandery (陽平郡), which is present-day Qingfeng County, Henan,[4] in the late Eastern Han dynasty.

For his effort, Yue Jin was put into test as an acting Major (司馬) and Formation Breaking Commandant (陷陣都尉).

During the siege of Xiapi, Yue Jin led a separate command and defeated one of Lü Bu's deputies outside the city before he joined the encirclement.

However, Sui Gu (眭固), a former Heishan bandit, killed Yang Chou when he was on his way to the imperial capital Xu (許; present-day Xuchang, Henan).

In order to merge Zhang Yang's remnants, Yue Jin intercepted Sui Gu when the latter attempted to go back north, and successfully hunted down his prey and took control of the Bing Province troops.

After rendezvousing with Yu Jin, they selected 5,000 elite soldiers composed of infantry and cavalry, and raided Yuan Shao's detached encampments along the Yellow River southwest from Yan Ford.

Determined to bet on the information, he picked Yue Jin as his vanguard in this desperate mission, and sneaked their way to Wuchao (烏巢; in present-day Yanjin, Henan) with 5,000 troops composed of mainly cavalry.

Nevertheless, Yue Jin climbed the city wall and opened the east gate, and the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry took its revenge by taking Yuan Tan's head.

Yue Jin was promoted to General Who Breaks and Charges (折衝將軍) by the Han imperial court in recognition of his contributions.

Yue Jin was ordered to station inside the city of Xiangyang, in anticipation of counterstrikes by Sun Quan's general Zhou Yu.

When Liu Bei's general Guan Yu was attempting to cut the connection between Jiangling County and Xiangyang, he was stymied by Yue Jin, who led his army out and defeated him.

Yue Jin forced the barbarians of southern Jing Province to surrender, and mimicked Guan Yu's infiltration strategy to attack Du Pu (杜普) and Liang Da (梁大), the respective chiefs of Linju (臨沮) and Jingyang (旌陽) counties, which were Liu Bei's territories.

Yue Jin was ordered to stay behind to defend the city with Xue Ti – who actually assumed a higher command than Zhang Liao, and was there to ensure that the three generals executed Cao Cao's orders – while Li Dian and Zhang Liao led a force of 800 men out to engage the enemy.

Sun Quan lost two generals on the first encounter, but his army managed to force Zhang Liao and Li Dian back into the fortified citadel.

This piece of news was received by Zhang Liao, who immediately led several thousand elite cavalry to pursue the enemy commander.

On 4 June 257,[c] the Wei general Zhuge Dan also started a rebellion in Shouchun and sent his troops to kill Yue Chen.

There were two incidents which showcased his skill: in Chapter 12, he fired an arrow at Lü Bu's general Cheng Lian (成廉) and killed him;[34] in Chapter 33, he killed Yuan Tan's adviser Guo Tu with a single arrow shot when Guo was attempting to escape after his defeat.

[36] In Chapter 68, in an engagement after the Battle of Xiaoyao Ford, Yue Jin duelled with Sun Quan's general Ling Tong for more than 50 rounds but neither of them won.

Yue Jin then moved in for the kill, but before he could slay Ling Tong, he was hit in the face by an arrow fired by Gan Ning.

Yue Jin is first introduced as a playable character in the eighth instalment of Koei's Dynasty Warriors video game series.