Guangyuan the military governor of Yiwu Circuit (義武, headquartered in modern Baoding, Hebei) serving as his deputy. Zhang quickly put Taiyuan under siege, building a wall around it to plan for a lengthy siege. However, by this time, Shi had received promise from Khitan's Emperor Taizong that he would come to Shi's aid in the fall, and Li Congke, hearing of this, ordered Zhang to intensify the siege. Zhang did, but due to weather issues, his offensive bulwarks had difficulty being completed, and while the situation in Hedong's capital Taiyuan was becoming desperate, with food supplies dwindling, the city did not fall. In fall 936, Emperor Taizong arrived with a Khitan army, and quickly engaged the Later Tang army under Zhang. When the two armies engaged, the Khitan feigned weakness and appeared to withdraw, and led the Later Tang forces into a trap where they were cut in two by the subsequent Khitan charge. Half of the army was slaughtered. Zhang took the other half and retreated to Jin'an Base (), near Taiyuan. The Khitan/Hedong armies thereafter surrounded his army. Zhang's army was sieged for several months there, and made several attempts to fight its way out of the encirclement, led by Zhang's subordinates Gao Xingzhou and Fu Yanqing, but was unsuccessful. Its food supplies became drained, and the situation became desperate. Zhang, however, refused to surrender, believing that other Later Tang generals would eventually come to his aid. When Yang and another general, An Shenqi (), urged him to surrender, he responded: Yang thereafter tried to get An to join him in assassinating Zhang, but An did not have the heart to do so. Gao became aware that Yang was considering assassinating Zhang, and often tried to stay close to Zhang to protect him, but Zhang did not realize this and in fact became suspicious of Gao's being too close to him, so Gao was forced to distance himself. One morning, when the generals were to meet for briefing, Yang arrived first before the other generals, and proceeded to kill Zhang. He cut off Zhang's head and surrendered the army to Emperor Taizong. Emperor Taizong had long respected Zhang for his reputation and his faithfulness, and he had Zhang buried with honor. Notes and references History of the Five Dynasties, vol. 70. New History of the Five Dynasties, vol. 33. Zizhi Tongjian, vols. 278, 279, 280. 936 deaths Generals