The Great Defeat of the Three Kingdoms: How did Yuan Shao turn a good deck of cards into a bad one?

In the history of the Three Kingdoms at the end of the Han Dynasty, Yuan Shao was a very important figure. He was born in the "Runan Yuan family", a famous gentry family in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Among the four generations of his family, five people were worshiped by the Three Dukes (Taiwei, Situ and Sikong, the three most prominent official positions at that time). Due to his prominent family background, Yuan Shao was highly valued by the imperial court at a young age. He rose to the rank of lieutenant in the Central Military Academy and was in charge of the capital's garrison.

Later Dong Zhuo took power and the world was in chaos. Yuan Shao was elected as the leader of the "Kwantung Alliance" and took the lead in the crusade against Dong Zhuo. After the fall of Dong Zhuo, Yuan Shao successively occupied the four states of Ji, Qing, Bing, and You (states are equivalent to current provinces, and there were 13 states in the country at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty), becoming the most powerful separatist force at that time. However, Yuan Shao failed to expand his advantage into victory in the end. After Cao Cao was defeated in the "Battle of Guandu", Yuan Shao's power in the north was sharply reduced. In 202 AD, Yuan Shao died of illness. A few years later, the four states of Ji, Qing, Bing, and You were all annexed by Cao Cao, and the Yuan Shao family completely withdrew from the stage of history. So the question is, Yuan Shao clearly got a good hand, how did he completely destroy it?

Most people who have read "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" will think that Yuan Shao has no talent, is headstrong, and is incompetent. Cao Cao's evaluation of him in the book is: "Yuan Shaose is timid and timid, and he is always scheming. He cherishes his life when he does big things, and forgets his life when he sees small profits: he is not a hero."

However, Yuan Shao in real history was actually not that bad. When Yuan Shao was young, he liked to make friends with powerful men and raise dead soldiers. He often imitated the style of Lord Mengchang during the Warring States Period. Later, after Yuan Shao supported the separatist regime, he treated the talents who came to seek refuge with courtesy. For example, when Liu Bei was desperate, he ran to Yuan Shao's territory, and Yuan Shao left Yecheng for 200 miles to greet him. Therefore, it is said that Yuan Shao did not recognize talents. Not objective. However, Yuan Shao's biggest problem was knowing people but not employing them. He recruited a large number of talents, but he was far inferior to his main rival Cao Cao in terms of employing people.

Guo Jia, Cao Cao's most important counselor, defected to Yuan Shao in his early years, but soon after, Guo Jia decided to go home. Before leaving, Guo Jia said this to Yuan Shao's other advisers: "Yuan Gong wants to imitate Zhou Gong in treating virtuous officers, but he doesn't know how to employ people. He is full of thoughts but lacks the essentials, likes to plan but has no decisiveness. He wants to be the overlord with such a person." The task is difficult!”

Long before Cao Cao “took the emperor to command the princes”, Yuan Shao’s counselor Jushou suggested that he should take the opportunity to welcome Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty, who was in exile in the Hedong area, to Yecheng. As soon as you come, you can control the emperor and increase your political capital. However, Yuan Shao believed that taking the emperor into his own territory would weaken his power, so he refused to adopt it. As a result, a year later, Cao Cao, at Xun Yu's suggestion, welcomed Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty to Xu County and changed its name to Xu Du. Yuan Shao finally came to his senses, but it was a pity that it was too late.

Yuan Shao has three sons, namely: the eldest son Yuan Tan, the second son Yuan Xi, and the third son Yuan Shang. Among them, Yuan Shang is more handsome, and Yuan Shao is a person who loves beauty, so he especially likes the third child and intends to make Yuan Shang his successor. Jushou painstakingly warned, "If the general insists on doing this, he may cause trouble to Xiao Qiang in the future." Yuan Shao felt that Jusuke's words were reasonable, but he was not willing to let his third son suffer, so he came up with a compromise plan: using his eldest son Yuan Tan as his As the governor of Qingzhou, his second son Yuan Xi was appointed as the governor of Youzhou, his nephew Gao Gan was appointed as the governor of Bingzhou, and his third son Yuan Shang was left by his side. Yuan Shao's explanation to the outside world was to let each of these children occupy a state to examine their talents. But in fact, this planted the seeds for the subsequent division and destruction of the Yuan Shao family.

In the fifth year of Jian'an (200), the decisive battle between Yuan Shao Group and Cao Cao Group was about to break out. However, just before the two sides prepared for war, a major problem occurred within Cao Cao's group: Liu Bei rebelled and occupied Xuzhou. In order to solve the future troubles, Cao Cao decided to immediately conquer Liu Bei personally. At this time, counselor Tian Feng immediately said to Yuan Shao: "The one who fights for the world with the public is Cao Cao. Now that Cao Cao is attacking Liu Bei in the east, it will not be easy to stop his troops for a while. We now raise our troops to attack Cao Cao's rear, and we will be able to do it in one go." However, Yuan Shao said to Tian Feng: "My son is sick. How can I have the mind to fight now?" After hearing this, Tian Feng came out angrily, raised his stick and said: "This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity is thrown away because my child is sick. What a pity!" Yuan Shao was very unhappy when he heard that Tian Feng said bad things about him, and he alienated Tian Feng from then on.

After Liu Bei's defeat, he defected to Yuan Shao, and Yuan Shao decided to attack Cao Cao. Tian Feng remonstrated again and said: "Now that the opportunity to fight has been lost, it is better to fight a protracted war with Cao Cao.

The general held strong mountains and rivers, and had the people of the four states. He only needed to select elite troops as surprise troops, and frequently launched small-scale raids on Cao Cao, leaving Cao Cao exhausted. In less than three years, Cao Cao will be defeated. "Yuan Shao originally had objections to Tian Feng, so he refused to adopt any of his suggestions. Tian Feng believed that the matter was of great importance, so he tried his best to dissuade him. As a result, Yuan Shao thought that he had corrupted the morale of the army and sent Tian Feng to prison.

In August of the fifth year of Jian'an (200), Yuan Shao and Cao Cao stationed troops to confront each other in Guandu, and the "Battle of Guandu" officially began. Yuan Shao's military strength was about five times higher than that of Cao Cao, so he had an overwhelming advantage. In this fateful battle, Yuan Shao made fatal mistakes again and again. As a result, Cao Cao defeated the strong with the weak and was completely defeated.

Yuan Shao retreated to Yecheng and attacked himself. The confidant said: "I don't need Tian Fengyan, and now he will laugh at me. "In order to avoid embarrassment, Yuan Shao actually ordered Tian Feng to be killed.

Looking at Yuan Shao's defeat, he actually lost mainly in two aspects: First, Yuan Shao knew people but was not good at employing them. Many people think Cao Cao's counselors and generals are much more capable than Yuan Shao's counselors and generals. This is actually a misunderstanding. For example, Tian Feng and Jushou may not be as talented as Xun Yu and Xun You, but they did not meet a lord who knows people and is good at their duties. , naturally there is no place for heroes; secondly, Yuan Shao is very scheming and makes no decisions. He often thinks about simple problems very complicated and makes constant decisions, which makes him confused. This is especially obvious in the confrontation with Cao Cao.

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Reference: "Three Kingdoms"