Nanxiangzi (Yang Shen)
Carry the wine on the bard pavilion, full of rivers and mountains and painting screens.
Earn the hero's head like snow, meritorious name. Tiger Howling Dragon Chant a few wars.
A pillow of dreams is terrified, and the west wind of falling leaves does not call.
Whoever is weaker and stronger gives up, hurts. Listen to the fishing tree.
The "Battle of Guandu" was a highly influential battle at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and was listed as the "Three Major Battles" of the Three Kingdoms Period alongside the "Battle of Chibi" and the "Battle of Yiling". This is mainly because of the impact they have, not the scale. It is generally believed that the "Battle of Guandu" laid the foundation for Cao Cao's supremacy in the north to a certain extent, but only to a certain extent. In fact, after Yuan Shao's death, Cao Cao also spent five years to balance Yuan Tan, Yuan Shang, Yuan Xi, and Gao Gan, yuan Yuan's juniors, and eliminated the three counties of Wuhuan, which were very close to Yuan's forces, before he could completely digest Yuan Shao's forces. Moreover, between the "Battle of Guandu" and Yuan Shao's illness and death, and the split of Yuan's forces, there was another battle, that is, the "Battle of Cangting". Let's talk about this matter.
The "Battle of Guandu" only thwarted Yuan Shao's tendency to move south
The Battle of Guandu ended with Cao Cao's great victory. In essence, however, it was a defensive victory. Leaving aside the two sides of the battle, the impact caused, the comparison of troops and the losses of the two sides, there is no difference between the victories in the defensive battles such as the "Battle of Guandu" and the "Battle of Chibi", "The Battle of Yiling", "The Battle of Hefei", "The Battle of Xingshi", and "The Battle of Wusu".
After the "Battle of Guandu" was a complete victory, Cao Cao did not say a word, and directly entered Yuan Shao's territory to continue to pursue and expand the results of the battle. Therefore, simply looking at the "Battle of Guandu" itself, ignoring the influence of other factors such as Yuan Shao's illness and death, Yuan's internal division, etc., the "Battle of Guandu" only allowed Cao Cao to smash Yuan Shao's plan to go south and win himself living space.
Of course, this is not the case, after all, Cao Cao destroyed Yuan Shao's 70,000 or 80,000 soldiers in the "Battle of Guandu". Various historical records have discrepancies in the records of the troops invested by Yuan Shao in the "Battle of Guandu", and it is generally believed that Yuan Shao's strength was 100,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry, plus some battle losses in the course of the battle, almost the entire army was destroyed. However, Cao Cao's killing of 70,000 or 80,000 Yuan Shao people was also questioned by others. First of all, at that time, there was a bad style of lying about military merits and killing the enemy with one to ten; secondly, in the "Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, Wei Shu, And Wudi", it is recorded that Cao Cao's soldiers were dissatisfied with Wanwan, and pei Songzhi, a historian of the Southern Dynasty Song Dynasty, complained about this when he made a note for the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms": "Eighty thousand people ran away, and no eight thousand people could bind them." ”
Pei Songzhi means that in order to beautify the Emperor Wu and highlight Cao Cao's wise and divine martial arts, the "Records of Emperor Wu" has recorded Cao Cao's military strength less. Of course, Xiaobian also believes that Cao Cao's troops will not reach less than 10,000, but there is still a possibility in terms of the results achieved, although Yuan Shao's troops were crushed, but not 80,000 people surrendered and were killed, it may be that they all fled back to Hebei in a chaotic manner; the 70,000 or 80,000 people slaughtered by Cao Cao's side may be like the above-mentioned praise of the great army.
After the "Battle of Guandu", Yuan Shao still had strong strength
Taking a step back, even if Yuan Shao really destroyed his entire army in the "Battle of Guandu" and wiped out 100,000 troops, he still retained a certain strength. Yuan Shao controlled the four prefectures of Qingzhou, Jizhou, Youzhou, and Hezhou, although not all of the territory, especially Qingzhou, and Cao Cao also controlled some areas. So let's take a look at the three states of Jizhou, Hezhou, and Youzhou.
Yuan Shao and Wuhuan of the three counties of Youzhou have a very close relationship, and the two can be said to be a cooperative or subordinate relationship. In the "Battle of White Wolf Mountain" in the twelfth year of Jian'an (that is, 207 AD), the three counties of Wuhuan could take out tens of thousands of cavalry. Although the Three Counties wuhuan were not completely subject to Yuan Shao, if Yuan Shao had any major military action, or was threatened in some way, it was believed that the three counties of Wuhuan would still support Yuan Shao; Yuan Shao's nephew Gao Gan served as the assassin of Hezhou, according to the records in the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, Wei Shu And Zhao Zhao, in the ninth year of Jian'an (that is, in 204 AD) and the prefecture had a force of 50,000 troops; and Yuan Shao's stronghold of Jizhou, as well as Qingzhou in hebei, also had a certain strength.
In the seventh year of Jian'an (i.e., 202 AD), Yuan Shao fell ill and died, and Cao Cao immediately launched an attack on Jizhou, although he had an advantage, but was eventually repelled by Yuan Shang. If yuan shang and Yuan Tan had not attacked each other because of the inheritance problem, and Yuan Tan surrendered to Cao Cao, it would have been difficult for Cao Cao to eliminate the entrenched Yuan forces. Even so, Cao Cao still spent so long, it can be seen that the hundred-footed insect is dead but not stiff. Moreover, although the "Battle of Guandu" was the beginning of Yuan Shao's decline, it developed to this time, and it was more affected by other reasons.
On the other hand, Cao Cao's side. Victory was indeed achieved in the "Battle of Guandu", but first, the descendants did not use it and absorbed it into their own camp, but chose to kill them; second, although Cao Cao obtained a large amount of heavy property in the "Battle of Guandu" and greatly improved his equipment, he still lacked grain and grass. Moreover, some areas also rebelled because of Yuan Shao's threats and co-optation, and they were not calmed. Combined with the situation of the two, the "Battle of Guandu" did not completely defeat Yuan Shao, but only largely made up for the gap between the two sides and rebalanced the balance of victory.
The neglected "Battle of Cangting"
After the "Battle of Guandu", Cao Cao and Yuan Shao had another battle, that is, the "Battle of Cangting". The battle took place in the sixth year of Jian'an (i.e., 201 AD) not long after the Battle of Guandu. The Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms is very brief about the "Battle of Cangting", only knowing that Cao Cao followed Xun Yu's advice and regarded Yuan Shao as the primary target, so the two sides fought a battle at Cangtingjin. The final result was that Cao Cao won and Yuan Shao withdrew.
The specific process is not very detailed. Perhaps because the "Battle of Guandu" has spent a lot of ink, and the "Battle of Cangting" can be regarded as a follow-up to the "Battle of Guandu" in a sense. However, as a battle between the "Battle of Guandu" and Yuan Shao's illness and death, Xiaobian believes that there is still something to speak of.
As mentioned above, Yuan Shao still had a certain strength after the "Battle of Guandu", and Cao Cao did not get a qualitative leap. The victory at the Battle of Guandu allowed Cao Cao to essentially control the area near Hanoi, but in the northeast of Cangtingjin, there were still Yuan Shao's armies. Cangtingjin was also a location to threaten Yanzhou south of the river. Yuan Shaotun's troops were at Cangtingjin, perhaps hoping to maintain a military threat to Cao Cao, or to attack Cao Cao directly from Cangtingjin. If it is the latter, then Yuan Shao is like a gambler who has lost his red eyes, disregarding objective conditions and bent on turning the tables. From the life experience and personality of Yuan Shao, it is very likely that this psychology will appear.
However, the "Battle of Guandu" had a huge impact on the morale of both Cao Cao and Yuan Shao. Cao Cao successfully crossed the river to defeat Yuan Shao and take control of Cangtingjin. After the defeat of the "Battle of Cangting", except for attacking some rebellious counties, there was no major war between Yuan Shao and Cao Cao. Moreover, in the seventh year of Jian'an (that is, in 202 AD), Yuan Shao fell ill and died. If the "Battle of Guandu" made Yuan Shao's mentality chaotic, then the "Battle of Cangting" completely destroyed Yuan Shao's self-confidence.
brief summary
Yuan Shao was born in the Yuan clan of Runan, the third duke of the fourth dynasty, with rich political resources, and his entrepreneurial experience was also smooth, he served as an ally of the Dong alliance; the soldiers took Jizhou without bloodshed; there was such a big victory as the "Battle of jieqiao" against Gongsun Zhan, and later he took advantage of gongsun Zhan's contradictions with Xianbei, Wuhuan, and Liu Yu's old department to completely defeat Gongsun Zhan, sitting in the land of four states, and once became one of the most powerful warlords in the late Eastern Han Dynasty.
Yuan Shao's origins and his previous military career were too superior and smooth, and it was easy to create a proud character and a low-level contrarian businessman who was unwilling to admit defeat. This also caused Yuan Shao to fall ill and die after successive defeats in the "Battle of Guandu" and the "Battle of Cangting". In the Three Kingdoms period, there were many characters who failed in the early stages but were indomitable, such as Cao Cao, who had a huge defeat such as the "Change of Yanzhou". I have to say that a good attitude is also an indispensable quality for a person to achieve great things.
References: Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Historical Atlas of China