The reason why Yuan Shu was able to recruit many generals and generals was that the golden sign of "Four Dynasties and Three Dukes" made a great contribution.
In the last years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Yuan Shu was a rather strange existence, and he was chased like a lost dog, but he could always be revived quickly with blood.
For example, when he did not want to rely on Dong Zhuo, he only fled to Nanyang with dozens of people, and Yuan Shu at that time was called a miserable ah.
As a result, Sun Jian, who was the Taishou of Changsha at the time, heard that Yuan Shu was coming, and without saying a word, he killed Nanyang Taishou and led his subordinates to attach themselves to Yuan Shu.
In this way, Nanyang County, which had a population of tens of millions at that time, and Changsha County, which had a large number of elite soldiers, became the territory of Yuan Shu, and Yuan Shu also gained a firm foothold, and then transformed into one of the great princes of the world at that time.
There are many similar situations, every time someone rushes to join Yuan Shu, so that Even if Yuan Shu is completely destroyed, he can quickly turn over and resurrect, in short, there are always endless soldiers and generals.
The main reason for this situation is Yuan Shu's golden signboard of "Four Dynasties and Three Dukes", but don't underestimate this signboard, which is the biggest reliance on Yuan Shu to run amok in the early years.
With this signboard, Yuan Shu had achieved the largest territory and the strongest strength in the early years.
After Sun Jian attached himself to Yuan Shu, he marched east and west, conquering a lot of jiangnan land, and at the same time defeating Dong Zhuo's subordinates Hu Yun and Lü Bu, and then killing Hua Xiong by the way, and the army rushed straight to luoyang city.
What made Sun Jian so deadly was that yuan shu's envelopment of him.
Of course, according to Sun Jian's disposition, what kind of fragrant car beauty he is naturally not rare, what really makes him value is that Yuan Shu played him as a general of the broken, and at the same time let him also lead the history of Yuzhou.
Why does Sun Jian value this so much? This should be combined with some of the things that happened to Sun Jian at that time.
As mentioned above, Sun Jian was a Taishou of Changsha at that time, and he was considered a state official, but he, a public official, did something that violated the law.
In 189, the Han Ling Emperor died, and the general He Jin took control of the power of the court, but not long after, He Jin was killed by the Ten Constant Attendants, and the chaos in the court was chaotic, and Dong Zhuo took advantage of the situation to enter Luoyang in the name of "the evil of the side of the king".
After some operation, Dong Zhuo deposed the young emperor Liu Xie and established Liu Xie, the prince of Chenliu, as emperor, and he himself became the most powerful person in the dynasty.
For Dong Zhuo's hand to cover the sky, the princes of the world were naturally indignant and expressed their dissatisfaction one after another, and as a result, the cries of revenge against Dong Zhuo rose and fell, and the princes of all walks of life shook their fists and began to gather troops and raise troops to attack Dong Zhuo.
At that time, Sun Jian was one of the many princes who rebelled against Dong Zhuo.
It is reasonable to say that there is nothing wrong with the crusade against Dong Zhuo, but the fault is that Sun Jian's temperament is too straight, and he was shot as a gun at that time.
The person who took Sun Jian as a gunman was called Cao Yin (the same surname as Cao Xueqin's grandfather), and he had always been at odds with Wang Rui, who was then the assassin of Jingzhou, so he pretended to be the Guanglu Doctor of the Dynasty and issued a false letter to Sun Jian, asking him to lead troops to execute Wang Rui.
After Sun Jian received the text, he did not distinguish between true and false, rushed to Jingzhou with his soldiers, used a trick to open the gate of Jingzhou City, and without saying a word, killed Wang Rui in front of everyone.
This killing did not matter, Sun Jian soon befallen in disaster.
Why? In terms of rank, Wang Rui, who was the Assassin of Jingzhou at that time, was much higher than Sun Jian's rank at that time, and as a subordinate, he killed his superior without asking for instructions, which could be regarded as a major crime among major crimes at that time.
Shortly after the killing, Sun Jian learned that he had fallen for Cao Yin, but before he could begin to regret it, the imperial court's pursuit order came.
In the pursuit order, Sun Jian's Changsha Taishou was dismissed, which meant that he was no longer a state official, and more importantly, he became a wanted criminal.
You know, at that time, Sun Jian was going to Luoyang qinwang with soldiers, and as a result, this person had not yet arrived in Luoyang, and he himself became the target of wantedness first.
Such a disturbance, Sun Jian's trip to Luoyang, is not appropriate to go, nor is it appropriate not to go.
And just when he was embarrassed and did not know how to be good, Yuan Shu came to the door and told Sun Jian that he could help him restore his identity and spare him all his sins, but on the condition that he help him kill someone.
And Sun Jian listened to Yuan Shu not only to help him restore his identity, but also to avoid guilt, and was so excited on the spot that he could not do it, patting his chest and saying, don't say kill one person, it is to kill ten or eight.
As a result, the two immediately hit it off, sun jian went to kill Nanyang Taishou Zhang Zhi, and Yuan Shu went to the table, asking Sun Jian to be the general of the broken general and the assassin of Yuzhou.
This is why Sun Jian attached himself to Yuan Shu without saying a word at that time, if nothing else, just because Yuan Shu could help him bleach his identity, it was worth Sun Jian's liver and brain for him.
The reason why Yuan Shu was able to help Sun Jian was because of his family lineage of "Four Dynasties and Three Dukes".
The so-called four generations and three dukes refer to the fact that in a family, there have been four consecutive generations who have successively served as the three dukes of the imperial court (Situ, Sikong, and Taiwei), to put it more bluntly, that is, the family that has been in a high position in the imperial court for generations and is in charge of the government.
In Yuan Shu's family, there were five people who served as the Three Dukes, Yuan Shu's great-grandfather Yuan An, who was Situ during the time of Emperor Zhang of Han, his great-grandfather Yuan Chang, who was Sikong during the time of Emperor Han'an, and Yuan Shu's grandfather Yuan Tang, who was a lieutenant during the time of Emperor Huan of Han, and Yuan Shu's father Yuan Feng and uncle Yuan Kui, who served as Situ and Sikong at the time of Emperor Xian of Han, respectively.
What is called the High Gate of the Horse, what is called the Gate of Prominence, runan, Yuan Shi is the best example.
And with this kind of family lineage, what is the great thing? Quite simply, in the past hundred years, the people in the family have been in a high position in the DPRK, and you can imagine how huge the family's network of contacts and relationships is.
It can be said that at that time, when it came to finding an official and talking about relations, they all had more or less friendships with the Yuan family, either they were protégés of the Yuan family's ancestors, or they were appreciated and promoted by the Yuan family.
And the Yuan family, whose network of relations is so huge, the influence and energy behind it are quite huge, and even the imperial court is so huge that it cannot be underestimated.
Therefore, it was precisely because of this influence in the dynasty that when He Jin was in power, he would try his best to co-opt Yuan Shu and try to achieve the ultimate goal of controlling power through this move.
Similarly, it was also because of this influence and energy that Yuan Shu could speak well in the court, so if he recommended someone to an official position, the imperial court generally had to give him face.
You know, in the Han Dynasty, there was no imperial examination, if a person wants to develop in his career, finding someone to recommend is the fastest and most direct way, but the qualifications and social status of the recommender are very important.
Ordinary ordinary officials, even if they recommended their own disciples or relatives and friends, most of the imperial court would not adopt it, but if it was recommended by someone with a deep background like Yuan Shu, the imperial court would almost agree.
Therefore, yuan shu's "four worlds and three dukes" sign was put there, and many people rushed to him, it was easy to understand, to put it bluntly, "four worlds and three dukes" is equivalent to political resources.
And this is also the fundamental reason why Yuan Shu can swear to tell Sun Jian that he can help him exonerate him and express his appointment as the assassin of Yuzhou, and he dares to say it, which proves that he can do it.
Therefore, for a long time after that, Yuan Shu has always had a strong appeal, no matter how fiasco and fall, he can quickly organize a new batch of people and horses.
The golden signboard of "Four Dynasties and Three Dukes" made many people at that time willing to bring their own soldiers and horses to join Yuan Shu's command.
In addition to the sign of "Four Dynasties and Three Dukes", Yuan Shu's personality is also one of the reasons why he has many generals, according to historical records, Yuan Shu was still very young, very fond of hunting, and also known for "chivalry".
In other words, yuan shu likes to make friends when he is young, and he is willing to make friends with three teachings and nine streams of characters, and Yuan Shu is very righteous to his friends, as long as you have something to help, whether you want money or people, Yuan Shu will generally help in place.
In this way, Yuan Shu accumulated a lot of contacts, and these connections could be used by him later, for example, in the Battle of Fengqiu, Yuan Shu was beaten by Cao Cao and suffered heavy losses, and the soldiers under his hands were almost beaten, but he fled to Yinling, organized a bunch of his troops, resurrected and counterattacked.
Where did these soldiers come from? It was the jianghu people that Yuan Shu had befriended when he was young, namely the Black Mountain Army and the White Wave Soldiers.
In the final analysis, Yuan Shu's ability to recruit a lot of soldiers is because of his prominent family lineage and background, which made him a golden sign in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, coupled with the connections he once accumulated, so many people will be willing to follow him, and Yuan Shu's soldiers and generals will continue to flow.
Finally, let's talk about Yuan Shu's turf issue.
In the impression of many people, it seems that Yuan Shu's territory is very small, in fact, from a broad point of view, Yuan Shu's territory is not only not small, but it is the largest at that time.
Why? First of all, in the early days, Sun Jian laid a lot of territory for Yuan Shu, such as most of Jiangdong, in addition to Sun Jian, there was also Sun Ce, who also opened up a lot of territory for Yuan Shu.
Although Sun Ce later established his own portal, before that, no matter how he said it, he was all Yuan Shu's subordinates, and since they were his subordinates, then the territory he had laid down was naturally Yuan Shu's.
Thus, at the peak of Yuan Shu, his territory included Nanyang, Runan, and Jianghuai, as well as Yangzhou, Yuzhou, Sili, and the area around Jingzhou.
It can be said that at least before Yuan Shu became emperor, from the paper data, Yuan Shu's sphere of influence can be called a veritable southern hegemon.
However, Yuan Shu's management of his own territory is really very poor, even after the fight, he did not seriously operate and manage, plus he is absurd for the government, so what often appears is that he just fought down not long ago, and soon lost it in a vague way.
In this way, Yuan Shu's territory is in an unstable state most of the time, yesterday is different from today, today is different from tomorrow, in short, it has been changing.
Therefore, later generations directly eliminated the territory that Yuan Shu had beaten down and lost, and took Yuan Shu's base camp, that is, the Huainan area, as the accurate disk of Yuan Shu.
The entire area around Huainan is indeed much smaller than the territory of Cao Cao and Yuan Shao, who unified Henan and Hebei, so this gives people a feeling that Yuan Shu's territory is very small.
But don't forget, Yuan Shu is a person who dares to claim the emperor, if it were not for the vastness of the army and the vast territory, I believe that he would not have swelled to the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, when the masses were lined up, and calmly ascended the throne as emperor, in the final analysis, Yuan Shu at that time still had the cost of expansion.