At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the royal family declined, the world was in chaos, and the heroes rose together, Dong Zhuo, Yuan Shao, Yuan Shu, Cao Cao, Gongsun Zhan, Liu Biao, Sun Jian, Sun Quan, Liu Bei and so on. In the end, there were only three left: Cao Cao, Liu Bei and Sun Quan, and then the world was divided into three points.
In fact, at the beginning, these three people were not the most powerful, and the strongest ones at the beginning were Dong Zhuo, Gongsun Zan and Yuan Shao.
Dong Zhuo was later killed by his own son Lü Bu, and after Dong Zhuo's death, the Xiliang army was also scattered, Yuan Shao was defeated by Cao Cao, and Gongsun Zan was defeated by Yuan Shao. Before Gongsun Zhan was defeated by Yuan Shao, his strength was absolutely strong, he seized Youzhou, and tens of thousands of elite soldiers in his hands were all first-class border troops in combat effectiveness, among which the cavalry of Baima Yicong was the elite of the elite.
Therefore, in terms of strength, Gongsun Chan is the strongest, but the question is, why didn't Gongsun Chan develop such a strong strength, drive high and go low, and finally achieved nothing, and was finally wiped out by Yuan Shao?
Four words: pride and complacency.
To be honest, Gongsun Zhan's strength back then was indeed strong.
The first is the location. Through the following map of the division of forces, we can easily see Gongsun Zhan's sphere of influence, around Beijing today, this is a good location, we all know that the sixteen states of Yanyun in the Northern Song Dynasty, Gongsun Zhan's sphere of influence was this piece.
Moreover, Gongsun Zhan's position has two advantages, one is that he has a border army, but he fights against the northern nomads all the year round, and his strength is strong.
Secondly, Gongsun Chan himself has a strong strength. Because he got up by fighting the Yellow Turban Army. In 191 AD, the Qingzhou Yellow Turban Army attacked the Bohai Sea, gathered 300,000 people, and wanted to join the Montenegrin Army, Gongsun Zan led his cavalry force of 20,000 people to break the Qingzhou Yellow Turban in Dongguang South, beheading more than 30,000. The Qingzhou Yellow Turban Army was defeated by Gongsun Zhan.
This incident is recorded in detail in the Book of the Later Han Dynasty: "In the second year of the first peace, 300,000 people of Qing and Xu Huang entered the Bohai realm and wanted to join Montenegro. Zan led 20,000 people on foot, counterattacked in Dongguangnan, broke it, and beheaded more than 30,000 people. The thief abandoned his car weighing tens of thousands of taels and ran across the river. Because of its half-money, the thieves were broken, tens of thousands of dead, bleeding Danshui, more than 70,000 people were harvested, and the property of the car armor was invincible, and the prestige was shocked. ”
Therefore, Gongsun Chan is a figure with hard power. When Gongsun Zan was at his peak, Liu Bei was an official under him. Liu Bei and Gongsun Zhan were still classmates, and both of them had studied under Lu Zhi.
"Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms: The Biography of the First Lord": "In the fifteenth year, the mother made a study, and Liu Deran, the same sect, and the Gongsun Zan of Liaoxi had an accident with Jiujiang Taishou and Lu Zhi of the same county. ”
Because of this relationship, Liu Bei followed Gongsun Zan when he debuted. It's just that when Gongsun Chan failed, Liu Bei jumped ship.
Since Gongsun Chan is so strong, why was he still defeated by Yuan Shao, let's look at the battle between Gongsun Chan and Yuan Shao - the Battle of the Boundary Bridge. Let's start with a comparison:
Gongsun Zhan: Occupy Youzhou and have cavalry capable of fighting the northern nomads.
Yuan Shao: Occupy Qingzhou, only infantry. However, Yuan Shao has an advantage that he is a gate valve of the scholar clan and has the support of a wide range of noble families.
The purpose of the Battle of Jieqiao was to fight for Jizhou between the two sides. At the beginning of the war, Gongsun Zhan was dominant, and the road went smoothly, and the counties of Jizhou surrendered one after another, and Yuan Shao, who had been fighting, sued for peace. It is said that Gongsun Chan rejected Yuan Shao's request for peace, and Yuan Shao had no choice but to continue to fight and bite the bullet.
Subsequently, Yuan Shao ordered Lu Yi to lead 800 elite soldiers as the vanguard and kill Gongsun Zhan. Gongsun Zhan didn't take it seriously at all, and directly ordered Bai Ma Yicong to charge directly, but was fired by the thousands of strong crossbows behind the Koji Yi Army, which had been prepared, and Bai Ma Yicong suffered heavy losses. This is bad, after the defeat of Gongsun Zhan's most elite troops, Bai Ma Yicong, Gongsun Zhan's army began to panic, and then the whole army was chaotic, and Yuan Shao seized the opportunity to cover up the killing, and Gongsun Chan was defeated.
Originally, Gongsun Zhan was able to defeat Yuan Shao in one go and take Jizhou. However, due to Gongsun Zhan's light enemy and complacency, the elite troops were defeated, and after the elite troops were defeated, the whole army panicked, and finally Yuan Shao defeated Gongsun Zhan's infantry and crossbow troops with a combination of infantry and crossbowmen, and it was more with less.
After the Battle of Jieqiao, Gongsun Zhan was frustrated by Yuan Shao, and from then on, he did not dare to go south. But he still has a chance to make a comeback, but unfortunately he made another mistake, that is, to kill Liu Yu.
Liu Yu is a relative of the Han family, a pastor of Youzhou, loves the people like a son, is loyal to the Han family, is very famous, and is theoretically the boss of Gongsun Zhan.
Why did Gongsun Chan kill Liu Yu? Because Gongsun Chan was not sympathetic to the people and ransomed his troops with his army, Liu Yu was very dissatisfied, so he sent troops to attack Gongsun Chan, originally wanting to teach Gongsun Chan a lesson. But because Liu Yu was too benevolent, he was not allowed to harm the people in the war, and was defeated by Gongsun Zhan. Subsequently, Gongsun Zhan killed Liu Yu's entire family and took complete control of Youzhou.
Although Gongsun Zhan completely got Youzhou, he killed Liu Yu, who had a great reputation, and as a result, he offended the whole world. He was surrounded and suppressed by Liu Yu's son, Liu Yu's old general, Yuan Shao and other forces, and he was embattled for a while, and Gongsun Zhan, who was beaten and had no power to fight back, then fled to Yijing and held out.
What's even more terrifying is that Gongsun Chan is still making mistakes, because he is arrogant, alienated from others, only cares about himself, doesn't care about the life or death of others, and does not save people, resulting in all his cronies around him, and all the ministers and generals have left him. "Zizhi Tongjian": "And Shao came to attack, Zhan Nanjie battalion, self-discipline can not be self-consolidated, and I know that I will not see help, or surrender or collapse." ”
In the end, Gongsun Zhan, who had rebelled against his relatives, set himself on fire and died in despair. It is recorded in the "Zizhi Tongjian": "Zhan's self-calculation will not be complete, but he hangs his sister and wife, and then sets himself on fire." "A generation of heroes ended miserably.
Gongsun Zhan was defeated by Yuan Shao because of his pride and complacency, and despised Yuan Shao; because he killed Liu Yu by mistake, he became the target of the public, and his army was defeated; and finally because he alienated his ministers and generals, there was no one around, and finally he died by self-immolation. It was a pity that he had a chance, but unfortunately he made a mistake step by step, and he could only blame himself.