Yuan Shao was once the most powerful military force during the Three Kingdoms period. Yuan Shao was a person with a family lineage of "Four Dynasties and Three Dukes", and the protégés in the family were full of old age. With the power of his family and his own efforts, Yuan Shao unified the four prefectures of You, He, Qing, and Ji in northern China, with an army of hundreds of thousands, in an attempt to unify the world.
Yuan Shao had many advisers under him, so who was the person he trusted the most? Before the Battle of Guandu that year, when Xun Yu and Kong Rong were talking about Yuan Shao's subordinates, they mentioned several strategists, and Kong Rong said, "Tian Feng, Xu You, and the wise and scheming men also conspire for it; the judges, Feng Ji, and loyal ministers also do their own thing." Xun Yu's evaluation of them was that "Tian Fenggang committed a crime, and Xu You was greedy but not cured." The trial is specialized and unscrupulous, and it is self-use when it is fruitful. "None of these strategists are highly regarded.
In the course of the Battle of Guandu, Yuan Shao imprisoned Tian Feng for these four men, and later killed him after the defeat of the battle. Leaving The Trial and Feng Ji guarding the rear, he only brought Xu You to the front line. However, Yuan Shao did not trust Xu You, and he repeatedly opposed Xu You's proposal to divide his troops and attack the rear of Cao's army. In the end, because the interrogators who stayed behind in the rear investigated Xu You's illegal deeds, they imprisoned his family members and forced Xu You to rebel. This led Xu You to defect to Cao Cao and offer a plan to burn Wuchao, which led to a crushing defeat at the Battle of Guandu by Yuan Shao.
From this point of view, these four people are not Yuan Shao's most trusted advisers, so does Yuan Shao have no trusted advisers? Not really. In the dialogue between Kong Rong and Xun Yu, two people were still missed, that is, Frustrated Zhi and Guo Tu. In historical records, these two men also served under Yuan Shao and influenced Yuan Shao's career.
Before the Battle of Guandu, in the eyes of everyone, he should be Yuan Shao's most trusted person. This is because when he met Yuan Shao, he gave Yuan Shao a strategy for pacifying Hebei. The strategic plan he formulated for Yuan Shao was to take Jizhou as the center, adopt various strategies to break through the enemies on all sides, and gradually unify the four prefectures of Hebei. Then greet emperor Xian of Han, restore the rule of the Han Dynasty in Luoyang, and then unify the world. After Yuan Shao heard this, he was very happy and said that this was his ambition. As a result, Yuan Shao appointed Frustrated Zhi as his overseer and general of Fenwei, commanding his own army.
In the ensuing war, Frustrated Zhi made great contributions to Yuan Shao and basically realized the first step of the strategic plan he formulated for Yuan Shao. We see the contribution that Frustrated Zhi made to Yuan Shao, and Yuan Shao handed over all his troops to Frustrated Zhi's command. Judging from this aspect, Yuan Shao should be the one who trusts frustrated him the most.
However, the change of the times allows us to see Yuan Shao's true attitude towards frustration. Before the Battle of Guandu, Frustrated Zhi was no longer trusted by Yuan Shao. Yuan Shao first rejected Frustrated Grant's proposal, and then dispersed his military power. Yuan Shao divided the army of frustrated overseers into three parts, with Guo Tu, Chun Yuqiong, and Frustrated Zhi each in charge of a part. During the campaign, Yuan Shao did not listen to Frustrated Zhi's advice, and Frustrated Grant asked for recuperation on the grounds of being ill, but Yuan Shao not only did not agree, but also handed over all the troops under Frustrated Grant's control to Guo Tu.
We can see from here that who is yuan shao's most trusted person in fact? It's Guo Tu. In fact, we can see the hint of this when He was most trusted by Yuan Shao. It was when Emperor Xian of Han fled from Chang'an to Kwantung, when Emperor Xian of Han had nothing to rely on, and Frustrated Zhi took the opportunity to suggest to Yuan Shao that Emperor Xian of Han be welcomed and the Son of Heaven to order the princes. The horse is not courted.
Guo Tu, on the other hand, opposed it, and his opinion was not to welcome Emperor Xian of Han, on the grounds that "the Tomb of the Han Dynasty is late, for a long time, and it is not difficult to revitalize it now." And the heroes rose up together, according to the prefectures and counties, and even the disciples gathered the crowd, and there were tens of thousands of moves, the so-called Qin lost its deer, and the first to win the king. Now to meet the Son of Heaven, he will express his opinion at every turn, and if he obeys it, he will have less power, and if he violates it, he will refuse his orders, and he who is not good at all will. ”
In the end, Yuan Shao adopted Guo Tu's advice and did not welcome Emperor Xian of Han. Although it was later that Cao Cao welcomed Emperor Xian of Han, Yuan Shao only felt his mistake when he received the edict from Emperor Xian of Han, but even so he did not blame Guo Tu. Based on this alone, we can see Yuan Shao's trust in Guo Tu.
By the time of the Battle of Guandu, Yuan Shao's trust in Guo Tu had reached an undeserved point. Guo Tu successfully squeezed out Frustrated Grant, and then took over Frustrated Grant's army. Throughout the Battle of Guandu, Yuan Shao was obedient to Guo Tu. However, this Guo Tu was a man of great ambition and talent, and he did his best to give Yuan Shao a bad idea, which made Yuan Shao suffer a big defeat.
On the issue of welcoming Emperor Xian of Han, Guo Tu had already made Yuan Shao suffer a big loss, so that Cao Cao seized the opportunity and lost the political capital at his fingertips. At the Battle of Guandu, he first supported Yuan Shao's offensive policy, negated the policy opinions of Frustrated Grant and Tian Feng, and then went into rumors, deposing the long-held military hearts, causing the military morale of Yuan Shao's army to fluctuate. Finally, when Cao Cao robbed Wuchao of grain, it was Guo Tu who denied Zhang Gao's suggestion of rescuing Wuchao and offered a plan to let Zhang Gao and Gao Lan attack Cao Cao's military camp.
When wuchao's grain and grass were burned and Zhang Gao and Gao Lan attacked Cao Cao's camp, Guo Tu was afraid of taking responsibility, and made Ji force Zhang Gao and Gao Lan to rebel. As a result, Yuan Shao's elite was lost, the grain and grass were burned out, and the whole army collapsed under Cao Cao's attack. It can be said that it was Guo Tu's misdeeds that caused the defeat of Yuan Shao's Battle of Guandu.
We have a question here, why is Guo Tu an incompetent and low-character person, but Yuan Shao trusts him so much? We can corroborate this from another pair of monarchs, which are Sun Quan and Lu Su.
From Sun Quan's later evaluation of Lu Su, he was not very satisfied with Lu Su. Especially in the matter of lending Liu Bei Jingzhou, Sun Quan has always been grumpy. However, we can also see that even so, among the courtiers of Eastern Wu, Lu Su was Sun Quan's most trusted courtier. This is because What Lu Su did was completely based on Sun Quan and planned for Sun Quan.
As soon as Lu Su met Sun Quan, he uttered shocking words. At that time, when many people were still taking the revival of the Han Room as the goal of struggle, he had already made the conclusion that the Han Room could not be revived. He persuaded Sun Quan to establish his own foundation in preparation for his future title as emperor. At the Battle of Chibi, almost all of Sun Quan's courtiers demanded to surrender to Cao Cao, but Lu Su said to Sun Quan, "We can all surrender to Cao Cao, but you can't surrender." This made Sun Quan make up his mind and establish the Sun Liu Alliance, defeating Cao Cao at the Battle of Chibi and laying the foundation for the establishment of the Three Kingdoms.
It was precisely because Lu Su was bent on planning for Sun Quan that Sun Quan still trusted Lu Su despite being dissatisfied with some of Lu Su's practices. By the time Sun Quan ascended the throne and became emperor, he still remembered Lu Su and never forgot about him.
Guo Tu was to Yuan Shao as Lu Suzhi was to Sun Quan. He knew Yuan Shao's wish to be emperor, so he always acted according to Yuan Shao's thoughts. On the issue of welcoming Emperor Xian of Han, he knew that Emperor Xian of Han was not supported by Yuan Shao and did not want to honor him, and Yuan Shao did not want to be bound by Emperor Xian of Han. Therefore, Guo Tu spoke out Yuan Shao's thoughts, enabling Yuan Shao to get rid of the responsibility of serving Emperor Xian of Han and gain Yuan Shao's trust.
At the time of the Battle of Guandu, Guo Tu once again catered to Yuan Shao's wishes and sent troops to attack Cao Cao. This is because before the Battle of Guandu, Yuan Shao used Geng Bao's letter to test the Qunchen, and both Frustrated Zhi and Tian Feng opposed Geng Bao's proposal to make Yuan Shao emperor. Yuan Shao had lost trust in these people and took an opposing attitude toward their opinions. Guo Tu once again took the lead for Yuan Shao, allowing Yuan Shao to achieve his wish.
We can see what Guo Tu said when he opposed the emperor of the Han Dynasty, "Isn't it difficult for the Han Dynasty to be late, for a long time, and now it is not difficult to rejuvenate it?" This is very similar to what Lu Su said, "The Han Room is difficult to revive." How could these two people not be trusted by their own monarchs, despite the cries of the Kuang Fu Han Chamber at that time?
Unfortunately, Guo Tu and Lu Su could not be compared in terms of talent. Although he was able to cater to Yuan Shao's wishes and gain Yuan Shao's trust, in the battle, he did not succeed enough and lose more than enough, and finally destroyed Yuan Shao's army at Guandu, and also indirectly destroyed Yuan Shao's Jiangshan.