Yuan Shao

From his great-great-grandfather Yuan An, four straight generations held one of the Three Excellencies; the clan’s influence spanned the empire.

Yuan Shao was handsome and imposing, and humbled himself to patronize talented men; scholars flocked to him.

After completing mourning for his mother he retroactively mourned the father he never knew, dwelling by the tomb six years in all.

He refused court appointments and kept retainers of desperate loyalty; the eunuch Zhao Zhong warned that Yuan Benchu was building a dangerous reputation.

As an officer of General-in-Chief He Jin, Yuan Shao pressed for the extermination of the eunuchs.

After He Jin’s murder, Yuan Shao sealed the palace gates and slaughtered the eunuchs — more than two thousand, young and old.

When Dong Zhuo proposed deposing the emperor, Yuan Shao answered that Dong was not the only strong man under heaven, then saluted with crossed blade and walked out.

In 190 he raised troops from Bohai; the eastern provinces joined the war against Dong Zhuo and acclaimed Yuan Shao as coalition leader.

By pressure and persuasion he made the timid Inspector Han Fu yield Ji province to him without a battle.

At Jieqiao his officer Qu Yi led eight hundred men with a thousand crossbows and shattered Gongsun Zan’s famed cavalry.

After destroying Gongsun Zan he held the four northern provinces — Ji, Qing, You, and Bing — with several hundred thousand men.

Ju Shou urged him to host the fugitive emperor at Ye and command the lords in his name; Yuan Shao refused — and Cao Cao did it instead.

In 200 he picked one hundred thousand elite infantry and ten thousand cavalry to march on Xu and destroy Cao Cao.

When Xu You’s family was arrested by Shen Pei and his advice went unheeded, Xu You defected to Cao Cao and revealed the grain depot at Wuchao.

Hearing that Cao Cao struck Wuchao, he sent only light cavalry to relieve it while his main force attacked Cao Cao’s camp — and took neither objective.

When Wuchao burned, his generals Zhang He and Gao Lan defected; the army disintegrated and tens of thousands were lost.

Yuan Shao fled across the Yellow River with his son Yuan Tan and barely eight hundred horsemen, bareheaded and on horseback.

The next year Cao Cao paraded on the river and broke Yuan Shao’s remaining force at Cangting; the north was slipping away.

In the summer of 202, worn down by defeat and illness, Yuan Shao vomited blood and died.

The biography notes that men and women of the north grieved as if a parent had died — his rule had been generous to the people.

Ju Shou was captured refusing to surrender; Cao Cao treated him with honor, but when Ju Shou plotted to return north, Cao Cao had him killed.

Returning from defeat, he said that since he had ignored Tian Feng’s counsel he would now be laughed at — and had the loyal advisor killed.

Yuan Shao and his half-brother Yuan Shu fell out and each built rival alliances, splitting the clan’s strength.