In history, Yuan Shao's defeat in the Battle of Guandu was inevitable, and there were many factors for the destruction of Yuan Shao's army, in general, those two were the same, first of all, the Cao Cao group was not weak objectively, but more importantly, Yuan Shao was too incompetent in this battle.

[Objective reasons - Cao Cao Group, which is not weak]

The Battle of Guandu is one of the few famous battles in ancient Chinese history in which fewer won more, and Yuan Shao's strength is considered to be far stronger than Cao Cao's, but in fact, Cao Cao's classmates' strength is far less weak than everyone thinks.

First of all, at that time, Cao Cao coerced the Son of Heaven and ordered the princes, controlled the imperial court, controlled the Son of Heaven, and had the name of righteousness, morally speaking, Cao Cao was the righteous party, and Yuan Shao bullied the weak, which was politically unpopular and evil, and war was the continuation of politics, so Cao Cao has always occupied the advantage of righteousness.

Secondly, the Cao Cao Group was very strong at that time. Territorially, Cao Cao occupied the three major prefectures of Yanzhou, Yuzhou, and Xuzhou, plus the fragmentary counties such as Nanyang County in Jingzhou and Hanoi County in Sili, Cao Cao was not much smaller in territory than Yuan Shao, who occupied the four northern states.

In terms of talents, although Yuan Shao's command has a number of civil and military generals, such as Fu Zhu, Tian Feng, Guo Tu, Xun Chen, Xu You, Xianbei, Feng Ji, Cui Yan, Zhang He, Yan Liang, Wen Chou, Gao Lan, Chun Yuqiong, Liu Bei, etc., they are far inferior to Cao Cao in terms of quantity and quality.

In terms of troops, although Cao Cao did not have as much as Yuan Shao's army at that time, his combat power was strong, and he followed Cao Cao's southern expedition to the north, and successively fought with the Yellow Turban, the Black Mountain thieves, and Yuan Shu, Tao Qian, Liu Bei, Lu Bu, Yuan Shu, Zhang Yang and many other powerful princes, and achieved brilliant results. Therefore, although Yuan Shao had many soldiers, Cao Cao did not lag behind Yuan Shao too much in terms of overall military strength.

Finally, the battle of Guandu was Yuan Shao's crusade against Cao Cao, Cao Cao as the side of the guard has a natural geographical advantage, which can not be ignored, Cao Cao's army is far more familiar with the environment of Yanzhou than Yuan Shaojun, which not only provides a solid barrier for Cao Cao in the decisive battle, but also provides a lot of convenient conditions for it.

After Cao Cao moved the capital to Xuchang and took control of the imperial court, he ushered in a period of rapid development, although it was not as good as Yuan Shao at that time, but the two were already a grade of princes. Cao Cao himself was completely powerful, and it was possible to defeat Yuan Shao at Guandu.

[Subjective reasons - incompetent monarch Yuan Shao]

Although Cao Cao's strength is not weak, if Yuan Shaojun is united in the decisive battle of Guandu and Yuan Shao fights well, the outcome can be said to be still unknown, but it is a pity that Yuan Shao personally told future generations in history what is called "the commander is incompetent and tired of the three armies".

First of all, in terms of command, Yuan Shao is full of mistakes. After preparing to go south, Yuan Shao sent Yan Liang as the vanguard to attack Liu Yan, the Taishou of Dongjun under Cao Cao, but Yan Liang was brave and unstrategic, not enough to stand alone. At the same time, Cao Cao also used Xun You's strategy to lure Yuan Shao to divide his troops, successfully attracted Yuan Shaojun's attention, and came to the rear of Yan Liang's army, as a result, Yan Liang was beheaded by Guan Erye's army.

Then Yuan Shao led the army south after Yan Liang's defeat, and advised him to be safe, but Yuan Shao did not listen, and as a result, he was led to Guandu by Cao Cao, and the supply line was lengthened, and the supply was destroyed by Cao Cao's army twice.

When Cao Cao sent troops to attack Wuchao, Yuan Shao made the most fatal decision-making mistake, and did not listen to Zhang He's suggestion to send a heavy army to support Chun Yuqiong, but instead concentrated his forces to attack Cao Cao's camp that had been attacked for a long time, resulting in Chun Yuqiong's lack of support, and was finally eliminated by Cao Cao, the result was that many generals under Yuan Shao's command were killed, the supply of grain and grass was destroyed, and the morale of the whole army suffered a devastating blow, and finally the whole army collapsed.

Secondly, in terms of employing people, Yuan Shao is loyal and good, and it is unknown whether it is good or bad. When Yuan Shao first got Jizhou, he reused Fu Zhu, Tian Feng and others, and then Yuan Shao turned to appoint villains such as Guo Tu, who was a big sycophant.

And the generals sent by Yuan Shao in the battle with Cao Cao have fatal shortcomings, Yan Liang and Wen Chou are brave and unstrategic, and were finally killed by Cao Jun, Liu Bei and Han Xun are incapable of harassing Cao Cao's rear, threatening the safety of Xuchang, and have been defeated by Cao Ren, Chun Yuqiong is even more nameless, in the case of occupying the advantage of troops, guarding, and reinforcements, he is still defeated by Cao Cao, and the soldiers are defeated and killed, and Zhang He, Gao Ran and other outstanding generals are not reused by Yuan Shao.

Again, there are also many contradictions within Yuan Shao's group, but Yuan Shao, as the monarch, has added fuel to the fire. At that time, in Yuan Shao's group, Guo Tu and Fu Zhu, Feng Ji and Tian Feng, Feng Ji and Trial, Xin Ping, Guo Tu and Feng Ji, and many strategists were very deep with each other, and Yuan Shao not only failed to alleviate the contradictions between them, but listened to Guo Tu and Feng Ji's slander, and gradually rejected the two best talents under his command.

In addition, Yuan Shao is also extremely stupid on the issue of heirs. Previously, Yuan Shao let his three sons and nephew Gao Gan each lead a state, saying that they would examine their abilities and decide their heirs, but as a result, the three sons all formed gangs and formed factions, each with their own forces. On the one hand, Yuan Shao liked his youngest son Yuan Shang, but later the relationship with his eldest son Yuan Tan improved when he was in Guandu, and he never clarified his heir, which eventually caused a lot of internal friction.

In the end, Yuan Shao was stubborn and even had arguments with his subordinates. Historically, Yuan Shao was very stubborn, once he made up his mind, whether it was right or wrong, it was difficult to change, which can be seen from the frustration and Tian Feng's several exhortations to Yuan Shao, Tian Feng persuaded Yuan Shao twice to go south, and finally forcibly stopped Yuan Shao from sending troops, but Yuan Shao did not succeed after making up his mind, and he did not say anything about it.

On the other hand, Yuan Shao is dangerous, and he can't tolerate his subordinates to be smarter and right than him, and he doesn't change his mistakes. Historically, Yuan Shao persuaded Yuan Shao to welcome the Son of Heaven as soon as possible, but Yuan Shao did not listen to the advice of Guo Tu and others, and later Cao Cao suppressed Yuan Shao in the name of the Son of Heaven, Yuan Shao regretted it greatly, but he still reused Guo Tu and Chun Yuqiong, but began to alienate the correct frustration. Then, when Xu Huang had already attacked Yuan Shao's supply line, Fu Zhu advised Yuan Shao to send Jiang Qi to patrol the periphery of the grain transport troops, but Yuan Shao still vetoed Fu Zhu, and finally gave Cao Cao a chance to kill him.

In the face of the Cao Cao Group, which has great righteousness and talents, although Yuan Shao has an advantage in military strength, he does his own thing, does not listen to good advice, commands indiscriminately, suppresses Zhongliang, and sits back and watches the sons of his subordinates intrigue and fight, how can he win if he does this?

Why was he not optimistic about this battle in history, and strongly dissuaded Yuan Shao from going south, because they knew that Yuan Shao could not afford to lose this battle, and they also knew the situation within Yuan Shao's group at that time, and they knew what kind of person their monarch Yuan Shao was.

In history, the decisive battle of Guandu against Yuan Shao's group could be won, but it could never be won under the leadership of Yuan Shao.