In the later stage of Dong Zhuo's crusade, Yuan Shu's subordinate Sun Jian conquered the old capital Luoyang all the way to Luoyang, and it seemed that he might be able to destroy Dong Zhuo and recover Chang'an in one go. At that time, Yuan Shao had already obtained Jizhou from Han Fu, and his power was greatly enhanced, although Yuan Shao also had the intention of eliminating Dong Zhuo as the leader of the alliance, but he was even more reluctant to see his younger brother Yuan Shu become bigger, so Yuan Shao appointed Zhou Ang as the assassin of Yuzhou, and sent him to lead troops to attack Yangcheng.

Due to the seizure of the base area, Sun Jian had to give up further attacks on Dong Zhuo and instead lead his troops back. With Yuan Shu's support, Sun Jian eventually recovered Yangcheng, but it also led to a complete break between Yuan Shu and Yuan Shao. As the two strongest princes of the Kwantung Coalition began to oppose each other, Dong Zhuo's crusade was basically over, and Dong Zhuo also got a chance to breathe, but it was a pity that he did not cherish this last opportunity, and finally died at the hands of his righteous son Lu Bu.

The two brothers, Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu, have been at odds since a long time ago, and their relationship is very delicate.

Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu were both born in the old Yuan family of the third prince of the fourth generation, which was a powerful family of gate valves in the post-Han Dynasty, from the great grandfather of the two brothers Yuan An, there were five people in their family who worshiped the position of the three dukes, among which their father Yuan Feng, the official worshiped Sikong, and the uncle Yuan Kui, the official worshiped Situ.

Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu are both sons of Yuan Feng (Note 1), but the difference is that although Yuan Shao is the eldest son, he is a concubine, and although Yuan Shu is the younger brother, strictly speaking, Yuan Shu is the eldest son and the legitimate heir of Yuan Feng.

At that time, the marriage system in China was such that it was not polygamy, but monogamy and polygamy. There can only be one wife, but there can be many concubines, and those who are not even concubines can be more, and the maidservants who have a relationship with the master are also called the maids who have a relationship.

Among them, the status of the wife is very high, and she generally has a background. In a family, which is generally not considered an elder, the status of the wife is second only to her husband, and it is recognized by law and morality.

And the status of concubines, intercourse girls and maidservants is much lower, you can change it if you want, and even in some dynasties, it doesn't matter how many you want. Moreover, if a servant girl is liked by her master or is lucky, she may be promoted to a concubine, but even if a concubine is very popular with her husband, it is difficult for her to become a wife.

The eldest son of the orthodox heir of a family is the first son born to the wife of the patriarch. Yuan Shu is actually Yuan Feng's eldest son, it stands to reason that although Yuan Shao is his half-brother, his actual status should be far inferior to his, but Yuan Shao's situation is a little different.

Yuan Feng's second brother, that is, the second uncle of Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu, his uncle Yuan Cheng's official position reached Zuo Zhonglang, but he died very early, and he did not leave a son, so the family of the old Yuan family discussed it, because Yuan Feng already had his eldest son heir Yuan Shu, so he let Yuan Feng pass on his other son Yuan Shao to his dead brother Yuan Cheng, so that Yuan Shao suddenly became Yuan Cheng's heir from Yuan Fengshu's son, and his status was equal to Yuan Shu, and the two brothers also became cousins.

Seeing the skyrocketing of Yuan Shao's status, Yuan Shu's heart was unbalanced, and Yuan Shao was still very handsome, had a wide range of friends, and his elders also liked it, which exacerbated the sense of imbalance in Yuan Shu's heart, and since then he has become more and more estranged from his brother Yuan Shao.

Yuan Shu doesn't like Yuan Shao, and Yuan Shao may not have a good impression of Yuan Shu. Yuan Shao has been discriminated against by his younger brother Yuan Shu a lot when he was a child, and the relationship between this pair of brothers can be said to have not been very good since childhood. But God is still very fair, giving Yuan Shao a chance to compete with his younger brother Yuan Shu, Yuan Shao also cherishes this opportunity, he is a corporal, has a wide range of friends, and at the same time works seriously, which has been recognized by many elders. Yuan Shao also gradually did some things, killed the Ten Standing Attendants, rejected Dong Zhuo, and finally served as the leader of the alliance against Dong Zhuo's army.

However, due to various objective and subjective reasons, Yuan Shao did not do much in the battle against Dong, and his own soldiers and horses were wiped out by Dong Zhuo's backhand before they could attack. On the contrary, Yuan Shu fought well, and Sun Jian even captured Luoyang. Yuan Shao can't stand it now, if Yuan Shu and Sun Jian win this battle, where will he put his dignified anti-Dong League master's face! In addition, when Yuan Shao was about to set up another Liu Yu, Yuan Shu rejected Yuan Shao's proposal, so Yuan Shao decided to stumble on his younger brother.

As a result, Yuan Shao pitted his teammate, his half-brother Yuan Shu's classmate. But the dignified general Yuan Shu was not easy to mess with, and now the two brothers completely fell out. Yuan Shu didn't fight Dong Zhuo anymore, and in turn sent troops to join other princes to prepare to clean up Yuan Shao, ready to let Yuan Shao know what the eldest son is, don't think that if he is passed on, he will not be a concubine!

Yuan Shu vs Yuan Shao, on the verge of triggering.

Although Yuan Shao's thing is indeed not authentic, the qualifications of the leader of the alliance are not covered, and his reputation is not fake. Most of the princes still chose to stand on Yuan Shao's side, not to mention Yuan Shao's childhood iron buddy A Pu, Jingzhou Mu Liu Biao also stood on Yuan Shao's side.

But it doesn't mean that everyone sees it this way, Gongsun Zan and Xuzhou Mu Taoqian, who were at odds with Yuan Shao, all supported Yuan Shu, so two camps with Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu as the core were formed, which was also the second camp confrontation formed in the Three Kingdoms era after the first camp confrontation between Dong Zhuo's camp and the anti-Dong camp (Note 2).

Subsequently, more than a dozen large-scale wars broke out between the two camps of Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu, including the Battle of Yangcheng, Sun Jian's attack on Liu Biao, the Battle of Kuangting between Yuan Shu and Yuan Shao and Cao Cao, the two battles of Xuzhou between Cao Cao and Tao Qian, the Battle of Jieqiao between Yuan Shao and Gongsun Zhan, the Battle of Longcuo, the Battle of Baoqiu, and finally the Battle of Yijing, Cao Cao's crusade against Chen and other wars.

The confrontation between the two camps of Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu lasted nearly ten years from the second year of Chuping (191) when Yuan Shao sent people to attack Yangcheng until the death of Yuan Shu in the fourth year of Jian'an (199), which was far longer than the anti-Dong war, and ended with the successive deaths of Tao Qian, Gongsun Zhan, Yuan Shu and others, and the annihilation of the entire Yuan Shu camp. In the confrontation, the forces of Yuan Shao and Cao Cao developed rapidly, and both of them occupied several large states, and after that, Yuan Shao and Cao Cao fought each other because of their interests, and a life-and-death decisive battle was launched in Guandu.

The competition between the two camps of the two brothers, Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu, was far longer and more influential in the early period of the Three Kingdoms era than the anti-Dong war, which directly laid the pattern between those princes in the future of the Three Kingdoms era.

Note 1: The record in "Heroes" is slightly different;

Note 2: More on this later.