There is a view in history that Cao Cao was able to win the battle of Guandu because of Yuan Shao's incompetence, not so much that Cao Cao defeated Yuan Shao, but that Yuan Shao lost to himself, from Yuan Shao's point of view, this view is not impossible, but from the performance of Cao Cao and his subordinates, the victory of Guandu was earned by Cao Cao himself, not by Yuan Shao.

【Long-term Showdown】

Although Cao Cao and Yuan Shao were sworn friends when they were children, the ambitions and views of the two of them were still very different from each other when they grew up, and Cao Cao also took Yuan Shao as one of his goals after becoming a prince.

After Yuan Shao became the leader of the Kwantung Alliance, he did two things that made Cao Cao very dissatisfied with him. The first thing was that Yuan Shao was ready to set up another Liu Yu, when Yuan Shao twice wooed Cao Cao to do Cao Cao Cao but did not agree, but was ready to dedicate himself to the emperor as the Son of Heaven, which made Cao Cao very dissatisfied with Yuan Shao and thought that he had different intentions. The second thing was that Yuan Shao seized the Jizhou of his ally Han Fu, at that time Yuan Shao was very unpopular as the leader of the alliance, Bao Xin even thought that Yuan Shao would become the second Dong Zhuo, he and Cao Cao discussed dealing with Yuan Shao, but at that time Cao Cao was too weak, so he was ready to seek the territory south of the Yellow River first, and then wait and see what happened.

And Cao Cao really felt the threat of Yuan Shao in the second year of Jian'an (197), when Cao Cao had welcomed the Son of Heaven to move the capital to Xuchang, and his reputation increased greatly, and then Cao Cao's pigtails were cocked again, and Yuan Shao, who could not be offended at that time, was offended.

At this time, Cao Cao had just been defeated in Zhang Xiu, and his eldest son Cao Ang had been defeated, Yuan Shao wrote a letter to humiliate Cao Cao, making Cao Cao angry half to death, Cao Cao wanted to eliminate Yuan Shao, but when he thought that there were too many enemies around him, and Yuan Shao's strength was too strong, he had deep worries in his heart.

At this time, Xun Yu put forward the theory of "four victories" to help Cao Cao stabilize his confidence, and at the same time help Cao Cao plan to stabilize the surrounding princes, and put Lu Bu on the list that must be removed. After that, Cao Cao has been aiming at Yuan Shao and constantly accumulating strength, successively defeating Yuan Shu, Lü Bu and other princes, stabilizing his rear, and making the necessary preparations for the decisive battle with Yuan Shao.

In the fifth year of Jian'an (200), Yuan Shao went south to start a full-scale duel with Cao Cao, and at this time Cao Cao was already waiting for it.

【Excellent Performance】

In the battle of Guandu, the monarchs and ministers within the Cao Cao group worked together and fought very beautifully. At that time, Cao Cao sent troops out, with Xun You as the mastermind, supplemented by Jia Xu and many other strategists, and Cao Ren, Xu Huang, Guan Yu, Cao Hong, Zhang Liao and other generals, and Xuchang was personally commanded by Xun Yu.

Yuan Shao first sent Yan Liang as the vanguard to attack Liu Yan of Dongjun Taishou, Yuan Shao was powerful, Cao Cao's troops were not as good as Yuan Shao, but the white horse had to be saved, at this time Xun You put forward the plan of attacking the east from the west, first leading the army to pretend to attack Yuan Shao's rear, attracting Yuan Shao to send troops to the west to fight, and then attacking the white horse at full speed with light equipment, without giving Yan Liang time to react. As a result, Cao Cao's army won a complete victory, and the enemy general Yan Liang was beheaded.

Then Cao Cao and Xun You discussed again to use the strategy of luring the enemy, they ambushed aside, with the baggage troops as bait, to attract a large number of cavalry troops under Yuan Shao's command, when Yuan Shao sent Wen Chou and Liu Bei, their troops were attracted by Cao Cao's supplies, the formation was chaotic, Cao Cao took the opportunity to kill at this time, and another big victory, once again killed the enemy general Wen Chou.

After Cao Cao eliminated Wen Chou, he did not linger, but lured Yuan Shao to his preset battlefield Guandu area, and launched a decisive battle with Yuan Shao here.

At that time, Yuan Shao attacked Cao Cao's camp on the one hand, and on the other hand, sent Liu Bei, Han Xun and other generals to attack Cao Cao's rear.

Yuan Shaojun first used high-rise buildings and earth mountains to condescendingly shoot Cao Cao's soldiers with arrows, which made Cao Cao's army exhausted, and Cao Cao responded with catapults and destroyed all of Yuan Shao's high-rise buildings, cracking Yuan Shao's tactics. Yuan Shao then began to dig tunnels to attack Cao Cao, and Cao Cao dug a long deep ditch, making Yuan Shao's attempt impossible to realize.

In the face of Liu Bei and Han Xun's attack, Cao Cao sent Cao Ren to meet him. Cao Ren first defeated Liu Bei in the area of Runan and Yingchuan in Yuzhou, and then defeated Han Xun who attacked Cao Cao's western road at Jiluo Mountain. After Yuan Shao failed to divide his troops twice, he no longer dared to divide his troops to fight Cao Cao.

In order to narrow the gap with Yuan Shao, Cao Cao once again followed Xun You's advice and sent Xu Huang and Shi Jian to attack the supply troops led by Han Xun, and succeeded.

However, Cao Cao still felt overwhelmed after a long tug-of-war with Yuan Shao, and at this time, Xun Yu wrote back to Cao Cao to strengthen his belief in defeating Yuan Shao in Guandu, and it was Cao Cao who gave up the idea of retreating.

Soon Cao Cao ushered in a turning point in the war. After Xu You came to surrender, he offered Cao Cao a plan to attack the black nest, and many of Cao Cao's subordinates were suspicious of Xu Yu at that time, only Xun You and Jia Xu persuaded Cao Cao to agree, and Cao Cao finally left Cao Hong to guard the camp and sent troops to attack Chun Yuqiong.

In order to successfully accomplish his goal, Cao Cao ordered his troops to wear Yuan Shaojun's clothes, successfully evaded Yuan Shaojun's surveillance, and lurked in the black nest. After that, Cao Cao fought hard with the support of most of the Wuchao defenders and the reinforcements sent by Yuan Shao and won the final victory, killing all five generals including Chun Yuqiong under Yuan Shao.

At this time, Yuan Shao's generals Zhang He, Gao Ran and others were attacking Cao Cao's camp, and they were ready to take refuge in Cao Cao because of Guo Tu's exclusion and Yuan Shao's distrust, and Cao Hong accepted Zhang He and others under Xun You's guarantee.

Under the continuous blows, Yuan Shao's army was completely defeated, Yuan Shao himself fled, and Cao Cao achieved a complete victory.

In this series of operations, Cao Cao himself was good at listening to the opinions of his subordinates, had his own plans, and personally led the army and fought bravely to bring the combat effectiveness of Cao Cao's army to the extreme, while Cao Cao's strategists were mainly Xun You, giving advice to Cao Cao, and gradually weakened Yuan Shao's strength, and other generals Zhang Liao, Cao Ren, Cao Hong, Xu Huang and others also performed their duties and had a wonderful performance.

The monarch Yuan Shao was stubborn and could not follow the correct advice, but excluded the loyal and good, making the villain in charge, and at the same time unable to correctly use the generals under his command, and used some nominal generals in multiple ways, and could not give full play to the talents of his subordinates.

Yuan Shao's failure was indeed caused by Yuan Shao's incompetence, but if Cao Cao couldn't seize the opportunity of Yuan Shao's mistake, the result would not change much, in the final analysis, only those who worked hard and were ready could seize the opportunity.

Therefore, the battle of Guandu was won by Cao Cao by his own efforts, and it was also given to Cao Cao by Yuan Shao's faintness and incompetence.