Before the decisive battle between Yuan Shao and Cao Cao, Yuan Shao had already occupied the four northern states, and Cao Cao eliminated many princes, owned the entire territory of Yanzhou, Yuzhou, and Xuzhou, as well as part of Sili, Jingzhou, and Yangzhou, and also controlled the Son of Heaven and obtained the title of righteousness.

On the whole, although Yuan Shao was stronger than Cao Cao at that time, he was still an order of magnitude prince.

[The situation of Yuan Shao Group at that time]

After Yuan Shao unified the north in history, although it looked glamorous, the situation was actually not very good.

Jizhou is the birthplace of Yuan Shao, and it is also the base camp of Yuan Shao. After Yuan Shao left Luoyang, he fled here and was appointed by Dong Zhuo as the Taishou of Bohai. Then Yuan Shao seized Han Fu's Jizhou and became the master here, among the many states and counties in the Han Dynasty, Jizhou was definitely a rich place. But before Yuan Shao became the pastor of Jizhou, Jizhou was the base camp of the Yellow Turban thieves, and the three brothers of Zhang Jiao revolted here, and then there were the remaining parties such as the Black Mountain Army to make a rebellion.

Han Fu and Lu Yi, Gongsun Chan fought in Jizhou successively, Gongsun Chan invaded Jizhou several times after Yuan Shao became the pastor of Jizhou, and later there was a rebellion in Wei County, leading the Montenegrin army to invade, making Jizhou Zhizhi Yecheng fall, Yuan Shao and the Montenegrin army also fought in Jizhou and fought again and again. On the whole, in the era of the Three Kingdoms, Jizhou was not a place outside the world, and it was also damaged by the war.

Qingzhou was originally a good place, but because of the original Qingzhou Thorn Shi Jiao and poor management, the Yellow Turban Thieves were rampant, causing great damage to the environment of Qingzhou, and then Gongsun Zan and Yuan Shao used Qingzhou as a battlefield, and at the same time Qingzhou even appeared three Thorn History, it can be said that it was a mess, after Yuan Tan recovered Qingzhou, there was a possibility of improvement, but Yuan Tan's ability to govern Qingzhou was not high, and the situation in Qingzhou did not get much better. Then Cao Cao sent Zang Ba and others to invade Qingzhou and took away a lot of territory.

Youzhou has always been a laggard because of the frequent invasion of nomads, but this situation has improved greatly after Liu Yu took charge of Youzhou, but unfortunately Liu Yu was later publicized

Sun Zan was killed, and the situation in Youzhou took a turn for the worse since then, and internal strife and external troubles followed. After Liu Yu's death, the foreigners began to invade Youzhou again, and Yuan Shao of Jizhou also sent troops to crusade against Gongsun Zan many times, and many of Liu Yu's old troops also raised troops to avenge him, and Youzhou was completely covered by a war in the years after Liu Yu's death.

Although Yuan Shao later eliminated Gongsun Zhan, the eastern part of Youzhou was still controlled by Gongsun Du at this time, and Liu Yu's old subordinate Xian Yufu was also completely independent, and even took refuge in Cao Cao during the Battle of Guandu.

There are not many records in the history of the Three Kingdoms, but this place, like Liangzhou and Youzhou, is not a good place because of the invasion of foreign people, so few people care about it, and finally it was even directly incorporated into Jizhou for a time.

[Cao Cao Group's situation at that time]

If the situation on Yuan Shao's side is not good, then the situation on Cao Cao's side can only be described as bad.

Cao Cao mainly used Yanzhou as his base in the early Three Kingdoms period, but this place was full of disasters and difficulties. When the princes were crusading against Dong Zhuo, the sour jujube camp was in Yanzhou; Later, the Yellow Turban Army, the Black Mountain Army, and the Southern Xiongnu of Qing and Xu Erzhou also entered Yanzhou one after another, and Liu Dai, the former assassin of Yanzhou, was also killed in the battle with it; After Cao Cao finally pacified the Yellow Turban Army in Yanzhou, Yuan Shu and the Yanzhou Assassin Shi Jinshang, who was appointed by the imperial court, marched into Yanzhou, and the Black Mountain Army and the Southern Xiongnu also sent troops to support; After Cao Cao repelled Yuan Shu and others, Zhang Miao and Chen Gong rebelled when Cao Cao was crusading against Xuzhou and welcomed Lü Bu into Yanzhou, resulting in Cao Cao and Lü Bu fighting in Yanzhou for more than a year, during which there was also a large-scale locust plague; In addition, Yuan Shao's crusade against Zang Hong was also in the eastern county of Yanzhou.

Yanzhou is chaotic enough in history, but this place in Yuzhou can be said to be even more chaotic than Yanzhou, after Dong Zhuo's rebellion, there have been at least seven assassins or state pastors in the place, including Huang Wan, Kong Ling, Zhou Ang, Sun Jian, Sun Ben, Guo Gong and Liu Bei, Yuan Shu, Yuan Shao, Tao Qian, Cao Cao, Liu Bei, Lu Bu, Guo Gong and other princes have intentions for Yuzhou, and even occupied Yuzhou, and there have been many wars around Yuzhou between them.

Moreover, Yuzhou is also one of the largest entrenchments of the Yellow Turban Army, famous for it, He Yi, Liu Pi, Huang Shao, He Man, Gong Du (Gongdu) and several other people, each of whom has tens of thousands of Yellow Turbans. After Cao Cao took control of Yuzhou, he stabilized the situation in the region and moved the capital to Xuchang in Yuzhou, making it his new base camp.

Xuzhou and Cao Cao have a blood feud in the history of the Three Kingdoms, Cao Cao's father Cao Song died in the hands of Xuzhou people, after which Cao Cao crusaded against Xuzhou four times, except for the last quick battle, there was no time, the other three times were Xuzhou slaughtered into a river of blood. The first time Cao Cao attacked Xuzhou Tao Qian, it is recorded that tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people were driven to the Surabaya River by Cao Cao's army and drowned, and the second crusade against Xuzhou also slaughtered all the places he passed, and later Cao Cao's crusade against Lu Bu slaughtered Pengcheng.

Before Xuzhou was controlled by Cao Cao, it had already experienced the three masters of Tao Qian, Liu Bei, and Lu Bu, and was spied on by many princes. Moreover, Xuzhou is also a frequent place for Yellow Turban thieves, and Tao Qian has vigorously suppressed the Yellow Turban Movement after arriving in Xuzhou. Yuan Shu and Liu Bei, Liu Bei and Lü Bu, Lü Bu and Yuan Shu all had many wars around Xuzhou, and Xuzhou was basically crippled by the end of the first century AD.

Cao Cao later obtained Nanyang County of Jingzhou from Zhang Xiu, and this place is also a place of frequent wars, which was first controlled by Yuan Shu in history, and then recovered by Liu Biao, and invaded by Zhang Ji, Liu Biao in order to appease the remnants of Zhang Ji's death, let him be his nephew Zhang Xiu to manage Nanyang, but Cao Cao's group invaded this place four times, although Zhang Xiu and Liu Biao later defended, but it was also a great loss.

After Yuan Shu's death, Cao Cao sent people to take over the Huainan area of Yangzhou, when Jiangdong had been occupied by Sun Ce, and the Huainan area was not burdened by Yuan Shu's proclamation of emperor and frequent disasters, and the people's livelihood was greatly damaged, and it was even unable to maintain its normal operation in the later period of Yuan's operation, forcing Yuan Shu to give up his roots.

In addition to Yanzhou, Yuzhou, Xuzhou, Nanyang, Jingzhou, and Huainan in Yangzhou, Cao Cao's territory also included Sili and part of it, but on the whole it was a war-torn place, and it was very badly damaged by the war.

Before the decisive battle of Guandu, the world had been in chaos for almost ten years, and there was no stable place for a long time, and Yuan Shao's territory was not very good at that time, but it was still much better than Cao Cao, so on the whole, Yuan Shao's strength was still above Cao Cao, who had already controlled the Son of Heaven.