Historically, Yuan Shao unified the north, first replacing Han Fu as the lord of Jizhou, and then basically following the strategy in the "Jizhou Pair", with Youzhou, Qingzhou, and Bingzhou as the goal, striving to eliminate Gongsun Zhan, the Black Mountain Army and the Yellow Turban Army, and then uniting the nomads in the north, and finally completely unifying the great cause of the north.

【Lord of Jizhou】

After Yuan Shao failed to establish another one, he felt that his lifeline was controlled by others, and it was difficult to make a difference in the military, so he began to seek Jizhou at the suggestion of Feng Ji. At that time, Han Fu, the Mu of Jizhou, had been defeated by his subordinate Lu Yi, and Yuan Shao followed Feng Ji's suggestion to send someone to secretly contact Gongsun Zan to lure him south to seize Jizhou, and then sent an eloquent envoy to show Han Fu the way and let him give up Jizhou.

Gongsun Chan entered Jizhou under the banner of crusading against Dong Zhuo, and Han Fu couldn't resist it, at this time Yuan Shao also returned to Yanjin, and echoed with Lu Yi, Gongsun Chan and others, and finally Han Fu was persuaded by Yuan Shao's envoys Xun Chen, Xin Ping, Guo Tu, Gao Gan and others under great pressure from the outside world, and gave Jizhou to Yuan Shao.

In this way, Yuan Shao took his first step to unify the north and became the lord of Jizhou.

【Capture Qingzhou】

Yuan Shao obtained the second big state in the north is Qingzhou, after the death of Qingzhou Thorn Shi Jiao, Yuan Shao appointed Zang Hong as the Qingzhou Thorn History, to appease the people, and later Gongsun Zan killed into Qingzhou, and also sent his own appointed Qingzhou Thorn Shi Tian Kai to manage Qingzhou, and later Liu Bei also served as the leader of Qingzhou, and for a time Qingzhou was mixed.

In history, it was Yuan Shao's eldest son Yuan Tan who really helped Yuan Shao defeat Qingzhou.

When Yuan Tan first arrived in Qingzhou, he faced a very harsh environment, at that time he only had a plain under his hands, but he had to deal with two thorns at the same time, of which Tian Kai was in the north, Kong Rong was in the south, and Yuan Tan was sandwiched in the middle. And according to the record of "Kyushu Spring and Autumn", Yuan Tan was only appointed by Yuan Shao as the governor at first, and he was not a assassin, and later Cao Cao appointed him as the assassin of Qingzhou in the name of the imperial court.

But Yuan Tan was very angry for Yuan Shao, he finally defeated Tian Kai to the north, drove him back to Youzhou, attacked Kong Rong to the east, and fought from the mainland to the sea, and Qingzhou because there has been no clear master, the war is not repaired, so after Yuan Tan controlled Qingzhou, the people were very happy to support him, hoping that Yuan Tan could bring real peace and stability.

After Yuan Tan became the assassin of Qingzhou, he finally lost the support of the people because of improper employment, plundering everywhere, and unfair rewards and punishments.

【Lord of the Four States】

In history, after Cao Cao moved the capital, he wanted to be a general, but Yuan Shao did not succumb to Cao Cao, and finally forced Cao Cao to give the general to him.

Therefore, Yuan Shao nominally became the lord of the four northern states as early as the second year of Jian'an (197), and the number two person in the world only under the Son of Heaven.

Maybe some people think that these are just a false name, but in fact, this idea is very outrageous, the general in the late Eastern Han Dynasty can be said to be the largest official in the imperial court, the status is above the three dukes, who held this official position back then, Liang Ji, Dou Wu, He Jin!

After Yuan Shao became a general, he could not only control the imperial court justifiably, but even sometimes act directly on behalf of the Son of Heaven. After Cao Cao handed over the four northern states to Yuan Shao's supervision, he not only recognized Yuan Shao's legitimacy for the areas already occupied in the north, but also marked that Yuan Shao could justifiably crusade against Gongsun Zan and others.

Historically, Yuan Shao basically relied on the edict brought to him by Cao Cao and Kong Rong to directly obtain the annexation of the state. So these are not false names, but real interests.

But for Cao Cao, the four northern states are out of his reach, and he can appease Yuan Shao by giving up these benefits that he can't get, Cao Cao is not a loss, as long as Cao Cao survives this difficult time, he can take his time in the future.

【Destroy Gongsun and seize Youzhou】

In history, in the process of Yuan Shao's seizure of the north, the most powerful enemy was Gongsun Zhan.

At the beginning, Yuan Shao undoubtedly had the upper hand in the confrontation with Gongsun Zhan, when Yuan Shao had just seized Jizhou from his ally Han Fu and played Gongsun Zhan, and Gongsun Zhan's younger brother Gongsun Yue also died in the hands of Zhou Ang, the assassin of Yuzhou appointed by Yuan Shao, Yuan Shao, who was still unstable at that time, was naturally unwilling to be a direct enemy with Gongsun Zhan, who had strong military strength, so Yuan Shao gave up the position of direct Bohai Taishou to Gongsun Zhan, another subordinate brother Gongsun Fan, in order to temporarily appease Gongsun Zhan.

But Gongsun Chan is not an idiot, he understands Yuan Shao's threat to himself very well, so Gongsun Chan is not ready to give Yuan Shao a chance at all, and then directly crusade against Yuan Shao after eliminating the Yellow Turban Thief, and strive to eliminate Yuan Shao in one fell swoop and seize Jizhou.

Then Gongsun Chan met his lifelong nemesis Koji at the boundary bridge, lost several battles, and was driven back to Youzhou directly by Koji Yi, and then Gongsun Chan was unwilling to send troops from Long Miao again to try to save the situation, which was another failure. Since then, Gongsun Zhan has been unable to seize Yuan Shao's Jizhou, and Yuan Shao has survived his crisis.

In order to fight against Yuan Shao and others and Yuan Shu, Tao Qian and others, and Yuan Shu sent people to Gongsun Chan for help after Sun Jian's death, and finally formed a general battle of many princes, Gongsun Chan sent Liu Bei and Shan Jing to fight, but failed to win.

Then Yuan Shao sent his troops Cui Juye to lead tens of thousands of troops to besiege Gongsun Zhan's hometown, not only did not fight, but was chased by Gongsun Chan when he retreated to Juma Shui, and was defeated by Gongsun Zhan, who also took advantage of this victory to invade Qingzhou and captured many territories in Qingzhou. The war between Yuan Shao and Gongsun Chan entered a stalemate stage.

In the fourth year of Chuping (193), Gongsun Zhan eliminated Liu Yu, and his sphere of influence reached its peak. Then Liu Yu's old department avenged Liu Yu, raised troops to fight against Gongsun Zhan, Yuan Shao also sent Koji Yi to fight, the two sides in the second year of Xingping (195) in Baoqiu to start a big battle, Gongsun Chan was defeated again by Koji Yi, defeated, and lost the initiative since then, completely falling into the disadvantage.

After the Battle of Baoqiu, Gongsun Zhan completely turned to the defensive, put on the turtle Dafa, and defended it in Yijing, in order to drag down Yuan Shao.

And Yuan Shaojun didn't have much to do in the face of Gongsun Zhan's turtle Dafa, and he couldn't capture it for a long time. After Cao Cao moved the capital, Yuan Shao once thought about eliminating Cao Cao, who posed the greatest threat to him, first, but Gongsun Chan arrogantly refused to negotiate peace with Yuan Shao, and Yuan Shao could only do his best to eliminate Gongsun Chan first.

In the fourth year of Jian'an (199), Yuan Shao gained the upper hand in the siege battle, and then intercepted Gongsun Zhan's confidential letters, and finally defeated Gongsun Zhan, controlled Youzhou, and completed the feat of unifying the north.

In this way, Yuan Shao spent eight or nine years to basically complete the first step in the "Jizhou Pair".