After Yuan Shao's death, Yuan Shao's three sons Yuan Tan, Yuan Xi, and Yuan Shang carried the banner of the Yuan Group, and the eldest son Yuan Tan and the third son Yuan Xi completely broke up around the issue of inheritance of the great cause.

【Yuan Tan】

Yuan Tan is Yuan Shao's eldest son, he himself is not an incompetent person, in the case that Yuan Shao has begun to have some intentions towards Yuan Shang, Yuan Tan is relying on his outstanding political achievements in Qingzhou to make Yuan Shao slow to make up his mind.

At the beginning of Qingzhou, Yuan Tan did have a brilliant record, not only defeating Tian Kai, the right-hand man under Gongsun Zhan, but also driving out Kong Rong, who had been entrenched in Qingzhou. But after the unification of Qingzhou, Yuan Tan got a little carried away, and lost the support of the people because of improper employment and unfair rewards and punishments.

After Yuan Tan was ready to pick up his uncle Yuan Shu, he was stopped by Liu Bei, and after Liu Bei was defeated by Cao Cao, because Liu Bei had raised him as a Maocai, Yuan Tan felt his kindness to welcome Liu Bei into the north. During the Battle of Guandu, Yuan Tan followed his father Yuan Shao to participate in the war, and Yuan Shao escaped after the defeat, and the other two sons were not recorded in the Battle of Guandu, which shows how much Yuan Shao attached importance to Yuan Tan.

And Yuan Shao didn't decide who would inherit the great cause before he died, it should have been Yuan Tan's turn according to reason, Yuan Tan also thought so, but unfortunately due to Feng Ji, trial and others falsified the will, so that Yuan Shang finally won the throne, which is also the most fundamental contradiction between the two brothers, and the battle for inheritance is also the fundamental reason for the later break between the two. After that, the conflict between the two brothers intensified step by step, and finally became irreparable.

At the beginning, under the huge pressure of Cao Cao, Yuan Tan and Yuan Shang reluctantly converged, but even so, Yuan Shang was unwilling to give Yuan Tan more support, Yuan Tan even killed Feng Ji sent by Yuan Shang directly, the two brothers who were not in line with their hearts were not Cao Cao's opponents at all, and were driven directly by Cao Cao from Liyang to the base camp Yecheng, if it wasn't for Cao Cao being persuaded by Guo Jia at that time, the two brothers were likely to be wiped out by Cao Cao in Yecheng.

After Cao Cao's retreat, the contradiction broke out completely, under the allocation of Guo Tu and Xin Ping, Yuan Tan waved his army to crusade against Yuan Shang, and the two sides fought outside the Yecheng Gate, Yuan Tan was defeated, retreated to Nanpi, and gained a foothold with the help of Wang Xu, Guan Tong and others. Then Yuan Tan adopted Guo Tu's strategy, luring the wolf into the house, letting Cao Cao deal with Yuan Shang, and reaping the benefits of the fisherman himself.

As a result, Cao Cao conquered Yecheng and defeated Yuan Shang, but the problem was that Yuan Tan was not a fisherman, but the mussel that was bitten by a sandpiper, and Cao Cao was the fisherman. Then, then Yuan Tan didn't have that.

【Yuan Shang】

In history, Yuan Shang was favored by Yuan Shao's wife, Mrs. Liu, and also had a tendency to be white-faced, and he was able to inherit Yuan Shao's position by forging his will by Feng Ji, trial and others, and he was also average in the battle with Cao Cao, so he was despised by many people, but in fact, Yuan Shang still had a certain ability.

After he inherited Yuan Shao's great cause, he knew very well that after the defeat of Guandu, the Yuan clan could no longer continue to fight against Cao Cao in the front, so he found another way and appointed Guo Yuan as the Taishou of Hedong and Shi Gaogan of Bingzhou and Southern Xiongnu Shan Yu Luan Tihu Chuquan to attack Hedong together, preparing to unite with Ma Teng, the prince of Guanzhong, and others to deal with Cao Cao together. There is no problem with Yuan Shang's strategy, and if he can't do it head-on, he will open up a way to seek new allies, but unfortunately, Guo Yuan died because of the defeat of his carelessness, and the matter in Hedong will not be over.

On the other hand, Yuan Shang did not entrap his brother Yuan Tan, Yuan Tan did not give soldiers or weapons and equipment, but from Yuan Shang's point of view, he took away the position that should have belonged to his brother Yuan Tan through incorrect means, so how could he not be wary of Yuan Tan and let Yuan Tan become bigger, in the final analysis, the relationship between the two brothers was irretrievable at that time.

It is inevitable that Yuan Shang will suppress Yuan Tan, and it will be sooner or later for Yuan Tan to see that Yuan Shang is unhappy and even raise troops to confront, and their contradictions themselves cannot be reconciled.

And after Yuan Tan introduced Cao Cao over, Yuan Shang's strategy was not a big problem. After understanding the threat of Yuan Tan and Cao Cao both inside and outside, Yuan Shang faced a very tricky situation, Cao Cao's strength was stronger than Yuan Shang at that time, although Yuan Tan was weaker than Yuan Shang, but it was also Yuan Shang's henchman, judging from the situation at that time, Yuan Shang had no way not to take risks.

So in the end, Yuan Shang delayed time with a solid defense of Yecheng against Cao Cao, while he personally led a large army to defeat Yuan Tan in a short period of time as soon as possible, and then returned to the army to deal with Cao Cao. But in the end, Yuan Shang failed to bite Yuan Tan, but Yecheng was almost unable to hold on, and he was forced to return to the army again to rescue but was defeated by Cao Cao in one fell swoop, and was defeated by Yuan Tan in Zhongshan, and lost Jizhou.

Yuan Shang first dealt with the weak internal trouble Yuan Tan, and concentrated his forces to confront Cao Cao, this strategy is indeed risky, if Yuan Shang can't beat Yuan Tan or Yecheng can't resist Cao Cao, it may collapse directly, but the problem is that Yuan Shang has no better way, he can't wait for Cao Cao and Yuan Tan to merge.

After Yuan Shang fled to Youzhou to seek refuge with his brother Yuan Xi, Yuan Xi was betrayed by his subordinates and then went to Wuheng's territory, and after Wuheng was defeated by Cao Cao, he fled to Liaodong to join Gongsun Kang, and was finally killed by him.

【Yuan Xi】

Because Yuan Xi is not the eldest son, and there is no record of the eldest handsome, the matter of the heir has never been his business, but in fact, among Yuan Shao's three sons, Yuan Xi's ability is also the worst.

Yuan Xi is Yuan Shao's appointment of Youzhou Assassin History, he basically did not make achievements during his tenure, when Yuan Shao and Cao Cao confronted, Xian Yufu and Yan Rou in Youzhou chose to take refuge in Cao Cao, Xian Yufu even went directly to Guandu from Youzhou to see Cao Cao, and was named General Jianzhong by Cao Cao, and supervised the military affairs of the six counties of Youzhou. This can already be seen that Yuan Xi's ability to control Youzhou is very average.

Yuan Shang and Yuan Tan were both defeated or eliminated after a vicious battle with Cao Cao, and Yuan Xi was the only one who was directly driven out of Youzhou because of the rebellion of his subordinates. When Yuan Tan entered Qingzhou, there was only a county in the plains, and there was also a threat from Tian Kai and Kong Rong outside, and later after Yuan Tan lost, Qingzhou also rebelled, but Yuan Tan finally did not stand firm, and survived under Yuan Shang's two attacks.

Moreover, Yuan Shang has a trial match to serve him to the death, and after his death, there are Tian Chou and Zhao to keep the festival for him, Yuan Tan also has Wang Yu under his command, and the management is loyal to him, and Yuan Xi has a Han Heng under his command, but Han Heng is for Yuan's father and son to keep the festival, and he does not clearly say Yuan Xi.

So it is not for nothing that Yuan Xi was excluded from the topic of heirs.

[The tragedy of two generations]

As early as when Yuan Shao sent Yuan Tan to Qingzhou, Fu Zhu had already said that if Yuan Shao didn't handle this matter well, the disaster would happen from this matter, but unfortunately Yuan Shao didn't listen to Fu Zhu's advice in the end, and he didn't know that Yuan Shao had a spirit underground, and he would die again when he saw such a result of the old Yuan family. After all, the contradiction between Yuan Tan and Yuan Shang can be traced back to the problem left by Yuan Shao.

Yuan Tan and Yuan Shang brothers re-followed the old path of their elders Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu in history. Yuan Shao, as the elder brother, first united with Cao Cao to deal with Yuan Shu, and after Yuan Shu failed, he was defeated by Cao Cao, and Yuan Tan also united with Cao Cao to deal with Yuan Shang, but he was also cleaned up by Cao Cao after Yuan Shang was defeated.

The same experience, the same tragedy, happened to the two generations of the Yuan family in Runan, the fourth and third dukes. Brothers work together to break gold. What if they don't work together? Yuan Shao, Yuan Shu, Yuan Tan, Yuan Shang, the tragedy of the estrangement between the two generations of brothers of the old Yuan family is a lesson from the past.