You may be familiar with Yuan Shao, the strongest prince in the early Three Kingdoms, but you know very little about Yuan Shu, who was born in a famous family of the Yuan family. It is generally believed that Yuan Shu and Yuan Shao's brothers are not in harmony, and Yuan Shu is arrogant and lascivious, and cannot take on important responsibilities.
Next, let's take a closer look at this "pseudo-emperor" Yuan Shu.
Although Yuan Shu and Yuan Shao both came from the illustrious Yuan family, their origins were different. Yuan Shu is the second son of the Yuan family, but Yuan Shao is the eldest son.
Although Yuan Shao was later passed on to Yuan Cheng and became his son-in-law, under the strict concept of concubine in ancient times, Yuan Shu still looked down on his cousin Yuan Shao.
There is also a big gap in the treatment of the two, Yuan Shu was selected as filial piety, successively held internal and external positions, and later became the captain of Zhichong and the general of the tiger ben.
It can be seen that he is cultivated as a family heir; Although Yuan Shao was loved by Yuan Feng and Yuan Cheng, his experience was relatively simple, and he only served as the magistrate of Puyang County.
Although Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu are brothers of the same race, there are many contradictions between them. At the time of Dong Zhuo's rebellion, they chose to escape from Kyoto and began their own paths.
Yuan Shu relied on his years of experience as an official "inside and outside the post", and fled to Nanyang and became the Taishou of Nanyang. And Sun Jian, the former general of Yuan Shu's subordinates, also occupied Nanyang at this time and took over the position of Nanyang Taishou.
Sun Jian's bravery, skillful fighting and resourcefulness laid a solid backing for Yuan Shu. In addition, Sun Jian also had a tiger father, Sun Quan's father, Sun Jian, whose bravery and resourcefulness also provided strong support to Yuan Shu.
However, although Yuan Shu took advantage of the time, place and people, he was not able to lay down a piece of Yuan's world, which can be said to be a major failure in his life. If they can reconcile and work together, they may be able to change the pattern of the entire three countries.
Yuan Shu chose to ally with Gongsun Zhan, although Gongsun Zhan was far away in Youzhou and was at odds with Yuan Shao. Such a decision, like trying to extinguish a flame that is close at hand with water from afar, will only complicate the problem.
Even if Yuan Shu faced an attack, close neighbors like Liu Biao would come to the rescue more quickly, but he still stubbornly chose allies from a distance. This strategy of seeking the near and far eventually led to the gradual distancing of the world that might have belonged to the Yuan family.
Although the relationship between Yuan Shu and Yuan Shao is not good, they are compatriots after all, why should they be so eager to fry each other? When crusading against Dong Zhuo, they could still join forces and cooperate, but the leader of the alliance was Yuan Shao, the concubine, not Yuan Shu, the concubine of the Yuan family, which also planted the seeds of resentment in Yuan Shu's heart.
Yuan Shu had angrily cursed those who would rather follow a house slave than follow him.
After the defeat of Dong, Yuan Shao proposed to make Liu Yu emperor, but Yuan Shu saw the decline of the Liu family, as the son and heir of the Yuan family, he occupied the prosperous Nanyang and Jianghuai regions, with a strong military force and Runan as the backing, the protégés of the Yuan family of the fourth and third princes were all over the world, with extremely high prestige and prestige, so he was no longer willing to be subordinate.
The brothers disagreed, and the conflict escalated. Although Yuan Shu's ideas originated from his powerful forces, his defeat actually stemmed from himself. It is said that the gun shot the first bird, and during the Three Kingdoms period, who didn't have ambition in their hearts?
But most people slowly accumulate and then realize their ambitions. However, Yuan Shu thought that he was strong enough and did not need the support of the Liu family, so he wanted to become emperor.
However, this behavior of his has pulled the hatred of the ambitious princes of the world on himself. If Yuan Shu had enough ability and determination to become the emperor and become a ruler of the world, then there would be nothing to blame.
However, unfortunately, after Yuan Shu became emperor, he became a debaucherous and unscrupulous king, which left him with the image of a "bad guy" in history.
Is his mistake in **? The first is that he did not win the hearts and minds of the people. Although Yuan Shu occupied Nanyang and Jianghuai, his arrogance and lasciviousness and looting of the people's fat and ointment caused the people to complain, and his behavior was inconsistent with a good leader, which made him lose the hearts of the people.
Secondly, his desire to be the emperor started too early. He wrote to Chen Wan, who was also from a wealthy family, hoping that he could help him achieve great things, and threatened to kidnap Chen Wan's son Chen Ying.
However, his plan was rejected because although the Liu clan was in decline, they were not as unpopular as Qin Shi Huang or King Yin of the Qin Dynasty, but were rejected by the world's leaders.
In addition, Yuan Shu's master, Bo Yanxiang, also dissuaded him from doing so, but he only annoyed him. In the end, after Yuan Shu offended Chen Wan, a member of the same family, his prestige was greatly reduced.
Although he has a large following, this behavior will undoubtedly cost him their support. Yuan Shu did not give up because of this, and he was still emperor soon after, but this dream did not last long.
He wanted to become a master and become an emperor, but he spent extravagantly, opened his harem widely, and only focused on his luxurious life, ignoring the soldiers under his command and the people under his rule.
His soldiers were hungry and cold, and his people were also facing the dilemma of having no food and clothing, and even had a tragic situation of cannibalism. How can a king who has no soldiers and no people in his heart win wars and the hearts of the people?
Therefore, the failure of Yuan Shu was inevitable. His short-sightedness and poor use of people doomed him to the end.
In the early battle of Dong, Yuan Shu's subordinate Sun Jian made great achievements and won the first merit for Yuan Shu. However, Yuan Shu was afraid that the high merit would shock the master, and someone would sow discord, so he began to have doubts about Sun Jian.
In a campaign to attack Luoyang, Yuan Shu was in arrears of military rations in the rear, causing tens of thousands of soldiers under Sun Jian to starve and the army to be unstable. Sun Jian was deeply worried about this, so he decided to go to Luyang overnight to analyze the situation and move people with emotion.
Yuan Shu was finally persuaded to give Sun Jian military rations, but Sun Jian felt a chill in Yuan Shu because of this. Despite this, Sun Jian continued to fight for Yuan Shu. However, Sun Jian eventually died young, but his eldest son, Sun Ce, inherited his genes of bravery and warlikeness.
However, Yuan Shu became the emperor, which made Sun Ce, who had originally succumbed to him in order to inherit his father's business, find an opportunity to fight back, and finally broke with Yuan Shu, and also confronted him in turn.
Yuan Shu's decision undoubtedly gave Sun Ce a good reason to oppose him.
When the princes were fighting, Yuan Shu was defeated by Lü Bu, and was defeated by Cao Cao's Cao army at Kuangting, leaving only the remnants of the defeated generals. He tried to take refuge with Lei Bo and Chen Lan in his old department, but was refused.
He felt as helpless as a lost dog, and remembered his half-brother Yuan Shao. He felt that the blood relationship would make Yuan Shao accept him, so he went to Qingzhou to join his nephew Yuan Tan.
Yuan Shu was born in the Yuan family, a famous family, and is the sister-in-law of the Yuan family, who has experienced in internal and external affairs, and has defeated Liu Bei many times, is it possible for such a brave and resourceless person?
No! However, although Yuan Shu occupied the right time and place, why did he lose so badly and wander like a lost dog? It's just because although he is brave and strategic, he still maintains the pride of the children of the family, lacks foresight, and does not have the "courage" and "responsibility" of a real emperor, so he failed.