War with Gongsun Zan | Yuan Shao Let's Talk Lore Part 3

Hello everyone, this is Serious Trivia, and welcome back to another episode of our Yuan Shao Let's Talk Lore series, as we continue with part 3, titled War with Gongsun Zan. Now last time, we ended our episode with Han Fu abdicating the command of the entire Ji province to Yuan Shao. Well, this would eventually bring us to the conflict between Gongsun Zan and Yuan Shao, as Yuan Shao had previously promised to conduct a joint war with Gongsun Zan against Han Fu, only to take over Han Fu's land not long after Gongsun Zan upheld his end of the bargain. But before we jump into this rather long war between the two northern powerhouses, we need to discuss Han Fu's fate after the abdication. Now, right after the abdication, Yuan Shao awarded Han Fu with the title of Fenwei Jiangjun, or basically one of those medium-ranking fancy general titles. However, Yuan Shao didn't assign any officers nor any troops to Han Fu, so essentially, Han Fu was a powerless one-man army with a title. While this was probably an expected outcome, what was unexpected was the fact that one of Yuan Shao's own officers, named Zhu Han, held a grudge over Han Fu for not promoting him in the past. So not long after Han Fu's abdication, Zhu Han took his men and surrounded Han Fu's estate. Scared for his life, Han Fu hid in the attic while his son went to meet with Zhu Han. Unable to find Han Fu, Zhu Han took out his anger on Han Fu's son as Zhu Han and his men beat Han Fu's son senseless and even broke both of his legs before leaving. Upon hearing this incident, Yuan Shao did actually execute Zhu Han, but Han Fu was already spooked, so he requested to depart the Ji province as he wanted to take refuge with his old friend Zhang Miao in Henei. However, not long after, Yuan Shao would send an envoy to meet with Zhang Miao, and after seeing the envoy whisper something to Zhang Miao in front of him, Han Fu thought Yuan Shao was still targeting him. So out of fear for his family's safety, he excused himself from the meeting by saying that he had to use the bathroom, only to commit suicide in the bathroom with a letter opener that he had on him, hoping his death would be enough to spare his family. Now we don't know if Yuan Shao was actually targeting Han Fu, nor do we know much about Han Fu's family after this incident, but this is still a rather tragic ending for a character that is often seen as a background character during this period of Yuan Shao's rise. But with Han Fu's death, we can now turn back and focus on the main conflict between Gongsun Zan and Yuan Shao. And aside from Yuan Shao's betrayal with the takeover of Ji province, there was another rift that stood between Gongsun Zan and Yuan Shao. In the winter of 191, Yuan Shao had already started his proxy war with his own brother Yuan Shu down in the central plains, as he tried to appoint Zhou Ang to succeed the recently deceased Kong The only problem was, this was a position that Yuan Shu had already awarded to his own officer in Sun Jian. But with Sun Jian busy fighting Liu Biao down in Xiangyang, Yuan Shao's officer Zhou Ang easily took control of the Yu province and settled down in the city of Yang. So, in order to retake this land, Yuan Shu would send Gongsun Zan's younger cousin Gongsun Yue, who had been serving in Yuan Shu's army at this time, to retake this city. Unfortunately, during the siege of Yang, Gongsun Yue would be struck by a stray arrow and die on the battlefield. And upon hearing this news, Gongsun Zan, who at this time was busy in the Qing province helping putting down a new round of ultramarine rebellions, immediately placed the blame of his cousin's death on Yuan Shao, as he turned his army around to attack Yuan Shao in the Ji province. Caught off guard, Yuan Shao quickly sent delegates to plead for peace. In the end, Yuan Shao was able to bribe Gongsun Zan off in the interim by handing over the administrator position of Bohai to Gongsun Zan's other cousin Gongsun Fan. But right as Gongsun Fan took over Bohai, he immediately jumped ship, as Gongsun Zan had no real intentions of making peace with Yuan Shao, as fighting finally broke out in a small field 20 leagues south of a key bridge called Jieqiao. Leading Yuan Shao's army was the vanguard forces led by General Qu Yi, who now worked for Yuan Shao after his small rebellion against Han Fu. And as we mentioned before, Qu Yu came from a military family out west, as he honed his skills against the nomadic tribes of the Xiongnu and Qiang before being transferred to the Ji province. So in essence, he was perfectly suited for dealing with Gongsun Zan's legendary white horse auxiliary units. Thus, in the vanguard were just 800 elite spear units, led personally by Qu Yi, who, lagging behind this small force of spearmen, wore 1000 crossbowmen. Then behind them was a infantry force numbering around 20,000, led by Yuan Shao himself. Facing off against them was Gongsun Zan's battle-hardened army, made up around 30,000 infantry that formed the central army, while 10,000 ranged cavalry units were divided evenly on both flanks. And upon seeing Yuan Shao's force march in a line with a very small vanguard detachment, Gongsun Zan, who had rarely lost in his military career, ordered his cavalry to encircle and wipe out this enemy vanguard. Yet this played right into Qu Yi's hands, as he ordered his 800 spearguards into a defensive shield formation as they baited the enemy cavalry deeper into the range of the lagging crossbowmen, who now unleashed volleys upon volleys on the unsuspecting white horse fellow. Then, before the cavalry could recover, the 800 spearguards leaped out of their defensive formation to engage the cavalry in hand-to-hand combat, which prevented them from retreating. And before Gongsun Zan knew what was happening, his famed white horse fellows routed in disarray, which triggered his infantry to shatter as his force began to retreat. Seeing this, Yuan Shao ordered his men into a full pursuit as he and a small group of roughly 100 spearmen guards and roughly 10 crossbowmen strolled behind the victorious army. Gongsun Zan tried one final time to regroup his demoralized forces to make a stand, but his efforts were fruitless as Qu Yi was relentless in his pursuit and Gongsun Zan could not muster enough of his routing men in time to hold the bridge as he was forced to give up the battle and retreat for the time being. But as Qu Yi and Yuan Shao's main forces were celebrating at Jieqiao, Yuan Shao himself was still 10 leagues behind, in perhaps the most dangerous moment of his life, as over 2,000 of the previously routed white horse fellows had just managed to regroup as they began to attack this strangling army. And as arrows rang down upon them, Yuan Shao's advisor Tian Feng threw himself on top of Yuan Shao and begged him to hide in a nearby ditch, but the prideful Yuan Shao threw his advisor off him as he tossed his own helmet into the ground and yelled to his troops that he would rather die like a man alongside them than hide in a ditch. Then under his direction, the few crossbowmen started to lay down some cover fire as the spearmen charged the enemy cavalry. Seeing that the enemy's will to fight was still very strong, the white horse fellows decided to pull back as they were still searching to regroup with their commander. Now had they known that Yuan Shao was just inches away from them, the outcome of the north might have played out very differently. Very soon, Qu Yi's forces were also able to regroup with Yuan Shao, and the battle of Jieqiao ended with Gongsun Zan retreating to lick his wounds. Now, while Yuan Shao clearly won the battle, the threat from Gongsun Zan would persist for many years, as Gongsun Zan had also managed to link up with Zhang Yan's Black Mountain bandits as he goaded them into attacking Yuan Shao from his western flank. A general named Du Chang was able to force Yuan Shao to retreat and take care of this threat while Gongsun Zan was able to rest his forces, as Yuan Shao would be forced to spend the next few years to deal with the threats out west. The Black Mountain bandits would prove to be one tough opponent for Yuan Shao all the way till Yuan Shao's ultimate destruction at the hand of Cao Cao. And from this point on, Yuan Shao's forces would be in a constant state of war, as the proxy war down south with his brother Yuan Shu would also heat up in 192, as Cao Qian and Cao Cao would also join the fray. In the same year, Yuan Shao would also march once again on Gongsun Zan, but after a prolonged siege, Yuan Shao's forces ran out of food, so they decided to pull back, and during this retreat, Gongsun Zan pursued with his cavalry and managed to inflict heavy casualties around 7000 on Yuan Shao's army, but the pursuit also overstretched Gongsun Zan's lines, and when they reached a place called Longcan, Yuan Shao was able to regroup and beat Gongsun Zan, which ultimately made this campaign sort of a draw for both sides. Then in spring of 193, the young emperor tried to play mediator in this conflict, as he sent out the grand tutor Zhao Qi to both sides to convince them to play nice, and for the time being, the feud was paused as both sides turned to deal with more eternal matters. For Yuan Shao, the issue was rather severe, as in March of 193, a coup occurred in the city of Ye, as elements of Yuan Shao's armies secretly allied themselves with black men bandits as the city of fell while Yuan Shao's main forces were away, and upon hearing this news, Yuan Shao's forces were rather demoralized as many of their families were now in jeopardy as most of them lived in Ye, including Yuan Shao's own family. Fortunately for Yuan Shao, one of the black mountain bandit leaders, named Taosheng, had the foresight to seek a better future for himself, as he would secretly round up Yuan Shao's family and escort them personally to Yuan Shao's main forces, and Yuan Shao immediately promoted him as a lieutenant, as they would eventually fight to retake the city. Then by June, after retaking Ye, Yuan Shao's forces pushed deep into the black mountains, as they seeked revenge. And after 5 days of sieging, Yu Du and over 10,000 black mountain bandits would perish, as Yuan Shao's forces pushed deeper into the mountain. However, after weeks of fighting and numerous victories, Yuan Shao's forces were spent, as they finally decided to retreat to help with the annual harvest, and the black mountain bandits would survive and continue to be a threat in the future. Now, while Yuan Shao was dealing with this black mountain bandit threat, Gongsun Zan also had his own eternal matter. Yet the way that Gongsun Zan would eventually resolve this matter would actually essentially speed up his demise. So to learn what this matter is, and how it would impact Gongsun Zan's ultimate fall at the hand of Yuan Shao, come back next time, as we'll continue our series next week. So hopefully you all enjoyed this episode, and I'll see you all then. Bye!