Yuan Shu faction 袁術

When Dong Zhuo was about to depose the emperor, Yuan Shu was made General of the Rear, but fearing disaster he fled to Nanyang, and as it happened that Sun Jian, Administrator of Changsha, had killed Zhang Zi, Administrator of Nanyang, he took possession of that commandery. In the first month of the 1st year of Chuping (190) Yuan Shu raised troops at the same time as Yuan Shao, Han Fu and others and stationed himself at Nanyang. When he met Sun Jian, who had reached Luyang, he memorialized the throne to make him acting General Who Smashes the Caitiffs and concurrently Inspector of Yu Province. After Sun Jian defeated Dong Zhuo's army at Yangren, someone sowed discord between them and Yuan Shu stopped sending provisions, but when Sun Jian galloped over by night and remonstrated with him, he sent the provisions at once. Records, Wei 6 §72Records, Wei 1 §7–8Records, Wu 1 §15 · 17–18

Nanyang had households numbering in the millions, but Yuan Shu was extravagant and dissolute and levied taxes without limit, tormenting the people. Having fallen out with Yuan Shao and being on bad terms with Liu Biao as well, Yuan Shu joined hands with Gongsun Zan to the north, while Yuan Shao joined hands with Liu Biao to the south. Gongsun Zan sent his younger cousin Gongsun Yue to Yuan Shu with 1,000 horsemen to seal the alliance. When Yuan Shao had Zhou Ang take the position at Yangcheng where Yuan Shu had stationed Sun Jian, Yuan Shu sent Gongsun Yue to attack Zhou Ang together with Sun Jian, but they could not win, and Gongsun Yue was struck by an arrow and died. When Yuan Shu asked for help, Gongsun Zan placed Liu Bei, Shan Jing and Tao Qian at Gaotang, Pingyuan and Fagan to press Yuan Shao, but Cao Cao and Yuan Shao defeated them all. Records, Wei 6 §73Records, Wei 8 §11–12Records, Wei 1 §24

Yuan Shu allied with Sun Jian, intending to fall upon and seize Liu Biao's province. In the 3rd year of Chuping (192), on Yuan Shu's orders, Sun Jian campaigned against Jing Province and besieged Xiangyang, but was struck and killed by an arrow shot by Huang Zu's soldiers, and Yuan Shu was never able to overcome Liu Biao. When Sun Ben, the son of Sun Jian's elder brother, came to Yuan Shu leading Sun Jian's officers and men, Yuan Shu again memorialized the throne to make him Inspector of Yu Province. Records, Wei 6 §83Records, Wu 1 §21

In the spring of the 4th year of Chuping (193), when Liu Biao cut his supply line, Yuan Shu entered Chenliu and stationed himself at Fengqiu, aided by the remnants of the Heishan bandits, Yufuluo and others. When Cao Cao attacked Yuan Shu's general Liu Xiang at Kuangting, Yuan Shu came to his rescue and fought, but was badly defeated; he fled before Fengqiu could be surrounded and, pursued, entered Jiujiang. Yuan Shu killed Chen Wen, Inspector of Yang Province, and governed that province, and made Zhang Xun, Qiao Rui and others grand generals. When Li Jue in Chang'an, wishing to make him an ally, appointed him General of the Left, enfeoffed him as Marquis of Yangdi and sent the Grand Tutor Ma Midi, Yuan Shu seized Ma Midi's credentials and detained him. Records, Wei 1 §25Records, Wei 6 §73–74

In the 1st year of Xingping (194), when Sun Ce joined Yuan Shu, Yuan Shu returned Sun Jian's troops to him. Yet after promising Sun Ce the post of Administrator of Jiujiang he gave it to Chen Ji of Danyang, and after having Sun Ce attack Lu Kang, Administrator of Lujiang, who had refused to hand over 30,000 hu of rice, he again made his former subordinate Liu Xun the administrator. Because Yuan Shu held Shouchun, Liu Yao, Inspector of Yang Province, crossed the Yangtze, made Qu'e his seat and resisted Yuan Shu, and Yuan Shu set up his former subordinate Hui Qu as Inspector of Yang Province and had Wu Jing and Sun Ben attack Zhang Ying and others sent by Liu Yao, but they could not win for more than a year. When Sun Ce asked to help pacify the lands east of the Yangtze, Yuan Shu made him Colonel Who Breaks Assaults and acting General Who Exterminates Bandits, and gave him a little over a thousand soldiers and a few dozen horsemen. The Annals of Emperor Wu recorded that Sun Ce, receiving Yuan Shu's orders, crossed the Yangtze and within a few years took possession of the lands east of the Yangtze. Records, Wu 1 §25–29Records, Wei 1 §27

In the first month of the 1st year of Jian'an (196), Yuan Si, the Chancellor of Chen whom Yuan Shu had installed, surrendered to Cao Cao. That year Yuan Shu attacked Liu Bei, who was in charge of Xu Province, and the two faced each other at Xuyi and Huaiyin for more than a month, during which Lü Bu seized Xiapi in a surprise attack. Later, when Yuan Shu gave his general Ji Ling and others 30,000 foot and horse to attack Liu Bei at Xiaopei, Lü Bu, believing that if Yuan Shu crushed Liu Bei he himself would be caught within Yuan Shu's encirclement, hurried over and stopped the fighting by shooting at a halberd. Records, Wei 1 §36Records, Shu 2 §11–12Records, Wei 7 §16–18

Earlier, Yuan Shu had sent a letter asking for help to Chen Gui, Chancellor of Pei, who had been his friend since their youth, and had taken Chen Gui's son as a hostage, but Chen Gui refused, saying that Yuan Shu ought to set the house of Han aright. In the winter of the 2nd year of Xingping (195), after the Son of Heaven was defeated at Caoyang, Yuan Shu gathered his subordinates and said that his family, which had produced the Three Excellencies for four generations, wished to answer Heaven and follow the people. When the Registrar Yan Xiang objected that even the Zhou, holding two thirds of the realm, had still served the Yin, Yuan Shu fell silent and was displeased. Making use of the mandate-bearing portents of Zhang Jiong of Henei, Yuan Shu at last usurped the imperial title, made the Administrator of Jiujiang the Intendant of Huainan, appointed ministers, and performed sacrifices at the southern and northern suburbs. His several hundred palace women wore fine silks and there was grain and meat to spare, while his soldiers froze and starved, and the land between the Yangtze and the Huai was emptied, so that people ate one another. Sun Ce sent him a letter of rebuke and broke off relations. Records, Wei 6 §75–79Records, Wu 1 §32

Seeking to ally with Lü Bu, Yuan Shu asked for Lü Bu's daughter for his son and sent his envoy Han Yin to inform him of his intention to usurp the throne, but Lü Bu, heeding Chen Gui's persuasion, broke off the marriage and sent Han Yin to Xu to be beheaded. Enraged, Yuan Shu joined forces with Han Xian and Yang Feng and sent his grand general Zhang Xun to attack Lü Bu, but Lü Bu won Han Xian and Yang Feng over, and Zhang Xun was badly defeated. In the ninth month, in autumn, of the 2nd year of Jian'an (197), when Yuan Shu invaded Chen, Cao Cao marched east against him; hearing that Cao Cao was coming in person, Yuan Shu abandoned his army and fled, leaving behind his generals Qiao Rui, Li Feng, Liang Gang and Yue Jiu. Cao Cao beheaded them all, and Yuan Shu fled across the Huai. Records, Wei 7 §19–20 · 24Records, Wei 1 §44

In the 3rd year of Jian'an (198), Lü Bu again sided with Yuan Shu and sent Gao Shun to defeat Liu Bei at Pei County, but when Cao Cao attacked Lü Bu in person and Lü Bu sent men to ask for help, Yuan Shu could not rescue him. When rumors spread at that time that Yuan Shu's army was in disorder, He Kui, who had been held by Yuan Shu and had escaped, told Cao Cao that Yuan Shu, lacking the substance of good faith and compliance, was hoping for the help of Heaven and men, so his disorder was certain. Records, Wei 7 §25–26Records, Wei 12 §41–44

Broken by Lü Bu and defeated by Cao Cao, Yuan Shu went to Mount Qian, where his retainers Lei Bo and Chen Lan were, but was turned away, and he was filled with anxiety and fear. When Yuan Tan sent men from Qing Province to receive Yuan Shu, who had grown steadily more destitute since his defeat at Chen, Yuan Shu, intending to hand the imperial title over to Yuan Shao, tried to go north by way of Xiapi. Cao Cao sent Liu Bei and Zhu Ling to block his road, and in the 4th year of Jian'an (199) Yuan Shu fell ill and died on the road. His Chief Clerk Yang Hong, his grand general Zhang Xun and others tried to lead his followers to Sun Ce, but Liu Xun, Administrator of Lujiang, attacked them on the way and captured them all. Yuan Shu's wife and children took refuge with his former subordinate Liu Xun and were taken in again after Sun Ce defeated Liu Xun; his daughter entered Sun Quan's harem, and his son Yuan Yao was appointed a Gentleman of the Palace. Records, Wei 6 §80Records, Wei 1 §51 · 56Records, Wu 1 §34

In the assessment of Volume 6, Chen Shou wrote that Yuan Shu was extravagant, dissolute and unrestrained, so that his glory did not last out his own life, and that he had brought this on himself. Records, Wei 6 §96