Among the most famous is the Battle of Hulao Pass, where a coalition of dissidents led by Yuan Shao clashed with Dong Zhuo's elite armies in the novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
Lü Bu rode this horse during a battle in Changshan (常山; around present-day Shijiazhuang, Hebei) in 193, in which he helped another warlord Yuan Shao defeat his rival Zhang Yan.
After the collapse of the Han empire in 189, his great-great-grandsons Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu formed their own warlord fiefdoms in north China.
Tian Feng urged Yuan to attack Cao while he was away, but Yuan refused to launch an all-out offensive, instead he sent small detachments to harass his enemy, but was daunted by Yu Jin, the defender of Yan Ford (see Battle of Dushi Ford).
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A strike led by Cao Cao and Yue Jin at Yuan's supply depot in Wuchao in late 200 burned down most of the grains available to Yuan Shao's army, thus brought the northern army to a collapse.
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Cao Cao occupied the Central China Plain and in 200 CE defeated Yuan Shao at the Battle of Guandu, northeast of present-day Zhongmu County.
By then, Yuan Shao, Cao Cao and others had left Luoyang and they later combined forces to start a campaign against Dong Zhuo in 190.
However, Yuan Shao eventually took the counsel of Guo Tu, who suggested concentrating forces on the base camp of Cao Cao should the latter decide to attack Wuchao.