Yuan Shao, with hundreds of thousands of troops, occupied the states and counties north of the Yellow River, such as You, Ji, Qing, and He, and was in a favorable position to attack and retreat to defend. Cao Cao occupied the states and counties south of the Yellow River, such as Gun, Yu and Xu, and received Emperor Xian of Han in Xuchang to "hold the Son of Heaven and make the vassals". However, Cao Cao only had tens of thousands of troops and was located in a geographic location that was easy to attack and difficult to defend, and his rear was not consolidated, as Liu Biao in Jingzhou, Sun Ce in Jiangdong and Zhang Xiu in Nanyang were still enemies of Cao Cao. Therefore, the overall combat situation was favorable to Yuan but not to Cao.