Gongsun Zan
As many volunteers from different provinces had flocked to join Yuan Shao, Bohai Commandery would be far from sufficient to supply his army. Thus, Pang Ji suggested to Yuan Shao to form a secret alliance with the warlord Gongsun Zan and incite the latter to attack Han Fu's Ji Province. Facing an imminent attack from Gongsun Zan, Han Fu was terrified so he listened to Yuan Shao's lobbyists, Gao Gan (Yuan Shao's nephew) and Xun Chen, to give up the governorship of Ji Province to Yuan Shao in order to drive back Gongsun Zan. Yuan Shao then began to build a warlord state from Ye, the capital of Ji Province. In order to curtail Yuan Shu's sphere of influence, Yuan Shao formed an alliance with Cao Cao and Zhang Miao, and named his follower, Zhou Yu () as the Inspector of Yu Province, a title to which Sun Jian had already been entitled, and sent him to attack Sun Jian's territories in Yu Province while the latter was on his way back from Luoyang. In response, Yuan Shu allied with Gongsun Zan and Tao Qian, and ordered Sun Jian to fight his half-brother.