Wu Warrior
Gan Ning, the Belled Raider
甘寧died about 2204 star
In short
Gan Ning (died about 220) was a general of Wu. In his youth he led a gang of river pirates in Ba commandery, known by the bells they wore. He served Liu Biao and Huang Zu without advancement, went over to Sun Quan around 208, and urged him to take Jing Province. At Ruxu he raided Cao Cao's camp at night with a hundred picked riders. Sun Quan said: Cao Cao has Zhang Liao, and I have Gan Ning.
| Lived | died about 220 |
|---|---|
| Name in Chinese | 甘寧 |
| Courtesy name | Xingba |
| Served | Liu Biao and Huang Zu, then Sun Quan |
The history
Gan Ning was from Linjiang in Ba commandery, on the upper Yangtze. He was strong, loved a fight, and led a gang whose members wore feathers on their backs and bells at their belts. Officials who received him well were left alone. Those who did not were robbed.
He gave it up, read some of the philosophers, and took eight hundred followers down the river to Liu Biao. He judged that Liu Biao would come to nothing and moved on to Huang Zu at Jiangxia, who used him like a common soldier. In 203, covering Huang Zu’s retreat, Gan Ning shot dead Sun Quan’s officer Ling Cao. Huang Zu did not promote him for it.
Around 208 he crossed to Sun Quan. Zhou Yu and Lu Meng vouched for him, and he laid out a plan at once: Huang Zu was old and his men unpaid, Jing Province was the gate to the west, and Cao Cao would take it if Wu did not. Zhang Zhao objected. Gan Ning answered him to his face. Sun Quan raised a cup to Gan Ning and gave him the campaign. Huang Zu fell that year.
He fought at Red Cliffs and at Jiangling, where he held the outpost of Yiling with a few hundred men against several thousand. He climbed the wall first at Wan in 214. At Ruxu he made his raid with a hundred riders, after sharing out wine and food from Sun Quan and pouring the first cup himself.
He was rough, quick to kill, and open handed. He kept good men about him, and soldiers would die for him.
The novel
Romance of the Three Kingdoms keeps the bells and calls him the Pirate of the Silken Sails. It ends his feud with Ling Tong when Gan Ning saves his life at Ruxu, and has him die under a tree at Yiling, shot by the tribal king Shamoke. The history says only that he died and that Sun Quan grieved for him, and does not say when.
Gan Ning in the game
In Warlords of the Three Kingdoms Gan Ning is the Belled Raider: a 4 star warriorof Wu. The game's line for him: “A river pirate whose men wore bells, he raided Cao Cao's camp at Ruxu with a hundred riders and lost none.”
| Kingdom | Wu |
|---|---|
| Role | Warrior |
| Rarity | 4 star |
| Base attack and defense | 26 and 19 |
| Where from | Sold in the Merit Shop for 500 Merit, the currency the weekly Kingdom War pays. |
A warlord sworn to Wu fields him 10% stronger, as every General of their own Kingdom. Wei, Shu or Wu has what the choice changes.
Four star is where he starts. Duplicates become shards, shards add stars, and each star adds a tenth to both numbers.
Questions
Was Gan Ning really a pirate?
The history says that as a young man in Ba he gathered a band of reckless youths who carried bows and wore bells, so that people knew Gan Ning was coming by the sound. They robbed and killed for about twenty years before he took up reading and looked for a lord.
What was Gan Ning's night raid?
At Ruxu, when Cao Cao brought a large army against Wu, Gan Ning took a hundred riders into the enemy camp after dark, cut down dozens of men, and withdrew. Cao Cao's army was shaken and soon pulled back.
Did Gan Ning kill Ling Tong's father?
Yes. While serving Huang Zu in 203 he shot Ling Cao, who was leading Sun Quan's pursuit. Ling Tong never forgave him, and Sun Quan had to post the two men apart.
How do you get Gan Ning in Warlords of the Three Kingdoms?
Sold in the Merit Shop for 500 Merit, the currency the weekly Kingdom War pays.
Sources
The history follows Chen Shou's Records of the Three Kingdoms, written in the third century, with Pei Songzhi's annotations of the fifth, and Fan Ye's Book of the Later Han for the years before the Han court fell apart. What the page calls the novel is Luo Guanzhong's Romance of the Three Kingdoms, of the fourteenth century. Where the two disagree, the page says which is speaking. For more on him, see Gan Ning on Wikipedia.
Written by Gitkonek Studio, .
Keep reading
- Sun Quan, the Green-Eyed LordHe inherited Jiangdong at eighteen and held it for fifty-two years against every rival who tried.
- Sun Shangxiang, the Lady of the BowSun Quan's sister, whose hundred armed maids made her husband Liu Bei nervous in his own chambers.
- Lu Xun, the Scholar GeneralDismissed by the veterans as a bookish youth, he burned Liu Bei's forty camps at Yiling in a single night.
- Sun Ce, the Little ConquerorHe crossed the Yangtze with a few thousand men, took Jiangdong in five years, and died at twenty-five.
- Zhou Yu, the Handsome CommanderHe was thirty-three when he burned Cao Cao's fleet at Red Cliffs, and could hear a wrong note across a banquet hall.