Referring to the combination of famous generals of various regimes in the Three Kingdoms period at the end of the Han Dynasty, Shu Han had "Five Tiger Generals", Cao Wei had "Five Sons and Good Generals", and Eastern Wu had "Twelve Tiger Ministers", which was derived from the tradition in the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms. Among the "Twelve Tiger Ministers" of Jiangbiao, there was a very popular general, and it could even be said that he was the highest, that is, Gan Ning. This is reflected in various game materials or film and television works. But in fact, Gan Ning's status and his influence on history are not too high among the "Twelve Tiger Ministers" of Jiangbiao. So what kind of figure was Ganning in history?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="2" > Ganning's early experience</h1>
Among the "Twelve Tigers of Jiangbiao", Gan Ning's early experience is perhaps the richest. He is the only person who first does something else and then throws himself into Jiangdong. Ganning's ancestral home is Nanyang County, Jingzhou, but the ancestors have migrated to Yizhou Ba County. Gan Ning was active in Ba County, Yizhou in his early years, and earlier recruited light warriors, hid outlaws, carried crossbows and bells, and became a water thief. Gan Ning, a water thief, had considerable force and financial resources, and had great contacts with some county magistrates in Yizhou. When he was in his twenties, Gan Ning gave up attacking and plundering, and instead studied the sons to enter the career and became a Shu Commandery.
Despite this, Gan Ning was still an ambitious man, and Gan Ning's influence in Yizhou was not completely eliminated. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Liu Yan won the official position of Yizhou Mu and became the Tu Emperor of Yizhou. After Liu Yan's death, because Liu Zhang's personality was gentle and benevolent, the governor Zhao Yun and others supported Liu Zhang's ascension to the throne. At this time, when Yizhou was in turmoil, Liu Biao, the mu of Jingzhou, also wanted to intervene, and his other drivers engaged Liu Fu to lure Shen Mi, Lou Fa, Gan Ning and others to rebel against Liu Zhang, and was defeated by Zhao Yun. Gan Ning fled Yizhou to attach himself to Liu Biao.
Although Gan Ning abandoned Wu Congwen, after all, he was born as a water thief and was quite despised by Liu Biao, who was a celebrity and a scholar. So Gan Ning gave up Liu Biao and turned to Huang Zu, which also belonged to Liu Biao's power category. Huang Zu also did not reuse Gan Ning, but instead tried to enlist and lure the family soldiers and servants around Gan Ning, thus isolating Gan Ning and completely digesting Gan Ning's strength. In this case, one of Huang Zu's men, Su Fei, was very optimistic about Gan Ning and planned to help Gan Ning escape. Su Fei recommended Gan Ning as the county magistrate of Yi County, with Huang Zu's consent. So Gan Ning led hundreds of people to Jiangdong.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="6" > Ganning's performance in The Gangdong Group</h1>
Gan Ning successively served Liu Yan, Liu Zhang, Liu Biao, and Huang Zu, but he was always trapped and unmotivated, and when assisting Huang Zu, he also shot the Jiangdong general Ling Cao, still not being used by Huang Zu. After coming to Jiangdong, Gan Ning finally had a place to play and became a generation of famous generals.
Put forward the strategy of taking Huang Zu and Liu Biao in the west and going deep into Yizhou
In the founding period of Jiangdong Group, it has been fulfilling a strategy known as "the calculation of two parts of the world". This strategy almost lasted through the embryonic period of the Jiangdong clique to the formation of the Eastern Wu regime, and was proposed by many individual figures, including Gan Ning. Gan Ning, on the recommendation of Zhou Yu, Lü Meng, and others, gained Sun Quan's affection and trust, so he proposed to Sun Quan the strategy of attacking Huang Zu and Liu Biao in the west and occupying Jingzhou, and then going deep into Chuguan to spy on Yizhou. This coincided with the strategy performed by Sun Quan himself, who attacked Huang Zu again and finally eliminated Huang Zu in one fell swoop. However, due to Cao Cao's southward movement, Liu Biao's illness and death, and The surrender of Cao Cao in Jingzhou, the Jiangdong clique had to change its strategy and ally with Liu Bei against Cao Cao.
In the "Battle of Nan County", Yiling was firmly defended
Sun Liu's allied forces defeated Cao Cao at the Battle of Chibi, and then continued to launch the "Battle of Nan County" to further divide Jingzhou and expand the fruits of the victory. The "Battle of Nam Gun" revolves around Gangneung, where Cao Ren is in charge of the town. In Sun Liu's coalition, Zhou Yu led the main army to attack Jiangling, Guan Yu led a partial army to show the enemy, and Gan Ning proposed to divide the troops to capture Yiling and carried out this plan.
Yiling had no resistance, And Gan Ning only brought a few hundred men and recruited some recruits to gather a thousand. At this time, Cao Ren divided five or six thousand troops to besiege Yiling, and equipped with a large number of siege equipment, building tall buildings to shoot arrows at the city. Cao Ren's partial army put considerable pressure on Yiling, and in this unfavorable situation, Gan Ning on the one hand looked at calming the morale of the army, and on the other hand, sent people to Zhou Yu for help. Zhou Yu followed Lü Meng's advice, left Ling Tong to guard the camp, personally led the army to support Ganning, and lifted the siege of Yiling.
In the "Battle of the Beards", the Hundred Horsemen raided the camp
After the defeat of the Battle of Chibi, Cao Cao lost the opportunity to attack Jiangdong in one fell swoop and began a tug-of-war with Sun Quan in the Huainan region. Sun Quan's main goal in the north was Hefei, while Cao Cao's main goal in the south was Fusu. From the seventeenth year of Jian'an to the eighteenth year of Jian'an of the Eastern Han Dynasty (that is, from 212 to 213 AD), Cao Cao launched an army of 400,000 people to attack Wusu, starting the first "Battle of Fusu".
For the huge Cao Cao army, Sun Quan took advantage of the 70,000-strong army, and led 3,000 people with Gan Ning as the front. In the face of great pressure, the garrison side can boost morale by winning some small raids, sun Quan thought so, and specifically ordered Gan Ning to raid the front of the other side. Gan Ning selected a hundred people and took advantage of the night to go to Cao Camp to remove antlers and infiltrate the camp to carry out a surprise attack. By the time Cao Ying's soldiers were horrified and the fire was on fire, Gan Ning had already advocated returning to the camp. Sun Quan commented on Gan Ning for this: "Meng De has Zhang Liao, lonely and prosperous, and the enemy is also the enemy. ”
In the "Battle of Anhui City", the city of Anhui was attacked
Cao Cao's struggle for Sun Quan in the Huainan region was a long-term process. Cao Cao's Lujiang Taishou Zhu Guang reclaimed Tuntian in Anhui City, and lured Shanyue in the Jiangdong region to rebel against Sun Quan. Therefore, at the suggestion of Lü Meng, in the nineteenth year of Jian'an (that is, in 214 AD), Sun Quan personally led a large army to attack the city of Anhui. At that time, when the rain was abundant, Lü Meng persuaded Sun Quan to make a big fuss and attack the city of Anhui in the shortest possible time, which was recognized by Sun Quan.
In the "Battle of Anhui City", Gan Ning, as the governor of Shengcheng, went up the city with a rope in hand, and fought bravely and bravely; Lü Meng led the elite troops as a successor, personally operating the battle drum to boost morale, and finally rushed to attack the city of Anhui before Zhang Liao's support. Since then, Anhui City has been under the control of the Jiangdong Clique or Eastern Wu, and has played an important role in the war situation in the Huainan region. In the "Battle of Anhui City", Lü Meng had the highest merit, and Gan Ning was second only to Lü Meng.
Lü Meng shocked Guan Yu when he captured the three counties of Jingnan
After Liu Bei's clique captured Yizhou, relations between Sun and Liu's alliances gradually became tense, and a relatively serious friction broke out in the twentieth year of Jian'an (that is, 215 AD). Sun Quan sent Lü Meng to lead a large army to attack the three counties of Changsha, Lingling, and Guiyang, and ordered Lu Su's garrison of Yiyang to confront Guan Yu. Lü Meng seemed to have captured the three counties of Jingnan without bloodshed, but the victory or defeat of this war was actually not on Lü Meng, but on the result of the confrontation between Liu Bei (who quickly led his troops out of Sichuan after hearing the news), Sun Quan, Guan Yu, and Lu Su.
In the course of the confrontation between Guan Yu and Lu Su, Guan Yu claimed to have 30,000 people, threatened to select 5,000 elites, and took the initiative to contact Lu Su at night to engage. Lu Su consulted with the generals in the army on countermeasures, and Gan Ning had three hundred men under his command at the time, and asked Lu Su to increase his troops by five hundred against Guan Yu. Lu Su gave Gan Ning an additional thousand troops and stationed himself at Asase, where Guan Yu intended to wade. Guan Yu heard that Gan Ning had seized Asase, and indeed gave up his plan to cross the water. In addition, after the reconciliation of Sun and Liu's two families in the same year, Sun Quan launched the second "Battle of Hefei", and Gan Ning also participated, and desperately protected Sun Quan's retreat during Zhang Liao's raid. However, after all, this battle is relatively ugly, and ganning's role is not particularly large, so I will not go into detail here.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="22" > Ganning's character</h1>
To be fair, Gan Ning is not very prominent among the "Twelve Tiger Ministers of Jiangbiao", his qualifications are not higher than Cheng Pu, Huang Gai, Han Dang and others; his status is not higher than that of Jiang Qin and Ding Feng; and his weight is not as important as that of Zhou Tai and Chen Wu. Among the above contents, Gan Ning can certainly be called a meritorious contribution, but it may not be able to open a gap with Dong Xun, Ling Tong, Xu Sheng, and Pan Zhang. The reason why Gan Ning's popularity in later generations is so high and sought after, Xiaobian personally believes that it is still due to his distinct personality.
Gan Ning is a light warrior, and he has a "rough and easy to kill" side. At the beginning, Sun Quan was quite critical of Gan Ning because of this, thanks to Lü Meng's protection. Lü Meng was also furious once because Gan Ning shot the cook man (the cook went to Lü Meng and was protected by Lü Meng), and even planned to attack Gan Ning.
However, at the same time, Gan Ning also has a straight, unrighteous and deeply righteous side. After eliminating Huang Zu, Sun Quan also planned to execute Su Fei. As a newly surrendered general, Gan Ning did not hesitate to vouch for Su Fei with his own life to repay the original grace of release. Gan Ning has a strong personality, because of small things and Sun Jiao is not compatible. Sun Jiao's identity is Du Hu, and he can be said to be the highest-ranking general in the Jiangdong Army. Even so, Gan Ning still had no intention of bowing to Sun Jiao. Finally, under the accompaniment of Sun Quan, Sun Jiao and Gan Ning turned enemies into friends. It is such a complex image, a distinct personality, and an early legendary experience that makes Gan Ning's popularity stand out so much in the "Twelve Tiger Ministers of Jiangbiao".
References: Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Records of Jiankang