First of all, Gan Ning's famous battle in the embarrassing situation of Wu Dong was a hundred riding robberies. The biography of the Three Kingdoms, Gan Ning, quoted the biography of Jiang Biao as saying: "The secret envoy of Quan entered Wei Jun at night, and Ning was a member with more than 100 athletes. Go to Cao Gong to pull out antlers, cross the base and enter the camp, dozens of levels. The northern army was frightened to disgrace and shouted, raising the fire like a star. Ning returned to the village and said, "Long live. "When the two armies are at war, they are quite particular about imposing manner. The so-called "high-altitude, then decline, three points tired", Cao Cao led a great army to attack the mouth of ruxu, Wu Dong, claiming to be 400,000 troops, which is gaining momentum.
In order to demoralize Cao Wei's army, Tiger General Gan Ning led 100 death squads to launch a fierce attack on Cao Ying. What is commendable is that Gan Ning was unscathed in the fierce battle in Cao Ying, which shows that he is brave and good at fighting. In this regard, Sun Quan said with emotion: "Meng De has Zhang Liao, who is arrogant and prosperous and has made many enemies." Zhang Liao once defeated 100,000 troops in Jiangdong in the Battle of xiaoyaojin, and gained a "fierce name" that can keep children awake at night. Sun Quan compared Gan Ning with Zhang Liao, which shows that he attached great importance to this tiger minister.
Unfortunately, Gan Ning's position in the Wu Dong regime has not been high. This is manifested in two aspects. One is the official position, and Gan Ning can only be the position of Xiling prefect. Although Xiling's strategic position is more important, Gan Ning's military position is only a general who has lost his strength and fallen into the sand, belonging to a general with a miscellaneous brand. The second is the issue of military strength. Throughout his life, although he fought bravely, he rarely led the army alone. The hero hasn't succeeded yet, that's all.
Obviously, although Gan Ning was loved by Sun Quan, his position in Dongwu regime was extremely embarrassing. In other words, despite his reputation, Gan Ning never entered the inner circle of the political power, and even failed to be sealed in his life. In this regard, some scholars blame this on Gan Ning's personality. He is brave and heartless, and he doesn't keep his word, so it's hard to believe. However, in my opinion, this is a one-sided word.
As for Sun Quan's means of employing people, he should not lose to Cao Liu. Ma Chao, who also has a bad personality, can still hold a high position in Shu, not to mention Sun Quan, who is equally enlightened. Gan Ning's embarrassing situation in Dongwu actually has deeper reasons. Essentially, it depends on his early performance in his career and the "ranger" style in his personality.
Second, a brief discussion on Gan Ning's early career On Gan Ning's early career, please refer to Wu Shu's quotation in Biography of the Three Kingdoms Gan Ning: "People come from Nanyang, Ning himself, and they first visited Ba County. It is better to give officials a plan to make up for the cleanliness of Shu County. After a while, I abandoned my official position and went home. " Nanyang is the birthplace of Liu Xiu, Emperor Guangwu of the Eastern Han Dynasty, so later rulers paid attention to "investing" in Nanyang. There are abundant products, outstanding people and unique political resources here. Strangely, our ancestors came to Ba County on their own initiative.
Judging from the situation at that time, Gan Ning's ancestors took refuge in Yizhou. "The Biography of Ada in the Later Han Dynasty" said: "At the beginning, tens of thousands of Nanyang and Sanfu people flowed into Yizhou and learned that they were numerous, so they were called' Dongzhou soldiers'." Since the middle and late Eastern Han Dynasty, there have been frequent famines and plagues, and many people in Nanyang and Sanfu have spontaneously migrated to Yizhou to take refuge. The Eastern Zhou Army, the military base on which Ada and his son lived, was formed on the basis of these refugees. Because of this, Gan Ning can only come to Shu as an official when he is an adult.
However, according to Wu Shu, Gan Ning has not been reused. So he took advantage of Ada's death, and when Liu Zhang took over Yizhou, he took the opportunity to rebel with other strongmen. "The History of the Three Kingdoms" quoted a hero as saying, "Jingzhou did not drive Liu He, but Zhang rebelled against Shen Mi, Lou Fa and Gan Ning, and was defeated and entered Jingzhou." It can be seen from here that Gan Ning is not only ambitious, but also ambitious. He joined forces with Yizhou strongmen to drive away Liu Zhang in order to gain the support of local gentry and satisfy his political ambitions.
After the failure of attacking Liu Zhang, Gan Ning returned to Jingzhou with Song and wanted to go to Liu Biao. However, Liu Biao has been in control of Jingzhou for many years, and naturally he can see that Gan Ning is not willing to be inferior to others. Liu Biao's peace is precious, he tries his best to protect himself and likes to recuperate. And Gan Ning's main battle, his competitive spirit decided that he was unwilling to be mediocre. So Liu Biao sent him to Nanyang. Later, Gan Ning followed Jiangxia's satrap Huang Zu, but he still couldn't pay attention to it. "The ancestors saved it with mortals." .
Third, Gan Ning's position as a ranger is not valued by Ada, nor by Liu Biao and Huang Zu, which has certain roots. On the surface, Gan Ning is a "radical" and his actions are not reassuring. But back to Gan Ning's boyhood, we can know that his status as a "sail thief" determines his future fate.
"The Story of the Three Kingdoms, Gan Ning" records: "(Gan Ning) is a good ranger with little strength and recruits frivolous teenagers as handsome; Everyone gets together, holding a crossbow and carrying a bell. When people listen to the bell, they will know better. " It is pointed out here that Gan Ning is a "sail thief". During the chaos in the late Han Dynasty, Jingzhou and Yangzhou were close to the Yangtze River. Because the people here are relatively rich, and there are often commercial and trade ships. As a result, some "mud legs" Han people spontaneously gathered on the river to rob passing ships. "The Story of the Three Kingdoms and Willow Leaves" said: "Young scholars despise chivalrous and treacherous men, and they belong to Bao Zheng, Zhang Duo and Xu Gan, and each has his own pleasure." And Ye Liu's phrase "Everything is meager profit with money" reveals the greedy nature of the brocade sail thief.
At that time, Gan Ning compared himself to a ranger and advocated chivalry. Pei's note "Wu Shu" said that he "killed lightly, hid his house in despair, and the county heard about it." Obviously, this is influenced by the chivalrous atmosphere of the Western Han Dynasty. Xia and Shang Dynasties, this is equivalent to our current "idolization", such as Yuan Shu, Cao Cao, Liu Bei and others, who did the same when they were young.
But gan ning's approach is a bit excessive. Under the guise of "Ranger", he engaged in the activities of "killing people and stealing goods": "When people meet the mayor, they will receive the dragon and make love; If you don't do it, the goods will be robbed, and it will be a thief in the official sector for a long time. " This experience has become a stain on Gan Ning's life. No matter how big the water in the Yangtze River is, it can't be washed away.
Analyzing the inner circle of Jiangdong regime, it is not difficult to find that Jiangdong Haozu occupies a dominant position. Under the background of Confucianism in the Eastern Han Dynasty, Haozu was deeply influenced by Confucian ethics and was quite disgusted with chivalry. In this way, even if Sun Youquan is the commander of Jiangdong, he can't offend those powerful people because of a gan ning. Coupled with the death of Lu Su and Monroe who appreciated Gan Ning, Gan Ning had to be abandoned by Sun Quan and gradually marginalized.