23 Facts About Zhu Ran

Zhu Ran, born Shi Ran, courtesy name Yifeng, was a Chinese military general of the state of Eastern Wu during the Three Kingdoms period of China.

Zhu Ran was sent to the northwestern border, where he defended the city of Jiangling with only 5,000 troops against an enemy force about ten times greater.

Zhu Ran rose to fame and became feared throughout Wei.

Zhu Ran then participated in a series of military operations against Wei, during which he defeated several enemy units, but the overall objectives were never met.

Originally from Guzhang County, Danyang Commandery, Zhu Ran was a maternal nephew of Zhu Zhi, who favoured his then 13-year-old nephew and asked his lord Sun Ce to grant him permission to adopt the child.

Zhu Ran was later appointed as the Chief of Shanyin County, acting on authority of a Commandant, to oversee five local counties around the area.

Zhu Ran was one of the few persons in Sanguozhi who was noted to be short; his biography indicated that he was less than seven chi tall.

However, when the warlord Cao Cao led his massive army to invade southern China, Zhu Ran stayed in the back just as most other officials at the time did; and was not assigned significant tasks for some time until the Battle of Ruxukou, where he proved his loyalty in personally going to the frontline to help resist Cao Cao's 400,000 strong army.

In 219, Zhu Ran participated in Lu Meng's Jing Province campaign as Lu Meng's aide.

However, for reason unknown, Zhu Ran let Guan Yu slip by, and Pan Zhang, who was responsible for the second layer, succeeded in capturing Guan Yu alive.

When Lu Meng laid on his death bed shortly after the Jing Province campaign, Sun Quan asked his input on who could succeed him as the new commander for the army, wherein Lu Meng highly praised the abilities of Zhu Ran and recommended the latter be the replacement.

Two years later, Liu Bei, the emperor of Shu Han, led a grand army of more than 100,000 troops to invade Wu, and Zhu Ran led his 5,000 troops to join the Wu commander, Lu Xun, for the tactical defence of Yiling and Xiaoting.

Together, Lu Xun and Zhu Ran pursued Liu Bei into the deep hills, pushing him back to Baidicheng, where he would admit defeat and die shortly afterwards.

Furthermore, an outbreak of disease greatly reduced the morale and number of soldiers in Zhu Ran's army, leaving him with only 5,000 men capable to do battles, who were intimidated by the news that the Wu reinforcements led by Sun Sheng were eliminated by Zhang He.

Yet Zhu Ran showed no signs of fear, and encouraged his comrades and subordinates to counter the enemy.

When Cao Zhen relaxed his guard, Zhu Ran's forces were able to destroy two of the Wei encampments.

One of Zhu Ran's officers, seeing that the Wei troops were numerous and that the food supply within Jiangling was running out, planned to defect to Wei.

Zhu Ran secretly contacted the Wei troops outside of the castle walls and promised to open the gate to permit their forces entry.

Zhu Ran fitted these to rafts and set them on fire, sending them downstream so that they would burn the pontoon bridges being used by Wei.

In 241, Zhu Ran participated in a campaign against Wei and led an assault on Fancheng and surrounded it.

Zhu Ran died four years later in 249, and received the third largest funeral after Lu Meng and Ling Tong.

Zhu Ran appears as a minor character in the 14th-century historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which romanticises the historical events before and during the Three Kingdoms period.

Zhu Ran became a playable character in Koei's Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends.