King Shamoke SGYY Bio

[Morg]

King Shamoke was the ruler of the Five Valleys region, commanding the tribes that lived there. He had large green eyes and wielded a spiked iron mace from which bone pendants hung.

When the ruler of Shu, Liu Bei, decided to attack Wu in revenge for the murder of his brother, Guan Yu, he asked Shamoke for the loan of fifty thousand warriors. King Shamoke personally led the fifty thousand tribesmen to Liu Bei, where they joined with the Shu ruler's seven hundred thousand soldiers. In the seventh month of the first year of Zhangwu (1) the great army mobilised. By the eighth month, the vanguard of the army had penetrated into Wu territory and easily defeated all resistance, until they reached Yi Ling.

The army set up a line of forty camps from Wukou and Jianping to Yi Ling over a distance of twenty five miles and scouts soon reported that a large Wu army was approaching. During the second month of Zhangwu, Liu Bei led the army to Xiao Ting where he divided the army into eight parts, ready to attack on both land and water. Very soon fighting broke out and the Wu army was sent into retreat. As the Shu forces rushed on, King Shamoke encountered the troops of the Wu general Gan Ning and fought his way through them, killing many. Gan Ning himself fled at the sight of the King, but Shamoke fired an arrow that fatally pierced Gan Ning's skull.

With Xiao Ting secured, the army encamped in open ground but was forced to move the camp into woods to gain shelter from the summer heat. The Commander-in-Chief of the Wu forces, Lu Xun, launched a fire attack during the night that sent the Shu army into chaos. The Wu army advanced in full and many of the Shu soldiers were trampled by their comrades while trying to escape. King Shamoke was retreating south when he encountered the Wu general Zhou Tai and after a short battle, King Shamoke was slain.





(1) AD 221, Huangchu 2nd year by Wei's calendar.

[Devilrai]

Shamoke the short lived Shu warrior with only one famous kill...and a good kill in fact, the pirate Gan Ning, as always a nice bio Morg.

One question, where was the Five Valley region?

[Jiang Zhi]

I believe it's in Qiang but I maybe mistaken

[Morg]

as always a nice bio Morg.

One question, where was the Five Valley region?

Thank you for the kind words, as always To be honest, I have no idea about the Five Valley Region. From the directions in SGYY it would be presumably in Nanzhong somewhere (where the 'Nan Man' campaign took place), but it is possible that Luo Guanzhong completely made it up (Shamoke is historically more likely to have been a leader of Wu's Wuling tribe who rebelled against Wu, than to have been a southern tribe leader).

[Devilrai]

I suppose the Five Valley region was in the Nanman territory because I was playing Romance of the Three Kingdoms IX and I looking through the bios. of some of the characters and I read Shamoke's and it states that Liu Bei borrowed some troops from the Nanman King Shamoke so I guess the Five Valley Region is in the South of Shu.

[Han Liang]

"The Man king, Shamoke" is the SGYY direct quote.

[Elven Fury]

What kind of Obligation did King Shamoke have to Liu Bei to loan him 50,000 soldiers or was it just friendship or kindness

[Morg]

What kind of Obligation did King Shamoke have to Liu Bei to loan him 50,000 soldiers or was it just friendship or kindness

In the novel, no explanation is given. It just seems that Shu were on good terms with the southern tribes and so Shamoke was willing to loan the troops. In the novel's footnotes, Meng Huo later goes to Liu Bei to ask for 50,000 troops in return and is refused, hence him leading the rebellion against Shu.

Historically, it was the Wuling tribe who rebelled against Wu when Liu Bei attacked, not one of the southern tribes (Nan Man). There was no loyalty between Shu or the Wuling tribe, it was simply a deal that was benefical to both parties as they equally hated Wu.