Gan Ning eventually decided to stop plundering and pillaging. He read some books and picked up ideas from the Hundred Schools of Thought. Later, he brought along 800 men to join Liu Biao, the Governor of Jing Province (covering present-day Hubei and Hunan), and was stationed in Nanyang Commandery. Liu Biao had a scholarly background and was not proficient in military affairs. Around the time, chaos had broken out all around China as contending warlords fought each other for territorial gains and hegemony over the empire. Gan Ning observed that Liu Biao was doomed to failure and was worried that he would be affected, so he and his followers planned to head east towards the Wu (or Jiangdong) region, which was under the control of the warlord Sun Ce and later Sun Quan. When they reached Jiangxia Commandery (江夏郡; present-day eastern Hubei) in eastern Jing Province, they could not cross the border into Wu territory as Sun Quan was at war with Liu Biao at the time. Gan Ning thus remained at Jiangxia and became a subordinate of the commandery administrator, Huang Zu, who did not recognise his talent and treated him coldly for three years.