Ruan Xiaoer

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This is a Chinese name; the family name is Ruan.

Ruan Xiaoer (阮小二), also known as Ruan II, is a character in the Water Margin.

Ruan was nicknamed the 'The Lord Who Stands His Ground' (立地太歲). He was the elder brother of Ruan Xiaowu and Ruan Xiaoqi (the Ruan brothers), and they lived at Shijie Village (石碣村). They made their living as fishermen and also through some illegal trading on the river. Ruan Xiaoer was born with a sharp face, a wide mouth, and a cold gleam in his eyes. He had yellow hair growing on his chest and a muscular body.

When Chao Gai wanted to rob the convoy of birthday gifts, Wu Yong recommended the Ruan brothers to help them. Wu managed to convince the brothers to join their team and a total of seven of them robbed the convoy. After that incident, the seven heroes defeated He Tao and fled to Liangshan for refuge.

Wang Lun, the leader of the Liangshan band, did not want to accept the heroes. Wu Yong instigated Lin Chong into killing the incompetent Wang Lun. Then, Chao Gai was elected as the new leader. Ruan Xiaoer was ranked sixth among all the heroes after that.

The government sent Huang An to attack Liangshan after He Tao's defeat, but Huang was defeated and caught by the Ruan brothers. The Ruan brothers also followed the heroes as they stormed the execution ground in Jiangzhou (江州) and rescued Song Jiang and Dai Zong. When Huyan Zhuo and the imperial forces attacked Liangshan, Wu Yong devised a strategy to lure the firearms battalion commander Ling Zhen onto the river, by sending the Ruan brothers to sabotage the enemy cannons. Ling pursued the saboteurs and when his boat reached the middle of the river, the Ruan brothers who had been lying in ambush underwater, capsized his boat and captured him. Ling was persuaded to join Liangshan by Song Jiang.

Ruan became one of the leaders of the Liangshan navy and the 36 Heavenly Spirits. He was adept in naval warfare and led the navy into numerous victories against the enemies of Liangshan. During the Fang Xi campaign after Liangshan had been granted amnesty by the Imperial Court, Ruan was assigned to attack the naval base at Wu Long Ridge (烏龍嶺). The enemy bombarded Ruan's ship heavily with cannon fire. Ruan was trapped and he was afraid of being captured by the enemy and suffer humiliation, thus he committed suicide by slitting his own throat.