Sun Bin Pang Juan's battle of wits

King Hui of Wei also followed the example of Duke Xiao of Qin, looking for a Shang Yang type of talent. He spent a lot of money to recruit the best and brightest from all over the world. At that time, a man named Pang Juan from Wei came to see him and told him some principles of enriching the country and strengthening the army. King Huai of Wei was very happy to hear this, so he made Pang Juan a great general.

Pang Juan had some skills. He trained his troops every day and started with some small countries nearby, and won several battles in a row. From that time on, King Hui of Wei trusted Pang Juan more.

Pang Juan thought he was a remarkable and capable man. However, he knew that he had a classmate, Sun Bin (pronounced bìn) from Qi, who was better than him. It was said that Sun Bin was the descendant of Sun Wu, the great general of Wu, and only he knew the ancestral "Art of War".

King Hui of Wei also heard of Sun Bin's fame and once talked to Pang Juan about Sun Bin. Pang Juan sent someone to invite Sun Bin to work with him in Wei. But he didn't know that Pang Juan had bad intentions and falsely accused Sun Bin of fornicating with Qi behind his back in front of King Hui of Wei. King Huai of Wei was very angry and convicted Sun Bin, stabbed him in the face, and plucked out his two kneecaps.

Fortunately, an ambassador from Qi visited Wei and secretly rescued Sun Bin and brought him back to Qi.

Qi general Tian Ji heard that Sun Bin was a general talent and recommended him to King Wei of Qi. King Wei of Qi was in the process of reforming and strengthening. After he talked with Sun Bin about the art of war, he appreciated him and hated that he didn't meet him earlier.

In 354 BC, King Wei sent Pang Juan to attack Zhao and besieged the capital of Zhao, Handan (pronounced hándān, southwest of present-day Handan, Hebei). The next year, Zhao asked King Wei of Qi for help. King Wei of Qi wanted to appoint Sun Bin as his general, but Sun Bin was busy excusing himself, saying, "No way. I am a crippled man who has been tortured, if I become a general, I will be laughed at. Your Majesty, please make Tian Da Fu the general."

King Wei of Qi then made Tian Ji the general and Sun Bin the military advisor and sent his troops to save Zhao. Sun Bin sat in a car with a canopy tent and helped Tian Ji with his ideas.

Sun Bin said to Tian Ji, "Now Wei has taken all the elite troops to attack Zhao, and most of the old and weak soldiers in the country are very empty. Why don't we go to attack the Liang of Wei? When Pang Juan hears about this, he will abandon Handan and run back. We'll wait for him on the road and hit him head-on, so we can beat him."

Tian Ji followed this plan. Pang Juan's army had already captured Handan, but when he heard that Qi had gone to attack Daliang, he immediately ordered his troops to retreat. When he reached Guiling (northwest of Chang Yuan, Henan Province), he ran into Qi's troops. Pang Juan was defeated when the battle started.Qi's army returned victoriously and the siege of Handan was lifted.

In 341 B.C., Wei sent another army to attack Korea. Korea also asked Qi for help. At that time, King Wei of Qi was already dead. His son, King Xuan of Qi, sent Tian Ji and Sun Bin to bring troops to save Korea. Sun Bin used his old method again, instead of saving Korea, he went to attack Wei directly.

Pang Juan got the urgent document from his country, so he had to retreat and rush back, but the troops of Qi had already entered Wei.

Wei launched a large number of troops, led by Prince Shen, to resist the Qi army. By this time, the Qi army had retreated. Pang Juan inspected the place where the Qi army had camped and found that the Qi army's camp took up a large area. He called for a count of the cooking stoves, enough for 100,000 people to eat. Pang Juan was so frightened that he could not speak.

The next day, Pang Juan led his army to the place where the Qi army camped for the second time, and counted the stoves, and there were only enough for 50,000 people.

On the third day, they chased the Qi army to the third camping place, and carefully counted the stoves, only 20,000 people were left. Pang Juan was relieved and said with a smile, "I knew that the Qi army were cowards. The 100,000-strong army arrived at Wei, and only three days later, half of them had fled." He instructed the Wei army to follow the route taken by the Qi army day and night to pursue them.