Treatise on Armament Technology

Volume 20

Military Strategy Research: The Warring States

...fifty thousand stoves Sun Bin ordered the number of campfires to be reduced daily—from 100,000 to 50,000 to 30,000—to trick the enemy into believing his army was shrinking due to desertion.. On the following day, he made thirty thousand stoves.

Pang Juan, having marched for three days, was greatly pleased and said: "I I certainly knew the army of Qi was cowardly! They have been in my my territory for only three days, and already more than half of their soldiers have deserted indeed."

Consequently, he abandoned his heavy infantry and led only his light, elite troops, traveling at double speed to pursue them.

Sunzi Refers to Sun Bin, the Chief Strategist of Qi and descendant of the original Sunzi (Sun Wu). calculated that by dusk, the enemy would reach Maling. The road through Maling was narrow and flanked by many obstacles—a perfect location for an ambush. He ordered a large tree to be stripped of its bark until the white wood was exposed, and upon it he wrote: "Pang Juan shall die under this tree."

He then ordered ten thousand crossbowmen to lie in ambush along both sides of the road, giving the command: "When you see a fire lit at dusk, all of you must fire together."

As predicted, Pang Juan arrived at the spot during the night. Seeing the white wood of the tree, he lit a torch to read the inscription. Before he had even finished reading, ten thousand crossbows fired simultaneously. The Wei army fell into utter chaos. Realizing his defeat, Pang Juan slit his own throat, saying: "And so, I have made the reputation of that brat The original term shuzi (竖子) is a derogatory word for a "rascal" or "worthless youth," here referring to Sun Bin.!"

Qi took advantage of the victory to decisively defeat the Wei army and captured Crown Prince Shen.

Later, Wei Yang Also known as Shang Yang, the legalist reformer of the State of Qin. led an army to attack the State of Wei. Wei sent Prince Ang to lead their forces and resist him. The two armies faced each other...