Chapter 3 Sun Bin besieged Wei and rescued Zhao

In Chinese dictionaries, Sun Bin is associated with one of the Thirty-Six Strategies, "Besiege Wei and Save Zhao".Sun Bin is a descendant of Sun Wu, a soldier sage, who once studied the art of war with Pang Juan of the Wei Dynasty.Pang Juan felt that he was not as good as Sun Bin, and was afraid that he would surpass him, so he sent someone to deceive him to the state of Wei, where he was punished, his kneecaps were removed, and Sun Bin was disabled for life, and he wanted to hide him from the world. Sun Bin was persecuted brutally, but he was not discouraged. He waited silently for the opportunity.Later, when the envoys of Qi State arrived in Wei State, Sun Bin met with them in secret.The envoys of Qi State knew that he was a genius in the world, so they secretly sent him back to Qi State.Qi general Tian Ji knew Sun Bin's talent, respected him very much, and treated him like a guest of honor.

Tian Ji often races horses with King Qi, and the bets are very high, but because the horses are not as good as the opponent's, he often loses in the competitions.Sun Bin knew the rules of Tian Ji's horse racing, so he said to Tian Ji: "General, I will make you win." Tian Ji was convinced and bet a thousand gold.Before the start of the race, Sun Bin said to Tian Ji: "You race your low-grade horses against the King's high-grade horses, your high-grade horses against his middle-grade horses, and your middle-grade horses against his low-grade horses." As a result, one loss and two wins won King Qi Wei a lot of money.In previous games, Tian Ji had lost to King Wei of Qi. This time, King Wei of Qi was surprised that Tian Ji had won suddenly, so he asked him what method he used. Tian Ji took the opportunity to recommend Sun Bin to King Wei of Qi.King Qi Wei asked Sun Bin for advice on the art of war, and found that he was indeed a talented general. Because Sun Bin was physically disabled, he had to worship him as a military adviser.Sun Bin finally won the appreciation of the monarch with horse racing, a game that dudes like, and had the opportunity to make his name known to future generations and show his prestige on the battlefield.

In 353 BC, the state of Wei sent Pang Juan to lead troops to besiege Handan (now Hebei), the capital of the state of Zhao, and the state of Zhao asked for help from the state of Qi.The king of Qi sent Tian Ji as his general and Sun Bin as his military advisor to rescue Zhao.Tian Ji's opinion was to lead the army straight to Handan. Sun Bin suggested: "If you want to untie the messy knot, you should not force it. If you want to dissuade others from fighting, you should not fight together. Avoid the strong, attack the empty part, and take advantage of the situation that is beneficial to me. Forcing them to stop, the matter will be resolved naturally. Now that Wei State and Zhao State are attacking each other, the elite troops must be fighting outside, and those who stay at home are old and weak soldiers. It is better for the general to lead the army to directly attack Daliang, the capital of Wei State , then the State of Wei must withdraw its troops to save itself, so that we can break the siege of Zhao State in one fell swoop and enjoy the benefits of waiting for work.” Tian Ji followed his advice, and the State of Wei withdrew from Handan as expected, and came back to rescue Daliang.The Qi army ambushed and intercepted in Guiling (now northwest of Changyuan, Henan), where Pang Juan must pass through when returning to his army, and defeated the Wei army. "Besieging Wei and saving Zhao" changed from attacking the fortified to attacking the weak, from passive combat to waiting for work, and from attacking the enemy prepared by surprise, it is indeed much smarter than going straight to Handan to join the war.It has become synonymous with the classic battle in history and the strategy of "encircling Wei and saving Zhao".

In 349 BC, Wei and Zhao jointly attacked South Korea, and South Korea asked Qi for help.Qi took Tian Ji, Tian Ying, and Tian Pan as generals, and Sun Bin as his military adviser. They still adopted the tactics of attacking and must be saved.The difference from the Battle of Guiling is that Wei took Prince Shen as the general and Pang Juan as the general. He led 100,000 troops and went east to Waihuang (southeast of Lankao, Henan today). strategic intent.Sun Bin said to Tian Ji: "Wei's army always prides itself on being strong and brave, and despises the Qi army, thinking that the Qi army is cowardly and cowardly. Those who are good at using soldiers should use their pride to make them develop in a direction that is beneficial to them. The art of war says: 'If you travel a hundred miles to compete with the enemy for profit, the commander will be in danger of being defeated; if you travel fifty miles to compete for profit with the enemy, only half of the troops will arrive.'" Therefore, Sun Bin made a plan to reduce the number of stoves and increase the number of troops.After the Qi army entered the Wei territory, 100,000 pots and stoves were built first, 50,000 pots and stoves were built on the second day, and 30,000 pots and stoves were built on the third day.After Pang Juan led his army back to the country, he chased the Qi army for three days and said happily, "I knew the Qi army was cowardly. It has only been three days since it entered our territory, and more than half of its soldiers have fled." Under the infantry, led the elite cavalry to chase the Qi army day and night.

Sun Bin calculated Pang Juan's itinerary and predicted that he should arrive at Maling when it was dark.The road in Maling is narrow, and there are many dangerous cliffs on both sides, which can ambush troops.Qi Jun scraped off the skin of a big tree, and wrote the words "Pang Juan died under this tree" on the exposed part.At the same time, Tian Ji sent ten thousand soldiers with bows and arrows to lie down under the felled trees on both sides of the road, and agreed that when the fire was lit at night, ten thousand arrows would shoot at them.Pang Juan chased after Ma Ling in the dark, stood under the tree, and found that there were writings on the white part of the trunk, so he asked someone to light a torch to illuminate the writing place.Before he finished reading, all the arrows of the Qi army suddenly fired, and the Wei army was in a mess, losing contact with each other.At this time, Pang Juan knew that he had fallen into the enemy's trick to lure soldiers, and his failure was a foregone conclusion. He committed suicide in shame and anger.

Sun Bin defeated the enemy in two battles, and left two classic battle examples in the history of war, "surrounding Wei and saving Zhao" and "reducing stoves and increasing troops", which are praised by later generations. In April 1972, among the cultural relics unearthed from the Yinqueshan Han Tomb in Linyi, Shandong Province, a fragment of the Art of War written by Sun Bin was found. After sorting out, it has been published by the Cultural Relics Publishing House.This book provides a basis for studying Sun Bin's military thought.Sun Bin is physically disabled, resourceful, resourceful, good at making the best use of the situation, avoiding the real and attacking the weak, strategizing and winning decisively from thousands of miles away.