In 353 BC, Zhao attacked Wei and forced Wei to submit. This uneasy move made Wei uneasy, and King Hui of Wei, wanting to regain his allies, formed an alliance with Song, besieged the Zhao capital Handan, and began to storm the city. So Zhao asked his ally Qi for help. King Qi Wei decided to save the Zhao State. At this time, the Wei army was attacking Zhao with all its might, and their rear was empty. The state of Chu took advantage of this opportunity and sent the general Jingshe to attack the state of Wei. At the same time, the state of Qin also went to attack the eastern Shaoliang and Anyi of the Wei state. In this way, the Wei State was attacked on all sides and was in a difficult situation. However, Pang Juan, the commander of the Wei army who besieged Handan, was still determined to defeat Zhao and refused to give up. Zhao Guo once again sent a distress signal to Qi Guo.
King Qi Wei saw that Wei and Zhao had been holding each other for a year, and felt that now was a good time to fight a decisive battle with the Wei army. So, he appointed Tian Ji as the main general, and Sun Bin as the military advisor, leading the main force of the Qi army to save Zhao State. Tian Ji wanted to go directly to Handan to fight the main force of the Wei army, but Sun Bin proposed a different strategy, he believed that he should avoid the real and attack the false, and he could relieve the siege of Handan without paying a heavy price. So, he led the main force of the Qi army to advance to Daliang, the capital of Wei.
At this time, the Wei State was already under enemy on all sides. The Qi army advanced towards the heart of the Wei state, which caused the Wei army to panic. Pang Juan had no choice but to use a small number of troops to control Handan, which had just been conquered, and then led the main force of the Wei army to withdraw from Zhao and return to Daliang to rescue. At this time, Sun Bin was already lurking in Guiling. When Pang Juan led his army to Guiling, he was suddenly intercepted by the Qi army that had been waiting for a long time, and the exhausted Wei army was defeated and defeated. At the same time, Handan was also recaptured by the Zhao army.
Ten years later, the vitality of the Wei state was restored, and they pointed the finger at Korea. South Korea could not resist, so it had to ask Qi for help. Sun Bin put forward the strategy of "deeply forming a relationship with Han and inheriting Wei's shortcomings", that is, he promised South Korea that he would definitely save them and let South Korea fight against Wei with all his might. After Han and Wei were tired from fighting for a period of time, Qi sent troops to help Korea. King Qi Wei took this advice. Despite Qi's promise of assistance, South Korea still lost five battles and sent a distress signal to Qi again. Qi State once again appointed Tian Ji and Tian Ying as the chief and deputy generals, and Sun Bin still served as a military advisor to send troops to save Han. Seeing that victory was in sight, Wei turned the spearhead from Han to Qi.
King Wei Hui ordered the crown prince Shen to be the general and Pang Juan to be the general, and led 100,000 Wei troops to pounce on the Qi army, preparing to teach the Qi country a lesson. In the face of the menacing Wei army, Sun Bin, the military advisor of the Qi army, was very calm. He said to Tian Ji: "The Wei army has always despised our army for being fierce and good at fighting, and this time we must be eager to fight and rush forward, we can show our form to confuse the enemy, lure the enemy deep, wait for the opportunity to **, and annihilate him in one fell swoop." Tian Ji agreed and formulated a combat plan.
As soon as the two armies came into contact, the Qi army immediately feigned defeat and then retreated. In order to further lure the enemy into pursuit, Sun Bin used the trick of "reducing the focus". On the first day, 100,000 stoves were dug, which was reduced to 50,000 on the second day, and 30,000 on the third day, creating the illusion that the Qi army could not withstand the close pursuit of the Wei army and fled in large numbers. Pang Juan pursued the Qi army for 3 days, and found that the stove was decreasing day by day, so he thought that the Qi army had been disheartened and fled more than half, so he led the lightly armed elite to rush forward and rushed to Maling day and night. Maling terrain is dangerous and the road is narrow, Sun Bin has already taken a fancy to this terrain and ordered the Qi army to ambush here, seeing the Wei army arrive, Tian Ji gave an order, the Qi army fired ten thousand arrows, the Wei army had no time to prevent, countless casualties, and the army could not be defeated. Pang Juan committed suicide in shame, and the Wei army was annihilated by more than 100,000 before and after.
The tactic of encircling Wei and rescuing Zhao provided guidance for the development of warfare in later generations, and the valuable military ideas of avoiding the enemy and defeating the superior with the inferior became an important part of the military theory of later generations.