Sun Bin
A struggle between Pang Juan and Sun Bin began, as each of them led his respective state's armies to attack the other. Pang Juan led the Wei army to attack the Zhao state and Zhao requested help from the Qi state. Sun Bin led the Qi army together with Tian Ji and proposed the strategy of "besieging Wei to rescue Zhao", luring Pang Juan to turn back to save Wei from the Qi army, hence lifting the siege on Zhao. At the Battle of Guiling, Pang Juan's forces were defeated in an ambush by Sun Bin's army. Pang led the Wei army to attack the Han state later and Sun Bin led the Qi forces to invade Wei to save Han. Sun used a strategy to lure Pang Juan's army to follow the Qi army by feigning defeat. Pang fell for the ruse and trailed Sun, where he noticed that the Qi army was apparently shrinking in size. Pang was eager to defeat Sun Bin and he led a light cavalry unit in pursuit, but fell into an ambush by the Qi army in a narrow valley at the Battle of Maling. The Wei army suffered a crushing defeat and the Wei crown prince was captured by Qi forces, while Pang Juan committed suicide. In traditional folklore, Sun Bin carved the words "Pang Juan dies under this tree" on a tree at the ambush area. When Pang and his men arrived, he saw that there were carvings on the tree so he lit a torch for a closer look. At that moment, the Qi troops lying in ambush attacked and Pang Juan committed suicide under that very tree.