of rushing and trying to ambush the high morale Wei troops, Sun Bin decided to let a great majority of his troops rest. These Qi troops were ordered to move slowly back into Qi and prepare equipment for an ambush when needed. Sun Bin took a smaller force to face Pang Juan. Once the two forces drew close to each other, Sun Bin immediately ordered a retreat from Jin. In order to mislead his enemy, Sun Bin ordered his soldiers to make less stoves (cookfires) day by day. On the first day, Qi had enough stoves for 100,000 people; on the second day, there were stoves for only 50,000 people. On the third day, there were only stoves for an army of 20,000. As Pang Juan saw this, he judged that the soldiers of Qi were deserting their army and decided to pursue the Qi army with a small elite cavalry. This unit was overconfident following their recent victory in Han. As Qi retreated into their own territory, Sun Bin ordered his troops to abandon some of their heavy artillery. This further gave the impression of a state of confusion amongst the Qi army. As Qi arrived at Maling, Sun Bin noticed a heavily wooded and narrow pass that could be used for ambush. Estimating the arrival of Pang Juan around nightfall, he ordered his men to cut down a tree, remove its bark, and carve the words "Pang Juan shall die in Malingdao, under this tree" on its trunk. This was a proverb spoken by the teacher of both Sun Bin and Pang Juan (both had been in the same class). Pang Juan had moved to Malingdao, and when he saw the warning message, he paid no attention, instead ordering the words to be scraped off. The army advanced when suddenly, a flush of Qi troops surrounded the Wei. In the darkness, Qi archers managed to shoot down many of the Wei soldiers, before the rest of soldiers charged in. The Wei troops did not expect Qi to still have so many troops under their command and were quickly overrun. Pang Juan, sensing his end was near, committed suicide. In some versions, Pang Juan was among the first of his troops to be shot to death. Even though Pang Juan had tricked Sun Bin and maimed him by removing his knee caps, Sun Bin felt very sad to see