According to Sima Qian's Shiji, Sun Tzu, the author of The Art of War, was the main commander of the Wu army, but he was not mentioned in the Zuo Zhuan and other earlier historical texts.

The Chu forces were led by Lingyin (prime minister) Nang Wa (also known as Zichang) and Sima (chief military commander) Shen Yin Shu.

[4] Zuo Zhuan, one of the earliest Chinese works of narrative history compiled in the 4th century BC, gives a detailed account of the battle and the larger war.

Wu was joined by the minor states of Cai and Tang, whose monarchs had been held as prisoners by Chu prime minister Nang Wa.

In response, Nang Wa and chief military commander Shen Yin Shu led the Chu army to the west bank of the Han, across the river from the invaders.

[1][5] Shen Yin Shu devised a plan in which Nang Wa would take up defensive positions with the main army along the Han River, while Shen would go north to Fangcheng on Chu's northern frontier, and lead the troops stationed there to destroy the Wu ships left on the Huai River as well as block the three passes on the Wu army's return route.

Nang Wa would then cross the Han River and the two forces would simultaneously attack the Wu army from both the front and the back.

[5] The two armies fought three battles between the Xiaobie (southeast of present-day Hanchuan)[1] and Dabie Mountains and the Wu forces were victorious.

King Zhao of Chu escaped first to Yun, and then to the state of Sui, and the Wu army captured Ying.

Not wanting to be captured alive, he ordered officer Wu Goubi to kill him and bring his head home.

[5] After the fall of Ying, Shen Baoxu, an official of Chu and a former friend of Wu Zixu, went to the State of Qin to plead for assistance.