The pleasant adventure of the Arsenal of the Five Men of the Imperial Palace turned into a disgusting chicken feather in the end, and the five little ones, escorted by Mr. Storsch, quietly returned to the Imperial Palace with unhappy faces.

This summer night was destined to be unpeaceful, not only the conflict between Joey and the Count of Oylenburg, but also between William and Sergei, two rivals in love, in this youth party.

Joey's bar for William's youth party is, at its root, a bar full of male hormones, with unlimited drinks, beautiful waiters, dazzling lights, diffuse clouds, and all kinds of games and entertainment, which in itself makes the blood of young men pump.

When Helmut Johannes Ludwig von Moltke, also known as Moltke the Younger, appeared at the bar, the whole room went from excitement to madness. Little Moltke was handing out balloons in the bar, bringing with him a large number of balloons, which were filled with the laughing gas that Joey had given up earlier.

The encounter between alcohol and narcotics was destined to change this already hormone-filled party, and from that moment on, a small argument turned into a fierce quarrel, and then into a fist and foot conflict.

No matter how good at acting and rational restraint, in the presence of the two devils of alcohol and narcotics, hatred will eventually erupt, and when William throws the white gloves in front of Grand Duke Sergei, a duel between nobles inevitably arises.

According to the Victorian British, when the whole European continent was shrouded in the barbarian atmosphere of duel, only the people of the British Isles were civilized people who valued reason, were good at suppressing the impulses of inner feelings and devils, and had great self-control over their actions.

In human terms, a man is a symbol of a gentleman if he can hold back his anger and not vent his uncontrollable emotions. In layman's terms, if you want to live a decent life, you have to have a little green on your head.

If Germany in the nineteenth century was a basic social form, then Britain was an adulterous social form, and the great Prime Minister Churchill from an unknown origin is the best portrayal of this era.

As for whether to defend male dignity with a sword or with reason, if it is because of family and children, Joey votes for the former with his feet, but in order to have no unnecessary arguments and brawls, Joey will choose the latter.

William's brain, under the dual effects of alcohol and narcotics, has long run out of rational space, and after throwing out the white gloves, while the duel is about to be held, William decides to solve the problem between him and Sergei with his fists first.

The lackluster fist and foot battle aside, let's talk about this duel between nobles to be held at a later date.

Before World War I, the duel on the European continent went through two phases, the first was called the judicial duel, and the later was called the honor duel.

Judicial duels were originally used as a means of judicial decision, a type of divine judgment prescribed by the Church. When the nobles were dissatisfied with the decision of the emperor, the church, or the court, the nobles could decide who was the righteous party of God's judgment in the name of God and the death caused by the sword.

The victor is naturally the righteous, and the loser or the dead must be the unjust. There is a bit of a taste of success and defeat, that is, it is often said that the origin of the victor writing history.

Later, such judicial duels were considered to be contempt for imperial power, clerical power, and the law, and were gradually forbidden. But duels provoked to defend one's own reputation and dignity or those of one's relatives and friends, i.e., duels of honor, soon replaced judicial duels. So William thought that Sergei, under the influence of alcohol and narcotics, violated his dignity by his words to Elizabeth, and wanted to have an honor duel with Sergei.

It must be noted that most of the duels of honor on the European continent took place among the aristocracy, and for the nobility, honor was above all else, and one of the ways to defend honor was dueling. To put it simply, what do you see, just do it if you don't accept it!

Of course, the duel between nobles does not mean that it starts at the beginning, but also needs to comply with a large number of complicated and cumbersome processes and etiquette before it can begin. Saying that a duel is a duel is the way street gangsters fight, which does not conform to the style and identity of the nobles.

Duels between William and Sergei generally follow the following rules:

First of all, the person who accepts the dueling, here refers to the person who was thrown gloves, that is, Sergei has the right to choose the weapon and the method of the duel. The duel weapons of the nineteenth century were still different from country to country, the most common duel weapon of the Germans was the long sword, while the Russians preferred the pistol.

Second, choose a witness that is acceptable to both parties. The role of witnesses in the duel between nobles is not trivial, on the one hand, the rules of the duel require that witnesses must be present to witness the duel; On the other hand, the witness usually discusses with the insulted person the extent of the insult and the nature of the duel, whether it is just a formal contest or a real life-and-death duel.

Before the duel, the witness will mediate with the opposing parties for the last time, and if the mediation is successful, the duel will be canceled, or it will simply go through the formality without hurting the opponent's vital point. But if mediation fails, preparations for a life-and-death duel begin.

If the weapon of the duel is a sword, the witness examines the condition of the swords of both sides; In the case of pistols, the witness loads the pistols of both sides and sets the boundaries of the shots. If it is a duel of life and death, then after the end, the witness also takes the deceased.

Finally, the rules of duels usually state that ladies are not allowed to participate in duels and that their reputations are defended by men. But in the history of European dueling, there are also many cases where women have personally gone out to defend their honor.

The Russian duel was extremely dangerous compared to the German duel, and all scholars who study the history of the duel of the nobility in the nineteenth century generally consider the Russian duel to be called "legal killing".

It's not that the Germans like to duel with swords, it's safer than the Russians like to duel with pistols, a good swordsman can also solve the opponent's life at will, and Germany also has pistol duels.

The key problem is that the Germans, while keen on dueling, have greatly diluted their understanding of life-and-death duels, believing that forcing the insulter to face a real risk of losing his life is sufficient for the restoration of honor, even if the danger is not particularly great.

For example, in the case of the pistol duel, which is the favorite of the Russians, after all, this time it was William who threw the white gloves to Ke Sergei, so according to the rules, Grand Duke Sergei is very likely to choose a pistol.

The Germans fought pistol duels in fixed positions, with the duels at a distance of 35 paces (about 20 meters) or more, and then the two men took turns shooting in the order determined by the draw.

At such a distance, with the accuracy of a pistol of the XIX century, such a serious result as death was possible, but by no means inevitable, and most duels ended without bloodshed.

However, the most typical pistol duel in Russia has a fixed line of 15 paces (about 7 meters) or even shorter, less than 10 steps (within 5 meters). This distance is no matter how bad the handgun, no matter how bad the pistol, it can cause serious injury or death to the opponent.

As the one who was thrown the gloves, if Sergei was going to die with William, he would probably choose to take less than 10 steps according to Russian rules.

Even if the Russians set the distance of the duel at the traditional 15 paces in a friendly and harmonious manner, it is possible that the final outcome of the duel at this distance is not too bad, but it is not necessarily, Pushkin was shot by his opponent at a distance of 20 steps.

If you don't want to be so friendly and harmonious, and you want a little more excitement, you can also recommend William and Sergei to have an obstacle course duel.

The two sides of the duel are about 25 paces apart, and use any object to cross the path between the two of them as an obstacle to mark the boundary. The two duelists stand at equal distances from the boundary barrier. Holding a pistol with the muzzle pointing upwards, after hearing the order, the two sides began to meet each other, the speed of travel is not limited, you can stay for a short time, but it is forbidden to retreat.

There are two rules for this obstacle marching duel. The first is that the person who shoots has the right to stand still from the position where he fired the shot, to distance himself from the opponent and reduce the probability of the opponent shooting himself, which is more popular in Germany.

And the second is the general Russian rule, that is, the duelist has the right to ask the opponent to approach him, that is, it is not allowed to pull the distance, only to constantly shorten the firing distance. If the person who shoots first does not kill or seriously injure the opponent, he will eventually become an unarmed target and stand in front of the opponent.

As long as one of the duels survives the opponent's shots, they can calmly aim and shoot at the smallest distance. In later gangster movies, the famous Russian phrase "кбарьеру!" (Come to the line!) That's why it comes from.

If one side feels that their shooting skills are limited and they want to kill their opponent, then a more exciting duel has emerged, which is to put a pistol against each other's foreheads. Both sides of the duel keep a guaranteed distance (usually within 5 steps), only one of the two guns is loaded with bullets, draw lots to choose the weapon, and then both sides shoot at each other at the same time.

In modern cinema, this method has evolved into Russian roulette, which always ends with the death of one of the parties.

So, in the XIX century, it was never pleasant to duel with the Russian aristocracy, who had never been afraid of death.

After all, in Germany, if neither side of the duel hits, the duel is usually ended, and the honor of the duelist is considered restored accordingly. However, according to the Russian practice of duels, the duel is to be fought according to the requirements of the "final result", and if both sides shoot and no one is killed or wounded, the pistol is reloaded and the duel continues until one of the duels is dead.

As the Grand Duke Sergei, who was thrown white gloves, as the receiver of the duel, a well-known hardliner in history, an absolutely belligerent man in Russia, would never adopt the German rules that the Russians call "ridiculous duels".

So early the next morning, after waking up from alcohol, William began to feel frightened of his death behavior of throwing white gloves at Sergei last night.

At the breakfast table of the crown palace on the weekend, Crown Prince Frederick and his wife looked at William, their faces were gloomy, and when they took the drunken William back to the palace last night, an attendant quietly reported the news of Prince William's duel with Grand Duke Sergei to the crown prince and his wife.

Early in the morning, the crown prince and his wife sent Sir Stokema to arrange a visit to Grand Duke Sergei, and Crown Prince Frederick and his wife were ready to go to greet him as soon as possible, and last night, Grand Duke Sergei, who was hurt both emotionally and physically, tried his best to resolve this duel between nobles.

In addition, Sir Stockma had to go to the newspaper office in Berlin to cover up the disturbing incident as much as possible, and yesterday's conflict fell into the eyes of the media early.

From the moment the crown prince and his wife learned that William was going to duel with Sergei, Frederick and his wife only showed endless worries, without the slightest accusation against William and Joey, and the more their parents were like this, the more Joey was worried and afraid.

So Joey at the breakfast table was very quiet, as careful as William, after all, the source of this bar conflict was still himself, if he hadn't followed William's wishes, half encouragement, half instigated organization, it is estimated that there would not be such a bad situation as last night.

At the dinner table, through William's dictation, it is learned that it was the damned little Moltke who came to the party with a lot of laughing gas, and Joey immediately understood that although he was the initiator of this incident, Moltke who brought the narcotics was the real murderer.

Joey couldn't help but scold angrily in his heart, "This military idiot and idiot, not only is he gay in life, but he also likes to take drugs, which is really the biggest shame of the Moltke family!" ”