The famous six towns of Beiyang, except for the first town composed of banner people, which Yuan could not completely control, the remaining five towns are all Yuan's descendants. The fifth town of the Beiyang Army of these six towns was stationed in Jinan, Shandong, and the other five towns were all stationed in Hebei.

In October 1908, as the war unfolded, the third town was stationed in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, under the leadership of Duan Qirui. The second, fourth, and sixth towns were moved to Henan. The fifth town is still stationed in Jinan. Only the first town stationed in the north of Jingbei remained in Zhili Hebei.

The first town is a force composed of banner people, and the regent Zaifeng is more assured. It stands to reason that the troops in Zhili Hebei are not lacking, in addition to the first town, there are also "suspected troops" of various banners and battalions in the capital. In addition, the regent Zaifeng and his clan formed a "Royal Janissary" following the model of the German Praetorian Guard.

To be sure, although the little German Empire founded by the diplomat Chancellor Bismarck claimed to be a "military state", Prussia was actually best at "masquerading as a military power". The Imperial Guard is not so much about fighting as it is about forcing those Junker bun nobles to accept modern scientific education and discipline, so that they will not be embarrassed in their later lives.

Zaifeng only knew it but didn't know why, the noble school set up in 1905 was originally to cultivate military talents for the imperial family to seize military power, but most of those children did not succeed, just as the late Qing Dynasty "Bamboo Branch Ci" ridiculed, "Now the nobles are specialists, and the average homework is more prostitution; The most amazing thing to tell is that it can sing a few military songs." "The Last News of the Qing Palace" also recorded such a burlesque, saying that most of the students in the noble school were princes and beylors or children of the clan, so the meals in the school were extremely rich and exquisite, one table per person, and it would cost seven or eight taels of silver a day. Even the head of the school and the teacher, these people are regarded as slaves, and they are allowed to be called and drunk by the students of Ah Ge, but they are only ordered to listen. What is even more absurd is that when the students come to the church every day, they must be invited by the teacher, and sometimes they have to be invited four or five times before they can barely show up, and when they come, it is just lunchtime, so these people call for food, wipe their mouths after eating, and leave; There are also people who come to the lecture hall by chance, and sometimes when the interest comes, they sing a song in the class. The list goes on.

In fact, the three Zaifeng brothers are also students of the Guizhou Academy, but apart from attending the opening ceremony a little, how can they really go to the school? The regent still doesn't respond to the story, and the others can imagine it.

Zaifeng never imagined that such a group of eight lambs would go to the battlefield one day.

The nightmare began in early October, as if out of the ground, when hordes of horse bandits suddenly looted all the Huangzhuang outside Beijing. The horse bandits not only looted, but also used extremely bloody methods. The people in charge of the affairs in the imperial village, all the people sent by the clan family, were all beheaded. Since October is a good day to travel and play, there are quite a few people who go to Huangzhuang to play, the prince of the clan, Baylor, Fujin Gege. The princes of these clans, Bellor, were all beheaded. Fujin Gege was nowhere to be found, and it seemed that he had been plundered by the horse bandits.

What frightened the clan the most was that it seemed that there were still good characters in Longyang among these horse bandits, and several pink and tender princes and Belle corpses had lost their pants, and chrysanthemums had obviously been used.

The Shenji battalion of the Gongwei Jingshi was immediately transferred from Wangfujing to the Fengtai camp. This "suspected army" composed of banner men was immediately attacked by horse bandits after entering the Fengtai camp. The horse bandits took advantage of the night to enter the Fengtai camp. The "suspected army" of the Shenji Battalion has no combat experience at all, and its combat effectiveness is basically negative. There was no way to deal with the surprise attack, and when he fled for his life, he was chased and slashed by the horse bandits. While the horse bandits made corpses everywhere, they also looted munitions, and then set fire to the Fengtai camp, and the residents of the capital saw the flames of the Fengtai camp burning all night.

At this time, the first town of Beiyang, which was stationed in Jingbei, had to devote troops to exterminate the bandits. The cavalry battalion that was pursuing the bandits was ambushed and the whole army was destroyed. As soon as the infantry entered the capital, the horse bandits broke into the military camp of the first town in the north of Beijing, and the fire burned all night.

The next thing to suffer was the ongoing construction of the Cixi Mausoleum, which dispersed the artisans, massacred the eunuch officials, and burned the wood from the cemetery that had already been built.

This large group of horse bandits also understood the importance of intelligence, and they dismantled all the telegraph lines leading from the capital to various places, looted relay stations in various places, and swept away their equipment. The newspaper station house was burned down. Beijing became blind and deaf in an instant.

News of attacks in various places continued to come through messengers, and the regent Zaifeng, in desperation, forced the infantry of the first town of the new army to attack. After getting the news of the horse bandits raging in Tongzhou, the first town of the new army attacked in desperation. Halfway through, they were volleyed, and the First Town was almost completely annihilated. Since then, the regular army of Zhili can be said to have disappeared. After the horse bandits annihilated the regular army of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, they immediately scattered in various places.

At this time, the huge Beijing was almost usable to use troops, and could only send the police and various "suspected troops" to the city wall to guard it. But rumors spread in the capital, three shocks a day, and there was no moment of peace. At this time, Zaifeng thought of the "Noble Academy", no matter what, if these people are in command, it can boost morale. However, this hypothetical choice is better than not such a choice. The personnel arrangements have been arranged, but there are no noble children from the noble school to take up their posts. Some of the more honest troops even sent people to invite them, and the results can be imagined. Either these nobles can't get out of their illness, or they simply kick these nasty ghosts out of the city. This is a fatal blow to morale. The morale of the army, which had already begun to slacken, had reached the point of detachment from morality at this time.

The ministers of the clan can talk about it on weekdays, but on paper, it is okay to "talk and laugh and disappear", but they are really dumbfounded in the face of such a situation. Zaifeng knew that Yuan Shikai would not stupidly throw himself into the net and come to Beijing. In a hurry, he conveyed to Duan Qirui, who was far away in Zhejiang, an order to let Duan Qirui take the third town of Beiyang back to Beijing to receive a reward. Zaifeng's clever plan to kill two birds with one stone has completely backfired, which is not understandable for Zaifeng's IQ.

Zaifeng also thought about asking the foreigner for help, but the foreigner's army was there to defend the embassy. When the telegraph was completely cut off, it was naturally impossible for them to help Zaifeng. Not only did they not help, but the embassies of various countries asked Zaifeng what was going on. Under this internal and external trap, Zaifeng just hid in the palace and couldn't come out.

A large number of clan officials went to Zaifeng's palace to ask him for a solution, but they were all turned away. It wasn't until the Empress Dowager Yulong sent someone to call Zaifeng that Zaifeng had to enter the palace to report the matter. What effect can the report have? Stating a problem realistically does not mean that it can effectively solve the problem. The Empress Dowager Yulong had no choice but to lament and cry.

The messenger sent to Shandong for help was gone, and the horse bandits cut off the railway line. The city of Beijing, the center of power in China, is now the most unsafe place in China.

The terrible situation finally spread from outside the city to the inside of the city, and the horse bandits infiltrated the capital. Since the students of the "Nobility Academy" refused to serve as commanders of the gates, the horse bandits showed no sign of attacking the city walls. The guards of the capital were actually extremely lax. On October 29th, the horse bandits suddenly broke through the Chaoyang Gate of the capital and directly entered the palace of Prince Yi in the Chaoyang Gate.

Prince Yi's ancestor is Yongzheng's brother who is remembered by many fanwomen, the thirteenth elder brother. However, in this generation, it has changed repeatedly. In the year of Gengzi, Pu Jing connived at the Boxers, and the foreign legation strongly demanded that Pu Jing be executed. After Pu Jing died of anxiety, Cixi immediately stripped Pu Jing of her royal title and gave the title to Pu Jing's younger brother Pu Yao's youngest son, Yuqi. However, to inherit the prince, you have to wait and take a look, and you must go through a "two-year observation and test period".

Prince Yi's mansion had already experienced the plundering of the Eight-Nation Alliance, and was severely attacked by Cixi, and the result was a collapse. But the bandits weren't trying to beat the Reservoir Dogs. "The defense is not strict, and it is close to the city gate" is the reason for the bad luck of Prince Yi's mansion.

It was the real horse bandits who entered the prince's mansion, and the slaughter of the prince was really a great pleasure for these people. That night, except for a few beautiful young women who were taken away from the palace, the rest of the men, women, and children, regardless of gender, were all beheaded. When a fire began to burn in Prince Yi's mansion. The last fig leaf of the Manchu Qing was also ripped off. What unfolded in front of the capital and the governor of the world was a tragic image of the Manchu diehards who were so weak that they could be slaughtered.

The fact that Prince Yi of the Manchu Dynasty was destroyed in the city and his female dependents were plundered made all the princes frightened. Especially the prince who has a large number of heads in the family, this terrible ending made Prince Gong's family take the lead in making a stupid move. They tried to escape from Beijing and take refuge in Tianjin, where security was still good. The vanguard of Prince Gong's family, who were walking in disguise, was immediately attacked. The roaring horse bandits threw a string of heads at the gate of Beijing and roared away. It took a long time for the frightened guards at the head of the city to dare to clean up the heads. The people of Prince Gong's mansion have always loved to swagger through the market, and the head with a crooked mouth and slanted eyes immediately recognized the identity.

Prince Gong's family put on makeup and went out of the city, not many people know about this news, who leaked the news, so that these people could not escape the poison. By this time, the Manchu princes no longer even had the courage to track down the murderer. Men defend their families with weapons, and women are armed to commit suicide or disfigurement in the event of an emergency.

At a mountain temple, Pang Zi, the liaison officer and commander of the "local heroes", heard the news and laughed in the sky, and then fell to the ground and cried. It's been eight years, it's been eight years, and the Manchu princes owe the blood debt of the heroes of Hebei and Shandong, and they have always begun to repay it a little.

In this military operation, Pang Zi had long been determined to kill a group of Manchu princes to avenge him. The BJP's attitude towards this action was ambiguous. The vast majority of the troops in the Shandong base area were born in a reckless manner. These people are more or less enmity with Beiyang. It is not uncommon for a brother like Pang Zi who was born in Yihequan and participated in the uprising of Jing Tingbin and Zhao Sanduo at the same time. These comrades have no psychological burden at all on killing their former enemies. And Pang Zi has gathered many "local heroes" in Taihang Mountain, Hebei. These people are willing to go down the mountain to do this vote, which is nothing more than "grabbing money, grabbing food, and robbing girls". This is also destined to be a paramilitary operation that will never be the kind of dignified battle between the two armies and the preferential treatment of prisoners.

Considering all the realities, the disciplinary requirement for this operation was that "troops are absolutely not allowed to participate in rape and massacres of women and children." The fact that the army does not allow this does not mean that the regulations must be forcibly placed on the heads of "local heroes." And to demand that genuine bandits comply with such regulations is also clearly in the category of untruthfulness. Pang Zi made full use of this provision.

Although the bandits look fierce on weekdays, they actually have a strong inferiority complex. Violence against people in the royal palace who are "noble" in society can greatly satisfy their inferior souls. Pang Zi did not deliberately instigate, but just cut off a few heads as if nothing happened, proving that these killings would not lead to any terrible consequences. The next thing doesn't need to be agitated by Pang Zi. All the killings were done by the heroes of the rivers and lakes themselves, and before they started, Pang Zi would also transfer the comrades in the troops. Listening to the wailing and screaming of those princes, nobles and lackeys, Pang Zi felt happier in his heart.

The horse bandits are also very well-behaved, and they can laugh, shout, and scold in the team, but they can't cry. It is generally believed that crying loudly will lead to bad luck. On this subject, the psychoanalytic part of the base area is completely devoid of such superstitious views. The local psychoanalysis department, based on some of the "tentative theories" put forward by Chairman Chen Ke, concluded that sincere crying will bring great emotional release, while the biggest psychological motivation of the looters is the accumulation of high emotions caused by "desire", which is contrary to each other.

After the release of emotions, people's attention intensity will be reduced, and subjective initiative will be reduced. "Details determine success or failure", lack of concentration will lead to various mistakes, and the reduction of supervisor initiative will lead to "slow down" at critical moments, and in combination, the probability of failure is greatly increased. Due to the lack of a more scientific theoretical framework for classification and summary, horse bandits have to be explained by various "superstitions", but the specific experience gained from practice is by no means superstition.

When discussing these theoretical contents before the action, Pang Zigang listened for a while and found that there was no need to loot, just studying these "nonsense" things could make people completely lose their desire and impulse to loot. But now, when he wept with joy and cried loudly, these theories popped up in his mind for some reason. Because he was crying with joy, Pang Zi quickly stopped crying. He wiped his face casually and shouted, "Eat." Then he went to the fire and served a bowl of rice and began to eat.

This practice is also recommended by the psychological department. In order to maintain high emotions in the specific execution of looting operations, it is necessary to suppress psychological excitement in ordinary times, just like the upstream accumulates a large amount of water, so that it can sweep downstream when it erupts.

The horse bandits are all experts in the years, although I don't know why Pang Zi has changed so quickly, but Pang Zi has completely restored the "traditional rules", everyone is immediately relieved, and they also quietly bow their heads and eat together.

The group of horse bandits where Pang Zi is located is not very large, with a total of more than 50 people, but they are the most courageous group in Taihang Mountain. It was they who washed Prince Yi's mansion with blood and robbed a lot of things. The reason why Pang Zi acted with them was to take revenge on Prince Yi, who deceived the Boxer brothers. Back then, Prince Yi and Gangyi were clever and clever, and they told the brothers to enter Beijing, and Pang Zi remembered it clearly. No matter what happened to Prince Yi Pu Jing, Pang Zi never extinguished the idea of revenge.

Sitting next to Pang Zi was Hou Peifeng, a cadre of the People's Party's Political Department, whose stated mission was to act with Pang Zi to "avoid radical situations and to supervise and protect Pang Zi from making mistakes." Actually, these are side tasks. Hou Peifeng's real task is to observe and study the characteristics of horse bandits, so as to provide effective research for dealing with bandits in the future and for large-scale and comprehensive bandit suppression in the future.

The BJP will not allow bandits to persist for a long time, and for a certain period of time, bandits will be an unavoidable target of their dealings. Taking advantage of this operation, a considerable number of cadres have received such tasks. While Hou Peifeng was eating, he naturally observed the horse bandits. This group is different from the intimate organization of the People's Party, and since the first day he arrived, Hou Peifeng felt like he was in a wolf pack. Although all the bandits have a clear division of labor, their actions are well coordinated. But there is a kind of enclosure between each person. With the increase in looting, this situation of drawing the ground as a prison became more and more obvious. The common property shared after returning to the cottage is the property that can be directly possessed by private individuals. The relationship between the bandits is constantly changing as the situation changes. The words of conversation with each other are constantly changing.

On closer inspection, all these changes are in a dynamic that seems to follow the rules, but changes all the time. Hou Peifeng was able to become a cadre of the Political Department, after a lot of thinking training. Even so, he still couldn't fully grasp the characteristics and changes of these bandits in a short period of time.

After eating, it's time for the bandit gang to have fun. More than fifty people drew lots, and the leader of the horse bandits smiled at Pang Zi and said, "King Pang, since you brought us here, you and this brother have not been drawn several times." I'm in charge here, and you and this brother don't have to draw lots this time. ”

Pang Zi laughed, "Brothers, I, Pang Zi, am a person who likes to talk about face. The brothers are willing to go out of the mountain to help, and I, Pang Zi, have to make the brothers happy first. Otherwise, in the future, I will blow up my spirit, and I will be empty-hearted. Now the wolf has more meat and less meat, needless to say, draw lots. ”

The bandits who robbed the house lacked women in ordinary times, and they had never played with such a "noble" woman. Since Pang Zi wanted to be more "scene", everyone was not polite, the lottery ended, and Pang Zi and Hou Peifeng did not win the lottery as they wished. The lucky bandits arrived at the test house where Fujin Gege was bound, and lined up with great interest to be shot.

Hou Peifeng knew that he would never be able to integrate into such a gang no matter what, and he didn't say a word since the start of the fight, just worked honestly. The horse bandits also regarded Hou Peifeng as an honest man. Although he didn't take Hou Peifeng in his eyes, he also looked at Pang Zi's face and didn't make things difficult for him.

Hou Peifeng knew that after the entertainment was over, the bandits would put out the bonfire and enter a quiet time of vigilance and rest. He took out a pamphlet and began to read it by the light of the fire.

From this point of view, the first step in the process of knowing is to begin to contact external things, which belongs to the stage of feeling. The second step is to organize and transform the materials of the senses, which belongs to the stage of conceptualization, judgment and reasoning. Only when the material of the senses is abundant (not fragmentary) and practical (not an illusion) can the correct concepts and theories be created from such materials.

There are two main points that must be highlighted here. The first, which has already been said and repeated here, is the question of the dependence of rational cognition on perceptual cognition. If one thinks that rational knowledge can be derived from perceptual knowledge, he is an idealist. In the history of philosophy, there is a so-called "theory-only" school, that is, it only recognizes the reality of reason, but does not recognize the reality of experience, thinking that only reason can be relied on, and the experience of feeling is unreliable. Rational things are reliable precisely because they come from sensibility, otherwise rational things will become water without a source, a tree without roots, but only a subjective and self-generated unreliable thing......

The second is that the understanding needs to be deepened, and the perceptual stage of understanding has yet to develop to the rational stage -- this is the dialectic of epistemology. If we think that cognition can be stopped at a lower perceptual stage, that only perceptual cognition is reliable, and that rational cognition is unreliable, then we repeat the mistake of "empiricism" in history. The error of this theory lies in the fact that it is not clear that the sensory materials are certainly the reflection of some reality of the objective external world (I will not say here that experience is only the idealistic empiricism of the so-called introspective experience), but they are only one-sided and superficial things, and this reflection is incomplete and does not reflect the essence of things. …… Respecting experience and despising theory means that we are unable to look at the objective process as a whole, lack a clear guideline, have no great prospects, and are complacent about what we have achieved and what we have seen. If such a person guides the revolution, he will lead the revolution to the point where it hits a wall. ”

This is Hou Peifeng's favorite "Theory of Practice", this article is not easy to read and connect theory with practice, but it inadvertently resonates strongly between the lines. On the one hand, I read "On Practice" and on the other hand, I combined the current work of observing the characteristics of horse bandits with theory.

Is it because I don't have enough perceptual observation? Or am I stuck in the predicament of "the kind of idealistic empiricism of introspective experience"? All kinds of ideas clash repeatedly within the framework of "criticism and self-criticism", and Hou Peifeng, who is immersed in the learning process, cannot even hear the strange sound made by the queue next door to be shot.

Pang Zi is also learning and reflecting. The joint operation was divided into two parts, and the regular army, mainly composed of the cavalry brigade of the Shandong base area, with the support of the intelligence network of the Hebei intelligence organ of the People's Party, dealt a devastating blow to the regular army of the Manchu Qing Dynasty. Although it is not known to know the extent to which the intelligence agencies infiltrated the Manchus. Accurate and effective intelligence makes every military attack a great success.

The raids on the various estates and the princes and nobles were all undertaken by the "heroes of the rivers and lakes". The heroes are resolutely opposed to "showing their likeness" when they are opposed to "people on the official face", so they hold the style of "killing the light and grabbing the light".

At this time, according to the rules of the horse bandits, everyone should also break up. Thinking of this, Pang Zi couldn't help but take out a piece of paper from his arms that had been worn out a little.

This is a "looting income curve chart" drawn by Chen Ke, and a "guessing theory formula" is also listed. Chen Ke had little experience in looting, but the president of his university was a well-known mathematician. Although Chen Ke did not belong to the mathematics department, he also listened to the old scholar's lecture on "Mathematics and Life" in a large lecture hall like a sardine can.

All the students, including Chen Ke, were deeply touched. The praise of this group of laymen, who are more than touched but not professional, is "Mathematics is the dog of this old gentleman, let it do whatever he wants." ”

Mathematics is an amazing discipline that can depict reality without relying on reality at all. After Chen Kegan started the revolution, he understood why mathematicians were admired in foreign films. Excessive mythology math is not scientific. But getting the most out of math makes a lot of sense.

If it weren't for the fact that most of these comrades had only mastered binary equations, Chen Ke would have liked to give them calculus, quadratic integration, multiple integral integration, and advanced mathematical methods to find trends to analyze the optimal choice of robbery. After the basic parameters of looting objects, action routes, carrying difficulties, and carrying difficulties are determined, it is completely possible to optimize and rationally arrange the actions by mathematical methods. The benefit-risk ratio can also be easily quantitatively calculated.

Pang Zi originally approached looting from a practical point of view, and those ghost-like formulas made him feel an instinctive sense of resistance. Theory meets practice, and this kind of thing is the same for any industry. After patiently listening to the theoretical explanation, Pang Zi suddenly found that the truth here coincided with his long-term practice. The only difference is that the two sides use different words, the practitioner seeks the maximum success rate of each action based on experience, and the theorist relies on the law to point out the general situation in the macro situation.

From the reluctant learning at the beginning, to the spontaneous and active acceptance. Pang Zi even drew inferences from one case to another to understand a passage in military academy education, "Strategy can succeed because it is correct, and tactics can be correct because of success." ”

Pang Zi already understood that the larger the scale of plunder, the more obvious the correctness and universality of theoretical guidance. On the intuitive coordinate curve, the inflection point between the gains and the payouts of looting is about to be reached. Further down, unless the looting is expanded, yields will plummet.

With such a tool, Pang Zi wanted to understand the magic of these simple numbers and images, which could tell the direction of things before they even started. But his idea was not good enough to understand a mathematical problem of this magnitude. This is the same as Chen Ke did not understand the meaning of drawing coordinate curves before studying advanced mathematics.

After some research, Pang Zi still didn't know what to do. Out of boredom, he took a stick with a black charcoal at the tip and drew a curve diagram with several binary quadratic equations on the wall. I didn't look at it long after I finished painting, and the line up was already over. Relax or not, it's time for the bandits to rest. Everyone began to rest in their own sphere of influence. The fire did not continue to be fueled, and it was slowly extinguished.

In the wee hours of the morning, all the horse bandits got up. Pack up your horses and booty. They galloped towards their next scheduled assembly area.

Maybe it's the luck of these people, or maybe Pang Zi's crying time and intensity last night were not enough, "the bad luck that was not attracted was enough". More than two hours after they left, a large group of German cavalry roared. These were the guards of the embassy district, and the looting and cutting off of communications by the bandits finally made the embassy feel like a symbolic display of its presence.

Anyway, through the channels provided by the Manchus, it was learned that a certain group of horse bandits was resting here, and the Germans went out. The commander of this force was Second Lieutenant Heinz. After cautiously making sure that there were no horse bandits in the ruined temple, there were signs that a large group of people and horses were stationed. Second Lieutenant Heinz dismounted and searched the ruined temple.

The empty and dilapidated temple showed signs of women's underwear in the middle room, and some discarded torn but expensive fabrics. It appears that the bandits did rest here, but there is no actual physical evidence of where they fled. The second lieutenant, who had suspected that the Manchu Qing intelligence was inaccurate, scolded his mother in German, as if leaving. However, at a casual glance, Heinz stopped.

The second lieutenant mixed with the royal guard, and only went to China to become a military attaché in China for the sake of gilding. In junior military schools, math is a compulsory subject. Seeing the familiar graph of coordinates on the wall, Second Lieutenant Heinz felt a twitch in his palm. The military school teacher punished the students corporally, and Second Lieutenant Heinz was not good at math that year, which was a lot of crimes.

When I looked over, it was the familiar coordinates and equations. Write on the wall with very fresh charcoal, on the charcoal stick used to write, and the dust rubbed off the wall.

Looking up again, Heinz took a closer look at the ruined temple. He had a very strange hope, that is, if only God could give him a clear indication of what kind of bandits lived here yesterday! Even in Germany, most people don't understand this advanced mathematical knowledge!