Of the famous Beiyang Six Divisions (Zhen), except for the First Division composed of Bannermen which Yuan could not completely control, the remaining five divisions were all Yuan's direct lineage. Of these six Beiyang divisions, the Fifth Division was stationed in Jinan, Shandong, and the other five were all stationed in Hebei.

By October 1908, with the start of the war, the Third Division was stationed in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, under the leadership of Duan Qirui. The Second, Fourth, and Sixth Divisions moved to Henan. The Fifth Division was still stationed in Jinan. The only one left in Zhili Hebei was the First Division stationed north of Beijing.

The First Division was a force composed of Bannermen, so Regent Zaifeng was relatively reassured. Logically speaking, the military strength in Zhili Hebei was not lacking. Besides the First Division, there were also "suspected armies" (nominal/useless armies) of various Banners and battalions in the capital. In addition, Regent Zaifeng and the Imperial Clan formed a "Royal Guard" imitating the German Imperial Guard model.

To be fair, although the Little German Empire established by diplomat Prime Minister Bismarck claimed to be "founded on military power", what Prussia was actually best at was "disguising itself as a military power". The Royal Guard was less about combat effectiveness and more about forcing those Junker bumpkin aristocrats to accept modern scientific education and discipline compulsorily, so they wouldn't disgrace themselves in future life.

Zaifeng only knew the how but not the why. The Noble Academy (Guizhou Xuetang) petitioned to be established in 1905 was originally intended to cultivate military talents for the Imperial Clan to grasp military power. But those children were mostly good-for-nothings. As mocked in the "Bamboo Branch Lyrics" of the late Qing: "Nowadays nobles are listed in special classes, their homework averages mostly on whoring and gambling; the most amazing thing to pass on is that they can also sing a few military songs". The "Anecdotes of the Qing Palace" also recorded such a farce, saying that the students of the Noble Academy were mostly princes, beiles, or imperial clan children, so the meals in the school were extremely rich and exquisite. Each person had a table, costing seven or eight taels of silver a day. If it didn't suit their taste slightly, these people would throw basins and bowls at the table and scold loudly. Even the superintendents and instructors of the school were treated as slaves, allowed to be yelled at by the A-ge (brother/sir) students, obeying orders blindly. What was even more absurd was that for students to attend class every day, the instructor had to send someone to invite them. Sometimes they had to be invited four or five times before they reluctantly arrived. And when they arrived, it happened to be lunch time, so these people ordered food, wiped their mouths after eating, and swaggered off. There were also those who occasionally came to the lecture hall once; sometimes when the mood struck, they would sing a Beijing opera tune loudly in the classroom. Such shapes were too numerous to mention.

In fact, Zaifeng's three brothers were all students of the Noble Academy, but apart from attending the opening ceremony slightly, when did they really go to the academy for class? The Regent himself was perfunctory; the others could be imagined.

Zaifeng never expected that such a group of bastards would also have a day to go to the battlefield.

The nightmare began in early October. As if popping out of the ground, groups of mounted bandits suddenly looted various Imperial Estates outside Beijing city. The mounted bandits not only looted, but their methods were also extremely bloody. The managers and fellows in the Imperial Estates, anyone sent by the Imperial Clan families, were all beheaded. Since October was a good time for travel and outings, among those visiting the Imperial Estates were quite a few princes, beiles, fujins (consorts), and ge-ges (princesses/ladies) of the Imperial Clan. These Imperial Clan princes and beiles were all beheaded. The fujins and ge-ges vanished without a trace; it seemed they were carried off by the mounted bandits.

What frightened the Imperial Clan most was that it seemed there were characters with "Longyang addiction" (homosexuality) among these mounted bandits. Several pink and tender bodies of princes and beiles had no trousers...

The Shenjiying (Peking Field Force) guarding the capital immediately moved dawdlingly from Wangfujing to the Fengtai Camp. This "suspected army" composed of Bannermen was immediately raided by mounted bandits after entering the Fengtai Camp. The mounted bandits killed into the Fengtai Camp under the cover of night. The Shenjiying, this "suspected army", had no combat experience at all; combat effectiveness was basically negative. Being raided, they had no way to cope, allowing the mounted bandits to chase and chop them down while fleeing for their lives. While creating corpses all over the ground, the mounted bandits also looted the munitions and then set fire to the Fengtai Camp. Residents of the capital saw the flames of the Fengtai Camp burning all night.

At this point, the Beiyang First Division stationed north of Beijing had to commit troops to suppress the bandits. The cavalry battalion chasing the bandits was completely wiped out after being ambushed. Just as the infantry entered the capital, the mounted bandits broke into the First Division barracks north of Beijing, and the fire burned all night again.

Next to suffer was the Cixi mausoleum under construction. They dispersed the craftsmen, massacred the eunuch officials, and burned the timber on the construction site together.

This large group of mounted bandits also understood the importance of intelligence very well. They removed all telegraph lines leading from the capital to various places. Relay stations everywhere were looted, and equipment was swept away. The station houses were burned down. Beijing instantly became blind and deaf.

News of attacks everywhere came continuously through messengers. Regent Zaifeng, having no choice, forced the New Army First Division infantry to attack. Getting news of mounted bandits rampaging from Tongzhou, the New Army First Division attacked helplessly. They were intercepted halfway, and the First Division was almost completely wiped out. Since then, the regular army in Zhili could be said to be gone. After annihilating the Manchu Qing regular army, the mounted bandits immediately scattered to operate in various places.

In the huge Beijing, the almost usable troops at this time were only the police and various "suspected armies" sent to the city walls for defense. But rumors were rife in the capital, three scares a day, no peace for a moment. At this point, Zaifeng remembered the "Noble Academy". No matter what, having these people in command could at least boost morale a bit. But this wishful choice was worse than not choosing it. The personnel arrangement was arranged, but no noble children of the Noble Academy went to take office. Some relatively honest troops even specially sent people to visit and invite them. The result could be imagined. Either these nobles claimed illness and didn't come out, or they simply drove these annoying ghosts guarding the city out of the door. The blow to morale was fatal. The military heart that had already begun to slacken now reached the level of disunity.

The Imperial Clan ministers could talk big on ordinary days; "wiping out enemies while talking and laughing" on paper was fine. Facing such a situation really, every one of them was dumbfounded. Zaifeng knew Yuan Shikai wouldn't be stupid enough to walk into the trap and come to Beijing. In desperation, he conveyed the order to Duan Qirui, who was far away in Zhejiang, to bring the Beiyang Third Division back to Beijing to receive awards. Zaifeng thought this clever plan of killing two birds with one stone had a completely opposite effect, which was not something Zaifeng's IQ could understand.

Zaifeng also thought about asking foreigners for help, but the foreign troops were to protect the legations. When the telegraph was completely interrupted, they naturally couldn't help Zaifeng. Not only did they not help, but the diplomatic corps of various countries questioned Zaifeng about what was going on. Under these internal and external difficulties, Zaifeng just hid in the Prince's Mansion and didn't come out.

A large number of Imperial Clan officials went to Zaifeng's Prince's Mansion asking him for a solution, but they were all shut out. It wasn't until Empress Dowager Longyu sent someone to call Zaifeng that Zaifeng had to enter the palace to report this matter. But what effect could reporting have? Stating the problem realistically didn't mean being able to solve the problem effectively. Empress Dowager Longyu had no other way besides lamenting and crying.

The messenger sent to Shandong for help never returned. The mounted bandits cut off the railway line again. Beijing, the power center of China, became the most unsafe place in China at this time.

The terrible situation finally extended from outside the city to inside the city. Mounted bandits infiltrated the capital. Because the students of the "Noble Academy" refused to serve as commanders of various city gates, and the mounted bandits showed no sign of attacking the city walls, the defense of the capital was actually extremely lax. On October 29, with coordination from inside and outside, the mounted bandits suddenly broke through the Chaoyang Gate of the capital and killed directly into the Prince Yi's Mansion inside Chaoyang Gate.

The ancestor of Prince Yi was the 13th Prince (Yinxiang), brother of Yongzheng, whom many danmei girls never forgot. However, this generation suffered repeated misfortunes. In the Gengzi year (1900), because Pujing indulged the Boxers, the foreign diplomatic corps strongly demanded Pujing's execution. After Pujing died of anxiety, Cixi immediately stripped Pujing of his princely title and bestowed the title on Yuqi, the young son of Pujing's younger brother Puyao. But inheriting the princely title required waiting and seeing, undergoing a "two-year observation and probation period".

Prince Yi's Mansion had originally experienced the looting by the Eight-Nation Alliance troops and suffered severe blows from Cixi, resulting in a slump. However, the mounted bandits weren't trying to beat a drowning dog. "Lax defense, close to the city gate" was the reason for Prince Yi's Mansion's bad luck.

Those who killed into the Prince's Mansion were genuine mounted bandits. Slaughtering princes was really a great pleasure for these people. That night, except for a few good-looking young women who were carried off, everyone else in Prince Yi's Mansion, regardless of gender or age, was beheaded without exception. When a big fire began to burn in Prince Yi's Mansion, the last fig leaf of the Manchu Qing was also torn off. Displayed in front of the capital and the viceroys of the world was the miserable image of the Manchu Qing Die-hard Faction weak enough to be trampled upon by anyone.

The fact that the Manchu Prince Yi was wiped out in the city and female relatives were looted scared all the princes out of their wits. Especially princes with many family members; this terrible ending of extermination made the Prince Gong's family make a foolish move first. They tried to escape from Beijing city and hide in Tianjin where public security was still good. The vanguard of Prince Gong's family moving in disguise was immediately attacked. The whistling mounted bandits threw a string of heads at the Beijing city gate and whistled away. The terrified city gate guards dared to go collect the heads only after a long time. The people of Prince Gong's Mansion always liked to swagger through the streets; the heads with distorted mouths and eyes were immediately recognized.

Prince Gong's family disguised themselves to leave the city; not many people knew this news. Who leaked the news, causing these people not to escape the murderous hands? At this point, the Manchu princes didn't even have the courage to investigate the murderer anymore. Every household gave up hope. The men held weapons to defend their families; the women all carried sharp weapons in their bosoms, ready to commit suicide or destroy their looks when encountering mishaps to avoid humiliation.

In a Mountain God Temple, Pang Zi, as the liaison officer and commander of the "Local Heroes", laughed up to the sky after hearing this news, then fell to the ground and wailed loudly. Eight years, a full eight years. The blood debt owed by the Manchu princes to the heroes of Hebei and Shandong finally began to be repaid a little.

For this military operation, Pang Zi had long made up his mind to kill a batch of Manchu princes ruthlessly for revenge. The People's Party's attitude towards this operation was very ambiguous. The troops of the Shandong Base Area were mostly from grass-roots backgrounds. This bunch of people had grudges with Beiyang more or less. Brothers like Pang Zi who came from the Boxers and participated in the Jing Tingbin and Zhao Sanduo uprisings were not rare. For killing former enemies, these comrades had no psychological burden at all. And Pang Zi summoned many "local heroes" from the Taihang Mountains in Hebei. These people were willing to come down the mountain to do this job for nothing more than "robbing money, robbing grain, robbing women". This destined that this quasi-military operation could absolutely not be a dignified fight like between two armies, with preferential treatment for captives.

Combining various realistic situations, the disciplinary requirement for this operation became "Troops are absolutely not allowed to participate in actions of rape and slaughtering women and children." Troops were not allowed to do so, but it didn't mean forcibly imposing the regulation on the "local heroes". Moreover, requiring genuine bandits to abide by such regulations obviously belonged to the category of not seeking truth from facts. Pang Zi fully utilized this regulation.

Although bandits looked fierce usually, they actually all had a strong inferiority complex. Inflicting violence on people of the Prince's Mansions with "noble status" in society could give their inferior souls great satisfaction. Pang Zi didn't deliberately incite; he just chopped off a few heads as if nothing happened, proving that these killings wouldn't trigger any terrible consequences. The subsequent matters didn't need Pang Zi to instigate anymore. All killings were done personally by the Jianghu heroes. Before starting, Pang Zi would also move the troop comrades away. Listening to the wailing and screaming of those princes, nobles, and running dogs, don't mention how happy Pang Zi was in his heart.

Mounted bandits also had rules. In the team, one could laugh loudly, shout loudly, curse loudly, but crying loudly was not allowed. Heroes generally believed that wailing loudly would bring bad luck. On this issue, the psychological analysis department of the Base Area didn't have such superstitious views at all. The view summarized by the Base Area psychological analysis department according to certain "tentative theories" proposed by Chairman Chen Ke was that sincere crying would bring great emotional release, while the biggest psychological motivation for looters was the high emotional accumulation triggered by "desire". The two were contradictory.

After emotional release, people's attention intensity would decrease, and subjective initiative would decrease. "Details determine success or failure"; lack of concentration would trigger various mistakes, and decreased subjective initiative would trigger being "one step slow" at critical moments. Combining them, the probability of failure increased greatly. Mounted bandits obtained laws over a long time. Lacking a more scientific classification summary theoretical framework, they had to use various "superstitions" to explain, but the specific experience obtained from practice was definitely not superstition.

When discussing these theoretical contents before the action, Pang Zi discovered just after listening for a while that without needing to loot, just studying these "messy" things could make people completely lose the desire and impulse to loot. But now when he wailed loudly with joy, these theories popped out of his mind inexplicably. Since it was weeping for joy, Pang Zi stopped crying very quickly. He wiped his face casually, shouted a throatful, "Eat." Then he went to the fire to fill a bowl of rice and started eating.

This practice was also suggested by the psychological department. The so-called relaxation and tension in degree; to maintain high emotion in the specific execution of looting actions, one should suppress psychological excitement in peacetime instead, just like accumulating floodwater upstream to sweep across the downstream when bursting.

The mounted bandits were all experts of many years. Although they didn't know why Pang Zi changed so fast, since Pang Zi fully restored the "traditional rules", everyone immediately felt reassured and also lowered their heads quietly to start eating together.

The group of mounted bandits Pang Zi was with wasn't large in number, totaling more than fifty people, but they were the bravest gang in the Taihang Mountains. It was they who bloodwashed Prince Yi's Mansion and grabbed quite a lot of things. The reason Pang Zi acted with them was to take revenge on Prince Yi who deceived the Boxer brothers. Back then Prince Yi and Gangyi used all kinds of clever words to trick the brothers into entering Beijing; Pang Zi remembered clearly. Regardless of what end Prince Yi Pujing had, Pang Zi never extinguished this thought of revenge.

Sitting next to Pang Zi was People's Party Political Department cadre Hou Peifeng. His public task was to act with Pang Zi, "avoiding excessive situations and supervising/protecting Pang Zi from making mistakes". Actually, these were all auxiliary tasks. Hou Peifeng's real task was to observe and study the characteristics of mounted bandits, providing effective research for dealing with bandits in the future and large-scale comprehensive bandit suppression in the farther future.

The People's Party wouldn't allow the situation of bandits running rampant to exist for a long time. In a certain period, bandits were unavoidable objects to deal with. Taking advantage of this operation, a considerable number of cadres received such tasks. While eating, Hou Peifeng observed the mounted bandits naturally. This group was different from the intimate organization of the People's Party. From the first day he arrived here, Hou Peifeng felt a feeling of being in a wolf pack. Although all bandits had clear division of labor and good coordination of action, there existed a range of individual territory between everyone. With the increase of looted spoils, this situation of drawing a prison on the ground became more and more obvious. Waiting until returning to the stronghold to share common property vs property that could be directly occupied privately. The relationship between bandits changed constantly with the change of the situation. The words exchanged also changed constantly.

Observing carefully, all these changes were in a dynamic that seemed to follow rules but changed at any time. Hou Peifeng could become a Political Department cadre and had undergone a lot of thinking training. Even so, he still couldn't fully master the characteristics and changes of these bandits in a short time.

After eating, it was the entertainment time for the bandit gang. Fifty-something people drew lots. The bandit leader smiled at Pang Zi: "Great King Pang, since you brought us here, the lot hasn't fallen on you and this brother for several times. I'll make a decision here; you and this brother don't need to draw lots this time."

Pang Zi laughed loudly, "Brothers, I, Pang Zi, am a person who loves vain face. Brothers were willing to come out of the mountain to help; I, Pang Zi, have to let brothers be happy first. Otherwise, if I, Pang Zi, brag about how much I stress loyalty in the future, I will feel guilty myself. Now there are many wolves and less meat; no need to say anything else, draw lots."

Bandits who robbed homes and plundered houses usually lacked women, and had never played with such "high status" women. The Chief inviting "Great King Pang" to share the fujins and ge-ges was mostly polite words originally. Since Pang Zi wanted to be more "presentable", everyone wasn't polite. The draw ended; Pang Zi and Hou Peifeng got their wish and didn't win. The bandits with good luck went to the side room where the fujins and ge-ges were tied up and lined up enthusiastically to vent their beastly desires.

Hou Peifeng knew he couldn't integrate into such a gang no matter what. From the beginning, he didn't say a word, just working honestly. The mounted bandits also treated Hou Peifeng as an honest person. Although they didn't take Hou Peifeng seriously, they didn't make things difficult for him for Pang Zi's sake.

Hou Peifeng knew that after this entertainment ended, the mounted bandits would extinguish the bonfire and enter a quiet time of coexistence of alertness and rest. He took out a small pamphlet and seized the time to start reading by the firelight.

"Thus it can be seen that the first step in the process of cognition is contact with the objects of the external world; this belongs to the stage of perception. The second step is to synthesize the data of perception by arranging and reconstructing them; this belongs to the stage of conception, judgment and inference. It is only when the data of perception are very rich (not fragmentary) and correspond to reality (are not illusory) that they can be the basis for forming correct concepts and theories.

Here two important points must be emphasized. The first, which has been stated before but should be repeated here, is the dependence of rational knowledge upon perceptual knowledge. Anyone who thinks that rational knowledge need not be derived from perceptual knowledge is an idealist. In the history of philosophy there is the 'rationalist' school that admits the reality only of reason and not of experience, believing that reason alone is reliable while perceptual experience is not; this school errs by turning things upside down. The rational is reliable precisely because it has its source in sense perceptions, otherwise it would be water without a source, a tree without roots, subjective, self-engendered and unreliable...

The second point is that knowledge needs to be deepened, that the perceptual stage of knowledge needs to be developed to the rational stage — this is the dialectics of the theory of knowledge. To think that knowledge can stop at the lower, perceptual stage and that perceptual knowledge alone is reliable while rational knowledge is not, would be to repeat the historical error of 'empiricism'. This theory errs in failing to understand that, although the data of perception reflect certain realities in the objective world (I am not speaking here of idealist empiricism which confines experience to so-called introspection), they are merely one-sided and superficial, reflecting things incompletely and not reflecting their essence. ... Respecting experience but despising theory, and therefore unable to have a comprehensive view of an entire objective process, lacking clear direction and long-range perspective, and being complacent over occasional successes and glimpses of the truth. If such persons direct a revolution, they will lead it up a blind alley."

This was Hou Peifeng's favorite "On Practice". No matter how he read this article, it wasn't easy to connect theory with practice, yet he inadvertently generated strong resonance between the lines. Reading "On Practice" while combining the current work of observing bandit characteristics with theory.

Is my perceptual observation insufficient? Or have I fallen into the predicament of "idealist empiricism of introspection"? Various thoughts conflicted repeatedly within the framework of "criticism and self-criticism". Immersed in the learning process, Hou Peifeng simply couldn't hear the strange sounds coming from the queue next door.

Pang Zi was also learning and reflecting. This joint operation was divided into two parts. The regular army, mainly the Shandong Base Area cavalry brigade, with the support of the People's Party Hebei intelligence agency's intelligence network, gave the Manchu Qing regular army a devastating blow. Although not knowing how deep the intelligence agency's infiltration into the Manchu Qing was, accurate and effective intelligence made every military attack a huge success.

Attacks on various manors and princes and nobles were all borne by "Jianghu heroes". The heroes resolutely opposed "showing their faces" when facing "official people", so they held the style of acting of "kill all, loot all".

The large-scale looting operation had reached this time; according to the rules of mounted bandits, everyone should also disband. Thinking of this, Pang Zi couldn't help taking out a piece of paper already worn somewhat damaged from his bosom.

This was a "looting yield curve chart" drawn by Chen Ke, and a "guess theoretical formula" was also listed. Chen Ke had no looting experience, but his university president was a famous mathematician. Although Chen Ke wasn't from the mathematics department, when he was in school, he also pretentiously listened to this old scholar's lecture on "Mathematics and Life" in a large lecture theater packed like sardines.

All students, including Chen Ke, were deeply touched. The praise of this group of laymen, having more emotion than professionalism, was "Mathematics is the dog of this old gentleman's family; it does whatever he tells it to do."

Mathematics is a very magical discipline; it can depict reality without relying on the actual situation at all. Only after engaging in revolution did Chen Ke understand why foreign movies esteemed mathematicians so much. Over-mythologizing mathematics wasn't scientific. But making full use of mathematics was significant.

If not for the fact that these comrades like Pang Zi mostly only mastered quadratic equations in two variables, Chen Ke actually really wanted to use calculus, double integrals, multiple integrals, and higher mathematics methods of finding trends to analyze the optimal choice for looting for them. Looting targets, action routes, transportation difficulty, carrying difficulty; after these basic parameters were determined, mathematical methods could be used completely to arrange the action optimally and reasonably. And the benefit-risk ratio could also be easily calculated quantitatively.

Pang Zi originally treated looting from a practical perspective; those ghost-talisman-like formulas gave him an instinctive resistance. But linking theory with practice was the same for any industry. Patiently listening to a theoretical explanation, Pang Zi suddenly discovered that the principles inside coincided with his long-term practice. The only difference was that the terms used by both sides were different. The practitioner sought the maximum success rate of each action based on experience, while the theorist pointed out the universal situation under the macro situation based on laws.

From unwilling learning at the beginning to spontaneous and active acceptance later. Pang Zi even inferred other things from one instance and understood a sentence in military academy education, "Strategy succeeds because it is correct; tactics are correct because they succeed."

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, it was about to reach the inflection point of looting yield and effort. Proceeding further down, unless expanding the looting range, the yield rate would plummet.

Having such a tool, Pang Zi really wanted to figure out what magical power these simple numbers and images contained, to be able to tell the direction of development before things started. But his little bit of knowledge was simply insufficient to understand such a degree of mathematical problems. This was just like Chen Ke, before learning higher mathematics, completely didn't understand what the significance of drawing coordinate curves was.

After studying for a while, Pang Zi still didn't understand. In boredom, he took a wooden stick with the front end burned into black charcoal and drew the curve chart and several quadratic equations in two variables on the wall. Not long after finishing drawing and looking at it, the queuing activity was finished. Regardless of whether they relaxed or not, the mounted bandits should rest. Everyone lay down within the sphere of influence of their own property and began to rest. No more fuel was added to the fire, and it slowly extinguished.

At dawn, all the mounted bandits got up. Packing up horses and spoils well, they galloped towards the scheduled next gathering place.

Maybe it was these people's luck, or maybe Pang Zi's crying time and intensity last night weren't enough, "insufficient bad luck attracted". More than two hours after they left, a large group of German cavalry came whistling. These were the guards of the legation quarter. The looting and cutting of communications by the mounted bandits finally made the diplomatic corps feel they had to symbolically display their existence.

Anyway, learning through channels provided by the Manchu Qing that a certain group of mounted bandits rested here, the Germans moved out. The commander of this unit was Second Lieutenant Heinz. After cautiously determining that there were no mounted bandits inside the ruined temple, but signs of a large group of people stationed there, Second Lieutenant Heinz dismounted and entered the ruined temple to search.

There were various signs in the empty ruined temple, such as women's underwear in the side room, and some abandoned damaged but quite expensive fabrics. It seemed the mounted bandits indeed rested here, but there was no physical evidence that could clearly prove where they fled. The Second Lieutenant, who originally suspected the inaccuracy of Manchu Qing intelligence, cursed in German and wanted to leave. However, with an inadvertent glance, Heinz stopped his steps.

The Second Lieutenant had mixed in the Royal Guard; he went to China to be a military attaché in the embassy to gild himself. In the juvenile military academy, mathematics was a required course. Seeing the familiar coordinate curve chart on the wall, Second Lieutenant Heinz felt a twitch on his palm. Military academy teachers used corporal punishment on students; Second Lieutenant Heinz was bad at mathematics back then, so he suffered a lot.

Moving closer to look, sure enough, familiar coordinates and equations. Written on the wall with very fresh charcoal; the charcoal stick used for writing still had gray soil rubbed off from the wall.

Raising his head again, Heinz scrutinized this ruined temple carefully. He had a very strange hope, that is, if God could give a clear indication, exactly what kind of group of bandits lived here yesterday! Even in Germany, most people didn't understand this kind of advanced mathematical knowledge!