They bear a great responsibility who wage war with such instrnments. Yet of the many thousands of men, almost entirely without officers, largely unfed, shoeless, footsore and often drenched, who had retreated along the railway, this was the only instance I knew of where Chang Tso-lin's troops had run amok. In a fow cases closed food shops had been looted by hungry men and the fear of God put into extortionate hawkers, but to such much should be forgiven and in some cases they had gone four days unfed. Taken all in all, the behaviour of Chang's men in retreat was beyond all praise. "Men" is said advisedly, because at this stage Chang's troops had lost all cohesion and organization. With the exception of one fine old Manchu colonel of over 50, who after a march of 100 miles marched his decimated command into the cars employed collect stragglers, the retreat was a disorganized flight of infantry with mud-clogged rifles, dismounted cavalry—the horses had been traded in many cases—and gunless artilleryman. The only unit not observed was the medical corps, which after investigation proved to be practically non-existent at this time, if it ever existed in adequate numbers at all.
A day or two later I had occasion to visit the head-quarters of the beaten armies at a wayside station. Happily Chinese war etiquette forbids the too close pursuit or undue harassing of a beaten foe. Time is given for the creation of a loophole through which the vanquished may escape with a semblance of pride. The platforms were crowded with bodyguards and machine-gunners who lolled over guns which seemed so placed as effectually to blanket each other's fire. The air echoed with ceremonial commands and one guard or another was always presenting arms to some silk robed gentleman who looked anything but a soldier. Such a one' was General Wang, Quartermaster-General of the Fengtien troops—a scented Chinese dandy in a lovely robe of Cambridge blue brocade, with tiny silk slippered feet encased in socks of a darker shade of blue. This exquisite, complete with" Homburg hat and gold topped
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.