On Monday night, ICQ officially announced that it had received a $20 million investment from Sequoia Capital, which completely detonated Silicon Valley and Wall Street.

Journalists flocked to interview the three founders of ICQ. Viggs and the other three have become hot technology upstarts in the United States.

Of course, there are more reporters to interview Zhang Chen, but Zhang Chen no longer needs more exposure. As an investor, it is smartest to hide yourself behind the scenes at the right time. Therefore, he was only interviewed by the San Francisco Chronicle and CNN, after all, Shen Mingjie and Roger Barros had both helped him.

Zhang Chen made a special call to Steve Keys and asked him what he meant by introducing himself to the Thirteen Knights that day.

Keith's answer was vague, but from the words, Zhang Chen also got a lot of information.

The Thirteen Knights, originally originated in the Netherlands and the two East India Companies of Britain. In the late 16th and early 17th centuries, Dutch merchants and aristocrats, with a total of 14 shareholders, were the first to establish the Dutch East India Company, and soon monopolized the spice trade from Southeast Asia to Europe.

At the beginning of the 17th century, the British were so impressed by the wealth of maritime trade that on the last day of 1600 that Elizabeth I issued the world's first privateering license and established the British East India Company to compete with the Dutch for the golden route from Southeast Asia to Europe.

After three spice wars, the British finally defeated the Dutch and completely monopolized the entire spice market. At the same time, the British, not content with only the spice trade, conquered India by force. The then Anglo-Indian Governor Wellesley was worried that he would not be able to lose his tail, so he was transferred back to China.

At a time when the British Empire had just lost a war in North America, the United States had succeeded in gaining independence from the British Empire. For the British, the conquest of India was supposed to be a shot in the arm. But Wellesley was treated so unfairly, so Wellesley, who was transferred back to his homeland, on the one hand, kept his head in obscurity, and on the other hand, he secretly cultivated his own power, because his experience in India made him understand that only the strength in his hands is the real strength. But George III was too defensive against him, so many actions could only be carried out in secret.

Through the vast wealth he had amassed in India, Wellesley had secretly secured thirteen agents on the Continent and in North America, including Meyer Rothschild, a Jewish businessman who had already made a name for himself at the time, and James Monroe, the American minister to Britain at the time.

Under Wellesley's secret scheme, Meyer became the richest man in the world at that time through the Anglo-French War, and Monroe became the president of the United States more than a decade later. The other eleven people have also become important figures in the field of politics and business.

While Wellesley was complacent that he had become the uncrowned king of the entire world, the thirteen agents he had cultivated were increasingly dissatisfied with his control. Thus, during a secret society activity, Wellesley was secretly assassinated. And his vast wealth was also divided by these thirteen agents in a weighted manner.

After Wellesley's death, the Thirteen Agents unanimously agreed to form a secret organization, the original purpose of which was to ensure the best interests of each member of the organization as much as possible through association, and this secret organization was the Thirteen Knights.

The first to betray the Order was Monroe. Monroe was a patriot, and in the early days of his presidency, he was pressured by Wellesley to do what he said. After Wellesley's death, Monroe thought he would be free from anyone, but the birth of the Thirteen Knights shattered his wish.

The Thirteen Knights adopt the form of a round table, although a knight chief is set, but the knight chief usually has no voting rights, but in the case of the remaining 12 people in the voting of major opinions 6-6, the knight chief can exercise his final decision.

After the Thirteen Knights voted, a large amount of wealth poured into the United States, which required Monroe's cooperation and the hope that the United States would actively participate in the colonial war to divide the world's wealth. Monroe, on the other hand, was extremely resistant to this, and despite all opposition, he issued the famous Monroe Declaration with one year left in his second presidential term, which led the United States into isolationism.

Monroe's betrayal almost dealt a fatal blow to the newly established Thirteen Knights. Therefore, the Thirteen Knights also launched a crazy revenge on Monroe, and in the end, Monroe, as the president of the United States, was homeless and died of poverty after leaving office.

After two hundred years of evolution, the members of it are constantly changing, and there are only 3 original families left at the beginning of the Knights' establishment, and the rest have disappeared in the long river of history. In particular, the two world wars of World War I and World War II led to the rise of some new families, and some old families were excluded from the ranks. The organization of the Thirteen Knights has been passed down from generation to generation, and has gradually formed its own purpose.

The purpose of the Thirteen Knights is to maintain the dominance of the Western world over the world economy and use economic means to conquer the world.

Although the dream of conquering the world is cheesy, it is one of the ultimate dreams of mankind. Not everyone is equipped with this dream, and the Thirteen Knights undoubtedly have this qualification.

The current rotating chief of the knights is Steven Rockefeller II of the Rockefeller family, and he is also the fifth generation of the Rockefeller family.

Every two years, the Thirteen Knights convene a secret meeting at the agent level, and every year, an enlarged meeting of the lower deacon-level is held, and the topic of the meeting is mainly to recruit new blood into the organization.

In fact, since the Cold War, the Thirteen Knights have been semi-public. Any secret organization has only two names: first, if it succeeds, it gradually moves from the stage to the stage, and second, if it fails, it may remain a secret forever. Therefore, with the end of the Cold War and the great victory of the Western capitalist forces, most people in high society have heard the rumors of the Thirteen Horsemen to a greater or lesser extent, except for the general public.

What Keith introduced Zhang Chen to attend was the enlarged meeting of the Thirteen Knights Deacon.

Keith's own status in the organization is about the rank of deacon, so he has the power to introduce a new blood to the organization every two years as a trainee attendant.

Squire, deacon, agent, knight, this is the internal rank of the Thirteen Knights.

The reason why Keith planned to recruit Zhang Chen into the organization was because the Huaxia Continent had a limited degree of openness before, and the organization did not have a very good effect after supporting several forces.

However, with the further opening up of China, everyone realizes that this will be the largest market in the world in the future, so the organization must increase the development of the Chinese market, so the new blood in recent years has also begun to recruit members of Chinese descent.