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Returning to Paris from the Schneider family's castle, Garian did not follow the Chancellor of the Exchequer, but took the train alone to his destination in Paris.

Garion sat alone on the train, looking out the window at the scenery that flew by, with lush birch trees lining the tracks, and in the distance waves of turquoise wheat that rose and fell in the wind, and occasionally saw a farmer driving a wagon waving his whip and driving his horse through the purple and red on either side.

It was the late spring of 1865, the Civil War had just ended, and Garion enjoyed a rare moment of tranquility, only to be interrupted by exclamations from beside him.

"U.S. President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated at the Opera, oh my!"

A hoarse exclamation from Garion's side caught the attention of the passengers around him, and the man in the black top hat lifted the brim slightly to look at him, then lowered his head again, closed his eyes slightly, and ignored him.

"Why would a hero die like this!"

Garion, however, paid attention to the agitated young man, who had piercing eyes and a beard that covered his lips. And the first thing Garion noticed was his slender fingers and straight coat, which could be guessed that his identity was expensive, at least several levels different from the pantsless men.

"There's no why."

Garion turned his head and said to the yelling young man, "This seems to be an inevitable outcome of chance, and Lincoln will have to pay for his actions." ”

"The price?"

The young man, apparently unimpressed by Garion's answer, asked, "But this is a true hero of the emancipated slaves!" You can't humiliate a hero! Don't you French all worship the true liberators? ”

"Heroes?"

Garion looked at the innocent young man in front of him, and although he couldn't bear it, he patiently explained to him,

"Let me explain to you that in the United States, the Southern plantation economy model is able to provide very limited jobs, far less than factories. So the northern states quickly outnumbered the southern states in population. And as the U.S. expanded, new states kept popping up. At this time, the transoceanic slave trade was in decline, and in the United States, new slaves could only be born from the original slaves, so the origin of slaves became a problem. Naturally, the new states followed the same path of industrialization as the original northern states. At this time, a serious problem arises, and that is the question of tariffs, which in the case of the Civil War is a hundred times more serious than slavery! ”

"Tariffs?"

Young people who have been indoctrinated with music, the arts, and the judiciary are at a loss when it comes to political issues.

Surrounded only by the voices of Galian and the young man, Garion continued, "You listen to me, the economic model of the southern states is this, they export plantation products to Europe - cotton, sugar, etc., and then buy all kinds of industrial goods from Europe. And the colonies controlled by the European countries themselves can produce these, so why should the Europeans buy American cotton instead of their own colonies in North Africa and even India? Why allow American cotton to enter the European market with extremely low tariffs? The answer is that the United States also has very low tariffs on European industrial imports. ”

"Such a model is extremely unfavorable for the North. With the expansion of the United States, the infrastructure construction of the United States has set off a climax again and again, the most representative of which is the railroad, its development is almost explosive. It stands to reason that the explosive development of railroads is a boon to the steel industry, but at the same time as the great development of American railroads, the American steel industry has almost stood still, because the market is full of cheap European steel. North America is full of terra nullius, and if immigrants are really tired of working in factories for three years, everyone will run to the wilderness to be Robinson. So the cost of wages in factories in North America is much higher than in Europe. Even when European shipping costs are taken into account, the competitiveness of European industrial goods is still overwhelmingly superior to that of domestic American products. At this time, the only thing that can protect the northern industry is tariffs. But once the tariffs are raised, in response, Europe will naturally raise tariffs on cotton from the United States and the like, and then the cotton from the south of the United States will be uncompetitive in Europe. The South is going bankrupt. However, if the tariffs are not raised, those factories in the northern United States will never be able to really develop, and will always be able to make some leftovers, and even with the development of shipping technology and the decline of shipping costs, one day, they will not be able to do leftovers. In this sense, the contradiction between the South, as an economic vassal of the European colonizers, and the North, which pursued an independent economic status, was irreconcilable. ”

"For the South, fortunately, the presidency has always been in the hands of the South, so many bills to adjust tariffs were finally clicked by the president until Lincoln came to power. In fact, Lincoln was quite cautious about the abolition of slavery when he came to power, and did not even announce the abolition of slavery long after the war began. What was the move that really angered the South and made them choose independence? Adjusting tariffs, of course. As soon as Lincoln came to power, the first thing he did was to approve the plan to increase tariffs proposed by both chambers, which were already controlled by the North. That's what led to the war. Although Lincoln had previously given assurances that "there was no plan to abolish slavery" in order to avoid war—those things could be compromised, but on the issue of tariffs, the North would never compromise. ”

"Do you understand?"

Gallian finally concluded, "Lincoln, the 'hero', how can he have such a good heart, everything is just a politician's whitewash." ”

After listening to Garion's explanation, the young man fell silent, as if the Civil War he had known before, the emancipation of humanity and the emancipation of black slaves, was nothing more than an upright excuse for a dirtier struggle.

Garion patted the young man on the shoulder and comforted, "Young man, this is politics, don't use your concept of good and evil to figure out politics, you can't understand it." ”

"What's your name?"

After a long silence, the young man opened his mouth and asked Garion, "I want to know your name." ”

Many years later, Tchaikovsky recalled the scene of his first meeting of Galion in France, and he was like a smiling demon, destroying the world he knew, as if there was an evil, indescribable terror that completely replaced the only bit of truth, goodness and beauty in his heart.

Later, in his memoirs, he also admitted this.

"The tragedies I have written, "Eugene Onegin" and "The Queen of Spades", are all thanks to His Excellency Galion."

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