In the eighth year of the Republic of China, June 28, 1919, just after midnight.

The Hall of Mirrors of the Palace of Versailles, the most extravagant and splendid part of the palace, is 76 meters long, 10 meters wide and 13 meters high. The walls are inlaid with 17 large mirrors with 483 lenses, reflecting the magnificent dome frescoes and facing 17 floor-to-ceiling windows. The Hall of Mirrors is a treasure of France and the hall where Louis XIV, Louis XV and Louis XVI received foreign envoys, and Marie Antoinette, the beheaded queen, was its last owner.

On the floor of the Hall of Mirrors, a carpet-like map of the world is laid. Three old men sit on a map, using three 2B pencils, to sketch the map of the future nation-states.

"Honorable Prime Minister Lloyd-Georges, President Wilson, in ten hours' time, in this great Hall of Mirrors, the signing ceremony of the Treaty of Versailles will take place, and it will be a just trial!"

French Prime Minister Clemenceau spoke a string of English. He hadn't closed his eyes for days, and he was so tired that he lay down on the map, looking up at the huge crystal chandelier. In the depths of the dome mural, there were several pairs of dark eyes peeping at him.

Although, Clemenceau was nicknamed "The Tiger", there were also those who felt that he looked like a ghost. He is a man of few words, often closes his eyes when others are discussing, clasps his gray-gloved hands, and utters a few short English phrases harshly, cynically cunning or stubbornness. This is Keynes's observation that he had illusions about France, but he had lost all illusions about humanity. All the memories and imaginations of this old man remain in the past, not in the future.

"Please be merciful to Germany, its territory must be broken up, its resources destroyed. It is far better to force the Germans to accept the conditions than to bargain with them! Clemenceau still spoke at length in front of the two "allies", "France paid a terrible price for the war, five million military and civilian casualties!" The vast majority of the Western Front was in France, and we had to get adequate reparations. In order to punish the initiators of the war, the German emperor, who had abdicated, should even be executed in public! ”

Someone else wants to "kill the emperor's head". British Prime Minister Lloyd-George could not listen anymore: "Your Excellency, you must take into account that the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland is, after all, a monarchy, our King George V and the German Emperor Wilhelm II are cousins, and the king does not want to repeat the tragedy of another cousin, the last Tsar Nicholas II. ”

"Your Excellency, I apologize to you."

"Please understand Britain's traditional national policy - the balancing strategy of the European continent, we do not want to break the balance of power on the European continent, and we cannot go too far with Germany."

Clemenceau was silent for a long time, stroked his white beard and said: "Let's make a bold assumption, if the European continent is united into a unified country in the future, will Britain join?" ”

"Unless the British Empire weakens to some terrible point, may this day never come."

"Once you join the Union countries of the European continent, will you withdraw for some reason? I didn't say the end of the world. ”

"Unless racial purity in Britain is threatened, may this day never come."

"The three of us can't see it anyway. But you will eventually go back to the old ways, and you will remain honorably independent and separate from the European family. Clemenceau thought he was dreaming, "Probably the twenty-first century, unless the damned Germany is expelled from Europe." ”

"Your Excellency, no kidding, Britain and France have huge overseas colonies, and neither of us is in favor of national self-determination."

Hearing this, Clemenceau was flushed, and he almost raised his glass: "Yes, people of color cannot govern themselves, and they must be governed by Europeans who are more intellectually and morally better." ”

"So, for a time, we were against the creation of the League of Nations." Lloyd-George turned to U.S. President Wilson, who had been silent, and said, "I'm sorry, Your Excellency. ”

"But I still have to thank Your Excellency the Prime Minister and Your Excellency the Prime Minister that the League of Nations was formed. This is the core of my 14-point proposition, and it is also the basis for the United States to participate in the war. I have been overcoming the isolationism that prevails in the United States, hoping to draw the United States into the world, but also with the support of my British and French friends. During the negotiation process of the Paris Peace Conference, the three of us quarreled countless times, and sometimes even wanted to break up unhappily. ”

Thomas Woodrow Wilson, two-time president of the United States, was a dignified, strong-willed, and recognized idealist. He did speak to the people of China and the colonies: "We cannot give the world the impression that the great powers first carved up the areas of the world that they were powerless to defend themselves, and then they created the League of Nations." ”

"Thank God for the three of us standing together and for the three great nations to stand together!"

Lloyd-George held Clemenceau's and Wilson's hands at the same time. The British prime minister, who was originally a lawyer, was well versed in the art of combining vertical and horizontal, and suddenly joined forces with the United States to make laws, and suddenly joined forces with laws and regulations to make United States, which benefited the British Empire a lot.

"The two Excellencies, all the nations participating in the Paris Peace Conference, have agreed to sign – with the exception of China, which also wants to seek to add a declaration on the Shandong question to the treaty. So at tomorrow's signing ceremony, will the Chinese come? ”

Thanks to President Wilson's thought of China, Lloyd-George stepped on the "Republic of China" on the world map and said lightly: "I bet!" With what I know about the Chinese, they will definitely come! They aspired to sign as a victorious power, because China had never been a victorious country since the Sino-British War of 1840! ”

"Makes sense!"

Clemenceau and Lloyd-George smiled at each other, and they really opened a bottle of red wine and clinked glasses with great interest, like an Anglo-French army burning the Old Summer Palace in front of Jiazi, and the Eight-Nation Alliance army that entered Beijing nineteen years ago.

"Wait!" President Wilson furrowed his eyebrows and pointed to the top of his head, "Looks like someone is talking?" It seems to be still German? ”

Qin Beiyang, who was hiding behind the frescoes of the dome, heard Clemenceau and Lloyd-George's insult to China, and couldn't help but burst into a foul German language: "Arschloch!" ”

Clemenceau, who had drunk red wine, smiled and said, "Why didn't I hear that? Your Excellency, are you worried about assassins? Rest assured, it's the eve of the closing of the peace conference, and the Palace of Versailles is absolutely safe. ”

US President Wilson refused the wine: "I have heard that there has been a rampant assassination in Paris recently, and this afternoon a high-ranking German diplomat was assassinated, the assassin was a Polish nationalist. ”

"What Poles? Yugoslavs? Arab? North Korean? Chinese? Clemenceau circled the above countries on the map in turn, "Actually, they were all sent by the Germans, and these scoundrels were only trying to obstruct the justice of justice." ”

"They shot their own diplomats?"

"Bitter Meat Trick."

Chancellor Clemenceau raised his glass, completely forgetting that the assassin who fired eight bullets at him a few months earlier was the Frenchman himself. One of the bullets will be embedded near his heart for the rest of his life.

At this moment, another pistol bullet, shot from the fresco of the dome of the Hall of Mirrors, swirled and rushed towards the forehead of the French Prime Minister.

At the same time as the gunshots rang out, a deafening explosion was heard outside the window, and the entire Palace of Versailles trembled violently, and the bullet flew past Clemenceau's scalp.