Paris, Latin Quarter.

A car stopped at the door of the German delegation, and at the same time as a German official got out of the car, a man in a trench coat came out from behind him, raised his gun and fired several bullets, which instantly exploded the German's head, splashed blood in five steps, and the body was on the spot......

Gunshots echoed along the Seine, and pedestrians were in confusion. Qi Yuanshan protected Qin Beiyang and retreated to Shakespeare & Company. There were police officers on both sides of the street, and the Assassins had to storm the bookstore.

Qin Beiyang grabbed a thick dictionary and smashed it directly into the assassin's head, smashing him to the ground. The Assassin was a pale-skinned European who was about to shoot with his gun. A bookstore customer stepped on his wrist and the pistol fell. The police burst into the bookstore and arrested the assassin on the spot.

A young man came out of the German delegation, about the same age as Qin Beiyang, tall and slender, full of blond hair, and a standard Germanic appearance. On behalf of the German government, he thanked the two citizens who had assisted the police in apprehending the assassins. However, neither of them was French, one was Qin Beiyang from China, and the other was John Maynard Keynes, the chief representative of the British Treasury, who stomped on the Assassin's wrist and saved Qin Beiyang's life.

What surprised the German diplomats even more was that the young Chinese in Shakespeare's bookstore were able to speak German fluently.

"Where did you learn German?"

"Tianjin, German Concession, German School."

"Wilhelm II Elementary School?" The German young man's eyes lit up and he looked Qin Beiyang up and down, "I also graduated from that elementary school, my name is Herman, what's your name?" ”

"Herman? I'm Matthias! Qin Beiyang will not forget his German name, "I remember you!" We were classmates and often played chess together. ”

"Oh my God, you're Matthias! I remember that you always won my chess. ”

Herman warmly embraced Qin Beiyang, and after ten years of not seeing him, the little boy with a runny nose has grown into a young man in the wind of Yushu.

The entire street had been cordoned off, and Sergeant Xavier of the Paris police station arrived. The old sheriff of the 19th century approached the captured Assassin with a grim face. Ten minutes earlier, the assassin had shot and killed a senior German diplomat. From his body, the police found a metal plate in the shape of a pentagram engraved with the letters "Assassins".

"It's Assassins again!" Sergeant Xavier slapped the assassin in a fit of rage, "Tell me, where is your convention?" ”

Blood flowed from the corners of the Assassin's mouth, and he trembled and said in French: "Poland is not perishing!" ”

Then, the assassin was already convulsing, and no matter how much the police tried to save him, he still died with a bruised face.

He wasn't slapped to death by Sheriff Xavier. The sheriff slit open the assassin's mouth with a knife, revealing the remains of a capsule between his teeth.

"Cyanide."

Without the need for a laboratory test, Sergeant Xavier had concluded that the assassin had committed suicide by biting through the poison hidden in his teeth.

Qin Beiyang in Shakespeare's bookstore saw it clearly, and he asked Herman in a low voice: "The assassin is Polish?" ”

"Newly independent Poland, demanding more German land. The Polish national anthem is called "Poland Has Not Perished" because the country has always been destroyed by its strong neighbors. Hermann spoke in a contemptuous tone, "There have been threats to assassinate us a long time ago, and this time in Paris, every German diplomat is ready to die." ”

Herman invited Qin Beiyang, Qi Yuanshan and the Englishman Keynes to have a drink at the tavern next door. Keynes was happily invited, Qi Yuanshan was worried about Qin Beiyang's body, he smiled and said: "Life must be happy, don't make the gold bottle empty to the moon." Death is death, what's so terrible? ”

Hermann Müller was born in Tianjin. At the age of sixteen, the Beiyang government declared war on Germany, and Müller witnessed the occupation of the German concession by Chinese troops. After the defeat of Germany, he returned to Berlin with his family and joined the Foreign Office. He was not eligible to attend the Paris Peace Conference, but many diplomats fled, fearing that the humiliating Treaty of Versailles would be signed and that they would be killed by the people when they returned to Germany, so Hermann took the last train to Paris.

Qi Yuanshan took the lead and said: "Last night, Inspector Ye Kenan told me that the Assassins and Assassins Team that has been active in Paris recently is preparing for the Assassins League Conference. ”

"The Assassins' League?"

"Well, the five-pointed star plate with the word 'Assassins' on the body of the Polish Assassins that the police found today is a token of participation in the League of Assassins' conference. And his assassination of German diplomats is probably a vote for participation in the congress. ”

Qin Beiyang translated what Qi Yuanshan said into German, and Keynes, an economist at Cambridge University, basically understood, and the Englishman picked up the conversation and said in stammering German: "On the 4th of May, I was playing chess with Sir Jonathan of the Colonial Office at the British Mission's residence, when suddenly his head fell off. An Arab assassin who cut off his head with a Damascus scimitar. The Assassins also carved a line into the wall - Assassins. ”

"What do you mean?"

"The Sect of Assassins in the Middle Ages, the King of Assassins today." Keynes was not only an economist, but also a scholar of history, saying, "It's lucky to survive!" I am no longer a member of the British delegation. I have tendered my resignation to Prime Minister Lloyd-George and am here today to visit the newly opened Shakespeare & Company. I cannot accept the revanchism of Britain and France, which is short-sighted to the detriment of others and not to ourselves. ”

Herman gave a thumbs up: "Mr. Keynes, if the British had your brains, maybe this world war would not have broken out." ”

"No, war is inevitable, the population of Europe is growing, and the accumulation of wealth is slow. It seems to me that the great war begins with want, but should not end with plunder. We should build a new Europe from the ruins, not the jungle. It is said that we will receive reparations from Germany, like squeezing lemons until the lemon seeds squeak - what greed, vile and stupidity! ”

"Yes, the Allies offered war reparations worth $40 billion, which is three times Germany's pre-war national income. After ceding a tenth of its land and population, and two million men killed, Germany was simply unable to repay. ”

Hermann Müller gulped down and almost slapped the table. Keynes nodded and said, "I am the head of the financial delegation of the Entente powers, and Prime Minister Lloyd-George privately agrees with me and submits my report to US President Wilson, but these politicians cannot resist greed." I'd better go back to my beloved Cambridge. ”

"The culprits are still the French! They were bent on dismembering Germany and never turning over and allowing France to dominate the continent, but this did not fit Britain's balancing strategy. When France suffered a crushing defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, Wilhelm I was crowned Emperor of the German Empire at Versailles, and this time he chose to hold a convention in the same place, just to humiliate Germany and swear that France had succeeded in avenging his revenge. ”

"Great interest was in weakening the German navy, and yesterday news came from Scapa Bay that the captured German High Seas Fleet, all of which had sunk to the bottom of the sea, including ten battleships and five battlecruisers."

Hermann had bottomed out the glass: "It was a glorious and tragic moment for Germany. ”

In the tavern in the Latin Quarter, Qin Beiyang raised his glass: "Everyone, let's discuss China!" Tomorrow, the Treaty of Versailles will be signed, and the Big Three will transfer Germany's rights and interests in Shandong Province to Japan. ”

"You can choose not to sign!" Herman slyly toasted to Qin Beiyang, "Matthias, you can sign a separate contract with Germany afterwards, and you can take back Shandong justifiably." At the beginning, these rights and interests, including the leased land in Jiaozhou Bay, were all taken by Germany from the Qing Dynasty government, and now Germany is returning them to China with his own hands, why should it go through the permission of the foreign powers and Japan? ”