Shadow Empire

Chapter 1104 Farm
The road leading to Lawrence Farm was quite dilapidated, with grass blades and dried soil brought up by the wind or rain.

All of this tells people that not many people take this path.

The driver, who was driving slowly, looked at the map in his hand. "According to the map, this road should definitely lead to Lawrence Farm, but I don't know why it looks a bit desolate here."

He casually folded the map and tossed it back onto the vehicle's dashboard.

Behind this vehicle was a continuous convoy, including troop carriers and other vehicles that have appeared on the battlefield.

To deal with Lawrence Farm, they gathered five hundred men and crossed the border from Indenau, taking mostly deserted trails.

They heard that the Intercontinental Highway Police would also cooperate with the Lance family's interception efforts, so they avoided the main roads and instead took side roads and even ventured into the wilderness.

They have a lot of vehicles, including high-torque, high-horsepower vehicles like troop carriers, so they aren't worried about any vehicles getting stuck in the rotten soil and being unable to pull them out.

After several days of trekking, we finally brought them into Lawrence Farm.

But the road leading to Lawrence Farm doesn't look like it's frequently used.

The person in the passenger seat shrugged indifferently. "As long as we get to Lawrence Farm in the end, isn't it better that this road is deserted?"

"At least we won't be discovered."

Neither of them said anything more. After driving for several days, the deep exhaustion they felt was beyond what most people could imagine.

During this period, driving might be something that the lower and middle classes in society longed for; they hoped to learn driving skills and own their own car.

Whether you're taking a taxi, looking for a job, or simply driving your family out for a trip, these are all good options.

However, they often lack the capital to own a car. Those cheap used cars are indeed cheap, costing only two or three hundred or five hundred yuan, but the subsequent maintenance costs are not cheap.

Many people can afford to buy a beat-up used car, but they can't afford the ongoing costs.

Therefore, in the eyes of these people, driving should be a fun and desirable thing.

Only true drivers understand how tedious and anxiety-inducing it is to drive long distances, especially on rough roads.

The people in the car could still talk, but now they didn't want to say anything; they just wanted to know how much longer it would take to get to Lawrence Farm.

The grass and grass clippings on the ground were swept up by the wind from the whistling tires and quickly scattered on the surrounding roads. The moment a road sign pointing to Lawrence Farm appeared, everyone's anxiety was greatly relieved.

"Twenty kilometers to go, damn it!"

The driver of the lead car punched the steering wheel, accidentally triggering the car's horn—he was driving the latest model, which had eliminated the separate horn and integrated it into the steering wheel.

This car is worth more than five thousand yuan, and even though people's incomes have increased a lot, it is still an unattainable dream for ordinary people.

The honking of the first car seemed to have provoked the drivers behind, who all started honking their horns, and for a moment the entire road was filled with the sound of car horns.

"Won't it be too noisy?"

In a car in the middle of the convoy, a captain looked through the rearview mirror at the senior officers sitting in the back seat. This time, they had brought three senior officers, specifically to deliver a heavy blow to Lance.

The senior official also saw the signpost, and his negative emotions lessened considerably, so he didn't think there was anything wrong with it.

"We'll make them stop later. We've been rushing around, and the guys need to vent their emotions."

The captain didn't say anything more. The officers had already said so, and he still insisted on his point of view, which was a form of resistance.

Actually, he didn't need to say anything. After a while, the horn stopped on its own, and the people who had been somewhat listless became enthusiastic and lively again.

Unbeknownst to them, hidden in the distance in the wilderness, there was a wooden platform, its color matching the surrounding trees, and two cowboys were observing them with binoculars.

"Is it them?" one of the cowboys, chewing on a blade of grass, asked.

Another cowboy answered with a more certain tone, "Probably."

The first man to speak put down his binoculars and picked up the phone beside him—a dedicated line that connected directly to Lawrence Farm but wasn't connected to the public telephone network.

All it takes is a telephone line and a wire that can provide a small amount of power to make it work.

This kind of "internal wiring" is very common in the federal government; many large farms have this design.

On the one hand, they need cowboys to monitor the movements of wild animals. Some areas have unique wild animals that can cause great damage to crops, so they need to keep an eye on them.

Of course, there are other reasons as well. Before the crops are harvested, it is necessary to ensure that no one steals or robs the crops, so a watchtower is set up and a telephone line is installed.

Lawrence Farm soon received the news, and Schubert had already changed into the clothes he wore in his youth—

A calfskin vest that was stiff enough to be used as armor, a pair of riding breeches that had turned pink, and riding boots with spurs.

Of course, most importantly, he also had his cowboy hat and two ivory-handled revolvers.

"Damn it, no one told me these clothes were so hard to wear!" He stood in front of the mirror, looking at himself as a clown, and angrily took off all the clothes.

His two brothers kept calming him down, saying, "You have to learn to let the young people on the farm handle these things, let the young people in the family handle them."

“You can’t live forever, brother. Maybe today, maybe tomorrow, maybe at some point when we’re not even ready, we’ll suddenly leave this world.”

"The world won't stop turning just because you're gone; it will continue to turn, and those who are alive will continue to turn."

"So you have to learn to let go."

"This is a good opportunity to train the lads and let them know that Lawrence Farm is not some small farm. At its peak, we had several thousand slaves!"

Schubert listened to his brother's words and finally reluctantly took off his hat, scratching his thinning hair. "You're right, it's time for the children to grow up."

The three reached an agreement, handed the matter over to the younger members of the family, and then sat down in a rocking chair outside the farmhouse.

Holding a pipe, he swayed as he gazed at the distant sky.

"The weather's nice today," the old man sitting in the middle said after taking a couple of puffs of his cigarette.

His buddy on the left curled his lip. "You don't have to make small talk." "Fuck, bro."

"Faktu!"

The elderly people relieved their tension and anxiety in their own way, and the atmosphere at the farm was indeed a little heavy, but only a little.

They weren't worried about losing the battle because they had the strongest cowboys in Licarle and the men of Lance.

They have advanced weaponry, they detect the enemy's movements earlier than the enemy, and they have a 100% advantage.

Their concern is whether the farm will have to pay a price to deal with these people, and whether that price will exceed their expectations.

Fighting can kill people, just like when we dealt with those slaves in the past.

When they are chained around their necks, hands, and feet, they become as docile as the softest cats. Even if you kick them, they will show their white teeth and display their most beautiful smile.

But once these constraints are gone and they escape, they become dangerous prey. They will not only kill cowboys and slave hunters, but may also seek revenge.

The bloody battles between slave owners and slaves taught them the cruelty of war. These were people they had watched grow up, and they hoped they would grow, but they also didn't want too many of them to disappear.

A few minutes later, a cowboy, looking excited, rode his horse into the farm. He looked at the three old men under the eaves, and even though he didn't say anything, the three old men knew that they had exchanged fire.

No gunshots were heard; the location was a bit far from the point of fire, so the gunshots couldn't travel that far.

At this time, the farm didn't actually have much protective power, but although it wasn't much, it was definitely not weak.

The three old men stopped smoking their pipes and instead looked together at the distant sky.

They can't see anything, yet it's as if they can see something.

Those intense gunshots, the occasional shocking flashes of bright red in the gloomy world, and the lives lost one by one.

"Fake!"

"Fake!!"

The Perez family was attacked a little over two kilometers from Lawrence Farm.

Suddenly, someone opened fire on them from the tall farmland. Bullets rained down like a storm, hitting the unprepared drivers and causing chaos as vehicles on the road were jostled together.

The high-ranking official, who had already climbed out of the car, wiped the blood from his head. The bright red color filled him with a sense of fear.

He hadn't been injured for many years, but this time he was injured again.

He didn't know if it was caused by a car crash or if a bullet had grazed his scalp.

All he knew was that he was injured.

He hid in a small space where vehicles would leave some space between them after a collision, which gave him a greater sense of security.

This was not quite in line with their plan, which was to catch the Lawrence family off guard, burn down their distillery and warehouses, burn down their crops, and then leave.

Instead of being attacked before even seeing the farm.

How many of them are there?

"Why are the gunshots so frequent!" The senior officer was already feeling scared. He grabbed the captain next to him and shook him hard.

The other person ignored him, which made him feel angry at someone he knew in a frightened environment.

This kind of anger is common; people seek to gain dominance from those weaker than themselves to alleviate their fears.

But after shaking the other person twice and letting go, his captain suddenly collapsed to the ground with a thud.

Only then did he notice that there was a cut on the back of the other person's head, from which blood and some human tissue were constantly flowing out.

He jerked his hand back as if he were startled, and even his curse "Fuck!" was trembling!

A failed attack!

Just as he was considering how to deal with it, the sudden explosion and screams made his eyes widen in shock!

A shrapnel pierced through both doors of the car in front of him and landed less than half a meter away.

The hole in the car door gave him a chill that went straight to the depths of his soul!

Then, another explosion rang out, followed by the sound of his men shouting in a somewhat hysterical voice, "These people are insane!"

"They actually used explosives!"

"Explosives?" The senior officer shuddered. He raised his hand and fired a few shots around him, then thought of crawling to the back of the convoy.

There are more people behind here, so it should be safer than here.

He hadn't expected these people to be so crazy, but then again, if you removed the people from Lawrence's Farm, this area would be no different from a no-man's-land.

There wasn't a soul in sight for dozens or even hundreds of kilometers around, not a single village or train station. Let alone using explosives, it wouldn't matter if they came in with several tanks; no one would know anyway.

This was an unequal battle. In places unseen by those people, the cowboys skillfully raised their guns, fired, and then moved on to another location.

Behind the swaying crops, some taller than a person, and behind the dense foliage, you can see their figures.

For a moment, even the Perez family members didn't know where to shoot!
Hand grenades, incendiary bombs, and explosive charges—things that shouldn't be in a ranch cowboy convoy—were thrown out as if they were free. The men at the back of the convoy tried to leave, but it was too late.

There's no way to turn around on such a narrow road. Once the car leaves the road, the ground on both sides is soft, and it will sink in after only a few meters.

Some taxis were able to get going, but these taxis were bigger targets. The drivers might not have driven far before they saw the driver's side window shatter and then be stained with blood.

Time passed slowly, but for those engaged in battle, it might only be a moment.

The effects of adrenaline and other hormones made people lose track of time, and almost an hour passed by the time the last gunshot rang out!
　I have a bit of a cold and fever, and my eye sockets hurt. Damn it!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)