Reborn in 1878: America's Number One Bandit

Chapter 75 Will the robbers come tonight or not?
Marin County Government, Operations Room.

Lieutenant Buck was carefully placing Cross's head into a glass jar filled with preservative solution.

The door to the operations room was pushed open, and Thorne and Kane walked in with grim faces.

"Lieutenant."

Kane slammed the same newspaper on the table: "I think you've already seen it."

"Ah."

Buck didn't turn around and continued fiddling with what he was holding.

"That gang has declared war on us; they're going to attack Saint Raphael!"

"so what?"

Buck sneered, "Let them come. I've prepared five hundred guns, including Gatling guns, just waiting for them to come and die."

"Lieutenant!"

Kane suppressed his emotions; this was not the time to argue with this madman: "We must cooperate."

"I hope we can put aside our past grievances and have a proper discussion."

"Next, how do we defend Saint Raphael?"

Buck slowly turned his head and looked at the two detectives he had always looked down on.

Thorne and Kane were also watching him.

Buck slammed his fist on the table: "I agree! Let's put aside our past grievances and do as you say!"

Kane curled his lips into a smile: "Very well, Lieutenant, then we have reached an agreement."

Buck gulped down a large mouthful of liquor: "The consensus is, send all those Irish bastards who dare to threaten me to hell!"

"Yes."

Thorne snatched the bottle from him: "Sending them to hell requires strategy, not just your lousy liquor and your anger."

Just as Buck was about to explode, Kane had already walked up to the map.

"The enemy is very arrogant."

He pointed to the area of ​​San Raphael: "They gave us the time and place, and even bait!"

"Dennis Kearney probably thought we would be terrified or enraged to the point of losing our minds by this declaration of war."

Thorne continued, "But they were wrong. This was their first and last mistake!"

"What we need to do next is to turn the tables on them!"

They're here to rescue people, aren't they? We'll turn San Raphael into a trap tailor-made for them!

They have absolute confidence in this operation.

The Pinkerton Detective Agency has three hundred battle-hardened elite agents, while the California State Militia has more than four hundred soldiers who are burning with rage and desperately want revenge!
These people combined constitute an absolute armed force of nearly eight hundred men.

Eight hundred rifles, and also equipped with Gatling guns!
What about that gang of bandits?
According to the intelligence gathered, their numbers are at most a few dozen.

This is a hunt with a huge disparity in strength!

"Lieutenant Buck."

Kane's eyes darkened: "You need your men to act immediately and build fortifications around the county seat, outside of San Raphael."

"Set up barricades at the main intersections leading to the town, using sandbags, planks... anything that can be used!"

"Set up firing positions on high ground, so that the moment those bastards step into this town, they won't find a single place to hide from the bullets!"

"no problem!"

Buck readily agreed.

This fighting style suits his taste perfectly!

"I'm going to turn this place into a steel meat grinder!"

Saint Raphael has gone mad.

This normally quiet county town was transformed overnight into a massive armed construction site!

Buck's militiamen were all like they'd been injected with adrenaline, piling everything they could carry onto the street.

The reporters naturally flocked over as well.

These people were all trembling with excitement.

War.

This is about to be a real war!

They will be the exclusive witnesses and disseminators of this battle.

The telegraph machine worked day and night to transmit the suffocating tension of San Rafael to all of California and even the whole of the United States!
"The decisive battle is imminent! Pinkerton, in alliance with the state militia, has laid a trap!" "The Irish gangs have openly declared war; St. Raphael has become the final battlefield!"

Almost everyone in California is watching this upcoming, lopsided matchup!

After all, it's been too many years.

For far too many years, no one has dared to challenge the Pinkerton National Detective Agency in this way.

Of course, almost no one would question the outcome of this battle.

Eight hundred people against a few dozen.

That's fucking ridiculous, one spit from each of them could drown that gang of thugs.

"That Irish gang of only a few dozen people, do they really dare to come?"

"FUCK! Who knows? Maybe they're just bluffing, they'll just fart and run away."

"But if they don't come, Dennis Kearney is doomed?"

"Coming here is suicide, not coming here is abandoning the leader, haha, this is a dead end no matter how you look at it!"

When asked by reporters, Buck, with a cigar in his mouth, grinned and made a throat-slitting gesture at the camera.

"Whether they come or not is their business. I'll just dig the grave and wait for them!"

"It all depends on how determined they are to rescue their leader, Dennis!"

……

In stark contrast to the tense atmosphere of Saint Raphael.

The apple orchards in Lawson remain peaceful.

Boxes of plump, red apples, labeled with tags, were loaded onto horse-drawn carts, ready to be transported to markets in San Francisco and Sacramento.

Everything is back on track.

Those Chinese laborers who ultimately chose to cut off their queues and had no smoking addiction demonstrated the finest qualities of this nation: hard work, diligence, and nimble hands and feet.

These people all knew in their hearts how hard-won this opportunity was—a daily wage of eagles, room and board included, and no white overseers to bully them!

They were all determined to do a good job and stay here for a long time.

Lawson was lying under the oak tree, rocking gently in his chair.

Sipping hot coffee brewed by Mrs. Marlene herself.

Lucy was holding a thick copy of "Leviathan" and reading it while lying on his lap.

Every detail of the farce in San Raphael was clearly presented to him through the assassins he had planted in the county police department.

"Ah!"

Lawson shook his head and smiled.

Soldiers never tire of deceit!

These idiots actually expect gangsters to follow the rules?

Do you expect them to be like medieval knights, launching a righteous charge at the appointed time?

They must have been kicked in the head by a donkey!
But now it's even more interesting.

The Irish gang has declared war, threatening to massacre Saint Raphael.

So, as long as they don't come...

Pinkerton and his militia, a force of nearly eight hundred men, dared not relax for even a day!

The enemy is in the open, while we are in the dark!

Every day they wait for a decisive battle that may never come, and only they themselves suffer.

Since that's the case, let's just keep them waiting!

Time seemed to pass exceptionally slowly.

Everyone waited anxiously for two days.

Today is the third day, and it's the deadline that the Irish gang publicly threatened in the newspapers to release Dennis.

Release them? Absolutely not!

Buck also needs to use Dennis's head to appease Cross's spirit in heaven!
The Pinkerton Detective Agency is even less likely to back down.

When San Raphael was put in the spotlight, it was no longer a simple bandit suppression operation.

Whether the robbers come or not depends on tonight!

(End of this chapter)