"Arrange for a few people to wait at the three exits from the Rocky Mountains into Denver. If you spot Richard or Henry's group, send someone to report while continuing to track them to see where they settle down," Brendan ordered.
"Yes, Master," the butler Elent immediately left the living room to arrange the manpower.
Even if Henry was just a thug, Brendan wouldn't let him off easy. He was currently filled with a heavy, stifled anger that needed a suitable target for release.
"Hmph, still want to take a train? First, let him pick up soap in prison, then bring him out for a good torture, so that this bumpkin from the mountains knows what the real world is like. Of course, the tuition fee will be his 20-year-old body and soul, or you can be a fugitive."
Brendan muttered to himself, a subtle sense of pleasure at stifling a young talent rising within him.
'Not bad, maybe I can save several thousand us dollars.'
'But it's better to deal with Henry as soon as possible. I'll torture him a little less, so the Sinclair Family doesn't intervene in time to save him.'
Brendan thought to himself.
Next, he would have a headache over the family meeting scheduled for the afternoon.
'Sigh, if Richard had been able to meet William smoothly this morning, I would have had something to say this afternoon.'
He slapped the coffee table twice with his right palm, Brendan's nameless rage growing stronger.
—
Henry's group walked very slowly, because after Hangman's Hill, there were still 8 or 9 large and small suitable ambush locations along the 18-mile mountain road.
Strictly speaking, almost 90% of this road was suitable for ambushes, just to different degrees.
If there were many people, like yesterday's Dodge Gang, the Spanish gang, and Richard's group, they could certainly rush through these potential ambush points.
Henry's team, with so many women and children, had to prioritize safety.
Henry had personally dealt with ambushes in the two most dangerous sections. For the remaining sections, he handed over all reconnaissance to Charles and Owen.
He had to get his team used to what a normal journey was like.
Anyway, arriving in New York a few days earlier or later made no difference to Linda's family.
And because they walked slowly and stopped often, the travel intensity wasn't high, so none of the women or the two children showed any signs of fatigue.
Twice along the way, they encountered caravans from Denver: one a 16-person escort team, and the other a 28-person fur merchant caravan.
When the teams met, both sides were cautious and extremely vigilant.
Henry's group didn't emerge from the Rocky Mountains until past 3 PM, with another 15 miles of mountain road to Danfu City.
There were some shops along the roadside at the mountain exit, catering specifically to mountain dwellers.
Henry's group did not make any stops and continued towards Danfu City.
Upon seeing Henry's group, a local merchant caravan split off two people who rode quickly towards the city. The other five drove a cargo wagon and three horses, following Henry's group, also heading towards the city.
Although the possibility of being ambushed on this section of the road was much lower, Henry still had Charles and Owen scout ahead, but they moved a little faster.
The weather was clear today, with only a few faint white clouds in the characteristic azure sky of the plateau region. A gentle breeze made one feel refreshed.
Denver was founded in 1858, when gold was discovered at the confluence of the South Platte River (flowing southwest to northeast) and Cherry Creek (flowing southeast to northwest).
Denver's nickname is the Mile High City, because a certain elevation in its city center is about 1 mile, or 1609 meters, above sea level.
Current Denver has another nickname—Queen City of the Plains, indicating Denver's importance to agriculture on the plains east of the Rocky Mountains.
After more than two hours, Henry's group finally entered the Danfu City area.
Zhang Tianyuan, before his transmigration, had visited Denver and was deeply impressed by the State Capitol building with its dome covered in locally produced gold leaf.
Now, Henry revisiting the old place, felt a sense of temporal overlap and disorientation.
However, in the previous timeline, those tall buildings, including the Capitol, were nowhere to be seen in this era.
As he walked, only the University of Denver, the America Mint branch, and City Park had withstood the test of time, allowing Henry to find some traces of years past.
In addition, there was Colfax Avenue, the east-west thoroughfare where Henry currently was.
In the previous timeline, this clean, tidy, 26-mile long concrete road was only about 3 miles long at this time, and entirely a red dirt road, with various horse-drawn carriages and horses kicking up clouds of dust.
These horses very casually relieved themselves on the road—inevitably causing most pedestrians' trouser legs to get dirty.
And in this era, for single men, clean trouser cuffs were more important than anything else!
In many large American cities, when unmarried girls met potential partners, the first step was to examine the other person's trouser cuffs.
No matter how well-dressed a person was on their upper body, dirty trouser legs meant they were a scumbag who couldn't even afford a carriage and was just trying to worm their way into high society without the means to do so.
Henry's group was also enveloped by this richly scented dust. The two hard-top carriages carrying Linda, Becky, Andre, Madeline, and Edith respectively had already closed their windows early.
The group gradually approached 16th Street, a famous commercial street in the former timeline.
In later generations, this street ran northwest-southeast through the entire CBD, connecting Denver Union Station in the northern CBD and the Civic Center in the south, with a total length of about 1 mile.
However, Union Station was still under construction and would open at the earliest next year, but most railways had been completed after 1870.
16th Street was also only in its rudimentary form, mostly consisting of two or three-story wooden buildings.
The only large hotel was the Aston Hotel, a three-story building covering about ten thousand square meters, with reddish-brown exterior walls, located about 300 meters from the Union Station, which was still under construction.
Richard sincerely invited Henry's group to stay at the Mellon Manor, and after discussing with Linda, Henry agreed.
The group crossed 16th Street and continued towards the Mellon Manor, located one mile east of the city.
Half an hour earlier, Brendan had received a report from his scout—Richard was actually with Henry's group, and the 31 McKinley Family guards and Richard's 6 guards were nowhere to be seen.
But Richard was riding alone on horseback, chatting and laughing with Henry, not looking at all like he had been kidnapped.
This situation was completely unexpected for Brendan. He decided to invite Richard and his wife for dinner first to clarify the situation before proceeding to the next step.
However, what Brendan didn't know was that the scout had also sold Henry's latest intelligence to the black market.
People involved in intelligence gathering are usually quite sharp-witted and certainly wouldn't just work for a fixed salary.
In the small building of the Danfu City East black market trading center, Daysler, a blond, blue-eyed middle-aged man with a finely trimmed handlebar mustache and sharp features, quickly received this intelligence.
After thinking for a moment, he called his subordinates over.
"Immediately deploy people to track Henry and his group to find out where they are staying, then proactively offer his latest intelligence for 10 us dollars to every killer or bandit who comes to inquire about a mission."
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