Horse neighing, screams, gunfire thunder, and curses mixed together, converging into a tragic death symphony on the mountain path under the setting sun.
After switching rifles twice, all 3 German Shepherds and 38 cavalrymen who charged out were completely shot down from their horses, most with their heads blown off.
Even the two German Shepherds that charged closest died 100 meters away from him, with no other men or horses getting within 200 meters.
The key was the narrow road - the lead dead horses and rider corpses blocked the path completely.
The horses' charging speed was too fast; they couldn't stop quickly after turning the corner.
Finally, even when four cavalrymen managed to control their horses and tried to turn back to retreat to the manor, Henry prioritized eliminating them.
Henry fired for about forty seconds total, having to withstand concentrated fire from over twenty knights behind during the process.
Although they were disrupted by the fallen men and horses ahead, plus having to urgently control their mounts, they still caused four of Henry's white pearl shells to dissipate.
Without using the granite stone for protection, over twenty might have dissipated.
When brave men meet on a narrow road, the braver wins. Since he had such powerful cheats, Henry got fired up and exchanged shots with them!
Originally he could have hidden in the forest to play hide-and-seek with the pursuers. With his reaction speed and marksmanship, his losses would definitely have been much smaller.
But there would also be more variables, like the enemy retreating after losing some men instead of continuing to fight.
This time Henry lured the enemy to attack because he couldn't break in, aiming to inflict massive casualties to intimidate them, making them suffer heavy losses and lose all courage, so they wouldn't dare ambush Henry.
The opportunity might only come once - afterward the enemy probably wouldn't attack rashly.
Devonshire Manor could obviously sustain itself for a long time, and Henry didn't have that much time to waste with them.
Henry put away the granite stone and used his rifle to finish off all the cavalrymen who hadn't been headshot.
At this moment, the mountain path was everywhere splattered with blood and brain matter. The heavy smell of blood filled the air. Henry's lonely silhouette under the setting sun was like a visitor from hell.
Several horses had broken legs and were neighing. Henry similarly put them out of their misery.
The guards and their commander inside the manor had already felt their hearts sinking upon hearing the human shouts and horse neighing from the mountain path, then heard the familiar rhythmic ominous gunfire like roll call.
Commander Sam loudly ordered the gate guards to close the main gate while adding 2 more sentries to each watchtower.
A glimmer of hope still existed in his heart - thirty-eight cavalrymen! They should be able to overwhelm the enemy through sheer numbers!
Sean stood beside him with a stern face, his complexion pale green, saying nothing.
Soon the answer came - Henry fired three more shots at the watchtowers from that corner, killing one sentry who had carelessly exposed himself from cover due to panic, then quickly withdrew.
Sean felt his heart die. A full thirty-eight cavalrymen, plus the 6 gate guards and sentries killed earlier, plus the three guards below who were probably doomed, plus this latest one - a total of forty-eight!
The manor that originally had 74 guards defending it now had only 26 left.
Of the 182 cavalrymen in the company that Brendan had transferred to execute the plan, only Sam remained!
Sam's face also darkened, unable to believe it while feeling immense grief.
At the same time, he felt grateful that the enemy was somewhat wary of these two Gatling machine guns, otherwise they might have killed their way in.
Too despicable! Sending one person to provoke us, jumping around like a clown, then shamelessly ambushing us!
Sam felt very ashamed. If Commander Oliver had been here, he definitely wouldn't have made such a mistake.
"Machine gunners attention, concentrate! The enemy may have large forces attacking!" Sam roared.
On the other side, Henry figured the enemy wouldn't dare come out temporarily, so he turned back to loot the bodies.
He spent nearly an hour carefully going through everything, also collecting the three German Shepherd corpses into his space.
Seeing it was nearly 7 PM, Henry picked an unmarked horse to ride toward the McKinley family's silver mine smelting plant.
Most of the horses here had distinctive brands. Henry didn't want to be caught by this handle and become a wanted man.
Too bad the other two German Shepherds didn't chase out, otherwise he could have tried infiltrating the manor at night.
After another half hour, when it was getting dark, Sam finally forced two servants to go down the mountain path to investigate.
Finally, they managed to drag their comrades' corpses and horses back to the manor before it got completely dark.
Sean felt ice-cold inside. Although the enemy wore a mask, it was definitely Henry leading the attack - no one else had such powerful combat ability.
Henry was indeed a wolf cub. He had just finished dueling Billy the Kid at noon, and as soon as he freed up his hands, he attacked Sean.
Same style as always - guns, ammunition, and money pouches all taken away, both greedy and vicious.
For Irishmen, the only peace was found in fighting.
Sean didn't lack the courage to continue fighting Henry or William, though he did feel a chill in his heart.
In this era, what mining magnate was truly benevolent?
However, he needed to take precautions as much as possible, reduce losses, and on this basis consider how to deal with opponents. If all else failed, he'd have to find a way to negotiate.
Fortunately, the twelve guards escorting the children to Denver should return tomorrow, giving him 39 reliable men total. As long as they weren't careless, they should still be able to defend the manor.
Good thing Narod's wife and children were also sent away together - no matter what, this left him with a lifeline.
Sean also knew he couldn't count on Brendan for guard reinforcements temporarily - Brendan was overwhelmed with problems. But the situation still needed to be reported quickly.
The telegraph office was closed now. Tomorrow morning he'd have someone send a telegram and tell the returning guards to be more vigilant.
Sean thought to himself.
——
The McKinley family's silver mine was surface mining with relatively high-quality ore.
The extracted ore was sent to the processing plant at the foot of the mountain for crushing and separation, finally refined in the smelting plant into silver ingots of 93%-97% purity.
The processing required large amounts of water, so it was all located downstream near water sources at the mountain base.
This smelting plant was at the bottom of a canyon by the Colorado River, about 8 miles of mountain roads from Devonshire Manor.
Henry encountered no one along the way. When he reached the vicinity of the smelting plant, it was already 7:46 PM - twenty minutes until dark.
The mountain roads were really difficult, preventing any speed.
From far away he could see thick smoke billowing from the metal smelting plant's direction, indicating they used fire smelting - using crucibles, blast furnaces and other equipment for melting.
Seeing this in such a magnificently scenic place was truly an eyesore.
After Henry turned off the main road onto the smelting plant's dedicated road, he walked a few hundred meters, turned a right bend, and suddenly had a clear view.
The final section was a downhill road of about 30 degrees for over 300 meters, leading to a gentle area by the Colorado River where a sprawling processing plant's chimney was emitting thick smoke.
The processing plant was surrounded by about 3-meter-high wire fencing. Most of these wire fences weren't just networks of twisted wire - these wires were covered with dense sharp cutting edges and had barbed designs.
(End of Chapter)
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