The factory gate could accommodate three carriages entering simultaneously, or six cavalrymen passing through at once without problem.
The gate was tightly closed at this time, with a three-man guard team and a German Shepherd on duty at the gate post.
Inside the factory were two stone watchtowers about ten meters high, each with five soldiers manning a Gatling machine gun.
The Gatling gun near the factory gate was aimed at Henry's road entrance, while another gun several dozen meters further away covered the road where stone materials came down from the mountain.
About 300 meters upstream along the Colorado River from the factory was a residential area of wooden two-story buildings, apparently where factory workers and guards lived.
As for the miners, they probably had lodging up at the mine - none were visible in this area anyway.
At this hour there would be no ore coming down from the mountain, nor any unrelated people coming by, so Henry suddenly appearing at the road entrance was very conspicuous.
Moreover, Henry was still wearing his mask, which made him look obviously up to no good.
This was a problem Henry always encountered when exploring new maps.
He hadn't expected the roughly 8-mile mountain road to take nearly an hour, and now it was almost dark, leaving no time for cautious action.
After all, if he dared leave his horse tied by the roadside in the wilderness for more than half an hour, after dark he might return to find only a horse skeleton.
Moreover, Henry lacked long-distance night vision capability after dark and couldn't gather much intelligence.
So he could only charge straight in - his error tolerance was high anyway.
Besides, anyone could figure out that this place had a company of cavalry stationed year-round and would definitely be heavily guarded, no worse than Devonshire Manor.
So Henry had long prepared mentally for this kind of discovery.
"Bang bang bang" Henry pulled the reins to slow his horse, then raised his rifle and fired.
All five sentries on the watchtower near the factory gate who had been chatting and laughing were hit, with three falling headfirst to the ground ten meters below.
Having had no enemies for a long time, and with the factory gate having just closed recently, they had inevitably become lax.
By now the three guards at the gate had raised their guns to shoot at Henry, and the German Shepherd was also charging over!
Henry completely ignored these attacks, maintaining his shooting and prioritizing the sentries on the other watchtower.
But after several seconds passed, they had reacted. Except for one who couldn't dodge in time and was hit and fell to the ground, the others had all hidden behind cover and were quickly turning their machine gun muzzle.
Henry switched to shooting the three gate guards.
Three more gunshots rang out, and all three gate guards were shot down. All 15 bullets from this "one-in-a-thousand" rifle were expended.
Henry instantly switched to another "one-in-a-thousand" rifle, shooting the German Shepherd that had charged within 100 meters in the head, killing it instantly. Its corpse slid forward over ten meters from momentum.
From when Henry launched his attack until now, about ten seconds had passed, and that machine gun's muzzle still hadn't been adjusted properly.
Since Henry gained the +20% agility talent, the time to empty 15 Winchester lever-action rifle bullets might have shortened to 8 or 9 seconds.
Henry continued firing one more shot each at the three gate guards lying on the ground, then wheeled his horse around and quickly fled.
This roughly 350-meter downhill road at about 30 degrees became uphill when turning around.
After he ran up several dozen meters and turned left onto the outer road, the Gatling machine gun finally roared behind him.
The remaining four sentries, scrambling to avoid bullets, managed to quickly get into position, adjust the machine gun through a large angle, coordinate with each other, and start machine gun fire within about 15 seconds - not bad.
Henry paid no more attention and rode back toward Fresco Town.
Because he was shooting from horseback, Henry hadn't pursued headshots with every bullet this time, only seeking hits, which was why he needed follow-up shots.
The three gate guards had probably fired eight or nine shots total, causing 8 of Henry's white pearl shells to dissipate.
This was mainly because the bullet-deflecting shells also encompassed the horse, and the larger area made it easier to get hit, doubling the consumption.
However, the release progress bar had gained another 1 white pearl and 8 gray pearls, indicating all 9 people Henry hit had been successfully released - not a loss.
Those four sentries were probably scared witless, frantically spraying the empty road for over a minute.
At this time over thirty guards poured out of the factory. The duty commander Tom, not seeing any enemies, roared loudly: "John, what are you doing?"
Tom, tall and muscular with bulging muscles all over, was like a fierce beast ready to devour people.
John, who had been operating the machine gun, finally came to his senses and quickly stopped.
"Report, an enemy suddenly appeared at entrance number one and shot at us with a rifle. All five men on Harry's side were knocked down, Terry on our side is also dead, and Jordan and his three men at the gate were all knocked down too."
"Where's the enemy?"
"When we started shooting, he turned and ran!"
Tom ordered: "You two go check on Harry and Jordan's men. The rest form two teams and follow me outside to search."
More than ten minutes later, Tom finished searching and confirmed the enemy had fled.
When he returned to the factory and learned that all 9 men had died, his mood was very bad.
Who the hell was that madman?
Firing a few shots then running - completely senseless!
The key was the opponent's marksmanship was amazing!
Madmen weren't scary, but madmen plus sharpshooters were a completely different matter!
Although that guy wore a mask, he definitely wasn't an Indian - no one in their nearby tribes had such marksmanship.
Suddenly he remembered Henry mentioned in the letter Sean had sent over the day before yesterday. Could it be him? Had he come?!
——
After over an hour, Henry returned home. After leading his horse into the stable, he carefully checked the door crack before entering his house again.
No sense of danger, so he went to take a hot bath, washing away the gunpowder smell and dust.
Tonight's harvest was 22 white pearls and 35 gray pearls, with only one white pearl having a flowing halo.
The release progress bar reached 75.5%.
After changing clothes, Henry left the house and strode toward Phoenix Bar.
After entering the bar, Henry didn't linger. After smiling and nodding to acknowledge familiar faces who greeted him, he quickly went up to his second-floor private room and instructed Theresa to call Drummond over.
Drummond soon entered the private room.
"Help me prepare some explosives and delayed electric detonators. TNT would be best, but dynamite is fine too. The more the better - prepare at least 200 pounds. I need it tonight."
"The delayed electric detonators should be 3-5 seconds. Hurry."
Drummond nodded and left to make arrangements.
This was a mining town where large amounts of explosives were needed for mining. The town's shops would definitely have them, openly or secretly - not difficult to prepare.
The police station had over a ton of dynamite - black powder. Old White, who managed the warehouse, wouldn't and wouldn't dare refuse Henry, but Henry didn't want Mayor William to know so much.
Even if Mayor William could guess pretty accurately afterward, that was still just guessing.
(End of Chapter)
[Get +20 Extra Chapters On — P@tr3on "Mutter"]
[Every 50 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter Drop]
[Thanks for Reading!]