Reborn in 1878: America's Number One Bandit

Chapter 117 The National Guard That Never Arrives

"Shut up!"

Barkley roared, interrupting him abruptly: "Do you all fucking want to die?"

"Do you also want to be kicked out and hung on that pillar? Haven't you figured it out yet? Here, we are nothing but meat on their chopping board!"

The acting police chief's words finally brought everyone to their senses.

Yes, they are nothing now.

Right now, all they can do is rely on those yellow-skinned monkeys they used to look down on to save their lives!

"Cough cough!"

Samuel Black cleared his throat, trying to regain some of his leadership authority: "Barkley is right. Everyone, stay calm. It's safe here, at least. Those thugs won't dare come in!"

He pointed to the dark wooden huts, though he himself felt nauseous: "Let's go in and rest. There's some food and water in the wagon. Hang in there. As soon as it's light, once the National Guard arrives, we can get out."

This is the only option right now.

The wealthy businessmen and celebrities looked at each other and ultimately had no choice but to accept reality.

Crestwood, supporting his still-sobbing wife Eleanor, pushed open a rickety wooden door.

A stench suddenly wafted out!
"vomit!"

Before Mrs. Eleanor could even see what was inside, she bent over and vomited her entire dinner onto the floor!
The vomit mixed with the filth on the ground, making it smell even worse.

Crestwood froze on the spot.

With the help of the firelight and moonlight reflected in the distance, he could see clearly.

This is not a place for humans to live.

The ground was covered in sticky black grime that stuck to your shoes when you stepped on it!

The corner of the wall was covered with cobwebs, and several black cockroaches, each bigger than his thumb, suddenly scurried into the crack in the wall.

"what!"

From the next room, an even more piercing scream suddenly came.

She was the daughter of that banker, Jeffrey, a lady who had just graduated from Eastern Girls' College.

"A rat! A huge rat! It's gnawing on my shoe!"

"when!"

"Snapped!"

The chicken is flying and the dog is jumping.

The upper-class people, who had just mustered the courage to enter the house, hurriedly fled from those wooden huts!

"Centipede! Oh God, there's a centipede in my skirt!"

"Is this a pigsty? No, my pigsty is a million times cleaner than this!"

"Oh my fucking God, my feet are stuck! What the hell is this? Is it shit?"

This group of men and women, who had been precious all their lives, were devastated!

This is like falling into a cesspool; it's physically disgusting. They're covered in filth, and it's worse than killing them!

"waste!"

Crestwood could no longer maintain his composure.

He stormed up to Barkley, grabbed his tie, and yelled, "Barkley, you know that bitch, don't you? You do business with them? This is the place you fucking found for us? This is your protection of the senator? Huh?"

"Me, me, giggle!"

Barkley was so choked that his eyes rolled back in his head.

"I don't care what method you use!"

Crestwood slammed him to the ground: "Go find that Chinese guy right now and tell him to move us to a different place, or you'll be out of all your jobs by tomorrow morning!"

Barkley coughed on the ground for a long time, feeling extremely bitter.

If I don't die at the hands of thugs tonight, I'll die from the senator's wrath tomorrow!
He had no choice but to steel himself and shakily approach the black-clad guard at the alley entrance.

The main hall of the Chinese Youth Association, second floor.

Qingshan was standing by the window.

From his elevated position, he had a panoramic view of the chaotic scene unfolding among the upper-class people in Guang'an Lane.

"Ha, can't even stand staying one night? Those Chinese laborers live in places like this every day, year after year, and they don't even have the right to complain!"

"gentlemen."

A guard knocked and entered: "Barkley requests an audience with Ms. Meling, saying he is dissatisfied with his accommodations and requests a change."

Mai Ling was kneeling on the carpet at the foot of Qingshan. She had changed into a comfortable silk robe and was trimming Qingshan's cigar with a small pair of silver scissors.

Upon hearing this, her hand paused slightly, and then she looked at Qingshan.

"not see."

Qingshan coldly uttered two words.

“Tell him that if he doesn’t want to sleep in a room, he can sleep on the street. Guang’an Lane is the safest place in all of San Francisco tonight. If he’s not satisfied, he can get out now.”

"Yes!"

The guard immediately backed away from the room.

Mai Ling then lowered her head, respectfully held the cigar to Qingshan's lips, and lit it for him.

Aoyama took a deep breath and exhaled a thick smoke ring.

He could certainly arrange clean rooms for those people.

Within Longzhitang's premises, there are luxury suites with velvet carpets and soft feather beds.

But he just wouldn't give it to me!
These pampered people have arrogance and prejudice ingrained in their very bones!

If we don't first use this harsh reality to severely dampen their spirits, and let them personally experience the environment they created...

How could they understand that they were no longer the high and mighty masters?

How could they possibly know who the true king of this land will be from tonight onward?
……

Barkley returned dejectedly.

He didn't even need to say a word; his face, which looked like it had been slapped dozens of times, said it all.

"You're fucking useless!"

Crestwood slumped back onto the steps, his custom-made suit, worth five hundred dollars, now soaking in the mud.

He gave up, and everyone else gave up too.

Samuel Black and his wife Penny huddled under a relatively dry roof.

He tore off the lining of his suit and handed it to his wife, asking her to wipe the stains off her skirt.

The banker Jeffrey, who was just shouting a moment ago, is now crouching on the ground, holding his head and crying softly.

It wasn't entirely because he couldn't find a good place to stay; the main reason was that his daughter's diamond necklace had been lost in the chaos. It was a custom-made necklace from the royal jeweler in Amsterdam, worth 20,000 silver dollars!
Just a few hours ago, this group of people were enjoying the luxurious life of the upper class.

Now, they huddle in this alley, which is dirtier than a pigsty, like a group of plucked, drenched chickens.

"Just hang in there, just hang in there..."

Barkley muttered to himself, unsure whether he was comforting others or himself.

"At least we're still alive, aren't we?"

"It's only one night, after all."

The mayor echoed, trembling, "Hang in there, hang in there until dawn, and everything will be alright."

"Yes, tomorrow..."

Crestwood raised his head, his eyes sinister: "Tomorrow, when the Sacramento National Guard arrives, I'm going to kill all these bastards, whether they're the thugs outside or the Chinamen inside, I'm going to hang them all, leave no one alive!"

Hope is the only motivation that keeps them alive at this moment.

It's a pity they didn't know.

At that time, Sacramento was not much better than San Francisco.

"boom!"

At 2 a.m., a loud bang jolted California Governor William Irving out of his mistress's bed!
The loud noise originated from a state government armory in the northern suburbs of Sacramento.

A ruthless gang of less than a hundred men simultaneously blew open three entrances to an armory with high explosives!
The militia platoon guarding the armory didn't even have time to sound the alarm before they were torn to shreds by crossfire coming from three directions!

Even more terrifying was that the first thing the thugs did after storming the armory was to turn the four newly commissioned Gatling guns around and aim them at the only road leading to the city!
When a company of National Guard soldiers arrived at the scene, they were met with a death storm spewed by these four fire dragons!

The unsuspecting soldiers fell in droves, like wheat being harvested!

The armory changed hands within the first hour of the war.

"They robbed the bank, William, they fucking robbed the First Trust Bank of California!"

Just as Governor Irwin stormed into his office, the mayor of Sacramento burst in.

"The bank was robbed, and the robbers called themselves gentlemen. This group of people were dressed in evening gowns and wearing opera masks!"

Unlike the violent assault on the armory, the fall of the bank was remarkably quiet.

Twenty gentlemen politely knocked on the bank manager's door after midnight.

They forced him to open the bank vault door willingly by simply pressing a small Deringer pistol to his daughter's temple.

When police and militia tried to surround the bank, the group of gentlemen simply and gracefully pushed a dozen VIPs to the floor-to-ceiling windows on the second floor of the bank.

"Oh Lord..."

The commander who arrived at the scene was so weak in the knees that he almost collapsed!
Among the dozen or so hostages were three state senators, two Supreme Court justices, and the chairman of First Trust Bank of California, Samuel Huntington Sr. himself!

"they said……"

The terrified bank manager came out waving a white flag: "They're not after money or lives. They just want these gentlemen to stay at the bank for a few more days and talk about the future of California."

This is kidnapping!
This is a blatant act of collective kidnapping by the upper echelons of California!

"William, William!"

The third piece of bad news followed almost immediately.

"The telegraph lines are all down!"

An adjutant burst into the governor's office: "All the lines, to San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, are all fucking down. We're an island!"

"And the city hall!"

"The city hall's archives also caught fire; all the land deeds and tax records are gone!"

Three attacks, simultaneously, precisely targeted Sacramento's arsenal of muscle, its vital banking system, and its political, neuro-communication, and administrative apparatus!
California Governor William Irving lost his temper and went berserk on the spot.

"This is a conspiracy, a huge conspiracy against California!"

The conference room was now packed with important figures from Sacramento who were still breathing.

These people were wearing pajamas and morning robes, their faces still bearing the marks of fear and disarray.

"San Francisco is finished too..."

Governor Irwin, his eyes bloodshot, grabbed the telegram that had arrived just seconds before the communications were cut off.

That telegram was sent by Barkley in his last moments of sanity before the police station was stormed.

"San Francisco is in full riots. The Irish, Mexicans, and Dutch have all gone mad. The police department has been destroyed, and the mayor and council members are being hunted down. Send the National Guard immediately. For the Lord's sake, save them quickly. — Barkley."

"Damn it! They planned this!"

"Tonight, they're going to cripple San Francisco and Sacramento, they're going to overthrow us, they're going to overthrow the state!"

"William, calm down!"

Congressman Davis's cousin suddenly screamed, "Now is not the time to deal with those bastards in San Francisco! Look out the window, Sacramento is burning! My bank has been robbed, my men are locked up inside! You have to save us first, save us first!"

"That's right, Governor!"

Another land speculator shouted, "The armory is lost, and those lunatics now have Gatling guns. You must bring all your troops back and wipe out these bastards in the city first!"

"Fuck San Francisco!"

"We must protect the state capital first!"

"Quiet!"

Governor Irwin drew his sword and slammed it hard on the table; it was his meticulously maintained British greatsword.

"You bunch of idiots who only care about your own wallets!"

He roared, “Don’t you understand? Sacramento is the head, San Francisco is the mouth, the mouth that swallows everything in this state!”

"If San Francisco gets out of control, if this port falls into the hands of those lunatics, California's economy will be finished, we'll all go bankrupt, and even if we hold onto Sacramento, we'll only be holding onto an empty shell!"

"Then, what should we do?"

"Rescue!"

Governor Irving said, word by word, "San Francisco must be rescued no matter what. We must let those rioters know that the state government's bayonet is still fucking hard!"

"Are you crazy, William?"

Davis's cousin was almost in tears: "Where do we have any spare troops? The armory is lost, there are hostages in the bank, the city hall is a mess, we can't even protect ourselves!"

"Then let's squeeze out a team!"

"Damn it, I don't care what you think, I need to see a team heading to San Francisco before dawn!"

An hour-long argument, cursing, and physical altercation erupted in the meeting room.

Ultimately, under the governor's threat that they would all perish if he didn't send troops, the group of lawmakers finally reached a fragile compromise: "divide the troops."

"Your Excellency Governor, we can only spare one battalion at most!"

The senator gritted his teeth and said, "Five hundred is the most we can have. Grizzly Camp, let them go. That's our bottom line!"

The Grizzly Regiment was Sacramento's most formidable militia unit, composed of ruthless veterans of the Indian Wars.

"Alright! Major Turik will lead the team, and the rest of you will come with me to wipe out these damned bandits in the city. After dawn, we'll go and support Turik!"

4:30 a.m.

Five hundred soldiers from the Grizzly Bear Battalion, led by their commander Major One-Eyed Turick, boarded a military steam train bound for San Francisco.

Major Turik, looking displeased, spat angrily onto the platform.

He hated the task.

Damn it, the city is in complete chaos, yet he's abandoning his own home to save those cowards who're living it up in San Francisco.

The train whistle blared, carrying Sacramento's last hope as it sped into the night.

They didn't know that this was just the beginning of their hell.

The train had just left Sacramento less than twenty miles away.

Suddenly! A violent explosion came from directly beneath the train!
"What the hell is going on?!"

Major Turik was thrown from his seat and slammed hard into the roof of the car!

The train jolted violently, followed by a piercing metallic scraping sound that made one's eardrums bleed. The entire train, like a runaway iron dragon, twisted and rolled off the tracks!
"What the hell is going on?!"

Turik was dazed and confused after the crash, and he kicked the car door open.

"Sir, the railway tracks have been blown up!"

A soldier with his face covered in blood ran over.

"Exploded?"

Turik rushed forward, glanced at it once, and his face darkened.

The railway tracks were more than just destroyed!
This was a carpet bombing!
There was a bomb every 100 yards!

Starting from his feet and extending for at least a mile, the entire railway was blown into a twisted pile of scrap metal!
"How much explosives did they use?"

A young soldier howled in despair.

"That's not the point, you idiot!"

Turik grabbed him by the collar and pointed further away: "The point is, there!"

Following the direction of his finger, there was the Black Stone Tunnel, a necessary passage for this railway.

However, the tunnel no longer exists.

There, there was only a newly formed hill, made up of tens of thousands of tons of rocks.

(End of this chapter)