Halfway through the journey, Schupper came up with the idea of saving time. After a brief silence from everyone, he took the initiative and led the team onto a new road.
"Take the one on the right!" Shupel shouted to Bibo, who was holding the rope in the front car, and the two cars turned into a dense jungle.
"I can guarantee that this place is exactly the same as Beecher's Wish. Beautiful scenery always exists in pairs." Mr. Wayne exclaimed.
When he heard someone praising his hometown, Schupper couldn't help laughing: "You're right, Mr. Wayne, this birch forest is a unique scenery on the flat emerald grassland. I have lived here for more than sixty years." , witnessed the vegetation here grow from lush saplings to tall birches, I must say, they are brothers of the same age as me."
"You're really kind, sir, and I'd say this place is surprisingly quiet," Wayne said.
"Haha, no one lives here. In the past, there was a skilled carpenter who planned to settle here, but the strong birch wood here prevented him from starting. After wearing out several saws, he left."
“Trees are so resilient, and so are native people,” Mr. Wynn said.
At this time, Mr. Beech, who was silent at first, spoke: "There is an old man living in the forest of Beecher's Wish. He is a carpenter or... a blacksmith. His name is... I really forgot, Beecher." Uncle, do you still have any impression?"
Wayne continued: "His name is Nils. My friends, please don't think that Brother Bichi is unclear in his speech. It's Nils, this weird craftsman who is skilled in manipulating various tools. You and He only hears 'yes' and 'no' in conversation, but we have a saying in West Elizabeth that the less you say, the better you live. Nils is a perfect example of that."
"A forest deserves a skilled craftsman. If the carpenter who left had changed to a set of sharper tools, he might have stayed." Shupel sighed.
The carriage in front slowly stopped, Zerosi ran along the roadside, and John had to stop the carriage.
"Hey! Mr. Schupper, a broken log is blocking the road ahead!"
"The strength of birch wood couldn't withstand the storms of the past few days." Shupel sighed to the two people behind him.
"I have to go check out the situation, gentlemen."
John jumped off the carriage as he spoke. Under Zerosi's guidance, he came to the broken tree. He saw Miller standing among the leaf umbrellas of the broken tree, waving to indicate that he needed to move the wood. John came to the end of the broken log and was thinking about how to move this obstructive thing away with the strength of his hands. His peripheral vision suddenly caught sight of its break. At the broken place, there were some loose branches and brown bark hanging down, and there were many trees beside it. Far away is the tree stump where it belongs.
John walked to the tree stump. Despite the influence of the cross section, the tree's growth rings were still clearly visible in his eyes, but John had a bad feeling - a naturally broken tree would not have such clear growth rings. wheel. John looked closer and found that there were some ax marks on the section of the tree stump - this was irrefutable evidence of man-made damage!
"Mr. Schupper!"
Hearing someone shouting, John looked back hurriedly. Zerosi looked at Shupei in the driver's seat with tears in his eyes. The latter's right shoulder was penetrated by an arrow, and his white shirt was dyed red with blood. Shupei I lay there twitching and vomiting blood, and then there were sounds of killing from both sides of the road.
"It's the Skinned Brothers, everyone, take cover!" Mr. Wayne jumped out of the carriage.
John squatted behind the tree stump, listening to the sound of bullets passing over his head. When there was a gap, John poked his head out and saw Miller standing on the broken wood to fight back, so he shouted to him.
"I have to save Mr. Schueper!"
"Okay, I'll cover you, we have to retreat to the second car."
"Krid, hold on, I'll cover Mr. Coster and the others as they retreat." Wayne had already arrived behind the bunker and was blocking the incoming enemy.
Miller's repeating rifle bullets indeed weakened the Skinner Gang's firepower a lot, but there were still countless bullets whistling in the air. John felt that he could not rush out rashly and had to think of some clever moves to win. He looked in front of the carriage. The frightened horses, those beasts full of energy, could only jump in place because of the reins.
"Miller, can you hit the rope holding the horse? We can release the horse to draw fire."
"Good idea!" Miller replied.
The two sharpshooters each shot a two-finger-wide leather rope from a distance of more than ten meters. The two horses galloped out neighing, knocking down several people from the skinning gang on the way, and the remaining people were also killed by the horses jumping here and there. attracted attention.
"It's now!"
John and Miller fought and retreated to the carriage where Schupper was. This kind of cooperation had to be with Miller, John's most trusted brother, to give him full confidence.
The old man was dying on his seat. The arrow that hit his shoulder was like a hammer nail, nailing him to the wooden board behind him, unable to move. The blood flowed down the arrow body and dyed the tail of the arrow red. It was a feather made of black chicken. Even the most ignorant women and children know that this is the symbol of the most cruel group of people in the wilderness - the Skinned Brothers.
Mr. Wayne also came to the side, and you could see the worry and anxiety on his face, knowing that the gunman would face jail time if he failed to protect his employer.
"We have to get Mr. Schueper down and bandage him."
Mr. Wayne stretched out his left hand to pull out the arrow stuck in Shupel. John immediately held him down. Faced with Wayne's surprise, John explained.
"This way there will be no barrier for his wound. If the artery is injured, he will die from massive bleeding in less than a minute."
John took out a dagger and cut off the arrow behind Schupper, helped him slowly slide off the carriage, and finally fell into John's arms. When John used the sleeves of his coat to bandage his wound, Schupper seemed to take a breath. , leaned into John's ear.
"Got to...protect...the wood."
At this time, everyone traveling with him had almost gathered around him. Mr. Wayne took the initiative to carry Shupel on his back, and John acquiesced to him.
Seeing that all the gang members had arrived, John briefly divided the labor. Mr. Miller and Mr. Burge broke out a breakthrough on the right. Mr. Wayne took care of the injured Shupel and cleared the enemies around the carriage. The remaining people Block the enemies on the left along the road. Their plan is to break out of the siege and wait for an opportunity to recapture the carriage. If the Skinning Gang insists on not withdrawing their men, then they will aim to kill all the enemies.
John thought that the plan could be implemented smoothly, but who would have thought that the Skinner Gang would fight more and more people. John and his team's defense line retreated again and again, giving up one firepower advantage point after another, so they could use their energy to find the next one. As the battle progressed, what was more frightening than the intensive gunfire was the consumption of ammunition. John knew very well the despair of a gunman when he wanted to fill in new ammunition but found that his pocket was empty - he had to make a change!
"John, I'm out of bullets!" Thomas's voice came from behind the wooden pile.
"Me too!"
"I'm immediately exhausted, too."
"Mr. Coster! This bullet is not enough to protect Mr. Schupper." Mr. Wayne said anxiously from behind the carriage.
"Cease fire!" John made up his mind, "We have to save ammunition and hold on, brothers, until Miller and Burge find a breakthrough for us."
"Take out your knives. I believe you can't wait to stab the enemy at close range." Thomas encouraged morale.
The sudden ceasefire made the Skinner Gang a little excited. They continued to move forward without knowing anything, not knowing that behind a certain tree was a shiny dagger waiting to pierce their chests. John thought, those scum wouldn't care what situation they got themselves into, they would just charge blindly and kill themselves.
Suddenly, to everyone's shock, the advancing Skinned Brothers fell down in rows from behind. Gunshots rang out in the open space outside the woods. Obviously, another wave of people joined the battle to replace John. They solved the urgent problem.
"They retreated, go to the carriage!" John shouted to the members when he saw the Skinners being beaten and running away.
"Are you still alive?" After confirming that the danger was over, Thomas walked out of the wooden pile and looked at John.
"At least for now...Mr. Wayne, are you okay?"
"Well, I'm fine, it's just that Mr. Schueper fainted."
"Have they all been killed?" John picked up a gun on the ground and poured out the bullets.
"John, look at the footprints here. Damn it! They let some of them escape." Bibo looked at the fresh leather boot prints on the mud.
"No matter what, go find Miller and Bichi. We have to send Schupper back. He won't last long."
At this time, Miller ran over from the slope on the right side of the road, shouting as he ran: "They captured Mr. Bitch!"
John stepped forward to support the panting Miller and asked him to explain clearly.
"We were about to break through the blockade of the Skinners. Mr. Bichi suddenly left the bunker and ran towards the Skinners. He couldn't come back even if he called. I think he was frightened. Those bastards tied him away."
"We are now short of men and horses, with insufficient ammunition, and with the injured Schupper, we have no strength to rescue Mr. Bitch. Let's do this, Mr. Wayne, if you are familiar with the escape route of the Skinner Gang, you can bring a few people to follow them. , we will drive Mr. Schupper back to the manor and come here."
