John held the gold in his hand tightly, as if he had once again grasped the lifeline of making a fortune, but after the experience of picking up a gold nugget for the first time, he did not take it lightly.
"Stay alert, Miller," John said grimly in the fog.
"I don't think the Van Horn gang or the homeless man would forget such a valuable item." It seems that Miller did not lose his mind in the face of this windfall.
"I once found a gold nugget in the Bliss Pool, and therefore fell into Dutch van der Linde's trap. So I don't feel that the gold in my hand is a gift from God, but more like a piece of fat to lure prey to the bait." John said.
Just as the two were talking, the sound of horse hooves came from outside. The sound was getting closer and closer. It sounded like there were dozens of people.
"Are you sure they have all entered the house?" the stranger outside said, unaware that the voice outside was whispering in the ear in this hidden basement.
"Yes, I can see clearly," replied the other.
"Damn! They might have gotten the stuff."
Next, both John and Miller realized that they had fallen into the enemy's trap.
As the two jumped out of the house, an enemy climbed in through the hole in the wall first. John took out his gun and fired without saying a word. The enemy fell down and his body blocked the entrance of the hole, thus delaying the Van Horn gang's attack.
"Miller, go to the lookout over there."
There is a watchtower at each corner of Brennand's fort. The watchtowers are connected by wooden boards. Sandbags and wine barrels are placed on the wooden boards. It seems that a defensive battle is inevitable.
An explosion sounded, like the horn of the Van Horn Gang's attack. The stone wall where the gap was located collapsed, and bullets streaked through the air like meteors, or left holes in the wine bottles and let the golden wine flow down like a waterfall. Or hit the stone behind John, causing the broken stones to scatter everywhere.
Miller looked over, and then shouted to John in a panic: "There are too many of them, and we don't have enough bullets at all!"
John is also aware of this fact. In order to use bullets effectively, they must shoot accurately, but aiming in this hail of bullets is a joke. Even if John occasionally leans forward and knocks down a few people, it is based on the consumption of a lot of ammunition.
The Van Horn gang used continuous-fire carbine repeating rifles, while John used a single-shot roller locking rifle. Miller's weapon was a Springfield rifle. The Van Horn gang was far ahead in terms of sustained firepower. In addition, The numerical advantage rendered John's ability to stay focused useless.
The Van Horn gang fought and advanced through the fort with seemingly no time to reload, and these well-trained guys got under the planks with little resistance.
John took out the dagger and stuck it on the wooden board. If physical combat was necessary, he was not afraid.
Suddenly, the Van Horn gang stopped shooting, and the fortress returned to its former tranquility. A crisp whistle broke the brief silence. John had the experience of fighting with this gang, and he knew that the next step was that Van Horn was building an overwhelming force. Persuading surrender from an advantage.
"Two of you, whether you are police or bounty hunters, you are at the end of your rope." A thick voice said, "I won't talk nonsense anymore. Just hand over the gold nuggets in your hands, and my brothers will I will make a way for you to get out of this place safely."
Miller shook his head at John, indicating that he should not believe Van Horn's lies.
"Our Van Horn family has always been honest and trustworthy. Although there are many rumors outside, we still extend an olive branch to everyone who is deceived."
"However, if the property belonging to Van Horn is violated, our people will fight. The Jameson family of Annesburg and the Mofree family of "Cave" know this very well." The voice paused for a few seconds. , "You have a minute."
One minute, a strong attack was impossible. John used his peripheral vision to look for opportunities to counterattack. He was thinking about how to cause damage to the large enemy in front of him. Bullets had lost their effect. Only explosives or detonators could cause large-scale splashes. Shooting hurt, and John had neither.
Suddenly, John remembered a substance that could save them from the siege - fire, and there was a lot of wood around, enough to make a raging fire here. Now John needs a "catalyst". He wants the fire to spread and the fortress to be filled with this orange-red substance in an instant. The wine barrel next to it just meets this need. John guesses that it is a high-concentration private substance. Wine should be very flammable.
Time passed quickly, but John seemed to have entered an eternal space because of his concentrated mind. He found that his vision was glowing with a faint yellow color, and the mocking faces of the Van Horn Gang slowly changed in John's eyes, and one minute seemed like an hour. So long.
John stood up, kicked off the barrel, and cocked his revolver.
The members of the Van Horn Gang were still wondering why the people surrounded by them suddenly stood up desperately. The next second they saw their companions in front of them falling towards them covered with fire. After a while, Brennand's Fortress It was reduced to a sea of flames, with only a few members of the Van Horn Gang still struggling in the flames.
John stood calmly on the sentry tower, feeling the temperature of the fire. It would take a while for the fire to reach this point. Miller looked at the Van Horn gang wailing in the fire with a half-smile. It all happened too fast. He hasn't reacted yet.
"It's hell!"
John looked at the gold nuggets in the bag and made up his mind that he must understand the ins and outs of this matter, otherwise he would never be able to forgive himself and never forget his soul roasted in the flames.
