1850 American Gold Baron

Chapter 100: Surrender the gun but not kill

Brandon was about to gather his troops and retreat away from this place of right and wrong.

At this time, he was reminded of the intensive gunshots from all directions.

"We are surrounded!"

the bandits exclaimed.

His remaining defeated troops soon fell into chaos.

But after all, he was still an officer who had experienced war. He remained calm in the face of danger and calmly commanded his men to quickly set up a hollow square formation to meet the enemies coming from all directions.

Liang Yao, who was standing on the top of the mountain, raised his telescope and observed the battle at the bottom of the mountain.

This was an unequal battle. His soldiers, under the command of Deng Yan, Isaac and Elvis, attacked the hollow square formed by Brandon in an orderly manner.

Brandon's hollow phalanx was crumbling under the fierce offensive. Every time an orderly burst of gunfire rang out, a gangster was shot and fell.

For a time, gunshots, shouts, and wails echoed in the mountains and forests, and the air was filled with the pungent smell of gun smoke and blood.

Brandon has never fought such an asymmetrical fight.

He could only watch helplessly as one of his former friends and classmates fell beside him one after another, and his heart was twisted.

"Breakout."

Seeing that the casualties were increasing and the formation had become loose, Brandon knew that he could no longer hold on and issued the order to break out.

The thought of surrender flashed through his mind, but he quickly gave up the idea.

The crimes he committed in California were enough to send him to the gallows.

These Chinese soldiers are all Liang Yao's people, and Liang Yao will not let him go.

From the moment he chose to leave the army and become a bandit, he had no way of turning back and could only walk to the dark side.

When he broke through, Brandon only had about forty of his accomplices who were still able to move. He didn't know how many people there were on the other side, because the mountains and plains were filled with Chinese soldiers and Indians.

The team members were seriously injured and unable to move. Brandon, who was unable to protect himself, could not care about them. Brandon decisively chose to abandon these wounded people.

"The enemy is preparing to break out. Isaac asked his subordinates to come down to ask you whether to launch a charge?"

A signaling soldier panted and ran to Liang Yao to ask for instructions.

"I told you before the war that it is up to them to decide how to fight the war!" Liang Yao said displeased, his eyes did not leave the battlefield and he was still observing every move on the battlefield.

Whoosh~

Whoosh whoosh~

Just as Brandon moved his steps, several feather arrows came through the air.

What caught Brandon's eyes was a group of Indian tribal warriors wearing cloth robes and feathers, holding American hunting bows and old muskets.

Within fifty yards, the Indians' bows and arrows were fast and accurate, and two of Brandon's accomplices fell down in the middle, letting out shrill wails.

Brandon raised the revolver pistol in his hand and pulled the trigger continuously, firing all the bullets in the cylinder.

But the Indian warrior in front had just fallen, and there was a steady stream of Indian tribe warriors rushing up from behind, making Brandon feel desperate.

The Indians also participated in this battle. At this time, Brandon was already devastated.

"Hand in the gun and don't kill!"

"Hand in the gun and don't kill!"

"Hand in the gun and don't kill!"

Following the Indians, the Chinese soldiers held rifles and shouted, "Hand over your guns and we will not kill you." They flashed their bayonets with murderous intent and charged at the bandits who were trying to break out.

Their shouts resounded through the entire mountain forest, causing the wild beasts in the mountains to flee in all directions.

The morale of Brandon's party members had already reached the brink of collapse. Looking at the Indian and Chinese soldiers advancing towards them all over the mountains and plains, they no longer had the will to fight.

At this moment, they collapsed.

They knelt down without hesitation, raised their guns above their heads, and shouted: "We surrender! We surrender! We surrender!"

They shouted very loudly for fear that the Chinese soldiers and Indian warriors would not hear them.

"Aren't these ghosts pretty good at fighting? They surrendered so quickly?"

"Surrender, just surrender, why should you kneel down and hand over your gun?"

Facing the simple surrender of this group of gangsters, Deng Yan and the Chinese soldiers felt a little unbelievable.

Elvis and Isaac were very skillful in collecting the firearms of the surrendering gangsters and tying them up.

Liang Yao looked at the time on his pocket watch. The battle only lasted about half an hour.

In this battle, 23 gangsters were killed on the spot and 44 gangsters including Brandon were captured.

These gangsters are all deserters and are the backbone of Brandon. They can be said to have achieved fruitful results.

His team of Chinese soldiers also paid the price with 11 killed, 5 seriously injured, and 13 slightly injured.

Although Liang Yao felt that the casualties were a bit heavy, considering that this was the first battle for these big-headed soldiers, he could still accept the result.

The Indian warriors from the Pomo and Maidu tribes who came to assist in the exhibition also suffered relatively heavy casualties, with 11 Indian warriors killed in battle alone.

Liang Yao brought fifteen doctors with the army. After the battle, he immediately asked these doctors to treat the lightly and seriously wounded to avoid unnecessary attrition.

"Our casualties exceeded expectations. It was due to my poor command. Please punish me."

Elwell asked Liang Yao to punish him. Before the war, he promised Liang Yao that the number of casualties would be limited to 8 killed and 16 wounded.

As a result, both the number of killed and injured far exceeded the number he promised Liang Yao before the war.

"Elwell, you are too strict with yourself. We are leading a group of new recruits. To be able to perform like this is already very good."

Isaac was very satisfied with the result.

This kind of battle loss ratio is a very good battle loss ratio even for the ordinary reserve British Army who have no actual combat experience. The gangsters they fought were deserters from the US military who had participated in the US-Mexican War, and they were not a bunch of bad guys.

Rotten fish and shrimp.

Of course, Isaac also meant to excuse himself by saying this.

"Isaac, but this was a well-prepared ambush! As commanders, our performance was indeed poor." Elwell said.

"We will discuss the summary of this battle after we get back." Liang Yao said with his hands behind his back.

The performance of Deng Yan and Elwell did not disappoint Liang Yao, but he was very dissatisfied with Isaac's performance on the battlefield.

Before the war, he authorized Deng Yan, Elvis and Isaac with command authority and allowed them to perform freely.

As for Isaac, he even asked him for instructions on whether to charge or not.

Liang Yao knew that this was because Isaac was afraid of taking responsibility. Although he didn't know much about military affairs, he knew that a commander who was afraid of taking responsibility could never become a good commander.

"This is Brandon."

Deng Yan escorted Brandon to Liang Yao.

"Are you Liang Yao?"

Brandon looked at Liang Yao with quite disdain.

"Exactly, you're not convinced?" Liang Yao said calmly.

"If you're not convinced, what's the point of a sneak attack? If you're a man, just fight me!" Brandon said unconvinced.

"You also sneak attacked me in Sacramento at the beginning of the year. It's a pity that you are not as good as me. At least I succeeded in the sneak attack, but you didn't even succeed in the sneak attack." Liang Yao said with a mocking tone.

Immediately, Liang Yao asked the guards around him to come forward and search him.

The guards found three U.S. dollar bills and a letter from Brandon and handed them to Liang Yao.

The three U.S. dollar bills belonged to different banks, but all three U.S. dollar bills were signed by John Jacob Astor.

Liang Yao opened the letter. This letter was also written by John to Brandon.

"A dignified New York celebrity is actually involved with deserter bandits."

Liang Yao said coldly that he had known about John and Brandon's secret communication for a long time. These three huge U.S. dollar bills and John's handwritten letters further confirmed this.

"Coward! Coward! Do you dare to duel with me?" Brandon shouted arrogantly.

Liang Yao did not intend to give Brandon a way out, nor did he intend to hand Brandon over to the court for trial.

Brandon was a deserter, so even if he was tried, he would be tried by a military court.

Griffin is a person who protects his shortcomings. Even if he sends Brandon to a military court, there is no guarantee that Griffin will save Brandon.

Since Brandon wanted to die, there was no harm in him fulfilling his wish.

As for duels, respectable people would not duel with bandits. In this era, duels were divided into three levels.

(End of chapter)