1850 American Gold Baron

Chapter 99 Ambush

Liang Yao still overestimated Brandon's strength.

There are only about 110 people in Brandon's group of gangsters. Among them, Brandon's core group, the deserters, only have about 70 people.

Under Liang Yao's blockade, Brandon's life has become increasingly difficult, so he has recently resorted to desperate measures to attack small gold mining companies in the Sacramento area.

Moreover, Brandon's group of gangsters is now full of internal conflicts. Brandon's lack of justice and excessive favoritism towards fellow deserters have made other gang members deeply dissatisfied. Gangsters like Walker who choose to leave Brandon's gang

Not a few.

As for whether Walker might be a bait sent by Brandon to hook him, Liang Yao also considered this issue.

After careful analysis, Liang Yao concluded that this was not possible.

First, given Walker's character and loyalty to Brandon, Walker would not take the risk of undertaking such a dangerous mission for Brandon with no return.

The second reason is that it’s too late for Brandon to hide from him now, so he doesn’t have the courage to actively provoke him.

What's the use if Brandon can defeat his troops once, twice or even three times?

Liang Yao and Brandon's financial resources and resources are not at the same level.

Even if Liang Yao's start is unfavorable, he can still recruit another team with considerable numbers and good combat capabilities.

In other words, he, Liang Yao, could lose ten or eight times without breaking a sweat, and Brandon could not afford to lose even once.

The Pomo and Maidu are the two Indian tribes closest to San Francisco and Sacramento.

More than two hundred kilometers north of the Sacramento area is the territory of these two Indian tribes.

The trade between Liang Yao and the Indian tribes was mainly conducted with these two Indian tribes.

In the past, Deng Wenkang was responsible for trade with the Indians, and this time was no exception.

In order not to alert others, Liang Yao did not change the size of the caravan, which was still a caravan of more than sixty people.

There were too many people, and he was worried that Brandon would give up and not take the bait.

With the number of people reduced, he was worried that Brandon would become suspicious and gave up the idea of ​​robbing the caravan.

For the sake of safety, Liang Yao deployed four squadrons of troops into the caravan of more than fifty people, under the command of Deng Yan, to strengthen the combat effectiveness of the caravan and withstand Brandon's first few waves of offensive.

Brandon had never had the idea of ​​Liang Yao's caravan before, but this time, Brandon was tempted.

Because this time, he finally obtained some information about the caravan.

The caravan not only carried 1,100 ounces of gold for trading with the Indians, but also carried a large amount of salt, sugar, cloth and other daily necessities.

These are all things that Brandon needs urgently, especially cloth. It is already early autumn, and winter will begin in two or three months.

As a native of Georgia, Brandon was not afraid of the heat, but he and his fellow Georgia deserters were somewhat afraid of the cold, although the winter in California was not too cold.

In the past, in the army, Griffin would distribute warm clothes and bedding to them on time every year, but this year he needed to rely on his own ability to survive the cold winter.

In order to ensure that this operation of robbing the caravan was foolproof, Brandon did not allow those untrustworthy rabble to participate in this operation.

The more than sixty people who participated in the robbery of the caravan were all trustworthy fellow Georgians.

Many of them came from the same village and town, grew up together, and carried guns to fight Mexicans together.

When Deng Wenkang's caravan left Sacramento and headed north, Brandon's people had already set their sights on this caravan.

Brandon was very patient and did not choose to take action near Sacramento.

The miners in Sacramento are very united. If one side is in trouble, all sides will come to support them.

Brandon suffered many losses in Sacramento, which is why even if Brandon's robbery in Sacramento was very successful, once he saw people coming with support, he decisively chose to retreat.

Brandon knew very well that once he was entangled with these people, he would suffer huge losses.

Not being greedy and accepting things when they are good is what a smart person would do.

However, the location of the attack should not be too close to the Indian territory, because the Indians of the Pomo and Maidu tribes will also support Liang Yao's caravan.

Therefore, Brandon decided to wait until the caravan was at least sixty kilometers away from Sacramento before taking action.

Although in terms of numbers, he is not much larger than this caravan.

But in his eyes, these caravans composed of Chinese people were just a ragtag group of people and did not have much fighting power.

What's more, a large part of the reason why his bandit team was able to dominate the California area was that the weapons they were equipped with were the most advanced rifled guns in the United States.

Their personnel are all soldiers who have received serious military training. This configuration is a dimensionality-reducing strike against other bandit groups or the targets of robbery.

Brandon believed that they would soon defeat the caravan and easily seize the supplies they desperately needed.

If there are enough supplies, he may also consider sharing some supplies with John of the Astor family.

Brandon chose a mountainous area with sparse forests and a relatively wide view as the ambush site.

There are no tall trees here, but there are enough bushes for hiding. As long as they don't stand up or make loud noises, it will be difficult for them to be discovered by the caravan.

Moreover, it is located high up, with a panoramic view of the trade trail, making it a perfect location for an ambush.

The caravan quickly entered their ambush circle, and when they were still about 150 yards (137.16 meters) away, Brandon ordered a shot.

"shooting!"

The rifled version of the Springfield M1842 has a maximum effective range of 300 yards (274.32 meters), and a distance of 200 yards is enough to effectively kill caravan personnel.

Deng Yan was very cautious along the way. He had already realized that he was being targeted by the gangsters.

Just to avoid alerting others, he still pretended that nothing had happened, and under the guidance of Deng Wenkang, continued to move forward along the trade trail they had opened up.

"Enemy attack! Find cover!"

Deng Yan ordered loudly.

Although four or five of his companions were shot and fell, the remaining people still quickly cut off the noose on the horse's back and allowed the frightened packhorse to run away.

What they needed was the sandbags loaded on the carriage as a bunker, not the horses.

With the help of the carriage's cover, the opponent fired the second time, and only one soldier was hit in the shoulder by a stray bullet.

Deng Yan pulled Deng Wenkang aside and ordered Deng Wenkang to lie down and don't move. He calmly directed the soldiers and caravan guards to hide behind the carriage and orderly and condescendingly marched towards him.

The gangsters fought back.

The gangsters who had just stood up from the bushes to shoot, four of them were shot and fell in an instant.

"Brother, where did you buy this gun? It's damn accurate!"

A caravan guard saw a soldier accurately knocking down a gangster a hundred yards away, and exclaimed as he looked at the gun in his hand that was exactly the same as his.

"Stop talking nonsense, retract it and reload immediately after shooting! Bullets don't have eyes!"

Deng Yan gave the nonsense caravan guard a hard kick and directed the soldiers to fight back in an orderly manner against the bandits on the hilltop.

Since the carriage was used as a cover, the opponent's terrain advantage was greatly weakened.

"Sand! It's sand! Their carriage is loaded with sand!"

The gangsters' eyes were filled with wonder as they pressed forward until they were only seventy or eighty yards away from the caravan.

He saw that what flowed out of the sack that was hit by the bullet was not sucrose or sea salt, but yellow sand.

The sand flowing out of the sandbag made him realize that this was a trap and not a caravan at all.

But as soon as he shouted these words, several Mini bullets were accurately shot into his chest, shattering his heart and lungs, killing him on the spot.

The voice of the words was covered up by the fierce gunfire, and Brandon did not hear clearly what the person in front of him was shouting.

But his intuition also told him that this was not a caravan at all, but a group of well-trained soldiers.

A bullet passed just a fist away from Brandon's face and hit the trunk of a century-old pine next to him.

The flying sawdust scratched his face. At this time, Brandon ignored the pain on his face. He lay down subconsciously and turned his head to glance at the tree trunk that had just been hit.

A modified Mini bullet was deeply embedded in the tree trunk, which also explained why the opponent's shooting was so accurate.

This is a trap!

"Retreat! Retreat! Retreat immediately!"

Brandon didn't have time to think too much and decisively gave the order to retreat.

(End of chapter)