Inside Dwyer Manor, Qi An, prioritizing safety, did not send private soldiers outside again.
Because there weren't many covers in the square outside, the remaining 16 people had just occupied all of them.
Now, apart from about 20 specialized guards for the manor's bigwigs, all the forces Qi An could command were here—30 cavalrymen, 16 guards at the manor entrance, 14 sentries on the four watchtowers, and 12 guards lurking behind the stone wall near the main gate.
This was also because a guard team of over 60 people had just returned to the manor after completing a mission today; normally, there wouldn't be so many guards.
After all, this was within 2 miles of Danfu City's downtown!
Normally, a few dozen guards with five machine guns would be enough to secure the manor.
Qi An was chosen as the manor's guard commander precisely because he was cautious.
With the enemy's situation unclear and nearly half of his guards already depleted, he decided to wait and see, no longer attempting to charge the enemy, and striving to hold the manor until dawn.
Qi An ordered all 30 cavalrymen to dismount, lead their horses back to the stables but not remove the saddles, and then the 30 dismounted cavalry guards also ambushed behind the stone wall near the main gate.
He also sent someone to the warehouse to immediately retrieve the last three machine guns and two 12-pound mountain howitzers, to be deployed at the manor's main gate.
Brendan and another elder, Rocky, who was also in the manor, sat opposite each other at a coffee table in the manor's first-floor hall.
From the moment Henry attacked the sentry before the last bend, the two quickly came to the hall, concerned about the progress of the battle.
After all, this was the first time the manor had been attacked by a formidable enemy in the fifteen years since its construction.
Now, the two also knew that the manor had lost 75 guards, while only one enemy had revealed himself.
But just this one bearded enemy caused heavy losses to the manor.
"Do you know the enemy's origin?" Rocky exhaled a puff of cigar smoke, his brows tightly furrowed.
"According to the guards' description, this enemy is unusually tall and proficient in marksmanship. Although he wears a mask, I suspect it's Henry from Fresco Town; he also happened to arrive in Danfu City today." Brendan pinched his brow.
"It seems Henry's combat power far exceeds our initial estimates. The matters at Dwyer Manor and the metal refinery should be directly related to him. Now, we just don't know how many forces the Sinclair Family has committed," Rocky said with a heavy tone.
"It should be quite a few, mainly because Henry, this arrowhead, is too sharp. I now strongly suspect that the collapse of Danfu City's black market more than an hour ago was also done by Henry and the Sinclair Family," Brendan said with an equally heavy tone.
"That's troublesome. Over 200 people died at the black market, meaning the Sinclair Family deployed at least twice that number. If they are ambushed on the mountain road outside the manor, we are basically isolated," Rocky said, rubbing his aching head.
Brendan took a long drag from his cigar, then exhaled a thick cloud of smoke, hiding his face behind it, and said no more.
He could only hope that the seven machine guns and two howitzers could hold the manor until dawn.
As long as the other side didn't bring howitzers or cannons, the problem shouldn't be big.
Sinclair shouldn't be that insane, right?
During this period, the federal government placed almost no restrictions on private employers purchasing firearms, leading to private mercenary equipment gradually reaching a level comparable to regular police or even the military. There were even cases where private armed forces and the military jointly purchased equipment from the same arms dealer.
So, it was highly probable that Sinclair had cannons.
He was feeling very depressed now—although he had long known that mining magnates were not to be trifled with, the Sinclair Family's reaction this time was too intense, wasn't it?
'It was just killing over 20 people from their family's peripheral forces, plus a bounty on a young peripheral Henry; it wasn't even targeting their direct members!
Is such a big reaction necessary?!
Should have bought two more 24-pound howitzers.'
On the other side, Henry again used the last two corpses to truthfully and falsely repeat his previous actions, shooting down the machine gunners on the two watchtowers in the direction of the main gate.
He himself paid the price of 2 green bead empty shells and 4 white bead empty shells dissipating.
Taking advantage of the four machine guns temporarily falling silent, Henry flashed out half his body from behind the corner and began shooting at the gas lamps.
Enduring the gunfire from the 16 guards near the manor entrance, Henry spent 17 seconds extinguishing all 34 gas lamps in the square, at the cost of 15 white bead empty shells dissipating.
This was also because the later it got, as the gas lamps closer to Henry were extinguished, the harder it became for him to be targeted.
Then, taking advantage of the enemy's panic and carelessness in the darkness, Henry again poked out his body and fired six shots, knocking down six exposed guards.
One of them could still make a sound, shouting loudly, "That devil can see us, hide!"
Henry, annoyed, fired two more shots at that lucky person, enduring the flying bullets, successfully silencing him.
The cost was another 2 white bead empty shells dissipating.
Taking advantage of the machine guns being silent and the pitch-black night, Henry ran sideways two meters and continued shooting.
"Bang bang bang" Henry shot recklessly, provoking the opposing gunmen to expose themselves and return fire.
A dozen seconds later, Henry successfully killed 4 more guards who couldn't resist exposing themselves to return fire and 2 sentries attempting to control the machine guns.
He only paid the price of one white bead empty shell dissipating.
Suddenly, he felt a chilling sensation—there was immense danger!
Henry put his gun into his space and dashed like lightning behind the rock at the corner.
"Boom!" A red light rose dozens of meters into the sky, illuminating the entire square.
At the same time, the rapid "tatata" sound of machine guns came, accompanied by sharp and clear whistling sounds, followed by dense "thud thud thud" impacts.
Where Henry had just stood, countless bullets swept by at high speed, breaking and felling some sparse trees behind him.
Henry poked out a small part of his head around the corner, oh my goodness—two howitzers and three Gatlings were set up about twenty meters behind the manor's main gate!
The Gatling was still furiously spitting flames, and the howitzers had just fired two rounds of grapeshot!
The flare stayed in the air for about 30 seconds before slowly descending and extinguishing.
Taking advantage of Henry being suppressed, Qi An ordered 10 guards to fill the positions of the 10 guards Henry had just shot, and instructed them to hide well, not to return fire with the enemy, and to only shoot collectively when the enemy dared to charge.
At the same time, the sentries on the two watchtowers near the main gate finally regained control of two Gatlings. Now the guards had 5 Gatlings that could fire simultaneously.
Henry, hiding around the corner, checked his release life progress bar: he had already released 89 guards, gaining 36 white beads and 53 gray beads, one of which had a circulating halo.
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