America 1881: Legend of the West

Hardy Woods is a rancher.

His ranch is more than eighty kilometers away from Albuquerque.

Influenced by his father, Woods is also a genuine Democrat.

They have one thing in common: they are as stubborn as a donkey.

Today it was just dawn, and he climbed out of bed.

The rancher straightened his clothes over and over again in the mirror.

This dress is kept at the bottom of the box all year round, and he only takes it out to wear on important days.

Such as today.

He was going to Albuquerque to cast his vote for Gardner, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate he supported.

"The carriage is ready, Mr. Woods," his hired hand and coachman came in and said to him.

Woods took one more look in the mirror before turning and leaving.

He turned around, picked up the ballot from the table, put on his hat, and walked out the door.

"Mr. Woods, you think it's our turn to be governor this time, right?"

The driver and the rancher chatted.

Woods' ranch is relatively remote, and there are only a few pedestrians on the road from the ranch to Albuquerque. Only strong winds occasionally stir up gravel on both sides of the road.

"That's for sure. Mr. Gardner looks much more reliable than that bastard mayor."

Ranchers are confident.

He stuck his head out of the carriage window:

"Hey Slade, how far is it to Albuquerque?"

"It's not far. If you walk for half an hour, you should be able to enter the city." The coachman's voice came from the front, "But I advise you to put your head back. The wind and sand are too strong along the way."

Woods nodded.

He was just about to get back into the carriage from the neck up when he saw several horses and a few people dressed as cowboys appearing in front of the road.

There was a carriage stopped in the middle of the road.

"Mr. Woods, what should we do now?" The coachman also saw this group of people, turned his head and asked.

It's not a good thing for such people to appear in this place. They might be murderers and hustlers.

Woods looked forward and back, a little worried.

He doesn't seem to have any good ideas.

Heading in this direction to Albuquerque, there is no way around it.

"Where's your gun? Slade?" Woods asked.

The driver touched the underside of his driver's seat

He was a little nervous.

"Here they are, sir, but there are a lot of them."

While the two were still discussing countermeasures, the group of cowboys had discovered him.

"Hey~hey! The carriage in front of you, stop!" A leader-like person shouted at him, "Hand over your guns!"

He held a revolver in his hand, while some of the other cowboys held repeating rifles and others carried double-barreled shotguns.

"Let's go take a look first." Woods was a little helpless.

If you resist, I'm afraid you will be beaten into a sieve now.

The driver drove the carriage slowly to the front of the group of cowboys.

The cowboys gathered around.

"Come down, come down." The leader opened the door of the carriage and waved to Woods in the car.

The rancher felt strange.

This doesn't sound like a robber.

If it was a robber, they would either drag him out of the car or just use a gun to make a bloody hole in his head.

"Sir, if you want money, I can give you all the money I have now, but please let me live." The rancher said to the cowboy leader.

But the cowboy leader didn't answer him.

This guy just looked Woods up and down: "Going to vote?"

Woods was stunned for a moment, but then nodded.

"Democrats?" the leader asked tentatively.

Woods nodded again.

"Hand over your ballot!" The cowboy leader looked at the rancher with evil intentions.

"Um, sorry, I don't have a vote. I'm going to buy a newspaper when I get to Albuquerque and cut it out."

Woods quickly began to shake his head.

He didn't even realize that his hands were still in the air.

"Search!"

The cowboy leader suddenly changed his color and gave the order.

Several minions gathered around, held Woods down and began to move up and down.

They soon found the ballot in the rancher's coat pocket.

The leader took the Democratic-printed ballot and tore it into pieces in front of Woods.

"I'm warning you, if our people find out that you dare to vote for the Democratic Party, no matter which way you go home, we will kill you!"

The leader threatened with a sinister smile, then turned to leave.

"Don't even think about it!"

The rancher who was being held down growled.

His temper got worse.

"The good days of you bastards are over! Just wait to be liquidated!"

The cowboy leader who was about to leave heard Woods say this and immediately turned around.

He raised the revolver in his hand:

"Then I can't keep you. Anyway, more than one or two people die on this road every month."

Woods closed his eyes.

It's okay to let him die, but it's not okay to let him surrender!

There was a gunshot.

The rancher realized that he didn't feel anything, and the hand that had been holding him loosened.

He opened his eyes and found the cowboy leader lying on the ground, his head bleeding.

The two men who pressed him ran towards the body of their leader.

Then, there were two more gunshots.

The two men also fell to the ground.

Woods raised his head and found that dust was flying not far away, and a group of men and horses were speeding towards him.

The leader held two gleaming golden revolvers.

While galloping, shoot in this direction.

Without saying a word, the rancher bent down towards his carriage and jumped into the carriage.

He lowered his head and huddled next to his seat to prevent himself from being accidentally injured by flying bullets.

Soon, the gunfire outside subsided.

The sound of horse hooves came from far away and gradually stopped around the carriage.

Woods didn't even dare to make a big statement.

But soon, the carriage door was opened again.

A yellow-skinned face appeared in front of the rancher.

"It's safe, sir."

Chen Jianqiu smiled and extended a hand to the rancher.

"We are detectives from the Border Detective Agency."

Woods straightened up, took Chen Jianqiu's hand and got out of the car.

There were several corpses lying around the carriage. They were all the cowboys who had blocked the road just now. None of them survived.

"The remnants of the Albuquerque Knights." Chen Jianqiu opened the coat of one of them and revealed the badge inside. "They took orders from Scott and the Republican Party and are here to threaten Democratic voters."

Chen Jianqiu originally thought that this branch of the Ku Klux Klan had been disbanded after Bourne's death.

Unexpectedly, he was still being raised by Scott and appeared at this juncture.

If White hadn't told him this information.

Chen Jianqiu really didn't expect that the old man would jump over the wall and start blocking people halfway.

These people are all gangsters who kill without blinking an eye. They say they are threats, but they will definitely kill people in the end.

"We found this group of people on the way into Albuquerque from multiple directions." Chen Jianqiu kicked the body on the ground. "It seems that the old dog was cornered."

Woods was thankful that he had saved his life.

"Are you still going to vote?" Chen Jianqiu looked at the rancher.

Woods nodded firmly.

"Row."

Chen Jianqiu walked to the side of the black radish, took out a Democratic Party ballot from his saddle bag, and handed it to the rancher.

"You go ahead and cast your vote." Chen Jianqiu said.

Looking at the votes, Woods suddenly realized!

It turns out he is also a supporter of the Democratic Party!

Now, in his eyes, Chen Jianqiu and the detectives behind him were white knights who came to protect him.

"What about you?" He looked at the Chinese, "The vote was given to me, what will you do?"

Chen Jianqiu's hand reached into the saddle bag again.

He took out a large handful.

That saddlebag is full of Democratic votes!

"I'm going to take care of the rest of the offal, and then give everyone the ballots." He mounted his horse again.

The same thing happened in Santa Fe, in Taos, around these polling places in Lincoln County.

The border detective agencies of New Mexico all mobilized to catch all the ghosts and monsters related to Scott.

The final voting results came out two weeks later.

Unexpected, but also reasonable.

Gardner, the amateur candidate of the Democratic Party, successfully defeated Republican candidate Davis and became the new governor of New Mexico.

Scott and the Santa Fe group's decade-long dominance of New Mexico politics is over.

"Scott! I think we can try harder."

In Scott's office, the fat congressman repeated:

"We can claim they are cheating, we can find ways to ignore them, we"

The fat man walked back and forth in front of Scott as if he was in a daze.

"This is not over yet!" He growled at the silent Scott, "We have to fight back! Fight back!"

In fact, for Chen Jianqiu, things are indeed not over yet.