New Gods of North America

If we were to assess the overall state of the gangs, the danger, ranked from highest to lowest, would be: 'being ambushed by them' is greater than 'being chased by them,' which is greater than 'facing them head-on.'

Unless forced into a corner by law enforcement, gangs usually gather for profit, so if the obstacles they encounter exceed their tolerance, they are quite likely to retreat on their own.

Anyway, in Wayne's memory of more than a decade living in the West, he only encountered a gang that would chase relentlessly even after suffering more than half their losses once.

When dealing with them, it's different.

The ideal situation is to be able to raid their hideout, followed by ambushing their camp when they are dividing the spoils after a successful heist.

As for ambushing gang members on the road, it's not a good idea for bounty hunters.

Gangs usually ride horses when preparing to commit a crime, and if things go wrong, they can easily scatter and escape, and might even come back for revenge the next day.

To completely block them, you need suitable terrain and preparation, as well as enough manpower, which is not economically worthwhile.

Wayne tried to find a balance between 'reducing losses for all parties' and 'maintaining the detective agency's interests':

"With a gang of over thirty people, unless they all stand their ground, it would be a bit difficult for our detective agency to completely wipe them out."

"Therefore, if we don't want them to succeed, we need to attract their hatred as much as possible to prevent them from scattering quickly."

"So my initial idea is to split up a few people to silently take out the gang's squad responsible for sabotaging the railway. As for the rest, after the main gang force starts attacking, we will harass them from a distance."

"The overall goal of our operation is to attract the gang's attention while preventing the railway from being damaged, achieving the goal of 'luring' or indirectly 'driving' them away. Only then will we strike at the gang."

In America today, steam train robberies are not uncommon, so there are many existing cases that can be analyzed.

According to convention, before robbing a steam train, robbers usually arrange for a small team to sabotage the railway.

They usually don't do it too far in advance, even if they have placed explosives, they will mostly confirm the detonation after they can see the target train through a telescope.

The main force will signal a warning closer to the direction from which the steam train is coming, forcing the steam train to stop in advance, and then carry out the robbery.

Although examples of blowing up bridges or railways are not uncommon, most robbers often take certain measures to avoid serious accidents involving train wrecks and deaths.

For example, they try to choose relatively flat terrain for the sabotage, or give timely warnings with gunshots and explosions, leaving enough room for the steam train to brake in an emergency.

This might be considered a manifestation of 'civilization,' but the bandits are actually calculating the economics:

First, and most directly, corpses usually can't cooperate with the bandits to voluntarily contribute the wealth on their bodies or in their luggage. Doing so does not improve the efficiency of the robbery and may even greatly reduce it.

Moreover, if it's just robbing the cargo on the steam train, or incidentally robbing passengers, then in America today, this can only be considered a 'minor case' that people are accustomed to seeing in newspapers—nothing more than 'seeking wealth' or 'some casualties'—basically only needing to evade the pursuit of local police and bounty hunters.

But if it causes a serious accident with major casualties, the unusually large number of casualties can easily stimulate the public's nerves.

After all, attacks and even massacres against towns may leave outsiders unmoved as long as they are far enough away.

But a vicious crime against a 'steam train' is, in a sense, threatening 'every citizen' of the American Federation.

Once public opinion boils over, the perpetrators may face a carnival-like 'encirclement'—

Keenly perceptive politicians will not miss this good opportunity to earn votes and personal reputation. Politicians from different parties and positions will even compete for this using various resources. In reality, the federal government and governments at all levels will be angry about this.

Wealthy people and landlords in various places will also be happy to donate funds and use connections in 'major events' to show their benevolence and generosity.

The church will respond to people's expectations, mobilize dioceses to exert their strength, and proclaim the 'Holy Spirit's' protection of believers.

Reporters will frantically follow up before the heat dissipates, reporting on the newspapers in an avalanche-like manner, continuously attracting public attention.

Anyway, the most famous gang in America, the seven-member gang that caused the steam train to crash off a cliff,

It is said that before they were wiped out, they faced a blockade of at least 8,000 people from the National Guard and the Federal Army of neighboring states, as well as countless bounty hunters swarming in to hunt them down.

Not only did some cult organizations and local gangs issue statements to actively draw a line with them, but even many other criminal organizations seemed to have subsided during that time.

So since then, the local gangs have tacitly restrained their arrogance and tried to avoid causing indiscriminate 'mass deaths and injuries,' controlling the nature of the case within the scope of 'random personal injuries.'

It's just about making money. If there are no other purposes, don't make things so big.

Casually kill some people who resist and fight back, and everyone can just go through the motions...

After listening, Lina was the first to raise her hand:

"I'm good at eliminating enemy squads while remaining silent. I can also bring 'Chameleon' and 'Vine.' 'Swamp' is also suitable. It should be enough to deal with a few people."

These are the extraordinary ability characteristics of agents or peripheral members.

Although Wayne understood, he couldn't help but glance at Lina, "Please call your own people by their names in the future, don't make up nicknames..."

After assigning the named members to Lina, the rest belonged to the 'main force.'

Wayne continued to inform everyone of the preliminary plan:

"If the silent squad can take care of the people in the gang responsible for sabotaging the railway and ensure that the steam train can run normally, then what the main force needs to do before the steam train leaves is to lure or harass the gang."

"The ideal situation for us is to lure the gangs to a predetermined ambush point, cause casualties by detonating high explosives, and then counterattack."

"Considering that there may be other bounty hunter teams around, we will leave as many as we can while avoiding casualties. Do not engage in long-distance pursuits, and we must also guard against attacks from other teams. Does anyone have any questions?"

Willie honestly asked if he didn't understand, "Mr. Wayne, why do we have to start acting when the steam train comes? Wouldn't it be better to attack their camp in advance?"

Lina tilted her head and looked at Willie, continuing to lead the little kid astray:

"The gangs haven't started robbing yet. Without steam train workers and passengers as witnesses, who can prove that we are 'stopping a crime'? Even if we want to attack the camp, we have to attack their camp after they have succeeded and are preparing to divide the spoils, otherwise the benefits won't be high."

Although this is not very aboveboard, it is indeed the truth.

Before gaining enough trust from the employer, the detective agency needs 'work traces' and 'third-party witnesses.'

Wayne has tried his best to avoid losses for the employer and passengers. He can't even let go of this part of the revenue.

Then a peripheral member tried to ask a question, "Our numbers are already not dominant. If we split up a few more people, will the remaining ten or so people be too dangerous to attract the main force of at least twenty or thirty gangs?"

Wayne responded relatively formally to this:

"According to my idea, if the railway is not damaged, then the main force only needs to 'interfere' or 'harass' the gangs before the steam train leaves."

"We maintain the farthest distance and shoot at the gang's crowd, without caring too much about bullet consumption and accuracy. As for dodging bullets, that's what they need to consider."

"If a small group of bandits comes to chase us, we will try our best to counterattack and eliminate them. If the main force of the gang comes, then we will directly retreat to the ambush point. I don't think this plan is too dangerous. Of course, if anyone has other plans, they can propose them now and discuss them together."

Finally, everyone studied it a little, and basically followed this plan.

This involves the so-called issue of 'maximum range.'

Taking the currently common lever-action rifle as an example, the effective range of normal shooting is about 200 yards. If it is farther, you need relatively high technology and suitable fate to hit the target.

But if the requirement for hitting the target is not high, then you can actually 'throw' it, so that the distance the bullet can be shot is farther, and it can still effectively kill soft targets.

Theoretically speaking, according to the range formula, if the same muzzle velocity and gravitational acceleration are removed, then the distance the ammunition flies out at an elevation of 45 degrees can reach the farthest.

But in reality, the bullet will also be affected by complex factors such as air resistance and its own weight. The maximum range angle is actually about 30 degrees upward.

In actual measurement, the farthest distance that a throw can maintain sufficient lethality is about twice the effective distance on average. If you don't seek lethality, it can actually be farther.

It's a pity that doing so is basically equivalent to giving up accuracy. Even a slightly larger wind can be very crooked. Except for an army with enough dense bullets, basically no one would do this. In America, where arithmetic has not yet been deeply popularized, some people don't even know that such a thing exists.

Wayne finally put his hands on the table:

"So the code name for our operation this time is 'Biting the Tail.' The damage that can be caused in the early stage may not be great, but as long as the insult is strong enough."