Davey had long regarded this western land as his own territory.
Especially the city of Saint Denis.
After putting Jean Marc in the mayor's seat and having Bronte taken out by Dutch,
who in Saint Denis could possibly stand in his way?
Opium was profitable, sure—but it wasn't sustainable.
Besides, if everyone was smoking opium, who would still have money to buy his moonshine?
Saint Denis was teeming with gangs. A city of several hundred thousand people, including large numbers of immigrants from all over the world, made the law little more than decoration.
In reality, though, most of these gangs were small-time outfits.
To put it bluntly—they were just street thugs.
City gangs couldn't compare to the true outlaws roaming the frontier. In town, things were usually kept in check. Conflicts between gangs rarely escalated into full-blown gunfights.
Chinatown.
Donal stormed in with fifty hired hands and over sixty Cowboys—more than a hundred armed men in total.
The sight of so many armed white men threw Chinatown into immediate panic.
Donal had been simmering with anger, and now he finally had somewhere to vent it.
"Following Mr. Land's orders—smash every one of their shops."
At his command, the hired hands and Cowboys rushed into the opium dens and began wrecking the place.
The hired hands were relatively restrained, sticking to smashing and breaking things.
The Cowboys weren't nearly so disciplined. With an opportunity like this, why not pocket a little extra?
They began looting the shops outright.
"No—please don't!"
"Who are you? What do you want?!"
"This is Anliang Hall's business!"
A few tried to resist, but the moment the hired hands drew their revolvers, they fell silent.
Anliang Hall reacted quickly, gathering their men in short order.
More than two hundred of them surrounded the scene.
Donal didn't care in the slightest.
Bang!
He fired a warning shot into the air.
"Hey, fellas—take one more step and don't blame my bullets for having no eyes."
The street was packed with over two hundred men, yet Donal showed no hint of nerves.
If anything, he looked arrogant.
The Chinese men were holding sticks.
Every one of Donal's men had a revolver.
"They won't dare shoot!"
"Let's fight them!"
"Is there no law left in this world?!"
The men of Anliang Hall were furious. The opium dens were their most profitable business.
Seeing them smashed to pieces overnight, how could they not be enraged?
Donal couldn't understand a word they were shouting. He simply leveled his revolver at the crowd.
The hired hands and Cowboys gathered around him, guns raised.
The air turned heavy with tension.
At last, a leader stepped forward from among the Chinese.
"Sir, I am Zhang Youde, head of Anliang Hall. Why have you suddenly attacked our gang?"
Zhang Youde's English was rough and heavily accented, but the meaning was clear enough.
Donal sneered.
"You've crossed someone you shouldn't have. Mr. Land made it clear—starting today, no more opium dens in Chinatown."
The mention of "Mr. Land" caused an immediate stir.
Davey had some reputation in Chinatown, largely because Chen worked as his personal chef.
A few days earlier, he had also taken in a number of Chinese immigrants.
An employer who didn't discriminate against Chinese workers was rarer than a panda. Many had hoped to find work under Davey.
"On what grounds?!" Zhang Youde demanded angrily.
Donal burst out laughing. The hired hands and Cowboys laughed along with him.
"On the grounds of the revolver in my hand. Defy Mr. Land's orders, and you'd better be ready to face his wrath."
"And next time, it won't just be your shops getting smashed."
"Keep going. Smash it all."
The Cowboys howled with laughter as they continued looting and wrecking the dens. Some of the hired hands stayed in the street, keeping the Anliang Hall men at gunpoint.
Zhang Youde clenched his fists so tightly his nails dug into his palms, but he didn't dare speak again.
"Boss, let's fight them!"
"Are you insane? They've got guns—what are we fighting them with?"
"They're Mr. Land's men. They will shoot."
"Did anyone call the police?"
"Those damn white pigs—the station refused to take our report. They wouldn't even let our people through the front gate."
In this era, Chinese immigrants had been stripped of nearly all political rights.
When the Saint Denis police learned it was Davey's men causing trouble in Chinatown, they didn't even bother showing up.
They simply drove away the Chinese who tried to report the incident.
As far as the officers were concerned, these people didn't even have the right to file a complaint.
Yet ironically, Donal's destruction of the opium dens didn't unite the Chinese community against him.
Most of them quietly approved.
Anyone with a shred of conscience despised opium. They had only kept silent out of fear of Anliang Hall's retaliation.
...
At the same time, Dutch began carrying out his plan to rob the streetcar station.
When Dutch, Arthur, and Lenny entered the station masked and ready to rob it—
a swarm of police officers suddenly emerged.
They had clearly prepared in advance.
Arthur forced the staff to open the safe, only to find barely any cash inside.
With police closing in, the three of them jumped onto a streetcar and exchanged gunfire with the officers.
This was far more intense than Donal's rampage in Chinatown.
The strength of the two Sharpshooters was on full display.
The officers outnumbered them and even gave chase on horseback.
But despite their numbers and heavy fire, their aim was terrible.
Dutch and Arthur weren't hitting every shot—but every two or three rounds, an officer went down.
The mounting deaths quickly rattled the police. Their hesitation gave Arthur and the others a window to break away.
"Slow this thing down!" Dutch shouted.
The streetcar was going too fast.
Arthur rushed to the controls and fumbled with the levers.
"It's busted!" he called back.
Moments later, the streetcar derailed. Dutch slammed his head in the crash.
The three men crawled out of the wreckage and immediately reengaged the officers in a gunfight.
Relying on sheer marksmanship, they held off the police assault.
The growing number of dead and wounded officers made the rest increasingly hesitant.
That was the dominance of Sharpshooters—show your head, and you were finished.
For a few dozen dollars a month, who was willing to throw their life away?
In the end, Dutch, Arthur, and Lenny shot their way through two streets, hijacked a carriage, and escaped Saint Denis.
The incident caused an enormous uproar across the city.
Without question, the Van der Linde Gang seized the newspaper headlines.
The Saint Denis Police Department suffered more than twenty deaths and over fifty serious injuries.
...
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