An old-fashioned steam train departs from the Austin Railway Station and heads towards the only stop on the journey, the terminal station, Houston.
On the passenger list, Tom Smith's name was prominently listed.
The transmission speed of telegraphs will be far faster than the crawling speed of trains, and the world will gradually begin to enter the information age.
News from the telegraph station "accidentally" leaked that there were hundreds of gay gangsters lying in wait on the railway track, preparing to attack and kill Tom Smith.
Prepare to attack and kill the factory emperor in the Smith Factory area.
"Hmph, hum, hum!"
After fifteen hours of slow crawling, the train moved steadily forward to a small woodland on the outskirts of Houston.
"Woo!"
"Stab it~~~"
The train's emergency brakes made the passengers and cargo on the car begin to tremble in panic.
Fortunately, the train conductor saw some huge trees on the tracks in time, otherwise it would have definitely led to a train collision and explosion.
Before the train conductor could call for help to remove the few logs blocking the road, a tall man dressed in European aristocratic clothing walked slowly out of the forest.
He first took off the black three-cornered hat on his head, placed it on his chest, and bowed slightly to show respect.
Then he raised his other free hand and slashed downwards hard.
"fire!"
At the man's command, hundreds of young gangsters walked out of the woods and started firing at the train. Densely packed steel balls spurted out from the muzzles of these old-fashioned muskets that had experienced the Civil War.
How could an even older train block guard be able to withstand the penetrating power of bullets from these “newer” firearms that were in service during the Civil War?
Even the leather of the train compartment was beaten like a sieve by these undercover agents.
"Ceasefire!"
Seeing that blood had begun to seep out of the small holes in the train carriage, the tall man ordered his men to stop shooting.
The fifteen-minute shooting finally ended. In order to prevent Tom from being completely killed, each ambusher carried at least three muskets and fired in turns to prevent the chamber from exploding due to overheating.
The tall man waved his hand, and several angry gangsters put down the muskets in their hands. Regardless of the tragic situation on the train, they found the body of a six-inch strong young man from the pile of flesh and blood.
These temporary soldiers who were former local gangsters showed no respect for the corpse. They dragged the corpse by its golden hair and dragged it in front of the tall man.
"Master, this should be that trash Tom."
"Turn over and let me see."
"Okay."
Several temporary soldiers pulled away the golden flowing hair covering the face of the corpse, and a handsome German face with sharp edges came into view.
The smartest one wiped the corpse's face directly with his temporary military uniform, removing all the blood and other stains on his face.
The officer took out a cowhide scroll, which was a portrait of Tom Smith.
Due to the limitations of the times, in the era without portable cameras, there were no photos that could record the most accurate appearance.
This portrait was created by relying on the collective summary of Tom's appearance by two or five young men who had met Tom himself, and by relying on the professional portrait police from Washington who had been working for more than ten years.
"It's Tom Smith's fault. The flowing blond hair and this handsome face are the trademark, and there are still some calluses on his hands that have not completely faded away."
"There is no other such nouveau riche in the entire Texas upper class."
"It's a pity these clothes and leather shoes."
The tall officer bent down and touched the clothes on the corpse carefully. The feel of the cloth was definitely not something that poor farmers could afford.
That pair of leather shoes for a tall man would conservatively cost hundreds of dollars.
The thick calluses on the hands of the corpse showed that the corpse had experienced long years of hard work before death, but there were some signs of new skin growing under the calluses, which at first glance indicated that the corpse had just recently left work.
Based on these details on the corpse, it appears that the corpse is that of an upstart.
In the whole of Texas, there is only one person who meets these conditions, Tom Smith.
Several ruffians also took out the pocket watch from Tom's arms. The blood-stained diamond pocket watch all showed the luxurious life of the corpse during his lifetime.
"Master, this watch?"
"It's a dead man's thing. I think it's unlucky. If you want it, just share it, but remember to drag the body back to the train."
"Okay, what I've been waiting for is what you said, young master."
The tall man also knew what the rats in the sewers were waiting for, and he acquiesced in this desecration of the dead.
The rat leader raised his arms excitedly, and hundreds of temporary soldiers rushed onto the train and began to divide the financial belongings of the corpses on the train.
In this era, those who can ride the train are, no matter how good they are, small capitalists or small farmers who are divorced from production. Their financial resources are enough for these mice to live a comfortable life for a while.
Some temporary soldiers with low status can only go to the warehouse to see if they can move some valuable goods.
After about half an hour of carving up, the rats emerged from the gutter, stripped off all the property on the body, and then moved the body back to the train with satisfaction.
The mice followed the instructions of the mouse head and placed several tons of new explosives on the dilapidated and scrapped train. These new explosives are called TNT and are the latest products of Smith Company.
"duang!duang!daung!"
The flames soaring into the sky ignited the nearby groves, and these Yang Ji undercovers had already returned to the sewers in bucketfuls.
On the way back to the nest, Mouse Tou noticed that the hand he had just pulled the corpse's hair had some traces of light gold. He didn't think much of it and just assumed it was the gold pen he pulled out of Tom's corpse that had faded.
Three or four miles behind the train, in an independent train passenger carriage pulled by dozens of tall horses, a handsome blond man sat at the wooden table in the center of the carriage and feasted.
The blond man impatiently moved his messy but clean flowing blond hair back to prevent it from affecting his view of eating hot pot.
He also skillfully used chopsticks, which can be called magical tableware in the eyes of the guards around him, and tasted and enjoyed the natural beef produced by these Texas farms and ranches.
"It's so refreshing, so refreshing... In winter, you should eat hot pot."
After subconsciously saying that no one around him knew Chinese, the male protagonist contentedly put large slices of beef as thin as cicada wings into the copper hot pot.
Needless to say, this man is Tom Smith, who is theoretically dead.
"Mr. Smith, just as you arranged, Tom Smith has "died", and the next step is..."
"It's time for dinner, John. Don't talk about these work matters. Sit down and eat. Sit down and eat first."
"this……"
"Don't just stand around anymore. When it's time to eat, just eat together. You are all my life insurance during this period. Don't be so polite."
Tom called to the guards and John around him and invited them to eat the delicious copper hot pot together.
At first, John took the lead in resisting, but at Tom's insistence, all the guards sat down together to enjoy the delicious hot pot.
In order to conceal this carriage from others, dozens of tall horses were specially used, and the guards on the carriage were all Tom's carefully selected direct descendants.
Everything was done to prevent the information about Tom's fake death from leaking out.
Unless Tom dies, the flies and mice will not dare to come out to cause trouble.
So Tom needs to die for a while to let the messy things jump out on their own.