Cai Mingsheng's 6-year-old son Cai Laixi was hanged to death in San Francisco Square.
Hanged on the same gallows that had once hanged Brannan's rival Jenkins.
In this ridiculous and shameless act, Brannan asserted his sovereignty over a city that no longer existed.
This time the person he hanged was not his rival, but an innocent child.
Brannan is now a madman and has no bottom line.
With a heavy heart, Liang Yao took Cai Laixi's cold body down from the gallows.
Cai Mingsheng spent half his life wandering, trying to survive alone overseas. Having a son in his old age was his greatest comfort.
Cai Laixi's death was undoubtedly a huge blow to Cai Mingsheng, an honest and kind man.
He usually doted on his son and was reluctant to beat or scold him even when he made mistakes. He never expected that today, the child would suffer such a cruel fate.
"Uncle Cai, Lai Xi's hatred is our hatred."
Liang Yao squatted down and comforted the fellow countryman who had helped him when he first set foot on this foreign land. He could understand Cai Mingsheng's pain.
Cai Mingsheng was so heartbroken that he fainted from crying on the spot.
Liang Yao carried Cai Mingsheng on his back and after settling him down, he issued an order to all the armed personnel in San Francisco: clear out San Francisco, attack Brannan's manor, and personally bring the murderer to justice!
Since Brannan chose to resolve the conflict in the most primitive and violent way, he would fulfill Brannan's wish.
More than 150 armed men quickly gathered.
This was a very large armed force in the western United States during peacetime.
Sven, who had just returned to the port, didn't care about the fatigue brought by the long voyage. When he heard that Brannan's estate was going to be attacked, he hurriedly sent people to dismantle two naval guns he had just purchased in Mexico from the ship. He took several boxes of ammunition and excitedly joined the army attacking Brannan's seaside estate.
For a while, gunshots rang out in the city of San Francisco. Liang Yao rode his armed men in the city to hunt down Brannan's hired gunmen and gang forces loyal to Brannan.
All commercial activities in this commercial city came to a halt, and the citizens of San Francisco skillfully fled the city to avoid unnecessary disaster.
The San Francisco police were originally on Liang Yao's side. They had no intention or ability to stop the conflict.
Apart from sending someone to inform Flagg, who was still in the military fortress, of this important news, there was no other action.
As for the sheriff of San Francisco, he is now Colonel Griffin, who has an army and is able to quell this conflict.
All these young policemen can do now is to stay in the police station and not get involved in the conflict, so as to avoid changing the nature of the conflict.
"We killed thirteen and captured thirty-two alive. What should we do with them?"
The city of San Francisco is not large at present, and the clearing operation of San Francisco was completed in less than three hours.
Deng Yan asked Liang Yao how to deal with these prisoners.
"Send it to the police station. It will be my gift to Flagg and the mounted policemen."
Brannan's hired guns and those gang members are just a mob after all, and their organization, combat effectiveness and fighting will are far behind those of Brandon, a gangster who was once a professional soldier.
Liang Yao's armed forces suffered minimal casualties in the clearing of the city of San Francisco. So far, only two armed guards and four armed young men from Chinese clans had been killed.
Liang Yao took a look and saw that the situation in the urban area of San Francisco was very complicated with crisscrossing streets and disorganized organization.
There must be some fish that have slipped through the net, but it is no big deal. The remaining fish have already been like frightened birds and will not pose a threat to his subsequent attack on Brannan's seaside estate.
His subordinates were far less familiar with the streets and buildings of San Francisco than the remnants of the defeated army who had lived in San Francisco for a long time.
A hasty and in-depth crackdown would only result in greater casualties, which would not be worth the cost.
Liang Yao ordered the clans to regroup and follow him to Brannan's seaside estate.
A team of more than 150 people marched towards Brannan's luxurious estate on the seaside.
At this time, the manor was already in chaos. Brannan issued guns to everyone in the manor, including the butler, groom, cook and even the maid, and ordered them to defend the manor to the death.
Brannan did not expect Liang Yao to react so violently. Brannan, who was already a little mentally ill, lost the ability to think calmly when faced with the sudden counterattack.
Little Brannan, who could barely walk, was so angry when he learned of Brannan's stupid behavior that his wounds burst and his blood pressure soared.
He couldn't believe that his brother, who had always been so smart, would do such a stupid and reckless thing.
Attacking women and children will undoubtedly push them to the opposite side of all Californians, and public opinion, which is already inclined towards Liang Yao, will completely stand on Liang Yao's side.
Liang Yao could just punish them from the moral high ground, and the public would be tolerant of Liang Yao's behavior.
And the Brannan family will get nothing.
He didn't understand why his brother became so irrational. Was it just to satisfy his competitive heart and fight for the so-called illusory pride?
"We lost." Little Brannan was disheartened. No matter how today's incident ended, whether Liang Yao could capture this manor that was as solid as a fortress, it had lost its meaning to them.
Even if they managed to survive, there would be no place for them in San Francisco in the future.
The outcome of the war between them was decided the moment Brannan ordered his evil hands to reach out to Chinese women and children and the moment Cai Laixi was hanged on the gallows.
Brannan successfully ignited the anger in the hearts of Liang Yao, all Chinese in California, and even the entire public.
Brannan had his fill, but he had lost everything.
Now they don't even have room to negotiate with Liang Yao.
Brannan built his private estate like a fortress, impregnable and daunting.
Even if an equal number of professional soldiers came to attack this manor, they would probably retreat.
"Even if my teeth break, I will take this manor from you!"
Liang Yao issued a death order, and now his subordinates were very excited. Even without money to stimulate them, they could still maintain very high morale and fighting will.
Especially those armed personnel from the Chinese clans, they had been holding a lot of anger towards Brannan for a long time and had no place to vent it.
"Sir, the cannon has been loaded! Shall we fire?!"
Sven seemed to be a very fanatical warmonger. He had already ordered the sailors to load the cannons and asked Liang Yao whether to fire.
"fire!"
"Yes, sir!"
After Sven calculated the distance, he adjusted the elevation of the gun and conducted a test fire.
He bought these two old 9-pound naval guns from a Mexican naval officer in Tijuana.
It was a second-hand product sold to Mexico by the British during the war, and by the time it came to him it had become a veritable third-hand product.
Sven was not very familiar with the trajectory of these naval guns. After three rounds of calibration, he finally hit the manor wall 500 yards, or 450 meters away.
Brannan built the walls of the manor very strong, or perhaps their artillery was not powerful enough.
The shells struck the wall, knocking off only a few pieces of rubble.
"How guilty is this guy Brannan to build such a strong wall."
Sven couldn't help but curse.
He underestimated the construction quality of Brannan Manor and regretted not removing a few more naval guns, perhaps the effect of multiple guns firing at the same time would have been better.
"Brannan, this brainless guy, has been causing me so much trouble. I wish I could twist his head off with my own hands, put it into the barrel of a gun and shoot his head into the sea."
Griffin showed up in San Francisco belatedly.
He did not come alone, but brought with him two full infantry companies, which was all the military force he could mobilize.
When Griffin learned the news, his first reaction was to suspect that he had heard it wrong. After confirming it again and again, Griffin had to accept this reality.
He turned back to the military fortress halfway, quickly assembled two infantry companies and rushed to San Francisco.
Unexpectedly, there was no fire rising into the sky in San Francisco, which was the only good news among the many unfortunate news.
At least it shows that Liang Yao is still rational.
The rumbling sound of artillery in the distance reminded Griffin and his soldiers that this seemingly peaceful city was in the midst of a war, although it was not a war between countries.
"Thank God, at least one of them has a brain that's not made of paste." Griffin looked at the city of San Francisco not far away and quickened his march to prevent a greater tragedy from happening.
Flagg was thankful that he was in the military fortress when the conflict broke out, otherwise he might have been directly involved in the conflict.
"Hey, hey, hey, gentlemen, what are you doing?"
Griffin arrived at the outskirts of Brannan-sur-Sea with his two companies of infantry.
The two naval guns commanded by Sven also became eight, and were continuously bombarding Brannan's estate.
Sven no longer insisted on bombarding the outer wall of the manor, but followed Liang Yao's orders to bombard the buildings and soft targets inside the manor in order to kill the guards in the manor and undermine their morale.