A few months after the dockers' union caught fire, the San Francisco Archives was also reduced to ashes in a flame.

Fires are not unusual in San Francisco.

In the three years from 1849 to 1851 alone, there were at least six fires in downtown San Francisco, and buildings including City Hall were burned down.

At its most exaggerated, half of San Francisco burns, and it is said that the reflection of the flames can be seen from a hundred nautical miles away.

Therefore, this fire in the archives did not cause much repercussions.

Everything that could be burned at the scene was burned to ashes.

Instead, the police in San Francisco routinely investigated the cause of the fire.

However, they found something on the spot that interested them:

Two charred corpses, two revolvers, one unregistered, one registered, and a Pinkerton badge.

In addition to the badge, there is other evidence that can prove the identity of one of the two bodies, that of a Pinkerton detective.

This brings the police to the fore.

These eyesores, you can finally get out.

William Pinkerton naturally would not admit that this matter had anything to do with the Pinkerton Detective Agency, and he insisted that it was a frame-up.

However, the badge can be forged, but the registered revolver cannot be forged, and no matter how big the fire is, it will not burn the registered serial number on it.

The captain who recruited Li Shiri gave his boss an idea, and he thought that he could follow the example of the trade union, emphasizing that this was the personal behavior of Li Shiri, a Chinese, to guide the matter to the root of the Chinese inferiority, so as to divert the attention of public opinion.

But he was scolded by William Pinkerton:

"You know that after the bill was introduced, it was illegal to hire undocumented Chinese workers, can you prove that person is a U.S. citizen now?"

The captain bowed his head and remained silent.

William Pinkerton was eager to throw this waste into the sea and feed it to the sharks.

What kind of crooked melons and cracked dates are these Pinkerton cadres in the west?

It's no wonder that after a few months of losing troops, it turns out that until now I don't even know who the opponent is.

The San Francisco police took advantage of the victory, insisting on several occasions that the Pinkerton Detective Agency was responsible for the fire, and prosecuted the "foreign monks" in state court. ”

The state legislators did not miss the opportunity, and they were also concerned about the impact of Pinkerton's power on the political balance in the state.

They drafted a draft statute restricting the Pinkerton Detective Agency's law enforcement powers in California, and submitted it to the state legislature.

After months of tug-of-war and bargaining, the eventual outcome ended with Detective Pinkerton's complete withdrawal from California.

In a fit of rage, William Pinkerton laid off all of his former California office and moved his Western Command to Austin, Texas.

He began to reorganize Pinkerton's team in the West, preparing to regroup, vowing to dig out the shadow opponent and crush it completely.

The main reason why Master William was so interested was because his father, Alan Pinkerton, the founder of the Pinkerton Detective Agency, sent a telegram from New York.

The tone is always "elegant and easy-going".

He said that if William disgraced the company he had devoted his life to, he would go straight to the grassroots level and become an ordinary detective.

The old man was seriously ill and his days were numbered, and William understood that if something went wrong at this time, the family business would be his brother's, and he would not have any hair.

On the other hand, after leaving the scene of the crime, Chen Jianqiu was not in a hurry at all.

He went to visit the painter again.

Nigo had already figured it out, to be precise, from the moment Chen Jianqiu walked downstairs yesterday, he had made his own decision.

Who is going to have trouble with money?

He packed a large bag of things, however, Chen Jianqiu told him that these things were not important, and when he arrived at Roswell, he had what he wanted.

There is money, there are people.

The next day, after explaining the follow-up matters to Huang Qingyun, Chen Jianqiu took several other people and embarked on the return journey.

When he left New Mexico, it was three, and when he came back, it doubled to six.

Everyone gathered in the newly completed Roswell Chamber to welcome Chen Jianqiu's return.

Everyone is happy because the core team of the town has grown again.

Only two people had a bitter face.

"What's wrong?" Chen Jianqiu walked up to Makqin and Browning and asked with a smile.

"No progress, all those problems with the machine gun are still there." Makqin sighed.

In the days leading up to Chen's absence, Maxim and Browning worked to improve the heavy machine gun, but with little success.

Of course, Chen Jianqiu knew what the problem was.

On the loading gunpowder of bullets.

"Where's your brother?" Chen Jianqiu's eyes swept over the crowd, but he did not find any trace of Makqin's younger brother Hudson Makqin.

"Bombed, lying in Lady Teresa's clinic." Makqin replied.

Chen Jianqiu was taken aback.

"What's the situation? Is it serious? He asked, unusually anxiously, eagerly.

In these years, if something really happens to someone playing with explosives, it may not be able to save them.

The image of Hudson, who was missing arms and legs, and was covered in bandages, had already come to his mind.

"Luckily, it's not a big deal, it's just a little dizzy and nauseous from the shock wave, and my mom said he needs to stay in the clinic for observation." Holly on the side interjected.

It appears to be a concussion.

Chen Jianqiu breathed a sigh of relief and settled down for a while, but he still walked quickly towards the door.

"I'll go meet Hudson first, and you can get acquainted with each other first." Chen Jianqiu said to Wyatt and the others in the council room.

He was going to meet the explosives expert quickly.

As he stepped through the door of Teresa's clinic, Mrs. Teresa was examining Hudson's eyes.

"I've had a bit of a brain hit, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem now." Teresa sensed Chen Jianqiu's arrival.

She turned around and said to Chen Jianqiu.

"Alas, boss, the smokeless gunpowder you mentioned is too dangerous." Hudson sniffed.

"There are experiments that scare you?"

In Chen Jianqiu's impression, this younger brother of Makqin was bold and careful, and he had studied explosives for a long time, and he had never been afraid.

"In fact, the development of smokeless gunpowder is not a big secret in the industry, and it is widely recognized that nitrocellulose is a direction. But ......"

Hudson paused, looking apprehensive: "This thing is too unstable, too dangerous." Boss, do you know how many times I blew up? ”

Chen Jianqiu shook his head.

"Five times! Didn't Makqin tell you that I changed labs? Last time, I blew up all the glass in the windows of the lab. ”

Chen Jianqiu looked Hudson up and down.

It's a miracle that this product hasn't been missing any parts so far.

"I now know why they don't have much interest in studying smokeless gunpowder, which doesn't have any practical value if it doesn't solve the problem of nitros instability." Hudson lay dejected on a bench in the clinic.

Chen Jianqiu patted his head.

He was really too busy some time ago and forgot to give the chemist and inventor a hint.

These are brilliant and intelligent people, and they often only need a hint:

"Why don't you try ether?" Chen Jianqiu sat down next to Hudson, "And ethanol, dissolve nitrocellulose into it." ”

Hudson was staring at the ceiling in a daze, and when he heard Chen Jianqiu say this, he thought for a while, and jumped up from the bench with a "Teng".

"Boss, you're such a genius!"

He ran out of Teresa's office and toward his lab.

(End of chapter)