Don’t raise unruly people in extreme cold weather

Chapter 437 Riot
In the ninth block of the lower city, a group of ragged people were holding various weapons and engaging in a fierce firefight with the city guards.

Although the guns in their hands are crude and cannot be compared with the latest military guns of the empire, the city guards, as an armed force that is not part of the empire's military sequence, do not have weapons that are much more advanced than the guns in the hands of these civilians.

The best weapons of the Empire are the recoilless guns and heavy machine guns firing copper-cased fixed bullets in the hands of the Steam Knights, followed by the rifled guns firing paper-cased fixed bullets in the hands of the Guards.

These weapons were previously designed and improved by Perfect, submitted to the military, and then produced by military industrial enterprises.

After three years, these weapons have now become popular in the army and are equipped to most of the Guards.

As for the second-line troops, they used smoothbore rifles with paper shell fixed bullets. Although they were slightly inferior to the rifles of the Guards, the difference was not too big. After all, the loading speed advantage of fixed bullets was obvious.

The weapons in the hands of the city guards and ordinary people are the lowest-grade smoothbore rifles with non-fixed bullets. Some are even matchlock rifles, not even flintlock rifles. Not only are their shooting speeds slow, but their accuracy is also extremely low.

So even though the city guards and the mob fought fiercely on the streets for almost several hours, the casualties remained in the single digits.

Instead, stray bullets that flew to unknown destinations took the lives of several unlucky people.

Therefore, when the cavalry regiment of the Guards arrived, what they saw was the city guards and the mob shooting at each other across the barricades in the street for a long time. The gunfire was like frying beans, but there was no apparent result.

However, the cavalry commander did not find it strange. If they could hit the target accurately, the cavalry would not dare to charge slowly towards the infantry phalanx.

"What's the current situation?" The cavalry commander found the commander of the city guards and asked him about the battle situation.

Although in terms of military rank, the commander of the city guards was a brigadier general, while the commander of the cavalry regiment was only a colonel, but the brigadier general of the city guards was a militiaman, while the colonel of the cavalry regiment was a guardsman, so the two were naturally more than one level apart.

Therefore, the seemingly difficult-to-understand brigadier general's salute to the colonel was not so difficult to accept.

"The riot started in the eighth block. The mobs were dissatisfied with the distribution of relief food by the empire, and some attacked the relief point. When we went out to suppress them, some people shot at us, and the situation escalated." Although the brigadier general of the city guards was not a professional soldier, and he took this position for the sake of fame rather than work, he was not a lazy man, and he quickly explained the whole story: "I suspect this was a premeditated riot, because after the riot in the eighth block, riots also broke out in the sixth, seventh and ninth blocks, and they quickly responded to each other and began to attack the barricades we set up.

If you hadn’t arrived in time, they would have broken through the barricades by night, and then things would have gotten out of control.”

"Wait until night? No, buddy. They won't be able to see the sunset today." The cavalry commander's tone was full of confidence. He stroked his sleek beard and said, "You may not know that the Earl of the North has come here in person with her knights."

"What? The Lord Northern Earl is here in person? Is he going to kill all these mobs?" The brigadier-general of the city guards' face changed immediately. It was obvious that Perfectcot's reputation was not only enough to scare children.

The cavalry commander simply shrugged his shoulders and said with a smile, "Who knows? The order I received was to come to reinforce. As for the rest, we can talk about it after the Earl of the North arrives!
My cavalry regiment is used for charging. If you don't plan to launch an attack now, then we need some time to rest, feed the horses and adjust our status." Because they came immediately after receiving the order, the cavalry regiment was not ready to fight immediately.

The Brigadier General of the City Guard certainly did not intend to launch an attack immediately. Although attacking before Perfectoct arrived would indeed give a good impression to his superiors, the Brigadier General of the City Guard did not intend to launch an attack just like that.

Although the hit rate of the smoothbore musket was impressive, it was based on the premise that both sides had barricades for defense.

If we launch an attack, we will have to engage in the most intense street fighting, which will cause huge casualties even with the support of the Guards' cavalry.

At this critical moment when the doomsday is about to come, the troops in one's hands are the basis of one's words. If the losses are too great, the position of the brigadier general of the city guards will be very unstable.

Besides, this was not deliberate delay. The cavalry commander said that his cavalry regiment needed to adjust its status. He would wait until the friendly forces had completed the adjustment before attacking. No one could find any fault with it.

Both parties just have a tacit understanding.

In fact, this little matter was really insignificant. Even after Perfect arrived in person, he did not reprimand them, but simply asked about the situation on the scene.

"You said this riot was premeditated. What's your basis for that?" Because of what happened before, Perfect was very sensitive to this kind of information and wanted to know why the brigadier general of the city guards said so.

"My Lord, I believe you are aware of the relief grain distributed by the Imperial Relief Point. Although it is wheat mixed with sand, there is nothing wrong with the grain itself. After washing it clean, boil it into wheat porridge. Although it is not filling, it will definitely not starve people to death." When the Brigadier General of the City Guard heard Perfectcot's inquiry, he hurriedly explained to her the reason for his judgment: "These wheat porridges have been distributed for more than one or two days. Although the people who came to receive relief before had some complaints, they only complained about not being full or having sand in them, and they did not have any other emotions.

But today they started to attack the relief points directly. This was too sudden. There was no fermentation or accumulation process in between. This was really not in line with common sense!
I have served in the City Guard for nearly thirty years and have suppressed hundreds of riots, big and small. I can responsibly say that this riot was instigated by someone with ulterior motives. Otherwise, it would be impossible that there would not be the slightest sign or process of intensified conflict before the riot. "

Although he was just a lazy person, the Brigadier General of the City Guards still tried his best to show his abilities in front of Perfect.

Perfect was a little surprised by this, but she just nodded slightly. Under the influence of the crown, she would now be calm and rational, analyzing everything objectively and not making any irrational decisions due to emotions.

So even though she was a little surprised at the City Guard Brigadier General's ability, she didn't say anything. She just asked the City Guard Brigadier General and the Cavalry Commander beside him, "What are your plans? I don't want this riot to continue until tomorrow morning."

"We are planning an attack. The rioters in the Ninth Block are mainly entrenched near the church in the center of the block, where the relief center is located. We chose the church because it is the most spacious and the church is willing to provide assistance to the relief center." The brigadier general of the city guard explained to Perfect. Although he didn't want to attack, it didn't mean that he hadn't thought about how to fight: "The defense of the church is very strong, especially the recent renovation and reinforcement. If you want to take it down, you need heavy weapons.

So I plan to have the Royal Guards charge the main streets of the block first, clear out the people on the street, and then mobilize heavy firepower to attack the church."

(End of this chapter)