Chapter 437 Riot · 1
In the ninth block of Xiacheng District, a group of ragged people holding various weapons were having a fierce exchange of fire 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 imperial military hierarchy, have weapons that are no better than these. How advanced are the guns in the hands of the people?
The best weapons in the empire are the recoilless rifles and heavy machine guns that fire copper-cased fixed bullets in the hands of the steam knights, followed by the rifled guns that fire paper-cased fixed bullets in the hands of the Guards.
These weapons were previously designed by Purficott and submitted to the military for production by military industrial enterprises.
After three years, these weapons have now been spread to the army, and most of the Guards have been installed.
As for the second-line troops, they use paper-cased muskets with fixed bullets. Although they are a little worse than the rifled guns of the Guards, the gap is not too big. After all, the loading speed of fixed bullets is advantageous. It's obvious.
The weapons in the hands of the city guards and these ordinary people are the lowest-grade muskets with non-fixed bullets. Some are even matchlock guns, not even flintlock guns. Not to mention the impressive shooting speed. The accuracy is also very low.
So even though the city guards and the mob fought fiercely in the streets for almost several hours, the casualties were still only in single digits.
On the contrary, stray bullets that crashed into nowhere took away the lives of several unlucky people.
Therefore, when the cavalry regiment of the Guards arrived, they saw the city guards and the mob shooting at each other across the barricades in the street for a long time. The shots were like fried beans, but there was no result.
However, the cavalry commander did not find this strange. If they could hit the cavalry accurately, they would not dare to charge slowly towards the infantry square.
"What's the current situation?" The cavalry commander found the commander of the city guard and asked him about the battle situation.
Although in terms of military rank, the commander of the city guard is a brigadier general, and the commander of the cavalry regiment is only a colonel, the brigadier general of the city guard is a militiaman, and the colonel of the cavalry regiment is a guard. Naturally, there is more than one class difference.
So it is not so difficult to accept the brigadier general’s salute to the colonel, which seems difficult to understand.
"The riot started in the 8th block. These mobs were dissatisfied with the distribution of relief food from the empire. Some people attacked the relief point. When we launched the attack, someone shot at us, so the situation escalated." Although the Brigadier General of the City Guards He is not a professional soldier. Sitting in this position is more gilded than serving, but he is not a loser either. He quickly made it clear: "I suspect this is a premeditated riot, because after the riot in the eighth block, the sixth and fourth blocks Riots also broke out in the 7th and 9th 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 might have broken through the barricades by that time. It will be out of control."
"Wait until night? No, man, they can't see the sunset anymore." The cavalry commander's tone was full of determination, and he touched the oil he had taken care of. Slippery Beard said: "You may not know that the Earl of the North came in person with her knights."
"What? The Earl of the North came in person? This is to kill all these mobs. "Is that so?" The expression of the city guard brigadier changed immediately. It was clear that Purficott's vicious reputation could not only scare children.
The cavalry commander just shrugged at this, and then smiled and said: "Who knows? The order I received is to come for reinforcements. As for the rest, we will wait until the Earl of the North comes!
My cavalry regiment is used to charge. If you are not going to attack now, then we need some time to rest, feed the horses and adjust our condition. "Because they arrived immediately after receiving the order, the cavalry regiment was not ready to enter the battle immediately.
Of course the Brigadier General of the City Guards did not intend to launch an attack immediately, although Attacking before Purficott arrived would indeed give his superiors a good impression, but the Brigadier General of the City Guards did not intend to launch an attack just like that.
Although the hit rate of the muskets was impressive, this was established. Under the premise that both sides have barricades as defenses
If they attack, they will have to fight the most intense street fighting, which will cause huge casualties even if they are supported by the Guards cavalry.
At this critical moment when the end is about to come, the troops in hand are the confidence to speak. If the loss is too great, the position under the brigadier general of the city guard will be very unstable.
Besides, this is not a deliberate delay. The commander of the cavalry regiment said that his cavalry regiment needs to adjust its status. He will wait for the friendly forces to adjust before attacking. No one can find any fault.
Both parties are just tacitly understanding it.
In fact, this little thing really doesn't matter. Even after Purficott arrived in person, he did not reprimand them, but simply asked about the situation at the scene.
"You said this riot was premeditated. What's the basis for it?" Because of the previous incident, Purficott was very sensitive to this kind of information and wanted to know why the Brigadier General of the City Guards said that.
"Your Majesty, I believe you are also aware of the relief grain distributed by the empire's relief points. Although it is wheat mixed with sand, the grain itself is not a problem. After washing it and boiling it into wheat porridge, although it is not full, it is People will definitely not starve to death." Upon hearing Purficott's inquiry, the Brigadier General of the City Guards quickly explained to her the reasons for his judgment: "These wheat porridges are not distributed every day or two. Although the people who came to receive relief before were There were some complaints, but they were just complaints about not having enough to eat or there was sand, and no other emotions.
But today they started directly attacking the relief points. This came so suddenly, without any fermentation in the middle. Or the accumulation process, this is really inconsistent with common sense!
I have served in the city guard for almost thirty years and have suppressed hundreds of riots, large and small. I can responsibly say that this riot is Someone is provoking it, otherwise it would be impossible for there to be no warning or intensification of conflicts before the riot."
Although he is a dawdler, the Brigadier General of the City Guards still tried his best to behave in front of Purficott. Show your ability.
Perfect was a little surprised by this, but she just nodded slightly. Under the influence of the crown, she will only be in a calm and rational state now, analyze everything objectively, and Don't make any irrational decisions based on emotion.
So even though she was a little surprised by the ability of the Brigadier General of the City Guards, she didn't express anything. She just asked the Brigadier General of the City Guards and the commander of the cavalry regiment beside her: "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. That is where the relief point in the Ninth Block is. The church was chosen because it was the most spacious and the church was there. We are also willing to provide help to the relief point." The Brigadier General of the City Guard explained to Purficott. Although he didn't want to attack, it didn't mean that he didn't think about how to attack: "The church's defense is very strong, especially the recent one. The renovation has also been reinforced. If you want to capture it, you will need heavy weapons.
So I plan to have the Guards Cavalry attack the main street of the neighborhood first, clear the people on the street, and then mobilize heavy firepower to attack. Church.”
(End of this chapter)