In the Ninth District of Downtown, a group of ragged civilians are fiercely exchanging fire with the City Guard.

Their guns, though crude, cannot compare to the Empire's newest military firearms, but the City Guard, not part of the Empire's formal military sequence, does not possess weapons much more advanced than those held by the civilians.

The Empire's finest weapons are the recoilless cannons and heavy machine guns that fire copper-cased fixed ammunition, held by the Steam Knights, followed by the rifled guns firing paper-cased fixed ammunition held by the Guard Army.

These weapons were previously improved and designed by Perfikot, submitted to the Military Department, and produced by military enterprises.

After three years, these weapons have now been widely distributed to the troops, outfitting the vast majority of the Guard Army.

As for the second-line troops, they use smoothbore guns with paper-cased fixed ammunition, though slightly inferior to the rifled guns of the Guard Army, the difference is not too significant, as the advantage of the loading speed of fixed ammunition is very clear.

Whereas the weapons held by the City Guard and these ordinary civilians are the lowest-grade non-fixed ammunition smoothbore guns, some are even matchlock guns, not even flintlock guns, with shooting speed hardly impressive and accuracy abysmally low.

Thus, even though the City Guard and the mob have been battling fiercely on the streets for hours, casualties remain only in single digits.

In contrast, stray bullets that went who knows where took the lives of a few unlucky souls.

Therefore, when the cavalry regiment of the Guard Army arrived, they saw the City Guard and the mob facing off across barricades in the streets for half a day, the sounds of guns akin to popping beans, yet without any visible results.

However, the cavalry commander did not find anything strange about this; if they had accurate shooting, even cavalry wouldn't dare charge a formation of infantry slowly.

"How is the current situation?" The cavalry commander found the City Guard's Commander and inquired about the battle status.

Although, by military rank, this City Guard's Commander is a Brigadier, whereas the cavalry commander is just a Colonel, the Brigadier of the City Guard is a militia, while the Colonel of the cavalry commander is Guard Army, naturally differing by more than one class.

Thus, the not-so-easy-to-understand salute of the Brigadier to the Colonel became not so difficult to accept.

"The riot began in the eighth district, these insurgents were dissatisfied with the Empire's relief food distribution, someone stormed the relief point, and when we dispatched our forces to suppress them, someone shot at us, hence the situation escalated." Although the City Guard's Brigadier is not a professional soldier, sitting in this position is more for the decoration than duty, but not an idiot, promptly clarified the causes and consequences: "I suspect this is a premeditated riot because after the riot in the eighth district, there were riots in the sixth, seventh, and ninth districts as well, and they quickly responded to each other and began attacking the barricades we set up.

If you hadn't arrived in time, they could have broken through the barricades by nightfall, and by that time things would be out of control."

"Wait until night? No, mate, they won't see tonight's sunset." The cavalry commander's voice was filled with certainty, stroking his well-oiled, slick mustache, said: "You may not know, the Northern Territory Count has personally brought her Knight Order."

"What? The Northern Territory Count has come personally? Is this to annihilate all these insurgents?" The City Guard's Brigadier's face changed immediately, clearly Percikot's vicious name can terrify not only children.

At this, the cavalry commander shrugged his shoulders, then smiled, "Who knows? I received orders to reinforce; as for anything else, wait until the Northern Territory Count arrives."

"My cavalry is meant for charging; if you don't intend to attack right now, we'll need some time to rest, feed the horses, and adjust the state."

Because they came as soon as they received the order, the cavalry regiment was not prepared to engage in battle immediately.

Of course, the City Guard's Brigadier did not plan to launch an attack immediately, although attacking before Percikot arrives would indeed give a good impression to the superiors, he did not intend to initiate the attack just like this.

Though the hit rate of the smoothbore guns is heartening, this is based on the premise that both sides have barricades as defense.

To attack means engaging in the fiercest street fighting, even with the cavalry support of the Guard Army, it will cause significant casualties.

At this critical moment where the apocalypse is imminent, the troops in hand are one's own confidence in speaking; if losses are too great, then the position under the City Guard's Brigadier would be very unstable.

Moreover, this is not considered deliberate delaying; the cavalry commander mentioned that his cavalry regiment needs to adjust the state, waiting until the allied forces are ready to attack, no one can find fault with it.

Both sides are merely tacitly aware.

In fact, this minor matter is indeed trivial; even when Perfikot arrived personally, she didn't reprimand them, merely inquired about the situation on site.

"You say this riot is premeditated, on what basis?" Because of prior matters, Perfikot was extremely sensitive to such information and wanted to know why the City Guard's Brigadier would say this.

"Count, the situation with the distribution of relief food at the Empire's relief point, I believe you are aware, even though it's wheat mixed with sand, the food itself has no issues, washed clean and boiled into wheat porridge, although it won't fill one's belly, it definitely won't starve anyone." Hearing Perfikot's inquiry, the City Guard's Brigadier promptly explained the reasons for his judgment: "The distribution of these wheat porridge is not just a day or two; previously, those coming for relief had slight complaints, merely grumbling about not filling up or having sand, without other emotions.

But today they directly started storming the relief point, this happened too suddenly, without a fermentation or accumulation process, this indeed doesn't fit logic!

I have served in the City Guard for nearly thirty years, suppressing hundreds of large and small riots, I can responsibly say this riot is incited by someone, or else it is impossible for there to be not a trace of signs or contradiction escalation before the riot occurred."

Even though he's idling, the City Guard's Brigadier still tries his best to display his ability before Perfikot.

To this, Perfikot was a bit surprised but merely nodded slightly; under the influence of her crown, she would only remain calm and rational, objectively analyze all matters, and would not make any irrational decisions due to emotions.

So even though she was somewhat surprised by the City Guard's Brigadier's ability, she did not express anything, merely asked the City Guard's Brigadier and the cavalry commander beside, "Do you have any plans? I don't want this riot to last until tomorrow morning."

"We are planning an attack. The insurgents in the Ninth District mostly occupy the church area near the center of the district; that's where the relief point in the Ninth District is located. At that time, the church was chosen because it was the most spacious, and the church was also willing to provide help to the relief point." The City Guard's Brigadier explained to Perfikot, although not wanting to attack, it did not mean he hadn't thought about how to fight: "The church's defense is strong, especially with recent modifications and fortifications, needing heavy weapons to take it down.

So, I plan to let the Guard cavalry first charge the district's main road, clear the people on the streets, and then gather heavy firepower to attack the church."

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