Warhammer: Starting with Industrial Revolution

The weapons hoarded by the nobles were mixed in with the relief food sent to the lower levels of the city and transported down via freight elevators by bribed guards.

They thought their plan was foolproof, but little did they know that from the moment they bribed the guards, the entire scheme had been exposed to Ronin's watchful eye.

The elevator arrived at the lower nest, where the insurgents responsible for the pickup opened the cargo box. Inside, there was not a single gun or grenade, only neatly stacked corpses.

At the same time, none of the hundreds of secret outposts in the underworld obtained the expected weapons.

Before they could react, the governor's security team had already kicked open the gates of the stronghold and arrested all the agitators responsible for providing backup.

A few die-hards who escaped the net still incited the gathered refugees as planned. Thousands of people from the lower classes, driven to despair by hunger and hopelessness, confronted the PDF garrison at the main entrance of Xiachao with steel pipes, pickaxes, and homemade Molotov cocktails.

At that moment, Luo Ning stepped forward from the rear of the army confronting them.

The garrison soldiers panicked when they saw him heading straight for the front line of the standoff, and they all drew their guns and surrounded him: "Lord Luo Ning! Danger! You can't go any further!"

Ronin waved his hand and shouted to the people in front of him, "Residents of the Lower Nest, I am Ronin, the assistant to the governor of Vatos VII. I think some of you should recognize me."

His voice, amplified by the loudspeaker, resonated clearly throughout the passageway, instantly silencing the noisy crowd.

The refugees opposite also stirred instantly. Their numb and fierce eyes were now filled with deep confusion as they stared intently at this important figure from Shangchao.

Everyone thought that the governor's assistant would hide behind the army and order the suppression, but to everyone's surprise, he pushed aside the soldiers blocking his way and stood alone in the very center of the two armies' lines.

"I know why you're standing here. You drink sludge mixed with oil, breathe air that can kill, eat corpse starch whose origin is unknown, your children starve to death in your arms, your relatives die of disease in your huts, while the nobles of Upper Nest are eating the flesh of Grox and drinking the finest brews from the world of Hive City."

One sentence instantly struck a nerve with everyone present, and the crowd erupted in chaos, with countless angry roars surging forth:

"What's the point of saying all this now?!"

"My child starved to death three days ago! Your relief supplies have never been delivered on time!"

"You only remember us when you need slaves; when have you ever cared whether we live or die?!"

"Rather than live a life worse than death, let's take a gamble! Even if we die, we'll take a few of our kind down with us!"

Amid the shouts, a few agitators hidden in the crowd shouted the loudest, their clear and distinct pronunciation clashing with the hoarse shouts of the surrounding refugees.

Luo Ning remained calm, simply raising his hand to signal for quiet. Once the crowd had subsided, he slowly spoke:

"You're right. For the past thousand years, the governor's office and the nobles have never treated you as human beings. In their eyes, you are no different from stones in the mine or machine tools in the factory—just consumables."

But now, things are different.

"The workers in the middle-level factories used to work 14 hours a day, just like you, eating seaweed bread, and could be sent to the mines if they weren't careful. But now, they can get double the food rations, live in clean barracks, have one day off a month, and if they do well, they can even eat artificial protein."

"The slaves in the mines have been burdened with debts for generations, and their descendants are destined to die in the mines. But now, by working hard, they can be exempted from debts, become regular workers, drink filtered clean water, and no longer have to worry about dying in a mine collapse."

"These people, once just like you, were the most worthless expendable resources in this hive. But now, they have become human beings through their own hard work."

His words silenced the restless crowd once again.

The agitator hidden in the crowd panicked and immediately shouted, "Don't believe his lies! He just wants to trick us into laying down our weapons so he can kill us all! We swear to fight to the death!"

"Yes! Kill him! Charge into the nest!"

Luo Ning knew very well that these people were sent by the nobles to incite this group of lower-class poor people.

But he remained completely calm; instead, he raised his voice, using the loudspeaker to drown out all the noise.

"If I wanted to kill you, I wouldn't need to stand here and say these things to you."

"The Governor's Office only needs to blow up all the elevators leading to Upper and Lower Nests, seal off all passages, and cut off all relief supplies. In less than a month, Lower Nest will become a dead city. I don't even need to use a single soldier to kill you all here."

"But I didn't do that. Because I'm not here today to suppress a rebellion, but to give you a chance to turn your lives around, just like factory workers and miners."

He pulled a document bearing the official seal of the Governor's Office from his pocket and held it high above his head.

"This is a pardon personally signed by Governor Karl. Everyone present today, as long as they lay down their weapons, will have their past actions forgiven by the Governor's Office."

"At the same time, the Governor's Office officially launched the Xiachao Reform Plan: recruiting workers from all Xiachao residents, and those who do well will receive food rations, and barracks will also be built for you."

"What you want is not rebellion, not death, but to live, to live like human beings. Now, that opportunity is in your hands."

"Don't be misled, people!" Ronin shouted, interrupting the commotion in the crowd. "The Governor's reforms are proceeding smoothly. The next step is to reform the Lower Nest District. Your lives are about to undergo a dramatic transformation. Don't be deceived by those who don't even dare to show their faces; you've been used!"

Upon hearing Luo Ning's words, the crowd erupted in excitement, with some delighted and others skeptical.

But then, a gunshot rang out, plunging everything back into silence.

Someone fired at Ronin, but luckily, he missed.

The garrison immediately raised their guns and aimed them at the crowd. The soldiers shouted for the refugees to lay down their weapons, and a battle was about to break out.

Luo Ning remained standing in place, not dodging, but simply raised his hand to press down the muzzle of the soldier behind him.

"Someone shot at me, do you know why?" Ronin raised his arm and shouted to the crowd, "Because he knows the truth, he knows what I'm saying is true! So he can't let me continue!"

"The person you claim to be leading you in rebellion only dares to snipe from the shadows. He doesn't care about your lives; he only cares about using you as cannon fodder to destroy this hard-won change in the city."

The assassination attempt not only failed to intimidate Ronin, but also directly exposed the instigator's lies.

The refugees on the other side began to stir, and soon the commotion turned into a clamor, eventually leading to fighting and gunfire.

But instead of retreating because of the gunfire, people pressed forward even more relentlessly.

What Luo Ning had to pay attention to, however, was the ground in front of him, where a warhead had silently landed.

Those were the warheads that were stopped by the field of reversion. Before Ronin arrived, he had specifically borrowed the field launcher from Victor.

He wasn't the kind of person who acted recklessly without thinking. After all, not long before he transmigrated, he had seen the world-famous painting of the American president being attacked during a speech.

But he didn't make a fuss; he simply stepped on the bullet gently, as if nothing had ever happened.