Fox of France

In addition to the loss of personnel, the loss of materials was also huge, because the Netherlands sent fewer soldiers, so their ship had the most stuff on it. On the sinking ship, there was a large amount of coal, as well as gunpowder, medicine, and several cannons.

Fortunately, the remaining two transport ships also have these things. Originally, according to the idea of ​​the "Europa Shipping Alliance", each ship only loaded one kind of cargo, which made it more convenient for both loading and unloading. However, the French Navy stipulates that each transport ship must be loaded with supplies in a balanced manner to ensure that once a ship is destroyed in a shipwreck, the entire army will not be paralyzed due to lack of certain supplies.

In addition, there was a lot of material loss on the transport ship that was hit hard. However, because the cargo cannot be unloaded for the time being, a specific inventory cannot be carried out. However, considering that the cannon is relatively strong, it should not be damaged too seriously.

After this battle, the United Fleet re-established its security strategy. First, it set up a lookout post at the entrance of the bay to enhance its early warning capabilities. At the same time, it is stipulated that one of the three colonial cruisers must be on standby every night.

With the loss of a transport ship, the coal itself was strained. The loss of coal on the other heavily damaged transport ship is still not very clear. Therefore, some people have also asked whether this will cause the fleet to lack coal in the future and cannot return to Europe.

In this regard, Mr. Philippe Treville gave this answer: "Compared with Cape Town and the friendship between France and the Netherlands, the value of these warships is insignificant. So as long as we can win this battle, It doesn't matter whether these warships can return to Europe. Besides, after Cape Town is restored in the future, France will also open up a sea route for Europe to India. At that time, maybe we will build one on the east side of Cape Town The port, and the Dutch allies in Cape Town are watching and helping each other. Then these ships don’t need to go back. If they must go back, they can also send another coal ship from China.”

So the matter was settled. However, the British warships have never been here since then.

Most of the French soldiers also left the bay, and the pier was gradually built up. After about twenty days, the pier was finally built, and various materials and crucial cannons began to be unloaded from the ship. The military situation in southern Africa was completely changed.

But at this time, the French were not really thinking about Cape Town anymore. The French army came with a battalion, but only two companies went to the vicinity of Cape Town with the Dutch militia—of course They took all four remaining cannon. As for the remaining company, several geographers and port construction experts went east. According to them, France needs to find a bay suitable for building a port a little further east.

However, the Dutch militia did not lack infantry, so the French transferred a company to conduct geographical surveys, and Babel didn't think there was anything wrong with it. Among other things, having a French colony east of Cape Town would save some Zulu black uncles a lot of trouble.

The scope of the Cape Town colony in this era is far less than that of South Africa later, and the entire control area is only a hundred kilometers around Cape Town. The real core area is the river valley area near Cape Town. . At this time, the immigrants from the Netherlands didn't really care much about the highlands to the east, and they hadn't shown any willingness to expand there. In the original history, if it weren't for the various policies of the British that forced them to leave the valley area near Cape Town, they actually didn't have much willingness to go to the eastern highlands.

It's just that Leon Berthier, the battalion commander, decided to personally lead the expedition company and hand over the main force to Philip, which was somewhat beyond everyone's expectations.

Leon also gave Philip an explanation. He told Philip that one of the men on the expedition was a disciple of "some great man" and was working on a research project that might win the "Prometheus Prize." He is not very clear about the specific situation, but he must protect the safety of this scholar.

Philip naturally knew who "a certain big man" was, and anyone who could become his disciple must be a big man. As for what his disciple was doing here, Philip knew, don't ask about things that shouldn't be asked.

So Philip took two companies and four cannons to Cape Town with Babel's militia, while Leon took that company and escorted more than twenty "experts" to the east.

When the cannon reached the city of Cape Town, the whole situation of the battle changed completely.

These four guns are all breech-loading rifled steel guns, which far exceed the much larger iron guns on the fortress in Cape Town in terms of effective range and accuracy.

Generally speaking, the accuracy of the cannons on the fortress is higher than that of the siege cannons outside because they have calibrated the targets within the range. However, this is generally based on the fact that the performance of the two parties is not much different. However, the performance of the iron cannons on the Cape Town Fortress is so different from the French army's breech-loading rifled steel cannons that they are completely in a position where they can only be beaten and cannot fight back.

Although the rear-loading rifled gun looks small, because of the use of a new propellant and a higher chamber pressure, it is even far more powerful than those old-fashioned cannons that seem to be much larger than them. This includes muzzle kinetic energy.

Of course, what is even more frightening is that the accuracy of this thing is so terrifying that it can even directly hit the British gun positions with armor-piercing bullets outside the effective range of the solid shells of the British iron guns.

Of course, it is impossible to hit a hundred shots, but it is still very possible to hit one of five or six shots. Of course, the British have enough cannons, and they will be knocking slowly, and it will take a long time. But everyone can see that Cape Town is difficult to hold.

However, the British still hold a glimmer of hope, that is, they hope that the British navy can gain an advantage in the battle and then send reinforcements-they still don't know the outcome of the North Atlantic naval battle.

Of course, the French outside the city used propaganda bombs to publicize the decisive victory of the French Navy in the North Atlantic naval battle, but the British inside the city did not quite believe it.

And the British also know that the French cannons use special propellant and shells, and it is impossible to get supplies in South Africa, so they also hope that there will be a shortage of shells on the French side.

In order to lure the French to waste shells, the British even requisitioned the wooden pillars of the residents' homes in the city. They painted the wooden posts black and passed them off as cannons to attract French fire.

At the beginning, this trick really had a certain effect, but for some reason, this matter still leaked out. The French soon stopped being fooled. They now always let the Dutch militiamen feint with blasting tubes, and only after seeing the artillery on the fortress firing, they shelled the firing battery.

The British suspected that the Dutch who were still in the city had tipped off the people outside the city. Therefore, some people proposed to kill all the Dutch people in the city, regardless of men, women and children. However, after considering the current situation, the governor vetoed this proposal, and only kept these people under strict supervision. Moreover, His Excellency the Governor also said something in private with an influential Dutchman.

A lot of Britons are saying that the Governor actually wants to negotiate with the guys outside the city to win a better surrender condition for everyone. This is of course a rumor, but when spreading this rumor, everyone will add: "The governor is really a good man with foresight."