Latest website: After the French arrived in Cape Town, they organized another operation to try to attack the British prison and rescue the popular leaders. However, it is a great pity that the Boers-there was no such name at the time, they were still called the Dutch-traitors appeared again and the action failed. The French only rescued a popular leader named Babel, and he made a lot of sacrifices.

The French intelligence service killed seven people in this operation, and Treville, who was in charge of the operation, received a shot in the shoulder. Four Dutch people who followed them also died. Of course, they also killed more than two dozen British policemen in the operation. After all, the Cape Town colony was lonely overseas, and the level of police equipment and training was not very good, and even the ambush was not good enough.

This rescue operation shocked the British people, especially the combat effectiveness demonstrated by the French commandos in the operation, which worried the British people. Fearing that the French would take similar actions, the British quickly sent the other popular leaders who had not been rescued or killed during the rescue operation to the court for trial with the same efficiency as the French Revolutionary Court. They were hung up to air-dry on all charges of "rebellion."

Luckily, Babel escaped with the Frenchman to the countryside and hid in his friend’s manor. Then he started to move around, contacting Dutch people living in the countryside, and wanted to organize an uprising and besiege Cape Town.

"Mr. Babel, I don’t think you are capable of taking Cape Town." Philip Treville, half-armed—his companion is changing his dressing—said to Babel, “The fortress of Cape Town, though It’s a bit old, but for you who don’t even have cannons, it’s still indestructible—it’s a bastion after all, and although the cannons on it are a bit older, there are still a lot of them.”

"Can your French navy support us?" Babel asked.

Treville replied: "Of course the French Navy is willing to help you. But the French Navy lacks a port to support nearby. The sea conditions near Cape Town are mostly very bad. This makes the navy's artillery efficiency very low. The last time the British captured Cape Town, they mainly relied on the cooperation of the army. And your militia-I don't doubt your courage, but the tackling is not the same as the field battle. The requirements for weaponry and professional training are very high. You see, you don’t even have the most basic artillery. How can you fight for it? Besides, France has not yet declared war on the United Kingdom. (At this time, the United Kingdom has been fighting with the United States, but the French region has not formally entered the war.

Trewell was not making excuses. The fort in Cape Town is indeed very old. The old iron cannons retired by the British navy are still used in the fortress. In theory, just towing an armored cruiser from the French navy can use the new 100 guns to kite them to death outside the range of these cannons.

But this is only in theory. The widespread use of steam engines has greatly increased the speed of warships, but it has also greatly reduced the range of warships. In the age of sailing, the navy's voyage is almost unlimited. A sailing vessel of about 1,000 tons can complete its voyage around the world as long as it can continuously supplement food. But in the steam age, a steam ship needs more supplies. In addition to food and fresh water for people to drink, it also has coal burned by a steam engine and fresh water for use. In addition, the maintenance of warships has become extremely complicated. In the age of sailing, most of the maintenance work, even including major actions such as changing the mast, can be done by the sailors on the ship. However, in the age of steam, the difficulty of maintenance has risen sharply, and many maintenance tasks must even be returned to the shipyard. To complete. The result of this is that the range of operations of the warship has decreased.

In the age of sailing, if there is no storm or something, a fleet can be stuck outside of someone’s port for a few months. But in the steam age, this is almost impossible. France has several ports in Africa, but the scale is limited, and Africa's mineral resources are basically in an undeveloped state. (At the time of seaborne prices, shipping ore to Europe will definitely lose money.) If these ports are to support Fleet activities also need to transport coal from Europe in advance.

Even if departing from a French port in West Africa, after arriving in Cape Town, the time that French warships can continue to stay is quite limited. The sea area near Cape Town is in the westerly zone. As part of the Horn of Africa, it is deeply inserted into the world's most violent ocean current-the westerly circulation. The sea conditions here are always very stable-there are huge waves at all times.

Under such sea conditions, the warship shook so badly that the shooting accuracy was naturally messed up. Therefore, although theoretically the 100 guns on the French cruiser far exceeded those old iron cannons on the Cape Town fort, considering the sea conditions The influence of the naval gun will not hit the target at all unless it is close enough to directly kiss the fort.

Therefore, although the forts in Cape Town are old, it is still very difficult to rely on warships to deal with them.

"So, do we have nothing to do with the Englishmen in Cape Town?" Babel was very unwilling.

"Of course not, my friend." Trewell laughed. "You know, the British are also vulnerable."

"What weakness?" Babel asked quickly.

"Their food." Trewell replied, "Cape Town's food supply is almost entirely dependent on farmland outside the city-these farmland is cultivated by you. If you can organize and disrupt the British collection of food, Don’t the British stay in their city to eat? How much food can there be in the city? The British will come out to collect food. We just need to keep attacking the British ration team. When they ate the food, they will pay Can you hold it?"

For this idea, Babel expressed support.

But their plan was rejected in the gathering of farmers. This is also normal. First, many people’s relatives and friends are hanging in Cape Town to dry, so these reporters want to break into Cape Town to get revenge. Second, it is because after the outbreak of the war, especially after the outbreak of the war in North America, the prices of many agricultural products have risen accordingly. If they can win Cape Town, their agricultural products can make a fortune, but if Cape Town has always been in the hands of the British, isn't this money going to waste?

So they resolutely demand not to engage in those ink-stained things and just attack directly.

The reasons they put forward are not completely unreasonable. Before this, in order to encourage their fighting spirit, the French told them that the training level of British troops in the colonies was very poor.

"Because of the betrayal of the traitor, when we attacked the prison, the British had already arranged traps in the prison. Then, we stepped in, but we still rushed out of it, although we sacrificed in the process. Several comrades-in-arms, but we killed more British people. So you see, the British people's combat effectiveness is really poor." That's what the French said to the Dutch.

Of course, what the French did not mention is that they are not ordinary people. They are all elites selected from the special operations team directly under the Ministry of Public Security, and their weapons and equipment are far more suitable for urban combat than the British.

In Europe, weapons and equipment have already developed considerably. For example, in the European army, even the poorest and most backward Eastern Rome and Luluo used rifled guns. But in the far away Cape Town, the British still use muskets a lot. As for revolvers and pump shotguns, well, if you are willing to pay, you can also buy them from weapon dealers, but you have to wait for the British government to pay for the replacement of the army and police in Cape Town. It really has to be waited slowly-the arms race with France and the security war in Ireland have exhausted the British financial resources, making them temporarily unable to take care of changing the colonial army in Cape Town.

Therefore, in addition to the sudden ambush, the next thing is the most trained special forces, using advanced rifled guns, revolvers, pump-action shotguns, authentic Bonaparte melons, and using muskets and single shots. Colonial army with pistols and sabers. Of course, the French did not mention these situations for some reason, and the Dutch did not ask.

Therefore, the Dutch made some misjudgments about the combat effectiveness of the British colonial army, which also made them more inclined to engage in quick decisive battles rather than protracted battles.

Treville is naturally opposed to such military adventures. But he did not stop the Dutch people from taking risks. Of course, some people say that they do not intend to stop all of this. After all, the name of the plan for these actions in the Ministry of Public Security is called "Cassandra~lightnovelpub.net~ and this Trojan princess and prophet One of the major characteristics of the is that she can see the future, but no one believes the predictions she made.

As a result, the manor owners organized a militia. As far as the weapons of this militia are concerned, apart from the lack of artillery, their weapons are even better than the British army.

This is also normal. The manor owners bought guns to deal with Uncle Zuluhei. Anyone who has played "Civilization" knows how terrifying the existence of Uncle Zulu Hei is. Some people even abandon the game as soon as they find that they are next to Uncle Zuluhei.

In reality, Uncle Zuluhei is certainly not so powerful, but that is definitely not something that can be dealt with casually. So the owner of the manor buys guns for the lives of themselves and their families. Naturally, they buy something powerful. As for the colonial army in Cape Town, they do not need to buy their own since they have a country to provide standard equipment.

As a result, the manor owners used rifled guns, pump shotguns and revolvers, leading the colonial army by almost an era in light weapons.

However, these advances did not play a big role in the subsequent siege.