Cape Town (2)

After arriving in Cape Town, the France organized another operation to raid the Britain prisons and rescue the popular leaders. Unfortunately, another traitor emerged among the Boers—who were then called the Netherlands —and the operation failed. The France only managed to rescue one popular leader named Babel, and they suffered considerable losses themselves.

Seven France intelligence officers died in the operation, including Treville was shot in the shoulder. Four Netherlands who accompanied them also died. Of course, they also killed more than twenty Britain policemen in the operation—after all, the Cape Colony was isolated overseas, and the police were poorly equipped and trained, even their ambush tactics were not well executed.

The rescue operation shocked the Britain, especially the fighting prowess displayed by the France commandos, which greatly worried them. Fearing that the France might take similar actions, Britain, with the efficiency of the France Revolutionary Tribunal, quickly brought the other popular leaders who had not yet been rescued or killed in the rescue operation to trial, and then uniformly charged them with "rebellion," leaving them to rot in the open.

Having narrowly escaped with his life, Babel led the France to the countryside and hid in his friend's estate. He then began to make moves, contacting the Netherlands people living in the countryside, hoping to organize an uprising and besiege Cape Town.

"Mr. Babel, I don't think you have the ability to take Cape Town." Philippe Treville, shirtless—his companion was changing his bandages—said to Babel, "Cape Town's fortress may be old, but it's still impregnable Julien you, who don't even have cannons—it is, after all, a bastion, and although the cannons on it are old, there are still quite a few."

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

Treville replied, "The French Navy is certainly willing to help you. However, the French Navy lacks ports nearby for support, and the sea conditions near Cape Town are often very poor. This will make naval artillery fire very ineffective. Last time, the Britain captured Cape Town mainly through the cooperation of the army. As for your militia—I don't doubt your courage, but siege warfare is different from field battles; it requires much higher levels of weaponry and professional training. Look, you don't even have the most basic cannons. How can you possibly conduct a siege? Besides, France hasn't declared war on Britain yet. (At this time, Britain was already at war with the United States, but France had not yet officially entered the war.)"

Treville wasn't making excuses. Cape Town's fortress was indeed very old. It even used some of the old-fashioned iron cannons that had been retired by the British Navy. In theory, you could just drag an armored cruiser from the French Navy and kite them to death with a modern 100mm gun, well outside the range of those old cannons.

However, this is only in theory. While the widespread use of steam engines significantly increased the speed of warships, it also drastically reduced their range. In the age of sail, naval range was virtually unlimited; a sailing ship of around a thousand tons could circumnavigate the globe as long as it received sufficient supplies. But in the steam age, a steamship required far more supplies: food for its crew, fresh water, coal for the steam engine, and fresh water for its fuel. Furthermore, warship maintenance became exceptionally complex. In the age of sail, most maintenance work, even major tasks like replacing masts, could be performed by the sailors themselves. But in the steam age, the difficulty of maintenance increased dramatically, and many maintenance tasks had to be completed back in the shipyard. The result was a reduction in the operational range of warships.

In the age of sail, barring storms or other unforeseen circumstances, a fleet could be stuck outside someone's port for months on end. However, in the steam age, this was virtually impossible. France had several ports in Africa, but they were all limited in size, and Africa's mineral resources were largely untapped (given the shipping prices at the time, shipping ore to Europe would certainly have been unprofitable). To support fleet operations, these ports would need to transport coal from Europe in advance.

Even when departing from France ports in West Africa, France warships have very limited time to remain in Cape Town after arrival. The waters near Cape Town are located in the westerly wind belt, and as part of the Africa, they are deeply intertwined with the world's most turbulent ocean currents—the Westerlies. The sea conditions here are always very stable—with towering waves at all times.

In such sea conditions, the warships rocked violently, and their firing accuracy was naturally terrible. So, although theoretically the 100mm guns on the French Army cruisers had a much longer range than the old iron cannons on the Cape Town fortress, the sea conditions meant that unless the guns were close enough to practically kiss the fortress, they simply couldn't hit their targets.

Therefore, although Cape Town's fortifications were old, it was still very difficult to deal with them using warships.

"So, are we really helpless against those Britain in Cape Town?" Babel was very unwilling to give up.

"Of course not, my friend," Treville laughed. "You should know that the Britain also have weaknesses."

"What weakness?" Babel asked quickly.

"Their food," Treville replied. "Cape Town's food supply relies almost entirely on the farmland outside the city—farmland that you cultivate. If you can organize yourselves and disrupt the Britain grain requisitioning operations, will the Britain just stay in their city and eat? How much food can there be in the city? The Britain will come out to requisition food; we just need to keep attacking Britain requisitioning teams. Once they run out of food, can they still hold out?"

Babel expressed his support for this idea.

However, their plan was rejected at the farmers' meeting. This was understandable. First, many of their relatives and friends were being hung to dry in Cape Town, so these journalists wanted to storm Cape Town to seek revenge. Second, the prices of many agricultural products had risen after the outbreak of war, especially in North America. If they could capture Cape Town, they could make a fortune from their agricultural products, but if Cape Town remained in Britain control, wouldn't that money be lost?

Therefore, they insisted that we should skip all the drawn-out stuff and just launch a direct attack.

Their reasoning wasn't entirely without merit. Prior to this, to boost morale, the France had told them that the British Army in the colonies were poorly trained.

"Because of a traitor's betrayal, when we launched our attack on the prison, the Britain had already set up a trap inside. We stepped into it, but we still managed to break out. Although we lost several comrades, we killed even more Britain. So you see, the Britain are really bad at fighting." That's what the France told the Netherlands at the time.

What the France didn't mention was that they weren't ordinary people; they were elites selected from special operations teams directly under the Ministry of Ministry of Police, and their weaponry was far more suitable for urban combat than that of the Britain.

In Europe, weaponry had already made significant progress. For example, even the poorest and most backward armies in Europe, such as the Eastern Roman Empire and the Green Rome, used rifled muskets. However, in faraway Cape Town, the Britain were still using smoothbore muskets extensively. As for revolvers and pump-action shotguns, well, you could buy them from arms dealers if you were willing to pay, but waiting for the Britain government to fund the re-equipping of the troops and police in Cape Town was a long wait—the arms race with France and the counterinsurgency in Ireland had exhausted Britain resources, leaving them temporarily unable to re-equip the colonial army in Cape Town.

So, aside from the ambush, what followed was a battle between the best-trained special forces, armed with advanced rifled guns, revolvers, and pump-action shotguns—the quintessential Bonaparte's Little Melon— and the colonial army still using smoothbore muskets, single-shot pistols, and sabers. Of course, the France, for some reason, didn't mention these details, and the Netherlands didn't ask either.

Therefore, the Netherlands misjudged the fighting capabilities of the Britain colonial army, which made them more inclined to wage a quick victory rather than a protracted war.

Treville naturally opposed this military adventure. But he couldn't stop the Netherlands. Of course, some say they never intended to stop it at all; after all, the Ministry of Ministry of Police's plan for these operations was called "Cassandra." A key characteristic of this Troy princess and prophet was her ability to see the future, but no one believed her prophecies.

So the landowners organized a militia. In terms of weaponry alone, this militia was even better equipped than the Britain army, except for the lack of cannons.

This is quite normal. The manor owners buy guns to deal with the Zulu. Anyone who has played Civilization knows how terrifying the Zulu are. Some people even quit the game immediately if they find themselves next to a Zulu.

In reality, the Zulu people weren't that formidable, but they were certainly not easy to deal with. So, the plantation owners bought guns to save their own lives and their families' lives, naturally buying whatever was most powerful. As for the colonial army in Cape Town, they had standard equipment provided by the state and didn't need to buy their own.

As a result, the plantation owners used rifled guns, pump-action shotguns, and revolvers, giving them a nearly generational advantage in small arms over the colonial army.

However, these advanced features did not play a significant role in the subsequent siege battles.