Night Raid (1)
In fact, while the Britain ships were patrolling the harbor, militiamen had been monitoring them from outside the gun range of the British Army frigates. These Netherlands militiamen naturally saw the Britain jettison various supplies, including lifeboats, and push the bow and stern guns overboard. They also saw the smoke rising in the distance, knowing it was a sign of reinforcements arriving. However, they had no way to contact the reinforcements, nor could they slow down the Britain retreat. So they could only watch as the Britain frigates escaped the bay. But they weren't completely powerless; at least they sent people to report the incident to Babel, who were not far away. They had just organized a cavalry, transported supplies including fresh water, and set up supply points along the road to Cape Town, where they stockpiled facilities for building a dock.
The Combined Fleet France and Netherlands fleet (though strictly speaking, there wasn't a single Netherlands ship in the Combined Fleet) entered the bay and anchored there. Small boats were then launched, and some soldiers began to disembark. First to land was a Netherlands army infantry platoon, who made contact with the Netherlands militia who were there to welcome them. Then more Netherlands and France began to land in their own small boats.
At this moment, Philippe Treville and Babel also rode up on horseback to welcome the "liberators" from the Europe continent.
French Army Commander Major Leon Berthier also landed in a small boat and successfully made contact with Philippe Treville. Before coming, he had learned from Marshal Berthier that Philippe Treville, an agent of the Ministry of Police, was in charge of the work here.
"Philippe Treville is a relative of Marshal Treville, and his brother is now our ambassador to Vienna. He himself was once an important figure in the Royalist Party, but after the Royalist Party dispersed, he relied on connections with some of his relatives who were inclined towards revolution—I'm mainly referring to Marshal Treville. Conversely, it's said that due to differing attitudes towards the revolution, his relationship with his brother was initially quite strained. However, they are brothers nonetheless. Marshal Treville's position is unquestionable, and his brother is a rising star in politics. As for himself, as a former Royalist Party, after joining the Ministry of Police, he quickly gained the power to take charge in such an important area."
I know what you're thinking; you probably think he must have gained his position by betraying other Royalist Party. If you think that, you're wrong. If Philippe Treville only knew how to do that, he would never have been promoted, much less become a leader. Being a leader is itself a high compliment to his abilities. When you get there, you'll need to work closely with him.
You're going to pursue a military career, while he's going to pursue a government career. The achievements you need are different, so there's no competition between you. Besides, the Treville family will be very influential in the future, and becoming friends with him will be very beneficial for you. Do you understand what I mean? Handle things well, and I'll take care of the rest."
Having received such an explanation, Leon Berthier naturally intended to express goodwill to Treville. He told Philippe that he had brought him a letter from his cousin, Admiral Treville, and expressed his hope that they could work together sincerely and make new contributions to France.
Treville then introduced Babel, the commander-in-chief of the Netherlands militia, to Major Leon Berthier. Just moments before, Babel had received official orders from home to be appointed as the provisional governor of the Netherlands in Cape Town, responsible for the recapture of the Cape Town.
The next step was to arrange for people to come ashore and begin rebuilding the dock.
Actually, the two Britain frigates hadn't gone far. They sailed west for a while before slowing down. The two frigates began to create some distance and, using the principles of trigonometric functions, began to locate the plumes of smoke to determine their distance from the steamships. If the distance was decreasing, they would prepare to turn to avoid the steamships. If the distance between them and the plumes of smoke was increasing, then at least they were safe for now.
However, the Britain were not only seeking security; they also dreamed of victory.
"Steam warships are indeed far more powerful than sailing warships. Under normal circumstances, sailing warships are almost powerless against steam-powered warships. However, steam warships also have a huge weakness. If we can make good use of this weakness, then we may very well create a miracle—a miracle of using sailing warships, which are a generation behind, to defeat steam warships."
In the operations room, Major Qiaosen, commander of the British Army fleet, addressed his officers.
"So what is the weakness of steamships? The weakness of steamships is that once they shut down the boilers, they become immobile for a short period of time. There's a long time between the ignition of the steam engine and the output of power; during this time, the steamship is powerless, like a dead fish floating on the sea. In a normal naval port, with its attached lookout equipment and gun emplacements, this weakness is no longer a weakness. But now, in the Saldanha Bay,"
"Commander, how do we know if the enemy's steamships have shut down their steam engines?"
"It's simple," Major Qiaosen said. "Once the steam engine is running, it needs to keep burning coal. And as long as it's burning coal, we can observe the black smoke they're emitting from a safe distance. Once we notice that the black smoke has stopped coming from the Saldanha Bay, it means they've shut down the steam engine. At that point, we can go back to the Saldanha Bay and create a miracle."
"What if the France never shut down the steam engine?" an officer asked.
"I reckon those Netherlands are probably planning to quickly build a dock under the cover of the fleet so that cannons can land. How long would it take to build such a dock?" Qiaosen asked.
"It'll probably take about a month?" someone replied.
"However, under special circumstances, it might be faster, let's say twenty days," Qiaosen said. "Even the most outstanding France steam warships in terms of range don't have enough coal in their coal bunkers to support such consumption."
"Sir, if the France were prepared, they might have replenished their coal supplies in Central Africa on their way here," an officer said.
"That's certainly very possible, but it's not enough to sustain them for more than twenty days," Qiaosen said. "Besides, we're staying in this area, and if they don't shut down, we won't suffer any losses."
An hour later, the Britain discovered that the smoke plumes over the Saldanha Bay had disappeared. Clearly, the France had underestimated their enemy. They never imagined that the British Navy, which had fled in panic after merely seeing a few smoke plumes, even pushing its cannons into the sea, would dare to launch a counterattack.
However, the Britain could not rush over immediately, because the sun had not yet set. Although they had a tailwind and could reach a high speed of 10 knots as they rushed towards the Saldanha Bay, if they rushed over now and were spotted by lookouts positioned at the entrance of the bay, the France would still have time to re-ignite their fires.
So they had to wait patiently until sunset, then they would take advantage of the darkness to storm into the bay.
As the sun began to set, two Britain frigates hoisted their full sails and began to rapidly approach the Saldanha Bay.
By this time French Army had mostly landed, but the artillery and other equipment remained on the ships. In fact, due to the arduousness of the long voyage, many crew members had also gone ashore, including many from the ships of the "Europa Shipping Alliance".
However, the navy still maintains basic discipline, and by nightfall, most of the French Navy personnel had returned to their warships.
It was the first half of the month, and the moon rose early. This wasn't necessarily a bad thing for the Britain, because without moonlight, it wouldn't be easy to find a few ships in such a large bay. However, the moon wasn't entirely beneficial to the Britain either— Britain used sailing ships, which had taller masts, and those masts were covered with sails, making them obviously easier to see in the moonlight.
Therefore, it was the French Navy lookout who first spotted the approaching Britain warship.
The two sides were already very close when the France colonial cruiser HMS Tradewind first spotted the Britain warship. However, the Trade Wind didn't have time to start the boilers and pressurize them. Edmondo, awakened by the commotion, immediately ordered the gunners to their battle positions. Now his ship could only be used as a floating gun emplacement.
The colonial cruiser had no armor; although its outer hull was metal, it was quite thin, easily penetrated even by spherical shells fired from old-fashioned iron cannons. Its main advantages over the British Army sailing frigates were threefold: first, its greater speed and maneuverability—an advantage now largely lost, as the British Army held a decisive advantage in these areas; second, its lighter, more powerful, and more accurate guns—but this advantage was diminished by the close-quarters combat at night. The third advantage was its use of semi-armor-piercing incendiary shells specifically designed to destroy wooden ships. These semi-armor-piercing incendiary shells were now Captain Edmondo's only real hope.