Night Raid (3)

However, the other two colonial cruisers were moored quite a distance from the "Miracle." Although the Saldanha Bay was as calm as a large pond, it was still seawater, and there was noticeable swaying. Rumors circulated that the Academy of Academy of Sciences was researching artillery stabilization systems, but whether these rumors were reliable was anyone's guess. There were also rumors that a major task of the Ministry of Truth was to spread these kinds of things, both true and false, in the market. Many research directions, in principle, are indeed possible, but if you actually invest funds in research, you might stumble upon a technical problem at any time, and then what? Naturally, it's like controlled nuclear fusion power generation in later generations—always fifty years away from practical application. It is said that the Britain were led astray by the France in their research more than once, spending a lot of money and making considerable progress, but almost none of the results were usable.

Therefore, the current rumors about artillery stabilization systems sound very appealing, but whether they will turn out to be another huge pitfall where you can throw bundles of money into it and not hear a sound is anyone's guess. In any case, at least for now, neither Britain nor France has any warships using such a system.

As the lowest-end large warships in France, colonial cruisers naturally did not have this feature. Therefore, although the range of their naval guns had long exceeded five kilometers, in actual combat, the distance between the two sides generally did not exceed one kilometer.

At this point, the other two colonial cruisers were about 700-800 meters away from the "Miracle." At such a distance, the France accuracy was also low. The two colonial cruisers fired several shots but missed. However, the tracer design of the shells did show some effect; at least the impact points of these shots were getting closer and closer.

After several shells landed nearby or flew overhead, the Miracle finally spotted the other two warships firing at her.

The Britain didn't know the composition of the Combined Fleet, but they could guess that the France wouldn't send a main fleet for such an operation; most likely, they would send a few colonial cruisers. However, the Britain didn't know how many colonial cruisers the France would send. But considering that the ship that had been shining its searchlight on them wasn't firing its cannons at them, while two ships further away were firing at them, the British Army commander Qiaosen, aboard the "Miracle," made this judgment:

"The one shining searchlights at us now isn't a warship, but an unarmed transport ship."

Qiaosen immediately gave the order to turn the "Miracle" around and use the "Atlantic Transporter's" hull to shield it from enemy shells.

Qiaosen's approach immediately yielded results. The firing arc of the two French Army cruisers that were firing at the "Wonder" was blocked by the "Atlantic Transporter." Since the "Atlantic Transporter" itself was unarmed and immobile, the "Wonder" could have simply closed in and unleashed a barrage of fire.

With the distance between the two sides reduced to only a few dozen meters, almost all of the Wonder's shells hit their mark. The Atlantic Transporter burst into flames. But the searchlights remained fixed on the Miracle.

Qiaosen knew that sinking a ship with the guns of the Miracle was extremely difficult, but if the ship was on fire, that was a different story. Since the Atlantic Transporter was already on fire, and the fire was clearly getting out of control, Major Qiaosen decided to change targets and stop wasting ammunition on the Atlantic Transporter, and more importantly, stop wasting time on it.

The France warships are already starting fires, although it will take some time to restore power. If too much time is wasted on the Atlantic Transporter, the situation could become unpredictable.

And now, another ship—the "Lucky"—had unfortunately been hit by the France and was engulfed in flames. Looking at the fire on the "Lucky" from afar, Major Qiaosen knew he had lost Lucky. There was nothing he could do; his fleet was a whole era behind the enemy's. The firepower of their cannons was simply too far apart.

Moreover, because the "Miracle" had taken cover behind the "Atlantic Transporter," the France cannons couldn't reach it, so they concentrated their fire on the Lucky." As a result, the Lucky" unfortunately took several more incendiary shells and was now burning like a giant torch. However, at this point, the "Lucky" at least acted as a magnet for the shells, successfully shielding the "Miracle" with its misfortune.

The Miracle began to distance itself from the Atlantic Transporter. By this time, the Atlantic Transporter's searchlights had gone out because the fire had damaged the power lines. This gave the Miracle another chance to disappear into the darkness.

"We'll bypass the enemy warships and attack those transport ships," Major Qiaosen ordered.

Previous battles have proven that even if the enemy's steam warships temporarily lose power, the new cannons and shells still give them almost the power to kill with a single blow. Therefore, even under such circumstances, sailing warships are still no match for steam warships. The current situation of the "Lucky" fully illustrates this point.

However, Major Qiaosen felt that he didn't actually need to engage the France warships in a direct confrontation.

"Their docks aren't finished yet, so the cannons must still be on those transport ships. Destroy those transport ships, and we'll destroy those cannons. Once we do that, we've achieved our objective," Major Qiaosen thought to himself.

But where are the other possible transport ships? Two ships are currently ablaze on the sea, and theoretically, these torches should help Major Qiaosen locate the target. However, in reality, the light causes the pupils to constrict, making already dark places appear even darker.

However, the locations of those transport ships are still traceable.

Inspired by the "Atlantic Transporter," the three France warships also turned on their searchlights and waved them haphazardly across the sea. However, these searchlights clearly avoided certain angles while waving. Obviously, they knew there was something there that couldn't be exposed, so there was no doubt that the ships were in the areas that the beams of light deliberately avoided illuminating.

Qiaosen carefully maneuvered the warship, dodging the beams of the searchlights. He circled around to where the searchlights were deliberately avoiding, and sure enough, he soon spotted another ship.

The "Miracle" crept closer, when suddenly the other ship's searchlights blazed on, the beams instantly enveloping the "Miracle." The intense light blinded the sailors on the "Miracle," making it nearly impossible for them to open their eyes. At the same moment, gunfire erupted from the opposite ship.

In pursuit of high accuracy and the goal of severely damaging or even eliminating the enemy in the shortest possible time, the "Miracle" approached the target ship at a very close distance, less than fifty meters. This distance was already within the range where rifles could accurately fire. This volley of rifle fire immediately felled more than a dozen sailors busy on deck.

However, the Britain retaliated immediately, firing a salvo from twenty cannons at such close range. At that close range, eighteen out of twenty shells hit their targets, a hit rate as high as if an execution were being carried out at close range.

Even so, while solid shot might be quite lethal to the crew, its destructive power against the ship itself was very limited. There are very few instances of sinking an enemy ship solely with solid shot. Unless the enemy's powder magazine was hit directly, even if all the shells were used up and every single one hit its target, it would be impossible to sink the enemy ship.

Therefore, in the age of sail, the true purpose of cannon fire was to kill as many enemy personnel as possible, and then seize the enemy ship through boarding action. However, now, seizing the enemy ship was impossible due to time constraints. France warships were already on fire, and in at most half an hour, they would regain some power. Seizing the enemy ship in such a short time was simply impossible. Therefore, the British Army had to adopt another approach: using "scorching shells" as their primary weapon, hoping to create fires and destroy the enemy ship through the flames.

The so-called "red-hot shells" were actually solid iron cannonballs that had been heated red-hot in a furnace before being fired from a cannon. These red-hot iron balls could easily cause fires when they hit enemy ships.

Of course, these primitive incendiary shells were far inferior in performance to the semi-armor-piercing incendiary shells used by the France and Britain on their own newer warships. These shells were far less efficient at causing fires than the newer incendiary shells. As long as the enemy's transport ships did not have a particularly large shortage of damage control personnel, fires caused by these shells were not difficult to control.

On the other hand, these shells need to be heated before firing, which takes time. The number of furnaces also limits the number of "hot shells" that can be fired per unit time. Moreover, loading is also troublesome and reduces the rate of fire. However, under the current circumstances, this is still the most feasible solution.

Of course, cannons can't wait for the furnace to slowly heat the shells, so the Britain always included a few "hot shells" in each salvo, hoping to set the transport ships on the other side on fire.

The continuous close-range shelling, even with outdated weapons like solid shot, still caused significant casualties to the crew. Had the infantry on board not already been ashore, the death toll would likely have been even higher.

Due to the large number of casualties, the damage control capabilities of the passenger-cargo ship "Sheepdog" rapidly declined. Smoke began to rise from several places on the ship. If the attack could continue for a while longer, the fire on the ship would most likely become uncontrollable.

But the lookout sent a warning: they had spotted sparks coming from the smokestacks of the three French Army cruisers over there—smokests on steamships of that era appeared to be emitting sparks at night. Seeing these sparks meant the France warships would soon regain power. If they continued the attack, they would be trapped once the France ships were powered again.

Major Qiaosen assessed the results of the night's battle. Facing a France fleet that was significantly superior in both numbers and technology, his fleet had lost one sailing frigate; destroyed one steam transport ship; severely damaged another (which was already on fire, though it was uncertain whether the fire could be extinguished; however, Major Qiaosen felt that even if it could be extinguished, the ship was likely beyond repair); and possibly severely damaged a France cruiser. For a fleet with only two old-fashioned sailing frigates, achieving such results was almost a miracle. Such a victory would certainly make him a Britain hero. However, to enjoy the benefits of heroism, one prerequisite was that he must escape unscathed tonight.

"Cease the attack, Manfan, we're retreating." Having figured this out, Major Qiaosen immediately issued the order to retreat.

To be fair, Major Qiaosen's order was given a little too early. According to the recollections of those who experienced the battle later, he actually had time to fire two more volleys. However, in the darkness and chaos of the battlefield, Major Qiaosen couldn't have made such precise commands. Therefore, Major Qiaosen's timing in the retreat was actually quite good.

The "Miracle" slowly moved away from the battlefield and disappeared into the night. During this time, the searchlights of the France transport ship shone on her, and the three France cruisers also fired at her from a distance. However, due to the great distance and the limited firing angle, none of their shells hit their target.

By this time, it was past midnight, the moon had set, and the sea was growing increasingly dark. The Miracle quickly disappeared into the darkness.

Philippe Treville and Leon Berthier both witnessed the naval battle from the shore. The cunning and decisiveness of the Britain left a deep impression on them. Later, when Philippe was educating his younger family members, he mentioned this night more than once. He told them, "When you have the upper hand, you must be even more cautious."

After daybreak, the France took stock of their losses. From that night on, their Combined Fleet with the Netherlands could be renamed the French South African Squadron, as the only ship flying the Netherlands flag had been destroyed. However, considering their friendship with the Netherlands, the French South African Squadron lent another transport ship (the one that had been severely damaged) to the Netherlands; so, the fleet could still be called the Combined Fleet.

Besides this, there was another minor problem: with the Netherlands transport ships burned and sunk, the Netherlands couldn't find a large Netherlands flag to fly on the masts. However, this was easily solved; the France gave them their spare flags, which they modified to become the Netherlands flag.

In summary, despite being subjected to a despicable and shameless sneak attack by the Britain, the French Army Steadfast and methodically retaliated, not only repelling the enemy but also sinking a Britain warship. Achieving such a result under extremely unfavorable circumstances, at the cost of only a transport ship, and more importantly, without a single casualty on board, the France considered themselves victorious.

So that night, the French Navy and British Navy reached a win-win situation.

However, the losses in terms of supplies and personnel were truly substantial. In this battle, the Allied forces suffered 120 dead and a staggering 219 wounded, many of whom were seriously injured. Although these seriously wounded soldiers generally felt they could still be saved, given the conditions in South Africa, most of them were beyond saving.