Good Governor

In addition to the loss of personnel, the loss of supplies was equally enormous, because the Netherlands had sent fewer soldiers, so their ship was carrying the most cargo. The sunken ship contained a large amount of coal, as well as gunpowder, medicine, and several cannons.

Fortunately, the remaining two transport ships also carried these items. Originally, the "Europa Shipping Alliance" intended for each ship to carry only one type of cargo, making loading and unloading more convenient. However, the French Navy stipulated that each transport ship should be loaded with supplies evenly to ensure that if a ship was destroyed at sea, the entire military would not be paralyzed due to a lack of certain supplies.

In addition, the transport ship that was severely damaged also suffered considerable losses of supplies. However, since unloading is not possible for the time being, a detailed inventory cannot be carried out. But considering that the cannons and the like are relatively sturdy, the damage should not be too severe.

Following this battle, the Combined Fleet revised its security strategy, first by setting up lookout posts at the entrance to the bay to enhance early warning capabilities. It also stipulated that one of the three colonial cruisers must be on standby with a fire burning every night.

The loss of one transport ship has already strained the coal supply. The extent of the coal loss on the other heavily damaged ship is also unclear. Therefore, some have raised concerns that this could lead to a future coal shortage for the fleet, preventing its return to Europe.

In response, Mr. Philippe Treville stated. "Compared to Cape Town and the friendship between France and the Netherlands, the value of these warships is negligible. Therefore, as long as we win this battle, whether these warships return to Europe is unimportant. Besides, after Cape Town is liberated, France will need to open a sea route to India for Europe. At that time, perhaps we will also build a port east of Cape Town, supporting our Netherlands allies Cape Town. Then these ships will have even less need to return. If they absolutely must return, we can simply have another coal carrier sent from the homeland."

And so the matter was settled. However, Britain warships never came here again after that.

Most of the France soldiers also left the bay, and the docks were gradually built. About twenty days later, the docks were finally completed, and various supplies and, most importantly, the cannons, began to be unloaded from the ships. The military situation in southern Africa was completely changed.

However, at this point, the France were no longer truly focused on Cape Town. A French Army arrived, but only two companies actually went with the Netherlands militia to the vicinity of Cape Town —of course, they took all four remaining cannons with them. The remaining company, however, went east with several geographers and port construction experts. According to them, France needed to find a suitable bay further east to build a port.

However, the Netherlands militia didn't lack infantry, so Babel didn't see anything wrong with the France sending a company to conduct geographical surveys. For one thing, having a France colony east of Cape Town would reduce some of the trouble caused by the Zulu uncles.

At this time, the Cape Colony was far smaller than the later South Africa, with its entire controlled area limited to a radius of only about 100 kilometers around Cape Town. The true core area was the river valley region near Cape Town. The Netherlands settlers at this time didn't really care about the higher regions further east, nor did they show any desire to expand there. In the original history, if it weren't for various Britain policies that forced them to leave the river valley region near Cape Town, they wouldn't have had much desire to move to the eastern highlands.

However, it was somewhat unexpected that Leon Berthier, as the battalion commander, would personally lead the expedition company, leaving the main force to Philippe.

Leon also gave Philippe an explanation. He told Philippe that there was a student in the expedition who was "some big shot" and was working on a research project that could potentially win the "Prometheus Prize." He didn't know the specifics, but he had to protect the scholar's safety.

Philippe naturally knew who "some big shot" was. Anyone who could become his disciple must be a big shot. As for why his disciple was here, Philippe knew not to ask questions he shouldn't ask.

So Philippe took two companies and four cannons, along with Babel's militia, to Cape Town, while Leon, with his company, escorted more than twenty "experts" eastward.

When the cannons reached the walls of Cape Town, the entire course of the battle changed.

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

Generally speaking, the cannons on the fortresses are more accurate than the siege guns outside because they have been calibrated against targets within their firing range. However, this generality is based on the premise that the performance difference between the two sides is not significant. But the iron cannons on Cape Town Fortress were far inferior in performance to the French Army -loading rifled steel cannons, leaving them completely defenseless and unable to retaliate.

Although breech-loading rifled cannons may look small, they are far more powerful than older cannons that look much larger, thanks to the use of new propellants and higher chamber pressures, including their muzzle energy.

What's even more terrifying is that this thing is incredibly accurate; it can even hit Britain gun emplacements directly with armor-piercing shells from outside the effective range of solid shot from Britain arquebuses.

Of course, hitting the target every time is impossible, but hitting it once out of five or six shots is quite possible. Of course, the Britain have enough cannons, and even if they fire slowly, it will take quite a while. But everyone can see that Cape Town is unlikely to hold out.

However, the Britain still held onto a sliver of hope that the British Navy could gain the upper hand in the battle and then send reinforcements—they did not yet know the outcome of the Battle of the North Atlantic.

Of course, the France outside the city used propaganda bulletins to tell them about the French Navy's decisive victory in the Battle of the North Atlantic, but the Britain inside the city didn't quite believe it.

Furthermore, the Britain knew that the France artillery used specially made propellant and shells, which could not be resupplyed in South Africa. Therefore, they hoped that the France would experience a shortage of shells.

To lure the France into wasting their ammunition, the Britain even requisitioned wooden pillars from residents' homes within the city. They painted these pillars black to resemble cannons, hoping to draw France fire.

At first, this tactic did have some effect, but somehow word got out. The France quickly stopped falling for it, and now they always had the Netherlands militia launch feint attacks with explosive charges, only shelling the cannons on the fortress after seeing them fire.

The Britain suspected that the Netherlands still inside the city had tipped off those outside. Therefore, some suggested killing all the Netherlands inside the city, regardless of age or gender. However, after considering the current situation, the governor rejected this proposal, instead placing the people under close surveillance. Furthermore, the governor had a private conversation with a rather influential Netherlands.

Many Britain were spreading the rumor that the governor actually wanted to negotiate with the men outside the city to secure a better surrender deal. This was, of course, a rumor, but when it was spread, everyone would add, "The governor is truly a wise and far-sighted man."