Since Napoleon revealed part of the truth, the whole country, all those who knew the truth, naturally firmly supported France in "fulfilling its international responsibilities" and protecting "the free and unimpeded trade routes of the world". Preparations for the expedition began in France at once.

With France's present strength, it would have been fairly easy to send a fleet capable of suppressing the two British sail cruisers at Cape Town. It was enough to send two colonial cruisers. Although the Colonial Cruiser was unarmoured, it was also steam-powered, and it still outperformed the sail cruiser in speed and seafaring ability. As for the firepower, the two sides are even less of an order of magnitude. Although in terms of the number of cannons, the British sail cruisers had more cannons, but the 75 mm breech-loading rifled guns of the colonial cruisers far exceeded the British sail cruisers in terms of power, range, and rate of fire.

Moreover, because the colonial cruiser has omitted armor and has smaller guns, the coal tank is also larger than the armored cruiser, which means that the colonial cruiser is actually superior to the armored cruiser in terms of range, and even larger battleships. Second only to the supercruiser.

Obviously, the supercruiser cannot be used in this matter, because it is too eye-catching to do so. Everyone should get rich quietly, don't shoot casually, don't make everyone notice, and find out that our actions are unusual, then it is not good. Therefore, the troops sent by France could not be too conspicuous, so the colonial cruisers were the best choice.

However, the number of restrictions could be relaxed slightly, so the navy selected three relatively new colonial cruisers, and leased two mixed passenger and cargo ships from the "Europa Shipping Alliance" (in fact, a shipping industry syndicate formed by French smuggler merchants) to carry personnel and weapons; A genuine cargo ship used to transport coal for the round-trip use of the fleet. After all, although South Africa also has coal resources, at this time, these resources are still in an untapped state. In addition, due to the limited distance and the problem of infrastructure, the development of resources such as coal and iron ore in Africa is not on the agenda in a short period of time. The French Navy itself did not have many transport ships, and their maritime power was more dependent on civilian forces. And transnational syndicates like the "Europa Shipping Alliance" are an important part of France's maritime power.

Everyone can see what ships the navy has moved; The army side is much better, and the best personnel and equipment can be used. If it weren't for the fear of being too conspicuous, and if it weren't for the fact that France had just declared war on Britain, some field marshals would have wanted to lead the team himself. Of course, it is impossible to send a field marshal to such a small battlefield, but it is still someone with a relatively good background in the army. One is that everyone trusts more, and the other is to let them go to gild - anyway, this battle is unlikely to fail.

Napoleon's marshals were generally young and did not yet have suitable heirs for such tasks. But there are still quite a few suitable relatives for them. And Major Léon Bertier, the commander in charge of the land battles in this expedition, was a relative of Marshal Bertier.

So, by the time the people with Babbel's letter arrived in France, the French expeditionary force had actually made all the preparations, and even the expeditionary battalion of the French army had been practicing attack tactics for a long time in an abandoned old fortress.

Therefore, as soon as the Dutch immigrants in southern Africa asked for help, the French sent a fleet at an astonishing speed. Of course, the Netherlands, the former suzerainty of Cape Town, also sent a company of land forces and chartered a mixed ship from the "Europa Shipping Alliance" to follow the French fleet to South Africa.

The fleet was made up of steamships, which were able to maintain speeds of fourteen knots throughout the voyage. But even so, it took the fleet twenty-four days from the moment it set off to the time it arrived in the waters off South Africa. However, compared to the sail era, this is already the speed of the wind.

It was also on this day that the two sail cruisers of the British again came to the Gulf of Saldania. This is the area they focused on because it was the most suitable area for the construction of a seaport in terms of hydrological conditions alone. The port that the Dutch rebels tried to build last time was in this area.

The British knew very well what the Dutch were trying to do, and they must have wanted to use such a port to transport something very large, such as a cannon or something.

And although there was no telegram and no way to know the situation in Europe, the British in Cape Town at least knew from the interrogation of the rebels that there was a great contradiction between France and England, and that war could break out at any time, or even that war might have broken out.

The concern of the British in Cape Town was exacerbated by the fact that no ships from the British had entered Cape Town's port for a long time recently. This unusual sign seems to prove one thing: Britain and France are already at war, and the British are at a disadvantage at sea.

If this speculation is true, then what will happen next is easy to guess, and it is likely that the Dutch will take the opportunity to send an army to Cape Town in an attempt to retake the port.

The British army did not look down on the combat effectiveness of the Dutch army, but they also knew that because of the gap in equipment, they could not even defeat the Dutch militia in the field, and the only thing they could rely on was the fortress. And once the Dutch expeditionary force brought a new type of artillery, even if it was only one or two cannons, it would pose a huge threat to them by relying on the range and accuracy of the old iron cannons.

So the two sail cruisers of the British, as well as a number of other small warships, were very busy patrolling the coast in search of ports that the Dutch might be building. The Gulf of Saldanha is the most important area to investigate.

The two British cruisers circled around the bay and found nothing out of the ordinary—the harbor facilities could not be hidden. So they turned to the exit of the bay and prepared to leave it. At this moment, the lookout post saw several columns of smoke in the distance.

"Discover the steam ships, in the direction of one o'clock!" The lookout on the mast shouted.

Another problem with steam ships versus sail ships is that when sailing, the signs are too obvious. So at least during the day, under normal circumstances, the sailboat will always spot the steamship first. Although it is certainly impossible to fight, but the sea is so big, if the sailing ship wants to run, the steamship may not be able to catch them.

But things are a little bad now, because they are in a narrow bay, and if they are blocked in the bay by those steamboats, it will be really difficult to fly.

To add insult to injury, the outlet of this bay is directed westward, and the winds in this area have always been very stable – here in the westerly belt, westerly winds blow all year round.

The sails of the sail cruiser are mainly sails, which can provide very good propulsion when downwind, but when they are headwind, the sails are not easy to use, so at this time they can only be powered by the spinnakers on the bow smast. In this case, the speed of the voyage naturally cannot be fast. For example, these two sail cruisers can run about 12 knots when they are downwind, but now they can only run about 3 knots when they are headwind. And this speed is actually still discounted, because when sailing against the wind, you have to constantly take the "zigzag" route, and you can't go in a straight line. So even though it's only a little over two nautical miles from the entrance to the bay, it's not certain whether you can escape the exit of the bay before you get into the view of the steamboats.

Both cruisers put away their mainsails, spread their spinnakers, and headed for the entrance to the bay.

In order to speed up the speed of the ships and escape from the bay before the steamers, the British had to run a lot of things into the sea to reduce the load of the ships, and they even pushed the bow and stern guns into the sea. If it weren't for the fact that the cannons in the closed gun deck couldn't be pushed out, they might have thrown them all away.

To say that this approach still has a little effect, after throwing off a lot of load, the speed of both boats has increased a little bit.

Many times, a little faster, even a little, is the difference between life and death. The two ships ran out of the bay before the steamer fleet arrived, and when the French fleet entered the bay, they could see some of the things they had left behind that were still floating on the water.