In fact, when the British ships were cruising in the harbor just now, there were militiamen in the vicinity who were watching them from outside the range of the British frigates' guns. Naturally, the Dutch militia also saw the British throwing away all kinds of supplies, including lifeboats, and pushing the bow and stern guns into the sea. Of course, they also saw a pillar of smoke rising in the distance, and knew that this was a sign of the arrival of reinforcements. However, they had no way to get in touch with reinforcements and could not slow down the British retreat. So we could only watch the British cruisers escape from the bay. But they weren't completely unable to do anything, at least they sent someone to report the matter to Babbel and them, and Babbel wasn't that far away right now. They had just organized a convoy of horses, brought in supplies, including fresh water, and had set up supply points along the road to Cape Town. And there they stockpiled the facilities for the construction of the docks.

The combined French and Dutch fleets (although, strictly speaking, there was not even a single Dutch ship in the combined fleet.) Entered the bay and anchored there. Then the dinghy was lowered, and some of the soldiers began to land. First to land was an infantry squad of the Dutch Army, who made contact with the Dutch militia who were there to welcome them, and then more Dutch and French began to land in their own boats.

At this time, Philippe Treville and Babbel also rode over to meet the "liberators" from the European continent.

The commander of the French Army, Major Léon Bertier, also went ashore in a dinghy. and smoothly connected with Philippe Treville. Before he came, he had learned from Marshal Berthière that Mr. Philippe Treville, an agent of the Public Security Ministry, was in charge of the work.

"Philippe Treville is a relative of Marshal Treville, and his younger brother is now our ambassador in Vienna. He himself was an important figure in the royal party, and after the royal party dispersed, he went through the path of some of the family's pro-revolutionary relatives, well, I mean mainly the Admiral Tréville. On the contrary, it is said that because of his different attitudes towards the revolution, he had a very poor relationship with his brother at first. But in any case, they are brothers. Needless to say, the status of Admiral Trevile, and his younger brother was also a rising star in the political arena. And he himself, as a former royal party, after joining the Ministry of Public Security, he gained the power to take charge of such an important direction in a short period of time.

I know what you think, and you'll think he must have been reused by betraying other royal members. If you think so, you're wrong. If Philippe Trevier could only do this, he would not be able to be reused, let alone be on his own. Being alone in itself is a high evaluation of his ability. When you get over there, you have to work closely with him.

In the future, you will follow the line of the army, and he will follow the line of the government. You don't need the same credit, so there is no competition between you, and the Trevier family will also be very influential in the future, and it will be good for you to be friends with him. See what I mean? Do it nicely, and I'll take care of the rest. ”

Having received such an explanation, Léon Bertier naturally intended to show goodwill to Treville, and he told Philippe that he had brought him a letter from his uncle, Marshal of the Admiral of Treville, and expressed the hope that they would unite and make new contributions to France.

Tréville then introduced Major Léon Bertier to Babel, the commander-in-chief of the Dutch militia. Just now, Babbel had just received an official order from home to make him the interim governor of the Netherlands in Cape Town, responsible for the reconquest of Cape Town.

The next thing to do was to get people ashore and start rebuilding the dock.

In fact, just now, the two British cruisers did not go far, they sailed a little to the west, and then slowed down. The two cruisers began to pull a certain distance and, using the principle of trigonometric functions, began to locate those smoke columns. to determine the distance between yourself and those steamboats. If the distance was approaching, they had to be prepared to steer away from the steamboats. If the distance between those pillars of smoke and them increases, then they are at least safe for now.

But the British didn't just want to be safe, they wanted to win.

"Steam warships are indeed much more powerful than sail warships, under normal circumstances, sail warships are almost powerless in front of steam-powered warships, but steam warships also have a huge weakness. If we can make good use of this weakness, then it is entirely possible for us to create a miracle, a miracle of defeating a steam battleship with a sail battleship that is an era behind. ”

The commander of the British fleet, Major Johnson, was in the war room and said to his officers,

"So what is the weakness of the steamship? The weakness of steamships is that once they turn off the boiler, they will not be able to move for a short time. There was a long period of time between the ignition of the steam engine and the output of power, and during this time, the steamship did not have any power, it was just a dead fish floating on the sea. If it is a normal military port, the lookout equipment attached to the military port, and the protection of the battery, this weakness of theirs is no longer a weakness. But nowadays, in the Gulf of Saldanha,"

"Commander, then how do we know if the enemy's steamship has turned off the steam engine?"

"It's very simple," said Major Johnson, "and as soon as the steam engine is started, it needs to burn coal constantly. As long as coal is burned, we can observe the black smoke coming out of them from a safe distance. As soon as we notice that there is no more black smoke coming from the Gulf of Saldania, it means that they have turned off the steam engine, and at that time, we can go back to the Gulf of Saldanha and do a miracle. ”

"What if the French don't turn off the steam engine all the time?" An officer asked.

"I guess most of the Dutch are planning to build a dock where the cannons can come ashore under the cover of the fleet. How long does it take to build such a wharf? Jossen asked.

"About a month, right?" Someone replied.

"But under special circumstances, it may be faster, even if it is twenty days." "The French steam warships, even the most excellent in range, do not have enough coal in their coal tanks to sustain such consumption," said Jossen. ”

"Sir, if the French are prepared, they may have replenished the coal on the Central African side on their way." An officer said.

"It's very possible, but it's not enough to sustain them for more than twenty days." "Besides, we're in this area, and if they don't put out the flames, we have nothing to lose." ”

After another hour, the British found that the plumes of smoke on the other side of the Gulf of Saldanha had disappeared, and it was clear that the French had taken the enemy too lightly. They didn't expect that just seeing a few plumes of smoke, they were so frightened that they fled, and even pushed the cannons into the sea, and the British Navy dared to kill one of them and come back.

But the British could not rush at once, for the sun had not yet set, and although in the course of their rush to the Gulf of Saldania they were downwind, and were able to run at a high speed of 10 knots, but if they had rushed over now, and had been seen from afar by the lookouts who might have been placed at the entrance to the bay, the French would have had time to rekindle the fire.

So they had to wait patiently a little longer, until the sun went down, and then they went into the bay at night.

As the sun gradually set, the two British cruisers hoisted their full sails and began to approach rapidly towards the Gulf of Saldania.

The French Army was basically ashore at this time, but the artillery or something was still on board. Even because of the hard voyage, many crew members also went ashore, for example, many of the crew members from the "Europa Shipping Alliance" went ashore.

However, the navy still has basic discipline, and when it gets dark, the personnel of the French navy are basically back on the warship.

It was the first half of the moon, and the moon rose early, which was not a bad thing for the British, for without the moonlight it would not have been easy to find a few boats in such a large bay; But the moon wasn't entirely good for the British, either—the British used sailboats, which had higher masts and were covered with sails, which were obviously easier to see in the moonlight.

So, it was the lookouts of the French Navy who first spotted the approaching British warship.

The distance between the two sides was already very close, when the French colonial cruiser "Tradewind" was first spotted with British warships. However, the Tradewind was too late to pressurize the boiler fire, and Captain Edmundo was awakened and immediately ordered the gunners to be put into combat positions. Now his ship can only be used as a floating battery.

The colonial cruiser was unarmoured, and her outer hull, though metal, was so thin that even the spherical shells fired from the old iron cannons could pierce it. Her main advantage over the British sail cruiser was threefold, one being its increased speed and control. But this advantage no longer exists, on the contrary, the British have an overwhelming advantage in this regard. The second is that her artillery has lighter power and greater range and accuracy, but because of the problem of sight at night, everyone must be very close to each other, so this advantage is also discounted. As for the third advantage, they are armed with semi-armor-piercing incendiary bombs designed to bully wooden ships. Now the only thing Captain Edmundo can really count on is this semi-armor-piercing incendiary bomb.