The Dutch then confidently attacked Cape Town. To say that these Dutch people are lucky. Because their British opponents were constantly inferior in weapons and equipment, and even their combat methods were very old-fashioned, in the face of attack, they did not put on a set of Joseph's defense, which is now very popular in Europe and the United States. Instead, they came out and lined up to fight the Dutch in the field.

If it is said that the trenches were not dug and barbed wire fences were not made, it may be because of the lack of supplies - after all, the British did not care much about Cape Town at all, and the guys in the hands of the Cape Town colonial army were basically unchanged before the war with the anti-French coalition. (Of course, it's not completely unchanged, for example, the number of fortress guns has increased, and the caliber has also increased a lot - the British Navy has retired too many sail warships, and the naval guns on them are basically thrown into various fortresses for waste.) There are rifled guns, barbed wire, grenades, mines, all these things.

But there are only two possibilities for taking out the set of line infantry to fight others, one is because of ignorance, because of the distance in the world, and ignorance of the progress of the world. There is also a possibility that it is arrogant, thinking that the militia or something is a rabble, and they are also regular soldiers no matter what, and they can beat the rabble outside - they can't even line up!

However, what happened next was a nightmare for the British. Seeing the British lining up, the Dutch militiamen rushed up in a chaotic and unformed manner. Major Hilton, the commander of the British army, felt that if he had a few lighter copper cannons in his hands, he could kill a lot of rebels with solid shells alone.

However, he did not have a light copper cannon in his hands. He didn't bring the cannons with him at all, because the British transports, while carrying the heavy iron naval guns that had been eliminated from the navy, also dragged away the few light copper cannons of the British army in Cape Town, which at that time was rising in the price of copper all over Europe.

So there were no cannons in the ranks brought out by Major Hilton.

The militia, ah, no, the rebels are getting closer, but Sir Hilton thinks that a volley of fire can crush the mob. However, more than 200 meters away, these rebels opened fire on them, and then the British army was actually knocked down a large platoon.

"Damn it! They all use rifled guns! ”

Major Hilton wasn't unaware of rifled guns - he didn't get to such an end, he just didn't expect that the rebels would have so many rifled guns. But this is very natural, people buy their own guns to protect their lives, of course, what guns are good to buy, which are like them, what is eliminated, give them what to use.

At a distance of more than 200 meters, the whole team should be forced up to 150 meters, and then a salvo will be fired to defeat those rebels? It's all well and good to think of it that way, but given the distance, and the fact that there are so many more rebels than they are, it will only wipe out the whole army.

So Major Hilton made a quick decision: "Retreat!" Retreat to the city! The cavalry is responsible for the broken rear! ”

So the British army began to retreat, and the militia pursued all the way, but fortunately the British army was not far away, but even so, after escaping back, Major Hilton counted the number and found that the battalion he had taken out was only half of the men.

But the militia will suffer next. After the easy victory, the militia became more confident, saying that the British were simply vulnerable.

"Even the Zulus are better than them!" A militia said.

And this view was echoed by more militias, who said that the British were inferior to the Zulus.

"If we knew this, we should have them a long time ago!"

And Babbel, although he is their leader, in reality he can't control this rabble at all. After all, they are not organized at all.

As for Trevile, he naturally fulfilled his duty to remind everyone. He told everyone that attacking the fortress and fighting in the field were two different things, and that the cannons of the British on the fortress, although they were older, were not vegetarians. So he advised everyone not to storm the city, as long as the British did not dare to go out.

To say that Treville's eloquence is good, it really convinced some of them. As a result, everyone disagreed, and in the end, the only way to solve the military problem was to adopt a democratic way - everyone voted for it.

Crowds are a very strange thing. Many times, when faced with the same problem, the crowd will always be much more radical than the individual. If you discuss this with someone alone, they may seem very rational and may even follow the will of the heart, but once they are in the group, their opinions immediately change, and the more people who follow their hearts, the more radical they tend to become. It's like some girls are always very reasonable when they are with others, but once they are with their boyfriends, they immediately change into a different person.

It was not surprising that the decision was made in this very democratic way to storm Cape Town immediately.

It turns out that the consequences of not listening to professional advice are very serious. Although the British did not have Joseph's defense, the fortress and enough artillery were still impossible for those who did not even have artillery to deal with.

The Dutch militia also made some preparations, they elected Babel as commander-in-chief, and then organized into fourteen companies according to the region, each with more than 100 men. They also made some tactical preparations, for example, they noticed that the British army lacked rifled guns with a long range, so they specially arranged cover echelons and assault echelons. The soldiers of the covering echelon, with rifled guns of long range, suppressed the British troops, and the assault echelon took the opportunity to rush forward.

Many times, the guys who talk on paper always think about the situation very well, but when they actually go to the battlefield, they are stunned to find that the situation is not the same as they imagined. That's the problem for the Dutch militias.

First of all, their covering echelons were not very effective in suppressing the British. Because the British were protected by the walls, they usually shrank behind the walls, exposing their heads and shoulders only when shooting. This target is too small, at a safe enough distance - the iron cannon can hit with solid shells, but the efficiency is not high, and it is difficult to accurately hit such a small target in a position where it is not enough to hit with shotguns, and if you venture closer, the shotguns fired by those dozens of cannons on the fortress are really fatal.

Therefore, the covering echelon was almost impossible to suppress the British troops in the fortress, and the assault echelon was naturally prone to fall into the crossfire of the fortress. They were an assault echelon and had to rush forward, so naturally they came within range of the shotguns and artillery of the British and smoothbore guns. And the British were much better on the defensive than they were in the field, because this was the old-fashioned offensive and defensive according to their vision, and the other side did not even have artillery.

So the British held their breath and kept the militiamen in front of the fortress before they opened heavy fire on them. The militiamen of the assault echelon fell into the blow of crossfire from several directions from the bastion. Dozens of cannons spewed out shotguns together, coupled with the shots of the smoothbore guns at close range, almost instantly, more than half of the militia of the assault echelon was knocked down, and some of the rest were also wounded, and they fell in a pool of their own blood, wailing loudly.

And by this time, the British stopped shooting.

"Let's go up and get people back!" A young man spoke.

"No, it's a trap, and the British don't shoot them, they just hope we'll go and save them." Philip Tréville said coldly.

The young man paused for a moment, and then said, "If, I mean, if it were your French army, in such a situation, would you go and save them?" ”

"Our French army? We simply don't fight like this. But we don't give up on our brothers. Trevel replied.

"So what do you propose now?" Babbel also asked.

"The best course of action, retreat now." "If it doesn't work, you can only let the covering echelon continue to get closer and get within range of the shotguns of the opposing artillery." This will bring a lot of casualties, but only then will there be a chance to rescue those who are wounded. As for the siege, Commander, I once again advise you to abandon this plan, at least suspend its implementation, and revise the battle plan in the light of today's situation, of course, it is better to abandon it outright. ”

So the men of the covering echelon began to press forward, of course, they adopted a looser formation to reduce the lethality of artillery shotguns. Even so, because there were so many cannons on the fortress, their losses were very heavy.

Under their cover, the assault echelons again stormed, and of course their aim was not to take the fortress, but to rescue those who were wounded.

As a result, they did rescue some of the wounded, but for this they killed several times more people than they rescued.

In these two attacks alone, the militia paid more than 200 casualties, while the British defenses remained strong, and apart from the consumption of some ammunition, the British suffered almost no losses.

After this attack, the militia stopped attacking. In the democratic discussion and voting that followed, everyone expressed their willingness to follow the call of the heart and not storm Cape Town for the time being, but to besiege Cape Town for a long time.

Of course, there are also people who hope that France can give them more help, for example, by selling them some cannons. Others simply offered to come here and help them fight.

"Mr. Treville, as you mentioned last time, that a declaration of war by France on Great Britain was almost inevitable, and in that case, could you please contact us at home and send a French army to guide and support us in the war?" Even Babbel made such a request.