Knight Heywood stood under an empty canopy, his face grim. Ensign Potter was a little embarrassed, and it was a grave dereliction of duty that the two Irishmen had escaped by night the previous night, and he had not even noticed it.

"How many of them live in the same shed? Did they interrogate? Knight Heywood asked, turning his gaze back to Lieutenant Potter.

"He was staying with a couple of dirt buns, also from Ireland, who told me that they had gone to bed early last night because they were too tired, and they didn't know anything." Ensign Potter replied somewhat helplessly. Anyone knows that the people in the same room with him have shielded them, and there has even been collusion between them.

After all, the Irish are unreliable! Ensign Potter also turned his gaze to Knight Heywood, and he and his men were ready to capture.

"Send all the Irishmen who were in the same room with him to repair Fort Hope as punishment for sleeping like dead pigs!" Knight Heywood hesitated for a moment before saying.

Hearing Knight Heywood's order, Nick, who was following him, secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He had expected that the Knight of Heywood would hang all the Irishmen, which was absolutely not feasible now. The immigrants who came to Cape Town had already accumulated a stomach of resentment due to their poor food, heavy work, and bad weather. At this time, if the execution of these Irishmen who sheltered the fugitives, it would inevitably provoke a revolt from the immigrants. Perhaps the time will come, even among the English immigrants will be sympathetic to them. The Heywood knights did so, declaring their punishment without intimidating them too much. That's a smart approach.

"Fortify your defenses at night. Those sections of the wall that have not yet been completed must be guarded by special personnel. Knight Heywood quickly ordered. Ensign Potter answered with a loud voice. Then start arranging for candidates to arrange for positions.

"Sir, we don't have enough firewood." At this time, Nick stepped forward and whispered to Knight Heywood, "The logging camps in the mountains are all gone, and we are now short of proper fuel, you know, how frustrating it is to not be able to bake a fire in such a damn weather. ”

"Isn't there any more honeycomb coal?" Knight Heywood was stunned for a moment, and then asked, "This invention of the East Coasters is still very good, I remember that we should have some more." ”

"The last hundred or so honeycomb coals have all been put into your room. Mr. Nick had to explain, "A long time ago, we had to burn wood and grass for warmth. But now it's raining day after day, and both firewood and grass are so wet that they can't be used at all. Moreover, most of our axes for chopping wood were lost in the logging camp on Table Mountain, and may have now been taken by the barbarians. We're in trouble, sir......"

"Do you have to send a large army to chop wood now?" Knight Heywood said with some distraught, "We can only work a thousand people now, should I send a team of two hundred men to chop wood?" Well, well, there is also a batch of logging axes in the hold of the 'Gentleman'. It's not too much, but it's barely enough for us. Send someone to take it out. When you want to go out to chop wood, you call Ensign Potter with us, and he will make reasonable arrangements. ”

Nick nodded, then stopped, "Mr. Heywood, we don't have enough food, I think we'll have a hard time making it to the end of the year. We need to make some changes......"

"You're buying from the outside world?" Knight Heywood thought for a moment, then said, "It's hard. As you know, we had spent most of our money on cannons, gunpowder, and building materials for the city, and now we had no more than five hundred pounds in hand. Only the Portuguese in Luanda are friendly with us, but they are not obliged to sell us grain at a low price, which is not enough to buy much food. ”

"No, sir. In fact I mean we can find a way to the east, we can send men to the east of the Cape Mountains to 'trade' with the barbarians. They have an abundance of food, fur and ivory, which we desperately need. We can exchange metal knives, farm tools, glass products, etc., and it will definitely be very profitable. "As you can see, this vast plain is filled with barbarian tribes who are full of malice towards us, and they may well have fallen to the East Coasters, and it is impossible for us to trade with them. Nowadays, only to the east, to the area where the tentacles of the people on the east coast have not yet extended, is there a stage to show our strength. Unlike Cape Town, it's a cage, a cage that the East Coasters have carefully designed to trap us. With all due respect, we will never have any future in the Cape Town area, and we will have to retreat into the narrow area of the seaside unless we defeat the East Coasters once and for all. ”

"You have a point, Nick." The Knights of Heywood endorsed Nick. Warrnum's suggestion, and then said: "It's a pity that most of the ships sent by the company have gone to the East, and only the 'Gentleman' is stranded on the coast and needs to be repaired. Otherwise, I think our men could sail around the Cape of Good Hope and try our luck on the coastal strip to the east. Now, you can only walk on foot, by the way, it's not far away? ”

"We may have to walk more than a hundred kilometers to reach the area where the indigenous are active, we lack guides, we have horses and vehicles, but these difficulties can be overcome." Nick said resolutely, "How can you do it without trying?" Are we just waiting for the East Coasters to tighten the noose around our necks step by step and remain indifferent? Didn't even struggle for a moment? ”

"So far?" Knight Heywood faltered slightly. More than a hundred kilometers, most likely a rugged mountain road to go, and everyone can't carry too many supplies, and they don't know anything about the situation over there.

It's a complete gambling operation! Knight Heywood judged in his mind, he was a man of good steadiness, and Cape Town was not yet at the end of its rope, and there was no need to carry out such a risky operation now, especially when there were a pair of malicious eyes that were always watching them.

"No, it's not right now, it's too risky." Knight Heywood suddenly changed his attitude and said, "Have you forgotten that the company has given us the task of establishing a supply port in Cape Town?" The significance of this port is strategic, which is why you see the people of the East Coast who are deliberately trying to sabotage our business. If you are given too many manpower, Cape Town will not have enough strength to defend itself. There are fewer people to give, and I don't think these people can do anything in the unfamiliar mountains and wastelands. ”

"All I need is a hundred men, all equipped with the latest flintlock rifles, and plenty of food." "I'll be able to cross the Cape Mountains, get to the other side of the mountain, and harvest enough supplies." ”

"I think what I mean is pretty clear, Nick. Mr. Warrnum! Knight Heywood said in an aggravated tone, "If you have this time, you might as well send someone to help Captain Washington of the 'Gentleman', whose ship is not lightly damaged and is in dire need of wood repairs." If the Gentleman can get moving, it will be a huge help to us. ”

Speaking of which, the three-masted Galen ship "Gentleman" is also unlucky enough. Not long after setting sail, he encountered bad weather, lost contact with the fleet, and the hull was not lightly damaged, and then desperately rushed to the Cape Town side to run aground and seize the beach, which saved him from sinking. However, they are now also short of timber to repair their boats, so they have had to stop on the beach for more than a week.

Knight Heywood made a statement, and Nick didn't want to say too much, so he saluted and arranged for the castle to be built.

Over the next few days, the English sent more than 100 people to Table Mountain to cut wood, taking advantage of the brief sunny weather. The barbarians seemed to be very frightened by the large number of Englishmen armed with muskets, and they simply hid in the woods and fired their bows and arrows at the Englishmen at a distance, wounding several woodcutters, and then fled in a hurry.

After seeing the English go up the hill to cut wood, a group of savages reappeared outside the wall below the hill, causing a burst of exclamations from the British immigrants at the Fort of Good Hope site. But after the British emigrants came to an emergency halt under the command of the officer, and then rushed out of the wall in full armor, the damned barbarians fled faster than the rabbits.

Not only that, but these shameless barbarians repeatedly rushed outside the wall in the middle of the night to shout, beat gongs and drums, throw rockets, attack and kill patrol soldiers, and did everything they could, disturbing the entire Good Hope Fort construction site. The British immigrants at Fort Good Hope worked extremely hard during the day, and they were already very tired, and they were tossed around by these barbarians so many times every night, and they walked all day long.

And, since the escape of two Irishmen a few days ago, people have fled almost every night these days. Especially in the chaotic moment when the barbarians came to attack, many people took advantage of the chaos to escape from the fortress of Good Hope and went straight to the north. To the grief of Knight Heywood and Nick, not only were the Irish, but also the English, and there were even extreme cases of soldiers guarding the gap fleeing with the fugitives.

In the five days beginning on August 22, more than 40 British immigrants from Fort Good Hope had fled, mostly Irish farmers who had been abused, and a few Englishmen who had just struggled to hold on.

In addition, what is even more worrying is the weather. On 27 August, heavy snow fell in Cape Town, and the temperature plummeted to around zero degrees Celsius. The frail English immigrants did not have enough nutrients to replenish the calories lost in their bodies, nor did they have enough warm clothing, so they had to sit around the fire and shake the fire, and a frustrating and depressing atmosphere began to permeate the castle of Good Hope. (To be continued......)