The Fox of France - Chapter 518 (Patreon)

Chapter 518: Cape Town (3)

Thus, the Dutch confidently launched their attack on Cape Town. It must be said that the Dutch were quite fortunate, for their British opponents were equipped with inferior weaponry and utilized outdated combat methods. Instead of deploying the now-popular Josephine Defense in Europe and America, the British simply lined up in formation for a field battle against the Dutch.

The absence of trenches, barbed wire, or Josephine Defense might be attributed to a lack of resources—after all, the British had hardly paid any attention to Cape Town, and the weaponry of the Cape Town colonial army had barely changed since before the Anti-French Alliance War. (Of course, there were changes, such as an increase in the number of fortress cannons and a significant increase in caliber—the British navy had retired too many sailing warships, and their cannons were mostly dumped at various fortresses for reuse.) There were no rifled guns, barbed wire, grenades, or mines.

Yet, the British chose to engage with the traditional line infantry tactics, which left only two possibilities: either ignorance, due to being far from the progress of the world, or arrogance, believing that even as regular troops, they could easily defeat these ragtag militias—who couldn't even line up properly!

However, what followed was a nightmare for the British. Seeing the British lined up, the Dutch militia charged haphazardly and without formation. Major Hilton of the British forces thought that if he had a few lighter cannons, just the solid cannonballs alone could kill a large number of the rebels.

But he had no light cannons. He hadn't brought any cannons at all, because the British transport ships, while carrying those heavy iron cannons retired from the navy, also took away the few light bronze cannons that the British forces in Cape Town originally had—bear in mind, the price of copper was soaring across Europe.

So, the force Major Hilton led did not have any cannons.

The militia—no, rather, the rebels—were closing in. Sir Hilton believed that a single volley would be enough to break these mobs. However, at a distance of more than two hundred meters, the rebels started shooting, and the British forces were knocked down in rows.

"Damn it! They're using rifled guns!"

Major Hilton was not unaware of rifled guns—he was not that isolated. He just hadn't expected that the rebels would have so many rifled guns. Naturally, the rebels bought the guns themselves to protect their lives, so they bought whatever was best, unlike the British, who were left with whatever was outdated.

To form up and close the distance to one hundred fifty meters, then fire a volley to break the rebels—this seemed like a good idea, but considering the distance and the fact that the rebels outnumbered them, it would only lead to their annihilation.

Thus, Major Hilton quickly made a decision: "Retreat! Fall back to the city! Cavalry, cover our retreat!"

So, the British began to retreat, chased by the militia. Fortunately, they hadn't ventured far, but even so, when Hilton did a headcount after returning, he found that only half of his battalion remained.

But the militia would soon face their own difficulties. After easily achieving victory, their confidence was overflowing. They all expressed that the British were utterly easy to defeat.

"Even the Zulus are better than them!" one militia member declared.

This view was also supported by many others, who all agreed that the British were worse than the Zulus.

"If we had known this, we should have fought them long ago!"

Babel, although their leader, could hardly control this unruly crowd. After all, they were not really organized.

Treville, however, fulfilled his duty of warning everyone. He told them that attacking fortresses and open field battles were different matters. The British cannons in the fortresses, although old, were still formidable. Therefore, he advised against storming the city; it was enough to make the British afraid to leave their gates.

Treville was quite persuasive, and he managed to convince some of them. Thus, they decided to resolve the military issue in a very democratic manner—everyone had one vote, and they would decide by voting.

Crowds are a very strange thing. Often, when facing the same issue, a crowd tends to be much more radical than an individual. If you discuss the issue with someone individually, they may appear very rational and may follow their conscience, but once they are in a group, their opinion changes immediately, and those who were initially guided by their conscience often become even more radical. It's like some girls are very reasonable when with others, but change completely when with their boyfriends.

Thus, unsurprisingly, they democratically decided to immediately storm Cape Town.

The consequences of ignoring professional advice were severe. Although the British did not use the Josephine Defense, their bastions, along with plenty of cannons, were still too much for the militia, who lacked even a single cannon.

The Dutch militia

 had made some preparations; they elected Babel as their commander-in-chief and organized into fourteen companies, each with over a hundred men. They also made some tactical preparations, such as noting the British lack of long-range rifled guns, so they arranged for covering squads and assault squads. The covering squad used long-range rifled guns to suppress the British, while the assault squad took advantage of this to charge.

Often, armchair strategists think everything looks good on paper, but on the battlefield, they are shocked to find that the situation is not as they imagined. The Dutch militia encountered just such a problem.

First, their covering squad couldn't effectively suppress the British, who were protected by city walls. The British would hunker down behind the walls, only showing their heads and shoulders when shooting. This target was too small; it was hard to hit accurately from a safe distance—cannonballs could reach but were not efficient, and buckshot couldn't reach far enough. And if they risked getting closer, the dozens of cannons on the bastions firing buckshot would be lethal.

Thus, the covering squad could barely suppress the British in the bastions, and the assault squad easily fell into the bastions' crossfire. They were an assault squad; they had to charge forward, so they naturally entered the range of British smoothbore guns and cannons firing buckshot. The British performed much better in defense than in open field battle, as this was an old-fashioned siege as they envisioned, and the attackers didn't even have cannons.

So, the British held their fire until the militia approached the bastions, then unleashed fierce gunfire. The assault squad was hit by crossfire from several directions, with dozens of cannons spewing buckshot, plus smoothbore guns firing at close range. Almost instantly, most of the assault squad was downed, with many wounded falling in their own pools of blood, crying out loudly.

At this point, the British stopped shooting.

"We need to go up and rescue them!" a young man spoke up.

"No, that's a trap. The British aren't shooting them dead because they hope we'll go there to rescue them," Philippe Treville said coldly.

The young man was taken aback, then said, "If it were your French troops in this situation, would you go to rescue them?"

"Our French troops? We wouldn't fight like this. But we indeed wouldn't abandon our brothers," Treville replied.

"What do you suggest we do now?" Babel also asked.

"The best thing to do now is to retreat," Treville said. "If that's not possible, we'll have to let the covering squad get closer, into the range of the enemy's cannon buckshot. This will cause significant casualties, but it's the only way to rescue the wounded. As for storming the fort, Commander, I again advise you to abandon this plan, at least put it on hold, and modify the battle plan based on today's situation. Of course, it would be best to just abandon the idea altogether."

So, the covering squad began to advance, albeit in a looser formation to reduce the lethality of the cannon buckshot. Even so, due to the large number of cannons on the bastions, their losses were still very heavy.

Under their cover, the assault squad launched another charge, not to take the bastion, but to rescue the wounded.

They did manage to rescue some of the wounded, but for this, they lost several times more men than they saved.

Just these two rounds of attacks cost the militia over two hundred casualties, while the British defenses remained strong, with almost no losses except for some ammunition expenditure.

After this attack, the militia stopped their offensive. Subsequent democratic discussions and voting showed that everyone was willing to follow their conscience and temporarily cease storming Cape Town, opting instead for a prolonged siege of the city.

Of course, some suggested hoping for more help from France, such as buying some cannons. Some even outright proposed that French troops come here to aid their battle.

"Mr. Treville, you mentioned last time that war with Britain is almost inevitable. So, could you perhaps contact your homeland and send a French military force to guide and support our battle here?" even Babel made such a request.

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