The Fox of France - Chapter 520 (Patreon)

Chapter 520: The French Military Arrives

Since Napoleon disclosed part of the truth, the whole nation, knowing this truth, firmly supported France's obligation to "fulfill its international responsibilities" and protect the "freedom of global trade routes". Consequently, preparations for the expedition began immediately within France.

Given France's current strength, deploying a fleet capable of overpowering the British sail patrol vessels stationed in Cape Town was fairly straightforward. Two colonial cruisers would suffice. Although these colonial cruisers lacked armor, they were steam-powered, giving them superior speed and navigational capabilities over the sail patrol vessels. In terms of firepower, the two were not even comparable. Although the British sail patrol vessels had more cannons, the 75 mm breech-loading rifled guns on the colonial cruisers far surpassed the British in terms of power, range, and firing speed.

Moreover, because the colonial cruisers omitted armor, their cannons were lighter, allowing for larger coal bunkers. This meant that the colonial cruisers actually had better range than the armored cruisers, and even the larger battleships, second only to the super cruisers.

It was clear that using super cruisers would draw too much attention. Everyone wanted to make a fortune quietly, without shooting recklessly or drawing undue attention. Thus, using colonial cruisers, which were less conspicuous, was the best choice.

Although the navy could relax the number slightly, they selected three relatively new colonial cruisers and rented two mixed passenger and cargo ships from the "Europa Shipping Alliance" (originally a syndicate of French smuggler merchants) to transport personnel and weapons; and a pure cargo ship for transporting coal needed for the voyage back and forth. After all, although South Africa had coal resources, these were still undeveloped at the time. And due to distance and infrastructure issues, the development of African coal and iron ore resources was not yet on the agenda. The French Navy itself did not have many transport ships; their maritime strength largely depended on civilian capabilities. Entities like the "Europa Shipping Alliance," a transnational syndicate, were an essential component of France's maritime power.

The naval movements were visible to everyone; however, the army had it somewhat easier. Personnel and equipment could be of the highest quality. If it weren't for the concern of being too conspicuous, and the fact that France had just declared war on Britain, some army marshals would have liked to lead the troops themselves. Of course, such a minor battlefield was not appropriate for an army marshal, but those sent were still relatively prominent within the army. This was both because they were more trusted and because it allowed them to gain some glory—after all, the likelihood of failure was minimal.

Napoleon's marshals were generally young, and there weren't suitable heirs available for such missions. However, there were still plenty of suitable relatives. Major Léon Bertiére, who was responsible for commanding the land battles of this expedition, was a relative of Marshal Bertiére.

So, by the time the bearer of Babel's letter arrived in France, the French expeditionary force was already fully prepared, even having practiced attack tactics at an old-style fortress for quite some time.

Thus, upon receiving a distress call from Dutch settlers in southern Africa, the French dispatched their fleet with astonishing speed. As former colonial rulers of Cape Town, the Dutch also sent a platoon of troops and rented a mixed passenger and cargo ship from the "Europa Shipping Alliance" to accompany the French fleet to South Africa.

The entire fleet consisted of steamships, maintaining a speed of fourteen knots throughout the voyage. Even so, it still took twenty-four days to reach the waters near South Africa. However, compared to the era of sail, this was incredibly fast.

On that day, the British sail patrol vessels returned to Sardinia Bay. This area was a focal point for their surveillance because, in terms of hydrological conditions, it was the most suitable location for building a harbor. The harbor previously attempted by Dutch rebels was in this vicinity.

The British were well aware of what the Dutch intended to do; they surely wanted to use such a harbor to transport particularly large items, such as cannons.

Moreover, although there was no telegraph to inform them of the situation in Europe, from interrogations of rebels, the British in Cape Town had learned of a significant rift between France and Britain, with war potentially imminent or even already underway.

Subsequent events further heightened the concerns of the British in Cape Town. For a long time, no ships from Britain had entered the port of Cape Town. This unusual sign seemed to confirm that Britain and France were already at war, and that the British were disadvantaged at sea.

If this guess was correct, then it was easy to predict that the Dutch might take the opportunity to send troops to Cape Town in an attempt to recapture the port.

The British did not think highly of the Dutch army's combat effectiveness, but they knew that due to the gap in equipment, they could not even defeat Dutch militia

 in field battles. Their only reliance was on the fortress. Once the Dutch expedition brought modern cannons, even just one or two, with a range and accuracy far exceeding old iron cannons, it would pose a significant threat.

Thus, the two British sail patrol vessels, along with other small military vessels, were very busy patrolling the coast, searching for the port the Dutch were possibly constructing. And Sardinia Bay was indeed the most critical area under scrutiny.

The two British patrol vessels circled the bay and found nothing unusual—harbor facilities are hard to hide. They then turned towards the exit of the bay, preparing to leave. At that moment, however, the lookout at the masthead spotted several plumes of smoke.

"Steam vessels spotted, at one o'clock!" the lookout shouted from the mast.

Steam vessels had one problem: they were very conspicuous when sailing, making them easy to spot during the day. Although they could not be outrun in a battle, the vast ocean offered plenty of room for sail vessels to escape steam vessels, if they chose to flee.

But the current situation was tricky. They were in a narrow bay, and if they were blocked by steam vessels inside the bay, they would truly be trapped.

Adding to the trouble was that the bay's exit faced west, and the wind direction in this region was very stable—situated in the westerlies, it was westerly all year round.

The sail patrol vessels' sails were primarily square-rigged, which provided excellent propulsion with the wind but were ineffective against the wind. Therefore, they had to rely on the triangular sails on the bow's diagonal masts for power. Under these conditions, their speed was naturally slow. For instance, these two sail patrol vessels could reach a speed of about twelve knots with the wind, but against the wind, they could only manage about three knots. And this speed was actually discounted because against the wind, they had to continually navigate in a "zigzag" pattern rather than a straight line. Although the bay's entrance was just a little over two miles away, whether they could escape the bay's exit before entering the steam ships' line of sight was uncertain.

Both patrol vessels retracted their main sails and unfurled their triangular sails, heading towards the bay's entrance.

Due to the terrain blocking the wind, the wind in the bay was not very strong, which further slowed the vessels' speed. To accelerate and escape the bay before the steam ships, the British had to throw many things overboard to lighten the load, even pushing the bow and stern cannons into the sea. If it weren't for the impossibility of removing the large cannons from the enclosed gun deck, they might have discarded these as well.

This tactic did have some effect; after shedding much of their load, both vessels' speeds increased slightly.

Often, being just a bit faster, even if only slightly, made the difference between life and death. The two vessels managed to escape the bay before the French fleet arrived. When the French ships entered the bay, they could still see some of the discarded items floating on the water's surface.

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