After the collective wedding, the morale of the people in Hezhongbao reached a new level.

Old residents got married and divided houses, new Chalua, Guarani immigrants, and British immigrants who fled from Cape Town also benefited a lot.

Given the perfect ending of the northern mobilization operation a while ago, after more than a week of intense inventory and accounting, all the spoils have been counted out. The operation lasted for two months. The east coast army with the South African garrison as the core swept north of the Berg River, south of the Great Salt Lake, east to Dongshan, west to the vast area of ​​the sea, and defeated more than ten indigenous tribes of all sizes with extremely minor casualties. A total of more than 1,100 cattle, more than 2,000 sheep, ivory, fur, and grain were seized, and more than 3,000 Koisan reds and more than 900 blacks in Xhosa were captured. The results were huge.

To this end, Mo Ming signed a special amnesty order as the captain of the South African pioneer team, pardoning a large number of slave soldiers under the command and fighting bravely in this battle. These soldiers under the two flags not only obtained the status of free people to be promoted to the upper six flags, but also received a small number of slaves distributed as rewards. The British fugitives were even more pardoned as free people because of their outstanding performance in the war. They were different from the natives of the Eight Banners, and the town government distributed some farm tools, seeds, cattle and sheep to them, which was considered to have officially incorporated them into the residents' system of Hezhong Fort.

The new immigrants also benefited from this. The government sent them a cow, some sorghum seeds, farm tools, etc., so that they could settle down and farm here with peace of mind. Don’t think about any more chaotic and dangerous ideas.

After all these matters were clarified, it was already May 10th. On this day, the messengers riding war horses rushed into several Eight Banner tribe camps stationed around Hezhong Fort and summoned the Eight Banners' heads... Well, it was the Chief, Deputy Chief, and Clars who came to the city for a meeting.

The main topic of the meeting was how to harvest the wheat sown by the British outside the Good Hope Castle. According to the information obtained from the investigation, the British reclaimed about 800 acres of wheat fields in the area near the water source outside the city in spring. Two British merchant ships specially transported a batch of farm tools and seeds for them, so that they could sow the wheat smoothly. More than eight months have passed, and the wheat is almost time to harvest. If the British had taken action to cut off the grain that the British had worked hard for a year at this time, then the British would probably be depressed to death.

It is said that since the last attack on the British in August last year, the River Fort has been in peace with the British in the south for several months. Naturally, the British did not have the strength to take the initiative, while the East Coast people were busy with heavy city walls, house construction, spring sowing, large-scale mobilization and other things, and they did not have time to deal with the half-dead British.

Now after several months, the East Coast people have basically finished all the things at hand and have begun to turn their attention to the British again. The Fortress of Good Hope in the Cape Town area has now been basically completed, and the British have paid a huge price to build this not-magnificent castle and its affiliated marina facilities. More than 1,600 immigrants who came early took on extremely heavy physical labor to build the castle, coupled with food scarcity, bad weather, epidemics of diseases and uninterrupted harassment by the natives who defected to the East Coast people. Most of these immigrants either fled, died of indigenous attacks, exhausted, or died of cold and starvation. In short, now, there are only less than 500 British immigrants in this castle, which can be said to have basically lifted the threat for the East Coast people who have become a climate in the River Fort area.

However, the people of the East Coast were not prepared to let them go so easily. It is important to know that if they were killed by a tiger, there will be endless troubles. For this reason, Mo Ming, Liu Ang and others carefully discussed it and decided to recruit a large number of indigenous soldiers of the Eight Banners to the Good Hope Fort area to attack the British castle, and take the opportunity to seize the wheat from the British outside the city. The British had less than 500 people in the castle, and there were only more than 300 adult men with combat effectiveness. As long as the number of soldiers of the Eight Banners was sufficient and equipped with certain weapons and equipment, the British might not dare to go out of the city to attack, and the chance of success was still quite high.

On May 13, the recruited natives of the Eight Banners gathered on the south bank of the Berg River and began to set off. This time, each banner recruited a total of 800 armored spearmen, and some of the Eight Banners gunners trained by the East Coast people accompanied them with ten artillery pieces. In addition to them, hundreds of slaves were also served as coachmen and servants followed the team. Xiao Baitu and others who were sent to South Africa, followed far behind with cavalrymen who had expanded to more than 70 cavalry, serving as the role of battlefield supervisors.

On the morning of May 18, this huge army quietly arrived at the outer area of ​​Good Hope Fort. The cavalry troops stayed on the periphery, and then the Eight Banners troops, commanded by Sun Shengjun and others, began to swagger under the city of Good Hope Fort.

At this time, the Cape Town area is a good season for a clear and refreshing autumn, and it is also a season of harvest. The British have opened up more than 800 acres of land about one mile outside the city, close to the water source. Now the wheat grown on these fields is time to harvest. Looking around, the golden wheat waves are rising and falling in the breeze, which looks so pleasing to the eye.

"Put up the cannon!" Sun Shengjun waved his hand. A artilleryman Klar (original name of the Bantu people's basic social unit, now it has evolved into an Eight Banners official position) bowed his order, and then trotted back and urged his artillerymen to start setting up artillery positions. These Eight Banners artillerymen have received certain training from the East Coast people. In this operation, considering that the British were equipped with a large number of muskets and a small number of artillery, it was much stronger than the Eight Banners soldiers, which were all cold weapons. Therefore, ten additional artillery pieces were allocated for these indigenous soldiers to use. Of course, after use, these artillery must be strictly inspected and recovered. The East Coast people have always strictly controlled the control of the flow of firearms into the Eight Banners soldiers.

The Eight Banners soldiers had such a big move, so the British would definitely not be blind. In fact, as soon as the Eight Banners soldiers started to set up artillery positions outside the city, all the British commanders in the Good Hope Fort had already climbed to the top of the city. Lieutenant Porter, who had insisted on leading his troops to fight to defeat these barbarians, suddenly shut his mouth after seeing the ten artillery guns in the distance. The other British officials also lost their voices for a moment. These barbarians were actually equipped with ten cannons, and it seemed that two of them were powerful 12-pound cannons. God, have you abandoned your people?

"The gun positions of these barbarians are very particular. They not only ensure frontal firepower, but also take into account side cross-kill firepower. They are definitely artillery positions designed by professional artillery officers. I don't think these stupid barbarians have such tactical qualities. Damn East Coast people, they are so shameless!" Lieutenant Porter walked around the city, irritated like a tiger locked in a cage.

The English militia in tattered clothes were looking at him indifferently. The wheat fields outside the city were very important, but they didn't have to fight with their own lives. After all, there were so many artillery there. If they were stuffed with shotguns, how many lives would be needed to fill in the barbarians? What, do you expect those barbarians to not be able to operate the cannons skillfully? Don't tease them, whoever loves to go, just don't let me die anyway!

Moreover, the food reserves in the castle are not too scarce at present. Is it necessary to work so hard? The only benefit of the nobles and military officers will be the unlucky ones who died. Moreover, recently, I heard a rumor that was circulating in the castle that was unknown from where it was: given the turbulent situation in the UK and the huge losses of more than 30,000 pounds for two years, the East India Company has intended to transfer the Cape Town Colony. There are some news that the Dutch seem to be interested in this...

Damn it! These men tricked us from the country, but now they want to leave. What's worse is that they seem to want us to fight these savages now! Oh, God, please punish these shameless people.

In the silence of the British militia, Lieutenant Porter, who had been alone for a long time, seemed to realize something. He sighed heavily, then left the place, and walked towards the two artillery positions on the top of the city. Since the soldiers were reluctant to leave the city to fight back, they could only let the four artillery artillery on the top of the city counterattack against the barbarians.

The Eight Banners soldiers outside the city did not know the thoughts of the British at this time. They were still urging the clutches of officers Clark to dig up bunkers to set up cannons; and the armored spearmen were also lined up in sparse formations of scattered soldiers under the constraints of the harsh military law, ready to deal with the British militias leaving the city at any time. Beside them, hundreds of slaves were already holding sickles and pushing carts into the British wheat fields, and began to harvest the wheat that was almost ripe in the fields.
Chapter completed!