Iron Dynasty

“Fire!”

Looking at the Redcoats in Cape Town, Liu Chen roared and gave the order.

“Boom, boom, boom…”

Forty-two warships fired at the same time, and in an instant, the warships, which were lined up in a straight line on the sea, sent out ripples in the seawater. Smoke and huge flashes of fire erupted from the muzzles, and with the sound of shells tearing through the air, explosions bloomed on the southernmost coast of Africa.

“This is a place that is easy to attack but difficult to defend.” Liu Chen raised his eyebrows slightly; he had thought the same thing the last time he passed by Cape Town. Right in front of the fleet was the mountain range known as Table Mountain, which was clearly visible. This was also the most prominent symbol of Cape Town. This mountain range, which stretched for more than ten kilometers, was called “God’s table” by the Europeans and looked like a smooth tabletop from a distance.

Under the mountain range was Cape Town, which was close to the sea, and all the buildings in the colony seemed to be crowded on the beach. For such a place, the north side was difficult to attack, but the south side could only be protected from a sea attack by a powerful navy. In the past, Britain’s warships were unmatched, but that era was now over.

“Boom, boom, boom…”

Shells flew toward Cape Town in endless rounds. The more than six hundred cannons on the forty-two warships plowed the entire Cape Town as if plowing a field. After firing tens of thousands of shells, Liu Chen ordered the shelling to stop. It was not that he wanted to waste shells, but that as the southernmost British colony in Africa, Cape Town was in a very important location. It could be said that controlling Cape Town meant controlling the African shipping route. Because of this, Britain had stationed more than 8,000 people in tiny Cape Town to control this area and the surrounding colonies. In order to defend against the Empire, Cape Town had obviously been modified in the past two years, which could be seen from the fortifications built with volcanic ash on the coast.

“Land!”

After the shelling, Liu Chen continued to give orders, and the marines immediately boarded the newly built landing craft of the Empire. This landing craft was not big and was rectangular in shape. However, this landing craft was specially designed for landings and focused on defense and offense. Therefore, in addition to the steel hull of the landing craft, there was also a special machine gun firing position in the front. Most importantly, the landing craft was the first small vessel to use an internal combustion engine for propulsion.

Now that automobiles had been popular in the Empire for four or five years, the research on various internal combustion engines had become more and more mature, and some technologies had naturally been applied to shipbuilding. This diesel-powered landing craft was an attempt by the shipyard. After the technology matured, it was applied to the construction of small vessels for the Empire. As for the Empire’s large warships, they would abandon coal and adopt a power structure of fuel boilers and steam turbines.

“Buzz, buzz, buzz…”

All 120 soldiers boarded the landing craft. With the buzzing of the diesel engine, the landing craft headed for the beach, moving faster and faster. All the soldiers in the landing craft hid behind the steel hull to prevent being shot at from the shore. On the raised firing platform on the right side of the boat, the machine gunner stared at the coast through the gap in the machine gun’s protective armor.

“Ugh…”

Despite having taken the landing craft many times, Lu Han was still a little unaccustomed to the bumpy ride of the high-speed landing craft. Not long after boarding the ship, he lay on the side of the ship and began to vomit. The soldiers in the landing craft were wiping their rifles and couldn’t help but laugh when they saw this. One soldier said, “Lu Han, next time, let the company commander prepare a boat for you to row. You can’t handle an advanced boat like this landing craft.”

“Then he will be far behind. By the time he gets to shore, we would have finished the battle and are eating,” another person joked.

A burst of laughter immediately erupted in the landing craft.

After vomiting for a while, Lu Han felt much better. He cursed, “That’s nonsense. Even if I row a boat to land, I’ll kill more enemies than you.”

As soon as he finished speaking, a crisp sound of metal clashing was heard, and the soldiers on the boat immediately stopped laughing. Lu Han also squatted down. “These British guys have all become rats now. They all hide in holes. Even with such fierce artillery fire, not all of them were blown up.”

“Nonsense. If the artillery had dealt with all of them, what would we be here for? Get ready to work,” the company commander on the landing craft reminded them. “Check your equipment and ammunition and prepare for battle.”

The landing craft continued to speed through the sea, getting closer and closer to the shore, and more bullets hit the hull. The machine guns now made a “da da da…” sound, and bullets flew like strings of pearls toward the British soldiers on the shore who were putting up a stubborn resistance.

On the beach.

Cape Town Governor Chapman, covered in dirt and blood, peeked his head out of the trench, flustered. The trenches were full of British soldiers’ corpses. Many of the bodies were incomplete, and the wails of the soldiers and the strong smell of blood constantly permeated the air.

Stumbling onto a stool, Chapman poked his head out and looked at the sea. He saw nearly a hundred small boats speeding on the sea like galloping horses on a prairie. The distance of a few hundred meters of sea was just a flash for these strange small boats. The surviving British soldiers were shooting at these boats, but from the density of the gunfire, he could hear how heavy their losses were from the round of shelling.

“No retreat! Fight to the last man!” Chapman shouted in a high voice. This was the Queen’s demand for the army after the war in India. Anyone who retreated would be killed without exception, whether they were soldiers or officers. It was under this high pressure that they had to fight to the end, even though they were living in fear. However, his shouts seemed too weak and pale on the battlefield at this moment.

“Da da da…”

A dense volley of fire swept across, and Chapman’s body seemed to freeze. Then, blood gushed from his chest, his eyes slowly lost their color, and he slowly fell. In his final moments, he saw the enemy’s boats stop on the shallows, the front of the boats opened, and the Imperial soldiers streamed out of the boats.

“Go, go, go!”

The moment the landing craft stopped, Lu Han and the other soldiers were rushed off the boat. The machine gun teams and mortar teams, protected by skirmishers, quickly set up their firing positions. The dense firepower suppressed the British soldiers in the trenches, and the soldiers, under the cover of the machine guns, charged toward the trenches.

With thousands of soldiers landing, the British army, which had been severely damaged by the artillery fire, was quickly annihilated after a weak resistance. Soon, the Empire’s Dragon Flag began to fly over Cape Town.

On the warship, a smile appeared on the corner of Liu Chen’s mouth. The battle was going unusually smoothly, but he understood that a large part of this was due to the location of Cape Town. This place was truly indefensible, but at the same time, the Empire’s growing military strength was also very important.