On the desolate South African plateau, a group of British soldiers were marching in the direction of Johannesburg. After a year of fighting, relying on their size advantage, the British army finally invaded South Africa - after paying a heavy price, they captured Kimberley.

A month ago, in order to destroy the economic foundation of South Africa, they resolutely decided to attack Johannesburg. After all, it had the world's largest gold mine. Relying on the locally produced gold, the Boers were able to purchase a large amount of weapons and ammunition.

"The capture of Johannesburg is the first step to defeating the Boers!"

So Johannesburg almost became the key to this war.

As the British soldiers marched in formation, they did not know that someone was watching them 30 kilometers away. That was the No. 2 gun tower in Johannesburg. In the past half month, this gun tower, which was tens of meters high and located on a small hill, had been subjected to the most intense artillery fire in human history. The British army mobilized a large number of artillery and troops to attack it, but their attacks were all thwarted.

Although its walls were covered with bullet holes, it still stood motionless in the smoke, standing tenaciously in the smoke.

"Target location..."

Amid the rumbling of artillery fire, in the armored observation post on top of the turret, the artillery observer loudly gave the direction with the help of the artillery team members, and soon the left wing turret learned the enemy's distance and direction through the phone. The gunners in the turret immediately began to load ammunition. After a 203mm grenade weighing 100 kilograms and a powder bag were loaded into the chamber, the gunners immediately raised the firing angle to 42 degrees while closing the breech block and adjusted the direction at the same time. Ten seconds later, accompanied by a deafening cannon shot, the turret on the top of the turret sounded again.

This 203mm artillery with a 55-fold barrel is the latest product of the Ming Empire. It is famous for its long range, with a maximum range of 31,800 meters. It is also thanks to its long range that after the British attacked Johannesburg, the six artillery towers outside the city were not only six solid fortresses, but their long-range artillery also repeatedly inflicted heavy damage on the British army.

The combination of long-range heavy artillery and 16x gun scope became the Boers' trump card, dealing fatal blows to the British time and time again.

When the British troops who had just been reinforced in this battalion were marching, they had not yet realized the danger was coming. Suddenly, accompanied by a sharp whistle, the shells landed accurately nearby. Amid the violent explosion, steel fragments and rising dust and smoke swept across the marching troops like a whirlwind.

The whistling debris tore at the bodies of the Mu people, and the shock wave blew their bodies into the air. As they were thrown into the air like dolls, the wounded lying on the ground let out heart-wrenching howls and cries.

I don’t know how many people lost their lives before they even had time to react.

When the smoke cleared, the once mighty army had turned into a group of defeated soldiers, and the devastated battlefield was littered with corpses.

Such long-range artillery bombardment has undoubtedly been extremely deadly to the British in the past half month. Countless British troops have been bombarded dozens of kilometers away from the front line.

Faced with such bombardment, they had almost no ability to fight back and could only stand there and endure the long-range attack.

"Damn the Boers!"

In the observation post, General Colley's brows were furrowed, and even though he was cursing, his tone was full of helplessness.

"General, we can see that the Boers' long-range heavy artillery can bombard our troops from 15 miles away, but what about us? Our longest-range artillery can only bombard targets twelve miles away..."

Chief of Staff Haism said helplessly during his report.

"Now, whenever our artillery approaches, they will bombard our artillery positions with heavy artillery. These artillery towers rely on long-range heavy artillery to completely suppress our firepower, leaving our people no chance to even get close to the Boer defense line. General, unless we can destroy these forts, we will never be able to capture Johannesburg."

In the past days, the six turrets in Johannesburg became the most difficult fortresses to conquer in the city. The turrets were so solid and the defensive firepower was so strong that the British army even wanted to take a detour. But the problem was that they couldn't get around them at all. The city was protected by these six fortresses!

"Da Ming..."

"What?"

General Colley's words startled Haism.

"This artillery tower that is dozens of meters high was designed by the Ming Dynasty. They designed this turret more than 20 years ago. Its walls are 8 feet thick reinforced concrete, and the top is even thicker. The Ming Empire originally planned to use it to strengthen the Pampas defense line. After all, there is a grassland there. But because of the rise of the empire, it has remained in the drawing stage. Now the engineers of the Ming Empire not only helped the Boers build such a fortress, but also handed over their most advanced long-range coastal defense artillery to the Boers. This is why they can suppress us with artillery..."

Coley put down the binoculars and spoke in a tone of suppressed anger.

"What we can see is that after the war broke out, the Ming Empire seemed to ban the export of arms to the Boers, but what was the reality? Not only did they send a steady stream of arms here, but they also sent a lot of advanced arms, the most advanced ones. Tens of thousands of British soldiers died under the weapons made in the Ming Dynasty..."

Now Coley seems to understand the pain of Americans back then. During the Civil War, although the North seemed to have blocked the South, the South could still obtain a large amount of arms through smuggling, and most of the arms were provided by the Ming Empire!

Now what?

The Ming Empire was simply repeating its old tricks. On the one hand, they declared an embargo, but on the other hand, they sold large quantities to the Boers.

"Yes, General. As long as the Boers can still pay in gold, they will sell a steady stream of weapons to the Boers. So, General, we must capture Johannesburg no matter what."

Haism said firmly,

"Gold! The gold in Johannesburg is the foundation for the Boers to continue fighting. Without gold, they can't buy arms, and without arms, they can't continue the war. As long as Johannesburg is occupied, the Boers will have no gold, and without gold, the war will be over..."

General Coley nodded and said in deep agreement.

"So, we must seize this place and occupy this gold mine at all costs!"

Only by occupying this gold mine can the Boers' resistance stop. Of course, their resistance will not stop immediately, but without gold and a source of funds, those unruly resistance will not be able to continue, and they will definitely surrender in the end.

But now, it is precisely because of the gold here that they can continuously purchase a large number of weapons from the international market. And those weapons are the most advanced in the world. I don’t know how many British people died in those weapons.

"Gold... As long as we occupy this gold mine, many people will lose more than just gold, but the motivation to continue this war..."