After the annexation of Lorenço Marques, the territory of southern Africa has reached 3.8 million square kilometers, and if you add Southwest Africa and Tanganyika, then the territory of southern Africa will swell to 5.6 million square kilometers, making it the largest country in Africa.

The British government certainly does not want to see this happen, a united, united, and strong southern Africa is not in the interests of Britain, so even if a world war breaks out, Britain will not let southern Africa easily take all of Southwest Africa and Tanganyika, Southwest Africa should be the bottom line of the British government, and Tanganyika is estimated to be very difficult.

However, this is not a problem for Roque, around Nyasaland, the Kingdom of Mozambique is also an independent country, the Fort Glory area in Tanganyika is in a semi-independent state, and the large area of primeval forest in the Congo Free State near the North Sea, although it still nominally belongs to Belgium, but in fact it is controlled by Yaya, and the British and Belgian rubber company, which leases the local land, has to cooperate with Yaya to develop the plantation.

Although the management of the Congo Free State has now been transferred from the Belgian royal family to the Belgian government, large enterprises such as the Anglo-Belgian Rubber Company do not pay much tax to the Belgian government, but instead pay about 10 percent of the total revenue of the Anglo-Belgian Rubber Company.

It is okay not to pay "protection money", and the Kasai company, which leases the land near Lubumbashi, is very tough and refuses to cooperate with Yaya, as a result, the plantations of the Kasai company are frequently attacked, many mercenaries who maintain law and order are shot dead, and the managers are kidnapped for ransom.

The first thing the new general manager did when he took office was to ask Yaya for protection money, and the protection fee to be paid by the company was equivalent to 15% of the total income of the company.

The strength and potential of southern Africa is now enough to make the British government vigilant.

If Southern Africa grows further, Britain's influence in Southern Africa will be further weakened.

The crux of the matter is that southern Africa, unlike Australia and Canada, is not a country composed entirely of white people, and there are Chinese and Africans in southern Africa in addition to whites, especially Chinese, which is the key to the British government's encirclement of Roque.

Roque is no stranger to the British government, since the British government is willing to support Roque, of course Roque will not refuse, and when appropriate, Roque will of course give the British government due returns, so as to prove Roque's value to the British Empire.

When the convoy set off again, it was a lot bigger, and after Xiao Si knew that Roque and Viscount Gladstone were "attacked", he personally led the convoy to the No. 1065 area overnight for reinforcements, and as a result, Xiao Si and Roque and Viscount Gladstone got into the same armored command vehicle, and the three old men swallowed clouds and fog in the car, making a miasma.

At this time, if there were three Chinese, most of them would have already taken out a deck of playing cards and started fighting the landlord.

Xiao Si does not play cards, and the conversation between Xiao Si and Roque revolves around the military industry.

"No, all the weapons and ammunition we used in this military exercise are self-produced, and all the arms left over from the Boer War were sold to the Japanese and Russians a few years ago, and the arms we sold to the Italians and Ottomans this time were all just produced in the past few years." The information revealed in Roque's words, intentionally or unintentionally, made Viscount Gladstone secretly frightened.

"The Matilda reservoir is more than half completed, when are you going to move the factory over?" Xiao Si has tasted the sweetness of building a city, and now he has a positive attitude.

The Ministry of Defense has built a new garrison for the 1st Division and the Northern Rhodesia Division, which has directly spawned a large city in Rhodesia, and now Roque is preparing to move the arsenal in Nyasaland to Rhodesia, which will give rise to another large city.

The name of the previous city is Milner, the name of the new city is Matilda, and Roque is also impartial, a bowl of water is even, this kind of favor is not done in vain.

The new factory, or the new military base, is located about 250 kilometres west of Salisbury, which will in the future host of the Kariba Reservoir, the world's largest man-made lake.

It's certainly not called that now, the reservoir is called Matilda Reservoir, which can provide enough electricity for the factory.

"When the reservoir is fully completed, Nyasaland is getting more and more short of electricity, and Little Rock has now begun to cut power, and the factory will not be able to move." Roque really misses the nuclear power plant, and if there was a nuclear power plant, Roque would not have to dig out the hollow to build a reservoir.

"How many weapons and ammunition can you produce each year now?" Viscount Gladstone finally asked the crucial question.

Britain is now stockpiling munitions, but not going well, and Britain's steel will first meet the needs of the navy, and then it will be the turn of the army.

Moreover, Britain's own resources were scarce, and the raw materials needed to smelt steel had to be imported from the colonies, and southern Africa was Britain's main source of iron ore in the past.

Before the autonomy of southern Africa, because of the Favart steel plant, the products exported from southern Africa to the British mainland were replaced by pig iron and crude steel, and the price of which was of course rising, but it was still very cost-effective to buy iron ore directly from the United Kingdom and then smelt it in the United Kingdom.

It was when Roque and Xiao Si discussed this issue that Viscount Gladstone suddenly realized that since southern Africa also had the ability to produce weapons and ammunition, the British government could completely buy weapons and ammunition from southern Africa, and there was no need to bother at all.

The point is that the weapons systems in southern Africa are the same as those in the British mainland, the rifles are all Lee Enfield, the bullet caliber is 0.303 inches, and even the first machines in the Nyasaland Arsenal were purchased directly from the British Royal Small Arms Corporation.

And considering the cost, because the raw materials in southern Africa can be produced in-house, even the weapons and ammunition in southern Africa plus freight are cheaper than the cost of local production in the UK, which is a good thing for both southern Africa and the British government.

It's certainly good for southern Africa, but it's hard to say if it's good for the UK.

Roque would definitely not remind Viscount Gladstone that selling arms is good business at all times, so Roque was full of confidence: "It's about the same as the output of the British Royal Small Arms Company." ”

This answer made Viscount Glaston's eyebrows flutter.

The predecessor of the Royal Small Arms Company was the Ursam Abbey Arsenal, which had been producing gunpowder since the 16th century, and in 1812 it could produce 225,000 smoothbore barrels per year, making it the largest arsenal in Britain.

The military industry in Nyasaland has only been around for many years, and when the factory was first established in 1902, it could only produce bullets, and now it has only been seven years since it was full.

Seven years, if this were to be replaced in Britain itself, if a new arsenal were to be built, perhaps the factory building had not yet been built, but the Nyasaland Arsenal had developed into a behemoth comparable to the British Royal Small Arms Company.

In fact, Roque has not told the truth, during this period, the British Royal Light Weapons Company only had three branches: Royal Artillery, Royal Gunpowder, and Royal Light Weapons, which could only meet the needs of British troops for weapons and equipment under small-scale conditions, so during World War I, Britain had to rely on the military industrial capacity of the United States in order to continue to fight with Germany.

Although Nyasaland's military industry started relatively late, it now has more than a dozen branch factories, which can produce not only light weapons and gunpowder, but also artillery and various types of light and heavy machine guns.

What Roque did not explain is that compared with the British Royal Small Arms Corporation, the Nyasaland military industry has a complete research and development system, in Belgium, the Nyasaland Arsenal and John Browning have cooperated to design a variety of classic weapons, in the United States, although the Nyasaland Arsenal has not directly set up a factory, but cooperates with Winchester to produce weapons and sell them in the United States, and now the sales volume is also reaching new highs.

However, Viscount Gladstone did not speak, the procurement of weapons is a big deal, and what Viscount Gladstone said does not count, now Viscount Gladstone's task is aircraft, and the matter of weapons and ammunition will be discussed later.

However, in the report submitted by Viscount Gladstone to London, the military industrial capacity of southern Africa will definitely be mentioned, and as for what London will decide, it has nothing to do with Viscount Gladstone.

Roque is not in a hurry, even if the British government is not in a hurry now, the Nyasaland Arsenal is working overtime.

The reason why Roque moved the factory from Nyasaland to Matilda is also to further increase the output of the arsenal, it doesn't matter if the weapons and ammunition produced now cannot be sold, and after the outbreak of the world war, all the participating countries will buy arms all over the world, and the United States in another time and space is to become the most powerful country in the world after World War II step by step by virtue of war money.

Now Roque wants to try it, the United States, the "rebel son" of Britain, can become the godfather of Britain in the end, and Southern Africa is also a pro-son now, so there is a chance to become a pro-father in the future.

So on the issue of selling aircraft, as long as it does not involve technology, Roque is willing to take another step, it doesn't matter if the price is lower, and leave a good impression on the British government that it is trying to cooperate, then the British government will think of southern Africa when it needs to.

Cast a long line to catch big fish.

The convoy arrived in Salisbury, where Roque and Viscount Gladstone and Smalls changed trains to Nyasaland, where they finally gained a deeper understanding of the strength of southern Africa at the city of Xuanwu on the shores of Lake Nyasa.

In order to prove the strength of Nyasaland, Roque placed one hundred and twenty "Gale Wind" fighters on the tarmac of the airfield on the outskirts of Xuanwu at one time.

This was certainly not intended for the British government, but was to be sold to the Italians, and after showing them to Viscount Gladstone, the planes were to be loaded onto ships and sent to Italy, for which the Italians paid 1.5 million pounds sterling for these planes and the training of pilots.