If a member of a Gurkha family serves in the Southern African Army, then there is a three-year waiting period for the member of the family to become an official Southern African resident.

But if two members of the family serve in the Nyasaland Army, the three-year waiting period can be shortened to two years, which is a great attraction for the Gurkhas.

The "service" here is, of course, serving in the regular army, that is, those who are professional soldiers, compulsory soldiers are not included, after the southern Africans reach the age of eighteen, if there is no amnesty from the prime minister, they must enter the army to serve for two years, the amnesty group here is mainly those students who have received a university admission letter, they can be exempted from military service, but if they choose to serve in the military, then the student status will still be retained, and at the same time will be recorded in the file, and they will get greater opportunities in future work.

It is also thanks to compulsory military service that Southern Africa has been able to carry out large-scale infrastructure construction, and the road between Port Edward and Johannesburg is being built, which is expected to be completed in two years.

Of the 70,000 professional soldiers in southern Africa, about 20,000 are Gurkhas, Boers and British, and the rest are Chinese.

Roque accompanied Viscount Gladstone on a tour of the recruitment propaganda point set up by the Ministry of Defence, where a second lieutenant, mostly women, was responsible for recruiting throughout the Ulysses region.

Only then did Viscount Gladstone learn that there were still women in the Southern African Army, which was unthinkable in Europe.

"Women have a huge advantage in many ways, they are more relatable, they are more attentive in their work, they have an irreplaceable natural advantage in nursing, and now many nurses in the army are women, most of them come from the Johannesburg Medical School and have received complete and systematic training." Roque took the initiative to introduce that women have the same rights as men in most fields in southern Africa, such as schooling, work, and joining the army.

More than 40 per cent of the University of Nyasaland is now female, and it is co-educational without any difference.

Earlier, the Johannesburg Medical School, because most of the students came from Ziwei Hospital, the proportion of female students once exceeded 80%.

The current government of Nyasarland also has a large number of staff members who are women, especially in office clerical work and reception work, and the advantages of women in this regard are unparalleled.

So the presence of women in the army is not surprising in southern Africa.

These women in the army, but also changed the inherent image of women in people's hearts of weak and obedient, these female soldiers in the recruitment station, are wearing pistols in a conspicuous position on the body, these pistols are not ornaments, female soldiers also have to receive basic training, in some areas that are not good at, such as physical fitness requirements may be relatively low, but in terms of shooting, the requirements are still very high, women who can become professional soldiers, at least the shooting performance must be good.

Even the nurses.

"It's hard to imagine a woman picking up a gun—" Viscount Gladstone shook his head repeatedly, clearly not in favor of the decision of the Ministry of Defence.

It's also an old stubborn.

"It can't be helped, the population of southern Africa is too small, we have to use every force we can use as much as possible, and the police system is also considering hiring more female policemen, of course, women will not charge at the front line of the battle, that is the responsibility of our men." Roque still has a bottom line, compared with Europe, southern Africa already uses women as men, and it would be too much if it was used as livestock.

"The army is a male group, and if there are women, it will cause a lot of problems-" Viscount Gladstone's worries were not unfounded, discipline was always an important issue.

"Of course, we also have prevention, if it is free love, then no one has the right to interfere, but if it is entangled, then be careful that the gendarmes are looking for trouble, as for more serious cases, so far it has not happened, some provisions of the Constitution and the Criminal Code do not apply to military courts, and some acts of violence are allowed in military courts when the army is operating abroad, but if it is involved, military courts will deal with it severely." Roque never relented when he should be ruthless, the army is a violent organ, and it doesn't matter if he is angry and complaining when he operates abroad, and he must abide by the law when he returns to southern Africa.

Viscount Gladstone did not say much on this issue, the strong military strength of southern Africa is also the need of the Commonwealth, as long as the participation of women will not affect the combat effectiveness of the troops, Viscount Gladstone is happy to see it.

In the afternoon, when it came time to visit the boot camp, Viscount Gladstone finally got a glimpse of the military might of southern Africa.

It's finally a purely male group, and the entire boot camp is full of hormones.

The number of recruits in the boot camp is 1,000 people, which is about the size of a battalion, and those who volunteer to join the professional army undergo four months of rigorous training in the boot camp before they are given the opportunity to join the four standing forces.

From the training plan of the boot camp, Viscount Gladstone felt the cruelty that came to his face.

Armed five kilometers is a common occurrence in the new barracks, twice a week, and once a month for long-distance training, and the distance is basically 50 kilometers away.

From 6 o'clock in the morning to 11 o'clock in the evening, the training program of each day is full, and the meal time is compressed to less than half an hour.

Seeing the training plan, Viscount Gladstone understood why Roque was not worried that the addition of women would affect the combat effectiveness of the troops.

According to this training plan, the recruits will be squeezed to the limit every day, and there will be no time or energy to think about those ups and downs.

This is just a recruit training plan, not all recruits have the opportunity to become professional soldiers, the elimination rate of recruits will be at least more than half, to the army, there will be a more rigorous training plan, professional soldiers are not the kind of troops that carry guns and mess around in the past, they are always preparing for the battle, there is no best, only better.

When Roque and Viscount Gladstone arrived at the training ground, the recruits were training in company units.

Thanks to the sparsely populated coast of the North Sea, the camp of the recruit camp covers a large area, the area of the training ground is four or five square kilometers, some recruits are running circles around the training ground under the leadership of officers for physical training, some are standing in a military posture, and there are bursts of gunfire from the shooting range not far away, and the bullets here do not cost money, because Nyasaland has a large amount of copper mines, and the bullet casings are made of brass.

Of course, it is still necessary to recycle after use, which can be luxurious, but not wasted.

"There are fifteen such recruit training camps in Nyasaland, and it can be said that a standing division can be formed at any time, and if these soldiers do not meet the requirements to become professional soldiers, they will also go to the local military department to file after leaving the recruit barracks, and if war breaks out, they will also have the opportunity to join the army." At this time, Roque no longer talks about professional soldiers, and Southern Africa would rather be lacking than abundant.

"Your requirements are too strict, they are actually very good soldiers." Viscount Gladstone was simply distressed, if by the standards of the British War Office, these recruits were qualified soldiers.

And it's the elite kind.

"I know, but I can't help it, the military spending of the Ministry of Defense is so small, it is very difficult to maintain the current size of the army, and there is no room to expand the scale." Roque also knew that these recruits were actually qualified soldiers, and the introduction of Gurkha people in southern Africa was originally introduced based on this standard.

But the Ministry of Defense has so much money, even if it adds an interest-free loan from the War Department, it can't afford to build more troops, and this is the purpose of Roque bringing Viscount Gladstone to inspect the new barracks, and he wants to have more help in the future?

Talk with money!

"I'll report it, but I can't give you any guarantees." Viscount Gladstone is indeed excited, for the ability of those old soldiers of the British Army, Viscount Gladstone is also very clear, if he can, Viscount Gladstone hopes that the War Department will give all the army funds to southern Africa, then the British Empire will get an invincible army.

It's a pity that this can only be imagined, if Viscount Gladstone really wrote this suggestion into the report, then the generals of the War Department would definitely think that Viscount Gladstone is crazy.

However, it is still possible to fight for some more funds, the British Navy's superiority over the German Navy is huge, basically unshakable, the Army has a huge hidden danger, and now the British War Department is pinning its hopes on the French Army, which is actually unrealistic, and the results of the Franco-Prussian War have proved that the French Army is not an opponent of the German Army.

Even with the addition of the British Army, it was no match for the German Army.

"Then I can't give London any guarantees, after all, the army of southern Africa still has to protect the security of southern Africa—" Roque was entitled to bargain.

"You didn't say that before—" Viscount Gladstone was surprised that Roque had learned to cheat too.

Viscount Gladstone was referring to Roque's previous promise to London that in order to obtain an interest-free loan from London, Roque had promised to send troops to southern Africa in the event of a war between Britain and Germany.

"Yes, I did." Roque is not cheating, Roque will definitely fulfill his promise when it is time to fulfill it, but the content of the fulfillment may be a little off.

Compulsory military service in southern Africa also includes those Africans.

Therefore, there are also Africans in southern Africa now, and these troops are actually engineering troops, which will be sent to Europe to be cannon fodder in the future.