Many people may not know that although the economies of Britain and France are significantly better than those of the newly unified Kingdom of Italy and the Ottoman Empire, which is known as the "sick man of Europe", the best selling countries in Nyasaland in Europe are not Britain or France, it is precisely Italy and the Ottoman Empire.

The predecessor of the Kingdom of Italy was the Roman Empire, which was once the most powerful country in Europe, Milan is not only the economic and industrial center of Italy, but also the fashion capital of the world.

The situation of the Ottoman Empire is not much better, from the nickname "the sick man of Europe", you can see the status of the Ottoman Empire in Europe, once the Ottoman Empire was also glorious, the territory spanned Asia, Africa and Europe, and now the territory of the Ottoman Empire in Asia is being swallowed up by Britain, the territory in Africa is divided by France and Italy, and the territory in Europe is encroached upon by Russia, but Istanbul is still singing every night, drunk and dreaming of death, so all kinds of luxury goods in Nyasaland, Sales were good in both the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Italy.

The finest luxury in Nyasaland was of course the expensive cars, the Lord cars, decorated with lots of gold and diamonds, were still in short supply at 20,000 pounds outside the Commonwealth, and in both the Kingdom of Italy and the Ottoman Empire, the Lord cars were enthusiastically sought after, and this time the Kingdom of Italy bought fifteen Lord cars at once, while the Ottoman Empire bought fifty in one go.

The Ottomans were rich.

Or rather, the Ottoman royal family was really rich.

In addition to automobiles, gold jewellery was also popular, and a wide variety of diamond jewellery became a feature of Itno, where the Ottoman purchasing officials bought nearly two hundred thousand rand in one go, and then the money became part of the order for weapons and ammunition.

As for how the Ottoman officials in charge of procurement will explain that the price of weapons purchased by the Ottoman Empire will be so expensive after returning home, it is not within the scope of Roque's consideration, as if the official in charge of procurement in the Ottoman Empire is a prince, and people spend their own money, and Roque can't care about it.

According to the Ministry of Defense's plan, in October, Southern Africa will hold its first military exercise after self-government, so Roque has been in Pretoria all this time.

"In this exercise, we will dispatch all four integrated divisions, the Northern Rhodesia Division and the 1st Cavalry Division will depart from the Milner base and go to the Kalihali area in Bechuana, and the 3rd Cape Division will take a boat from Cape Town to Durban, and join up with the 4th Natal Division and go to Rhodes in Bechuana, the entire exercise will be carried out in Bechuana, which is expected to take three months and cost 1.5 million rand." Roque still reported to Ade first, and at this time he must bring in Secretary Hopkins.

After this exercise, Hopkins will be promoted to become the only field marshal in southern Africa.

Roark is not qualified enough, and his current rank is the same as that of Hopkins as a general.

"Yes, but it's self-funded, and the federal government doesn't have the money." Ade agrees in principle that money is the only problem.

"The money is already there—" Roque was a little embarrassed.

"Where did it come from?" Ade is very curious, the federal government is so poor that it can't open the pot, but the Ministry of Defense has made frequent moves, and the federal government gives the Ministry of Defense so much money every year, and the last time the Ministry of Defense built a combat readiness warehouse, the money was borrowed from the RAND Bank, and now where does the money come from to conduct military exercises?

"Borrowing from the Rand Bank—" Roque was even more embarrassed, borrowing money would be a habit.

Ade immediately blackfaced, the money borrowed by the Ministry of Defense was not to be repaid by the federal government in the end.

Moreover, the federal government asks the RAND Bank to borrow money, and the RAND Bank will always put forward a lot of conditions, such as mortgage, review, and approval, and it will take a month or two for the whole process to come down.

The Ministry of Defense is very convenient, Roque makes a phone call, and the manager of the RAND Bank will send the money immediately, and there are procedures that should be in place, but the money can be obtained on the same day.

"The RAND Bank has opened a green channel for the Ministry of Defense, after all, national defense is greater than everything, the procedures can be made up slowly, and the money must be in place immediately." Roque's reasons are quite good, and Ade has nothing to say.

As long as the funds are in place, everything is easy to say, which sounds like a lot of 1.5 million, but when it comes to the nearly 70,000 troops of the four integrated divisions, it is actually not much.

The four integrated divisions, the Northern Rhodesia Division and the 1st Cavalry Division, each numbered 18,000 men, and the 3rd Cape Division and the 4th Natal Division numbered 16,000 men.

Although the exercise will not take place until October, the plan for the exercise has already been issued in June, and preparations have begun in June.

Considering the elevated terrain in Bechuana, Martin led the Northern Rhodesian Division to Bechuana early to acclimatize.

The terrain of the high platform is not a plateau terrain, the average altitude of Bechuana is about 1000 meters, the terrain is generally flat, with undulating plateaus, generally 800-1100 meters above sea level, most of the area belongs to the tropical arid steppe climate, the west is a desert, belongs to the tropical desert climate.

Bechuana has become a separate state and has joined the federal government for two years, but in the past two years, Bechuana's population has not only not increased, but because of the decline in the migration of some people to southern Africa, the population in Bechuana is still less than 100,000, most of them are concentrated around Rhodes City, so Bechuana is really sparsely populated, and it is very suitable for holding military exercises.

The 100,000 here does not include the natives of Bechuana, who are not even eligible to be counted.

The Northern Rhodesian Division did not go to the city of Rhodes, but went directly to the Okavango Marshes, northwest of Bechuana, which covers an area of more than 16,000 square kilometers and is the largest inland delta in the world.

"We have also tried our best to increase the population, as long as there are people who are willing to settle down, the area of the farm is as big as they want, and the state government also has subsidies for the construction of farms, with an average of 100 rand per household, but still no one wants to come, look at the land here, the water and grass are abundant, and the game is everywhere, as long as someone is willing to settle here, then these things are his." Amelia, the governor of Bechuana, tried hard to sell it, and it is estimated that the city of Milner gave Amelia some inspiration.

Milna City is the station of the Northern Rhodesia Division, and after the unit station was completed, more than 100,000 family members of officers and soldiers who followed the officers and soldiers of the unit to settle in Milna City appeared, and a large city appeared in just a few months, and Xiao Si could wake up with a smile in his dreams.

Amelia couldn't sleep at night, and the conditions in Bechuana were indeed worse than those of Rhodesia, but they weren't much worse, because there were no people, so the entire Okavango swamp was deserted.

Of course, Amelia also set up a lot of ambushes when selling, the so-called "abundant water and grass" is true, and "wild meat everywhere" is also true, but "abundant water and grass" means that crops are difficult to grow, and wild meat everywhere means that humans may be attacked by wild animals at any time.

Africa's wild animals are not pheasants and hares, but crocodiles, pythons, elephants, hippos, lions, and poisonous snakes.

No wonder no one wants to settle in the swamp.

"Take your time, we're going to stay here for a while and see if it makes any difference." Martin did not say anything, Roque's migration to Bechuana was carried out around the city of Rhodes, and now the population of Rhodes City has exceeded 50,000, and more than a dozen towns have appeared around it, and the Okavango swamp is not taken care of for the time being.

Of course, it may never be taken care of, the territory of southern Africa is now more than 3 million square kilometers, compared with the Cape, the Transvaal, Rhodesia, Nyasaland, Bechuana actually does not have much development value, in this respect Bechuana is not even comparable to Orange and Natal.

But there will definitely be changes, the 18,000-strong troops, even if it is a temporary camp, the scale is comparable to a small city in southern Africa at this time, around the temporary camp of the troops, there are many articles that can be done, at least the troops will clean up the surrounding wildlife in order to ensure safety, so that after the troops leave, what is left is a relatively safe area, at least the new immigrants do not have to worry about the attack of wild animals for a period of time.

For new immigrants, wildlife is the biggest threat, and there is no wildlife protection law in this era, let alone a human rights organization to speak out for wildlife.

While Martin and Amelia were talking, gunfire erupted outside the makeshift camp as officers and soldiers of the Northern Rhodesia Division were clearing wildlife around the camp.

It is impossible to imagine how dangerous the situation here is without being in Bechuana, poisonous snakes may be hidden in the grass everywhere at any time, crocodiles with a body length of seven or eight meters may lurk in any stream, and there may be more elephants than people here before the Northern Division of Rhodesia came to the Okavango swamps, for these beasts, humans are very tasty food, and without the help of weapons, humans cannot survive in this environment at all.

This is also the reason why guns are not banned in southern Africa, not because they don't want to ban it, but because they can't ban it, if the farmers in those remote areas don't have weapons, then facing these beasts is equivalent to sending them to death.

Of course, now the wild animals around the camp are unlucky, in the face of all kinds of advanced automatic semi-automatic weapons, even the most ferocious wild animals can not fight, this is also the welfare of officers and soldiers, after all, the fur of all kinds of wild animals is very precious, the northern division of Rhodesia and Itno have a long-term cooperation agreement, this time the northern division of Rhodesia came to Bechuana, and there were also Itno staff accompanying them, when the officers and soldiers of the northern Rhodesia division hunted wild animals, the staff of Itno did not forget to remind, Don't damage your fur too badly.

It's all money.