The national conditions in southern Africa and the surrounding international situation are different from those of the United Kingdom, which faces a strong challenge from Germany in Europe and wants to maintain its global naval supremacy, so it can only choose dreadnoughts and make every effort to suppress Germany's ambitions for the rise.

On the periphery of southern Africa, the two German colonies, South-West Africa and Tanganyika, were the ones that could pose a threat to southern Africa, while the rest of the Portuguese West Africa, the Congo Free State, and Madagascar, across the sea, were not capable of posing a threat to southern Africa.

Even Southwest Africa and Tanganyika, limited by their own strength, do not have the ability to build warships, Southwest Africa does not even have a navy, only a few inshore patrol boats, Tanganyika is even worse, the 800-ton Earl Gotzen has not been repaired because of lack of materials, the 100-ton Weissman is hiding in Usunbra and does not even dare to go out of the military port, and the Nyasaland North Sea Coast Guard is equipped with four thousand-ton coast guard ships, which is enough to form an overwhelming advantage over Weissman.

Therefore, southern Africa only needs to build a convoy route consisting of destroyers and light cruisers, which is enough to ensure the interests of southern Africa.

Although Bridges was an old navyman, it was also difficult to explain to Bridges the concept of a "light cruiser", which was derived from the provisions of the London Naval Treaty after World War I, which stipulated that the caliber of artillery was 6.1 inches, that is, more than 155 mm, and below 8 inches (203 mm) was a heavy cruiser, and vice versa.

The London Naval Treaty was not signed until 1930, so there is no such thing as a light cruiser yet.

"So we are going to build an ocean-going fleet of small cruisers and large destroyers, mainly for - escort!" Bridges is still very good at communicating, and there are similar formations in Britain, but now the world war has not yet broken out, and when the world war breaks out, Germany begins to implement unlimited submarine warfare, and the importance of this escort formation can be reflected.

Now Bridges is obviously a little regretful, referring to the establishment of the British Royal Navy, Bridges certainly hopes that southern Africa will also build a strong fleet with dreadnoughts as the core, but dreadnoughts are beyond the actual needs and affordability of southern Africa, so Bridges can understand.

"Yes, figure out our responsibilities in southern Africa, once a war breaks out between the mainland and Germany, the German fleet will be dealt with by the Royal Navy, and we have to deal with the pervasive submarine forces of the Germans, so anti-submarine is the main task of our warships, and I have commissioned Tesla Labs in the United States to develop active sonar, which will effectively help us deal with German submarines." Roque certainly did not ignore the role of sonar, which was Roque's killer feature for the Southern African Navy.

In 1906, Lewis Nixon of the British Royal Navy invented the world's first sonar, a passive sonar used to detect icebergs.

Now no one has applied sonar to anti-submarine, until the outbreak of World War I, sonar will be used on the battlefield, used to detect submarines, this period of sonar can only be passive listening, and can not actively detect, so the effect of combat is limited, and there are often oolong incidents.

Roque wants active sonar that can actively detect submarines, in terms of electromagnetism, Nikola Tesla is undoubtedly a god-level figure, but unfortunately Roque can't invite Nikola Tesla, so he can only invest in Nikola Tesla's laboratory and entrust Nikola Tesla to conduct research on active sonar.

Nikola Tesla's current job is to study his Wodencliffe Tower, which is a device designed by Nikola Tesla that can be used to transmit electrical energy over long distances, and Nikola Tesla claims that after the Worden Cliff Tower is built, it can be used to transmit electricity between the United States and Europe without wires, which is actually the original version of wireless charging.

In order to build the Woden Crevert Tower, Nikola Tesla persuaded the American tycoon John Morgan to invest $150,000 on the grounds that the Woden Crevo Tower could be used for radio research.

However, on December 12, 1901, the Italian Marconi completed the transatlantic radio transmission experiment, and because Marconi successfully completed the experiment before Tesla, Morgan stopped funding Tesla's experiment, and Nikola Tesla fell into financial trouble and had to suspend the study of Wordenclifforta.

Now Nikola Tesla is under Edison's strong suppression, and there is no investment to be found in the United States, Roque's funding is a relief in the snow, which can make Nikola Tesla continue his research, active sonar will not take up too much time of Nikola Tesla, for a god-level figure like Nikola Tesla, active sonar is a small toy.

"What is active sonar?" Compared to Roque, Bridges is also a hillbilly.

It's really not Bridges a layman, but the concept of active sonar is too advanced, and without Roque's investment, active sonar would not have been successfully studied by Canadian Robert Boyle until 1917.

"You'll know in a little while, Tesla's labs are progressing very fast, they have entered the trial production stage, and once the research is successful, the submarine will no longer be traceless." Roque doesn't explain too much, the relationship between Britain and Southern Africa, once Southern Africa gets the technology about active sonar, then active sonar is not a secret to the British Royal Navy, and Roque still has to make money on active sonar.

"Well, I suggest that we can still build one or two heavy cruisers as the flagships of our fleet." Bridges also has requirements, even if the dreadnought is counted, it is expensive and impractical, Southern Africa cannot afford to build it, and heavy cruisers are Bridges's bottom line.

"Yes, anyway, there are so many funds, and it will only be in place next year, how to use it depends on the arrangement." Roque is still delegated, in fact, in the naval field, Roque is also a layman, Bridges is an insider.

Just like the development of industry in southern Africa, Roque can only play a guiding role, and the real concrete technology requires the efforts of countless scientific researchers.

However, the value of this "guiding role" is incomparable, scientific research is like this, not afraid of slowness, afraid of deviations in the direction of research, Germany's direction of not developing aircraft and airships, even if it is developed to the extreme, it will be eliminated after the outbreak of world war.

"R3.5 million is too little—" Bridges hopes to get more money.

"It's a lot, the 3.5 million is still squeezed out by cutting a part of the army budget, and we will set up an air force next year, and there are only so many in the navy." Roque is only now realizing how difficult it was for Hopkins in the past, there were screams everywhere, there were people in Congress who wanted to reduce the budget of the Department of Defense, but fortunately, Ard gave Roque maximum support.

If you refer to the British Royal Navy, 3.5 million is indeed a bit less, the British Royal Navy is going to build the Tiger-class battlecruiser, a cost will be 2.1 million, according to the British habits, this is certainly not the final cost, the final cost will be much higher than this number.

This is the reason why southern Africa cannot afford to build dreadnoughts, if 3.5 million are used to build dreadnoughts, only two can be built, even if it is already in service, it is barely possible to build two, and the "dreadnought-class" battleships are now backward technology in jargon.

The dreadnought-class battleship was launched in 1906, and it has been less than five years now, and it is already backward technology, and the cruelty of the arms race is here.

Sending Bridges away, Roque counted the Ministry of Defence's budget for next year and found that there was a funding gap of at least five million rand.

Five million doesn't sound like much, that's a lottery, but in Southern Africa -

And so on –

Lottery ticket!

Roque is simply heartbroken, how can he forget the lottery as a big killer, especially the national conditions of southern Africa, think about the white people in southern Africa, who were they before immigrating to southern Africa, there are not too many people who are addicted to gambling, gambling is illegal in southern Africa, but the government can lead it.

So Roque immediately went to find Ada.

Of course, I went to the General Directorate of Taxation to find Ada, and Phyllis is now in Pretoria, and Ada's home is less likely to be visited.

"How can the Elder of Defense be free today-" The director of the General Administration of Taxation saw Roque with a lot of charm.

"I'm looking for money." Roque is a real.

"You can't ask for money, but you can." Ada's brain circuits –

"Get down to business—" Roque didn't dare to joke, but in moderation, what about the office, pay attention to the impact.

"Good idea, we have enough accountants in the State Administration of Taxation, and there is absolutely no problem with issuing lottery tickets." When she really started to get down to business, Ida was serious right away.

"No, the lottery must be issued by the Ministry of Defense, and the State Administration of Taxation can be responsible for supervising it." The idea that Roque came up with with great difficulty cannot become a tool for the State Administration of Taxation to collect money.

"Then we'll split the profits." Ida has a big appetite, this is a big business of millions, maybe tens of millions of dollars, the Ministry of Defense is short of money, and the State Administration of Taxation is even more short of money.

"Don't even think about it, isn't it enough that your State Administration of Taxation can collect taxes?" Roque disagrees,Millions that's drizzle,Tens of millions can only be regarded as a dismal business,Lottery issuing units around the world,There is one to say one,Which is not rich and flowing.

"It's not enough, taxes are public food—" Ida looked at her like silk.

This married woman, you must not flirt, or you will fall into the mud.

If it's in Nyasaland, issuing a lottery ticket is a matter of Roque's words.

But to issue lotteries within Southern Africa, it must go through the Prime Minister's Office.

"Lottery, good idea, but it can't be handed over to your Ministry of Defense to issue, it should be issued by the federal government." Ade's eyes were as green as hungry wolves.

Roque is really a headache, and the lottery is a piece of fat at a glance, and everyone wants to take a bite.