When he was in Pretoria, Douglas Haig said that he could capture Berlin in three months and hold a military parade at the City Palace, which is to say, even Douglas Haig himself did not believe it.

As the Minister of Defense of Southern Africa, Roque will not be as insular as Douglas Haig, who when he was the commander-in-chief of the expeditionary force, suffered so many losses that Prime Minister Lloyd George wanted to resign, and such a person would not give him a single chance if he was in southern Africa.

"Southern Africa simply does not have the right to wage a foreign war, when has there ever been a conflict with Tanganyika?" Haig's words were a bit heart-wrenching, this point was a dead hole in southern Africa, but it really shouldn't be said unscrupulously in front of Roque.

"You've been in India for too long, go back to London and look through the information." There were no outsiders present, and Roque was unscrupulous, and when the Fort Glory troops rebelled, the ambush of the Southern African army at Tanganyika had been used as a classic example in the textbook of the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst.

Seeing Roque and Haig going toe-for-tat, the other members of the purchasing team looked at each other at a loss, Roque's side Barton Angel was silent with a fierce expression, and Xiao Si and Sidney Milner were speechless.

Sidney Milner is here to get orders, Sidney Milner is here to oversee that, although the federal government has not taken back its autonomy over foreign trade, the taxes that should be collected still have to be collected.

"There may be some problems with this shape when you use it, will it roll everywhere if you throw it out?" Edward Kitchener still knew a lot about military affairs, and it was different to have an uncle who was the Minister of War.

"The reason why our grenades are not equipped with wooden handles like the M24 equipped by the Germans is that they can be used as grenades, and our grenades have reserved jacks at the end, as long as they are screwed on this special wooden strip, inserted into the muzzle and used empty cartridges to fire, the firing distance can reach about 150 meters - and our grenades are not oval, but barrel-shaped, so that when necessary, only need to add a fragmentation sleeve to the offensive grenade, and the offensive grenade can become a defensive grenade, It's very easy to use - "For such a question, Roque is still very willing to answer, after all, the discerning customer is the real buyer."

The British army was not equipped with as many grenade launchers in southern Africa, and the British War Department did not have a deep understanding of the role of grenade launchers, but the front-line troops had a strong demand for grenades, so gun grenades came into being.

The entire procurement group, except for Douglas Haig, who had a black line on his face, was conquered by these whims of the military industrial personnel of southern Africa, and a small grenade could play so many tricks, no wonder the army of southern Africa was invincible on the battlefield.

Compared with all kinds of whimsical ideas, thanks to the abundant rare metals in southern Africa, the quality of weapons produced in southern Africa is also excellent, the same is the sapper shovel, the British production of the sapper shovel when digging trenches will be curled when encountering a stone, the sapper shovel produced in southern Africa can be used directly to chop wire, the barrel life is the same, the barrel life of the Weeks machine gun produced in Britain is about 10,000 rounds, and the barrel life of the general-purpose machine gun in southern Africa can reach more than 30,000 rounds.

The barrel life of 30,000 rounds does not mean that it will be scrapped after 30,000 rounds of ammunition, in fact, it can still be used if it lasts a little longer, but the accuracy will be greatly reduced.

The obsolete rifles in southern Africa are now sold to the Free State of the Congo and the Republic of Congo, as are the rifles of the Sultanate of Najd.

In addition to grenades, the Nyasaland Arsenal also supplied smoke grenades, which were very useful in battles, but are not taken seriously now, and there are two types of smoke grenades supplied by the Nyasaland Arsenal, one for individual man-carrying and one for mortars.

Roque had great hopes for the smoke bomb, but unfortunately Haig remained unmoved, believing that while the smoke bomb provided cover for the attacking troops, it would also affect the fire support troops, and at the same time affect the combat of the troops.

Roque now finally knows why the Anglo-French forces suffered heavy losses in the Somme, and although the "thin red line" tactic is a serious problem, the stubbornness of the commander is the fundamental reason.

The evening was still a happy banquet, and after the banquet, Roque arranged an opera, this time accompanied by Anton, and Roque did not show up again.

Roque and Xiao Si are going to study how to deal with Haig.

"As long as this guy is the head of the purchasing team, we don't want to sell too much, this guy is still a miser, and the best war horse is only willing to pay 50 pounds, and this price can't even be bought now." Xiao Si was also very dissatisfied with Haig, who was too persistent with cavalry.

"Perhaps that's why London appointed him head of the purchasing mission." Even if Roque can't sell it, he won't reduce the price, and now the situation in Britain can still be maintained, and after the outbreak of the world war, Britain's demand for various materials will explode.

"You really don't worry-" Xiao Si was not satisfied with Roque's attitude, as long as the weapons and ammunition can be maintained, there is no problem in storing them for decades, but the food is not good, and the maximum shelf life is not more than two years.

Although Roque knew that a world war would break out at any time, Xiao Si did not.

"The members of the purchasing team are complex, Douglas can't cover the sky with one hand, we need to make good use of Edward Kitchina and others so that we can achieve our goals." Roque doesn't hang himself from a tree, and Edward Kitchin is a good subject to give his uncle more influence.

"Give him a check he can't refuse!" Xiao Si has a bloody investment, and public relations expenses are indispensable.

"Why don't you choose something more thoughtful, like a mansion in London, or lend him a top-of-the-line Lord car—" Roque knew this, Edward Kitchener was a young man, and money was probably not as attractive to Edward Kitchener as the Lord's car.

"Good idea, I'll arrange someone to do it right away." Xiao Si is a standard man of action, a top-of-the-line Lord's car is only more than 10,000 points, and a wrong decimal place on the purchase list will generate millions of profits.

It was a very busy night in Port Edward, with traders everywhere, and everyone in the buying team was very rewarding except for Douglas Haig.

From the second day, the members of the purchasing group, who had no sense of existence before, became much more active.

Individual rations were very popular, and the price of individual rations per guaranteed package was 0.5 pounds, which made the purchasing team hesitate before, but now except for Douglas Haig, everyone else agreed that it was good and cheap, and the South African company originally only prepared 10 million, but the purchasing group directly placed an order of 50 million, anyway, this thing has a shelf life of two years.

Although there are only a million orders for medical kits, the demand for medicines is very large, and the purchasing group is like a hillbilly who rarely enters the city, almost everything is wanted, alcohol and tobacco are also included in the list of medicines, and the alcohol content is relaxed to 50 degrees, which happens to be the degree of potato vodka.

The British do love to drink -

No, the British do like to use alcohol to disinfect the stomach.

At the insistence of Edward Kitchener and others, Douglas Haig also had to give in and significantly increase the procurement of general-purpose machine guns and ammunition.

The price of the Vickers machine gun produced in Britain was 175 pounds, and the price of the general-purpose machine gun produced in southern Africa was 225 pounds, and the ammunition was seven pounds and 1,000 rounds, and the War Department ordered a billion rounds at a time.

Sounds like a lot, doesn't it?

In fact, it is not much, the intensity of the world war is beyond imagination, one Vickers machine gun can consume 100,000 rounds of ammunition a day, and the War Department has purchased 2,500 general-purpose machine guns, and if you go all out, you can shoot them out in four days.

So the war really can't be fought, the bullets are still cheap, a sixty mm mortar shell costs 1.5 pounds, this thing is even more of a gold-swallowing monster, a shell is a month's salary for a soldier of the colonial servant army.

In just five days, the purchasing team placed an order in Port Edward with a total value of 100 million pounds, and successfully completed the task assigned by the War Department, and everyone except Douglas Haig was happy.

According to the agreement, these orders will be delivered in the next year, and there will definitely be new orders next year.

After the contract was signed, Roque and Smalls certainly laughed, and Sidney Milner was equally happy.

The federal government can get at least 10 million pounds in tax revenue for this batch of orders, which is simply timely for the federal government, which has been on the verge of financial collapse.

"Locke, there will be a French purchasing delegation coming over in a few days, you have to be ready." Sidney Milner, who appears to be based in Nyasaland, is now the first secretary in the Prime Minister's Office and a member of the Southern African War Coordination Council.

This "War Coordination Committee" was set up specifically for the service of the Entente.

"No problem, Southern Africa has the most complete product system in the world, and we can provide whatever the French need." Roque is confident that it doesn't matter if the caliber of bullets is not universal, adjusting the production line can meet the needs of the French army, not to mention that the area of France's colonies is not much lower than that of Britain, in fact, the desert value of North Africa is far less than that of southern Africa, otherwise it would not be the turn of France to occupy North Africa.

France's North African colonies were mainly to provide France with the human resources that France desperately needed, and Roque knew that he had set up an African army in southern Africa, and that France also recruited natives in North Africa to join the colonial servant army.

Unlike southern Africa, France's commitment to the natives of North Africa was to admit the natives who had fought in the war as true French citizens after the end of the World War, which was probably the beginning of Francon.

(End of chapter)