The surveillance of Phoebe Lasker and Sean Nehemiah is carried out by the Umbrella, and Roque has no time to pay attention to these minions.

The British blockade of the Strait of Malacca did not stop the footsteps of the Dutch, Sumatra is an island, the Strait of Malacca is impassable, and the Far East Fleet simply circled around the island of Sumatra, trying to bypass the Strait of Malacca and blockade the port of Medan.

On June 25, the Far East Fleet arrived off the coast of the port of Medan and fired artillery on the battery of the port of Medan.

The newest flagship of the Far Eastern Fleet is also more than 15 years old, and the artillery is also the commodity of the last century, and it is simply impossible to confront the new artillery that has just been installed on the Medan battery, and the artillery battle lasted three hours, and a offshore gunboat of the Far Eastern Fleet was sunk and an armored cruiser was damaged.

In the afternoon of the same day, torpedo bombers from the port of Medan attacked the Far Eastern Fleet, sinking the stranded Far Eastern Fleet "Nichols".

Although torpedo bombers were not the protagonists of the battle, the Lion City, just across the sea, took notice of the torpedo bombers, and Viscount Gladstone returned to Nyasaland.

"The sinking of the Nichols was not the role of the bombers, the bombs dropped by the bombers did not hit the Nichols at all, it was the fighter jets that ignited the gunpowder that the Nichols had piled up on the deck when they fired with machine guns, so the Nichols sank." Roque didn't lie, now the hit rate of the bomber is really touching.

In the era when there were no bomb sights, airplanes could only rely on experience, or mainly on Meng, to throw bombs.

The last time the Medan Air Force carried out an air raid on Xianda, it was because Xianda occupied a relatively large area, and it was still not biased casually, and it was very difficult to launch an attack on a warship on the sea, even if it was a warship that had run aground, more than 10 meters wide and more than 100 meters long, and the "Albatross" did not have this capability at present.

Including torpedoes, the hit rate of torpedoes at this time is actually very touching, inaccurate, not far, inexplicably losing power, sometimes even if it hits the target, it will not explode, many weapons perform very well at the test site, but in actual combat it is full of problems.

This is also the reason why Rokhning is willing to risk leaking secrets in advance, and also sends the "albatross" to the East Indies, although there are planes from southern Africa in actual combat in North Africa, but there is only a simplified version of the "strong wind", there is no "albatross", and the military observers sent by southern Africa to Italy and the Ottoman Empire respectively have obtained the information that has been screened by Italy and the Ottoman Empire after all, and the reference value is actually not much, and there must be enough first-hand information in order to continuously improve the "albatross".

"At least now this method can pose a threat to warships, and you also hope that the albatross can become the nemesis of the dreadnought, so the Southern African Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of War can join forces to improve the albatross for the better." Viscount Gladstone was also hungry, as long as he could target the German fleet, Viscount Gladstone was willing to try.

"Don't get your hopes up too much for the albatross, although the Nichols is an armored cruiser, it is essentially made of wood, and the Dutch refused to build a new ship in order to save money, so they used the cladding iron of the previous battleship as an armored cruiser, and this is not news, only a dreadnought can sink a dreadnought." Roque is telling the truth, at least now the whole world believes that only dreadnoughts can sink dreadnoughts.

This is also the reason why the European powers want to build dreadnoughts, as a super warship that turned out to be born, the dreadnought swept all the previous warships into the old paper pile, thicker armor, stronger firepower, greater survivability, everyone knows that dreadnoughts are expensive, but this only drawback can not stop the European powers from pursuing dreadnoughts.

is like the "Star Wars Project" proposed by the United States in another time and space, although Lao Maozi knew that the "Star Wars Project" was unreliable, he still had to respond to the war, because there was no choice at all.

"Locke, weigh the cost between the dreadnought and the albatross, even if we exchange a hundred albatross for a German dreadnought, we are still the winners." Viscount Gladstone insisted that in fact, the battleship was not completely sunk to lose its effectiveness, and that a warship that fought at high speed in the ocean only needed to lose power, or lose part of its power, and perhaps lose its value.

The role of torpedoes at this time is extremely important, and the biggest role of destroyers in a decisive battle is to launch torpedoes near the battleships that rush to the place at high speed to launch an attack on the enemy's capital ships.

There is no need to compare with dreadnoughts, and even compared with destroyers, torpedo bombers are undoubtedly a more economical option.

"Lord, you didn't think about the value of a pilot, a qualified pilot is worth much more than a torpedo bomber." Roque still habitually emphasizes humanities, and there has always been a saying in the aviation industry in the 21st century that the training cost of a qualified pilot is equal to the same weight of gold.

But that was the twenty-first century, and at the beginning of the twentieth century, the value of pilots was not so important, and even pilots were just consumables.

At least in the eyes of Viscount Gladstone.

So Viscount Gladstone was very careless about human life: "Locke, the value of the individual in the war is incomparably small, even including those of us, if we are the victors, then we will shine, if we are unfortunately defeated, Locke, I don't know what will happen to you, but I will definitely die a glorious death before defeat!" ”

It's really careless about people's lives, and they don't even care about their own lives.

Or rather, Viscount Gladstone and Roque don't care about things the same.

"Sir, I don't doubt your loyalty and determination to the British Empire, I believe you also know that if necessary, I can give everything I have, even my life, without hesitation, but until then, I will definitely do everything possible to defeat my enemies, the albatross has a future, but it is not good enough, I am not a broomstick, I don't want the Germans to know more information, sir, if you can guarantee that I will send the albatross back to the homeland, the Germans will not get any news, then you can take the albatross away." Roque can also be sensational, but blindly sensationalism will not solve the problem.

The current situation between Germany and Britain is that I have you and you have me, and even the British king and the German emperor are relatives, and the relationship between the two countries is actually very complicated.

There must be German spies in London now, and there must be British agents in Berlin, and even Viscount Gladstone can't guarantee to what extent Germany has infiltrated the British government, so this question is very realistic, at least now the British Navy has an absolute advantage in the face of the German Navy, even without an albatross, the British Navy can defeat the German Navy.

Then the question arises, if the Germans also knew the role of torpedo bombers, then did the British government pay more attention to torpedo bombers, or did the Germans pay more attention to torpedo bombers?

There is no need for an answer to this question, and there is no answer, but everyone has a scales in their hearts.

So Viscount Gladstone is unprecedentedly entangled.

Roque didn't speak, waiting for Viscount Gladstone to make a decision.

"Locke, if the War Department sends someone to Southern Africa, would you be willing to open up all the materials?" Viscount Gladstone retreated, no longer insisting that Roque hand over the technology.

"Are you suspicious of me?" Roque's face was gloomy.

"No, no, Locke, I never doubted you, but no amount of caution can be taken in the fate of the nation." Viscount Gladstone emphasized, jokingly, that Viscount Gladstone is a viscount, and Roque is also a viscount, and no one is much better than the other in terms of contribution to the British Empire.

Moreover, Roque is still the first generation of military nobles, and the title of Viscount Gladstone is hereditary, so if you really want to talk about contributions, Roque is simply Viscount Gladstone.

"Yes, if the War Department sends someone to Southern Africa, I'm willing to open up all the information - but there is one thing, the Nyasaland Air Group has invested so much in the Albatross that they can't afford to get nothing, so the War Department will compensate the Nyasaland Air Group." Roque mentioned conditions, and if he didn't mention conditions at this time, he was simply sorry for Roque's nickname of "dying for money".

It was from Port Elizabeth that he began to sell oil to the British mainland, and Roque had the nickname of "dead money".

"How much do you want?" Viscount Gladstone said bluntly, although there are many nominal shareholders of Nyasaland Air Group, but Viscount Gladstone knows very well that those shareholders of Nyasaland Air Group are actually smoke bombs thrown by Roque.

It is difficult to explain clearly in one sentence or two about this shareholding, but there are six nominal shareholders of Nyasaland Air Group, namely RAND Bank, Nyasaland Agricultural Company, Umbrella Company, Adan Company, Nyasaland Government, and Southern African Ministry of Defence.

The Nyasaland government and the Southern African Ministry of Defence are the kind of shareholders who only receive dividends and do not have decision-making power.

The shares of the RAND Bank and the Nyasaland Agricultural Company are about the same, about 25 percent, and the shareholding situation of these two companies is more complicated, with as many as 11 nominal shareholders, and the shareholding status of the Umbrella Company and Adan Company is unknown, because one of these two companies is registered in Johannesburg and the other is in the Adan Islands, and even the federal government of Southern Africa does not know the equity of these two companies.

However, one thing is certain, so many of the above-mentioned companies, as well as the government of Nyasaland and the Ministry of Defense of Southern Africa, are inextricably linked to Roque, although it is not appropriate to ask so directly, but Viscount Gladstone is still very direct.

"To date, Nyasaland Airlines Group has invested a total of £5 million in Albatross." Roque is confident, this number is not made up, it is well documented.

"Five million! How much is Nyasaland Airlines Group worth now? Viscount Gladstone was speechless, more than ten years ago, the largest private bank in the United Kingdom, the "Bank of Baring", had a principal of only 2.9 million pounds, when did the pound become so worthless?!!!