The purchase of rifles from southern Africa is only part of Britain's huge procurement plan, in addition to the most basic rifles, Britain also has to buy a huge amount of military and household goods, at the end of May, Britain sent a special procurement team to southern Africa, this time led by Douglas Haig.

Douglas Haig played an important role in World War I, and after Kitchener became Secretary of the Army, the 1 million recruits that Britain had just drafted were trained by Douglas Haig.

He had previously participated in the Second Boer War, and remember the 17th Lance Cavalry Regiment, which was completely annihilated by the Boer coalition during the war? It was directed by Douglas Haig.

Because of his poor performance during the Second Boer War, Douglas Hague followed Kitchener to India as Attorney General, and then became the youngest major general in the British Army, then became the head of the War Office's Military Training Bureau, then returned to India as Chief of the General Staff, and now returns to the War Office with Kitchener.

After the outbreak of the First World War, Douglas Haig took command of the First Army of the British Expeditionary Force, and Douglas Haig was under Sir John French.

It is worth mentioning that during the Second Boer War, Douglas Haig was Sir John French's chief of staff.

During the First World War, the First Army was active, and Douglas Haig was promoted to general in the first year of the war, after which Douglas Haig began to blacken, and in all the battles in which he participated, the British Expeditionary Force suffered heavy losses, and Douglas Haig received the nickname "The Butcher".

After knowing that the head of the purchasing team was Douglas Haig, Roque was still relatively depressed.

It is an absolute tragedy that Douglas Haig, who was as extremely conservative as his old superior, Sir John French, had a special preference for cavalry, was not interested in the new weapons that appeared in the war, who once considered "the machine gun to be a superfluous weapon", and had the same attitude towards tanks.

On May 31, Douglas Hague led the procurement mission to Pretoria, and Roque, as Minister of Defense, was mainly responsible for the reception of the procurement mission.

As with Roque's trip to Egypt, on the evening of the delegation's arrival in Pretoria, Ade held a grand welcome dinner for the delegation at his estate, with ice cream made on the spot, and Western chefs from the Rhodesia Hotel.

"Locke, you don't seem to be in high spirits—" Sidney Milner didn't care about Douglas Hague and took the initiative to find Roque in the corner of the banquet hall.

Roque was chatting with Henry and Small, and when the three of them were together, only a few people, such as Owen and Sidney Milner, dared to come over and join in the fun.

"No, I'm happy—" Roque smiled and looked happy, but not Sidney Milner.

"Cheer up Locke, no matter what, General Haig is now our God of Wealth, and we have to serve General Haig well in order to get more orders." Xiao Si is in high spirits, and if he is allowed to accompany Douglas Haig throughout the whole process, it is estimated that Xiao Si will be very happy.

"Don't get your hopes up, maybe this guy will end up buying a bunch of potatoes and going back, I just talked to his adjutant, and guess what? He didn't want to watch the air show, he didn't want to watch the confrontation exercises we arranged, he disliked the weight of the general-purpose machine gun was too light, so he thought that the power of the general-purpose machine gun was not enough, and it was the first time I heard that the power of the machine gun was determined by weight. Roque complained that although he had been in contact with Douglas Hague for less than two hours, Roque had fully understood Douglas Hague's stubbornness.

There are several types of machine guns now used by British troops, the most common being the Lewis machine gun, designed by the American, Lieutenant Colonel Isaac Lewis.

The performance of the Lewis machine gun was not bad, but an aluminum sleeve was sleeved on the outside of the barrel to dissipate heat, which greatly increased the weight of the Lewis machine gun, and the weight of the empty gun reached 11.8 kg.

Later research showed that the Lewis machine gun could still effectively dissipate heat even after the aluminum sleeve was removed, so many people believe that Lieutenant Colonel Lewis's insistence on installing this aluminum sleeve on the Lewis light machine gun was mainly to distinguish it from the original design of McLean.

You taste, you taste, this is clearly another liar who uses other people's inventions to cheat money.

Compared with the Lewis machine gun, the general-purpose machine gun used in southern Africa is lighter and more reliable, and the profit continuity of the 75-round magazine is also better than the 47-round drum of the Lewis machine gun, but Douglas Haig thinks that the Lewis machine gun is better, which really makes Roque very helpless.

"Maybe General Haig thinks the machine gun is heavier, and the Heavy is more powerful when he uses it to smash the enemy when he runs out of bullets." Henry laughed, he was also a soldier, and this was the first time he had heard such a statement.

"You should arrange a show for him." Xiao Si actively thought of a way.

"I just said that he doesn't want to see it." Roque tried, but it didn't work.

"Locke, you've met your opponent this time." Sidney Milner also laughed, not only not helping to figure it out, but also gloating.

"It doesn't matter, time will give the best answer." Roque is not in a hurry, now that the world war has not broken out, Douglas Haig can still handle it, and when the world war breaks out, Haig will beg Roque to buy a general-purpose machine gun.

"Send a telegram to Winston." Xiao Si found another way, and if he couldn't make a plan, he would come up again.

"No, I said, there are times when he begs us." Roark can't rely on Winston for everything, and Winston is not having a good time now, because of the aircraft carrier, Winston is also being questioned by Congress.

It's really a bit expensive to build an aircraft carrier, and now it's higher than the latest Queen Elizabeth-class battleships launched in the UK, and the key is that the role of aircraft carriers has not been proven by war, so Congress thinks it's too wasteful for Winston to spend such a large amount of money on aircraft carriers when the economy is so tight.

And it's not one, that's waste multiplied by two.

Of course, Winston is not easy to bully, the Navy is now Winston's final say, Winston has made a military order in Congress, and the role of aircraft carriers is almost exaggerated to the sky, although Congress is dissatisfied, but it is helpless Winston.

"Come with me Locke, you can't hide here all the time, Lord asked me to come to you." Sidney Milner has a mission, and Locke, the secretary of defense, must accompany him throughout the journey.

Roque followed Sidney Milner to the center of the venue, where Douglas Haig was talking.

"The Germans are at the end of their rope, their troops are not equipped with even the most basic weapons, and the navy cannot compete with our Royal Navy, and those poor people do not dare to provoke a war, and if the war breaks out, we can take Berlin in three months, and then hold a military parade in front of the City Palace." Douglas Haig foamed at the mouth, and he didn't seem to notice that the faces of the people around him were not very good.

It's okay to say "German", but the use of adjectives like "poor ghosts" is not allowed in southern Africa, and this is racism against red fruits.

"I communicated with Marshal Kitchener a few months ago, and the fighting strength of the Germans still needs to be affirmed, and Marshal Kitchener said at that time that if war breaks out, it may not end in two or three years, and we must be prepared for a long battle, and any form of slackness will make us fail." Roark pulled the flag as a tiger skin, and then Douglas Haig's expression was a little stiff.

"It is indeed important to pay attention to the Germans, they have just won the Franco-Prussian War, their morale is high, we are always a sea power country, and we are not skilled in fighting on land." Ade is no stranger to the military, for the national level, decades is indeed a flick of a finger, and the performance of the British army in the Boer War, which has just ended for only ten years, is really not reassuring.

"That's why we have to change the current army tactics, there is no need to add new weapons, but to strengthen the role of cavalry, countless wars have proved that cavalry is the decisive force to change the shape of the battlefield." Douglas Hague wrote a book "Cavalry Studies", which can be regarded as having some experience with cavalry, but the level is not very good, the 17th Cavalry Regiment was the only unit that was completely annihilated by the Boer coalition during the Boer War, and I don't know why Douglas Haig, the commander-in-chief, did not fight with the troops to the end.

"Four legs can't outrun four wheels." Roque couldn't help but stiffen, Britain now has more than one million troops, where to get more than a million military horses? Even counting the horses and ploughing horses is not enough.

"You mean cars? Don't be funny, think about the poor performance of the car and the requirements for transportation, the advantage of the cavalry is irreplaceable, any small river, can make the car helpless, and the cavalry can easily cross. Douglas Haig retorted that today's cars do have a relatively high failure rate and are more restricted by the terrain.

"Well, you're right." Roque doesn't argue with that, if there is a chance, Roque still wants to let Douglas Hague understand how far the world has developed now, compared with cars, cavalry may indeed have some advantages, but compared with armored vehicles and tanks, the advantage of cavalry is not worth mentioning.

The cavalry is expected to disappear after the First World War, and think of the Cossacks, who were once invincible across Europe, and now they have almost been reduced to a historical term.