Similar to the British one-time purchase of tens of millions of pounds of arms purchases, it has been very satisfactory to the enterprises of Nyasaland, but the enterprises of Nyasaland still underestimated the scale of the world war, and France sent more orders to Nyasaland, this time at the same level of tens of millions of pounds, but the unit is no longer "one" or "portion", but tons.

France's first order was for five and a half thousand tons of foodstuffs, as well as fifteen thousand tons of nutritious military feed.

Southern Africans, including Xiao Si, were stunned by this huge order, but that's not all, the French promised that if the products supplied by Southern Africa met the requirements of France, such orders would be made every month, and the scale would only increase.

Roque is not surprised, Southern Africa, like the United Kingdom, only maintains a small army, and does not have enough understanding of large army countries such as France, Germany, and Russia, and there are a total of two divisions of standing armies in Southern Africa, which add up to 40,000 people when they are full, and there are not many supplies for daily needs, and after a large number of mechanical equipment is installed, the types of materials needed are different from those troops in Europe that are still using a large number of military horses. Such an army group would need 550 tons of food and 850 tons of forage per day.

After the national mobilization, France had 1.8 million troops, divided into 97 infantry divisions and 10 cavalry divisions, which needed a huge amount of supplies every day.

And Russia, known as the "steamroller of Europe", has an army of 3.5 million, which is divided into 114 infantry divisions and 36 cavalry divisions.

Austria-Hungary had an army of 1.3 million, 47 infantry divisions, 11 cavalry divisions.

Even the Kingdom of Serbia, which had only 20,000 troops before the war, urgently called up 255,000 men into the army a week after the outbreak of the war, organized into 12 infantry divisions and a brigade.

5,500 tons of food is only what a group army needs for 10 days.

And that's not even counting the forage.

So large-scale war is really not something that southern Africa can afford now.

"The problem now is that the French don't have the money to pay, so they need to take out a loan from the RAND Bank, and France wants to trade in francs, not pounds or rand." Anton couldn't keep his mouth shut, Britain's arms purchases had already fed southern Africa, plus France, this was the rhythm of the end.

Unlike the governors of other states, Anton used to be more accustomed to wearing civilian clothes, and after the outbreak of the war, Anton changed to a more military hunting jacket and cargo pants, and he still retains the military status of Southern Africa, with the rank of lieutenant general, and if necessary, Anton can also take up arms at any time.

That also means that Nyasaland is all in the army, and Roque is doing everything he can to prevent this from happening, and if it gets to this point, it means that the army has been exhausted, the border police and the national army have been exhausted, and the factory workers, including women, have to be organized.

"If you want to be beautiful, you can take out a loan, let the French go to the RAND Bank to negotiate, you can not use pounds or rand, but it can never be francs, you can use gold, the equivalent of gold settlement, and you have to add interest." Roque knew that the Entente would win the final victory, so he was not worried that France would not pay back, nor that he would not be able to pay it back.

If it doesn't work, it's better to use Madagascar to pay off the debt, and Roque is willing to make Madagascar part of southern Africa, even if France has not completely conquered Madagascar until now.

Even if the Entente won the final victory, inflation and currency depreciation were inevitable, and the current franc is still pegged to gold, which looks pretty good, but over time, France will cancel the exchange between francs and gold during the world war, so it is certainly not possible to use francs for settlement.

For the essence of these imperialist countries, Roque knows very well, do not overestimate the degree of civilization of "civilized society", killing red eyes will also eat people.

"The Russian Empire also wants to buy weapons, but they need Mosin Nagant, and we may have to adjust the production line." Anton now really understands what the troubles of happiness are, worrying when there is no order, and worrying even more when the order can't be done, watching the orders fly over like snowflakes, this is all white silver-

No, yellow-orange-orange gold.

"Yes, but be careful of the Russian Empire, trade with the Russian Empire can only be cash, and remind Ida that you must not give a loan to the Russian Empire, and you will not give a cent." Roque is adamant that giving a loan to the Russian Empire now is equivalent to joining the KMT in 49.

"Why?" Anton couldn't figure it out, according to Roque's line of thought, the Entente could win the world war, then the Russian Empire's ability to repay should also be fine.

"No why, no just can't-" Roque refused a little stiffly, and then thought about throwing the pot to Brad: "The Russian Empire is very unstable at home, there may be a regime change, and the Russian Empire may be in arrears at that time." ”

Roque did not say exactly what would happen to the Russian Empire, but he made it clear enough that it was clearly beyond Anton's understanding.

"Debts? Probably not—" Anton still doesn't know enough about imperialism.

"Definitely!" Roque was categorical, the Russian Empire did not rely on such a thing once or twice, even Britain and France dared to rely on money, not to mention southern Africa.

Compared with Anton, Ida clearly knows more about European countries, and during the Russo-Japanese War, Russia has not yet paid off the loan from the RAND Bank, although the interest repaid by Russia has far exceeded the amount of the loan in Russia.

"France has a loan of 50 million rand, secured by the proceeds of Madagascar, which can only be used for the purchase of supplies in southern Africa, and 80 percent in Nyasaland." Ida perfectly realized Roque's vision, and the conditions put forward were harsh, but the French had no choice, and compared to the British, France's financial situation was more difficult, and the British support was already needed to continue the arms race before the outbreak of the world war.

"Well done!" Roque was very satisfied, even more so if the armies of southern Africa did not need to go to Europe.

The British War Department has been in frequent contact with the Ministry of Defense of Southern Africa recently, not only asking the Ministry of Defense of Southern Africa to be prepared to attack South-West Africa, but also asking Southern Africa to exercise restraint in the Tanganyika direction, and at the same time hoping that the troops of Southern Africa will immediately board ships and go to Europe.

On August 3, France responded to Germany's ultimatum yesterday with a general mobilization for war, Germany declared war on France today, and when Roque and Ida met, Britain had already ordered a general mobilization for war, although it had not yet declared war on Germany.

This general mobilization for war is not only in Britain itself, but also in the huge colonies and overseas dominions, which means that from today onwards, Britain proper, Canada, Australia, Southern Africa, New Zealand, India and other places have all entered a state of war at the same time, and will continue until the end of the world war.

Compared to the other colonies that had just begun to mobilize, Southern Africa was the most well-prepared, and Roque had prepared an African division of six African soldiers for the homeland, which had been trained and ready to go to Europe.

After the general mobilization of the war, the Ministry of Defense once again conscripted 180,000 African soldiers to form ten divisions, ready to be sent to Europe to participate in the war one after another, this is only the first batch, and then there will be the second, third and even N batches, the Ministry of War must not have expected Roque to be so active in sending African soldiers to Europe to participate in the war.

In the eyes of the War Department, this was probably Roque, the Viscount of Nyasaland, the greatest loyalty to the British.

Southern Africa, while well prepared, was not the largest relative to the other colonies.

Regardless of the previous struggle for power among the various overseas territories, it is now a time for all of us to put aside the controversy for the time being in order to win the war, India's mobilization plan includes 2 million troops and hundreds of millions of financial donations, and in order to mobilize India's enthusiasm, Britain promised to give India the same autonomous status as Canada, Australia, and southern Africa after the end of the world war.

It must have been a fool, but the Indians were convinced and made huge donations for the world war, and many farmers even donated their own rations to the British.

Like India, which was bankrupt, Australia was at war, and the mobilization plan for Australia, with a total population of 5.5 million, included 450,000 regular troops, ranging in age from 18 to 46, all of which were to be sent to Europe to fight the war, and if the war was lost, Australia would be finished.

Compared with India and Australia, southern Africa still has a lot of war potential, and now there are more than five million Africans in southern Africa, I don't know how much, the Ministry of Home Affairs' survey shows that in Natal's African families, more than a dozen children abound, and in the data of the Ministry of the Interior, most African families have no more than three children.

In Africa, more people does not mean more power, but it means more taxes to pay, after the general mobilization of the war, southern Africa will also have a war tax, one rand per person, one rand for white Chinese, one rand is not a problem, for African families, not to mention one rand per person, many African families can't get together one rand for smashing pots and selling iron.

So even Brad's office can't figure out how many Africans there are in southern Africa, the Home Office's estimate is five million, and Brad's office's estimate is more than nine million, and the gap between the two figures is too big, and Roque doesn't know which one to believe.

In 1912, the total number of Chinese and whites in southern Africa had just reached 8 million, of which 5.6 million were Chinese and 2.4 million were whites.

Migration continues in southern Africa, and not only the Chinese population is increasing rapidly, but the white population is also skyrocketing.

After all, for Europe, which has fallen into the abyss of war, southern Africa, which has not yet been affected by the war, is really a pure land.