When Horatio Herbert Kitchener left Southern Africa, Roque was a probationary inspector at the Cape Town Police and had no chance of seeing Kitchener.

Ten years have passed in the blink of an eye, and the original Probationary Inspector is now the Minister of Defence of Southern Africa, and the title is the same as that of Kitchener, who was already Chief of Staff of the Expeditionary Force when he attended the banquet in Cape Town, when Roque was not even qualified to enter the banquet hall.

Although in Egypt, Roque was nominally subject to Kitchener's moderation, Kitchener's treatment of Roque was obviously not the attitude of superiors to subordinates, but like an old friend meeting, inviting Roque to afternoon tea.

"Is there any difference between tasting and Indian black tea? This is a green tea from the Qing Kingdom, without milk or sugar, in fact, it tastes good. During his work in India, he sent troops to invade Lhasa and forced the then Lhasa government to sign the Treaty of Lhasa.

Roque smiled and didn't respond, India's black tea was also stolen from the Qing Kingdom.

After a brief opening remark, Kitchener didn't go around in circles, and came up and said directly: "How much does Lee Enfield produce in Southern Africa?" ”

"If you run at full capacity, it's about 50,000 per month." Roque didn't tell the truth, 50,000 per month is the basic output, and it can at least be doubled if you go all out.

"Too little, the War Department needed 2 million rifles before 1914." Kitchener has now begun to get into the role, and this is not something for the governor of Egypt to consider.

"No way, there are still 14 months until 1914, and we can't do it anyway." Roque was surprised, wondering why Kitchener had limited the time to 1914.

There is still a lot that Roque doesn't know, Kitchener was appointed as Minister of War not by nepotism, although this person's personality is a little weird, but his strength is real, and he was dismissed from his post as Commander-in-Chief of India not because of his lack of ability, but because of his discord with Governor Curzon, which has reached the point of affecting his work.

Capable people usually have character, and Kitchener is a person with a lot of character.

"If you in southern Africa can't do it, then the order will have to be given to the Americans—" Kitchener was scheming, not at all afraid that Roque would not agree.

"Well, we can do it-" Roque gritted his teeth, two million rifles, even if a rifle made a profit of ten pounds, the total profit was more than twenty million.

The Ministry of War bought so many rifles in one go, and it must also buy more bullets, so this business was done.

"The price must be the price of 1910." Kitchener is demanding and does not give Roque a chance to make a fortune.

"That can't be, sir, unless you can get me enough raw materials for the price of 1910, and you have to find a worker who will voluntarily cut his wages." Roque immediately refused, even if Kitchener went to the Americans, the Americans would not lower the price.

The arms race has now entered a white-hot heat, and the two major military blocs have already pressed on their old roots, and the prices of not only military supplies but also daily necessities have risen even higher; the prices of various commodities in the market have risen by at least 50 percent so far this year, and the prices of chickens will all cost one pound, and the prices of rifles will certainly increase.

"No other costs will be incurred." Kitchener still has bargaining chips, and under normal circumstances, such a large military purchase contract will cost a lot of public relations.

"Why so much? And why 1914? "Roque needs time to think about the gains and losses.

"The War Department has decided to recruit 1 million new recruits." Kitchener is really a ruthless person, and he has to make a big move before he takes office.

"Has the local mobilization order been issued?" Roque has mixed feelings, Britain now has a total population of 40 million, a million recruits, plus veterans, almost a generation.

"Not yet, but we have to take precautions, war may break out at any time, France and Germany have entered a state of partial mobilization, our army is now not prepared, once the war breaks out, France will definitely need our support, the final decision of the war is the land battlefield, this war is estimated to last a long time, maybe it will take three years or longer, we must be prepared for long-term operations." Kitchener treats Roque as his own person, and Roque can barely be regarded as an army background.

Roque only now realizes the strength of Kitchener, this man is indeed a talent, no wonder he was appointed Minister of War by the British.

Many people thought that war would break out within a year or two, and George Wright, for example, discussed this with Roque.

However, the vast majority of people do not have a clear understanding of this war, and the general opinion is that the war will last at most a year before it ends, and it will not drag on for too long.

Kitchener was the first to predict that the war would last more than three years.

What Roque said before was because Roque knew that the World War had been fought for four years and he could easily be a god.

It is different for Kitchener, who made this judgment based on the current situation, which is indeed commendable.

"1 million troops, then our army is already more than 1.5 million people-" Roque said the army, not counting the navy, if you add the navy, the total number of British troops is already more than 2 million.

"Well, at 1910 prices." Roque gritted his teeth, no matter what, he will get the order first, anyway, the price in 1910 is also very profitable, and Kitchin is still conservative, two million sounds like a lot, in fact, it is not enough to really fight, and he will definitely continue to order in the future, and it is Roque who has the final say on how much it will rise at that time.

Kitchener is now ordering rifles, not only afraid of soaring prices, but also worried that if it is necessary to order, but the production in southern Africa cannot keep up, then it will affect the decisive battle with Germany.

This battle cannot be lost.

"I want to return to southern Africa as soon as possible to organize production, and complete the order as early as possible-" Roque also felt the urgency of Kitchener, now that the Balkan war has ended, the two major military blocs have been completely formed, any small accident may lead to the outbreak of war, at this time Roque will definitely return to southern Africa to preside over the situation.

"This is the best, the situation in Egypt is dangerous, but it is not yet fatal, and our main enemy is Germany." In Kitchener's words, neither Austria-Hungary nor the Ottoman Empire would put much pressure on Britain, but in the face of Germany, no one dared to take it lightly.

Roque nodded silently, secretly glad that Southern Africa did not need to face German pressure, but only Tanganyika and Southwest Africa.

No matter how arrogant Roque is, he will not think that the current southern Africa has the ability to compete with Germany, don't look at the current German army and navy combined is less than a million, but once Germany issues a mobilization order, the army can expand to more than five million people at any time, considering Germany's combat effectiveness-

Southern Africa cannot be defeated even if men, women and children go into battle together.

Think about how the Transvaal and Orange were bulldozed by the British Expeditionary Force, if southern Africa faced Germany, the end would be the same as the Boers during the Boer War, in the face of absolute strength, any strategy and tactics are useless, as long as the war can be turned around, it is not absolute strength.

In fact, there is no such urgency, under the leadership of Roque, the construction of strategic warehouses in southern Africa was completed last year, and now there are more than one million rifles in stock in southern Africa, which were originally prepared by Roque for the world war.

Not just to sell to Britain, if France is in need, it can also be sold to France, once the war breaks out, it is no longer a question of whether the caliber of the bullet is universal, first solve the problem of whether there is one, and then talk about others.

Of course, there is no need to rush back to southern Africa, the telegram can be sent first, Roque sent telegrams to Henry and Sam respectively, one of them is responsible for organizing raw materials, the other is responsible for organizing production, as long as they don't have problems, in fact, Roque can't return to southern Africa or not.

In November, the transfer order was officially issued, and Kitchener left Egypt to return to the mainland as Minister of War.

At this time, Roque had returned to southern Africa, and the production of rifles had increased to 100,000 per month, and all the factories were working overtime to produce, not only rifles, bullets, shells, explosives, and artillery of various calibers, but also the war-related factories were working overtime, and even the fishing boats in the North Sea began to go all out to catch fish for Xiao Si's canning factory, Roque didn't care about these things, and after returning to southern Africa, he began to mobilize troops, ordering the Northern Rhodesia Division and the 1st Cavalry Division to move to the border between Tanganyika and Southern Africa.

"Why Tanganyika, we should deal with South-West Africa first." Derek Dodd didn't understand Roque's arrangement, and geographically, it was indeed Southwest Africa that was easier to fight than Tanganyika.

With the completion of the railway between Walvis Bay and Bechuana, the armies of southern Africa could attack directly into south-west Africa by train along the railway.

"Silly! Southwest Africa is ours sooner or later, it doesn't matter if it's one day earlier or one day later, Tanganyika is not necessarily, so as long as war breaks out, we must take Tanganyika first. "Roque doesn't get confused at this point.

Derek Dodd's expression was complicated, but he didn't speak, acquiescing to Roque's arrangement.

To the north of Tanganyika is the British-Egyptian Sudan, and one thing is certain: Britain would not want to see southern Africa annex South-West Africa and Tanganyika in succession, even if southern Africa was Britain's own son.

That's why Roque had to take Tanganyika first, and then slowly attack South-West Africa, so that Britain would never be able to declare war on southern Africa, even if it was reluctant.

It would be hilarious to think that both Sudan and Southern Africa could lose British territories, and if Sudan declared war on Southern Africa, it would be equivalent to King George V of England declaring war on himself.

This has not happened before, and it has happened several times.