Reborn South Africa as a police officer

Chapter 757 The Pack of Wolves

The national conditions in southern Africa and the surrounding international situation are different from those of the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom faces a strong challenge from Germany in Europe and wants to maintain its global naval supremacy, so it can only choose dreadnoughts to suppress Germany's rising ambitions.

Around southern Africa, the two colonies of Germany, Southwest Africa and Tanganyika, are likely to pose a threat to southern Africa. The rest of Portuguese West Africa, the Congo Free State, and Madagascar across the sea have no ability to pose a threat to southern Africa. threaten.

Even Southwest Africa and Tanganyika are limited by their own strength and do not have the ability to build warships. Southwest Africa does not even have a navy, only a few coastal patrol boats. Tanganyika is even worse. The 800-ton Gozen The Earl has not been repaired due to lack of materials. The 100-ton Weissmann is hiding in Usumbula and dare not even leave the military port. The North Sea Coast Guard of Nyasaland is equipped with four thousand-ton coast guard ships. Enough to form an overwhelming advantage over the Weissmann.

Therefore, southern Africa only needs to build an escort fleet route composed of destroyers and light cruisers, which is enough to guarantee the interests of southern Africa.

Although Bridges is an old navy, it is also very troublesome to explain the concept of "light cruiser" to Bridges. The classification of cruisers comes from the provisions of the "London Naval Treaty" after World War I. The treaty stipulates that the caliber of artillery is 6.1 inches, that is, above 155 mm, and below 8 inches (203 mm) is a heavy cruiser, and vice versa is a light cruiser.

The "London Naval Treaty" was not signed until 1930, so there is no concept of a light cruiser yet.

"So we want to build an ocean-going fleet composed of small cruisers and large destroyers, mainly for escort!" Bridges is still very good at communicating, and there are similar establishments in the UK, but the world war has not yet broken out. When the World War broke out and Germany began to implement unlimited submarine warfare, the importance of this escort formation could be reflected.

Now Bridges is obviously a bit regretful. With reference to the establishment of the Royal Navy, Bridges certainly hopes that southern Africa will also build a powerful fleet with dreadnoughts as the core, but the dreadnoughts exceed the actual needs and affordability of southern Africa. So Bridges understands, too.

"Yes, figure out our responsibilities in southern Africa. Once a war breaks out between the mainland and Germany, the German fleet will be dealt with by the Royal Navy. What we have to deal with is the German submarine force, so anti-submarine is the main task of our warships. I have entrusted the Tesla laboratory in the United States to develop active sonar, which will effectively help us deal with German submarines." Rock will certainly not ignore the role of sonar, which is Rock's trump card for the southern African navy.

In 1906, Lewis Nixon of the Royal Navy invented the world's first sonar, a passive sonar that was mainly used to detect icebergs.

At present, no one has applied sonar to anti-submarine. It was not until the outbreak of World War I that sonar was applied to the battlefield to detect submarines. During this period, sonar could only listen passively and could not actively detect. Sometimes the effect is limited, and there are often oolong incidents.

What Roque wants is an active sonar that can actively detect submarines. In terms of electromagnetism, Nikola Tesla is undoubtedly a god-level figure. It's a pity that Roque can't invite Nikola Tesla. Therefore, we can only invest in Nikola Tesla's laboratory and commission Nikola Tesla to conduct research on active sonar.

Nikola Tesla's current job is to study his Wardenclyffe Tower, a device designed by Nikola Tesla that can be used to transmit electrical energy over long distances, Nikola Tesla Gula Tesla claims that after the Wardenclyffe Tower is completed, it can be used to transmit power between the United States and Europe without wires, which is actually the first version of wireless charging.

In order to build the Wardenclyffe Tower, Nikola Tesla persuaded the American tycoon John Morgan to invest $15 on the grounds that the Wardenclyffe Tower could be used for radio research.

But on December 1901, 12, the Italian Marconi completed the transatlantic radio transmission experiment. Because Marconi successfully completed the experiment before Tesla, Morgan stopped funding Tesla's experiment. Tesla was in financial trouble and had to suspend research on Wardenclyffe Tower.

Now Nikola Tesla is under strong pressure from Edison, and no investment can be found in the United States. Rock’s funding is a timely help, allowing Nikola Tesla to continue his research. Active sonar will not Taking up too much time of Nikola Tesla, active sonar is just a small toy for a great figure like Nikola Tesla.

"What is an active sonar?" Compared to Roque, Bridges is also a bumpkin.

It’s not that Bridges is a layman, but the concept of active sonar is too advanced. Without Rock’s investment, active sonar would not be successfully researched by Canadian Robert Boyle until 1917.

"After a while, you will know that Tesla's laboratory is progressing very fast and has entered the trial production stage. Once the research is successful, the submarine will no longer be untraceable." Rock did not explain too much, the United Kingdom and southern Africa This kind of relationship, once Southern Africa gets the technology related to active sonar, then active sonar will not be a secret to the British Royal Navy, Rock will still rely on active sonar to make money.

"Well, I suggest that we can still build one or two heavy cruisers as the flagship of our fleet." Bridges also has a request, dreadnoughts are fine, they are expensive and impractical, and southern Africa can't afford them. Heavy cruisers are Bridges' bottom line.

"Okay, anyway, there's only so much money, and it won't be available until next year. How to use it depends on the arrangement." Rock still delegates power. In fact, in the naval field, Rock is also an outsider, and Bridges is an expert.

Just like the development of industry in southern Africa, Rock can only play a guiding role. When it comes to technology, it requires the efforts of countless scientific researchers.

However, the value of this "guiding role" is unparalleled. Scientific research is like this. Don't be afraid of slowness, but be afraid of deviations in the research direction. Germany's direction of not developing aircraft and developing airships, even if it develops to the extreme, will be eliminated after the outbreak of World War .

"350 million rand is too little—" Bridges hoped for more money.

"It's quite a lot. The 350 million is still squeezed out by cutting off part of the army's budget. We will establish an air force next year, and the navy only has so much." Rock now realizes how difficult it was before Hopkins, where there are people waiting for food everywhere. , Everywhere is asking for money, and there are still people in Congress who want to reduce the budget of the Ministry of Defense. Fortunately, Adelaide gave Roque the greatest support.

If you refer to the British Royal Navy, 350 million is indeed a bit small. The Tiger-class battlecruiser that the British Royal Navy is planning to build will cost 210 million. According to the habits of the British, this is definitely not the final cost, and the final cost will be much higher. much higher than this figure.

This is why Southern Africa can't afford to build dreadnoughts. If 350 million is used to build dreadnoughts, it can only build less than two. "Battleships are now an outdated technology in jargon.

The Dreadnought-class battleship was launched in 1906. It is already a backward technology in less than five years. The cruelty of the arms race is here. The warship is still on the berth and has not been completed and launched. It is already a backward product. Germany built one. The British will build two ships, and only the British dare to play like this in the whole world.

After sending Bridges away, Roque calculated the Ministry of Defense's budget for next year and found that there was a funding gap of at least 500 million rand.

Five million doesn't sound like much, that's one lottery ticket, but in Southern Africa——

etc--

Lottery!

Rock is heartbroken, how can he forget the big killer of the lottery, especially in the national conditions of southern Africa, think about the white people in southern Africa, what kind of people were they before immigrating to southern Africa, people who are addicted to gambling are simply not too much Many, gambling is illegal in southern Africa, but government-led ones are.

So Rock immediately went to Ada.

Of course, I went to the Tax Administration to find Ada. Phyllis is also in Pretoria now, so I don’t have to go to Ada’s house.

"Why is the Minister of National Defense free today—" The Director of the Tax Administration saw Roque in a very charming manner.

"I'm asking you for money." Rock was really pissed off.

"Whether you want money or not, you can ask for people." Ada's brain circuit——

"Let's get down to business—" Rock didn't dare to joke, he had to stop in moderation, as for the office, pay attention to the impact.

"Good idea. We have enough accountants in the State Administration of Taxation. It is absolutely no problem to issue lottery tickets." Zhen started to talk about business, and Ada immediately became serious.

"No, the lottery must be issued by the Ministry of National Defense, and the State Administration of Taxation can be responsible for supervision." The idea that Rock finally came up with cannot become a tool for the State Administration of Taxation to collect money.

"Then let's divide the profits equally." Ada has a big appetite. It sounds like a big business of several million, maybe tens of millions. The Ministry of Defense is short of money, and the State Administration of Taxation is even more short of money.

"Don't even think about it. Isn't it enough that your State Administration of Taxation can collect taxes?" Rock disagreed. A few million is drizzle, and tens of millions can only be regarded as a bleak operation. One of the lottery issuers in various countries in the world said one, Which is not filthy rich.

"Not enough, tax is public food—" Ada winked like silk.

This married woman, please don't tease her, or she will get stuck in the mud.

If it is in Nyasaland, issuing lottery tickets is a matter of a word from Roque.

But for a lottery to be issued within Southern Africa, it must go through the Prime Minister's Office.

"The lottery is a good idea, but it can't be handed over to your Ministry of National Defense for issuance, it should be issued by the federal government." Ade's eyes were green, like hungry wolves.

Rock really had a headache, the lottery ticket looked like a piece of fat, and everyone wanted to take a bite.

(End of this chapter)