Chapter 150: The Establishment of a New Military System
The army itself is an organizational form. If you want to exert your combat effectiveness, you need not only combat soldiers, but also auxiliary soldiers, and even civilian husbands, etc.
In ancient wars, hundreds of thousands of people fought, but the outcome of the war was probably determined by an elite decisive battle of tens of thousands, or even thousands of people. All that was left was a crushing defeat.
Even if there is a war, it only takes a few days for the actual battle to begin, but the preparations before the battle, army movement, logistics planning, and army training take much longer than the actual battle. Therefore, commanding tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of generals requires a whole team to help them manage the army.
This is what is called Kaifu.
In ancient times, many officials had names such as Kaifu Yitong and Sansi. And this power later became the standard for seeking to usurp the throne. As a result, it was gradually restricted. Since the fifth generation, there have been more restrictions on the military.
Allowing a general with hundreds of thousands of troops to have the right to open a government immediately made many people think of Liu Yu, Xiao Daocheng, Chen Badao and others.
For Zhu Xiongying, this was an obvious threat to imperial power.
For He Xi, the future court he wants is not a military government.
This is unacceptable to them.
However, reality has reached this point.
In the era of cold weapons, it was very difficult to command hundreds of thousands of troops in battle, so there were Xu Da, Chang Yuchun, Feng Sheng, Fu Youde and others. They represent not only themselves, but also their team, their network of relationships in the government and the military, and their personal staff. This can support the important task of commanding hundreds of thousands of troops.
But now after the reform, the two-hundred-mile wide area is advancing. There is still a canal here that serves as the main artery. And the Hebei area is mostly flat land, there are no other terrain problems, and there are few problems encountered.
But even so, there are more problems encountered. And if you want to use firearms flexibly, the combat unit will only be smaller.
There are more tasks that require command. Not only have the requirements for generals been increased. It also increased the requirements for the command center.
But otherwise, it simply cannot support a war of this scale.
The staff system came into being. Change private staff to officer system. thereby integrating forces to a greater extent. Strengthen command capabilities. Only in this way can such a powerful military force be better mobilized.
He Xi told Zhu Xiongying exactly what he thought about his staff. This is a combination of some of his ideas of this era and some templates of later generations.
Ye Chen felt secretly ashamed after hearing this. I thought to myself: "I didn't think of this."
But Zhu Xiongying was very interested.
What he was most interested in at the moment was not how much room for improvement the military's combat effectiveness would have from establishing a staff system. And keenly feel the checks and balances of power. Because according to He Xi, the general's order must be agreed with the staff before it can be issued.
Although it is said that the staff department is a subordinate of the main family. But the cabinet was still subordinate to the emperor.
In the officialdom, official position does not mean everything. Otherwise, how could it be the ancestral family law of the Ming Dynasty to use the small to control the big.
The emperor's worry about the army losing control has always existed.
Now, once a staff system is established, it starts with the smallest battalion. It is necessary to set up one or two battalions of staff officers. Wei is about to set up a staff department. Not to mention the military level and the commander-in-chief. The staff itself can also be subdivided into intelligence staff, combat staff, artillery staff, logistics staff, etc.
The power of the general was almost completely divided. The Lord General has only the most important decision-making power. .
In this case, the original army is owned by the main general, and the main army is owned by the main general. In this case, even if the general has an idea, can he really do it? If he wants to rebel alone, there is no way he can hide it from the general staff. Because without a staff, the general cannot mobilize the army.
In this case, the possibility of the army losing control is too low.
Controlling a person is often difficult to control. But there are many ways to control a group of people.
Just because of this
, Zhu Xiongying supports this idea.
Zhu Xiongying said: "Okay. Just do as my uncle said."
Ye Chen said: "Sir, according to your words, we are planning to organize eight armies. One of them is a cavalry corps and an artillery corps. We need too many staff members. I'm afraid we won't be able to find so many people at once."
He Xi said calmly: "I ordered all the students from the three Liaodong schools, the Imperial College, and the newly established martial arts school to gather in Cangzhou. Fill them into the entire staff system. Let's use them for the time being."
Being a qualified staff officer requires multiple abilities. But the most basic is computational statistical analysis.
Although these students have just entered school, they have a foundation in mathematics, so they can put it to use. In the future, Dalangtaosha may be able to make some famous names in the future.
Zhu Xiongying felt a little uncomfortable after hearing what He Xi said. But there is nothing we can do.
Because the war is coming, there will be no big organizers.
This changes the original square formation into a horizontal formation and a column formation. There is no need to train at all, because it is all basic. Increase the staff, increase the number of military units, increase the number of commanders at the Wei level, etc. These trainings do not involve the lowest level soldiers.
The changes won't be big.
The biggest change is the addition of a staff system.
As a result, the original one line of military command has been reduced to two lines. Zhu Xiongying originally wanted to use this to increase his influence in the army. But no matter what, there was no one with him. You can only use people from He Xi.
In this way, He Xi's influence in the army will become deeper and deeper in the future.
But there is nothing we can do about it.
After all, the first thing to do now is to fight and win the war. Only the victor will have everything that follows.
Zhu Xiongying could only say: "Okay."
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In the Confederate Army camp.
Fu Youde took the secret letters from the north, thought for a long time, and asked Sheng Yong to come over and read these secret letters.
These secret letters were not written by one person.
After all, as mentioned earlier, the North and the South are disconnected from each other.
Fu Youde was deeply impressed by the previous changes in the Northern Army. So he paid close attention to the movements of the Northern Army. Such a big move by the Northern Army. There are so many people involved. There is no possibility of any secrecy.
Therefore, it is not surprising that Fu Youde knew.
After Sheng Yong read it. Fu Youde said: "What do you think?"
Sheng Yong was silent for a while and said, "It's tricky. It's very tricky."
Fu Youde said: "What is the difficulty you mentioned?"
Sheng Yong said: "Is it because the Northern Army has so many qualified officers? Is it because the Northern Army has so many muskets? It will be difficult to fight the next battle."
Fu Youde sighed and said, "The difficulty is that I want to learn, but there is no way to learn."
This is a contradiction.
Fu Youde can follow the footsteps of the Northern Army. After all, many military changes are no secret to the North and the South. If you want to know, there is nothing you don’t know. But what Fu Youde didn't know was what was behind the entire military system?
In Beijing, He Xi's knowledge was outstanding.
He Xi said that he values science and mathematics. Then mathematics is a compulsory course in Beijing, from elementary school to Imperial College. Zhang Zongde, who worked on steam engines, is now also a professor at the Imperial College and is regarded as a famous figure in Beijing.
But it is different in Nanjing.
In Nanjing, all of He Xi's knowledge was heresy.
In Nanjing, even if some of the benefits brought by He Xi can only be used passively, they must not be actively used.
If not, due to the needs of the northern war, if there is no war after Zhu Yunqi ascends the throne, the Taiping Iron Works will close down within three to five years.
For soldiers, it is difficult to change from fighting with cold weapons to fighting with firearms. It's not a big problem, but it will be a big problem in the future. Firearms combat. Bravery is of course very important. But if you are just brave, you will be beaten into a hornet's nest.
Need to understand fire
Use force. This involves mathematics.
As for mathematics, most of the Confederate generals were unwilling to take a second look at it, as if one more look would dirty their own eyes.
Support an army of hundreds of thousands and a large number of mathematical talents. It's of no use here at Fu Youde. Because He Xi is the most famous arithmetic master in the world, all people in the world who are proficient in arithmetic regard him as his disciple.
