Chapter 562 Preparing for War
As for the source of troops, Joseph was least worried.
He spent a lot of energy and overcame huge resistance to carry out land reform. Now it is time to reap the dividends.
A large number of French farmers who have obtained land - even if they have not paid the redemption fee, everyone knows that the land must be theirs - now have unprecedented support for the French royal family and the government. In addition, a large number of tax collectors whom they hated had just been cut off not long ago, which made them even more excited.
Joseph believed that if he issued a recruitment notice at the beginning of the month, he would be able to recruit more than 100,000 soldiers by the end of the month.
Of course, the generous treatment and prestigious reputation of the Guards also attract young people to join the army.
Even the lowest-level private in the Guards Corps today has a monthly salary of 27 francs. After one or two years of service, as long as they train seriously and hard, they can be promoted to corporal, and their salary will immediately increase to 35 francs.
This is comparable to that of government employees. You know, the military is responsible for food, clothing, clothing and housing, so the actual income is much higher than that of government employees.
Such a generous salary is enough to impress young people from any ordinary family.
Coupled with the majestic appearance of the Guards Corps when they returned triumphantly from the Southern Netherlands, as well as the Ministry of Military Affairs's unremitting propaganda, being a soldier is no longer the "low-grade" occupation it once was [Note 1]. Of course, this refers specifically to the soldiers of the Guards Corps. The old army is still despised.
Even the little girls in Paris regard it as a fashion to marry a young man from the Guards.
Therefore, every time the admissions season comes to the Paris Police Academy, its popularity is extremely shocking. After the scale expansion, the Paris Police Academy will recruit more than 5,000 soldiers of various majors and hundreds of officer majors every year, but even so, the enrollment elimination rate is as high as 70%!
Joseph thought about it and wrote down a plan on paper to "continue to expand the scale of the Paris Police Academy."
But this is not easy. The Paris Police Academy has merged with many military academies before, and now there are not many military academies left to expand its capacity. Especially around Paris, there are no other military schools except the Royal Military Academy.
It seems that branch campuses need to be established in other regions.
Thinking of this, Joseph suddenly felt that the name of the Paris Police Academy should be changed. At first, the name of the police academy was used as a cover-up to keep a low profile, but now it seems inaccurate and lacks momentum.
At the same time, the Paris Police Academy has too many things mixed in, including not only the police academy, military academy, military equipment academy, but also the training of taxation talents.
This seems too complicated and bloated, so we should take this opportunity to sort out the functions of the police academy.
So he continued to write:
Split the Paris Police Academy into the Royal Université de Politique de France, the Université des Economiques et Taxes, the Royal Université Militaire de France, the Royal Université Mechaniques et Chemistry, the École de l’Army de Paris, the École Military Technical de Paris, the École Military Technical de Lyon, and the École Military Technical de Toulouse. …
After some weighing and sorting, he first separated the police, taxation and other majors into separate schools.
Then there is the military field, establishing a mechanical and chemical engineering university specializing in the development of equipment. This will definitely have my father as the principal, and the school can even be located near the Palace of Versailles. The Royal Ordnance Factory allocated directly to the university as an affiliated factory.
In addition, it is a university that trains senior officers. The schooling lasts for three to four years. After graduation, you will start as a lieutenant-level officer and take the route of command and staff.
A non-commissioned officer academy, with a duration of two to three years, training professional arms and junior officers. For example, cavalry, artillery, map surveying troops, etc.
After that, there are three schools for training ordinary soldiers. The schooling lasts for up to one year, and graduates with excellent performance can be awarded the rank of non-commissioned officer. In fact, the training of ordinary soldiers for future generations is carried out directly in the military camp. However, the quality of the population at that time was relatively high, and they had at least received primary education, so direct training was enough.
At the end of the 18th century, if you wanted to obtain high-quality soldiers, you had to conduct professional training from scratch.
The previous Paris Police Academy actually followed this path. And it turns out that this model is much more effective than entering the military camp directly, and it can also prevent new recruits from being infected by veterans in the army to the greatest extent.
The military schools located in Lyon and Toulouse can quickly form a scale by integrating local military schools, and can also absorb local military resources, thereby ensuring the goal of expanding 50,000 new troops in two years.
"well……"
When Joseph wrote this, he couldn't help but sigh again.
It seems cool to have so many military schools, but each one has to be piled up with francs. It is estimated that at least several million will be invested.
It seems that the church has to be "knocked on" again. After all, these military academies are also a matter of the education system...
After roughly completing the plans for the military academy and military expansion, Joseph asked his manuscript to be sent to the General Staff for discussion and improvement, while he kept thinking about the things that needed to be prepared for diplomacy.
Historically, although the emperor was mighty in military terms, due to his extremely poor diplomatic skills, he successfully pushed almost all European countries to oppose him, including Spain, which had always been on good terms with France.
Of course, this is also the UK’s excellent shit-making performance.
But Joseph knew very well that no matter how powerful France was, it was unrealistic to deal with Britain alone with a bunch of younger brothers.
Even if he is lucky enough to win, France will be hit hard and will not be able to recover for decades. It may even never recover like Britain did after World War II.
The most terrible thing is that Britain firmly controls the ocean and can cut off France's trade channels at any time, making France's ability to fight a protracted war even worse.
Therefore, France must also mobilize its own allies. Letting your "little brother" consume the British "little brother" is the correct strategy.
During this period, the benefits must be distributed to the younger brothers, but as long as the war can be won, this is acceptable. Nahuang wanted to eat alone, but in the end he had to vomit out everything he had eaten.
In terms of diplomacy, Joseph's first thought was France's natural ally, Spain, who is also a member of the Bourbon family.
Thanks to his previous good relationship with Carlos IV and the conclusion of a secret treaty against Gibraltar and Portugal, I believe that if a national war breaks out, Spain will definitely stand firmly on the side of France.
[Note 1] In the old French army before Dage Ming, soldiers were treated extremely poorly and living conditions were difficult. Officers could beat, scold or even torture them at will. So it’s not that they really can’t survive, basically no one wants to be a soldier.
Of course, the conditions of officers are still good. They are completely different from ordinary soldiers.
(End of chapter)