Chapter 852 General Staff Headquarters
In fact, there is another reason for transferring Count Latour from Vienna. In order to cope with the upcoming war, Franz is ready to take the opportunity to establish a general staff.
At this time, the Austrian Empire was still in an era where the emperor and the war minister could command as they pleased; the generals on the front line were responsible for military, logistics, and finance, and had to spend a lot of energy on trivial matters while marching and fighting.
The military qualities of the emperor, the war minister, and the generals were uneven, which is why the enemy countries often created miracles when fighting with Austria.
Even if a few generals won in some areas, they rarely turned this advantage into a winning advantage.
There are actually other reasons for establishing a general staff, but they are not immediately apparent.
For example, the conscription system and the selection of generals. The volunteer system is about to lag behind the times, and the scale of future wars will become larger and larger.
The volunteer system will impose a heavy economic burden on the country. Relatively speaking, conscripts influenced by nationalism and patriotism are cheaper and have higher enthusiasm, which is the so-called subjective initiative.
At the same time, it can also solve the loyalty problem that has troubled the rulers for thousands of years. The rebellion of these mercenaries who are paid for work is not new.
And due to the advancement of weapons, the gap between the so-called professional soldiers and conscripts on the front battlefield is narrowing.
Especially at this time, the line-pushing tactics are popular. Except for the rare strong army, usually whoever has more people wins, whoever is braver wins.
As for the selection of generals, Austrian officers at this time are usually hereditary. That's right! Austria does have military schools, but most of the students are nobles.
It is as difficult for civilians to enter military schools as to be admitted to the highest institution of learning in the Austrian Empire at this time-the University of Vienna.
However, behind this single-plank bridge is a narrower wooden bridge, and most of the teachers in military schools are also nobles.
They are not necessarily prejudiced, but the families of nobles, especially military nobles, are often related, so those noble children are more likely to be taken care of.
Even if you cross this gap, there is still a chain bridge after the wooden bridge.
According to the promotion rules for officers of the Austrian Empire, officers below the rank of second lieutenant must participate in the battle three times with the first row of soldiers if they want to be promoted.
Many civilian children are usually only non-commissioned officers even if they graduate from military academies. If they start from the lowest level of corporal, then from corporal to second lieutenant, they will face nine life-and-death tests, which can be said to be "nine deaths and one life".
After graduating from military academies, the children of nobles are usually second lieutenants, and they can completely skip these tests.
This is just a microcosm of the shortcomings of the selection of generals in the Austrian Empire. There are even more terrible things, such as directly taking money to get promoted.
For example, the famous General Fernand Lizzie, he was a general when he joined the army. He fought countless defeats in his life, but he could still be the commander-in-chief of the Venetian Local Defense Army and was on par with Marshal Radetzky.
Although Franz had never been a soldier for a day, he still had the rank of colonel, which is a rank that many people could not reach even if they tried their best in their lives.
In fact, if Franz really wanted to be a soldier, then his rank would depend entirely on his own imagination.
However, this is also a big cake, because the related interest chain can even extend to everyone in the whole country.
In addition to the separate General Staff, Franz also plans to set up a special logistics department, intelligence department, equipment department, and weapons development department.
These used to be under the jurisdiction of the War Department. The top level usually held multiple positions, and the bottom level was too bloated. The result was chaotic management. If there was a problem, it was hard to find where the problem was.
In the past, in the War Department, except for military personnel who were good at command, other talents were often not valued, and logistics and weapons were outsourced to businessmen for a long time.
The result is conceivable. The outsourcing businessmen consider the interests, so the Austrian army used to run out of food, medicine, and weapons and equipment.
In the era of Queen Theresa, the supply of the Austrian army often had problems. The war lasted from summer to winter, but the boots missing in the military uniforms were never delivered.
The soldiers could only wrap their feet with rags and continue to fight in the ice and snow.
The reason turned out to be that due to the rising prices of war, the outsourced merchants were unwilling to bear the losses and wanted to make up the boots when the prices fell.
And this merchant was also very well-informed. Even Prime Minister Kaunitz helped to conceal it. In the end, the Queen only knew about this matter because she accidentally came into contact with a wounded soldier who had retreated from the front line.
The angry Queen wanted to execute this daring merchant, but was obstructed by almost the entire court. As a result, he was only asked to make up the difference and then replaced with a more loyal and reliable outsourced merchant.
Franz did not want to repeat the same mistakes, and did not want to be led by the nose. He needed a more reasonable logistics department.
In addition, the status of weapons developers in the Austrian Empire was very low. Vincent Augustine, the chief weapons designer mentioned many times in the previous article, did not get the rank of general until his death.
Not only was the status of weapons developers low, but their income was also not high. Because they were afraid that weapons designers would use their professional knowledge to arbitrage from the country.
Therefore, the Austrian Empire prohibited weapons developers from participating in the manufacture of weapons, and the Austrian Empire would provide weapons design drawings to manufacturers.
So the confidentiality of the military industry of the Austrian Empire was almost zero, because the enemy could easily buy the design drawings of Austrian weapons from middlemen at a very low price, and even those weapon designers were selling them to make a living.
Because of this, the military and scientific talents of the Austrian Empire could not be retained. It was strange that some people were willing to do it with low status, low income, and their inventions were not valued.
Franz felt that he must pay enough attention to them, and at least satisfy their vanity in one aspect, such as status or income, so as to give people enough motivation and prevent the motivation for innovation from drying up.
Although Franz had the development trend of weapons in the next hundred years, they had to be the ones who really made these weapons.
So Franz built his own arsenal, and those weapon designers could get dividends from the weapons sold.
In addition, in order to encourage designers to develop new weapons, Franz also established many awards and support funds.
Franz felt that Archduke Karl should be the first Chief of the General Staff. Because the latter was a rare theorist and practitioner in Austria and even the entire era.
What is even more valuable is that Archduke Karl is a member of the royal family. At the same time, his high status in the army can minimize the resistance to reform.
At this time, the General Staff will be superior to the War Ministry. This is also a need of war. After all, except for Archduke Albrecht, Marshal Radetzky and Heinau, Franz is not sure that others have the qualifications to be famous generals.