In military affairs, especially in relation to the German Army, there was a tacit understanding between Crown Prince Frederick and the old chancellor and never did any discussion.

Therefore, from the time Joy was the think tank of his father and the old prime minister, to this day, what he can talk about with his father and the old prime minister is the economic, diplomatic, social, cultural and educational domestic affairs that they are responsible for.

The reason why the crown prince and the old chancellor did not talk about the army was that the armies in the German Empire were either directly subordinate to the emperor or belonged to the king, and never belonged to the empire.

Even so, on the basis of the principle of division and equilibrium in which military and political officials were separated from military orders, the German Empire had a war ministry at the national level, or rather, a war ministry, which was responsible for military affairs. Similarly, other kingdoms within the German Empire had war ministries subordinate to their own kingdoms.

On the surface, the Ministry of War was placed under the name of the Reich Government and was part of the German Government under the leadership of Chancellor Bismarck, but in fact, in any matter involving the German army, the Minister of War was directly to the Emperor, and Emperor Wilhelm I made direct decisions on military matters, not the old Chancellor.

So, the War Ministry of the German Empire was actually the War Department of the King of Prussia, or the War Department of the German Emperor.

Since the founding of the German Empire, it has been a system of eccentricity and compromise.

You say it's autocratic, but it's a federation of kingdoms, principalities, and so on, and each member of the federation has considerable political freedom, and some members even have absolute power in defense and diplomacy, and there is no manifestation of centralization of power at all.

The degree of political freedom is not as good as that of Britain, and even France, which claims to be the sworn enemy of the democratic republic, is far inferior.

You can say it's democratic, but its army belongs to the emperor and king, and is not subject to the imperial government, and even in Joey's previous life, at the end of the German Empire, the empire completely became a military government controlled by soldiers.

The army was more capable of controlling the German Empire than the Russian Empire, which was considered to be a dictatorship.

In such a complex political environment, the most important embodiment of the imperial authority is the control of the army, even if the old prime minister dares to bully the old emperor, but he never touches the military power of the empire.

In the same way, Crown Prince Frederick had the highest priority to inherit the throne, as a former Prussian war hero, the third person in the line of the imperial marshal, and had a large number of old military troops, even if he sought the support of General Storsch in the navy, he had to obtain the permission of the old emperor.

In any case, no matter how much the crown prince and his wife supported liberalism, they wisely never challenged their father's control of the military.

The army of the German Empire was still the army of His Majesty Wilhelm I alone.

Therefore, Joy could only listen to the old emperor and a group of soldiers discussing the military part of the Chilean plan that originated from his own from Hasso's mouth, and Crown Prince Frederick, Prime Minister Bismarck, and himself who planned this matter could only be quietly spectators.

In the east wing of Charlottenburg Palace, in the huge conference room next to the Whitehall, the debate over this Chilean military plan has been raging for many days.

All Europeans recognized that discipline was in the blood of the Prussian army, but the Prussian soldiers understood that discipline in their blood was not innate, but derived from Frederick the Great's Code of Military Uniformity, which was the code of conduct for all Prussian soldiers.

The starting point of this controversy was the definition of Prussian military power in the Uniform Code of Military Affairs.

In the Code, it was clearly defined that the Royal Prussian Army was the sole military force of the Prussian state and nation, and the formation of the Germanic Volunteer Army proposed by Joy was in serious conflict with this definition, and two armed forces must not be allowed in Prussia, one of which had not yet sworn allegiance to His Majesty the Kaiser.

At a meeting of the military cabinet convened by the elder Emperor Wilhelm I, the person who seriously questioned the status of the Germanic national volunteers was none other than an old acquaintance of Crown Prince Frederick, General Georg von Kamek, Minister of War of the Reich, a solemn old Juncker with a snow-white goatee who valued tradition.

General Kamek further pointed out that if the Germanic National Volunteers swore allegiance to His Majesty the Emperor, it would mean that the Empire was officially intervening in South American affairs at the official level, and South America was not the strategic direction of the Empire, France and Russia were the military priorities of the Empire, and the dispersion of limited German military forces did not conform to the tradition of the German Army concentrating on gaining superiority over the enemy.

The old emperor was also quite helpless about the old-fashioned successor recommended by Count Ron, and his original intention of convening the military cabinet meeting was actually to support his son Crown Prince Frederick's plan, and he was also preparing to let the imperial military cabinet make military endorsements for his son's plans in Chile.

General Kokaymaker's opinion, especially in the War Ministry, was representative that the authority of the Uniform Code of Military Affairs should not be violated, and that the Prussian army was the sole force of the Prussian kingdom.

After all, it was a time of peace, and the main energy of the German Empire was on economic construction, and there were so many resources that could be allocated to the army.

People are selfish, especially in the face of profit.

Some people think that the Germanic National Volunteer Army is a threat, and others think that this army may be an opportunity to fight for more resources for the entire Prussian army, as long as the army cake is bigger, it means that everyone has more opportunities.

This is also a benefit.

Most of the people who value the latter interests are the inspectors general of the Prussian army in the military cabinet, and they are eager for the German Empire to continue to expand the army, and the army expands, the more important the voice of the military in German society, and the greater the interest in the army.

As for the distribution of interests within the army, after all, it is its own affair within the army, and behind closed doors, everyone can easily solve it.

By the way, the Inspector General was a specific position in the Prussian Army, which during the First World War was renamed the Commander of the Army Group. In fact, the inspector general has a more down-to-earth name in China, called Overseer, the reason is that the Beiyang Army refers to the Prussian Army structure, and it has such a position.

Of course, many Chinese sources like to translate the chief inspector as the corps commander, which is concise and concise, so the title of corps commander will be used in the future.

Prior to 1914, the German Army was organized as follows: Kaiser of Germany - Prussian Inspector General/Commander of the Corps - Prussian Army Commander - Prussian Division Commander - Prussian Regiment, plus the other three major confederations, the national task forces of Bavaria, Saxony and Württemberg.

Of course, the Hohenzollern family also through unremitting wars and marriages, and finally merged the armies of Saxony and Württemberg into the Prussian military system, the army names of the two kingdoms are the same as Prussia, and there are also a large number of military personnel exchanges within the staff and the war department, and they are highly unified in equipment, logistics and combat mode.

Of course, the Kingdom of Bavaria was still a special independent existence within the German Empire.

Among the five Prussian army commanders, General von Kuschel, who was stationed in Berlin of the Third Army, was the corps' representative to the military cabinet meeting, and as a die-hard subordinate of Crown Prince Frederick, whether it was in his own interests or as a supporter of Crown Prince Frederick, he naturally quarreled with General Kameik over the Germanic national volunteer army from the very beginning of the military cabinet meeting.

General von Kuschel's point of view is succinct, the Uniform Code of Military Affairs stipulates that the Prussian army's duty is to protect the lives and property of all Prussian people, and that many of the Prussians in Chile have dual German and Chilean citizenship, so the Prussian army should be responsible for the defense of the Prussians.

The first military cabinet meeting ended in a quarrel without a conclusion, but the conflict of interests was far from over, and both sides of the dispute were trying to accumulate strength in order to obtain a favorable outcome for themselves, and both were looking for allies to support them.

General Kamek unexpectedly won the support of General von Alberdier, the chief of the military cabinet, knowing that since General Kamek succeeded Count Ron as Minister of War, he had been at odds with General von Alberdir over who should be responsible for the military administration of the Prussian Army.

On the surface, General Albertil and General Kamek are on the same page on the dignity of the Code of Military Justice, but those who are familiar with General Albertil know that General Waldesi, a close friend of the general and the new quartermaster of the General Staff, was not interested in the Chilean plan proposed by Crown Prince Frederick, and that General Wadsey was a supporter of the Berlin General Staff who advocated a union between Bolivia and Peru.

The idea of standing on the side of the majority and seeking the greatest benefit from the war is still very marketable in the General Staff.

Those who supported General Kuschel, or rather the policy of Crown Prince Frederick, soon learned that an important member of the military cabinet council, the military cabinet chief, General Albertir, had fallen in favor of General Kameik.

The military cabinet chief is the specific person in charge of the daily affairs of the military cabinet, responsible for the upward and downward issuance of all military and political orders of the German Imperial Army.

In terms of duties, the Chief of the General Staff, Field Marshal Moltke, could not be compared with General Albertier, who was the Minister of War at that time, Count Ron, who was able to overpower the chief of the military cabinet.

Having received the strong support of General Albertier, almost everyone who knew the Prussian army believed that even Crown Prince Frederick and his own supporters were pessimistic in admitting that General Kamek's opinion would eventually prevail, and that the old Emperor William I would reject Crown Prince Frederick's plans for Chile in accordance with the conclusions of the military cabinet meeting.

Perhaps, the old emperor can be bullied by Bismarck, but he will never be bullied by the guns in his hands, let alone allow his son's ideals to be destroyed so easily by the guns of the Hohenzollern family.

Soon, General Albertier's former military cabinet chief, who made the Prussian army invincible in the nineteenth century, a real hero behind the scenes, Field Marshal Edwin Freier von Manduffel, was summoned by the old emperor to the scene.

The father is always the father of the son, no matter how difficult it is, there will always be a father behind the son, this is the power of blood.