More than ten days later, Moltke's military course was only opened for less than a half, but the generals of the General Staff, including Zuo Zongtang, no longer had the same attitude of doubt and doubt as they had at the beginning.

It can be said that Moltke's lectures opened their eyes. They never thought that there were so many precautions and precautions to be paid to marching and fighting.

From the perspective of the military service system alone, everyone knows from Moltke's mouth that Prussia in the West is only a country with a population slightly less than that of a province in Guangdong, just a few decades ago, the tax was less than half of that of Guangdong, but now, the finance and taxation have reached the level of two taxes in Guangdong, and the most important thing is that the military expenditure is huge, and the annual military expenditure is equivalent to the entire tax revenue of Guangdong, that is, he uses half of the wealth of the entire country on the army. A place equivalent to the eastern part of the country alone had a standing army of 350,000 men, hundreds of thousands of other reserve armies and militias, and in the event of a major war invaded by foreign enemies, Prussia could even call up a total of a million soldiers to fight.

For this alone, everyone felt that the strength of the Chinese Empire was too small. No wonder the Emperor wanted to invite the whole of Moltke over and carry out military reforms for the Empire.

And Zuo Zongtang was churning strongly in his heart. For a long time, he always thought that he was familiar with these military books such as "The Art of War" and "The New Book of Discipline and Effectiveness", coupled with his many years of talent and learning, he was not inferior to others in fighting wars, let alone foreigners in a barbarian country. Unexpectedly, through these days of lectures, he realized that the military book is only strategic and tactical, although it is very reasonable, but just like Moltke said, the times are different, society is constantly changing, technology is changing weapons and equipment, and the army must keep pace with the times.

According to Moltke, as long as there are 5,000 Dresser needle guns, or more recently advanced Mini rifled guns in Europe, tens of thousands of cavalry can be easily defeated, and even, as long as the logistics and ammunition are sufficient and the command is appropriate, a nomadic cavalry of 100,000 people cannot defeat these 5,000 musketeers. This is the change brought about by advanced weapons, and correspondingly, the tactics must also be changed. Except for a sneak attack in the middle of the night, no matter how many and heroic the ancient cavalry was, they could not break through the blockade formed by thousands of muskets intertwined with fire. Coupled with the development of today's industry, it is very easy to build wooden fences and sprinkle thistles, etc., which makes it difficult for cavalry to get close at all, which is completely different from the tactics of spear formations or cavalry hedging in ancient times.

Moreover, Moltke attached the most importance to the training of officers, put forward the idea that officers must be knowledgeable, and suggested that the empire should implement compulsory education, which made Zuo Zongtang agree. Originally, he also thought that grassroots generals, as long as they fought bravely and obeyed the command, they would be successful. Unexpectedly, Moltke said that these are just the basics, but bravery does not necessarily mean victory, and more important is command ability and influence. He pointed out that it is necessary to train officers in a solid basic military knowledge and to conduct lifelong assessment and training. It is advisable for future officers to graduate from military academies and, in addition to common military courses such as tactics, use of weapons, and command, they will also learn civil and legal knowledge, history, geography, and natural sciences. The number of officers should be scarce rather than excessive, and the ratio of officers to soldiers should be kept very low, and Moltke emphasized the mutual equality between the generals and subordinates in the army and the atmosphere of freedom in the discussion of military issues.

In his training, Moltke demanded that in the general staff of the captive army in the future, a "special tradition" should be formed in which ordinary staff officers, chief staff officers, and even the chiefs of various departments and chiefs of general staff should engage in fierce debates on military issues, and that opinions on this issue should not be limited by the level of their positions; perhaps, the opinions of ordinary staff officers should be correct, and the commanders should be avoided from having the final say before the war, and after the war, the commanders should only have the final say in accordance with the plans drawn up. For the grassroots generals, Moltke demanded that the platoon commander and company commander regard themselves as the fathers of the soldiers of the whole platoon or company, and be familiar with their preferences, strengths and weaknesses, and even their family situation, so that only in this way can they unite the officers and men of the entire platoon and company as a whole, and they can move forward indomitably and be invincible.

Finally, Moltke took the time to put forward the command strategy as a commander, and he advocated the principle of military task allocation: only a certain unit should be given a combat mission, and as for how to complete the task, the unit decided for itself. In this way, they will be able to give full play to the initiative and creativity of their subordinates, and will be able to play a lot of roles in finding fighters and expanding the results of the war. This is especially true of the backward means of communication that the telegraph has not been used today.

Zuo Zongtang learned from Moltke a lot of military knowledge needed for modern warfare, such as military stations, supplies, transportation, staff officers, reconnaissance, and topographic surveying, which can be said to have opened a new window.

In particular, the application of railways and telegraphs in warfare mentioned by Moltke made Zuo Zongtang even more amazed. He couldn't have imagined that this march and battle could go so far. From the wars of Western countries mentioned by Moltke, he found that the way of fighting the captives was really very primitive.

Maybe in the eyes of those foreigners, they are primitive and ancient Orientals, sitting in a sedan chair and commanding a group of peasants to fight with kitchen knives? But in fact, it's pretty much the same, except for the use of foreign guns and new drills, there is basically no difference in anything else. The march was carried out on two legs, the orders and messages were delivered either by ships or horses, and the war against the Western countries mentioned by Moltke was carried out by rail, and the orders and messages were delivered by telegram, which was issued here and received immediately from thousands of miles away.

If it weren't for Moltke, Zuo Zongtang and the other generals of the General Staff would really not have imagined that there would be such a magical thing called telegraph in this world. Think about it, if the Manchu Dynasty had this kind of telegram, when the Tianping Heavenly Kingdom was still in Jintian Village, a telegram was sent to Beijing, and the Manchu court immediately knew about it, and then a telegram ordering the suppression was sent back to Guangxi, and then if there was a railway to transport the Qing soldiers, a few hours later, tens of thousands of Qing soldiers surrounded the entire Jintian Village, and it didn't take a day for a peasant uprising that could have made the whole of China vigorous, and then it disappeared as a thing, which was also too terrifying!

Zuo Zongtang suddenly understood why this kind of railway and telegraph was so valued by foreigners. No wonder Moltke suggested that the emperor should vigorously develop the Chinese Empire, indeed, with such means, with these two affairs, His Majesty's country is as stable as a mountain, and he is not afraid of internal rebellion or invasion of foreign enemies.

Thinking of this, Zuo Zongtang somewhat understood why the emperor appointed Mao Qi as deputy chief of general staff. To be honest, if the emperor had remembered his old feelings and merits and replaced him with other monarchs, he would have been transferred away long ago, and it was obvious that this general staff was to be handed over to Moltke to make it what it should be. In this way, the emperor is not thin on himself. However, no matter what, Mao Qi is a foreigner, Zuo Zongtang understands the emperor's idea, which is to let himself take charge of the General Staff as a whole, and at the same time, assist Mao Qi to build the General Staff, and in the process, absorb all the skills on Mao Qi.

Zuo Zongtang couldn't help but secretly puff up, he would not let His Majesty down.

At the same time that the General Staff was undergoing earth-shaking changes, a round of massive conscription began in various parts of the Chinese Empire.

……

Naliang Town, Qinzhou County, Lianzhou Prefecture, Guangdong. In front of the police station, hundreds of sturdy villagers stood densely, their bronzed skin glowing with oily black, and the mayor and police division of Naliang Town both stood at the gate of the police station, shouting loudly to maintain order.

A few days ago, the imperial court issued a holy decree and began to recruit soldiers. The cabinet also promulgated a conscription strategy, detailing the benefits of joining the army, Guangdong is the birthplace of the current emperor, therefore, Guangdong is very cooperative, and Qinzhou County is a poor place in Guangdong, therefore, after the news spread, there is no need to mobilize in the county and town, and the villagers of Naliang Town rushed to the town to see the conscription notices posted.

Liu Yongfu followed Zheng Sanlai, a playmate from the village, to the police station, and the police teacher shouted loudly in his ears: "Fellow villagers and brothers, all line up well, whoever is fucking crowded and unruly, Lao Tzu will not sign him up!" You know, this is the first conscription after the establishment of the empire, and the notice can say that once it is conscripted, there will be a subsidy of three taels of silver to take home. ”[.]