On this day, Zuo Zongtang and Moltke of the General Staff came to meet the emperor and report on some recent military changes in the General Staff. Recently, the General Staff has carried out a series of reforms to the imperial army, for which Feng Yunshan basically signed his name and stamped his emperor jade seal with just a little look.

For the improvement of the imperial army by the General Staff led by Moltke, Feng Yunshan was very supportive. Although he knew that the actual situation in China was different from that of Prussia, it was still worth trying to learn from the military reform of the future number one power in Western Europe, and that it was implemented by the actual operators in history. Therefore, some time ago, Feng Yunshan did not stop the practice of first dismissing all the generals below the rank of chief of the General Staff and including them in training classes for study and training, and then arranging their posts after the final examination, and he personally came forward to persuade several old men of the Heavenly Kingdom in the General Staff to obey the overall situation, and if they were really not suitable for the General Staff Headquarters, he would transfer them to the grassroots army.

In this way, the General Staff first used itself as a pilot to carry out military training. Two days ago, the first stage of the training was completed, and more than 50 people were eliminated from the original General Staff of more than 80 people, except for those section chiefs who were personally appointed by Feng Yunshan, otherwise it is very likely that even these section chiefs and deputy directors will be eliminated.

For these more than fifty staff officers who were eliminated, Moltke gave two paths. One is to continue to participate in the training, strive to pass the second round of training, and then let them rejoin the General Staff, but the posts must be rearranged according to their strengths; On the second path, especially the illiterate generals who did not know more than a dozen people, Moltke bluntly suggested that they should be sent down to the grassroots units of the captive army, as company commanders and battalion commanders, and even in the army, they should also carry out the night school literacy that was originally practiced during the Taiping Holy Kingdom, otherwise, it would be difficult to have a chance of promotion.

The General Staff has been transformed and made more professional and efficient.

Under the General Staff Headquarters, in addition to the original Operations Office, Training Office, Intelligence Office, Logistics Office, and Military Science Department, the General Staff Department has also set up a Railway Department, which is responsible for assisting the Public Works Department in the construction and design of railways in peacetime, and at the same time assisting the Intelligence Department in field surveying and mapping services, and coordinating the transportation of troops and logistical strategic materials in wartime.

The most important operations were divided into three: operations one, operations two, and operations three. The First and Second Operations Divisions are responsible for the planning and command of ground operations, the first is responsible for operations in the areas north of the Yangtze River, mainly targeting Mongolia, Manchuria, Korea, Russia, and Central Asian countries, the second Division is responsible for regional operations south of the Yangtze River, mainly targeting Southeast Asian countries and South Asia, and the Third Operations Division is responsible for planning and commanding operations of the navy and inland water divisions, with a focus on Japan, Luzon, and other places.

Feng Yunshan was very satisfied when he saw that the transformed General Staff Headquarters was like a war machine ready to go, and everything was prepared for war.

Moltke gave instructions to the General Staff, which consisted of just over 30 people, and slowly began to build up the foundationwork that was originally lacking.

And the reorganization of the captive army is also being carried out at the same time. After listening to Moltke's training course for more than a month, Zuo Zongtang also agreed to reorganize the captive army. -

This time, Zuo Zongtang and Mao Qi made a reorganization plan for the entire captive army and the imperial army to report to Feng Yunshan.

Although this reorganization is mainly led by Mao Qi, Zuo Zongtang is only a side gatekeeper, but as Mao Qi's top boss, Zuo Zongtang is the person Feng Yunshan values the most, and when it comes to strange strategies, the straightforward Mao Qi is not Zuo Zongtang's opponent at all, and this time it is also Zuo Zongtang who reports on the reorganization plan of the imperial army.

"Your Majesty, Weichen and General Mao carefully classified the imperial army, and in addition to the requisitioning army, there were also reserves and militias, which were later used as the main local garrisons, and the standing requisitioning army and the main force in the reserve were used as field armies. All things considered, the reorganization plan of the army this time revolves around the expansion of troops! Zuo Zongtang began to talk about the reorganization plan of the army.

"The original establishment of the army was carried out according to the first-class division and the second-class division, and the main reason at the beginning was that there were not enough firearms, and more than one-third of the firearms were classified as first-class divisions, and all of them were swords and spears, so they were organized into second-class divisions. Therefore, there is no longer a need to distinguish between combat divisions and divisions by A and B. At the same time, General Mao proposed that the battalions and regiments of the empire were a completely new structure, which was different from the battalions and regiments in Europe, and even more reasonable. The entire army was reorganized, and the army was divided into infantry, artillery, and special forces, as well as engineers and logistics troops; In terms of the navy, it is divided into inland water divisions and open sea fleets. ”

"Oh, the two types of special forces and logistics troops have been newly added, which is good! By the way, the grenadiers are not set up? Feng Yunshan was a little embarrassed, because he was too lazy to make earthen grenades, he ignored this modern grenadier class. In fact, this kind of infantry and artillery between this kind of unit, in the early days, for siege and defense, for the rest of the infantry was a sharp weapon, except for cavalry, but now, it has slowly declined.

"Your Majesty, the Logistics Department and the Military Science Department have begun to develop grenades, but according to General Moltke, although the grenadier arms of Prussia are still retained, the main weapons are no longer grenades and other throwing bombs, but are not much different from other infantry, only more elite. And there are already special forces in our army, and in fact there is no need to set up grenadiers. Zuo Zongtang replied.

"The numbers of the first and second divisions were all cancelled, and the land divisions of the original first-class division were respectively changed to the first infantry division and the second infantry division of the capture army, and until the eighth infantry division, the fifth division and the tenth division were changed to the naval divisions, which were respectively changed to the Nanyang Fleet and the East China Sea Fleet, and the second division was newly formed to replace the remaining Fifth Infantry Division and the Tenth Infantry Division of the Capture Army. The land divisions of the former second class division were changed to the 11th Infantry Division to the 20th Infantry Division of the Capture Army. The original first-class brigade and second-class brigade were all reorganized into divisions, and the brigade-level establishment was abolished in the field army, and it was reorganized into the 31st Infantry Division to the 50th Infantry Division. The first 20 infantry divisions are all original first-class divisions, with 11,000 soldiers; Starting from the 31st Infantry Division and the 50th Provincial Infantry Division, all of them were originally second-class divisions, with 10,000 soldiers. ”

"The establishment of the 21st to 30th Divisions has been recruited from all over the country, and a certain number of non-commissioned officers and veterans from the 1st to 20th Divisions are being selected, plus the recruits are supplemented by cadets from the Whampoa Military Academy, and they will be reorganized."

Feng Yunshan nodded, in this way, the existing infantry of the capture army has forty divisions, and the strength of the army has reached 420,000. Sure enough, it is a big country, and with a little conscription, in just a few years, it can form an infantry of such a scale. However, with so many infantry, I don't know what to do with weapons, and it stands to reason that muskets are far from enough. He couldn't help asking: "How are the weapons and equipment of the infantry divisions?" ”

"Your Majesty, in terms of weapons, mainly new muskets, there is still a serious shortage of them." Zuo Zongtang replied respectfully: "The original first-class division is equipped with more than half of the new muskets, and a quarter is equipped with shotguns, birds, guns, etc., and the other quarter is equipped with swords and spears. Only two divisions of the second-class division were basically equipped with muskets, and the latter few second-class divisions were only equipped with one-third of the muskets, among which there were more shotguns, and more cold weapons such as knives, spears, bows, and crossbows. Later, due to the capture of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, a large number of shotguns were captured, and they were sent to the first arsenal of the empire to be transformed into smoothbore muskets, and the situation improved. After the founding of the empire, in the past six months, Wu Daren took advantage of the relationship of the Nanyang Company to increase the trade with Prussia and the United States and other arms dealers, and purchased a large number of foreign guns, artillery and ammunition, most of which were flintlock smoothbore guns and firing smoothbore guns, about 40,000 rods, all of which were hoarded in Guangzhou and Shanghai, because all the divisions were fighting everywhere, and they had not yet had time to transfer them to the hands of the divisions. In addition, the No. 1 Imperial Arsenal in Shaozhou was able to produce 2,000 shots of shot-bore guns per month, and the number of Minie rifles was 500. In the past two years, in addition to those who have already been rationed to the officers and men in the army, there are still 12,000 poles of stock that will have time to be transported to the army in the future. And the Second Imperial Arsenal in Guangzhou also specialized in the production of Dresser M1841 needle guns, which have produced 5,000 rods. This is equivalent to a total of 57,000 rods in stock that have not been distributed, which can equip 6 divisions. ”[.]