The problem of the reform of the military system is much more serious, and this is by no means a matter of sea life. Up to the war, especially after Nie Renfeng became commander of the navy, the navy has carried out two large-scale structural reforms, and the existing system can serve the war very well, if the highest goal is to defeat the enemy, then before the end of the war, the navy does not need to carry out the third structural reform. This time, it was not the Navy that proposed reform, but the Cabinet government, and the issues involved were extremely complex.

There is no doubt that Gan Yongxing let Tan Renhao know about this matter, and it is precisely because Tan Renhao wants to participate in the reform, at least to talk about Renhao to understand why the navy wants to carry out the third system reform, and let him figure out the internal structure of the navy, which will definitely be of great significance to his future management of the navy.

There are three main reasons for the Prime Minister to take the initiative to propose the third reform of the Navy: first, the imminent establishment of the Air Force, second, the establishment of the Ministry of National Defense to manage the three armed forces in a unified manner, and third, the pressure exerted by the Army.

The creation of the Air Force has already been decided, and as soon as the war is over, a third branch will be created. In the future, the main body of the Air Force will be the current Army Aviation, that is, after the establishment of the Air Force, the Army will no longer have aviation, whether it is a strategic bomber force or a tactical aviation unit, all of which will be assigned to the Air Force. However, the Navy is not without relevance. Naval aviation will be retained, but only in a very small part. The most important thing is that the strategic strike force of the Navy will definitely be abolished, or merged into the Air Force and become part of the Air Force. And among them, the most critical is how big the future naval aviation will be.

This was the main disagreement between Nie Renfeng and the prime minister at that time. According to the Prime Minister's consideration, naval aviation only needs to retain carrier-based aircraft forces, after all, these combat aircraft carried by aircraft carriers are an indispensable part of the fleet. Since the fleet is the main body of the navy, it is impossible to put carrier-based aviation under the name of the air force. However, Ren Feng was not willing to hand over all ground-based airforces to the Air Force, and in his opinion, many of the tasks performed by shore-based airforces were closely related to the Navy, such as anti-submarine. Escort, reconnaissance, search, rescue and much more. It's all about fleet operations, it's just that the planes are deployed on land airfields, and if conditions allow, the Navy wants to deploy these planes to aircraft carriers. If all shore-based aviation is assigned to the Air Force. In the future, the navy will need some tactical coordination and will have to request support from the air force, which will not only be troublesome, but will also bring about many problems in the command link, and will inevitably affect the navy's combat operations. Therefore. Renfeng resolutely disagrees with the complete abolition of the navy's shore-based air forces, and at least one auxiliary force should be retained, that is, only the combat units of the shore-based air force should be abolished.

It can be said that how the prime minister will deal with naval aviation in the end will become a key issue in the reform of the naval system. If only carrier-based aviation is retained, then naval aviation may be abolished. On the contrary, if Nie Renfeng succeeds, then the naval aviation will be retained, but on a much smaller scale.

The establishment of the Ministry of National Defense also had a huge impact on the Navy. Of particular importance is the abolition of the independent naval command. Integrate the Navy Command into the Ministry of Defense and accept the direct leadership of the Ministry of Defense.

After the creation of the Ministry of Defense, the command of the Navy will definitely be downgraded. The current Navy Command is a ministerial unit of the Cabinet, and after the creation of the Ministry of Defense, the Navy Command is at most an important part of the Ministry of Defense, and not an independent department. And the impact of that is huge.

When the Navy is an independent department, the military budget is planned separately and can be applied to directly to the Cabinet and approved separately by the Parliament. With the power of funding, the development of the navy is relatively independent and has a very positive effect on the construction of the navy, which is why the admiralty has been retained for hundreds of years. On the contrary, if the Ministry of Defense leads the Navy in the future, the Navy will no longer have the power to apply for military spending independently, but the Ministry of Defense will apply for defense spending in a unified manner, and the Ministry of Defense will distribute military spending. Of course, when the Cabinet and the Parliament examine and approve the national defense budget, they will certainly go down to every item, that is to say, the Navy still has the right to set up projects, but in the future, it will be subject to the control of others, and the Ministry of Defense will allocate funds, so it will be impossible for the Navy to obtain independent economic power, and its development will inevitably be affected.

Don't underestimate the issue of funding, it can be said that the Navy and Army opposed the establishment of the Ministry of Defense at that time for this reason. The Prime Minister's insistence on the establishment of the Ministry of National Defense is precisely to control the military by controlling military spending, and eventually make the military completely controlled by the cabinet and become a tool in the hands of the government. It is precisely for this reason that the differences between the two commanders and the prime minister on the question of the choice of defense minister are even greater.

According to the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Defence is a civilian department, and the Minister of Defence must also be a civilian official. Although the Prime Minister did not rule out the possibility of a general becoming Minister of Defense, there is a precondition that all generals who become Minister of Defense must retire, that is, disassociate themselves from the military and thus become civilian officials. Although the use of civil affairs to govern the military is a development trend, in the history of the empire, because of the countless disasters caused by the management of the army by civilian officials, the commanders of the army and navy do not approve of the prime minister's arrangement, thinking that the Ministry of Defense is to manage the army, then, the general should be the minister, not send a "showman" to command the army to fight!

Later, this led to the question of the authority of the Ministry of Defense, that is, whether the Ministry of Defense had the authority to command the armed forces in combat, and whether the Ministry of Defense should direct the armed forces in combat. It can be said that at that time, few countries had established ministries of defense, and there was not much experience to learn from on how to manage the army with civilian officials, and the empire could only grope its way forward. In fact, this has become the main reason why the prime minister has not officially decided to establish a Ministry of Defense.

Everyone knows the solution later, and it was precisely because of the insistence of Nie Renfeng and Yan Dingyu that the prime minister finally made a compromise and concession to the two commanders. Since the Ministry of Defense is a civilian organization, it should not hold the command of the armed forces, but only the civilian powers, such as military spending and personnel. The command of the army still has to be handed over to the soldiers, not to the "talents". However, since the Ministry of Defense has mastered the power of funding and personnel, the armed forces are basically controlled by the Ministry of National Defense, and the status of generals has been lowered considerably.

It is also because of the fact that during the war, it is impossible for civilian officials to command

Fighting. In peacetime, the army had to be prepared to fight at any time, and later as a supplement to the Ministry of Defense, the General Staff was established. In complete contrast to the Ministry of Defense, the General Staff is a department composed entirely of military personnel and does not belong to the Cabinet of Ministers of government, but to the military. After exploring and summarizing in many aspects, there is a clear distinction between the competence of the Imperial Ministry of Defense and the General Staff, and there is also a distinction between peacetime and wartime.

In peacetime, the Ministry of Defense is the main manager of the army, responsible for the army's funding, personnel, and troop transfers and other major matters, that is, in peacetime, the army is basically controlled by the Ministry of Defense. The General Staff is only responsible for the advance planning of any possible war, and is responsible for the training of the army, the development and procurement of equipment (this authority was later transferred to the Ministry of Defense), exercises, and military exchanges with allies.

During the war, the Ministry of National Defense was transformed into the general logistics department of the army, which was mainly responsible for fund management, equipment procurement and maintenance, and personnel transfer. The authority of the General Staff has been expanded, and it has the right to plan combat operations, mobilize troops, direct troops in combat, and so on. Of course, it is up to the Prime Minister to decide whether to make such a transition, not the military, and the Prime Minister can take back the powers of the General Staff at any time!

At that time, Xue Xiyue was only engaged in the Ministry of Defense, and the real establishment of the General Staff was still a matter for the next imperial prime minister. However, it is precisely because of the establishment of the Ministry of National Defense that the structure of the Navy must be reformed, and many departments will be merged into the Ministry of National Defense, and many institutions will also be abolished, and the personnel will be drastically reduced, and some will be assigned to work in the Ministry of National Defense. Others will continue to serve in other institutions. Not to mention anything else, the personnel adjustment of tens of thousands of officers and men of the Navy Command at that time was enough to give anyone a headache.

It is not only the Navy that needs to be reformed, but also the Army. In addition, the army, having lost aviation, almost completely became a "ground" force. Opposite. The Navy will certainly retain the combat capability of aviation. The Imperial Army and Navy can be said to be rivals, and after hundreds of years of struggle, the Army naturally does not want to maintain a strong navy when it is seriously weakened. Naturally, the newly established Air Force will not be able to become a competitor to the Navy, and when the time comes, the Navy will be dominant, so how will the Army survive? Therefore, when Xue Xiyue proposed the establishment of an air force. Yan Dingyu sent a proposal to the prime minister that the Marine Corps should also be independent and become an independent service, but just a branch of the navy.

Such a "blow" of the army is somewhat absurd. Perhaps many people believe that the Marine Corps is a ground force. Naturally, it should not belong to the Navy, but the Marine Corps is very different from other ground forces. For example, the ground forces of the Army attack from land to land, while the Marine Corps attacks the ground from the sea. This distinction is enough to determine that the Marine Corps is a very special force, a force that must rely on the Navy to be able to fight. What's more, the Marine Corps itself was born in the Navy, so what reason is there for the Marine Corps to stand on its own?

It was this proposal that seemed a bit ridiculous but was taken seriously by the prime minister, and the prime minister also borrowed the heavy punch of the army to suppress the navy, so that Nie Renfeng had to establish the air force. As well as concessions on the issue of the Ministry of Defense. By then, however, the signs of the Marine Corps becoming an independent branch of the armed forces were already quite apparent. Renfeng also realized the seriousness of this problem, if the Marine Corps is independent, then the Navy will really become a force that can only fight at sea, and in this way, the strength of the Navy will be seriously weakened, and I am afraid that the status of the Air Force will not be as good as that of the Air Force in the future.

This problem was created out of nothing and almost became the first major problem faced by the navy at that time, whether it was Nie Renfeng, Gan Yongxing, or any admiral, they were actually unwilling to let the Marine Corps go independent. In addition, the Marine Corps generals also have reservations about this, even if most Marine Corps generals want to obtain a higher status, but a somewhat reasonable Marine Corps general knows that without the Navy, the Marine Corps is nothing, and the benefits of independence are not necessarily more than the disadvantages.

At that time, the matter of whether the Marine Corps should become the fourth branch of the military had not yet been decided, mainly because the people and phoenixes were biting and not letting go, and Xue Xiyue had not made up his mind, and Yan Dingyu's role in blowing the wind next to him was getting smaller and smaller. But the problem is that if the prime minister does decide to make the Marine Corps the fourth service, the impact on the navy will be significant. In addition, several high-ranking admirals who know the inside story are not optimistic about this matter.

The greatest impact on the status of the Marine Corps is the future Ministry of Defense. If the Ministry of Defense is really established, then whether it is the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, or the Marine Corps, it will all be under the unified leadership of the Ministry of Defense, and whether the Marine Corps is independent or not will actually have a very small impact within the scope of the Ministry of Defense. If the prime minister finally adds a new air force to balance the navy and army, then it is very possible to create a fourth branch of the armed forces. In this way, the influence of the four branches of the armed forces will be very limited, and it will certainly be more conducive to the operation of the Ministry of Defense at that time, which will certainly be much better than the Navy alone.

Considering these factors, even if the navy was still actively striving for it at that time, it had to make good preparations for the Marine Corps to become the fourth branch of the armed forces, which would involve a lot of personnel changes and changes in the naval structure. If nothing else, the personnel changes of the officers and men of the Marine Corps alone are very troublesome. The personnel changes of those Marine Corps generals are even more troublesome.

It can be said that at that time, the navy was completely forced to carry out structural reform, but because of the same pressure from the outside world, this structural reform will never begin immediately and will not end immediately. When Tan Renhao got the information given to him by Gan Yongxing, the matter of structural reform was only temporarily determined, and there would not be more than ten high-ranking generals in the navy who knew about this matter, after all, this would shake the morale of the military, and there was no reason to make it public at this time.

When Tan Renhao finished reading this information, his mood was also quite heavy. This war made the Imperial Navy famous all over the world and returned to its heyday, but when the Navy expanded rapidly, "slimming" became inevitable, and I am afraid that it was precisely because of this war that the Imperial Navy would face the largest and most profound full-scale reduction in history!