What the army needs more are officers!

"The power of the army lies in the excellence of the army, and the combat potential of the army is based on the cultivation of the education of the officer corps!"

As for the former, Tang Haoran compiled manuals and drill manuals by quoting militia training materials a hundred years later, while Tang Haoran was blind and could only base himself on this era, but only had a certain amount of experience in such areas as straggler lines and civil work.

In terms of officer training, the world powers have practiced such a system. The Army Military Academy trains regular officers who become lieutenants after graduation, and then selects the best people from among them and allows them to further their studies in institutions of higher learning such as the Army University, where they are instilled with advanced military science such as tactics and strategy to train them to become staff officers and generals.

However, compared with the great powers, the police department of the unified supervision office is undoubtedly a grass-stage team -- the middle-level police officers are only in the Tianjin Military Academy, and they have learned basic army tactics with a few foreign instructors, and as for those foreign instructors, they only came to China to pan for gold, but they are only retired veterans or grass-roots officers in the Prussian army, so naturally they are not excellent; as for the four senior police officers who returned from studying in Germany, they only learned to operate and build guns from the Krupp company, and yes, the officers sent to study engineers.

It was precisely because of his dissatisfaction with his own army officers that Tang Haoran would immediately begin to set up an army officer school after the affairs of the DPRK were decided, of course, at least for the time being, it could not be called an army officer school, so on Yeongjong Island, opposite Incheon, in addition to the "Coast Guard School Preparatory Office," there was also an additional "martial arts hall." Compared to the Coast Guard School, which is just a location. Lecture on martial arts as early as last year. After the situation was initially settled, it was immediately outsourced to a foreign firm in Shanghai for design and construction, but after half a year's work, a Western-style fortress-style school appeared on the south bank of Yongzong Island.

The first thing he did after taking charge of Korea was to make the decision to set up a "lecture hall" and also took out a sum of money to build a school on Yeongjong Island, but the key was that he could not find an instructor with military talent, so he had only one choice to find it abroad.

In the end, it was decided to do so.

Begin. But how do you find it? How to find it? For Tang Haoran, it is not blind to talk about being blind, based on the experience of later generations, the German army is the strongest in this era, and the British navy is the strongest. It is natural to learn from the Germans in running the army, and it has been proven by practice that the tactics and military establishment of the German army were the most advanced in the world from before the Franco-Prussian War until World War II.

But after determining what kind of instructors should you look for after learning military affairs from Germany? This question stumped Tang Haoran, and he naturally knew everything about the famous World War II general Tang Haoran. But the German generals of this era were blind. On the other hand, if the Unified Supervision Office is the representative of China. Then the solution to this problem is very simple, just ask for someone directly from the German Army Staff Headquarters.

In this era, China was Germany's largest arms importer, and if the Germans put forward this request in the name of the country, how could the Germans refuse, but the problem was that the Unified Supervision Office did not represent China, and finally after discussing it with Shang Dequan and others, they proposed a proposal to entrust Duan Qirui, who was still studying at the German Krupp Company, to find a number of outstanding instructors on his behalf, and it was best to directly submit the request to the Army Staff Headquarters.

Although on the surface, there was no army in the Unified Supervision Office, only the police, but no matter what, Tang Haoran also had the right to "train the new army", so naturally in the name of preparing for the training of the new army, he telegraphed Duan Qirui to hire a few German officers on his behalf for the cultivation of martial arts officers. After receiving the telegram, Duan Qirui did not live up to the trust of his classmates, and took the opportunity of visiting the German General Staff Headquarters to make a request to the German generals, as an in-service officer of the dignified Qing State, and also a close confidant of Li Hongzhang, the "Prime Minister of the Qing State", his request was naturally not ignored, and it can even be said that it attracted attention.

Chief of the General Staff Alfred? Feng? After receiving the report, Schlieffen reported the matter to the Kaiser, and the ambitious Kaiser Wilhelm II, who had just succeeded to the throne for two years, naturally did not want to miss the opportunity to exert influence in the East, and immediately instructed Schlieffen to do the matter.

Who is the best fit?

Although the legation in Beijing had already informed the Berlin Foreign Ministry of the relevant information about Tang Haoran and the mission of training the new army, as far as Germany was concerned, Tang Haoran's status in the Qing Dynasty was far inferior to that of Li Hongzhang, which meant that those with high military rank could not be sent, and on the other hand, Tang Haoran also knew Germany very well, and ordinary officers naturally could not satisfy him.

After much deliberation, Schlieffen finally chose one man, a General Staff officer who had just been promoted to colonel and had experience in the East - Merkel.

Schlieffen recommended Klemes? Wilham? Yakov? Merkel, who was 50 years old, was one of Moltke's most admired students, and was sent to Japan, an Oriental island country that was little known in Europe at that time, as an instructor at the Japanese Army University for seven years.

Fate seems to have played a joke here, Merkel, who built the modern Japanese army, was sent to China, of course Tang Haoran did not know this, at least before he came to Incheon, he didn't know at all, and even because he was an alcoholic, and only loved Moselle wine, he specially commissioned a foreign company to buy thousands of bottles of Moselle wine from Shanghai to satisfy his hobby.

In this way, Merkel took three infantry officers, two artillery officers, a cavalry officer, an engineer officer, and a baggage officer to Shanghai by boat, and from Shanghai to Incheon, after the reception banquet in Incheon, he lived in a villa in the Yongzong Island Army School, and it was at that reception banquet that Tang Haoran knew that the German expert he invited was the founder of the famous Lu University who "did not teach the Japanese army to defend".

But it's useless to regret it, and even Tang Haoran kept comforting in his heart, after all, the Japanese army, which had the true inheritance, defeated the Russians and swept the southeast, and his own conditions were not high, let alone so many requirements.

After running a school, we started recruiting students. Who to recruit?

Tang Haoran, who only has "4,000 policemen" under his command, naturally cannot be like the Japanese when they ran Lu Da. Out of the thousands of officers, 10% of the outstanding ones were selected through the examination. I can only make do with it. Take out the military examination papers of the Armed Forces Academy. All "police officers" are examined, and although the examination papers are not complicated, the pass rate is less than 30%.

The students are a little congenitally deficient, and the teachers are also a little stunted, which is the reality of the lecture hall, but Mekel is also an expert in strategy and tactics in the German army, so he also has absolute practical priority in the curriculum.

At present, the curriculum of the lecture hall is divided into two categories: "general studies" and "military science". General studies include "Transportation, History, Mathematics, Statistics, Public International Law, Law, Foreign Languages including English, French, German, Russian and Japanese". 608 class hours in total; Military science is divided into two kinds of "disciplines" and "technical subjects", the disciplines include "horse science, health, accounting, weapons, architecture, staff science and important affairs, war history, tactics, sea tactics, terrain, sand table, fortress tactics", a total of 1796 class hours, the technical subjects include "equestrian, visiting, field surveying, field tactics, staff exercises, military history travel, grassroots service, autumn exercises, participation in special exercises", not counting equestrian a total of 304 days, equestrian is 806 class hours. ”

As the director of the Academic Affairs Office of the Wubei Academy, Wu Qizao, a young child who studied in the United States who had worked as a sailor, is the highest official in the school, and as for Tang Haoran, as the principal, he only comes to the school once a week on average. The reason why Tang Haoran cares about the arrangement of class time again is related to another matter.

"Follow this course schedule. Can you graduate in one year? ”

One year, this is the school system of the martial arts hall, the reason why the school system is compressed to one year, but because he has no time to wait, now for Tang Haoran, what he needs is to quickly train enough officers in batches a year, and now there are only 242 students in this period, even if they all graduate, they can only meet one division. For this reason, it was necessary to increase the number of class hours by one year and compress the semester.

"Principal, according to the current one-year school schedule, it is basically no problem to graduate in one year, but ......"

Wu Qizao, who was walking on the campus, looked at the students who were training in equestrian training on the school grounds, and then replied by quoting Colonel Merkel.

"In Colonel Merkel's view, one year may be enough to give him a preliminary grasp of the basic knowledge required of an army officer, but it is limited to that, and it is very likely to limit his future development,"

After quoting Colonel Merkel's point of view, Wu Qizao continued.

"Colonel Jian: In the future, we should follow the example of the Japanese Army and establish an army university to train staff officers and their senior commanders, otherwise what we have learned in the current martial arts hall will never be able to meet the needs of senior commanders and staff officers of the army."

"Army University ......"

Reading these words, Tang Haoran didn't know that Merkel was telling the truth, to put it bluntly, the officers trained in the martial arts hall this year were only middle and low-level officers, and their limited knowledge naturally limited the possibility of becoming a senior commander, but the question was, did he have the time to wait? Thinking of time, Tang Haoran couldn't help but think of the neighbor in the East, who was planning to attack China.

In the face of the threat of Japan, he can only find a way to strengthen his own strength, and at the same time, in order to solve this threat, he is promoting the plan step by step, whether the plan can succeed or not, is still unknown, a qiē can only be decided by time and the future, but he must not bet all his chips on that plan, before that, he must continue to enrich his own strength for the future.

Looking at the cavalry scientists who were riding Western horses to train equestrianism in the equestrian arena, Tang Haoran's expression became more and more serious.

Oriental...... This proposition seems to be a proposition that modern China can never bypass! Now that this problem has fallen into my own hands, can it be completely solved?

(Don't complain, there is no way to use Merkel here, after all, another qualified one is still in Turkey, founding a new army, training Turkish officers, this Merkel is trained in Japan as a brigade commander, division commander, and trained in North Korea, well, just a battalion company commander, now there is such a person to come to North Korea, has opened a big golden finger, as for the future when the founding of Lu University, it is natural to use famous generals!) Hehe, it's the end of the month, ask for a monthly pass! More tomorrow! (To be continued......)