In fact, there was another reason for the transfer of Count Latour from Vienna, in order to cope with the coming war, Franz was ready to take the opportunity to establish a general staff.

At this time, the Austrian Empire was still an era when the emperor and the minister of war patted their heads and wanted to command how to command; The generals on the front line are in charge of the military, logistics, and finance, and they must spend a lot of energy and attention to trivial matters while marching and fighting.

The military qualities of the emperors, war ministers, and generals were uneven, which is why enemy countries were often able to perform miracles when they were at war with Austria.

Even when a handful of generals have won victories in some areas, they have rarely been able to turn that advantage into victory.

There were other reasons for the establishment of the General Staff, but they were not immediately apparent.

For example, the conscription system and the selection of generals, the conscription system is about to fall behind the times, and the scale of future wars will become larger and larger.

Conscription will place a heavy economic burden on the country, and conscripts influenced by nationalist and nationalist ideas will be cheaper and have higher enthusiasm, which is called subjective initiative.

It also addresses the loyalty problems that have plagued rulers for millennia, and the mutiny of mercenaries who pay for things is not new.

And thanks to advances in weapons, the gap between the so-called professional soldiers and the conscripts on the frontal battlefield is narrowing.

Especially at this time, the prevailing line and column push tactics, except for the rare strong army, usually speaking, whoever has more people wins, and whoever is bold wins.

As for the selection of generals, the officers in Austria at this time were generally hereditary. That's right! It is true that there are military schools in Austria, but the students are overwhelmingly aristocrats.

It was as difficult for civilians to get into a military academy as it was to get into the University of Vienna, the highest institution of learning in the Austrian Empire at the time.

However, this single-plank bridge was followed by a narrower plank bridge, and most of the teachers in the military academies were also nobles.

They are not necessarily biased, but the families of the nobility, especially the military aristocracy, are often related to each other, so the children of the nobility are more likely to be taken care of.

Even if you cross this chasm, there is still a chain bridge behind the boardwalk.

According to the rules for the promotion of officers in the Austrian Empire, officers with the rank of second lieutenant and below had to go into battle three times with the soldiers of the first platoon in order to be promoted.

Many children of civilians are usually only non-commissioned officers even after graduating from military academies, and if they start from the lowest corporal, then from corporal to second lieutenant, he will face nine tests of life and death, which can really be described as "nine deaths and one life".

And the children of the nobility, after graduating from military school, are usually already ensigns, and they can skip these tests altogether.

This is just a microcosm of the disadvantages of the selection of generals in the Austrian Empire, and there are even more terrible direct money to take the position.

For example, the famous General Fernand Richie, who enlisted in the army as a general, fought countless defeats in his life, but could still be high in the post of commander-in-chief of the local defense forces of Venesia on an equal footing with Marshal Radetzky.

Although Franz did not serve as a soldier for a day, he still had the rank of colonel, which is a rank that many people cannot reach even if they work hard all their lives.

In fact, if Franz really wanted to be a soldier, then his rank depended entirely on his own imagination.

But it's also a big piece of cake, because the chain of interests involved can even extend to everyone in the entire country.

In addition to a separate General Staff, Franz is also preparing to set up a special logistics department, an intelligence department, an armament department, and a weapons development department.

In the past, all of these were under the control of the War Department, and the top level was usually one person who wore many hats, while the bottom was too bloated, and the result was that the management was chaotic, and if there was a real problem, it was impossible to find out where the problem was.

In the past, in the Ministry of War, except for military personnel who were good at commanding, other talents were often not taken seriously, and logistics and weapons were outsourced to businessmen for a long time.

As a result, it is conceivable that the outsourcers are thinking about profits, so the Austrian army has been short of food, medicine, and weapons and equipment from time to time in the past.

During the time of Empress Theresa, the supply of the Austrian army was often problematic, and the war was fought from summer to winter, but the boots that were missing from the uniforms never arrived.

The soldiers could only wrap their feet in rags and continue to fight in the snow and ice.

The reason for this is that due to the rising prices of the war, the outsourced merchants are unwilling to bear the losses and want to wait for the price to fall before making up for the boots.

And this businessman is also hand-eyed, and Prime Minister Kautz helped to hide it, and finally only learned about it because the empress accidentally came into contact with a wounded soldier who had retreated from the front.

Enraged, the empress tried to execute the daring merchant, but was thwarted by almost the entire court, only to make up the difference and replace him with a more loyal and reliable outsourcer.

Franz didn't want to repeat the mistakes of the past, let alone be led by the nose, he needed a more reasonable logistics department.

In addition, the status of weapons developers in the Austrian Empire was very low, and Vincente Augustine, the chief weapons designer, mentioned many times above, did not reach the rank of general until his death.

Not only is the status of weapon developers low, but their income is also not high. Out of fear that weapons designers will use their expertise to arbitrage from the state.

Therefore, the Austrian Empire forbade the development of weapons to be involved in the manufacture of weapons, and the Austrian Empire would provide the manufacturers with the design drawings of the weapons.

As a result, the secrecy of the Austrian imperial military industry was almost non-existent, because the enemy could easily buy the design drawings of Austrian weapons from middlemen at very low prices, and even the designers of the weapons sold them themselves to make a living.

Because of this, the military scientific and technological talents of the Austrian Empire have never been retained, their status is low, their income is low, and their own inventions are not taken seriously, so it is strange that some people can still be willing to eat as much as they want.

Franz felt that it was necessary to give it enough attention, and at least one aspect of status or income to satisfy his vanity, so as to give people enough motivation not to dry up the impetus for innovation.

Although Franz has a trend of weapons development in the next 100 years, they have to be the ones who actually make these weapons.

So Franz built his own arsenal, and those weapons designers could get dividends from the weapons sold.

In addition, in order to encourage designers to develop new weapons, Franz created a number of awards and support funds.

The first Chief of the General Staff, Franz felt that Archduke Karl should be appointed. Because the latter is a rare theorist and a practitioner in Austria and in the whole era.

What is even more remarkable is that Archduke Karl was a member of the royal family, and because of his high position in the army, he could minimize the resistance to reform.

At this time, the General Staff would be above the Ministry of War, which was also necessary for the war, after all, Franz was not sure that anyone other than Archduke Albrecht, Field Marshal Radetzky, and Heinau also had the qualifications of famous generals.