While intending to squeeze Napoleon a little, Joseph knew that Napoleon was not a talented man to be a staff officer, and in that regard, between him and Carnot, there were still quite enough Josephs to go around. In fact, it wasn't impossible for him to do all that detailed staff work, arranging all sorts of little things one by one, but it wasn't what Napoleon was best at. Joseph also did not want to bend Napoleon and train a good commanding officer to be a staff officer. For Napoleon, Joseph was actually prepared to open it in a different way.
The very next day after Napoleon arrived in Paris, Joseph made this proposal to Carnot in his office on the second floor of the town hall.
"Lazare," Joseph said as he pulled out a dossier and handed it over, "I've suddenly had a new idea about how to train the army. Last night, I worked out a less-than-perfect idea overnight, and I was hoping to get your review." Over the course of their time together, the two had become so familiar that they had become friends who could address each other by name and use the pronoun "you" instead of "sir".
"Ah, Joseph, I really envy you this." Carnot reached for the dossier bag, pulling out the papers inside as he said, "You guys are always coming up with all kinds of new ideas. I just don't get it, just by looking at the size of the head, mine is almost a round bigger than yours, but ..."
As he said that, Carnot then looked at the document.
"Hmmm, 'Proposal for a dedicated simulation of the enemy army' ... Let me see, let me see ..." Carnot lowered his head and looked at the document, no longer speaking.
After a good while longer, as Joseph began to refill the inside of his glass for the second time, Carnot finished reading the paper in his hand.
"Joseph." Carnot spoke up, "The idea as a whole looks great, of course there are a lot of details that need to be worked out, but spending money on this is well worth it."
Then he rang a bell that sat on the table, and one of the attendants came in.
"Major, what's the matter?" The attendant asked. Because of his outstanding work performance, Carnot had just received the rank of Major a few days ago.
"Ah, Hubert, go ask for me and see when Mr. Lafayette is available." Carnot said.
"Yes, Major." The attendant saluted and walked out.
"Joseph, that's a good idea." Carnot said, "Get a small but elite unit that specializes in simulating the enemy. Let's have the units go and do confrontational maneuvers with them. Then the referee division, well, let's call it the director's division judges their performance, and those judgments can be one of the bases for rewarding and punishing the troops. At the same time, this kind of training will allow the soldiers to gain some early experience against a really strong enemy, which is a very valuable experience in the era of peace. And we'll be able to experiment with all sorts of new tactical warfare methods through exercises like this. This is a great idea!"
"It's not like we're going to send all our soldiers to Africa and have them fight those savages to gain experience. I think gaining experience in this way is not as good as the experience that comes from actual combat in Africa, but it's better than nothing." Joseph responded.
"Joseph, you were wrong about one thing earlier." Carnot shook his head and said, "Even if there is money, you shouldn't send all your troops to Africa to fight those savages. Because the experience gained from fighting barbarians is not positive, or even only harmful, to the building of an army. The experience gained by an army in high level military maneuvers is much more important and effective than the experience gained from fighting barbarians. Fighting barbarians is like playing chess all the time with the kind of beginners who don't even know the rules about taking passed pawns; the more you play, the worse your level gets. During the Seven Years' War, the performance of those troops transferred back from Africa was generally not too good for this reason ..."
In fact, in later times, this phenomenon was common. Only Joseph didn't know it. The army that the USA you're looking at went overseas to fight the war on terror for a couple of years, then came back to Owensboro and played a simulated Red Army, and what happened was that a brigade was beaten by a single company of "Reds" and left devastated. In the United States, the military adviser with "real-world experience" that you read about, when commanding the army of the United States to cross a bridge in order to guard against roadside bombs and so on, had the entire brigade stop at the end of the bridge, and spent more than an hour checking the bridge inside and out, up and down, three or four times. Finally, the brigade was given the chance to endure a massive covering artillery barrage by the enemy. The result was that this brigade was lost before it had time to see the enemy.
Just as Carnot was speaking, there was a sudden knock at the door.
"Come in." Carnot said.
The attendant walked in and said, "Major, His Excellency the Marquis is free right now, you can find him in his office."
"Good job on that, Hubert." Carnot stood up and gathered up the stack of papers Joseph had given him, then said to Joseph, "Joseph, let's go together to meet His Excellency Lafayette and speak to him about your idea. I think this is something that needs to get going as soon as possible."
"Okay, Lazare." Joseph stood as well.
"Oh, by the way, Lazare, do you have anyone in mind regarding the commander of this army?" Just as the two were about to walk out the door, Joseph asked this.
"No." Carnot paused, "This force, at first, is certainly not large. I think it would be good to have a couple hundred men. So his commanding officer can only be a captain officer ... Why, Joseph, do you have any good candidates?"
"Here's the thing, Lazare, it wasn't actually me who really came up with this plan ..." Joseph suddenly looked as if he was squirming a bit, "Well, the man who came up with the plan is my brother Napoleon ... He's an artillery second lieutenant, and I think he's quite gifted militarily. It's just that he's a little over-ambitious. He wants very much to be the commander of this team."
"Haha," Carnot laughed, "Joseph, this is the first time I've seen you use your power for personal gain. Well, your brother, considering your situation, your brother must be very talented. But, as you know, your brother ... ah, what was his name again?"
"Napoleon." Joseph reminded.
"Well, Joseph, as you know, Napoleon is still only second lieutenant. It's really still going to be a bit of a challenge to convince His Excellency Lafayette to agree to put second lieutenant in command of such a group." Carnot said, "But he's good in that capacity. But Joseph you have the rank of lieutenant now ... Come, let us go together and meet His Excellency Lafayette and see what he has to say."
Joseph knew what Carnot meant by which identity was nice. To the average Frenchman, the Corsican nobility is hardly nobility at all, and is no different from the third estate of honorable men, and may not even be comparable to those honorable men. So, the assembly won't even look at them as nobles. And on the side of the army, the power of the nobility is still not to be ignored, and if it's a thoroughbred plebeian, like Carnot, the assembly may be pleased, but the army is not yet happy. And Corsican aristocrats like Napoleon, who were not quite as accomplished but more or less aristocratic, were relatively more receptive.
Joseph then followed Carnot to Lafayette's office.
After entering the office and greeting Lafayette, Carnot handed Lafayette that document directly.
"Your Excellency, General," Carnot said, "we have a new idea that we would like to have your support for."
"Lazare, you have a new idea?" Lafayette chuckled as he fumbled for his glasses from the side and put them on, "Ah, let me see first ..."
Lafayette looked at it for a moment, then looked up and said, "Very valuable offer! Very valuable! And very feasible. But Lazare, you didn't give me the slightest wind of what was going on when we left together yesterday evening, and you've given me such a surprise attack today."
"General, this proposal was submitted to me by Joseph this morning. I just saw it too." Carnot explained.
"Is that so?" Lafayette seemed slightly surprised, "Joseph, you've always said you're a layman about military combat. But I see this plan of yours, you are very well versed in these things. Leaving that idea aside for a moment, I'm sure it's not at all uncommon for a brilliant mind like yours to come up with an idea like that. But there are a lot of details in this plan that wouldn't occur to anyone who isn't very knowledgeable about combat. Not to mention coming up with so many viable solutions. Well, Joseph, I think that you can now command at least a regiment of French troops to go and fight the British squarely. If you were in North America, you could even command a division. You, for one, are so modest."
"General, this is not me being modest. Although all this time, I've been learning as much as I can about it, and I've made some progress, but those details of this plan are not something I've done independently. Instead, it was done with the help of my brother, Napoleon. He's an artillery second lieutenant in our army." Joseph replied.
"Looking at the program, I think second lieutenant Napoleon is very talented and promising." Carnot added from the sidelines.
"That much I believe." Lafayette said, "Just look at his brother. Well, do you have any candidates for the commander of this unit?"
"This force doesn't need to be big to begin with, a couple hundred men would be enough. Since the idea came from Joseph, and the perfection of the idea was realized with the help of Napoleon." Carnot said, "Then let Joseph be in charge of this experimental team, and just have his brother give him a hand. What do you think of that?"
Lafayette raised his eyes, looked at Carnot, had a look at Joseph, and then said: "Then let us first promote Mr. Joseph Bonaparte to the rank of captain, and then put him in charge of forming this force. Well, what do you think would be a good name for this unit?"
"This unit specializes in playing the enemy in maneuvers, and our dangerous enemy is the Brits dressed in red." Carnot said, "Let's just call this unit the 'Red Army'."