For some time afterward, Joseph was so busy that he could hardly keep his feet on the ground. He and Kano had to worry about all aspects of army recruitment, organization, equipment, and logistics.
Until then, armies in every country were recruited. Recruiting armies cost a lot of money, so naturally their size was quite limited. Until the time of the Thirty Years' War, the size of the armies of European countries remained small. Then King Frederick II of Prussia began to play with conscription, which made the small Prussia become a military power at once.
Of course, in order to recruit soldiers who were happy to fight for the king, the king had to keep those soldiers happy. Therefore, Frederick II made a big effort to educate the nation and patriotism, and slowly transformed the subjects under his command, into nationals. This also allowed the Prussian soldiers in his hands, in the Seven Years' War, to take the least amount of pay and bravely go to war at the same time with almost every military power in all of Europe.
But this came at a price. That is that subjects have no rights and few obligations; whereas nationals have many obligations, but at the same time they demand many rights. There is a prerequisite for wanting to turn your subjects into a large pack of wolves, and that is that you have to give them meat!
In the time of King Frederick II, through some series of victorious wars, Prussia gained very much, in other words, he made the cake bigger, so that all classes got a bigger share of the cake than they would have otherwise, and everyone was in peace. But by the time King Frederick II died, things had changed. Prussia no longer had a good cook who could keep making the cake bigger and bigger, so the distribution of benefits became a zero-sum game, and then the Prussian rulers realized that the subjects were just so much better off than the nationals.... So Prussia began to go backwards, and it turned out that by the time of the Napoleonic wars, Frederick the Great's pack made the entire Europe tremble, the wolves of Frederick the Great had finally been raised by his descendants into a pack of battle-hardened huskies.
Today's France, however, does not have those concerns about turning subjects into nationals. Because in the revolution, "subjects" no longer existed. So why not change the conscription system to universal compulsory service. At the very least, the size of the army could be greatly increased. Considering the size of the French population, it would not be impossible to raise an army of a million men if necessary. If we could really mobilize such a large army, the whole of Europe would only be able to tremble under the light of France, and what king would dare to mess with BB about France?
Of course, it was not enough just to draft the soldiers over, there were more things. For example, conscripted conscripts, the time of service is limited, which means that compared to soldiers from other countries, the level of war technology of these soldiers might be a bit lower.
Also, conscription saves money because soldiers are paid less, which can also have an effect on morale. In order for soldiers to maintain their morale despite getting little money, very often, it is necessary to give them patriotism education, but also to improve their social status, supplemented by some other concessions, for example, in the later times, the military pay of the Eastern Great Eating Country was also not high, but in order to enlist in the army, very often, they also have to go through the back door, which has all these factors in it.
"There can't be a glass ceiling against civilians in the military anymore." Joseph said, "Even a private should be able to get a promotion if he performs well. Well, those soldiers who excel in training and performing missions should be given the opportunity to enter a military academy."
"Glass ceiling?" Kano laughed, "That's a very graphic statement. It's a new era nowadays, so such a glass ceiling really shouldn't exist anymore. However, if all people have the opportunity to study in military academies, then the number and size of military academies will not be enough."
"We can divide the military academies into several levels. The lowest level would be set up at the company level of the army. Company commanders, in addition to their daily work, will also be responsible for the most basic cultural education of the platoon commanders under them. At the very least, they should be able to read and understand military orders - once conscription is implemented and the army expands in numbers, it's not uncommon to see a whole bunch of platoon commanders who can't even read. Just as the strength of the Roman legions rested in large part on high-quality decurion-level bottom-feeders, if our squad and platoon commanders are all stupidly illiterate, they won't be able to understand or carry out orders very well. The combat effectiveness of the entire army would be greatly diminished. Therefore, I think it is necessary to have education at the company level with the purpose of cultural literacy.
Of course this kind of education can rely on the company's own strength and does not require specialized educators. We only need to be responsible for the assessment and link the results of the assessment to the promotion of the company commander."
"That's a good idea." Kano smiled, "Except that all those company commanders will scold you later."
"No, they'll just scold you." Joseph said, "You're the one in charge, I'm just your deputy."
"Then let them curse." Kano said.
"Then there's the military school for those squad and platoon commanders at the company battalion level who excel, we call them the Junior Officers' Refresher School. Teach some of the most basic things, and after they finish their studies, we'll be able to put them in company-level positions. Then there are schools for higher level commanders, and those schools will all need instructors. Well, some of the older officers can be teachers in them." Joseph added. He said the word "older" with extra emphasis.
Kano immediately understood what he meant. He laughed, "The older ones are just the officers who aren't politically reliable who are thrown in there. That's one way to do it. Other than that, do you have any other ideas?"
"I have another idea." Joseph said, "We might also be able to curtail the length of time soldiers serve ..."
"How is that possible?" Kano's eyes widened, "Mr. Bonaparte, I know you mean you want to save money, however the time for compulsory military service is already short, so that the time for military training is naturally insufficient, and the level of the soldiers' war technology is worrying. If the service time is further compressed, how can the military quality be guaranteed? And to continue compressing the time, then we have to keep training the soldiers, and this expense will be high instead."
"Mr. Kano, retirement is not the end." Joseph explained, "All the retired soldiers, their names will be recorded in the National Self-Defense Army's list and become a member of the National Revolutionary Army. This way, we won't have to spend too much money on maintaining an always large army. And those soldiers who are trained, we put them in the National Self-Defense Army, then we don't have to spend the government's money, but we can ensure a certain level of training, a certain level of skill. Once there's a war, we'll be able to recall them from inside the National Self-Defense Force into the army again."
When Kano heard this, he didn't say anything right away, but lowered his head and thought for a while, then said, "This idea of yours is very creative. But it involves a lot of complicated things, so we still have to put our heads together, but I think that it's a solution worth looking into ..."
Although Joseph taught at a military school, he was really a halfway decent guy when it came to the military, but some experience in the latter days still gave him the chance to play B in front of real experts. His suggestion, put in later life, in fact, very common, but it is the reserve forces. But in this era, is absolutely marvelous creativity.
However, there is still a huge gap between creativity and actual feasible programs. And to build a bridge over it, it requires a lot of meticulous work. In those areas, Joseph would really not be very proficient. But Kano's ability in this area would really stand out. Not only was he a quick and delicate thinker, but he was also experienced enough to handle all sorts of things with ease. Many things that seemed very difficult to others, Kano was able to methodically arrange them just right. Plus, Kano is physically strong and energetic. Many times, he could work close to twenty hours a day.
"This guy's work ability is already strong, and with this kind of effort, he can be used by at least ten people on his own! And it has to be ten experts as well! This guy is completely inhuman!" In a letter to Napoleon, this is how Joseph described this superior of his.
"Joseph Bonaparte is the most talented man I have ever met, his head is a treasure trove! I dare say that it is the fabled one of Alexander the Great that will not be richer than the one in his head. No matter what time of day, no matter what the problem was, if you went to him, he would always be able to pull out of that treasure trove the one thing that would solve the problem. But Joseph Bonaparte was also the favorite and the best at being lazy that I have ever met. He would take every opportunity to be lazy whenever he could.
But when I say he was good at being lazy, I don't mean it in a derogatory way. He always finds easier ways to avoid tedious tasks. For example, he would use math to model various tasks and then coordinate them. This greatly improved the efficiency of execution. Then he could spend the time he saved on other things. Honestly, seeing him work like this makes me envious and jealous. I have to work more than ten hours a day, and there are still a lot of things I can't get done, while this guy, who works for eight hours at most, still has time to work on math, and even publishes a paper or two every now and then!
Also, Bonaparte had the rare virtue of being incorruptible. You know how many tricks can be pulled off in matters related to logistics. Anyone else in Bonaparte's position would have gotten rich. But Mr. Bonaparte is so disciplined that he even takes the benefits that he is entitled to according to the grey rules, very reluctantly. I dare say he would not have taken even this, I am afraid, if he had not feared that by not taking them, he might have aroused the displeasure of others, and caused trouble in his work ..."
This is what Kano wrote about Joseph in a letter to his own teacher, Monge. (Of course, on the point of integrity, Kano is misunderstood Joseph, Joseph reason "integrity", the first reason is the goat, the second reason is that he feels that, using this work, he can know a lot of inside information, has been able to make him legitimate money. (Just like a certain county sheriff of New York County in the latter-day country of Citibank, who supposedly didn't even take a salary during his term of office, yet his personal assets legitimately doubled several times throughout his term of office.) In short, both Joseph and Cano were very happy with their partners. And they did indeed implement their work well. By about May of the following year, a program that included conscription, military schools, and reserves was up and running in Paris on a trial basis. The Marquis de Lafayette was very pleased with their work and was ready to expand the model to the rest of the country.