CHAPTER 349: CHAPTER 344: BUILDING A COMPREHENSIVE ADVISORY SYSTEM

"Accept it! Marshal, this is the proof of your contribution to France!"

Jerome Bonaparte first approached Saint Arno and, with passion, placed the marshal’s medal on Saint Arno.

Seeing this, Saint Arno quickly saluted Jerome Bonaparte, who returned the salute to Saint Arno.

Afterward, Jerome Bonaparte handed the gilded marshal’s staff from the tray to Saint Arno.

Saint Arno took a step forward, solemnly received the staff with both hands, and then stepped back to his original position.

"Long live Marshal Saint Arno! Long live the Empire!"

The troops below cheered for Saint Arno’s promotion to marshal. Although their cheers were merely following orders from their superiors, it also indicated that the army did not oppose Saint Arno becoming a marshal.

"I will not fail your expectations and trust in me! I believe that under your leadership, France can once again thrive!" Saint Arno said to Jerome Bonaparte with conviction.

Having said this, Saint Arno once again saluted the monarch before him.

"I also believe it! With your help, France can become even stronger!" Jerome Bonaparte replied with a smile still on his face.

Commander Renio’s coronation similarly concluded amidst cheers and salutes.

After the marshal ceremony ended, a grand parade began.

Nearly 60,000 soldiers, under the direction of their respective unit commanders, began accepting Jerome Bonaparte’s review in an orderly manner.

Riding on horseback, Jerome Bonaparte, Saint Arno, Renio, and the Bonaparte and Orthodox faction generals following them reviewed each unit in turn, occasionally stopping to inquire about the commander’s name and the unit’s designation.

Jerome Bonaparte’s image, after his tireless ’cultivation,’ could finally utter, "In Paris, the army recognizes no one but me."

After the parade concluded, Jerome Bonaparte routinely spent hundreds of thousands of francs out of his own pocket to improve the meals of the soldiers participating in the parade.

In the eyes of some in the army, Jerome Bonaparte was already equivalent to garlic sausage and black bread.

Of course, this is just the view of some veterans who have served for a few years.

Many of this year’s newly enlisted recruits looked at the Emperor’s nephew with admiration; in their eyes, Jerome Bonaparte was already equivalent to that Emperor, and he would lead France to revival.

As long as France could successfully revive, they could gain power like during the Great Revolution.

And the reason they equate revival with gaining power is mostly influenced by their fathers.

Those fathers, living through the Napoleon era, experienced hardships and also went through times of warmth and joy. As they aged, the once ’harsh’ memories were selectively erased by them.

In their stories, war became a man’s romance, and past glories turned warm, as they passionately recounted their experiences to the next generation, including but not limited to playing with German women.

The cases of Jourdan, Ney, and others rising to prominence, as well as the stories from the old generation’s Napoleon era, instilled unrealistic fantasies in the second generation of French soldiers, who were eager to recreate past glories.

Whoever could lead them back to glory, they would follow his orders.

It can be said that from the moment Jerome Bonaparte launched the coup, the entire France had already been swept away by the patriotic flag, concealed under nationalism’s bayonet.

Everyone was a promoter of militaristic bayonets.

The parade ended with cheers of "Long live the Empire, long live Bonaparte."

Marshal Renio, newly awarded the marshal title, returned once more to Strasbourg, brimming with vigor as if rejuvenated.

Now that the marshal title is in hand, could the nobility rank be far behind?

Marshal Renio believed that as long as he completed the task of reforming the Strasbourg military station, he would certainly earn the reward he deserved.

Chief of Staff Marshal Saint Arno also accelerated the process of forming the General Staff.

June 1, 1852.

The General Staff began restructuring under the joint deliberation of Marshal Saint Arno and Jerome Bonaparte, transforming the three small groups within the former Secretariat responsible for Germany, the Near East, and the Italian region into four departments.

The first department was responsible for Ossman, Greece, Russia, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark.

The second department was responsible for: Germany (especially Prussia), Austria, Switzerland, Italy!

The Third Office: Responsible for France proper, Britain, Belgium, Holland, Spain, Portugal

The Fourth Office is responsible for Asia and America.

Among them, in addition to Asia and America, the Fourth Office also undertakes the functions of organization, mobilization, training, and deployment.

Members assigned from logistics to subordinate troops must undergo training through the office.

In addition to the aforementioned four offices, the Military Science and Technology Office under the General Staff is also an important department. To establish this department, Jerome Bonaparte ordered the newly appointed Minister of War, Kuzen Montebon, to assign the army’s best historians, surveyors, statisticians, and topographers to the Military Science and Technology Office so that they could map more precise charts.

Those who had previously gone to the Ministry of Railways for organizational coordination were similarly incorporated into the (new) Railway Department.

As field surveying is of utmost importance, Saint Arnaud specially appointed a "Field Surveying Director" to the position.

Jerome Bonaparte and Saint Arnaud spent a total of about three weeks constructing the framework of the newly established General Staff.

Under such a framework, military administration and military command are completely in a state of mutual separation without interference.

Kuzen Montebon had no right to interfere with military marching orders, and Saint Arnaud also had no right to decide on military personnel appointments and dismissals.

The newly formed General Staff consisted of more than 155 people from its inception.

At the same time, a new issue also appeared before Jerome Bonaparte and Saint Arnaud.

When Jerome Bonaparte demanded that each division, brigade, and regiment should have a corresponding staff department, Chief of Staff Saint Arnaud awkwardly explained to Jerome Bonaparte: The French army changes its garrison every two or three years, and except for specific regions like Seine Province and Strasbourg, the configurations at corps, division, and brigade levels are mostly temporary formations.

Many brigade commanders and division commanders, as well as division commanders and corps commanders, only meet for the first time during war.

The four levels of staff departments formed in peacetime—corps, division, brigade, regiment—are unsure who to follow, nor how to find their own units.

This has become a persistent problem.

After Jerome Bonaparte and Saint Arnaud pondered for a long time on the sofa, Jerome Bonaparte, with arms folded, asked, "Can we station troops permanently in one area, at most along the railroad lines? In this way, the army can mobilize and reach faster!"

"But, but! However..." Saint Arnaud hesitated in response.

"However what? What difficulties?" Jerome Bonaparte asked again.

"If the army often stays in one area, it is likely to become regionally based troops, which is not conducive to our mobilization!" Saint Arnaud feared that the army might merge with local forces, thus giving rise to armed opposition against Paris.

"What about military zones? If the French army is divided into five military zones: east, west, south, north, and central, each led by a general or marshal, the troops can move within their jurisdiction! Every year’s recruits should be assembled, then unified and assigned to different units!" Jerome Bonaparte said to Saint Arnaud.

Dividing military zones and allowing exchanges within a certain range can reduce problems with forming complete corps and division-level commands due to constant relocations.

Each military zone only needs to delineate a corps-level staff department representing the military zone, and then the corps-level staff department specifies division-level and brigade-level command offices below. As long as troop redeployments do not exceed the military zone, corps, brigade, and regiment staff departments can easily find their own respective troops.

If it was the Prussian army, there would be no need for such a method to guard against the army.

Compared to the revolution-prone Paris, soldiers of the Kingdom of Prussia are simply the best in the world, enduring hardships and willingly accepting flogging.

French soldiers, on the other hand, frequently shout democracy without truly understanding its meaning, but they know this slogan can result in less beating from their superior officers.

Ultimately, it is about the problem of building a national army versus building an ethnic army.

"We can only use this method!" Saint Arnaud nodded and said to Jerome Bonaparte.

At present, there are no better methods, and they can only choose the relatively reliable option.

June 29, 1852.

The French Minister of War, Kuzen Montebon, issued the first directive.

Starting from July 1, France is officially divided into five major military zones: northeast, south, north, and central.

The manager of each military zone is either a marshal or a meritorious general, and the military zone establishes a legion-level staff department to help the marshal/general set strategic goals, complete strategic planning, and train the army.

Below each military zone should be division and (brigade) regiment-level staff departments. All departments rotate garrisons within the military zone, and once war breaks out, the division and (brigade) regiment staff departments form the core to reorganize the army.

From the Ministry of War’s directive, it can be seen that the army is completely centered around the staff department, and the staff department is also centered around the General Staff.

This arrangement inevitably leads to complaints that the staff department has seized command authority, but such complaints are insignificant to the determined reforming Chief of Staff and Emperor.