Preparations for Military Reform

For some time thereafter, Joseph was so busy that he could hardly keep his feet on the ground. He and Carnot had to worry about all aspects of the army's recruitment, organization, equipment, and logistics.

Prior to this, the armies of the nation were recruited. Recruiting an army costs a lot of money, so the scale is quite limited. Until the time of the Thirty Years' War, the armies of Europe remained small. Later on, King Friedrich II of Prussia began to play with conscription, which suddenly turned tiny Prussia into a military power.

Of course, for the soldiers to be recruited and happy to fight for the king, the king had to keep those soldiers happy. So Friedrich II made a big deal of national education and patriotism, slowly converting his subjects under him into nationals. It also allowed the Prussian soldiers in his hands to bravely go to war with almost every military power in all of Europe at the same time in the Seven Years' War on minimal pay.

But this comes at a price. That is, subjects have no rights and few obligations, whereas nationals have many obligations, but at the same time, they will demand many rights. There is a prerequisite for wanting to turn your own citizens into a large pack of wolves: you must feed them meat!

In the time of King Friedrich II, through a number of victorious wars, Prussia gained very much; in other words, he made the cake bigger so that all classes got a larger share of it than they would otherwise have done, and everyone was in one piece. But by the time King Friedrich II died, things had changed. Prussia no longer had a good chef who could continually make 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 too good to be better than the nationals ... So Prussia began to go backward, and by the time the Napoleonic wars came around, that once-venerable Prussian army had turned into a battlefield of fifth-rate scum.

Today's France, however, is free of those concerns about turning subjects into nationals. Because in a revolution, "subjects" no longer exist. In that case, why not change the conscription system to universal compulsory military service? That way, at least, the army could be greatly increased. Considering the size of France's population, it's not impossible to get an army of millions if necessary. If they could really mobilize such a large army, the whole of Europe would only be able to tremble in the light of France, and what king would dare to talk trash about France?

Of course, it wasn't enough just to draft the soldiers in; there was more to it. Conscripts, for example, are drafted to serve a limited period of time, which means that the level of warfare skills of these soldiers may be somewhat lower compared to soldiers from other countries.

Also, conscription saves money because soldiers are paid less, which also has an effect on morale. In order for soldiers to maintain their morale despite getting little money, very often, it is necessary to give them education on patriotism, but also to improve their social status, supplemented by some other concessions, for example, in the latter days of the Eastern Great Eating Country's military pay is also not high, but in order to enlist in the army, very often, they have to go through the back door, which has these factors in it.

"There can't be a glass ceiling against civilians in the military anymore." Joseph said, "Even a private, if he performs well, he should be able to get a promotion. Well, those soldiers who excel in their training and missions should be given the opportunity to attend military academies."

"Glass ceiling?" Carnot laughed, "That's a very graphic way of putting it. It's a new era now, and such glass ceilings really shouldn't exist anymore. But if all people had the opportunity to attend military schools, there wouldn't be enough military schools to go around in number and size."

"We can divide military academies into levels. The lowest level is established at the company level of the army. In addition to his daily duties, the company commander is responsible for the most basic cultural education of the platoon leaders under his command. At least make them able to read and understand military orders - once conscription is in place and the army expands in numbers, it's not uncommon to have 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 were all stupid and illiterate, none of them would be very good at understanding or carrying out orders. The whole army would be much less effective. That is why I think it is important to have education aimed at cultural literacy at even the first level. 

Of course, this education can be done on the company's own, without the need for specialized educators. We just have to take care of the assessment and tie the results to the promotion of the company commander."

"That's a good one." Carnot laughed, "Except all those company commanders will be cursing you later."

"No, they'll just curse you." Joseph said, "You're the one in charge, I'm just your deputy."

"Then let them curse." Carnot said.

"Then there are the military schools for those squad and platoon commanders at the company battalion level who have done well, and we call them Junior Officers' Training Schools. 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, which will all need instructors. Well, some of the older officers, they can be teachers in it." Joseph added. He said the word "older" with extra weight.

Carnot immediately understood what he meant. He laughed, "What with the older ones, it just throws the less politically reliable officers in there. That's one way to do it. Other than that, do you have any more ideas?"

"I have another idea." Joseph said, "We might also be able to scale back the amount of time soldiers serve ..."

"How is this possible?" Carnot'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 compressed further, then how can the military quality be guaranteed? And if we continue to compress the time, then we will have to keep training soldiers, and this expense will be high instead."

"Mr. Carnot, retirement is not the end." Joseph explained, "All retired soldiers, their names are recorded in the National Guard lists as part of it. That way, we don't have to burn through too much money by maintaining a consistently large military. And those soldiers who are trained, we put them in the National Guard, and that doesn't cost the government any money, but it guarantees 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 Guard into the army again."

When Carnot heard that, he didn't say anything right away but lowered his head and thought for a while, then said, "That's a very creative idea you've got there. There's a lot of complexity involved, and we'll have to combine our efforts, but I think it's an approach worth looking into ..."

Joseph was really a halfway competent guy when it came to the military, even though he taught at a military academy, but some experience in the latter days still gave him the chance to play nice in front of the real experts. In the latter part of the world, his proposal is very common, but it is just a reserve force. But in this era, there was absolutely marvelous creativity.

Still, there's a huge gap between creativity and practical, workable solutions. And it takes a lot of careful work to build bridges over it. In these areas, Joseph would really be less proficient. But Carnot's ability to do that just really stands out. Not only is he a quick and delicate thinker, but he is also experienced in handling all kinds of things. A lot of things seem very difficult to others, but Carnot can arrange them in just the right way methodically. Plus, Carnot is physically strong and energetic. Many times, he could work close to twenty hours a day.

"The guy's already a strong worker, and with that kind of effort, he's good for at least ten people on his own! And it has to be ten experts! This guy is completely inhuman!" In a letter to Napoleon, Joseph describes his superior in this way.

"Joseph Bonaparte is the most talented man I have ever met; his head is a treasure trove! I dare say that it is that fabled treasure trove of Alexander the Great which is no richer than the one in his head. No matter what time it is, no matter what the problem is, if you go to him, he will always be able to come up with a magic weapon from within that treasure trove that will solve the problem. But Joseph Bonaparte was also the one who was the easiest and best at being lazy that I've ever met. He takes every opportunity to be lazy whenever he can.

But I'm not being derogatory when I say he's good at being lazy. He always finds simpler ways to avoid tedious work. For example, he would use math to model and coordinate various jobs. Thus, the efficiency of implementation is greatly improved. Then, he can spend the time he saves on other things. Honestly, I am envious and jealous to see him in such a working condition. I'm working over ten hours a day, and there are still a lot of things I can't get done, whereas this guy, who works up to eight hours, still has time to work on his math and even get a paper or two published every now and then!

In addition, Bonaparte had the rare virtue of being incorruptible. You know how many tricks can be played with things related to logistics. A different person in Bonaparte's position today wouldn't know how to get rich. But Mr. Bonaparte was quite disciplined and took very grudgingly even some of the benefits that were due to him according to the gray rules. I'll bet he wouldn't even take this if he wasn't worried that not taking them might cause offense and cause problems at work ..."

Carnot wrote this about Joseph in a letter to his teacher, Monge. (Of course, Carnot is mistaken about Joseph's integrity. Joseph is "clean" because he's a wimp, and the second reason is that he thinks he can make money legally with the inside information he can get from this job. Like a certain sheriff of New York County in the latter-day Citibank, who supposedly didn't even take a salary during his term of office, and yet his personal assets legitimately doubled several times throughout his term.) All in all, both Joseph and Carnot were very happy with their partners. And they did implement their work well. By about May of the following year, a program that included conscription, military schools, and a reserve service had begun to run on a trial basis in Paris. The Marquis de La Fayette is very pleased with their work and is ready to expand this model to other parts of the country.