Empire Rise: Spain

Chapter 132: Army Organization Reform

Since Prime Minister Primó had already stated his attitude, it was now Carlo’s turn to express his position.

Carlo nodded, appearing very much in agreement: “Let’s do as the Prime Minister says. Expanding the armed forces of the colonies is certainly important, but we must not forget the development of the Spanish Mainland.

Also, when forming the Colonial Army, we should to some extent consider the ideas of those Native Soldiers. We can appropriately increase the salary and welfare benefits of these Native Soldiers, distinguishing them from the ordinary indigenous people of the colonies.

This way, we can ensure that these Native Soldiers will be more loyal to us, rather than trying to cooperate with those indigenous people.”

It was evident that European Countries, including Spain, actually did not have sufficient troops to garrison the colonies. Their method was to form armies composed of indigenous people in the colonies to maintain order in the colonies.

However, this approach also had a problem: the loyalty of these armies composed of indigenous people was not very reliable, and some of them might even oppose or hate the colonial nation.

The main problem was actually that these Native Soldiers were also among the persecuted, no different from those ordinary persecuted indigenous people.

As long as their treatment was slightly improved and they were given somewhat more rights than those indigenous people, these Native Soldiers would naturally be differentiated from ordinary indigenous people.

After all, while the indigenous people hated the colonists, they would also hate those Native Soldiers who groveled to the colonists and took up the butcher’s knife against their own compatriots.

As long as they received certain preferential treatment and enjoyed rights that ordinary indigenous people could not, ordinary indigenous people would harbor malice toward them. In fact, this strategy had already been submitted to Carlo’s office before Prime Minister Primó convened this meeting.

The reason Prime Minister Primó deliberately did not mention it was naturally to leave some proposals for Carlo to voice. After all, Carlo was the King of Spain; he could not attend such a Cabinet Meeting without any presence.

Appropriately letting Carlo express some opinions was a good thing for both Carlo himself and Primó.

Of course, Carlo knew Prime Minister Primó’s purpose. In other words, this might be some compromise Primó made to get the Royal Family to actively participate in constructing technology schools.

Although it seemed like just a small suggestion, if the subsequent expansion of the Colonial Army ensured the stability of the Spanish colonies, Carlo would also gain some merit from it.

Soldiers gaining merit would lead to promotion in military rank, officials gaining political achievements would lead to promotion in official post. The King gaining merit also had certain benefits; those under him would be more convinced of the King, and the public would have a better impression of the King.

Prime Minister Primó’s proposal was to expand the Colonial Defense Regiments to 20, that is, to expand the existing troops garrisoned in the colonies to 46,000 men.

Considering that the vast majority of the more than 10,000 additional troops were Native Soldiers, it actually had little impact on Spain’s finances.

After all, the salary and specific welfare benefits of these Native Soldiers were much lower, and colonies like Cuba and the Philippines could fully bear the increased expenditure on Native Soldiers.

The weapons and equipment needed by these soldiers could also be easily solved. Just as the Home Army of Spain was about to replace with the latest Vitali M1872 rifle, there were plenty of muzzle-loading rifles being phased out, and selecting some to equip the Colonial Army would be more than sufficient.

Although these muzzle-loading rifles were already outdated products, it depended on who they were compared to. The Colonial Army had to confront not only local indigenous people but also some opposition forces within the colonies; these people basically could not obtain large quantities of advanced weapons and equipment, and muzzle-loading rifles were sufficient to cope with them.

This not only solved the large stockpile of phased-out muzzle-loading rifles and ammunition from the Spanish Home Army but also minimized military expenses as much as possible, reducing the impact of the Colonial Army expansion on the Spanish Government.

With Prime Minister Primó’s final decision and Carlo’s approval, a unified opinion was quickly reached on the matter of expanding the Colonial Army.

The Minister of Colonial Affairs and the Finance Minister were both very satisfied with this, as the final outcome was within their acceptable range.

The Spanish Colonial Army did undergo expansion, which was beneficial to the Colonial Secretary’s work. And the army expansion did not affect the Spanish Government’s finances, so it would not create an additional burden for the Finance Minister and the Finance Department.

Since the topic of expanding the Colonial Army had come up, Carlo also inquired about the progress of the reform of the Spanish Home Army.

Before the reform, the Spanish Home Army had a scale of 70,000 men. But more than 50,000 of these 70,000 troops were Government Army from Queen Isabella’s reign; the quality of these soldiers varied greatly. The purpose of this reform was to conduct a large-scale screening of the officers and soldiers of the Spanish Home Army, retaining only those excellent officers and soldiers who passed all checks in physical fitness and ideological level, and then expanding the Spanish Home Army.

According to the army reform plan submitted by Prime Minister Primó, the 70,000-strong Home Army would ultimately be reduced to around 50,000 to ensure that the retained officers and soldiers were all elites.

Then, the Home Army would be expanded by selecting a portion of civilians with good physical fitness and who loved the country and the Royal Family to join the army, raising the Home Army’s numbers back to over 100,

If the army scale after this Colonial Army expansion was added, Spain after completing the military reform in the future would possess an army of around 150,000 men.

Although this army size was not comparable to Great Powers like Britain, France, Germany, and Austria, it was not much different from Italy and would be considered a level with abundant troops and generals in Europe.

The wars of this era were not as insane as during World War I, nor were there wars on the scale of the World War.

Wars like the Austro-Prussian War and Franco-Prussian War, which had attracted the attention of half of Europe a few years ago, had a total mobilized soldiers from both sides of just over 1 million.

If placed in the World War I four or five decades later, a single campaign might deploy over a million soldiers, even reaching two or three million.

And the total mobilized soldiers for the entire war would exceed ten million, something the Great Powers of this era could not imagine.

Currently, the Great Power with the largest army mobilization was Germany, France, and Russia. Russia, due to its large population, could easily arm over a million troops.

However, due to limitations in industrial production capacity and soldiers’ combat effectiveness, the Russian Army’s combat effectiveness was inferior to that of Germany and France.

Germany and France also had large populations, and with relatively advanced army mobilization systems, they could grit their teeth and arm over a million troops.

But unless facing a war that decided the nation’s fate, no country would go so crazy. Mobilizing over a million troops, regardless of the final war spoils, would have a profound impact on the country’s industry and economy production.

If the war incurred heavy casualties, it would not only affect the industry and economy production at the time but also the country’s future development.

After the Spanish Government decided to carry out military reform on the army, it never hesitated.

Alongside promulgating agricultural rent reduction and minimum wage legislation, the Spanish Army’s military reform was also proceeding vigorously.

As of now, the Spanish Home Army’s 70,000 men had been formally reduced to 50,Most of the 20,000 dismissed troops had been well resettled; they would head to the Seville Industrial Base, while some would await the operation of the Barcelona Industrial Base.

In short, these people would all get good jobs and live no worse than they did before in the army.

Upon learning that the Spanish Army had completed the reduction, after discussing with Prime Minister Primó and Grand Duke Serrano, Carlo decided to also launch an expansion of the Spanish Home Army, increasing it to over 100,000 men.

However, before expanding the Spanish Army, it was necessary to make certain modifications to the current Spanish Army’s organization.

Spain currently had six types of army organizations: line infantry regiments, light infantry battalions, cavalry regiments, engineer regiments, Colonial Defense Regiments, and Guard regiments.

In the Home Army reform, the Colonial Defense Regiments and Guard regiments were excluded.

This meant that only the line infantry regiments, light infantry battalions, cavalry regiments, and engineer regiments—four types—needed to undergo reform.

For the army reform, Prime Minister Primó and Serrano, both with a military background, naturally had certain ideas.

Due to the experience of the Austro-Prussian War and Franco-Prussian War, line infantry was destined to exit the historical stage. Spain’s line infantry regiments could be merged with light infantry battalions and reformed into Spain’s infantry regiments.

There was not much to say about cavalry; they still played a significant role currently. The cavalry regiments and engineer regiments basically needed no major reorganization, only strengthening firepower and organization.

For the reorganization of the Spanish Army, Minister of Defense Serrano presented his plan.

Spain’s new infantry regiments would subordinate 4 infantry battalions, 1 grenadier battalion, and 1 artillery battalion.

Grenadiers were a relatively ancient troop type, and their role could be seen from their name. With weapon development, the main purpose of grenadiers was no longer throwing grenades, but this organization was still retained.

Currently, Spain’s grenadiers were actually elite infantry. Although called a grenadier battalion, it was essentially just a smaller, more elite infantry battalion.

Previously, line infantry regiments had only one artillery company as heavy firepower reserve, but under Grand Duke Serrano’s plan, the infantry regiment would have an entire artillery battalion providing firepower support.

The original line infantry regiment’s artillery company had only four cannons, while the new infantry regiment’s artillery battalion had four artillery companies, each equipped with 6 cannons.

This meant that a single infantry regiment would possess 24 cannons, a multiple increase compared to the original line infantry regiment’s cannon numbers.

Third update of 3,000 words, happy National Day to everyone!