Compared with the senior legionnaires such as Mang Kao Biao, the middle and lower-level officers did not hesitate to support the decision of the emperor and the chief of general staff.
The establishment of staff headquarters at the corps, division, brigade, and regiment levels will inevitably be accompanied by a substantial transfer and expansion of military positions. This is a once-in-a-lifetime promotion opportunity.
Not to mention that each staff headquarters has a vertical structure. They have every chance to be selected to go to the General Staff Headquarters for further studies, and then be transferred to the local garrison to hold key positions.
This caused a separation between superiors and middle- and lower-level officers. Without the support of middle- and lower-level officers, the upper-level generals could only be forced to agree with Jérôme Bonaparte's opinions.
Of course, the group that is most opposed to the establishment of a vertical staff structure is not senior military officers, but the so-called staff officers.
Why they are called "so-called" staff officers is because these officers who passed the examination and entered the staff college have never truly fulfilled their obligations as staff officers for a day.
The Paris General Staff College, like Saint-Cyr, Paris Supérieure des Engineering and other senior military schools, requires rigorous examination competition to enter.
Every officer who enters the General Staff College can probably be called an excellent question writer. However, after entering the Paris General Staff College, these excellent question writers immediately become unprogressive. They do nothing but fight and drink all day long.
There is nothing else.
I didn't know how to look at any military maps or troop formation information. The entire Staff College was like a pool of stagnant water.
When someone asks them why they don't study hard, the students at the Staff College will only answer: "Study! What a waste of time! Only the beggars in the army study. The students at our Staff College came in just to get out."
Enjoy it! Only fools study!"
That's right, officers who graduated from the Staff College have been linked to tenure from the moment they walked out of school. All they need to do is endure. In the Staff College, which values seniority, as long as you can endure for a certain number of years, then you will be
Able to be promoted.
Most of the proud students of the General Staff College will be assigned to important positions in Paris after graduation, and most of the substantive positions are also handed over to civilian bureaucrats. Officers who are slightly less lucky can also seek
Spend time locally and overseas.
Many enterprising legionnaires jokingly called these groups "convalescent patients," and they were rotated out every two or three years.
When Marshal Regno served as Minister of War, a large number of members were dismissed. Many members were sent to local terms. The vacant positions were inherited by some members of the expeditionary force and a large number of hard-working civilian bureaucrats.
When Saint-Arnaud served as Minister of War, this purge became even more serious. Many candidates for foreign labor were forcibly ordered to retire by Saint-Arnaud.
The Ministry of War was barely able to survive from that time on. Some personnel born in the General Staff College secretly complained that Saint-Arnaud was unkind, but they still did not dare to take any action.
Until now, the establishment of the General Staff Headquarters and the Army Staff Headquarters has caused a stir among the officers of the General Staff College who usually just hang out and wait for death.
Chief of Staff Saint-Arnault and Emperor Jérôme Bonaparte are not reforming! This is simply rooting for their staff academy!
How can those middle and low-level officers do such delicate work? When it comes to surveying and mapping, only officers from their staff academy are experts!
The weakened General Staff Academy obviously could not bear the loss of their own land to the Chief of General Staff and the Emperor. They joined together and formed a joint petition under the leadership of several highly respected "old generals", hoping to stop the establishment of a fourth-level military academy.
Recommendations from the General Staff.
The petition, signed by the names of members of the College of Staff, would be brought to the Tuileries Palace by several veteran generals who had served under the Emperor and handed over to Jérôme Bonaparte.
According to these people's assumptions, the emperor would definitely consider the situation properly after seeing these petitions, and even if the situation was unfavorable, he would give them relatively generous conditions.
For those of them who are problem solvers, why should they work hard for something that they can just settle down for?
Time has worn away their wisdom, and it has also worn away their courage.
Several old generals came to the Tuileries Palace with petitions to join the Central Committee. In Mokar (Walewski was still running around regarding Jérôme Bonaparte's marriage, De Morny focused on connecting with cabinet ministers).
Under the leadership of (Vilnia is still in a state of crazy involution), these respected old generals were put into a guest room.
Directly opposite the guest room is a portrait of Napoleon, and next to it is a portrait of Jerome Bonaparte.
The two wore the same Lev gown, with flowing blond hair facing the wind. The only difference was the background behind them.
After sitting down in the guest room and waiting for a long time, they finally arrived at Jerome Bonaparte.
At this time, Jérôme Bonaparte was fully dressed in the casual clothes of the Napoleonic Emperor, with a smile on his face that seemed to have not changed in ten thousand years. He looked at the white-haired and wrinkled people in front of him.
Old general.
These old generals who had fought under Napoleon quickly stood up and saluted Jerome Bonaparte.
Jérôme Bonaparte also solemnly returned the gift to these generals who had fought bloody battles in the First Empire, and still said kindly, "I've kept you waiting for so long!"
After the basic etiquette was over, Jérôme Bonaparte and the old general took their seats one after another.
These veteran generals who are well versed in human affairs did not immediately show their cards to Jerome Bonaparte. Instead, they kept explaining the story of how Emperor Napoleon led them to conquer the north and south, and showed themselves to Jerome Bonaparte.
of credit?
"The First World War in Russia was so tragic... When we just graduated, all the members of a class followed His Majesty the Emperor to Russia. In the end, only a few of me and another classmate were left, and all the others returned safely.
Buried in the Russian ice and snow."
"That's right! During the Battle of Leipzig, the regiment I was in took the lead... In the end, less than one company of the entire regiment was left alive, and even I was bitten hard by a moron!"
…
Several old generals repeatedly described to Jerome Bonaparte how tragic the war was... and how they crawled out of the dead...
Jérôme Bonaparte listened quietly to the memories of the old generals, nodding in affirmation from time to time.
Seeing Jérôme Bonaparte affirm their contribution to the empire, the old generals began to become more courageous. They switched from personal achievements to praise of the former emperor, and praised Jérôme Bonaparte and Napoleon.
The emperor can also lead the whole of France to revival.
Then it extended from praising the emperor himself to praising the military system established by the emperor. In their mouths, Jérôme Bonaparte heard the flavor of "two whatevers".
Compared to that one, each of these old guys in front of them had evil intentions, and they tried to wrap their own interests in loyalty to Emperor Napoleon.
Using the identity of Emperor Jérôme Bonaparte's nephew to carry out moral kidnapping, Jérôme Bonaparte had to submit.
To put it simply, the old general seemed to hold high the banner of "the immutability of ancestral laws" to make Jérôme Bonaparte stop reforms to safeguard the power of vested interests like them.
"Your Majesty! The staff system cannot be touched!" The veteran general with acting skills said to Jérôme Bonaparte in tears: "The system that the emperor painstakingly established was to keep France strong! If there is any mistake, France will
The military system is at risk of collapse! I know that you were bewitched by Saint Arnaud for the future of the French army, and we hope that you can stop this reform."
"That's right! Your Majesty, you can't change it!" Another general also supported: "A rash change is likely to cause a backlash from the army, which is not a good thing for the entire empire!"
Seeing these sanctimonious old generals in front of him, who spoke of themselves as emperors, Jérôme Bonaparte had a sneer on his lips.
No matter when or where you are! There will always be a group of people who are flying the Bonaparte flag and opposing Bonaparte.
Jerome Bonaparte didn't understand that these guys in front of him verbally described the emperor's goodness, but in fact they were just protecting their own core interests.
"Generals, I know your loyalty to the empire!" Jérôme Bonaparte, who was unwilling to break up, smiled and said to the old general: "If there is nothing else, I will go and deal with the work first!"
"You can't leave!" an old general stood up and grabbed Jerome Bonaparte's sleeves.
Jerome Bonaparte stopped and looked at the sanctimonious guy in front of him. He still said politely: "General, do you have anything else to do?"
"Your Majesty, we beg you not to make any more reforms! Let everything remain as it is? For the sake of our fighting for the Empire!" the general begged, letting go of Jérôme Bonaparte's sleeves.
Jerome Bonaparte put away his smile and responded coldly with a sullen face: "General, your achievements should not be used as a basis for blackmail! I don't want to hear it a second time!"
"Your Majesty! This is a petition from the army! It has been signed by nearly 200 officers." Seeing this, another general hurriedly handed the prepared petition to Jerome Bonaparte.
Jérôme Bonaparte took the petition and looked at the dense French text on it, then raised his head and said disdainfully: "Are you threatening me?"
"Your Majesty, please stop reforming!" several old generals said in unison.
"I can tell you clearly that if you want to use this method to force me to give in, it is simply impossible!"
