An Ning did not know that a strange small group consisting of black writers (pseudo), architects and lawyers had formed outside his headquarters.
He is having a headache over the selection of military commander.
"Seven armies?" An Ning was shocked. According to the custom of later generations, he thought that three armies with 200,000 soldiers would be enough, but Berthier told him to form seven armies.
After all, an army in this era only had a small number of people, only twenty to thirty thousand people.
If this were the standard of later generations, seven armies would be seven columns, and with seven columns we could conquer the world.
Berthier: "Fifteen percent of division commanders and brigade commanders are the original old aristocrats. Regardless of their loyalty to the Republic, their military skills are still good. The rest are employees, intellectuals and other influential people recruited from all walks of life.
Civilians with a certain reputation are very loyal to the Republic, but have basically no military knowledge.
"We urgently issued some pamphlets to carry out training, but... we cannot expect their performance on the battlefield."
Tranquility supports the forehead.
He looked at Napoleon's biography and remembered the marshals. Ordinary officers don't remember much. Otherwise, he could use the memory of his previous life and name all the officers who joined the army in a hurry and performed well in the Napoleonic era.
Anyway, there are so many civilians now becoming brigade commanders and division commanders, so it won't be a big problem if he adds a few more.
It's a pity that he didn't remember that much.
An Ning: "Under such circumstances, it is obviously unrealistic for us to engage in a formal frontal decisive battle with the enemy. The enemy is a regular army after all."
Berthier nodded: "Yes, this is completely different from our previous situation. Before us, although the troops were all ordinary patriots and the officers were various civilians, they had undergone rigorous training, so they behaved like regular troops.
Just as disciplined and orderly.
"Then the revolution gave them high morale, and it was normal for such troops to be more capable than the Austrian army.
"But now we have a bunch of rabble on our hands."
An Ning: "The only way to deal with it is to build a stronghold and fight a stupid battle. The good news is that we have several rivers that can serve as defensive barriers.
"We deploy ladder defenses by the river, trade space for time, and use our troops to pile up the enemy to death. Let the troops set off now."
Berthier: "That's reasonable. But before the troops set off, we have to decide on the military commander. The selection of military commanders must be done with great care. I tend to choose old officers with certain military experience to serve. There are still a few who support the Republic.
The general’s.”
An Ning curled her lips and wondered if after defeating the enemy, she would have to rack her brains to remove these old soldiers from their military power, right?
The old French army system required four generations of hereditary nobles to become senior officers.
Therefore, the generals of the old French army were basically big nobles. Now that the Republic is beheading old nobles like an assembly line, we really can't count on their loyalty.
After a brief thought, An Ning rejected the idea: "No, it's just a junior officer. After all, the waves a lieutenant colonel can make are limited. People who command an army must be loyal and reliable. Just choose people who are famous in society.
Become a military commander."
"Everything is up to you." Berthier immediately agreed respectfully, but immediately changed the subject, "But these teachers, painters and businessmen, we really can't expect them to have such outstanding conductors. Is it... just like before?
Then, how about you designate some people to serve as military commanders? Anyway, we are looking for inexperienced people, so why not..."
Berthier had always had some objections to An Ning's various front-line promotions. At this time, he took the initiative to ask An Ning to recommend some famous celebrities to serve as army commanders. It can be seen that the situation was already embarrassing to the point where the chief of staff had to settle for the second best.
An Ning was scratching his head and faced a dilemma. He also needed to be famous and able to convince the public, and he also needed to have military talent and be able to fight well...
The people promoted by An Ning in the past have performed extremely well, so there have always been rumors in the army that "General Frost has received divine inspiration".
Such rumors have side effects. If something goes wrong with the people recommended by An Ning, there will be immediate backlash.
After thinking about it, An Ning shook his head: "No, I don't know such a person. It's better for you and Lazar to choose a famous person to take over."
Don't let me take the blame if something goes wrong.
An Ning has now acquired some famous generals, and is waiting to raise their military ranks in the next war.
At that time, it happens that these celebrities are not performing well in the war, and you can take the opportunity to replace them.
Berthier didn't know An Ning's plan. He frowned and did not hide his worries at all: "Crazy, we actually want to defeat the coalition of two established powers with an army that is almost composed of laymen from top to bottom.
"
An Ning patted his chief of staff on the shoulder: "Believe in the great people of this great country. We are not facing the enemy alone. The whole of France is with us."
Berthier corrected: "Two-thirds of France, at least one-third of the region has rebelled."
An Ning thought to herself, what's this? I've encountered situations much worse than this - in "European Universal Universal Universalis 4".
Rebels guarding the country is no joke.
Sometimes when the rebels are being attacked by the enemy, An Ning will send his troops to roam around on the enemy's land, wait until the enemy has wiped out all the rebels on his own land, and then come back to attack the severely weakened enemy.
An Ning even smiled when thinking of her previous gaming experience.
When Berthier saw his smile, he had an expression that said, "The general is really unfathomable."
Just then, someone came in and reported: "Urgent letter from Nice."
An Ning: "Give it to me!"
As he spoke, he came to the courier in three steps, grabbed the envelope that the courier had just taken out, and opened it.
The letter was written by Massena. He led 15,000 French troops to attack on the initiative, defeated more than 30,000 Sardinian troops on the plain in front of Mondo, and had already reached the gates of Mondo.
An Ning was overjoyed, and while handing the letter to Berthier, he said: "We must vigorously publicize Massena's victory. Now we are in urgent need of good news to boost morale!
"We must tell our soldiers that the army of the Republic is a new type of army, an army armed with the ideas of the Great Revolution. It is by no means comparable to the armies of these old kingdoms!"
Berthier: "It should be vigorously publicized. By the way, don't we inform the Parliament?"
"The Parliament has special envoys in Italy. They will contact... Well, let's talk to the Parliament. After all, theoretically, the Parliament is the highest authority in France. We are just military generals appointed by the Parliament."
As soon as An Ning finished speaking, a new messenger arrived.
This time it was a messenger from the parliament: "Report, the parliament has just passed the amendment to the new military ranks. In order to ensure the smooth flow of the chain of command, the ranks of corps general and corps general have been added to the original highest rank of division general!
"
An Ning: "What the hell, do they have to change the original military ranks of the old kingdom? There is no problem if this formal thing is not changed, right?"
Berthier asked the messenger: "Who proposed to review this amendment? We just ordered yesterday to ignore the new military ranks in the meeting, and we will amend it today. The response was very fast."
Messenger: "It's Bishop Talleyrand."
An Ning frowned: "Talleyrand?"
Damn it, is this chameleon treating me like a wall?