Chapter 1905： The German Armys Future Five (1/2)
”The Bavarian side can guarantee an army size of 200,000 in peacetime. If you feel too much, you can make appropriate adjustments.” Ruprecht said.
The words of the prince are quite meaningful. You know, before the war, the actual military strength of Bavaria exceeded 200,000, but now, the territory of Bavaria has expanded several times, but still maintains the size of the 200,000 army? Why is this?
The rhetoric in this is quite particular. First of all, Bavaria is one of the Big Three. If Bavaria speaks a force, then under the current circumstances, it is equivalent to setting the standard of the German Kaiser and the Parliament. Want more? Not too much! Do you want less? Are you embarrassed?
So, if the current Bavarian army is calculated by the size of 200,000, assuming that the Kaiser and the parliament each have 200,000 troops, then if the two kingdoms of Saxony and Württemberg are added, the total army is about 730,000. . The total number of armies under the control of the Imperial War Department is about 570,000. Then it depends on whether the other two sides are willing to allow the Imperial War Department to control about 40% of the troops!
If you accept it, then it’s settled like this, and if you don’t accept it, then the prince can only consider increasing the total number of troops, yes, you read that right, it is to increase the total number of troops! Because the prince believes that the control of 570,000 troops by the Imperial War Department is the bottom line for undertaking a combat mission in a strategic direction, and there can be no less!
Just imagine, if each state maintains an army of 250,000 (in fact, there is no difficulty). Then, with 1.3 million posts, the Imperial War Department has only 420,000 troops. What is the concept of 420,000? It is just the strength of a larger group army now. The imperial army is actually used as the imperial mobile force, which can be quickly mobilized in the event of emergencies and deployed in a certain strategic direction. Regardless of whether it is facing France or the weakened red giant, the 420,000 maneuvering force is somewhat stretched. Fortunately, the Western Front, if it is the Eastern Front, looking at the long front, the prince is really not optimistic. Therefore, from a military point of view, Ruprecht must ensure the strength of the German Mobile Corps!
As for whether the 200,000 troops of each country is enough? If it is only to maintain domestic law and order, that is enough. The domestic police and gendarmerie are basically enough. New areas may require troops, but they certainly don’t need much heavy equipment.
And don’t forget that in addition to the Bavarian Army, Ruprecht still has the command of the Bohemian Army. Up to the present position, the Austrian Emperor has not recovered the command authorization of the Bohemian Army. It is estimated that he will not be in the future. It was accepted, and the factions in Germany ignored this for various reasons. Therefore, in the event of an emergency, the prince had another army to mobilize, so he was not worried about the lack of Bavarian troops.
”200,000 troops? This is acceptable.” Albert first expressed his support for this standard. Because as a politician, he is inherently sensitive to the size of the army. He is unwilling to let the power and scale of the army be too large, especially when he has almost no excellent military system.
”Is 200,000 too small? Our land area has increased too much, and there are many unstable factors in the new areas. This number is even less than 40% of the previous Prussian army.” Grand Duke Baden said.
”So how many troops do you think you should keep?” Ruprecht asked.
”We must keep at least 400,000 troops.” Grand Duke Baden thought for a while and said, this is not only a military need, but also a political need. The basic board of the Kaiser is the Junker nobles, especially the military nobles. If the army is abolished too much If so, how will the noble officers who have participated in the war and been loyal to the German emperor make arrangements? All stuffed into the Imperial Army? how is this possible? Have you asked Ruprecht about the thoughts of the preparatory war minister and the Social Democratic Party? Since the imperial army cannot arrange it, then we can only find a way to arrange...
”400,000 troops are too much. Moreover, the imperial army can also be responsible for security issues in some areas. The state army can only be used as an auxiliary force.” Albert said.
”However, there are too few 200,000 troops. Various states and overseas colonies need to be taken care of. Can you imagine the dilemma that an empire does not even have a regiment on a land of hundreds of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of ordinary kilometers?” Xiao Maoqi said: ” In addition, the army belonging to the Ministry of War is the long sword of the empire. Their primary combat goal is a powerful and regular enemy army, not a variety of internal disturbances. I strongly oppose using the imperial army to perform some tasks that do not match their status!”
”We can actually reduce the Imperial Army to increase the number of state troops.” Barthes offered a compromise opinion.