Empire Rising: Spain

Chapter 147: Chapter 130: Military Organizational Reform

Since Prime Minister Prim has already given his stance, it is now time for Carlo to express his position.

Carlo nodded, looking quite in agreement: “Let’s proceed according to the Prime Minister’s plan. Expanding the colonial armed forces is indeed important, but we must not forget the development of Spain itself.

Additionally, when forming the colonial army, we have to consider the thoughts of the indigenous soldiers to a certain extent. We can appropriately increase the salaries and benefits of these indigenous soldiers, distinguishing them from the ordinary indigenous people in the colonies.

In this way, we can ensure that these indigenous soldiers will be more loyal to us, rather than finding ways to collaborate with the other indigenous people.”

Clearly, Spain, like other European countries, does not have enough forces to guard the colonies. Their approach is to form armies composed of indigenous people in the colonies to maintain colonial order.

But there is a problem with this method: the loyalty of these armies composed of indigenous people is not reliable, and some among them may even oppose or resent the colonial nations.

The most critical issue is that these indigenous soldiers are themselves among the persecuted, much like the ordinary persecuted indigenous people.

As long as their treatment is slightly improved, and they are granted more rights than the other indigenous people, naturally, these indigenous soldiers will be differentiated from the ordinary indigenous people.

After all, while the indigenous people certainly hate the colonizers, they also detest those indigenous soldiers who fawn upon the colonizers and raise their blades against their compatriots.

As long as they receive certain privileges and enjoy rights that ordinary indigenous people do not have, ordinary indigenous people will harbor malicious intent towards them.

In fact, this strategy was submitted to Carlo’s office before Prime Minister Prim convened this meeting.

The reason Prime Minister Prim deliberately left some proposals to Carlo could simply be to ensure that Carlo, as the King of Spain, had some presence in such a Cabinet meeting.

Allowing Carlo to express some opinions appropriately is beneficial for both Carlo and Prim.

Of course, Carlo knows Prime Minister Prim’s intentions. In other words, this might be a compromise by Prime Minister Prim to make the Royal Family proactively participate in building technical schools.

Although it seems just a small suggestion, if the subsequent expansion of the colonial army ensures the stability of the Spanish colonies, Carlo would gain some credit.

Soldiers gain credit and will be promoted, officials gain achievements and will advance in rank. The King would also benefit from gaining credit, as subordinates will have more faith in the King, and the public will have a better opinion of the King.

Prime Minister Prim’s proposal is to expand the Colonial Defense Corps to 20 units, meaning the troops stationed in the colonies would be expanded to 46,000.

Considering that most of the more than 10,000 additional troops are indigenous soldiers, it will not significantly impact Spain’s finances.

After all, the salaries and specific welfare of these indigenous soldiers are much lower, and colonies like Cuba and the Philippines can fully afford the increased expenditure for indigenous soldiers.

The weapons and equipment needed for these soldiers are also easy to resolve. The Spanish mainland army is about to upgrade to the latest Vitali M1872 Rifles, and there are still plenty of phased-out muzzle-loaded rifles, choosing some to equip the colonial army is more than sufficient.

Although these muzzle-loaded rifles are already obsolete, it depends on whom they are compared against. The colonial army, aside from fighting against the local indigenous, primarily faces some internal opposition forces within the colonies, and these groups can hardly obtain large quantities of advanced weapons and equipment; muzzle-loaded rifles are enough to deal with them.

This approach not only solves the issue of a large batch of phased-out muzzle-loaded rifles and ammunition stock, but also minimizes military expenses and mitigates the impact of army expansion in the colonies on the Spanish Government.

With Prime Minister Prim’s final decision and Carlo’s approval, a consensus was quickly reached regarding the expansion of the colonial army.

The Secretary of State for the Colonies and Minister of Finance were quite satisfied, given the outcome was within their acceptable range.

Indeed, the Spanish colonial army was expanded, which is conducive to the work of the Secretary of State for the Colonies. Meanwhile, the expansion of the army did not affect the finances of the Spanish Government, resulting in no additional burden on the Minister of Finance and the financial department.

Having discussed the expansion of the colonial army, Carlo also inquired about the reform progress of the Spanish mainland army.

Before the reform, the Spanish mainland army had a scale of 70,000. However, more than 50,000 of these troops were government military from Queen Isabel’s era, whose quality was varied. The purpose of this reform was to conduct an extensive selection among Spanish mainland army officers and soldiers, leaving only the excellent ones who meet both physical and ideological standards, followed by expanding the Spanish mainland army.

According to the army reform plan submitted by Prime Minister Prim, the 70,000-scale mainland army would eventually be reduced to around 50,000 to ensure the remaining officers and soldiers are elite.

Then, the mainland army will be expanded, by selecting some civilians with good physical fitness and love for the country and Royal Family to join, thus raising the mainland army’s number back to over 100,000.

If adding the army scale after this colonial army expansion, Spain will have approximately 150,000 troops after completing military reform.

Although this army scale does not match the great powers like UK, France, Germany, and Austria, it is very close to Italy and would be among the strong military powers in Europe.

This era’s warfare is not as frenzied as in the WWI era, nor is it as large-scale as world wars.

Events like the Austro-Prussian War and Franco-Prussian War a few years back, which attracted the attention of most of Europe, mobilized a total of just over 1,000,000 soldiers combined from both sides.

If it was in 40-50 years during WWI, the total number of soldiers mobilized in a single campaign might exceed a million, or even reach levels of two to three million.

Throughout the war, the total mobilized soldier count went beyond ten million, which was unimaginable for great powers in this era.

Currently, the countries mobilizing the most soldiers are Germany, France, and Russia. Due to Russia’s large population, mobilizing over a million troops is not difficult.

However, due to influences from industrial production capabilities and soldier combat abilities, Russian troop combat power is not comparable to that of Germany and France.

Germany and France also have relatively large populations, and with a more advanced soldier mobilization system, they can barely arm over a million troops.

Still, unless facing a war crucial to national destiny, all countries avoid such craziness. Mobilizing over a million troops would have profound impacts on industrial and economic production, regardless of the final results.

If mass casualties occur in the war, it would affect not only the industrial and economic production at the time but also a nation’s future development.

After deciding on military reform, the Spanish Government never hesitated.

Alongside implementing agricultural rent reduction and minimum income legislation, Spanish army’s military reform is being vigorously conducted.

As of now, the 70,000-strong Spanish mainland army has officially been reduced to 50,000. Most of the 20,000 troops that were cut have been well absorbed, as they will go to Seville Industrial Base, while some will wait for operations from Barcelona Industrial Base.

Ultimately, these individuals will receive relatively good jobs, and their living conditions will not be much worse than before in the army.

Having learned that the reduction of the Spanish army was complete, after discussions with Prime Minister Prim and Duke Serrano, Carlo decided to launch an expansion of the Spanish mainland army, increasing its number to over 100,000.

Still, before expanding the Spanish army, it is necessary to modify the current organizational structure of the Spanish army.

Spain currently has six army structures: line infantry regiment, light infantry battalion, cavalry regiment, engineering regiment, Colonial Defense Corps, and Guard Corps.

During the mainland army’s reform, the Colonial Defense Corps and Guard Corps were excluded from the process.

This means only the line infantry regiment, light infantry battalion, cavalry regiment, and engineering regiment would undergo reform.

Both Prime Minister Prim and Serrano, being military professionals, naturally have some thoughts about army reforms.

Due to the experiences from the Austro-Prussian and Franco-Prussian wars, line infantry is destined to leave the historical stage. Spain’s line infantry regiment can merge with the light infantry battalion, reforming into Spain’s infantry regiment.

There’s nothing much to say about cavalry; it still plays a significant role. The cavalry regiment and engineering regiment basically do not need significant reorganization, only strengthening firepower and structure.

Regarding the Spanish army’s reorganization, Minister of Defense Serrano gave his plan.

The new Spanish infantry regiment will have 4 infantry battalions, 1 grenadier battalion, and an artillery battalion.

Grenadiers are relatively ancient soldiers, whose name suggests their function. With the development of weaponry, grenadiers’ primary purpose is no longer to throw grenades, but the structure continues to be retained.

Currently, Spanish grenadiers are essentially elite infantry. Though called a grenadier battalion, it is actually just a smaller, more elite infantry battalion.

Previously, line infantry regiments had only one artillery company as a heavy firepower reserve, while under the Serrano Palace plan, infantry regiments will have an entire artillery battalion providing fire support.

Originally line infantry regiments’ artillery company had only four guns, while new infantry regiments’ artillery battalions have four artillery companies, each equipped with six guns.

This means that a single infantry regiment will have 24 pieces of artillery, a significant increase compared to the previous number of artillery in line infantry regiments.