After numerous discussions and studies, Wilhelm discovered that the economic basis of the Kingdom of Prussia was a backward serfdom economy.
The aristocracy fixed the peasants to the estates, and the peasants were unattached to the serfs.
Low agricultural productivity.
Nevertheless, capitalist industry and commerce have broken through all obstacles and entered the initial stage of development – cottage industries and handicrafts dominated by merchants.
And those bourgeoisie are increasingly dissatisfied with the status quo.
Politically, the king has supreme power.
"I am a king, so I should do what I should do" was the motto of Friedrich Wilhelm I, and it was also revered by successive Prussian monarchs.
State office was almost exclusively held by the aristocracy.
The Kingdom of Prussia, which was founded by force, "was not a country with an army, but an army with a state" In its original history, the Prussian army, which had once dominated the country, was outdated by the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century.
First of all, the Prussian army is not a national army made up of civilians, but a mercenary army.
The replenishment of soldiers was mainly bought The royal recruiters had put the notorious ruffians of Prussia and other German states into the army and imposed a brutal system of punishment in order to maintain order in the army.
Second, officers are promoted according to their origins and length of service, not according to their military achievements.
The sons of the aristocracy monopolized almost all the positions of officers in the Prussian army, and the noble officers brought Juncker's arrogance and class prejudice into the army, causing serious antagonism between officers and soldiers.
The rotten system of officer promotions blocked the path of promotion for the wise and brave civilian soldiers with outstanding achievements, and the children of the nobility were able to rise to the top even if they were cowardly and incompetent.
This has extinguished the fighting enthusiasm and dedication of the soldiers, led to the aging and decay of the officer corps, and fostered a conservative atmosphere.
Thirdly, the system of company managers was relatively strict in the time of Friedrich Wilhelm I, and by the time of Friedrich II it had adopted an extremely harmful form: the king paid the company once a year, and the monthly salary per person was 3 thaler 5 grosin.
The training period starts at 3 months and is reduced to 2 months.
For the remaining 10 months, the company commander put 60 of the company's 70 local soldiers on leave, keeping only the usual 60 foreign soldiers in full.
Because the soldiers on vacation did not receive their salaries, the money went into the pockets of the company commanders.
As a result of the company manager system, empty salaries are prevalent in the army, and there is a serious shortage of troops.
In addition, the linear tactics pursued by the Prussian army have become outdated.
The Prussian army was a heavy, well-trained war machine trained with batons, and the only form of combat these soldiers could apply was linear tactics.
"This tactic reached its highest perfection in the time of Friedrich II", "all the infantry were lined up in three lines, in a long, narrow and hollow quadrilateral, moving in battle formation as a whole, marching at a speed of 7 per minute and fighting on flat terrain."
Rely on superior firepower and a single assault to win.
However, everything is lost, and everything flows.
The renewal of weapons and equipment and the change in the establishment of the army have made the line tactics outdated.
However, the elite clique in the Prussian army remained blindly optimistic and did not think about reform.
In short, economic backwardness, political reaction, and the army's ** made Prussia, which seemed to be a powerful country in its original history, crushed by Napoleon at the touch of a button.
After much deliberation, William concluded: It is necessary to arouse the feelings of the Lord of the people, and it is necessary to give them the opportunity to know themselves and to control themselves......
Our noble sphere of activity is nothing more than to break down old forms, to break free from the shackles of prejudices, to direct, promote and unhindered the work of revival.
That is to say, to use bourgeois equality and fraternity as an ideological weapon to arouse the patriotism and dedication of the masses to break through the feudal shackles, to smash the old system, and to revitalize Prussia.
A series of reforms were carried out under William's leadership.
First of all, it is necessary to rectify and transform the contingent of officers and improve the quality of the contingent of officers.
Army building involves manpower, weaponry, organizational structure, and military academics.
Among them, people are the main link, and the building of the officer corps is the core of the main link.
Officers should be responsible for organically integrating soldiers with weapons and equipment, and at the same time exercising flexible and mobile command.
Without excellent officers who are well-trained and flexible in command, it will be difficult for brave soldiers, excellent equipment, and clever strategies and tactics to give full play to their role.
The decrepit officers only know how to pamper and pamper the poor, and this aggravates the tendency of the Prussian army to stick to the old ways.
Prussia's military reform began with the reorganization and transformation of the officer corps.
Punishing and eliminating officers who performed poorly in wartime is one of the important contents of reforming the officer corps.
In response to this, William's preliminary Regulations on the Selection of Infantry, Cavalry and Artillery Officers for Senior Officer Posts stipulate: Only educated and knowledgeable people in peacetime, and in wartime, only those who show extraordinary bravery and take the initiative to foresee people can be promoted to officers.
At the same time, William abolished the requirement to promote senior officers based on the length of service, and announced that the promotion of officers must pass an examination, both military and cultural.
The company manager system was also abolished.
Education and training in the armed forces is an important way to improve the quality of the officer corps.
William and Henry and Prince Ferdinand paid special attention to this.
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Prince Ferdinand presided over the revision of the teaching content of the old military academy and suggested to Wilhelm that three new military schools be built in Berlin, Breslau and Königsberg.
Alternate officers are no longer trained as corporal but as privates to enhance their training.
Secondly, Wilhelm ordered the abolition of the barbaric punishment that prevailed in the Prussian army.
The Prussian army was made up of mercenaries.
Mercenaries have no enthusiasm for service and poor military discipline.
Barbaric punishment prevailed in the army.
A criminal soldier is punished with 5 lashes depending on the severity of the crime.
According to Prussian military law, the flogging was carried out.
Before the execution, the regimental law enforcement captain issued each soldier a long hazel or birch branch soaked in salt water.
Let the criminals be handcuffed and shackled ** upper body through the horrible alleyways lined up.
Tortured soldiers are often either dead or maimed.
Soldiers are demoralized.
Escapes are not uncommon.
The citizens and civilians of the country would not serve their country in the army where such punishment was used.
William believed that in order to build a national army from the children of his own country and full of a strong will to liberate the motherland from foreign rule, it was necessary to carry out the principle of equality and fraternity to replace feudal punishment with bourgeois humanism, and to abolish barbaric punishment.
William abolished the caning in the newly drafted Military Punishment Regulations; No more shooting deserters, only ten years in prison; All cases of serious crimes must be handed down by a provisional military tribunal and the death penalty is submitted to the king for approval.
However, the punishment of the private was still carried out by the officers and sergeants.
Third, the military service system has been reformed, and an armed forces system combining the standing army, the reserve army, and the national army has been established.
The central task was the introduction of universal compulsory military service, on the basis of which a system of armed forces adapted to Prussia's national conditions was established.
Universal compulsory military service is the result of modern industrial development, the expansion of the size of the army and the scale of warfare.
The replacement of mercenaries by universal compulsory military service is a historical progress.
However, there are some ministers who see universal compulsory military service as a flood of prey.
The new military service system requires all citizens to serve three years of military service, followed by two years of further service in the reserve; not exempt from military service by paying taxes; Educated youths who are able to pay for equipment are required to serve only one year of active service, subject to the completion of a total period of five years in the National Army.
The Standing Army is made up of soldiers who are still in training, and after three years of active service, they are transferred to the reserve army for two more years.
The standing army is responsible for field tasks and is organized into regimental reserve armies, which are composed of the first type of reserve army and the second type of reserve army.
The reserve army of the first category performs field missions jointly with the standing army.
The second type of reserve army carries out tasks in wartime so that the standing army and the first type of reserve army are fully engaged in field operations.
The Nationalist Army protects lines of communication in the event of an enemy invasion.
Carry out the practice of clearing the wilderness with strong walls and cooperating with the standing army in combat.
The three-in-one armed forces system implements the principle of integrating troops with the people and combining peacetime with wartime, and facilitates the mutual coordination of the three, which is conducive to the standing army and the first type of reserve army to eliminate worries about the future and carry out mobile operations, and also enhances military potential.
This was very beneficial for Prussia, a small country with a small number of people, to maintain its strong military strength and potential.
Fourth, it is necessary to reorganize administrative organs and strengthen unified command and management of the armed forces.
The multiplicity of politics and the disordered chain of command were another reason for William's desire for reform.
Without an efficient and unified administrative organ, it will be difficult to implement the measures for military reform.
William initially planned to create a military department.
There was a Military Bureau and a Military Economic Bureau, which coordinated the military work of the whole of Prussia.
Fifth, it is necessary to break with traditional concepts and develop military theories.
The development of production technology, the updating of weapons and equipment, and the changes in the military establishment system will inevitably set new demands on strategy and tactics and promote the development of military theory.
The principles of military scholarship in the time of Friedrich the Great are outdated, and when the world is different, things are different, and things are ready to change.
Resting on one's laurels can affect a country's future.
William held that military reform must draw on the advanced experience of foreign armies on the basis of giving full consideration to national and military conditions.
Militarily, it is often the case that the advanced ones win and the laggards lose.
The urgency of military reform comes from the backwardness of the matter.
Prussian military reform was carried out in the event of a mistaken defeat of the army.
Historically, the reformers in Prussia had always taken Napoleon as their teacher, and tried to implement the principles of fraternity and the new military service system, establishment, strategy and tactics into the measures of military reform.
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The introduction of universal compulsory military service, the abolition of aristocratic privileges and barbaric punishment, and the introduction of new strategies and tactics were all the results of learning from France.
However, if the study of foreign armies is not integrated with the national and military conditions, it will be difficult to implement the reform measures and achieve results.
While learning from France, the military reformers implemented a system of armed forces that combined the standing army, the reserve army, and the national army, and this was the result of taking into account the national and military conditions.
In addition, the reformers also paid attention to arousing patriotism among the people and improving the combat effectiveness of the army, depending on the situation at that time".
Generally speaking, the first stage of reform is mainly based on "mastering", and the second stage of reform is mainly based on the creation of a good policy of "controlling razing" on the basis of combining national and military conditions.
Taking the victor as a teacher, rising up for reform, and then coming from behind, so as to turn defeat into victory, there are countless ancient and modern Chinese and foreign countries.
The Prussian military reform is a case in point.
In order to turn defeat into victory, it is very necessary to grasp well the links of learning from foreign countries, integrating them with national conditions, and paying attention to improvement.
William stressed that military reform must be aimed at improving the overall combat effectiveness of the army.
According to their respective conditions, properly resolving the relationship between the priorities and urgency of each link in the military system is an important way to enhance the overall combat effectiveness.
The military system involves four major subsystems: people, weapons, establishment, and military academics.
Where people and weapons are hardware systems.
Military scholarship is a software system.
The preparation guarantees the best combination of men and weapons in accordance with the principles of military scholarship.
However, man is both a material and a factor in war.
Therefore, any military reform must first pay attention to mobilizing the morale of the people and raising the morale of the officers and men.
The Prussian military reform revolved around the four subsystems mentioned above, but with some emphasis.
William held that it was necessary to always focus on improving the military quality and quality of officers and men throughout the reform process.
One chapter is a copy, hehe, I just went home tonight and was excited, I drank a little more, and there is nothing in my brain, so I hope you Haihan.
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