"… Head of the Communications Department, Alfred Bo Alexander, Major General of the Kingdom.
Head of Military Law, Androvich Kjevechev, major-general of the kingdom.
Head of Mapping, Ridgerm Ro Oerot, major-general of the kingdom.
Head of Military Intelligence, Fodelus Wei.
Head of Clyde, major-general of the kingdom.
Head of Training, Pedlek Shu Babisek, major-general of the kingdom.
Head of Equipment, Mantevert Ma Benakro, major-general of the kingdom.
Head of Logistics, Siegfried Mo Vincent, major-general of the kingdom.
Deputy Head of Bancroton Chi Alduro, major-general of the kingdom.
Head of Garrison, Yorkot Shaw Hildis, major-general of the kingdom.
Head of Finance, Senanov Vi Bakham, major-general of the kingdom.
Head of Personnel, Boligia Tai Martok, major-general of the kingdom.
Head of Military Affairs, Kondok Se Pikrutu, major-general of the kingdom.
Head of General Staff, Netas Ba Lavagos, lieutenant-general of the kingdom.
High Staff Officer, Drivic Ann Weyblon, major-general of the kingdom.
Seboril Wey.
Criston, major-general of the kingdom.
Cybilos Ta Boriot, major-general of the kingdom.
Head of Medical Center, Rumpede A Pittok, major-general of the kingdom, mid-ranked herbalist. "
Year 602 of the Holy Light Calendar, 21st of August, Anfiston Region, Lanu City.
It was the first meeting of the high-ranking officers of the region after the handover between Claude and Bolonik.
During the meeting, Claude made a drastic change in the structure of the region. He reorganized and reorganized the various departments into twelve departments and a medical center. He also appointed the people in charge of each department.
In this restructuring, the department that was affected the most was the former Military Logistics Department. It was split into the Equipment Department, the Garrison Department, the Finance Department, and the Personnel Department.
Next was the military intelligence department, which was split into a mapping department.
The administrative department was also reorganized into the training department and the military department.
While there were a few more departments, they were unified and their responsibilities were clearly defined.
At the same time, he also streamlined some redundant administrative and clerical staff, reducing the bureaucratic habit of procrastinating in the past.
"Lieutenant General Myjack will be the chief steward of HQ. He'll be in charge of the day-to-day affairs.
Next, we will carry out an experimental organizational reform of the two corps under the military region and re-explore a military organizational structure that is in line with the current situation.
In addition, the Military Intelligence Department should increase their efforts in gathering intelligence from the eight colonies on the West Coast and pay attention to the implementation of the Wildfire Plan … "
For Claude, most of the new generals in charge of the new departments were from Thundercrash.
The eight Major Generals and three Lieutenant Generals were all from the Monolith Legion and Marshal Bolonik's subordinates.
It wasn't that Claude was eliminating dissenters, but rather, it was the result of the difference in the people he used.
Claude was the youngest of the five bigwigs. The officers he promoted in Thundercrash were similarly young and quick-witted. They were good at adapting to new ideas and tactics. The older officers who didn't know how to adapt were all transferred to the garrison forces. That was one of the reasons Thundercrash was so good at attacking.
Bolonik was older than Claude by more than a decade. His Monolith Corps specialized in defense, so the officers he appointed were all experienced and reliable. They were around the same age as him.
A few of them were even older than Marshal Bolonik, all over fifty-five.
Now that they were promoted to the rank of general and baron, they were given a piece of their family land. It could be said that they had reached the peak of the kingdom's military, which was why they decided to retire.
The younger officers were spirited and dared to take risks.
The older officers were steady and confident. Each of them had their own strengths. That was also the reason why the two regions of Monolith had their own style of combat.
But this time, the retirement of the older officers of Monolith helped Claude a lot, freeing up positions for the younger ones.
Otherwise, Claude would have no choice but to recruit all these old men into the military headquarters and hang them up as advisors.
After settling the various departments, Claude focused his attention on the reform of the army.
As the various units of Monolith, be it the two main corps or the garrison forces, were all equipped with the new cannons and rifles, the logistical pressure was immense.
Based on what he learned from the battle with the alliance in Nasri, Claude prepared to make a huge change in the army structure.
Currently, the two main corps of the Dominion and the local garrisons were still using the traditional matchlock rifle formation. Due to the traditional habit of relying on volleys of firepower and large numbers of soldiers, the various units were mainly focused on expanding the number of soldiers they had.
For example, a small team of twelve people had already reached the limit of the number of troops that a sergeant major could command.
Claude had always felt that twelve-man squads were too bloated. With the new firearms, the firepower of the squads had been greatly increased. It would be difficult to ensure agility and quick response on the battlefield.
So, he decided to split the first squad into eight, with the squad leader being the sergeant major and the vice-captain being the sergeant major.
Apart from that, Claude also wanted to change it to a three-three system instead of the current four-four system. Three squads would form a platoon, three platoons would form a brigade, three brigades would form a battalion, three battalions would form a regiment, three regiments would form a division, and three divisions would form an army.
However, this was opposed by most of the high-ranking officers in the staff department. They were worried that such a change would cause the squads to lack sufficient firepower. After much thought, Claude decided to go with the four-four system.
There were eight people in each squad, and four squads made up a platoon. The platoon leader was a second lieutenant, and there was an orderly who could also be used as a messenger. There was also a guard, a communications soldier, and a medical soldier. In total, there were 37 people.
The four platoons formed a large group. The platoon leader was either a lieutenant or a captain. They were equipped with an orderly, two guards, a communications officer, a medic, and an artillery team of six people. They were equipped with a new light infantry field artillery. There were a total of 160 people.
The four platoons would form a battalion. The battalion leader would be a first lieutenant or major, with an orderly, an adjutant, three guards, six staff officers, twelve support personnel, a logistics squad of eight people, a communications squad of eight people, a military squad of eight people, a logistics squad of eight people, a medical squad of eight people, a garrison squad of eight people, and a cannon squad of 30 people equipped with four new light infantry field cannons. There would be a total of 740 people.
The four battalions would form a regiment. The battalion leader would be a first lieutenant or colonel, with an adjutant and an orderly. There would also be 16 staff officers and 32 support personnel.
In addition, there was a communications squadron, a military law squadron, a logistics squadron, a garrison squadron, a logistics squadron, a security squadron, a medical squadron consisting of eight people, a field battalion consisting of 160 people, and an artillery battalion consisting of 145 people equipped with 16 light infantry field cannons. In total, there were three thousand four hundred and eighty-five people. Adding fifteen people for mobility, there was a total of three thousand five hundred people, forming the main force of the field battalion.
The four regiments would form a brigade. The divisional commander would be a colonel or major general, with an adjutant and an orderly.
Starting from the divisional commander, there would be 12 departments like the military department. Each department would have two chiefs, four civilian officers, and 12 support personnel, for a total of 216 people.
The divisional commander would have a security squad, a communications squad, a military squad, a garrison squad, a logistics squad, a logistics squad, two logistics squads, and a medical squad of 35 people.
The divisional commander would have a field battalion of 800 people and a cannon battalion of 680 people equipped with 64 light infantry field cannons.
In total, a divisional commander would have around 17,000 people. Including the non-combat personnel such as coachmen, veterinarians, and cooks, the divisional commander would have around 18,000 people.
Claude knew very well that the two divisional commanders in the region each had around 35,000 people. There were too many people in the divisional commanders, with non-combat personnel taking up a third of the quota. It made the command structure look rather bloated and inflexible. At the same time, it also put a lot of pressure on the logistics department.
During the battle at the capital of Polyvicia, Claude used a full line of soldiers to fight against a full corps of the Alliance. Even with the help of the defensive line and the city walls, he was still at a huge disadvantage in terms of numbers and caused a lot of unnecessary casualties.
He had no choice back then. Not only was he lacking in manpower, but sending a divisional commander to deal with an entire division would be like using a sledgehammer to kill a chicken. It would easily drive the enemy away and prevent them from falling into his trap.
A single regiment only had 5,500 men. The disparity between them and an entire division of 60,000 would be too great. Sending two regiments would also give the enemy an opportunity to take advantage of the situation.
At that time, Claude hoped to have a folk of ten to twenty thousand soldiers so that he could command and defend with ease.
Claude had reduced a divisional commander to around 18,000 men. That was almost half of the divisional commander's strength. Even if there were four divisional commanders and two regiments directly under them, they wouldn't have more than 90,000 men.
Compared to the 150,000 men of Thundercrash's four divisional commanders, the pressure on both military expenditure and logistical support would be greatly reduced. At the same time, it would also solve the problem of assigning new generals to their posts.
Claude couldn't immediately reduce the number of troops after the reorganization. He used Monolith's 3rd Folk and the three regiments directly under Monolith to experiment with the reorganization. After retiring the older soldiers and officers, Claude formed a divisional commander of around 18,000 men and conducted all sorts of drills and training to test out the effects of the new military on combat power and the various responses to the new command structure.
The days passed quickly. Not long after, Claude received a letter from Colonel Borkal and his brother, Bloweyk.
After two months of arduous trekking, they finally opened up a path through the wilderness and mountains inland to the colony of the Morosik Kingdom on the west coast, and met up with the mixed-blood baron, Tazsinger Nora Taganem.
Tazsinger was delighted to receive the support of the region and agreed to form the pamigar National Liberation Front. He was willing to spend all of his fortune to gather the youths to form the front.
The only problem was that the pamigar youths had never received any military training before. They would need at least half a year to complete their training before they could start an uprising.
Perhaps that was too long for the region. Also, tens of thousands of pamigars gathered together for training would easily be discovered by Morosik's colonial troops.
Bloweyk suggested that it would be best to recruit volunteers from the region to help the pamigars fight and establish a government. That way, they would be able to buy time for the youths to train. Only by training while fighting would they be able to achieve the best results.
For Claude, the most difficult part of Operation Wildfire wasn't how to set off a wave of independence among the colonies on the west coast, but how to prevent the eight southern colonies of Freia from targeting the autonomous region.
It was not a problem to send officers and volunteers to instruct the pamigar in military training. The problem was that they could not go into battle with the new rifles and cannons of the Free Dominion.
Ammunition was one thing, but if the new weapons fell into the hands of Morosik's colonial troops, the region wouldn't be able to defend itself.
Everyone knew that the new weapons were manufactured by the region themselves and were never sold to the outside world.
If these weapons were found among the rioting pamigars, it would be easy to expose the fact that the Overseas Dominion was the one who instigated and supported the pamigar rebellion.
Therefore, even though the autonomous military zone was carrying out Operation Wildfire to support the independence and liberation movements of the various ethnic groups in the colonies on the West Coast, the autonomous military zone could only give these ethnic groups matchlocks and grenades at most. New weapons could never be given.
However, there weren't many matchlocks left in the autonomous region's military. The once most advanced Aubass Mark III matchlock had been packed up and shipped back to the kingdom to support the kingdom's three ace field corps against the Alliance's army.
Even though the war on the kingdom's mainland was over, the region couldn't just ask for those matchlocks back.
In the end, Claude had no choice but to look for Weyblon and have him work overtime to produce a hundred thousand precision muskets in two months for the region to use in an emergency.
However, having the matchlocks wasn't the end of Claude's problems. Instead, it was the beginning of it. The people were used to using the new rifles and weren't willing to pick them up again. Recruiting volunteers to help the pamigars became a problem.
During a meeting at HQ, General Driweyk suggested that the Shiksan captives in the region could be recruited to form a volunteer division to help the pamigars achieve independence.
Driweyk had three reasons for that. First, the Shiksan captives had completed their term of service and were now free men. However, Shiks and Aueras hadn't signed a peace treaty yet, so they couldn't return.
If they were willing to volunteer to help the pamigars, there was no reason to stop them.
Second, the freed Shiksan captives were used to using matchlocks, so they wouldn't have any problems using them on the battlefield after a short period of training.
Third, and most importantly, there were more than a hundred thousand Shiksan captives who wanted to settle down in the region. The council had been in a heated debate over the matter.
Those in favor of the idea said that their participation would increase the number of young workers in the region by a hundred thousand. Those who opposed said that the Shiksan captives were once enemies of the region. Now that they wanted to settle down and enjoy the treatment of immigrants, wouldn't it be too easy for them to be given land and property?
They weren't immigrants and hadn't contributed anything to the region.
So, Dervik meant that if the Shiksan captives were willing to help the pamigar achieve independence, not only would they be able to enjoy a high salary and benefits, they would also automatically become a member of the region after the war and be given the same rights as the natives.
Driweyk believed that the hundred thousand Shiksan captives would be able to recruit thirty thousand volunteers to form a division.
So, he was willing to be the linesman of the division and lead them to Morosik's colony to fire the first shot of the pamigar uprising.
After a short discussion, Claude decided to give it a try. At the same time, he appointed Drivick as the linesman in charge of organizing and organizing the volunteer folk. Once the matchlock production was complete, he would lead the folk to Morosik's colony on the west coast.
Currently, the military expenditure of the volunteer corps was being paid for by the autonomous region. According to the agreement between Borkal and Tazinger Nora Taganem, the expenses would be paid in installments after the pamigar became independent. After all, the half-blood baron wouldn't be able to afford such a huge expenditure with his family's wealth.
While Claude was busy with the military reform, Operation Wildfire and the formation of the volunteer folk, he received a report from Steward Svenson of Ferd Manor.
His mother and wife, Kefnie, had already packed up and were preparing to leave the region for Whitestag with his second son, Belgasi, and youngest daughter, Amerissa.