The Emperor’s Angel of Death

For most armed forces of the Empire, perhaps this stepped distribution of forces seems a bit redundant, and it might seem more reasonable to recruit a regiment and then give it a regimental number.

But Soshian is very clear that the current peace is unstable, and no enemy will obediently cooperate with him. The idea of trying to "farm" in a state of absolute peace is very dangerous. With the technological level of the Necrons, they can pull Orpheus back into the war at any time, so his top priority is to consider wartime conditions, otherwise he will suffer a great loss.

Even knowing that Menak may be held back by his opponent, Soshian is not clear about how long the battle between the two sides will last, and he dare not gamble. Therefore, the premise of expanding the army must be to ensure that it can be put into a cruel war of attrition at any time during the process.

The second stage of the military reform is conscription. At present, Orpheus's armed forces are actually quite chaotic. The Orpheus Guard is just a banner, but the governor can't control all the troops. Each star system has its own local garrison, the planetary governors have their own private soldiers, and the Department of Military Affairs also has a part of the garrison – Orpheus's main tithe is the manpower tithe, which is received by the Department of Military Affairs.

Of course, Soshian is not sure whether Orpheus will still levy tithes. The Department of Military Affairs has not given a specific statement, but some institutions and garrisons have been withdrawn, so Soshian guesses that there should be none in the short term.

In this case, the Orpheus Expeditionary Force Headquarters ordered the rectification of the armed forces of the entire star area, the reduction and reorganization of personnel, the incorporation of the strong and excellent into the Orpheus Death Corps, and the troops previously transferred from various star systems by the star area governor for security reasons will also be returned to their original locations after screening to continue to perform their garrison duties – this strategy of one collection and one release immediately received the support of various star systems. The governor's forced transfer of troops led to a vacuum in the local armed forces, which led to varying degrees of order decline in various places. As for drawing a small number of elites, it was within the acceptable range. After all, maintaining order depends more on the number of people than on quality, and suppressing rioters does not require any elite soldiers. If they are transferred, let them be transferred.

In addition, there is the conscription of noble private soldiers. Compared with the garrison, the average quality and training level of the noble private soldiers are higher. Most of them are from the mid-hive or even the upper-hive. Many of them have been soldiers for generations. Although they are usually the noble's lackeys, they also have relatively rich combat experience, and their number is very large due to the powerful noble forces of Orpheus.

The reason for the expansion of the noble forces of Orpheus lies in the current governor's family, the Laun family. After the extinction of the orthodox Orpheus family initially recognized by the Empire, the Laun family, which had some marital relationship with the Orpheus family in the past, usurped the throne in a sense. Due to the improper acquisition of the throne and the lack of overwhelming strength, this family had to use all means to win over the various ruling families in the star area in the early stage of its rule, ceding many powers. This is how they defeated many challengers in the bloody and cruel rebellion era, but the sequelae is that the nobles of various planets in the star area have become extremely powerful and difficult to control. The Laun family, except for Amara, has difficulty controlling the local areas. This is why they would rather die here than transfer.

But Soshian didn't intend to indulge them. In fact, there will be more opportunities to take action against them in the future. This is just a slight advance.

In the name of the headquarters of the Expeditionary Force, he ordered that all nobles, according to their respective territory, can only have a maximum of 100-2000 private soldiers. Once this number is exceeded, it will be regarded as collusion with the enemy, and their homes will be confiscated directly!

In addition to getting recruits from the Guards and noble private soldiers, the rest is to recruit from the people. This matter sounds simple, but it is a bit difficult to implement, because the Space Knights have no roots here. This kind of large-scale activity can only rely on local forces, which makes it difficult to guarantee efficiency and quality. Even the nobles who hold grudges may stuff a bunch of misfits into it.

In order to ensure that the conscription plan can be completed with quality and quantity, Soshian made a decision, that is, to break up the companies in his hands and deploy them to various star systems in Orpheus in squads, and together with the forces of the Forge World, establish a small chapter monastery fortress in the capital of each star system, using close-range armed deterrence to ensure the local enforcement, and also select suitable boys in various places to participate in the recruit selection – this also has a benefit, that is, it can complete the "transfer of power", so that the local realizes that the highest power has been transferred from the star area governor to the Astartes, and everything they have in the future will be decided by the Space Knights.

The third stage of the military reform is equipment and logistics.

Since Orpheus's main opponent is the Necrons, they need to maintain a very large scale, and the armor is more based on life support systems than defense, so it is not suitable for the Vatish and Pushtiban systems. Instead, it should be similar to the Cadian Shock Troops. Fully enclosed combat suits will become the standard armor, but these are not the focus. The focus is on heavy weapons and vehicles. The Leman Russ tank has been proven to be sufficient to fight against the Necrons, especially when they reach a certain scale. The Necrons often cannot invest many troops at a time. Facing the surging armored torrent, they do not have a wide enough battlefield front to intercept them, so the armored forces can use their mobility to quickly outflank the opponent from both sides and exchange casualties for victory.

Therefore, the Orpheus Death Corps will become a highly mechanized, heavily armored force, which means they need an extremely large number of tanks, armored vehicles and self-propelled artillery.

And these cannot be provided by long-distance transportation, they can only be produced locally, and production must be upgraded to hundreds of fields such as industry, mining, chemical industry and even agriculture, and at the same time, the establishment of new military factories requires a large number of workers, and workers need remuneration to support their families, and these expenses must be borne by someone.

For this reason, Soshian also established the Orpheus Expeditionary Force Weapons and Equipment Department.

This department sounds like a logistics department, but in fact its power is far more than that. This department includes many personnel such as Astartes, mortal bureaucrats and Tech-priests. It will not only take over all military industrial facilities and production units in Orpheus, but also serve as a hub between the Expeditionary Force Headquarters and various star systems, planets, and even specific production units. The formulation and execution of all military industry-related plans in the star area must be organized and coordinated by this department. Moreover, it even intervenes in non-military fields related to military production, such as energy, mining, and agriculture.

In other words, through this department, the Expeditionary Force actually controls the entire economic lifeline of Orpheus and can effectively adjust and modify it.

At the same time, it will bring the entire Orpheus into a state similar to a wartime economy.

Soshian proposed: everything should be prioritized for military work, and everything should be focused on military work, which is by no means just a slogan.