The Rise of the European Emperor

The reason why Marin set the military rank in this way is obviously an accidental expression of ambition-he kept the ranks of general and marshal, isn't it just a hint that he will go further in the future? Otherwise, why leave two ranks empty on purpose?

Of course, Marin himself would not admit it even if he was killed. Moreover, in this era when most of the nobles are dudes, there are very few who can see this. It's not that he is not smart enough, but that no one would have imagined that the son of a knight with a humble background like Marin would dare to covet the position of the king or even the emperor. After all, Europe in the 16th century was a region with solidified classes, and there was basically no such thing as a civilian counterattack to become a king.

If it were in China, after experiencing the chaotic Five Dynasties, some princes would have already shouted the slogan "The emperor would rather have a kind? He who has a strong army and a strong horse is his ear". Those in China who are familiar with history must have doubted Marin's intentions. However, there is currently no case in Europe where a small person counterattacks and becomes king, so generally no one can guess Marin's ambition.

In addition, while developing the military medal and military rank system, Marin also wanted to reform the military organization, so that the army of the Beihai State adopted the military division, brigade, regiment and battalion organization of later generations.

However, when trying to promote it before, it was resisted by the army. why? One is that the soldiers of the Beihai Kingdom are now accustomed to the old establishment, and they are not very happy to change it hastily. In addition, the current military tactics are quite different from those of later generations.

In later generations, because of the use of rear-loaded repeating guns, a team composed of several people can rely on trenches and fortifications to carry out firepower blocking. But this time is different, because of the use of smoothbore guns, and the reloading is very slow. Therefore, in order to form combat effectiveness and resist the charge from cavalry, it is generally necessary to arrange soldiers in square formations to meet the enemy.

However, if they are arranged in a square formation, a company of 250 people and a square formation of 1,250 people will become a more suitable organization.

Therefore, under the premise of not changing the general policy and combat methods, the current military establishment is the most reasonable. As for the establishment of military divisions, brigades and battalions in the future market, the suitable establishment is actually the establishment of the era of rear-loading guns.

Of course, the compilation method of later generations must be more scientific. But under the premise that the big tactics could not be completely changed, Marin didn't bother to modify the army establishment.

...

In fact, even with the military rank system, Marin feels that private, second class, first class, corporal, sergeant, sergeant, master sergeant, second lieutenant, lieutenant, captain, major, lieutenant colonel, colonel, senior colonel, brigadier general, major general, Lieutenant general, general, general, and marshal have a total of 20 military ranks, which are a bit too much. Because, the army of the North Sea State currently only has four major ranks (the number of cavalry is less), that is, the squadron (25 people), the company (250 people), the phalanx (1250 people) and the 10,000-man army (10,000 people). to 20 promotion levels.

Because, the modern military rank system at level 20 actually corresponds to the needs of the era of the Great Corps of later generations.

Since the beginning of the French Revolution, the French Jacobins took the lead in creating the compulsory military system of "all people are soldiers" in Europe. Since then, the size of the European army has skyrocketed immediately, and the number of armies of European powers has generally increased from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands to hundreds of thousands of troops. In the war period after the civil revolution, the number of troops mobilized by Napoleon once reached the size of the 570,000 army during the expedition to Russia.

By the time of World War I and World War II in the 20th century, the size of the armies of European countries generally reached a terrifying scale of several million people.

Against this background, the past knighthood system of knights, barons, viscounts, earls, marquises, and dukes obviously could no longer meet the needs of awarding military merits to generals. Therefore, this kind of military rank system with up to 20 levels had to be created to replace the knighthood system. Otherwise, with dozens or millions of troops and so many officers, there would not be so many titles to reward them.

What's even better is that the 20 military ranks, including private, private, first class, corporal, sergeant, sergeant, and master chief, have a total of 7 levels, which are completely set for civilian soldiers. These 7 levels alone are enough to fool civilian soldiers. Upwards, lieutenants are basically used to deal with noble children. Only a school-level officer is considered a true noble rank.

In this way, with so many military ranks, it is enough for the soldiers to slowly rise up level by level, without worrying about the flood of high-ranking nobles. Moreover, there is no need to pay any fief.

Therefore, although with the size of the army of the North Sea State, less than 20 military ranks are used, Marin still implemented a 20-level military rank system to meet the needs of a larger army in the future.

In other words, the Qin Dynasty in ancient China seems to have implemented the 20-level military title system... But when Marin thought about it, it seems that the Qin Dynasty also implemented the "all people are soldiers" system, which is more than 1,800 years earlier than Europe... …No, since Shang Yang’s reform established the 20-level military merit title system, it was probably more than 2,100 years earlier than in Europe. And when the Qin Dynasty sent Wang Jian to destroy Chu, under the premise that Li Xin's 200,000 troops were wiped out by the Chu State, the whole country of Qin could still gather 600,000 troops for Wang Jian... It seems that the number of Qin's troops is equal to 200,000. The first-level military title system is a good match...

All in all, the 20-level military rank system was actually created to cooperate with the large corps army. Although the current army size of the Beihai Kingdom is only tens of thousands, it can be regarded as a precautionary measure to come up with a 20-level military rank system in advance. Even if the army later develops to a scale of more than 100,000 to 200,000, the 20-level military rank system is enough. Always give hope to the soldiers, give them a rank of 20 and let them rise slowly, it is better than a few levels of knighthood system where it is difficult to see the hope of rising...

...

Marin was busy for a long time, and after racking his brains, he finally arranged the modern military rank system of the Beihai Army. In particular, Marin promoted these 20-level military ranks as a new title system.

For example, lieutenants correspond to the ranks of noble children (vagrant knights) between nobles and commoners; school-level officers correspond to the baron class; General), Marquis (Lieutenant General), Duke (Admiral), King (General) and Emperor (Marshal).

But what's even better is that although military rank corresponds to knighthood, the military rank system is even more rogue. Because, having a military rank does not mean that there is a fief that does not have to pay taxes. Relying on the modern military rank system, Marin can lose a large area of ​​fiefdom. Even if fiefdoms are to be given, Marin will seal the fiefdoms of the officers to the vast and boundless Americas. In this way, the mainland does not need to crack the soil and seal the border.

...

After finishing the reform of the military rank system and military medals, Marin suddenly received a piece of information from Rome, which surprised Marin. The information reads——On February 21, 1513, Pope Julius II suffered a serious illness and was rescued by the genius doctor Tuotuobuhua (formerly the imperial physician of the Golden Horde) sent by the Grand Duke. return. But after that, the Pope's body began to become weak...

Marin suddenly realized—it seemed that Julius II died at the end of February 1513 in the original history. In other words, this illness should have killed Julius II. However, because Marin dispatched Tutuobuhua, an imperial physician who recruited the self-destroyed Golden Horde, to stay in Rome in advance, he saved the life of Julius II. Otherwise, let the bloodletting barbaric quack doctors in Europe in this era treat my Pope's father-in-law to death...

However, his cheap pope father-in-law can't die yet. After all, Marin still needs him to help him withstand the pressure of the princes of the German Church. At least, don't die within this year. Otherwise, once there is no pressure from the Holy See, those church princes in Germany who are unhappy with themselves may really unite with the secular princes to clean up themselves...

Therefore, Marin decided to renew the life of his cheap father-in-law...

...

Julius II is old and frail. After all, he is almost 70 years old, and there is no way for his body to age. Therefore, Marin needs a master of Xinglin to help the old man take care of his body.

Fortunately, among the imperial physicians brought back by Marin from the Ming Dynasty, there was a master who was good at helping the elderly to take care of their bodies - Imperial Physician Hu. So, Marin invited Doctor Hu over and asked him to go to Rome to help his old father-in-law take care of his body. At least, make it through this year...

Doctor Hu caressed the goatee beard and said:

"My lord, it's not difficult to take care of the Pope's body. You need a lot of nourishing medicine..."

"No problem, you can pick whatever herbs I brought back!" Marin didn't hesitate.

"I mean, I need the treasures of heaven, material and earth..."

Marin clapped his hands, and his men immediately took out a beautiful wooden box. Ma Lin opened the wooden box, and a human-shaped wild ginseng plant with many tentacles was revealed inside, which made Doctor Hu's eyes widen in surprise...

"This is a hundred-year-old wild ginseng that I bought at a high price from the tribute envoys of the Jurchen Yehe tribe in the east of the Liaodong Sea when I was in the capital..."

At the beginning, Marin ran into the tribute envoy of the Haixi Jurchen Yehe tribe (the origin of the later Cixi's Yehenala family) who came to Beijing to pay tribute. Marin saw that the tributary envoy of Yehe tribe carried a sack of ginseng, like a carrot. Then, he spent several thousand taels of silver to buy a few hundred-year-old wild ginseng with many tentacles from the envoy...

Marin thought he had a plan, but in fact, Ye He's envoys regarded him as a fool. Because, in this era, in the deep mountains and old forests in the northeast where Ye Hebu is located, the most indispensable thing is old mountain ginseng. Randomly send some ginseng collectors to collect wild ginseng that has been around for decades. As for the old wild ginseng over a hundred years old, although there are few, there is no shortage. Marin became a monk for several thousand taels, which was almost more than the reward given by the court.

After all, these days, all ministries in Liaodong, including the Jurchen ministries in Jianzhou and the Jurchen ministries in Haixi, are still competing to pay tribute to the Ming court with ginseng. Although old mountain ginseng is expensive, it can be done for only one or two hundred taels of silver. It wasn't until the establishment of the Jin Dynasty in the late Qing Dynasty that the channel of Liaodong's attack on the Ming court was cut off, and wild ginseng became precious...

After Imperial Physician Hu saw this hundred-year-old wild ginseng, he immediately nodded and said:

"I'm fine now. With this wild ginseng, I guarantee that the Pope's body will not collapse for more than a year..."

In this way, Imperial Physician Hu took a hundred-year-old wild ginseng and a cart of precious medicinal materials, and under the escort of hundreds of Beihai cavalry, went south to Rome to renew the life of Marin's Pope's father-in-law...