Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 133 Infantry and Guards Divisions

France in the Franco-Prussian War had already demonstrated the dangers of having too small an army, which is that when forming a larger army in a large-scale war, troops at all levels would often lack tacit understanding, thereby reducing the combat effectiveness of the entire army.

Most of the French troops in the Franco-Prussian War were at the regiment level. When forming larger-scale division-level units, the combat effectiveness of each division was not as good as expected, which was one of the reasons for the French failure.

The establishment of a division-sized military organization is a necessity for the current development of the times, and Spain must follow suit.

The good news is that Prime Minister Primo and Archduke Serrano have already had a preliminary plan for the reform of the Spanish military's organization, and a new Spanish military organization list has been created through the efforts of the two.

The Spanish infantry division will be composed of five infantry regiments and one artillery regiment. The full strength of the division is 1.25 people, with a total of 248 artillery pieces, and its firepower is excellent.

In wartime, the entire division can be expanded to 1.8 people, becoming a reinforced infantry division with firepower and numbers.

The 12 cavalry regiments were also integrated into three cavalry divisions, each with three cavalry regiments. The cavalry division did not have an additional artillery unit, which resulted in the entire cavalry division having only 3 artillery pieces.

However, considering the mobility of cavalry, it is also beneficial to have less artillery equipment.

Next is a new troop organization, the artillery division. The Austro-Prussian War and the Franco-Prussian War have proved the power of artillery in this era, and having a separate army organization is also a necessity for the development of the times.

If you only rely on the number of artillery in the infantry and cavalry units, it is difficult to withdraw artillery to fight a siege. But the artillery unit is different. The artillery unit is equipped with a large number of artillery, and any artillery division can cause a fatal blow to the enemy's fortress.

The Spanish artillery division is composed of four artillery regiments, each artillery regiment is composed of four artillery battalions, each artillery battalion is composed of four artillery companies, and each artillery company is equipped with seven artillery pieces.

This also means that the entire artillery division will have an exaggerated 448 artillery pieces. Spain will have an exaggerated number of nearly artillery pieces just with the two artillery divisions that are about to be established.

The Engineer Corps and the Colonial Garrison were not restructured. The expanded Colonial Corps was sufficient to deal with the situation in the Spanish colonies, and there was no need to restructure it into a division.

After all, the Spanish army needs a large number of rifles and artillery after the reorganization, which is already a huge burden for the Royal Arsenal, and there is no production capacity to support the reorganization of the colonial army.

After the cabinet meeting, Carlo specially invited Archduke Serrano and Prime Minister Primo to hold a small-scale military meeting. After confirming the reorganization of the Spanish army, he ordered the defense department to implement the new Spanish army organization.

No matter what the Spanish army was like before, the Spanish Royal Army will only have 6 infantry divisions, 3 cavalry divisions, 2 artillery divisions and 2 engineering regiments, totaling 10.1 troops.

The 20th Colonial Garrison Regiment had approximately 4.6 troops, and the two combined totaled nearly 15 troops.

Don’t forget that Carlo also has his own guards, which also means that after the Spanish military reform is completed in the future, the strength of the army will be greatly strengthened.

But then again, after the Royal Army was reorganized, Carlo would also have to reorganize his own Guards.

The size of the previous guards was limited to a regiment due to insufficient financial resources of the royal family.

Now that the royal family has money, it is natural that they will expand this Guards Regiment into a Guards Division and train their own ace troops.

Moreover, the Guards Division will be larger than the Spanish Infantry Division. Rather than being a simple infantry division, it is more like a mixed reinforced division composed of infantry, cavalry and artillery.

Anyway, the royal family has plenty of funds, and at present it only needs to form a guard division, so naturally it can equip it with whatever weapons it can.

After a brief military meeting with Prime Minister Primo and Archduke Serrano, Carlo returned to the palace and summoned Jioti, the captain of the Royal Guard, to inquire about the reform of the Guard's organization.

The reform of the Guards was to some extent based on the Spanish Infantry Division, but its organization was much more luxurious than that of the Infantry Division.

Considering that both cavalry and artillery are important in this era, it is natural for the Royal Guards Division to consider integrating them.

最终确定的皇家近卫师编制将拥有4个近卫步兵团、1个近卫骑兵团和2个近卫炮兵团，满编人数超过1.5万人，共计装备280门火炮。

Such an organization can be used to attack when advancing and to defend when retreating, and to a certain extent it can be considered to be both offensive and defensive.

The four Guards Infantry Regiments will be the main force of the Guards Division, taking on the more difficult offensive and defensive tasks, while the two artillery regiments will serve as important firepower support to make up for the lack of additional artillery companies in the Guards Infantry Regiment.

As for the separate cavalry regiment, it will undertake relatively pure cavalry tasks and give full play to the mobility of the cavalry.

In an era without machine guns and tanks, such a troop organization could basically bring out the combat effectiveness of each unit and could be considered a mixed force.

The commander of the Guards Division was naturally the hard-working Jyoti. Jyoti had made an indelible contribution to the formation of the Guards Regiment, so Carlo was quite relieved to let him become the commander of the Guards Division.

As for the other candidates for the captains, Carlo decided to promote some officers with outstanding performance from the existing size of the Guards after careful consideration. As for the large number of vacant middle and lower-level officer positions, there are a large number of potential officers graduating from the Royal Military Academy every year, so there is no need to worry about this problem.

Carlo has also considered transferring Andrew and Kaman, who are currently serving in the Royal Army, back to serve as the regiment commander of the Guards Division.

But after thinking for a long time, Carlo finally decided to let them stay in the Royal Army.

After all, they had been honing their skills in the Royal Army for several years, and Archduke Serrano had paid attention to them and given them high recognition.

Now that they had established themselves in the Royal Spanish Army, Carlo was naturally reluctant to undermine their efforts.

Anyway, with the expansion of the Royal Army, they will face a lot of opportunities, and it may not be impossible for them to become regimental commanders or even higher-level officers.

Although he could directly become a senior officer at the regimental commander level if he returned to the Guards, he could even take on a position like deputy division commander with Carlo's trust.

But the size of the Guards is limited after all, and their channels for advancement will also be restricted.

It was easy to be a regimental commander, but it was very difficult to become a division commander. After all, the Guards only had one division, and the division commander, Jyoti, was also trusted by Carlo.

The Royal Army has 6 infantry divisions, 3 cavalry divisions and 2 artillery divisions. The promotion channels will be wider and there will be greater possibilities.

It can be seen from the current organization of Spain that the importance of regimental commander-level officers has been slightly reduced, but the importance of senior officers at the divisional commander level has been greatly enhanced.

After all, there are only about ten divisions in the whole of Spain, and each division is very important to Spain.

As a division commander, he not only commanded nearly one-tenth of the army in Spain, but also became one of the top leaders of the Spanish military.

In Spain, the lowest rank for an officer at the regimental commander level is colonel, while the lowest rank for an officer at the divisional commander level is general, such as major general.

Currently, the military ranks in Spain are divided into: private, non-commissioned officers (corporal second class, corporal first class, sergeant, sergeant), lieutenants (warrant officer, second lieutenant, lieutenant, captain), colonels (major, lieutenant colonel, colonel), generals (brigadier general, major general, lieutenant general, general).

General is the highest rank in the Spanish military and is usually honorary. The real power in the army is held by lieutenant generals and major generals, who usually command more elite troops or have a high say in the defense department of the government.

The marshal rank of Prime Minister Primo and Archduke Serrano is quite special in the Spanish military rank system.

In theory, marshal is not a military rank, but a military position, which is generally awarded to the governor of each colony, which is equivalent to the military jurisdiction of the colony.

After a long period of development, the title of marshal also had a certain military rank significance, and was only awarded to military members of the cabinet.

For example, Prime Minister Primo and Archduke Serrano, both of whom were related to the military, were naturally awarded the rank of marshal.

There is also Carlo. As the king of Spain, he is naturally the marshal of the Spanish navy and army, and Carlo's rank of marshal has practical significance.

According to Spain's current constitutional provisions, the King of Spain has the supreme command of the Spanish navy and army, and is the Marshal-in-Chief of the Spanish navy and army.

This also resulted in Carlo's rank of marshal being different from that of Prime Minister Primo and Archduke Serrano, they were just called marshals.

After the reform of the Spanish army, the total number of artillery equipped by all armies reached 2008. This number has increased several times compared to before the reform, which is also one of the main purposes of the military reform.

Artillery has become a very important weapon of firepower output and plays an extremely important role in war.

Two thousand artillery pieces will also allow the Spanish army to catch up with other European countries in terms of heavy firepower, and at least it will not fall into a firepower disadvantage in land warfare.

Equipping so many cannons at one time is also beneficial to the development of the Spanish artillery industry.

Artillery is a weapon that can not only be equipped by the army, but can also be widely used by the navy.

Although Spain currently has no plans to develop a navy, it is necessary to develop artillery with larger caliber and longer range in advance.

When Spain decides to develop its navy in the future, the experience accumulated in artillery can be well utilized on naval guns, and powerful warships belonging to Spain can be designed.

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(End of this chapter)