Crusade against the Pope

Chapter 397 Military Concept
The general staff system is considered a milestone in the development of modern military forces, and refers to a group consisting of officers, soldiers and civilian personnel.

Provide command and control services to military commanders, understand enemy dynamics through information collection and analysis, formulate military plans according to their own military capabilities, and coordinate and supervise the execution of plans and orders.

This means that traditional military commanders no longer have to coordinate complex military operations personally.

In a sense, it is a replacement and advancement of the military staff system in the Middle Ages.

But in comparison, it is more professional, detailed, efficient and clear.

This is actually something that the middle and lower-level military commanders in Jerusalem today do not like.

After all, no one likes to be controlled, nor does anyone want to become a mere executive body.

But for military commanders at the level of Puldock and George, the emergence of the staff system made war feel more like a game in their minds.

Being able to control the entire battle situation without leaving home, the convenience and sense of power this brings are things that the identity of a knight could never provide.

Then, by strengthening the organization of the army, in this lack of organization in the medieval era, it was indeed possible to win every battle.

On the kingdom's side, as they have mastered higher-level military tactics and technologies, even if there are some problems, they will actually be covered up.

However, at this time, Gellis jumped out again and opposed the establishment of a strong staff system and the absolute command of the military level.

In the eyes of some people, this is indeed a bit of a slap in the face, but people are just not willing to say it bluntly.

"I had a chat with Garys a few days ago. His opinion was very clear. He disagreed with the General Staff formulating a training plan for the entire army. He believed that the significance of the General Staff was coordination rather than command."

"In the next military reform, although it is said that the military and the local government will be separated and the Governor of Antioch will be abolished, the Antioch Theater will be established to be responsible for the advance to the east."

"Correspondingly, a war zone will be established in Egypt, and preparations will be made to advance to the west. The two are parallel and there is no distinction between subordinate and subordinate."

"But even the theater's staff is not responsible for everything. It is mainly responsible for coordinating intelligence, allocating logistical supplies, and issuing rough orders."

Purdock said so.

"So, where exactly does Garys plan to delegate his command authority to?"

George was already a little annoyed. Although he was now the Minister of Military Affairs, he felt that he had no real power in the system set up by Garys.

He does not have any troops under his direct command, and both training and conscription have to be delegated. So what else can he do?

Rather than being the Minister of War, it would be more accurate to say that he was the Minister of Veterans Affairs. After the war zone system was established, George was probably completely severed from military command.

Although there is nothing wrong with being a rubber stamp, one will feel disappointed when he thinks that he is just a spectator in the great achievements that are about to be made.

Purdock continued, "If nothing unexpected happens, the training plan will be formulated at the regimental level, and the authority for local operations will be delegated to the battalion and company."

"In later operations, the military hierarchy, from top to bottom, is divided into four levels: theater, regiment, battalion, and company."

"The theater is responsible for campaign-level planning, as well as compiling intelligence and allocating logistical supplies."

"As an administrative level, the regiment conducts training for new recruits after receiving them from the war zone, and acts more as an administrative unit."

"The battalion and company levels are the main combat-level units."

"Overall, the entire army is showing a more small but elite state. Except for special circumstances, cross-theater-level operations are unlikely to occur."

In fact, George also understood Garys's ideas on military reform.

Within the existing territory of Jerusalem, thanks to the existence of an optical communication system, intelligence can be received and combat orders can be issued within a day.

However, many of the subsequent operations will exceed the national territory, and the General Staff’s collection and distribution of information will inevitably be delayed.

The theater-level staff will not be able to communicate well with the front line for various reasons.

Therefore, it becomes inevitable to acknowledge that the battlefield situation is chaotic and to increase the autonomy of frontline combatants.

If the original military concept was that tactics should be completely subordinate to the campaign, then in the past year, the military concept of Gellis has changed to: campaign planning is only to create favorable tactical conditions.

What George and Purdock did not understand was that these two military concepts actually originated from the Soviet and Chinese styles of later generations.

In the Soviet military philosophy, although annihilation is also pursued, it is obvious that deep attack and defense are more valued.

In World War II, the main battle objectives were to capture important nodes and drive the German army to retreat. The offensive and defensive gains and losses of local detachments were not taken seriously most of the time.

Small units naturally will not have much autonomy, but will instead become subordinate executive agencies of their superior units.

The Chinese military philosophy is different. It returns to the teacher's 16-word mantra: If you save the people and lose the land, both the people and the land will be saved; if you save the land and lose the people, both the people and the land will be lost.

The mission of the army, in this concept, is implemented as "discover and destroy" rather than occupying or holding the land.

The process of discovering and annihilating requires very high time feedback on the local battlefield. After all, opportunities are fleeting. If you wait for orders to be issued after the information is reported, it will be too late.

Therefore, grassroots troops must have sufficient autonomy.

This autonomy includes efficient reconnaissance of battlefield information and the authority to actively conduct operations when intelligence information is sufficient.

Fighting itself is seen as an advantage. Even if there is a huge disparity in strength, various tactics should be used to harass the enemy, forcing them to become tired, so that superior forces can be assembled on a larger scale.

In this process, micro-management similar to Chiang Kai-shek's model is impossible.

Because many times even the command center cannot accurately know the specific location of its own troops.

Its battle deployment was essentially to "naturally form" a large-scale encirclement through large-scale troop mobilization.

After that, it depends on the subjective initiative of the grassroots troops to continuously collect information, harass the enemy, and annihilate the troops.

If a local battle opportunity arises, junior officers are encouraged to deviate from the original battle plan.

By achieving large-scale tactical victories locally, we can transform quantitative changes into qualitative changes, thereby overturning the power ratio between the enemy and us, and finally delivering a crucial blow.

Even if our overall military strength is at a disadvantage, we must still do so if there is sufficient intelligence information.

Because the enemy will have difficulty judging the size of the attacking force due to intelligence disadvantages, they will be caught in blind actions or be at a loss, and lose a large number of troops.

In order to ensure that the grassroots troops have sufficient subjective initiative, they must implement sufficient political concepts, or adhere to the XX belief.

Only when the soldiers themselves have a high enough desire to fight can they take the initiative to attack. After all, this is not an order from the superiors, but comes from the confidence of the soldiers and officers themselves.

Without confidence, one loses flexibility and turns into simply executing orders, which naturally leads to the loss of many opportunities for battle. The war will be completed with higher casualties and a heavier price, or it will end in failure.

"Before, I didn't understand why the prophet insisted on sending Paladin to the company."

"But now, we know it all, don't we?"

"The Paladin is injecting soul into the army."

"Without the Paladins who live with them day and night, how can the soldiers be so devout?"

Having said this, George took out the battle report again.

This battle report is actually a confirmation of Gellis' new military concept.

According to the original plan, supplies were to be transported to the camp, and then the main force of Antioch would launch an attack on Aleppo.

However, during the supply transportation process, Roger's troops found themselves harassed by the enemy and changed their plan. They did not continue to force their way to the next military station, but instead stayed where they were and passed on intelligence to their superiors.

After receiving the intelligence, Lance and his men changed their battle plan and formed a troop encirclement on a larger scale, taking advantage of the intelligence provided by the telescope.

Then they launched a night attack, forcing the enemy to disperse. Then the encirclement troops from the outside continued to pursue and intercept them. A large number of small-scale battles took place, forcing the enemy to use up their horsepower, and strangled the 3,000-man light cavalry bit by bit.

This would have been impossible in Jerusalem in previous years.

To be exact, it is impossible in known military history.

It is easy to defeat nomadic cavalry, and both the East and the West can do it.

Do we want to annihilate the nomadic cavalry?

Ensure that large numbers of enemy forces are destroyed rather than dispersed?
In the eyes of many people, this might seem like a stupid mistake.

But Reims's troops did it, using exactly the same ideas that Guillis had taught at the Palestine Military Academy.

Some people may still be stubborn, but as apostles, George and Purdock certainly cannot express any objections when Gellis has once again proved himself right.

Of course, even if Lance or Roger failed in a battle, they would not face various traditional military laws, but would deal with them according to the specific circumstances after summarizing their experience.

After all, victory and defeat are common in the military. If the military officers really believe that Jerusalem is blessed by God and is therefore invincible, then they will fall into another blind mistake.

"If that's the case, do we need to adjust our military operations in Egypt? Do we have time?"

George, who changed his mindset, focused on the next battle plan.

After all, according to the division of war zones, they don't need to worry too much about Aleppo.

Puldock, as the army marshal, went on to say: "In our original plan, the emphasis was on the capture and conquest of the city."

"But if you think about it carefully, Egypt actually has a lot of artillery. If we really force the attack, even if we win, we may have to sacrifice many people."

"As for the time issue, there's nothing much to say."

"With the help of the Venetians, we can completely cut off Egypt's trade with Europe. Without foreign trade, the Egyptian Crusader Kingdom will lose sufficient currency and resources to maintain its army."

"In this case, they will naturally be the ones who feel the urgency and want to challenge."

Puldock didn't finish his words, but George was clear about one thing: the Egyptian fleet was very vulnerable.

This fragility does not refer to the strength of its ships, but to the fact that Egypt did not produce wood. In fact, during the Fatimid period, Egypt's main wood even came from exports from the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

With trade itself blocked, Egypt's ships would be fewer and fewer, so Egypt would only become more urgent.

This was different from the Syrian region, which launched a swift and efficient campaign against the Ayyubid dynasty.

The Kingdom of Jerusalem's strategy in Egypt seemed much more relaxed.

"However, Egypt's own national strength is not weak. They can increase taxation to support a larger army and maintain their advantage."

George presented an objective fact.

Then Puldock responded: "Isn't this exactly what the prophet wanted?"

After all, the more the Egyptian Crusaders increased their taxation efforts, the more perverse their actions became, and the more they intensified internal conflicts.

Unlike the Kingdom of Jerusalem, which began to establish a unified national identity, the Egyptian Crusaders could not get along with the local Egyptians.

……

Nasser walked along the path in Alexandria, looking around from time to time.

It was already dark, and logically he shouldn't be here. Nowadays, most Egyptian cities had a curfew, and non-patrol personnel were strictly prohibited from walking around the streets at night.

Of course, even without a curfew order from the authorities, people of this era generally don't like to go out at night.

After all, the city’s public security has long been a problem. It is normal to be robbed, and if you are unlucky, you may end up dead without a trace.

But Nasser didn't care. He was used to going out at night, knew the patrol routes of the patrol team, and was well aware of the activities of the gangs in the city.

The reason why he had to go out at night was because today was Sunday and he had to go to "church" no matter what.

The "church" is not a real building, but just a temporary base.

There is no shortage of churches in Alexandria. It is the main city where Coptic Orthodox Christians live and was the residence of the Patriarch of Alexandria during the Roman Empire.

Now that they have been conquered by the Crusaders, many mosques have been forced to be transformed into luxurious churches to meet the spiritual needs of the Crusaders.

But in Nasser's eyes today, those stone churches are nothing but hypocrisy, arrogance and full of original sin.

After all, today's Egypt, under the rule of the Crusaders, has successfully completed the division of the population.

The Coptic Orthodox Christians, who originally belonged to a minority group, suddenly experienced a class leap and became the second-class people after the Crusaders.

(End of this chapter)