Chapter 228: Military Training and the Machine Gun Company

Clearly, the Spanish people's support for the reserves is directly proportional to their enthusiasm for joining them.

From the official establishment of the reserves at the end of August to early September, a period of just two and a half weeks, the number of people who signed up for the reserves has already exceeded 50, 00.

This is only the data submitted by larger cities such as Madrid, Barcelona, and Zaragoza. The announcement of the reserves' formation has only spread throughout Spain during these two and a half weeks, and it may take some time for all Spaniards to be informed.

This is the disadvantage of having no internet or even telephones: the blockage of information.

Even with newspapers and government announcements, it would take at least half a month or even more than a month for the majority of Spaniards to learn about the formation of the reserves.

However, judging from the current registration situation at recruitment offices in various cities, it will be easy for the final number of applicants to exceed 150, 00.

Upon learning this good news, Minister of Defense Grand Duke Serrano immediately and excitedly found Gao Da to report this good news.

Gao Da had actually already obtained this information through the Royal Security Intelligence Agency, but facing the formal report from Grand Duke Serrano, Gao Da's mood was still quite excited.

Once the 150, 00 reserves are fully established, Spain's military strength will be second only to the five great powers of Europe, and it can even claim to be the sixth in the world.

Italy, also a great power, is inferior to Spain in terms of army size and naval scale, which in fact also means that Spain's revival has been achieved to a certain extent.

Of course, this depends on what Spain's revival actually represents. If it just means becoming a strong power in Europe again, that has actually already been fully achieved at this moment.

But if one wants to become a super power on the level of the five great powers, and wants to be a chess player on the European continent rather than a chess piece, Spain is still very far off.

Fortunately, this is not an unachievable dream for Spain; it is even a reality that can be seen in the future.

The strength of the five great powers is also relative; they are not impregnable. The Austro-Hungarian Empire has a variety of nationalities, and the main ethnic group, the Austrians—that is, the South Germans—does not occupy an advantage. The Kingdom of Hungary, a component of the Dual Monarchy, has a large population and developed agriculture, which is also an unstable factor for the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Russia, naturally, goes without saying. The reforms of Alexander II were not thorough, and the problem of Russian serfs being oppressed has not been solved.

Even for the relatively stronger Britain, France, and Germany, they are not perfect. The current Spain has almost no hope of becoming a world hegemon, but there is some hope of becoming a country on the level of the five European great powers, or even the top three in the world.

Gao Da's goal is exactly this; as long as Spain can be built into a world power that sits at five and looks toward three, Spain's revival can actually be realized.

As long as it can take advantage of opportunities like the Boer War or a world war, a Spain that is only in the world's top five also has hope of recovering Gibraltar.

As long as Gibraltar can be recovered, Gao Da will be one of the greatest monarchs of Spain, and through public opinion propaganda, he could even remove the "one of."

"As long as the reserve soldiers pass the screening, they can immediately be put into training," Gao Da instructed the smiling Grand Duke Serrano.

According to the regulations of the reserve plan, the training time for reserve soldiers is in April, May, and September of each year.

It is now September, which is exactly the training time for reserve soldiers.

Although it is a bit hasty to start training immediately after being selected for the reserves, these young people who were the first to join the reserves are precisely those who support the country the most and support the reserves the most.

Letting them immediately throw themselves into training will not dampen their enthusiasm, but will instead cater to their wishes.

After all, for a hot-blooded male, who wouldn't want to experience the standard-issue rifle of the Spanish military?

Although guns are not banned in Spain, the sale of standard-issue rifles of the Spanish military to civilians is prohibited.

The firearms legally held by civilians are hunting rifles, and the shooting range and power of hunting rifles are far inferior to military rifles.

If girls are born with a fondness for beautiful things, then boys are born with a fondness for firearms, clubs, and the like.

Although starting training immediately is a bit hasty for these reserve soldiers, they can also come into contact with and use firearms during training, which is what they are looking forward to.

Grand Duke Serrano nodded.

The reason why the training time for the reserves is in April, May, and September is actually out of consideration for the planting and harvesting times of Spanish crops.

The two most important food crops in Spain are wheat and rice. The harvest time for wheat is from May to July, and the harvest time for rice is from October to November; the reserve training will just happen not to affect the harvest of the two crops.

The harvest time for olives is from October to December, and the picking time for grapes is from August to October, which will also basically not be affected.

After all, most of the Spanish population are farmers, so the training time for the reserves must take into account the harvest time of Spanish crops.

Even though most of the public supports the reserves, minimizing the burden on the public is also the responsibility of the Spanish government.

With an order from Gao Da, the first 20, 00 reserve soldiers to pass the selection quickly assembled around major cities.

Because the recruitment of reserves is distributed across various regions and cities, the training for these reserves will also be concentrated around each city.

Among them, the most important training points are the largest Madrid training point, the Zaragoza training point closest to the military academy, the northernmost Galicia training point, and the southernmost Seville training point.

The vast majority of these first 20, 00 recruited soldiers come from around Madrid and Barcelona, so the ones put into use first are exactly the Madrid and Zaragoza training points.

These reserve soldiers will undergo half a month of militarized training at the training points, and then, as the September training is about to end, they will conduct at least two shooting training sessions.

Because the military factory is rushing to produce orders for Russia and the Ottoman Empire, the rifles used by the reserve soldiers can only be selected from the rifles previously phased out by the Spanish military.

This is also something that cannot be helped; after all, trading with Russia and the Ottoman Empire first to earn huge profits is still the most important thing.

Spain does not need such a large reserve of rifles domestically; if all 150, 00 reserves were to be equipped with rifles, the cost of rifles alone would be no small expense.

The training of the reserves will not provide a rifle for every person, but will distribute a batch of rifles at each training point for these reserve soldiers to use in turns.

Doing this can both reduce the demand for rifles and allow every reserve soldier to experience target practice, which can be considered the most suitable choice.

On the day training began at the Madrid training point, the Ministry of Defense was also urgently selecting usable rifles from the military warehouse.

The Ministry of Defense certainly has stock of the Vitali M1872 rifle, and before these stocks are exhausted, the rifles used by the reserve soldiers will also be the Vitali M1872 rifle.

This can also be understood as a reward for these soldiers who joined the reserves earliest. As for the soldiers who join the reserves later, if the stock of Vitali M1872 rifles is insufficient, they will only be able to use those old rifles that were previously phased out.

In addition to paying these reserve soldiers during the training phase, the soldiers who perform best in each squad during training will also receive extra rewards.

Besides this, the reserves will also compete in the form of companies. The three soldiers who perform best in each company will receive more opportunities, including but not limited to the opportunity to join regular troops, the opportunity to be recommended to a military academy, and the opportunity to become a grassroots officer in the reserves.

Although they are only reserves, the reserve training is also organized in military units. The officers serving in the reserves for the first year are all elite soldiers of the Spanish Royal Army and some grassroots officers; these veterans will serve as squad leaders or even platoon and company commanders for each squad, helping these reserves adapt to military life faster.

And after the first year of reserve training ends, the most grassroots positions like squad leader will be handed over to reserve soldiers to serve.

As long as soldiers perform relatively well in training, they have the hope of serving as reserve squad leaders.

And those extremely outstanding soldiers will also have the opportunity to serve as platoon and company commanders. Although these are only reserve officer positions, for these soldiers, it is also a very good exercise.

As the saying goes, a soldier who does not want to be a general is not a good soldier; even if it is only a reserve unit, these soldiers must still have the idea of becoming high-ranking officials.

Gao Da had long anticipated this. As long as reserve soldiers perform well in training, Gao Da will give them opportunities and promote them through various methods.

And after the reserve soldiers finish their three-year service period, soldiers who perform relatively well can directly join the military for service.

Currently, the service period for regular Spanish troops is 5-7 years, and special talent can be extended to 11 years. In addition to the salary received during the service period, soldiers who meet the service period and are honorably discharged can also choose to receive a bonus or a job opportunity.

This point is relatively important. These soldiers who serve in the military for a long time cannot master excellent work skills, and it is difficult for them to find good jobs after entering society.

It is precisely because of this that the loyalty of these soldiers who are currently serving and those who have already been discharged to Gao Da is extremely high.

The income they receive during their service phase is 1. times that of ordinary Spaniards, and after discharge, they can also receive job arrangements or an extra bonus; it can be said that they have received the full favor of the royal family.

If one were to say that the people with the highest influence in the military before were Prime Minister Primo and Grand Duke Serrano, then currently, the person with the highest influence in the military has become Gao Da.

It is just that this kind of influence is not revealed in normal times, so in the eyes of most Spaniards, Spain is still a democratic constitutional monarchy government, and Gao Da is still that constitutional monarch who loves the people.

On the day training began at the Madrid training point and the Zaragoza training point, Gao Da also arrived at the two training points to encourage these soldiers who had just joined the reserves and delivered a speech.

From the attitude of these reserve soldiers toward Gao Da, it can also be seen that they are loyal to Gao Da, support the reserves, and love the country.

Gao Da did not pay much attention to the subsequent training; after all, the military has full experience in military training, and Gao Da is instead a layman.

Even though Gao Da graduated from the Turin Royal Military Academy, since then, Gao Da has not had much contact with military work.

Compared to the training of the reserves, what Gao Da is actually more concerned about is the matter of Spain forming machine gun units.

After purchasing machine guns from the Royal Military Factory, the Spanish military will certainly form machine gun units. But machine guns are also quite powerful weapons, and the current Gao Da and the Spanish military do not intend to expose them.

This also leads to Spain not equipping machine guns in the existing army, but instead forming a secret unit to conduct machine gun training, and equipping the machine guns to various units at the necessary moment.

Machine guns are mostly used for defensive battles and do not require any precise tactics. It is only necessary to fire at full power during defense to suppress the enemy's attack.

This also means that in the future, after these machine gunners are dispersed to various units, they will not have any impact on the combat effectiveness of the units.

Instead, each unit will increase its own firepower because of the addition of machine guns, thereby improving the comprehensive combat effectiveness of the army.

Of course, the Ministry of Defense can only manage the Royal Army; they cannot manage Gao Da's Imperial Guard.

Because the Imperial Guard has higher loyalty, and because the service time of the Imperial Guard is longer, Gao Da plans to equip the machine guns directly to the Imperial Guard for training, rather than forming a machine gun unit.

Because machine guns require 5 to 8 people to operate, machine guns will not be devolved to the squad level, but will be devolved to each company.

As long as it is ensured that each company possesses one machine gun, the combat effectiveness of the Royal Imperial Guard can be effectively increased.

And in addition to infantry, cavalry can also be equipped with machine guns. Through the method of horse transport, machine guns can instead achieve faster transfer and also possess better logistical transport capabilities.

The disadvantage is that when the cavalry charges, the machine guns will lose their combat effectiveness. However, considering everything, it is still very necessary to equip the cavalry units with machine guns as well.

Compared to the Royal Army's large demand for machine guns, the Imperial Guard's demand for machine guns is not large because it only has 15, 00 people.

If machine guns are equipped to every infantry company and cavalry company, the entire Royal Imperial Guard only needs 89 machine guns to complete the equipment.

But considering the excellent firepower of machine guns, Gao Da decided to establish a machine gun company in each infantry regiment, with each machine gun company equipped with 9 machine guns, and each machine gun equipped with a primary and secondary machine gunner, 1 loader, 2 machine gun transport soldiers, 3 ammunition carriers, and 1 messenger, for a total of 9 soldiers.

If it is a defensive battle, a single machine gun company can block thousands of enemies. And an Imperial Guard division has 4 infantry regiments, which is a configuration of 4 machine gun companies; just relying on these 4 machine gun companies can block tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of enemies.

Of course, this is on the premise that the machine gun's ammunition supply is sufficient and the machine gun will not be scrapped due to continuous rapid fire.

However, a machine gun company will certainly not be used alone; when the machine gun needs to stop firing to cool down, or when parts need to be replaced, ordinary infantry units can supplement the firepower to ensure that the defensive line will not be broken.

The configuration of these 4 machine gun companies alone increased the demand for the Imperial Guard division by 36 machine guns on the basis of 89 machine guns.

Gao Da did not equip the cavalry regiment with a machine gun company; after all, most of the cavalry's missions are to charge and cut through enemy units, not to defend in positions and fortresses like infantry.

The entire Royal Imperial Guard has a total demand for 125 machine guns, and Gao Da waved his hand and directly purchased 150 machine guns from the Royal Military Factory.

For Gao Da, the Imperial Guard purchasing from the Royal Military Factory is just moving from the left hand to the right hand.

Most of the shares of the Royal Military Factory belong to Gao Da and the royal family, so this money ultimately remains Gao Da's.

Counting the purchase orders from the Spanish Ministry of Defense, the Royal Military Factory suddenly had an order for more than 500 machine guns.

For Ma Keqin, this is a happy trouble. Before the machine gun was born, he was almost busy all day, all for the sake of seeing the true automatic firearm in his mind as soon as possible.

But after the machine gun was born, he had to enter a busy state again, because there were many orders for the machine gun that needed to be delivered.

Fortunately, the machine gun already has a complete finished product, and it only needs to build a complete production line to be able to produce machine guns on a large scale.

These tasks can also be completed by other experts in the machine gun research and development project team; after all, these experts also participated in the entire machine gun design, and they are quite familiar with the structure and principles of the machine gun.

As early as before these firearm design experts joined the machine gun project team, they had signed an agreement with the Royal Military Factory.

After joining the machine gun project team, regardless of whether the machine gun was successfully developed or not, they were not allowed to go abroad within ten years, nor were they allowed to disclose relevant data and information about the machine gun research and development to the outside.

Of course, the salary and other welfare systems during the work period will be issued according to the level of European firearm experts; not only will there be no harshness, but extra rewards will also be given to firearm experts who have made contributions.

Most of these experts are local Spanish experts, and with sufficiently high income, they naturally would not choose to immigrate abroad.

And those experts from Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, as long as they could join the machine gun project team, were also those who had already chosen to immigrate to Spain.

For these foreign experts who had already obtained Spanish citizenship, Kaluo felt quite at ease.

They had basically immigrated to Spain with their families, and it was impossible for them to uproot their families again to immigrate abroad for no reason.

Immigration requirements for various countries were actually not harsh, but the difficulty lay in the journey to the destination. Ocean-going tickets in this era were quite expensive and also accompanied by risks.

For most people, as long as their lives were relatively stable, they would basically not choose to immigrate.

Regarding these weapons experts in the machine gun research project team, the Royal Security Intelligence Agency also maintained a certain level of surveillance. Of course, this would not affect their lives, and they would not even notice it.

But if anyone wanted to exchange machine gun data for profit, Kaluo would make them understand how cruel the interrogations of the Royal Security Intelligence Agency were.

Fortunately, according to the investigation information from the Royal Security Intelligence Agency, the many firearms experts in the machine gun research project team had a relatively high level of recognition for Spain, or rather, they were quite satisfied with the salary and benefits Kaluo offered them.

Coupled with the protection of the Royal Security Intelligence Agency, they naturally would not have any thoughts of selling weapon information in exchange for profit.

After all, wanting to sell weapon information required contacting foreign spies, and currently, various countries did not have large-scale intelligence organizations, and intelligence operations were all targeted at relatively dangerous countries, such as those powerful great powers.

There were not many intelligence operations targeting Spain; after all, Spain's threat at this time was not significant.

5200-word two-in-one chapter, seeking support!

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(End of this chapter)