Chairman Mao once said, "Soldiers and the people are the foundation of victory." ”
For any country, the military is an important part of the national strength and an important part of the national strength. However, in order to promote the continuous improvement of the military's strength, it must set the strictest control standards for it.
Because of this, the military can be said to be one of the most hierarchical occupations, as the saying goes, "military orders are like mountains", in the face of the orders issued by superior leaders, subordinate generals must ensure successful completion, otherwise they will be severely punished.
In the military, division commander and division chief of staff seem to be very important positions, so who has more power over these two positions? What does it mean to "command the army but not the army"?
< H1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the origin of the chief of staff</h1>
Compared to the chief of staff, the crowd tended to know more about the division commander. A division commander is one of the highest positions in a unit, and as a division commander, being able to run the entire unit has a crucial impact on the development of the entire unit. And as the chief of staff in the army, what kind of authority does it have? Why is it possible to compare it with the power of the division commander?
This question can be analyzed back to the origins of the Chief of Staff.
Germany was the first country in the world to establish a staff system. In Germany, the divisional chief of staff was called "the greatest invention of the Prussian army of the 19th century". At first, Germany saw it as an "army think tank" that tried to weaken the authority of the Minister of War through the Divisional Chief of Staff.
In this regard, in 1866, the German Emperor also issued a special public decree declaring that the functions and powers between the Minister of General Staff and the Minister of War were the same, and that in the event of war, the order issued by the Chief of Staff of the Army would have the same effect as the order issued by the Minister of War.
In this way, in the beginning, the German Emperor not only gave the right of military advisers to the chief of staff of the division, but also essentially made him the commander of the war.
Soon after, the German Emperor once again gave the division chief of staff a higher power, that is, to allow him to meet the German Emperor directly.
In this way, it means that the chief of staff is directly under the jurisdiction of the German emperor, which not only greatly weakens the power of the army commander, but more importantly, the German emperor can learn about the development of the army through the division chief of staff, which greatly improves the control of the army.
During this period, it can be said that the chief of staff of the division and the division commander of the army were in a state of equal rank, and even because the chief of staff of the division was directly under the jurisdiction of the German emperor and independent of the army, it can be said that the responsibility of the chief of staff of the division was slightly higher than that of the division commander.
However, this situation did not last long, and soon Germany discovered the impropriety of this policy, and the authority of the historical staff system began to be weakened. However, the establishment of the post of division chief of staff has also played a good reference role for other countries.
In the late Qing Dynasty, the foreign affairs movement arose, and for a time, the Beiyang New Army was trained on a large scale throughout the country, and the organization system of the domestic army underwent earth-shaking changes. The army command system is too large, and it is obviously not enough to continue to use the original army rank.
In this regard, in September 1906, the Qing government ordered that the Military Department be changed to the War Department, and the original Training Department and the Taibu Temple were merged into the War Department. Not only that, the Qing government also set up a separate military advisory office, and the original military command department of the military training department was merged into the military advisory office. At that time, the Military Counsellor's Office was the highest staff organ in the Qing government's army.
At the beginning of the establishment of the Qing Dynasty Military Advisory Office, some officials openly stated in the court that the Qing government should imitate the military system of the Tang Dynasty and the Song Dynasty and the military system of Germany today, and could not delegate the management of the army to the full authority, but must be in the hands of the imperial court. In addition, the ministers of the military advisory office should also be the royal family relatives.
Not only that, but the statute also clearly states the responsibilities of the Military Advisory Office, such as commanding the staff officers of the Navy and Army, collecting intelligence, surveying and mapping maps, etc., and the Military Consultative Office also has the right to mobilize the army.
It can be seen that the military advisory office set up by the Qing government at the beginning not only served as a staff member of the army, but also had the ability to command the army.
Until 1990, the Military Advisory Office was officially independent from the War Department and became an independent organizational organization, which was the original form of the Chief of Staff Department of china's army divisions. At this time, the statutes of the Military Advisory Office directly stated that all the military plans of the Qing government must be drawn up in advance by the Military Advisory Office, then submitted to the imperial court, and after the approval of the imperial court, it was then sent to the Minister of The Army and Navy for implementation.
It can be seen that the Qing government at that time fully emulated Germany and directly divided the "division chief of staff" within the jurisdiction of the Qing government, so that the emperor could directly mobilize domestic troops. This also shows that during the reign of the Qing government, the power of the division chief of staff can be said to be much higher than that of the division commander.
After the Xinhai Revolution, Yuan Shikai, as the provisional president of the Republic of China, once again officially renamed the military advisory office set up by the Qing government to the Military Staff Department, which also showed that the staff system of the Chinese army was formally established.
Compared with the military advisory office of the Qing Dynasty, the military staff during the Republic of China period only changed from serving the emperor to serving the provisional president Yuan Shikai.
However, although the Qing government had been overthrown and the Republic of China had been established, the old Warlords of Beiyang in the Qing court were still very powerful, and even though the divisional chiefs of staff loyal to the Republic of China government were set up within the army, the local armies still operated independently. For a time, the post of Chief of Staff was in vain.
Therefore, during this period, the size of the authority of the division commander and the division chief of staff was directly reversed. Not only does the chief of staff of the division no longer have supreme power, but the authority to command the army and the command of the army is in the hands of the division commander. The Chief of Staff is useless.
In modern times, there is a popular saying, "Smart and lazy people can serve as commanders, and smart and diligent people can become chiefs of staff." This shows that as a commander of an army, it is often only necessary to formulate a scientific and feasible operational idea; and the chief of staff needs not only to have the ability to formulate operational ideas, but also to be able to put them into practice.
Nowadays, the chief of staff can be said to be the chief of the army's main assistant and implementer of the operation command and army building, and the job of the division chief of staff is to collect war information, analyze the battlefield situation, give advice to the army chief, and wait until the military director agrees to it before taking charge of the specific implementation.
It can be seen from this that for today, the chief of staff of the division can be said to be the right-hand man of the army division commander, so his authority must be slightly lower than that of the division commander.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > commanding the army and not commanding the army</h1>
It is not difficult to find that in different periods, the status of division commanders and division chiefs of staff is also inconsistent, and if the two are directly compared, the results obtained are bound to be not the only results. However, throughout history, on the whole, the authority of division commanders has been superior to that of division chiefs of staff.
It is precisely because the power of the division commander is too high, if we do not take measures to weaken part of the power of the division commander, it is very likely to have very adverse consequences.
For an army, the division commander has the power to control the entire army and understands everything that happens in the army. If at this time there is no division chief of staff, then the division commander will also have the power to command the army. In this case, such an army will only be under the command of the division commander, and once the division commander has different intentions, then there will be a big problem.
Perhaps it was precisely because the rulers understood the concept of "commanding the army and not commanding the army" that the post of chief of staff of the division was established, the purpose of which was to separate the power of the division commander from the commanding army. From this point of view, it can also be found that the chief of staff of the division also holds the position of "supervising the army" in an army.
For example, after the August 13 Incident in 1937, the Kuomintang government, faced with Japan's wanton expansion of aggression, secretly organized a military base camp as the supreme headquarters to command the army, navy and air force of the whole country.
Under the Grand Marshal, there was also a chief of general staff and a deputy chief of staff, of whom Chiang Kai-shek himself served as the grand marshal of the army, navy, and air force, and Cheng Qian, Bai Chongxi, and others served as deputy chiefs of the general staff.
After the fall of Nanking, the Kuomintang government once again promulgated the "Outline for Amending the Organization of the Military Commission," which clearly stipulated that the Military Commission was the highest organ for combat operations throughout the country and was subordinate to the National Government. Among them, the Military Commission also included the Military And Political Department, the Military Command Department, and the Military Training Department, and the Military Command Department was the "General Staff Department" at that time.
After the establishment of the Military Command, Chiang Kai-shek specially appointed Xu Yongchang as a minister. You must know that Chiang Kai-shek was suspicious in nature, and although he was faced with Bai Chongxi, who had been following him, Chiang Kai-shek could not be 100% assured and was unwilling to entrust military power to him.
However, because Xu Yongchang's military ability was outstanding, his personality complemented Chiang Kai-shek's, and he had great respect for Chiang Kai-shek regardless of his predecessors and descendants, and he had always done his utmost to advise Chiang Kai-shek, xu Yongchang could be said to be one of the most trusted people of Chiang Kai-shek at that time.
Chiang Kai-shek gave such an important post to Xu Yongchang precisely in order to better control the entire army through him.
It can be said that throughout the period of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the relationship between Chiang Kai-shek and Xu Yongchang was very close. Xu Yongchang participated in the confidential and put forward his own suggestions as a reference for Chiang Kai-shek's decision-making. Whenever a battle order was issued, Chiang Kai-shek also needed to combine the information provided by Xu Yongchang and his subordinates, and then through his own analysis, he would formulate a battle plan.
In fact, Chiang Kai-shek's practice is also consistent with the purpose of the ancient emperor to set up a supervision army. As the supreme commander of the army, Chiang Kai-shek naturally could not keep an eye on all the troops at all times, and not every battle could be personally fought.
At this time, he can understand the actual situation of the army through the military headquarters, better grasp the power of his "order army", and avoid the situation that "the king will be outside, and the king's order will not be affected".
It can be seen from this that no matter what period of time, whether at home or abroad, the army will often set up a staff officer post, the purpose of which is to set up an independent position in the army, directly under the command of the ruler, so that the ruler can grasp every move in the national army, so that the division commander "takes charge of the army but cannot command the army", so as to avoid the emergence of political division and consolidate his rule.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > concluding remarks:</h1>
Throughout history, the size of the authority between the division commander and the division chief of staff has been unpredictable, but the size of the power is actually determined by the ruler's thinking. However, from a modern point of view, in today's peaceful and democratic era, it is natural that the authority of the division commander is slightly higher than that of the division chief of staff.
Not only that, no matter what era it is, the idea of "commanding the army but not ordering the army" has always been deeply valued by the rulers, and how to separate the power of "controlling the army" from the power of "ordering the army" is the unremitting pursuit of any era.
Even in modern times, in order to prevent the "dictatorship and monopoly" of the army, the state has also set up a separate political commissar to separate the power of the army commander-in-chief from the "order army".
From the national level, no matter which department or position is established, no matter who the power to hold the army and the power to order the army is handed over to whom, the ultimate purpose is to enhance the strength of the country's army and enhance the obedience of the army.