Strong Troops and Sturdy Horses

A rebellion needed capital. Without enough strength, it was not rebellion, but suicide.

The army under Grand Duke Mikhail's command was undoubtedly his capital for rebellion.

It was also the force Grand Duke Mikhail had focused on building up over the past few years.

Grand Duke Mikhail was keenly aware of this.

If the rebellion failed, he would likely be sent to the guillotine.

Most of the Tsarist Russian Army's current divisions, by comparison, had only a little over ten thousand men. Many units were so badly understrength that they were nowhere near full strength, often numbering only a few thousand.

The units under Grand Duke Mikhail's command were all at full strength. They were well equipped, well trained, tenacious in battle, and possessed formidable combat power.

Their organization also differed considerably from that of other Tsarist Russian Army units.

Fourteen men made up an infantry squad, including a machine-gun team equipped with one light machine gun. The remaining soldiers were all armed with Mosin-Nagant Rifles.

Light machine guns had already been invented by the end of the nineteenth century. However, they had not received much attention.

Even the Danish Army, the first to equip its troops with light machine guns, had not officially adopted the Madsen Light Machine Gun until 1902.

In this timeline, Grand Duke Mikhail had taken the lead in developing the "Mikhail Light Machine Gun" with the help of the arsenal's engineers and had begun equipping his troops with it on a large scale.

Three infantry squads and a fire support team made up an infantry platoon. The fire support team was equipped with one 60 mm mortar.

Mortars were not particularly sophisticated. In another timeline, they would begin to see use a few years later in the war between the Russians and the Japanese. Grand Duke Mikhail had likewise taken the lead in developing them and equipping his troops with them. Besides the 60 mm light mortar, there were also 80 mm medium mortars, 120 mm heavy mortars, and so on.

Three infantry platoons and a fire support platoon made up an infantry company.

The fire support platoon was equipped with two Maxim Heavy Machine Guns and two 80 mm medium mortars.

Four infantry companies and a heavy fire support company made up an infantry battalion.

The heavy fire support company was equipped with four Maxim Heavy Machine Guns and four 120 mm heavy mortars.

Three infantry battalions, a mountain artillery company, a reconnaissance company, and units such as a communications platoon directly attached to regimental headquarters made up an infantry regiment.

The mountain artillery company was equipped with six 76.2 mm mountain guns.

At full strength, an infantry regiment had over 3,800 men.

Three infantry regiments, an artillery regiment, a cavalry battalion, an engineer battalion, a supply battalion, and a reconnaissance battalion, communications company, guard platoon, and other units directly attached to divisional headquarters.

The artillery regiment had three artillery battalions under its command. Two were field gun battalions, each equipped with 24 76.2 mm field guns. The third was a howitzer battalion, equipped with 24 122 mm howitzers.

Moreover, these artillery pieces were not the traditional carriage-recoil guns, but the more advanced barrel-recoil guns.

Like the Model 1897 75 mm Field Gun secretly developed by the Gauls, they used a barrel-recoil mechanism that better addressed the recoil generated when a gun fired, greatly increasing the rate of fire.

Taking 75 mm field guns as an example, the Gauls' Model 1897 Field Gun had a normal rate of fire of 15 rounds per minute and could often reach a maximum of 30 rounds per minute. The Japanese Type 31 75 mm Field Gun had a normal rate of three rounds per minute and a maximum of only five.

That showed just how great the gap was in this respect.

At full strength, the division had over 18,500 men in all, already twice the size of a Tsarist Russian Army division.

The twenty infantry divisions under Mikhail's command already had a combined strength of 370,000 men.

In fact, that alone exceeded the prescribed number of troops.

The cavalry brigades under Mikhail's command also differed greatly from traditional Tsarist Russian Army cavalry brigades.

Each cavalry brigade commanded six cavalry battalions, an artillery battalion, a reconnaissance battalion, a supply battalion, and units directly attached to brigade headquarters. At full strength, each brigade had over 9,000 men.

In this era, a traditional Tsarist Russian Army cavalry brigade had only around 1,500 men. Even a cavalry division had only around 3,000.

One of Mikhail's cavalry brigades was equivalent to three Russian cavalry divisions.

Moreover, the tactics used by Mikhail's cavalry brigades were completely different from traditional cavalry tactics.

They had abandoned tactics that relied primarily on cavalry charges and developed instead into mounted infantry.

That was to say, these cavalrymen were organized and equipped exactly like infantry. The only difference was that they also had warhorses and sabers.

Once they encountered the enemy, these cavalrymen would dismount and fight, relying on their powerful firepower to inflict casualties. Then they would mount up and charge, pursuing the routed enemy.

This gave every one of Mikhail's cavalry brigades the ability to defeat a full-strength Tsarist Russian Army infantry division head-on.

The other mountain infantry brigades had the same organization as the cavalry brigades. The difference was that the artillery battalions directly attached to their brigade headquarters were equipped with 76.2 mm mountain guns, while the cavalry brigades' artillery battalions were equipped with 76.2 mm field guns.

Besides these, Mikhail also had a heavy artillery brigade under his command.

The heavy artillery brigade consisted of six heavy artillery battalions, brigade headquarters, and a supply battalion. The brigade had over 8,000 men in all.

Each heavy artillery battalion was equipped with 12 152 mm heavy howitzers, giving the brigade a total of 72.

In an era before mechanization, heavy artillery such as the 152 mm heavy howitzer, which weighed around three tons, was already the heaviest that could be maneuvered on a land battlefield.

It usually took six draft horses to pull one.

Increasing the caliber further would certainly increase the gun's power.

But its weight would rise as well, making it difficult to maneuver.

Of course, heavy artillery deployed in fortresses was another matter.

Even so, Grand Duke Mikhail could now be said to have strong troops and sturdy horses indeed.

His twenty infantry divisions, ten cavalry brigades, four mountain infantry brigades, one heavy artillery brigade, and the guards who protected him, among others, brought his total strength to around 485,000 men.

That was already sixty percent above the normal size of the force under his command.

Even though the troops directly controlled by Tsar Nicholas II still numbered 900,000,

Grand Duke Mikhail believed that if the two sides went to war, Nicholas II's old-style troops could never match his elite forces.

With such strong troops and sturdy horses at his disposal, Mikhail's ambition grew wildly like weeds.

"General Brusilov, since our army has finished reequipping and has become fully combat-ready, can our plan begin now?" Grand Duke Mikhail made no attempt to hide his ambition.

General Brusilov's expression turned serious.

"Your Imperial Highness, must we really take this step? One careless move could plunge the entire country into chaos. And other powerful enemies are eyeing the empire like tigers stalking their prey. Perhaps this will give them an opportunity to invade the empire."

General Brusilov was deeply worried.