Chapter 421: The New Situation in Iran
The Kingdom of Iran is a feudal tribal state, and the king is the nominal ruler of the state, but in fact, each feudal tribe has its own government, and has administrative, legislative, military, and economic powers in their respective territories; The king did not have a regular army, and he needed to rely on tribal armament for foreign conquests and maintenance of order; The Shah of Iran was unable to achieve either centralization or internal administration. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info
Iran is a multi-ethnic country, each tribe has its own center of power, and the tribe and army are loyal only to the tribe, not to the kingdom or the king. When the kingdom goes to war with foreign countries, it can only call up the armies of the tribes; Militarily, the Kingdom of Iran is a military alliance, and the king is only the head of this alliance.
At this time, the king of the Kingdom of Iran was Ahmad Shah Qajar, who was unable to deal with internal instability or foreign intervention.
After so many years of civil strife, as well as incessant foreign conquests, and from time to time by the Russian Empire and the British invasion, the Kingdom of Iran was very weakened; Last year, the Indian diaspora's impact on Iran's tribes was also very severe, resulting in a massive loss of population and wealth.
The territory of the Kingdom of Iran was divided into 3 parts by Great Britain and Russia, with the northern part being the Russian sphere of influence; Abbas, and the border east to Afghanistan, were the British sphere of influence, which had now been taken over by the Xia Empire; The coast of the Persian Gulf and the central region were buffer zones between the British and Russian empires.
The Russian Empire held a dominant position in the Kingdom of Iran, exerting influence and control over the Kingdom of Iran with its Cossack brigades.
After the signing of the agreement between Britain and the Xia Empire, the Russian Empire guessed the Xia Empire's intentions against the Iranian Kingdom, so by exerting influence on the Iranian Kingdom, the Iranian Kingdom strengthened its military strength in the central region, transferred all the tribal armies on the northern shore of the Persian Gulf and the plain of the two rivers to the Zagros Mountains, and built fortresses with favorable terrain conditions to prepare to block the Xia Empire's invasion of the Iranian Kingdom.
Because the tribes occupy the land of abundant water and grass in the plains, most of the tribes are reluctant to move to the mountainous and poor land, but they are afraid of the Xia Empire's invasion of them, in the dilemma, some tribes move away and some tribes continue to stay in place, they still have illusions about the Xia Empire, they believe that the Xia Empire's army is coming, and they also need them to exercise indirect rule and indirect taxation on the people, as long as they still have a certain value, the Xia Empire will not destroy them.
They didn't know that the Xia Empire's thinking was different from that of Russia and England, that the Xia Empire only had land, no people, and no fancy the insignificant taxes.
The southwestern provinces of Khuzestan and Bushehr were easy to attack and difficult to defend because of the predominance of Arabs and the fact that the area was plain and difficult to defend, and the Kingdom of Iran had transferred the tribes from the region and apparently abandoned them; So the Xia Empire easily occupied these provinces, met with little resistance, and the small tribes that did not relocate were later forced to flee to the Ottoman province of Basra or return to the Kingdom of Iran to follow their tribes.
After the eight divisions of the Xia Empire garrison arrived in the West Asian Special Region, Qian Xiangyang transferred all the mercenaries under the direct jurisdiction of several armies to the south of the Zagros Mountains, preparing to seize the entire southern and southwestern regions of Iran.
At Zhang Liang's suggestion, the theater command strengthened the attack force of the mercenaries, adding one 75mm mountain artillery battalion and one 500-man cavalry battalion to each brigade.
The West Asia Theater has already occupied the land of the West Asian Peninsula and the two river valleys, and as long as it occupies the southern part of Iran again, it will complete the phased tasks assigned by the empire.
Strengthening the military power of the mercenaries and taking on combat missions alone gave the mercenary officers and soldiers confidence, they felt no pressure to fight against the local backward tribal forces, and they were full of yearning for the tribal wealth that had existed for hundreds of years.
When attacking the peninsula area, they can only rob but not kill, so that those mercenaries have already held their breath, and now they can let go of their hands and feet to rob and kill, and the mercenary officers and soldiers are enthusiastic about fighting, and then in their feelings, the happy and drenching battles and unscrupulous looting are the lives that mercenaries should live.
In the face of the heavy troops mobilized by the Xia Empire, the tribal army of the Kingdom of Iran was definitely no opponent; Tsar Nicholas II of the Russian Empire was very annoyed by the behavior of the Xia Empire, and according to his previous temper, he would send a large army directly to West Asia, but now the Russian Empire is facing many difficulties, and the country and the king are facing great pressure, he can only bluff and defend the interests of the Russian Empire in Iran, after all, the interests of Eastern Europe and the Balkans are more important to the Russian Empire.
The Russian Empire urgently mobilized troops from Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Central Asia to the northern border areas of Iran to station in a gesture of support for the Kingdom of Iran at any time; Officers were sent to serve as advisers to the tribal army, and large quantities of army equipment were sold to the tribes of the Kingdom of Iran to strengthen their military power.
The limited support of the Russian Empire did not make the tribes in the border areas of the Kingdom of Iran feel safe, so that a large number of tribes in the Kingdom of Iran that had certain ties to the Ottoman Empire migrated to the territory of the Ottoman Empire, such as Arabs, Kurds, Armenians, etc., who were not the dominant ethnic groups in Iran themselves, and were severely exploited.
The Ottoman Empire was very welcoming to the migrating tribes, and warmly welcomed the returning tribes, which strengthened the Ottoman Empire, and according to the previous practice of the Arabs, they were all formed into several large chieftaincy tribes, moved to the Balkans, gave them part of the land, and let them form mercenaries.
The Ottoman Empire's approach was also acceptable to these tribes, which was the sorrow of the non-main peoples, who could only accept slavery, but now they were less exploited.
Zhang Liang was worried that the war would lead to a war with the Russian Empire, so he asked Qian Xiangyang: "Governor, do you need to ask the General Staff for instructions?" ”
Qian Xiangyang said with a smile: "Your worries are superfluous, the Russian Empire does not dare to start a war against the Empire, their sphere of influence has always been in the north of the Kingdom of Iran, as long as we do not enter their sphere of influence and do not affect their interests, the Russian Empire will not send troops into the territory of the Kingdom of Iran, let alone fight against the Empire for the interests of the Kingdom of Iran, of course, their small actions will definitely not be less."
Listening to Qian Xiangyang's analysis, Zhang Liang felt that it made sense, and the Russian Empire was also afraid of a full-scale war with the Xia Empire, so he said confidently: "Haha, that's good, as long as a full-scale war with the Russian Empire doesn't break out, their small actions are purely superfluous and won't affect the overall situation." Governor, in order to reduce the battle losses of the mercenaries, did you send an airship, a heavy howitzer regiment and a Praetorian Guard division as a reserve to support them at any time? ”
Qian Xiangyang said: "This is very necessary, but there is no need for a division of the Praetorian Guard, only 2 regiments are enough, one regiment of the Praetorian Guard from the 35th Army in Bandar Bandar and one regiment of the 40th Army in Basra, send a deputy division commander to lead the team, and the heavy artillery regiment will be transferred from the artillery brigade directly under the theater." ”
"Yes, Grand Duke, that will ensure that the battle is foolproof."