NationStates Jolt Archive

Minister of War Haram Zahed grabbed his coat and stepped out the door. It was a rather chilly January night and it had been a hard day. The planned invasion of Afghanistan would require another 50,000 infantrymen, 40 cannons, and a large boost in taxes. Fortunately, the British were more than willing to help the Persians help them take Afghanistan. He sighed and walked down the alley to his small townhouse several streets away.

Zahed turned around an alley and a shiver went down his back. This street, normally somewhat busy with merchants and beggars was empty. He knew Tehran was losing some of its wealth, and it was about 3 degrees colder than normal but there wasn't even another commuter.

Zahed stared at a broken window and noticed the moon was bright tonight. Perhaps things would be getting better soon. A slight glimmer appeared behind him. Zahed spun around and fired his pistol. The man grunted and fell, dropping his sword with a clang. Zahed smirked and laughed at this pathetic attempt on his life. Then he shivered again.

"Drop the gun."

Zahed obeyed.

"He was a good man. He loved his country, unlike you."

"I love my Shah..ow!" The man behind him smacked him with the hilt.

"He is no man to be loved. He should die. Just like our mother did. No, don't say anything. You weren't the only survivor. When the Bakotars slaughtered the caravan to Moscow, they saved what remained of their dignity. Our father was a whore of the Tzar, like you are to the Shah."

"Razoul... but... I am only serving my country and my people!"

Razoul Zahed spat. "That serpent is not a man. His head should be cut off, and his body burned. If you want to serve your people read this and follow its instructions. I hope God has blessed you with wisdom."

Razoul handed him a letter and then knocked him out with the hilt of the sword.

"Get up you damned pigs! Gerrup! Ha! Hurry, the colonel wants you ready within the hour. That means you have, oh, 3 minutes!"

Abdul Karem groaned. He knew that if he didn't get up in time, something bad would happen. Chances were, not him either. The colonel was ruthless and random. Still Abdul had enough friends to make him be ready. He quickly put on his uniform and packed his bag. The others around him weren't as quick. Abdul was ready within two minutes and was one of the first out to the yard.

Five minutes later, stragglers came running out, hair uncombed and shirts untucked. Oh hell, thought Abdul to himself.

"YOU INFIDELIC HEATHENS! IF THIS WOULD HAVE BEEN A RAID, ALL!! ALL OF YOU WOULD BE DEAD!! SARGENT!"

"Sir!"

"Pick out 20 men from the line."

The Sargent passed by each rank and yanked several men out. The Sargent pulled out a corporal and even another Sergant. The man was being nice to his platoon. Until he passed by Abdul, when he took three men in a row. No one he knew, strangly enough. Well, God was good sometimes.

"Stand in formation!"

The men obeyed. Then the colonel whipped each man across the face. He then pulled out his pistol and shot the first man in the head. Every man flinched.

"Sergant, take the rest of them to the hill. Take their boots and make them carry rocks until I say so. Should they trip, cut their arms off. Regiment Dis...MISSED!"

Minister Zahed looked at his maps and lists. He had nearly 150,000 Infantry and over 20,000 cavalry. His artillery numbered 50 cannons. Though it wasn't impressive, it would do the job. He would march the army to Herat. From there, he would move north, around the mountains, and take the cities to the North. The British would move south up the Khyber Pass and take Kabul and then assist in the north. Estimates of the Afghan army was anywhere from 40-90,000 regulars. This war would either be quick and decisive, or long and painful.

Newly promoted Major-General John French watched as the army marched through the Kyber Pass. It was the largest British Army seen in India since the mutiny. There were 15 British regiments and almost 30 Indian as well as various Irish, Canadian and even a few raised in Burma. It numbered 30,000 men of all ranks and included several Royal Artillery regiments as well as engineers and pioneers. The logistics alone took a genius to arrange and supply caravans were to be sent, under guard, through the pass to provide support to the army.

An ultimatum had been sent to the Afghans to demand the turning over of rebels taht they had been harbouring from both the British and Persian governments and non-compliance had resulted in the forcing of the pass and the recovery of the rebels by force. As well as remaining in Afghanistan to protect it and to prevent any other uprisings breaking out. Hopefully it would be a quick and easy victory, but already Afghans could be seen on the surrounding hilltops keeping an eye on the proceedings.

French sighed at the sight and hoped that after one thrashing at the hands of his guns the Afghans would submit and allow the British to take care of the rebels.

Razoul Zahed was excited. His brother had listened to his orders and had taken nearly the entire army to Afghanistan. There was only about 5,000 infanry in Tehran with the remaining guns, a small garrison in each other town, and about 12,000 cavalry that could be anywhere.

He himself had about 40,000 Bakotars and Farsis in Afghanistan and another 100,000 tribesmen who could be anywhere. However, at this moment, there were 400 Bakotars in the city, and another 2,000 outside waiting. Razoul was in Shiraz, the headquarters for the resistance. The city was only somewhat willing to join, as they feared the army when it returned. There was also a threat of British willingness to help the Shah. Razoul needed a good reason to spark full fledged revolution. He could take this garrison of 1,000 easily. However, he wanted the people's support.

Behind him, he heard a scream. Some guards had raided a house of a family who had smuggled guns. The punishment for that was death by whatever the governer felt was necissary. This day, the governor was feeling extra ruthless.

The family was beat down by guards. Then the guard picked up the father. Two palm trees were relatively close to each other. The governor ordered the palm trees tied together. The crowd was perplexed at how this would solve anything. Then the man was tied to the trees. Razoul saw what was happening. His eyes opened wide and his jaw dropped. He began to tell his lietenant to ready the tribesmen outside. This would suffice to incite rebellion.

Razoul began to explain to people around him how horrible this was going to be. He told them how it happened in Isfahan and Kerman several times already. Most people had no clue what was happening. Then the guard cut the rope.

The trees sprung back into place, but the father was still tied to them. The force however was too strong for the old man's body. It tore his gut in half and his family screamed as they too were chopped to pieces. The daughter ran and the guard grabbed her cloak. He grinned as he pulled the blade back. Razoul then threw a rock and hit the guard in the eye. He squealed and the crowd roared. Screaming curses and damnations, the crowd began to swarm the soldiers. As the soldiers began to defend themselves the crowd grew ever angry. The Bakotars in the city began to open fire. The soldiers, not knowing who fired, began to fire into the crowd, further causing anger. Soon, horns from the outside began to fill the city. The gates flew open and over 1000 horsemen flooded into the city crying praises of Allah. The city was taken and the new Future of Persia began.

Abdul was tired and sore. They had been marching from Kerman for the past 2 weeks and that incident at camp made him even more weary. It seemed like the entire army was scared even though only a battalion had seen it.

"'TALLION... HALT!" the sergant bellowed. Ahead was the city of Herat. It was rather large and wouldn't be too welcoming. About a mile away was the fort. According to intelligence, there were 5,000 Afghans in there. The second army that had headed south would come up against a garrison 10,000 strong.

Abdul stared at the fort and thought it looked small when the guns erupted. The War began.

Port of Bandar Abbas

At the docks on the large port of Bandar Abbas, a guard yawned. He was guarding the 3 new battleships that came from France and was extremely bored. Then his throat was cut open and blood oozed out of his jugular. Mehrang Barmak wiped his blade clean and urged the others forward. Several other guards fell and a group of about 20 well hidden rebels ran up the board to the ship. There the followed through with the other guards and ensured that no one else was awake. Several men ran to the watch tower, while some ran down to the sleeping quarters, while a few others threw ropes down. Nearly 200 men who had some engineering and artillery training climbed up the roped from ships down below. Mehrang opened his telescope and looked around. Then he smirked as he saw the location of the barracks. He told his head engineer about where it was and then put his hands over his ears. Then the guns opened fire and the shore began to be shelled.

On the other battleships, nearly the same thing was happening. The rebels now had control of the navy.

The British collumn in Afghanistan made it's way deeper into the Kyber Pass. Progress was slow as the collumn had to stop every few miles and construct small rock forts to defend the supply route for further collumns. The foorts were garrisoned by both Infantry and cavalry forces as well as a few of the smaller guns.

A forward patrol from the 9th Dragoons soon stumbled upon the abandoned and delapidated fort of Jellalabad. This occupied the Afghan end of the pass and was tactically placed. French's plans stated that this fort was to be taken and held as a suply base from which to bring food and ammunition into the country. This required that the fort was first cleared out of any defending forces and then rebuilt to make it defensible.

Lieutenant Davies of the scout party ordered his men to dismount and draw their carbines whilst he wrote a hasty dispatch to the rest of the collumn and handed it to a corporal who galloped back towards it His orders were not to take the fort, that was to be done by infantry and artillery that were following if needed, but to reconnoitre the area and see if it is actually defended.

"Right then lads, follow me" He ordered as he scrambled up a breach in the wall of the fort, dust falling down and covering his uniform. He led his party up the breach and soon ended up in the internal courtyard. There was still no sign of enemy forces, but he was wary none the less. He held back and waited for more men of his regiment to reinforce him.

Less than 5 minutes later Major Willington rode up with half the regiment, dismounted and concluded the reconnaissance of the fort. It was empty, all the corridors had been searched and the cellars had been checked. The dragoons moved on to securing the surrounding area and preparing the fort for the recieval of the supplies.

2 hours late the remainder of the collumn arrived; including the supply train, the artillery and the infantry. Engineers began to patch up the walls and prepare the outer defences with additional barricades whilst the infantry began to clear the overgrown ditch and glacis of bush and scrub to provide easier line of sight for the defenders. Supplies were moved into the cellars and billets found for the men. Major-General French occupied one of the few surviving rooms on the upper floors as his headquarters and from there issued orders to send out patrols towards kabul and other, smaller towns to check the status of defence forces there, if any. Progress had been remarkably easy so far and few defenders had been encountered. However French would not move on until the Jellalabad defences were complete. He was a very cautious commander.

Abdul pulled the trigger and a man fell backwards. He then proceded to reload, only to hear cheers behind him. Abdul looked at his friend and then ran towards the sound. There he saw the remaining Afghan army with thier guns below them and their hands in the air. They had surrendered! Abdul immediately thought of the man he had just killed. It was totally unnecissary! God damn it, he thought, this whole thing was unnecissary. But there was nothing one man could do. He heard rumors of rebels capturing several cities. He hoped those rebels would be what they said they were, fighting tyranny.

The siege of Herat had ended badly. First, the guns ran out of ammunition. Then the wall had been too tall for the ladders. Finally, when the door was battered down, the fighting had lasted nearly three hours. He could tell nearly 3000 Persians had died, countless more injured. Then Abdul's heart sunk. They were to continue further into Afghan territory unless the Afghans gave up the rebels. The orders were to head for Farah, while the other part of the Army would head to Qaleh-ye Now. Abdul nearly cried.

The town of Yazd was nearly aflame. A crowd of nearly 20,000 had begun to riot and declare their alliegance to the new revolutionary government called the Faithful. First it was only a few hundred rioters protesting new taxes to pay for Afghanistan. Then more and more people began to arrive, proclaiming thier woes: their son was fighting a worthless war, thier goats were taken by the army, the Shah wasn't doing enough to industrialize. Eventually, someone lit a house on fire. It spread across the city, the flames leaping across. More and more people began to blame it on the government proclaiming the lack of decent fire protection. Soon it was full fledged revolution, and many people were trying to break down the armory. The governor fled and most of the garrison had surrendered or even joined the rebellion. Yazd was now part of the Faithful.

Several more riots began to occur in the south. In towns like Kerman and Abadan were feeling racial tensions against the Persian Shah and hoped the more Islamic inclined revolution would be more equal. Others like Bushehr were tired of the conscriptions. Most inportantly, though, was the general agreement and dislike for the Shah, even among the army. In Isfahan, however, the garrison brutally repressed the riots with hundreds claimed dead; however many really died was a different matter.

Razoul Zahed closed his telescope. The garrison at Isfahan had somehow grown to nearly 7,000, and from what he could see, they had at least a dozen cannons. The Shah must really like this city, he thought to himself.

Then, an explosion rocked the west side of the city. It seemed some independant rebels had begun actions of their own. Though slightly off timing for what he wanted, Razoul was satisfied. "Adar, take 40 men and sneak in through the east side. Take these," he handed some new rifles and continued. "And kill the garrison at the gate. You know the rest. Avoid the mob and if possible open the gate away from the violence." Adar picked his crew then ran towards the city.

Razoul waited nearly 2 hours and began to consider sending another group when the south Gate exploded. "That's our cue! FOR PERSIA!!!" Screams and chants in at least 4 different languages echoed in the valley. All of the several thousand tribesmen were brandishing their swords and waving them, until they reached a man dressed in the Shah's uniform. Then the iron blade would swing down and slash with the victim's blood gushing up, depending on where the leathal blow fell. This fight was like every other one. The army was poorly trained and armed even worse. That would change.

When it was all done, Razoul rallied the mob and they began to chant praises for the Faithful and curses for the Shah. Razoul began to wonder, though, where Adar was. Suddenly, Razoul drew his sword and spun around. A smiling Adar stood next to him. "You bastard," Razoul proclaimed. They embraced and Adar explained, "Well we met a group of engineers who were going to fire the cannons on the crowd. We killed them and used the powder to blow the gate. I thought it was clever."