Persian Empire 1845

Chapter 72 Exercise
August arrived quickly, and Moltke led his exercise troops to Tehran. The exercise scenario was finalized, with two fully reorganized corps conducting offensive and defensive maneuvers. This was a crucial test of the Iranian military's reforms, and Nasser al-Din even made a special trip to the mosque, hoping everything would go smoothly.

On August 12, Muhammad Shah and Naser al-Din arrived at the exercise command post, where they were greeted by Salami, the commander of the Azerbaijani region, along with senior military officials and Prussian officers.

"Greetings, Shah," the crowd said. Muhammad waved to the people who had come to greet him, and then the large group of people walked into the command post.

As the commander-in-chief of the exercise, Salami explained the content of the exercise to Shah. "Shah, in order to test the true situation of this military reorganization, we have prepared this exercise. We hope that you will have a clear understanding of the reorganized army."

“Today’s exercise is an offensive and defensive battle, and the commander of the attacking side is Division Commander Isfahani,” Salami said, pointing to a general in his fifties behind Shah. Muhammad nodded to him.

He turned back to Salami's explanation. "The commander of the defense is Division Commander Shapur," he said, pointing to another general behind Shah. Muhammad offered a few words of encouragement to Shapur before continuing to listen to Salami's explanation.

“The objective of this attack and defense is to gain control of this hill,” Salami explained to Muhammad, pointing to the small hill on the map. Seeing that the explanation was nearly complete, Nasser al-Din said to the two commanders, “You two can go and prepare.” They nodded and left the command post.

After the explanation, the question was asked of Muhammad. "Shah, may we begin?" Muhammad nodded, indicating that it was time to begin. Salami then gave the order to his staff. "The exercise begins," the staff member relayed to both command posts.

"Let's fire a basic load of shells first and show them what's what!" Isfahani, in charge of the attack, gave the order. "A barrage of shells to teach them a lesson!" The defending frontline immediately unleashed a volley of shells, shattering their defensive positions. The defending commander, Shapur, observed the shelling. "Test my defenses," he said, "so I don't need to return fire." Shah and his men witnessed the shelling from the exercise observation point. After the shelling, the staff reported the results: the defending two regiments holding the frontline had suffered five percent casualties.

A staff officer ran over to report to Shah and his men, ordering a regiment to launch a probing attack. The group could see a regiment attacking from afar in front of the position.

After launching the probing attack, the frontline positions opened fire at full force. The soldiers, inexperienced in large-scale warfare, were utterly stunned by the metallic storm from the opposite side, thinking thankfully it was just an exercise. This sight sent chills down the spines of Shah and his men. "The firepower density is too high; the attackers will suffer heavy casualties," one observer remarked. Isfahani was deeply troubled by the losses; a regiment had lost forty percent of its probing attack, and that was only after the regimental commander, seeing the situation was dire, prematurely ended the attack and withdrew.

"It seems we have no choice but to use artillery for now; their firepower is too strong. Flanking maneuvers won't be very effective against their current positions," the chief of staff stated his opinion. "Right now, we can only focus our attacks. In a moment, unleash all the artillery shells on the relatively flat right flank of the position at high speed. Send a regiment forward to create a breach, and then follow up to expand the gains once the breach is established." Isfahani was a decisive man; he instinctively found the only solution.

The attacking artillery roared again, this time bombarding the right flank of the front line to shreds. Upon seeing this, Shapur, in the defending command post, ordered a counter-attack by the artillery and deployed another regiment to reinforce the right flank.

Upon seeing the reinforcements, Isfahani ordered two battalions of artillery to counterattack, while the rest intercepted the shelling, and simultaneously launched an attack. Seeing the situation was dire, the regimental commander of the right-wing position mobilized a battalion to reinforce. Both commanders were making moves, and the exchange of blows was quite lively.

"They've broken through!" a staff officer shouted, and three regiments charged into the front line despite casualties. "Order the follow-up troops to follow up, artillery to block the enemy reinforcements," Isfahani ordered. The defending Shapur was also giving orders to the artillery. "Intercept the enemy's follow-up troops!" The right flank became the focus of attention, and the attacking side finally captured the position thanks to their numerical advantage. "Thank you both for giving us such a wonderful exercise," Shah said to the two commanders after the exercise. "Thank you, Shah, for observing this exercise," the two commanders replied.

At the debriefing meeting following the exercise, high-ranking military officials gathered, including Naser al-Din, to hear the army's summary of experiences. Chief of Staff Salami began his summary of the exercise. "Colleagues, overall this exercise was satisfactory, but we must also recognize some shortcomings. First, as tactical units at the division level, our firepower in striking defensive positions was insufficient."

"During the combat exercises, we should see that there is a problem of disconnect between the front and rear lines of the troops, and we need to strengthen training. The reorganized army is much stronger than the unreorganized army in all aspects, but as can be seen from this exercise, the ammunition consumption is also three times greater than that of the unreorganized army, which is a new test for logistics support. From this, we need to strengthen the training of our army's logistics officers. In future military work, logistics support will be the department that tests us the most."

Moltke had no complaints about the exercise; such a good performance was already quite an achievement. Moreover, the government had allocated over 1000 million rials for his military restructuring plan, and now he needed to accelerate its progress.

Moltke initially trained the Iranians using mainstream line infantry tactics, but he discovered that the Persians used muskets with greater range and firepower, so he switched to skirmish tactics, a tactic that had been used since the Napoleonic era. This not only reduced losses but also maximized the kill count on the enemy.

Since the summary meeting mentioned logistics, then the railway construction should be accelerated. In addition to the railway from Tabriz to Tehran, the railway from Ardabil to Mazandran should also be built.

Furthermore, the Tabriz Arms Factory could now produce exploding shells, bullets, and infantry rifles. Artillery technology was developed in cooperation with Prussia and France, with consultants from both countries providing guidance. Additional buildings were added, including a gunpowder factory, a copper and iron workshop, and a translation center. The factory employed over 2000 workers and had an investment exceeding 100 million rials.

The factory not only produces weapons, but also lathes and machines. In February, they successfully manufactured Iran's first machine tool, used to process steam engine parts.

These achievements are the result of Nasser al-Din's and Iran's hard work; they had finally begun to sprout, and they couldn't let others nip them in the bud.

When Mohammed returned, he praised Nasser al-Din highly, believing the achievements of the past two years were excellent. He told him that the military project could not be stopped and approved the proposal to establish a staff academy and an officer's academy in Tehran, which should be implemented as soon as possible.

Not only that, but Prussian officers, represented by Moltke, also received rewards from the Shah. Hopefully, they will continue their efforts. The more Iran deals with Prussia, the more it will want to buy, especially weapons and other goods. Westphalian merchants are pleased, as they can finally sell their goods to other countries.

(End of this chapter)