Although the rebellion had only been in place for a few months, Ahvaz was already in ruins.

Unlike Britain, France and Germany, which had completed the industrial revolution, the Persian Empire was still a hierarchical feudal state, with the upper echelons of the country controlled by feudal princes and high-ranking monks, and the middle stratum of the entrenched landlord class and the emerging bourgeoisie, the wealth of the entire country was monopolized by these strata, and the lower commoners and serfs had nothing.

Unfortunately, the princes, nobles and high-ranking monks who control the vast majority of the country's rights often do not resist to the death in the face of war.

The devastating nature of the war was unparalleled, with a population of about 200,000 in Khuzestan before the rebellion and now very few left, many fleeing to the neighboring Ottoman Empire to escape the war, and the tendency for the rebellion to spread to other regions, which is unacceptable to all.

In fact, Donn also had a headache, after the rebellion of the Báb, about 8,000 people went to Port Elizabeth despite the ban, most of these people were young and middle-aged, they would do anything to make a living, and if they did not handle it well, it could cause serious social problems.

"Reza, your troops will gradually withdraw from Khuzestan and the rebellion will be handled by our umbrella company." Tang Entu saw that he was clearly trying to annex Huzestan.

"Don, only the oil of Ahvaz belongs to you, and Khuzestan belongs to Persia." Reza Khan did not expect Don's ambitions to be so big, and if Reza Khan's troops withdrew from Khuzestan and surrendered Khuzestan to the Umbrella Company, then it would become a shame that Reza Khan could not wash away for the rest of his life.

"You took 200,000 pounds worth of supplies from me back and forth, and only gave me Ahvaz's oil? Ahvaz's oil is not worth 200,000! "Don is also a greedy and shameless colony now, all investments are to be returned, the Umbrella Company can support Reza Khan or other generals, the only constant is profit.

"Ahvaz has at least 10 million barrels of oil, isn't that worth 200,000?" Reza Khan also cites the figures, which are estimates of Ahvaz's oil reserves by senior experts from a number of oil companies.

At this time, the technology can only get such an inference.

"Less, Ahvaz's oil has been dug up, and even Anglo American has withdrawn from Ahvaz." Don also looked remorseful.

This is the consequence of predatory exploitation, when Anglo-American oil discovered oil in Ahvaz, all the oil companies rushed to it, and derricks were built in dense clusters.

Although experts speculated that Ahvaz had at least 10 million barrels of oil, the result of predatory exploitation was that it was now no longer able to dig up oil, and the British American Petroleum Company, which had once held on to Ahvaz, was disheartened and finally withdrew three days ago.

"It has nothing to do with our agreement, which only included Ahvaz oil." Reza Khan has a strong psychological quality, his face is not red and his heart is not beating, and the meaning of his words is that it has nothing to do with me whether there is oil or not, even if there is no oil, it deserves to be unlucky for your umbrella.

"Heh, Reza, the Umbrella Company will not be humiliated." Don En laughed angrily, not to mention whether there was oil under Ahvaz, Reza Khan's attitude was absolutely unacceptable to Don En.

"The Persian Empire will not be humiliated, and it is indisputable that Khuzestan belongs to Persia." Reza Khan was probably a little fluctuating during this period of time because of the expansion of his strength, and his perception of himself was not clear enough.

"Then let's use our strength to decide where Khuzestan belongs." Don En doesn't talk nonsense, he fights if he can't talk about it, Yazi, who sounds very powerful in the name of the Guards, is actually a scum in Tang En's eyes.

To deal with the Guards led by Reza Khan, Don didn't even need to send the Umbrella Company's mercenaries, Ali Rashid's troops could handle it.

"Are you declaring war on the Persian Empire?" Reza Khan was inward-looking.

"We are just a commercial company, we don't have the power to declare war on an empire, we just want to defend our own interests." Don didn't dare to mention the stubble of "declaring war", but it was similar to declaring war, southern Africa did not have the right to declare war on foreign countries, and the umbrella company was a commercial company, just because of some unpleasant friction with the Persian Empire because of interests.

"Then let's talk on the battlefield." Reza Khan's back is gone.

At noon that day, a unit under Reza Khan marched from northern Khuzestan to Ahvaz, and before that, Reza Khan's troops had not entered Khuzestan at all.

Also at noon on the same day, a mercenary unit of the Umbrella Company entered Khuzestan from the direction of Basra, which was the first time that the mercenaries of the Umbrella Company entered the Persian Empire in an organized manner.

Hank, who had just joined the Umbrella Company, was in this unit.

Hank, who left Port Elizabeth on a camel, regretted that he could not carry his beloved cowboy because of the caliber, but he did not choose the Browning, which was uniformly provided by the umbrella company, but chose a knight with a shorter barrel.

Compared with Browning, which is inconvenient to unload, Hank still trusts the quick-response revolver, and the caliber of the knight is also nine millimeters, and the shape is indeed not as good as that of a cowboy, but the power and accuracy have not decreased much.

"Our umbrella is an oil company, why can't we buy a few cars when we go out on camels?" Hank is habitually whining, but that's all, Hank is still serious and responsible for his work.

"Don't say a word, Hank, look at the road we're walking now, if you really want to equip us with a truck, I'm afraid we'll have to carry it." Oscar, a member of Hank's team, enjoys that he actually built a pergola on a camel so that he doesn't have to withstand the scorching sun, which makes Hank very envious.

Still inexperienced, Hank will certainly not make a similar mistake next time.

Compared with camels, cars are indeed more comfortable, but cars have higher requirements for roads, and there are more failures, compared to camels are much better, as long as they are fed, they will work hard, and they don't need to refuel every day, and they can be full for many days after eating.

Of course, for the mercenaries, the camel has another inhumane use, and then the mercenaries of the umbrella company have to go deep into Khuzestan, in case the logistics are not available, the camel can also eat.

Considering the situation of Huzestan, this possibility is still very high, and Hank and the others took this problem into account when they set off, and each mercenary carried more than five hundred rounds of ammunition with him, which is four times as many as under normal circumstances.

Port Elizabeth's road traffic conditions are still very good, southern Africans really love to build roads, as long as it is controlled by southern Africa, within two years, road traffic will be extremely developed, Port Elizabeth is building a road between Port Elizabeth and Muscat, which is not necessary in many people's eyes, after all, the two places can travel through the Persian Gulf, and there is no need to spend money and trouble at all.

Other issues can be compromised, but on this issue, the umbrella and the Adan company are very persistent, in fact, it doesn't cost much, after the outbreak of the rebellion in Khuzestan, the refugees who fled to Port Elizabeth were all organized by the Adan company to build roads, in exchange for rough food to survive, this work is very heavy, people get sick and even die every day, the miraculous thing is that the Persians would rather endure the oppression of the Adan company than return to Khuzestan to face the Bábs.

The people of the war had no reason to speak of, and the day after Hank and his men entered Khuzestan, they came to a village that had been reduced to ruins, which was not small in size, probably more than a hundred families, and now of course it was deserted and ruined.

In the open space at the entrance to the village, there were many corpses that had not yet had time to be buried, and most of them were in different places, and they were so highly decomposed because of the hot weather that they could smell the unbearable smell of corpses from a distance.

"Don't get closer, go around the side, there may be a plague in this village, no one is allowed to approach-" Captain Bill put a towel wet with water as a mask to cover his mouth and nose, and Hank immediately did the same, the plague is not a joke, after the Black Death, the whole of Europe has a shadow of the plague, and it has not recovered until now.

From a distance, it is easy to tell that many of the corpses are women and children.

Hank shook his head repeatedly: "Who would be so cruel? Even women and children were killed. ”

"This is the power of faith, and all heretics should be burned to death." Oscar was a fanatical believer in Christianity.

"You're crazy!" Hank has a hard time accepting this extreme thinking.

However, it is obvious that more people agree with Oscar's words, and many people shout slogans while drawing long knives and waving them, all of them are already in the twentieth century, and they don't know what the use of long knives is.

But looking at the corpses with different heads, Hank seemed to suddenly realize something.

"Hank, you'll get used to it soon, don't you treat the Indians like this?" Oscar doesn't think it's fanatic.

"That was the last century, and we can live in peace with the Indians now." Hank grimaces.

"Can we really live in peace?" Oscar didn't believe it.

Hank was silent, some facts are irrefutable, some parts of the United States are still going on in the Westward Movement, nominally Africans in the United States can coexist peacefully with whites, but can there really be peace?

Hank didn't believe it himself.

"That's what we're here for, and it's our mission to save these people from the brutal rule of the Persian Empire and bring them a more advanced model, a better life." Bill's words convinced Hank, and it was with this sense of mission that the mercenaries came to Khuzestan with this sense of mission.