Tyranny of Steel

Immediately after declaring war against the Sultanate of Morocco, Ghazi mobilized the Iberian Army to march south. Due to the generosity of their allies, the Iberian Navy was able to field enough transports to effectively ship their soldiers across the Strait of Gibraltar, as well as a few old corvettes to protect them. 

While the German navy had begun to field nuclear-powered supercarriers and submarines, as well as guided missile cruisers and destroyers. The rest of the world was severely lacking in terms of naval technology.

Only those nations close to the Reich were able to purchase semi-modern brown water navies designed entirely to protect their maritime borders. These ships consisted almost entirely of old retrofitted Honoria class corvettes, as well as river patrol boats. Both of which had been replaced in the German Coast Guard by the new and improved Littoral Combat Ships, and the more modern patrol boats. 

As for the rest of the world, like Morocco, they stilled used wooden sailing ships, armed with black powder muzzle loading cannons. If they even dared to attack the Corvettes which the Iberian Navy fielded, they would be sunk without so much as causing a dent. 

Thus, the Iberian ships were able to make their way safely across the Strait of Gibraltar without incident. While the Iberian Navy was fielding vessels that were mostly on par with the Second World War from Berengar's past life, the Iberian Army made use of a mixture of weapons from the First World War, and the Interwar period. 

Such as the G-43 semiautomatic rifle, the ZB-30 light machine gun, the Luger pistol, and the Vickers water cooled heavy machine gun. They also made use of interwar artillery such as the 7.5cm fk 16 na field gun, and the 10cm k17 field gun. 

Naturally, these weapons were mostly from the old stockpile of obsolete weapons that the German Army kept under lock and key and were retrofitted before being sold to Iberia for a hefty profit. Not only were the arms manufactured in Germany, but so were the munitions they used, thus making the Iberian military entirely reliant on Germany. 

In other words, the Iberian Military had the same capabilities as most of Germany's allies and protectorates. And while their Weapons were fairly modern, so were their uniforms, which were largely based on those used by the Ottoman Army during the final days of the Great War of Berengar's past life. 

Ghazi sat on board one of the ships and gazed off into the distance as his army approached Gibraltar. It had not been long since he was able to claim his throne and end his father's regency. Yet he was already marching off to his first war. His guts felt like they were twisted into knots, as anxiety took its hold over his heart. 

The teenage boy began to think about how his father felt when he marched off to war. Especially in those early days, when his armies were only slightly more advanced than his rivals. Was the man as anxious as he was at this moment? No, probably not. In Ghazi's immature mind, his father was at the peak of what was considered being a man, and as a result, there was no way that he felt fear when marching to war.

With this in mind, the boy sighed heavily, before opening up the buttons of his uniform and gazing upon the concealable plate carrier, which his father had given him for the purposes of daily protection. He had heard rumors that Germans were issued this body armor during the war with Japan, and it had saved many of their lives. He could only hope that these rumors were true. 

After buttoning up his tunic one more, Ghazi looked at his semiautomatic rifle, and checked the chamber by slightly pulling back the bolt, where he noticed that a round of 7.92x57mm Mauser was indeed loaded into the rifle's chamber. He then closed the bolt, and switched the rifle back to safe, where he awaited for the transport ship to land on the beaches of Morocco. Which it did within a few minutes afterwards. 

As the ship hit the shores, Ghazi was just about to disembark from the ship, when the radio operator grabbed ahold of him, and informed him that someone close to him was on the other end of the line. 

"Your majesty, there is a woman on the other end of the line who claims to be your sister. She says she must talk with you. It is urgent."

Ghazi had a befuddled expression on his face, but he did not dare reject Zara's message. If he did, he would never hear the end of it. Thus, he approached the radio and put on the headset as he heard a familiar voice enter his ears. 

"Hey big brother, I just wanted to let you know that your enemy is waiting for you in the mountains where our uncle died. They plan to ambush you, just like they did Hasan. I would suggest not walking into their trap, and instead leveling the entire area with your artillery, and then cleaning up any survivors with your rifles and machine guns. Just a thought. Hope it helps!" 

This news surprised Ghazi, as even his scouts did not know where the Moroccan army was. In fact, he expected them to be defending the capital, but they were instead waiting in ambush for him and his men. He had no idea how his sister had come to this conclusion and was quick to ask her just how she knew this information.

"Zara, how do you know all of this?"

There was a slight sigh of exasperation, followed by a mocking tone filled with irritation as Zara informed her brother of just how she had received this intelligence. 

"Duh... I'm using daddy's satellites to search for the enemy. These things are really useful, more than I initially thought they would be. In fact, if I switch to satellite number three, I can even see you standing on board that old transport with a dumb look on your face.

Oh, by the way, don't tell daddy that I broke into his war room to commandeer his satellites. He will spank me again if he learns I did so, and if that happens, I will never forgive you! Good luck, and don't die out there!" 

With that said, the line went silent, causing Ghazi simply to scoff before making a crass remark beneath his breath. 

"You would like it if your daddy spanked you, wouldn't you?"

After checking to see if anybody had heard him say this, Ghazi sighed in relief before he hung up his headset, and gave the order for his troops to disembark from their ships, where they spent the next hour securing the beachhead and establishing a logistical network. 

The last thing the Iberians needed was to get caught behind enemy lines without any support or supplies. It was only after the preparations had been made that Ghazi gave the order for his troops to march towards the area where the enemy army was lying in wait, which just so happened to be on the way to the capital of Morocco. 

If the enemy planned to ambush Ghazi with matchlock muskets and muzzle loading cannons, just like they had done Hasan, then they had another thing coming. After all, the Iberian Army was no longer the same renaissance style force it used to be.

Instead, they now had access to long range artillery, machine guns, and semiautomatic rifles. What was about to unfold was a slaughter, except unlike how the Moroccans expected, it would be them who met the reaper. 

---

If you're not reading this on Webnovel, consider supporting me by donating at https://ko-fi.com/zentmeister