Assembly

Volksrust.

This exceedingly tongue-twisting name had been inherited by East Africa from the Boers. Strictly speaking, Volksrust had not originally belonged to the Republic of the Transvaal.

Rather, it had been a borderland where the Boers and the Zulu Kingdom met—or, more accurately, a "battlefield" where the two clashed. East Africa now held it firmly in its grasp.

At the same time, Volksrust was the region's transportation hub, an important passage leading to New Hamburg City. East Africa's Central Railway passed through here.

With the Southern Military Region's troop movements underway, more than twenty-seven thousand soldiers were preparing to cooperate with New Hamburg City's garrison and retake the Southern Frontier Province.

This had made Volksrust Station busy. The Southern Military Region's troops had to assemble here first, then pass through the various mountain passes of the Drakensberg Mountains.

East Africa controlled passages large and small. Although British forces occasionally surged forth and opened routes westward, East Africa could swiftly seize them back.

Of course, while the Drakensberg Mountains offered a certain defensive advantage, they could not guarantee absolute security. If the British Army went all out, it still had a chance of breaking through this natural barrier.

Even so, it was an arduous task for the British Army. First and foremost, it lacked detailed knowledge of the Drakensberg Mountains.

After all, the British had arrived far too late. By the time they wanted to make a great display of their prowess in South Africa, both the Republic of the Transvaal and the Zulu Kingdom had already been wiped out by East Africa.

Moreover, East Africa did not open its trade to the outside world and even restricted entry and exit, making it extremely difficult to obtain intelligence within East Africa.

Most of the intelligence the British Army could acquire came