Volksrust.
This very unpronounceable name was inherited from Boers in East Africa. Volksrust was not, strictly speaking, the territory of the original Republic of the Transvaal.
It is the intersection zone between Boers and Zulu Kingdom, or the "battlefield" where the two confront each other. This place is firmly controlled by East Africa.
At the same time, Volksrust is the transportation hub of the region and an important passage to New Hamburg City. Central Railway in East Africa passes through here.
With the military mobilization of Southern Military Region, a total of more than 27,000 troops are ready to cooperate with the New Hamburg City defenders to recover Southern Frontier Province.
This also makes Volksrust station busy. Southern Military Region's army must first gather here and then pass through various passes of the Drakensberg Mountains.
East Africa controls large and small passages. Although occasionally British troops will break out to open up the westward route, East Africa can be recaptured quickly.
Of course, although Drakensberg Mountains has certain defensive functions, it cannot be guaranteed to be foolproof. As long as the British army uses its full strength, there is still a chance to break through the natural dangers of the Drakensberg Mountains.
However, even so, this is a difficult task for the British army. The first is the lack of detailed understanding of the Drakensberg Mountains.
After all, British came too late. By the time British wanted to show off its skills in South Africa, both Republic of the Transvaal and Zulu Kingdom had been destroyed by East Africa.
East Africa does not open up trade to the outside world, and even restricts the entry and exit of the population, so it is very difficult to obtain intelligence in East Africa.
Most of the intelligence that the British army can obtain comes from expedition teams. "Explorers" were arguably the most notorious existence in the 19th century. This term corresponds to "navigators", who were all pioneers of colonialism.
Of course, there used to be similar official organizations in East Africa, but now they have been replaced by various types of scientific expedition teams or professional foreign spy agencies.
Drakensberg Mountains is so big, and East Africa is vast and sparsely populated, so even if East Africa wants to "close itself off", it cannot completely prevent "explorers" from all over the world from entering East Africa. Generally, it is difficult to be discovered by East Africa as long as they do not accidentally break into the towns and villages of East Africa.
This is especially true for the southern provinces of East Africa. The combined area of the southern provinces is more than one million square kilometers, and the military population is less than one million. In this case, the population density of southern East Africa is actually no different from Boer Republic and Cape Colony. They are both typical of vast land and sparsely populated areas.
The only difference is that the number of East African troops in the south is almost one-eighth of the population of Boer Republic.
Of course, with the outbreak of South African War, the number of coalition troops in South Africa has also increased rapidly and exceeded the number of the East African Army. However, most of the contribution to the advantage in contact numbers comes from Indian soldiers.
If we only use the original population of Boer Republic and Cape Town, even if we add two Portuguese colony from the east and west, without local support, there is no difficulty at all in East Africa one versus four, and it can even be pushed equally.
In Volksrust, 511th Division, 513th Division, and 514th Division military commanders who had just ended the Boer Republic war met to discuss how to regain Southern Frontier Province's lost ground.
In addition to these three troops, there is also 512th Division, which is now the New Hamburg City garrison. The main force of 512th Division is besieged in New Hamburg City, but the division headquarters of 512th Division is in the Deyar area near the Drakensberg Mountains.
Therefore, there are a total of four troops participating in the war in East Africa this time, which is basically the majority of Southern Military Region's wealth.
"The British army currently has more than 20,000 troops outside New Hamburg City, which is twice that of New Hamburg City. The number of coalition troops in the entire Southern Frontier Province should be more than 40,000. Most of the remaining troops are facing us on the east side of the Drakensberg Mountains." Kailar said to the friendly commanders who came to support.
511th Division Commander Pripriate said, "Does this mean that the British troops currently in Southern Frontier Province are not the main force?"
Kailar: "The main force of the British army is now in the north, that is, in Mozambique. As for the British army of Southern Frontier Province, they did try to break through the deployment of our division at the Drakensberg Mountains within a month before the war started, but they were repulsed by our army. Later, the enemy and we fell into a tug-of-war near the Drakensberg Mountains, which has been delayed until now."
As the former supreme military commander in the east of Southern Frontier Province, 512th Division led by Kailar had fought many battles with several times the British army in the past few months, including the very famous Battle of the Tugela River in the early days of the war.
It's just that now 512th Division has been divided into two parts by the enemy. Now the troops centered on New Hamburg City in the east mainly obey the command of Aristotle.
Aristotle is the commander of the Tugela River battle in East Africa. He used to be a subordinate of Kailar. Later, after New Hamburg City was besieged, in order to unify the command of the New Hamburg City defenders Taking power, Southern Military Region temporarily reorganized Ninth Brigade from Aristotle and Third Brigade who had been removed from Northern Front into the New Hamburg Port mixed division.
Therefore, the troops that Kailar can actually command now are only one-third of the original 512th Division. However, even so, the strength of the four and a half divisions in the eastern battlefield of Southern Frontier Province in East Africa can reach more than 40,000. This level is already more than twice that of the British army.
Kailar continued, "The railway between us and New Hamburg City has been completely cut off, as has the telegraph line. Contact with the new hybrid division can only be relayed through General Staff."
This is an important reason why Aristotle obtained independent command authority. Now, although Aristotle's contingent is nominally subordinate to Southern Military Region, it is actually directly at the disposal of General Staff.
Of course, the most painful thing in my heart is Kailar. His former subordinates have now come ahead of him and command more troops than him. How can this be justified!
Of course, this was a special situation during the war. When faced with the British army that was several times larger than 512th Division, even other East African forces could not be said to have done better than Kailar in this situation.
Although Aristotle shined in the war, it cannot be denied that the military deployment and commander of the entire Southern Frontier Province war in the early stages was Kailar.
Therefore, after the war, Kailar's contribution is indispensable, but it is even more enviable when he has been divided among his colleagues.
Several other Southern Frontier Province main forces all participated in the war against Boer Republic. Although East Africa is suspected of bullying the minority with more troops, after the war, the war against Boer Republic will definitely be regarded as a war to destroy the country.
Kailar is quite envious of this. Although Boer Republic has a small area, small population, and weak national power, the battle to destroy the country sounds impressive.
Of course, Kailar actually participated in such a battle to destroy the country, that is when East Africa destroyed Republic of the Transvaal.
Except for Republic of the Transvaal, there are countless countries in East Africa that have perished, but except for Zanzibar, most of them have little gold content.
After all, the African chiefs who wielded outdated weapons and dominated Africa were not worth mentioning in the history of wars in East Africa. At least hundreds of such kingdoms were wiped out in East Africa, and probably thousands if even large tribes were counted.
The commanders of the other divisions have no feelings for the little Jiujiu in Kailar's heart. Although 512th Division is now divided into two units, there is no difference in their eyes. After all, whether the strength of the mixed division has increased out of thin air, they are still the same old team of 512th Division.
As for bullying "Boers", it may not be more exciting to confront the British army head-on. Unlike Ernst, Ernst values Boers, but the target of most officers in East Africa is definitely not the "mere" Boers, but one of the "most" powerful armies in the world - British Army.