Great March South (Battle of Belusium)

The Great March South, was a massive military undertaking by the Egyptian Empire, by Pharaoh Ahmose V, wherein the Egyptian Imperial Army marched from southern Ethiopia into central and southern Africa. Over the course of several years, the Egyptain Empire conquered most of the opposing African tribes and kingdoms, including the Zulu, Masai, Buganda, Swaziland, and others.

Prelude
Though the invasion would not formally begin until 15 years into the rule of Ahmose V, intentions for a large scale incursion further south into continental Africa can be traced back generations. Due to consistent obstacles for Northern expansion, it was decided that further Northern campaigns would prove too costly to continue.

Egytian Preparations
The Egyptians had always been aware of the existence of many separate African kingdoms located South of their borders, though actual knowledge of them was limited. The intention was to expand the empire all the way to Africa's southern coast, and then expanding West into central Africa as far as possible. To that end, large scale stockpiling and military conscription was enacted. Due to lack of sufficient knowledge of the native population, it was assumed that the Egyptian army had to be exceptionally large, in case of worst case scenarios.

Preparations took a total 13 years, before completion.

Army
The army raised by Ahmose was one of the largest in Egyptian history. While there is debate as to the exact size of hte army, the general historical consensus is 200,000 infantry, 50,000 calvary, and 1000 elephants. When the preparations began, the standing Egyptian army was 100,000, which including a constant garrison 30,000 strong in the Seuz fortifications. Another 20,000 were garrisoned throughout the Syrian and Caanan fortifications. Disinclined to remove important defensive forces from their Northern nomes, Ahomse did not remove the garrisons. Instead, with approval from the the Council of Commoners, Ahmose began the process of raising and training new soldiers.

For calvary, horses were bred in special breeding facilities across the empire.

The Imperial Army already had a standing elephant force 500 strong, 100 of which were garrisoned across the North, and 50 in the Suez fortifications. Increasing elephant division for the invasion called for the creation for a large scale elephant farm. Young elephants were captured, and brought to a facility south of Aswan, where they were trained by professional elephant trainers.