This is it, everyone. Finally, the true beginning of the Ba Sing Se arc. Make no mistake, this is the meat of the tactical and strategic aspects of this story. Logistics, maneuvering, frenzied combat, and clever plans, though we will of course still have some of the other important stuff this story is known for. Frankly, it's a shame it took so long to get back to the North Pole style warfare, but it was necessary to take my time getting here. Everything that happened up until now was important in one way or another.
But I am excited, I won't lie. It sounds pretty nerdy, but I've spent a lot of time pondering the feasibility of different conventional tactics to take Ba Sing Se, as well as what it would really take to defeat such a city. That is not to say there will be absolutely no flaws in how I handle all of this. I'm not a siege engineer, an accredited general, a politician or a logistics officer. I'm just a writer who is doing his best to portray this conflict in a way that is grounded, but still entertaining. As things unfold, I invite everyone to share their opinions on what unfolds, as well as what they think will happen later.
To cap off, thank you to everyone who has stuck around this long, and an extra thanks to those who review. I can't answer them all personally, but make no mistake, I do read them all, and I really love the ones that speak at length about what they enjoy and what they are looking forward to. Writing the story is fun in and of itself, but engaging with the readers as I do so is what really makes it a unique joy. Thank you, everyone!
"As you can see, this machine is truly titanic. A masterwork, if I do say so myself. I call it... The Drill."
Azula cocked an eyebrow as she sat at the strategy table in the outpost war room. Pinned against one of the walls was a large schematic on parchment that depicted the massive war machine that had arrived at the staging area recently. War Minister Qin was gesturing fervently at it with obvious pride.
"How very clever of you, War Minister."
Qin completely missed Azula's completely blatant sarcasm. "Thank you, Princess. This incredible machine guarantees our victory. Against it, the mighty walls of Ba Sing Se are but pebbles in our path to greatness!"
The Princess glanced to her side at Xisheng, who was likewise at the table at her behest. Qin had been too excited to question his presence. The young man's mouth was hidden by his interwoven fingers, his colorful eyes darkened by some indiscernible emotion as he stared at the schematic with a furrowed brow. The three of them were the only ones in the room: Xisheng had briefly mentioned a seeming lack of other officers, but only now was Azula realizing how right he was. It seemed like Qin was really the only person in charge around here, and he didn't have much of a support structure in place to assist him. She certainly wanted to inquire about this, but right now, discussing this gigantic drill was a greater priority.
"Is that so? I assume the intent is to drive this machine directly into the wall and simply... drill a hole?"
Qin gestured towards the part of the schematic that broke down the drill, though the drawings and annotations didn't really mean much to Azula. "Precisely, Princess. See, the drill is long enough to punch all the way through the walls of Ba Sing Se. In the past, it took Iroh months, years to breach the wall. With my masterpiece, we will be through in no more than an hour. The hydraulic technology moving it forward and powering the drill is cutting edge. There is no more advanced machine in the Fire Nation, domestic or military."
Azula was about to inquire further, but she didn't get a chance to. Xisheng spoke aloud for the first time since entering this room. "How do you plan to get it to the wall?"
At first, Qin narrowed his eyes at the much younger man, seemingly insulted to be questioned by him. Azula had never specified anything about Xisheng to him other than the fact that the young man was trusted by her. Though honestly, that should have commanded more respect in and of itself. Azula made sure to iterate this.
"Answer his question, War Minister. And any further questions he may have: assume that he speaks for me in this meeting."
Qin didn't seem happy about this notion, and Xisheng, surprisingly, didn't seem shocked to be granted this privilege. Perhaps he was too focused on the topic at hand to be appreciative of something like that. At any rate, Qin knew better than to deny or disrespect the Princess, so he got his ire under control, though his tone was just barely acceptable.
"As you may have noticed, the Drill is capable of locomotion. It is more than capable of advancing towards the walls."
Xisheng's expression was stony. "Across open ground? Across literal ground?"
Qin scoffed as he dismissed Xisheng's obvious concern. "Your fears are misplaced. What could Earthbenders possibly do against a machine of this size? Nothing short of them dropping the wall itself on it will stop this machine. And if that happens, I daresay we are still in an advantageous position."
Now with a prominent scowl on his face, and perhaps knowing that he had Azula's blessing, Xisheng rose from his position at the table and moved towards the schematic on the wall, gesturing at a part of the drawing that appeared to depict a multitude of legs, similar to a caterpillar.
"The drill uses these spikes to move, right? I saw them in action when it first approached the base."
Quite clearly annoyed with Xisheng's actions, Qin nevertheless managed to avoid saying anything snarky. "Yes. The Drill is broken up into segmented parts. The lead section retracts the spikes, extends forward, then plants them in the ground again. Then the next section retracts the spikes and extends before doing the same. And so on and so forth until the entire machine has moved forward. As I said, the hydraulics on the Drill are the very best the Fire Nation has ever constructed. What is your point?"
Xisheng pointed directly at one of the spikes in the drawing. "So what happens if there's no ground for these things to dig into? What if some Earthbenders get close and dig a big ditch, right along the legs? If some trenches suddenly opened up right where these things needed to be planted, the Drill couldn't pull itself forward anymore, right? Actually, if the ground these legs were bracing on was taken away just on the front segment, it would dip into the ground and obstruct the entire thing's locomotion, wouldn't it?"
Qin shook his head in bewilderment as he glanced at the drawing and back at Xisheng. "Please, that's... that's not going to happen."
"And why not?"
"Because those cowardly earthworms dare not leave their precious walls. They've barely made any offensives in years, even when they had prime opportunities to do so. They would much rather dig in and wait for the enemy to come to them. Besides, even if they mustered the courage to actually sally out and attack, of course the Drill will be escorted. Two platoons of tanks will guard it."
If this was supposed to assuage Xisheng's concerns, it didn't. If anything, he looked more agitated than before. "Two platoons-?!"
Foreseeing a more heated spat if she didn't intervene, Azula raised her voice momentarily to break the exchange. "Enough, Lieutenant. I understand that you have valid concerns. But let us hear the entirety of Qin's plan before we ask more questions."
Surprisingly, Qin seemed a little nervous all of a sudden. "Ah, yes, well... there is not much more to say in that regard, Princess. The Drill will advance and breach the wall. After that..."
It was fairly obvious to the other occupants of the room that Qin didn't actually have any plan after breaching the wall. In his mind, just putting a hole in Ba Sing Se's outer wall was the same thing as achieving victory. Xisheng was clearly about to speak on this, and likely not with any kind words, but Azula beat him to the punch.
"I see. Yes, I suppose the wall itself is the biggest obstacle to success. If I may ask, War Minister, how many people have you presented this plan to?"
"Well, I have the Fire Lord's approval..."
"Explicitly stated, or implied?"
Qin grew incredibly tight-lipped after being asked that, which was answer enough in and of itself. It was unlikely that Ozai had directly approved of this strategy. From Azula's own knowledge, she knew her father only occasionally participated in matters of wartime strategy. He passed on overarching standing orders to his war cabinet, but gave them a fair deal of leeway in achieving those goals. If a plan of action was agreed upon by the majority of the relevant war cabinet members, the Fire Lord did not have to give his explicit permission to launch those plans, as it was assumed that the war cabinet was acting in its best capacity to achieve the goals set for them by their ruler.
The system was not without its perks: at the very least, it meant the Fire Lord did not have to bothered with every trifling maneuver and plan of action on the battlefront. It also kept the Fire Lord free from political scrutiny and condemnation on that front. If a specific plan was not explicitly endorsed by the Fire Lord, then all blame could be pinned on the person who enacted said plan if it failed. The Fire Lord thus took no blame for military failures even if those failures occurred in his name, which helped protect his image as infallible ruler of the land, never to be questioned.
Of course, there were plenty of downsides, as made evident by the current situation. With the ability to approve plans without the Fire Lord's explicit and informed consent, members of the war cabinet had a perfect means to assassinate the careers of their fellows. If someone presented a poor plan that was likely to fail, they could approve it anyway, then wait for that inevitable failure. The plan's proponent would be punished to some extent or another, but regardless of the punishment itself, their military failure would tarnish their reputation indefinitely and possibly see them rendered politically insignificant.
Azula could imagine it already: Qin, an ambitious and short-sighted aging man who was dissatisfied with his lack of political ladder climbing at his age, proposing a flawed plan with little chance of success. Even worse, an incredibly resource-heavy plan. His rivals in the war cabinet probably leaped at the chance to approve it: aside from the shame of a strategic failure in and of itself, if the Drill was destroyed and unable to be recovered, Qin would be liable for the massive waste of resources as well. His career would be in shambles, if he even managed to avoid exile.
Honestly, the entire setup was something Azula found problematic. Fire Nation culture was very keen on individuals proving themselves and fighting their way to the top through any means necessary. To achieve this, people were given a fair deal of leeway in what they did, and they would reap either the success or failure of that leeway themselves. There was a time and a place for that sort of competition, but this was not one of them, in Azula's opinion. They were in the midst of a war that had already lasted a hundred years. Now wasn't the time to make strategic action a pissing contest for self-absorbed nobles and officers. When she was Fire Lord, Azula would certainly do away with this hands-off policy. This also explained why Qin had little to no oversight here: high command had given him the leeway to do as he pleased and to be the sole one responsible for the outcome.
"I take it this plan was majority approved by the war cabinet and never expressly shared with my father? You know what that means, don't you, War Minister?"
The graying man gulped, surely not missing Azula's implication. "Of course, your highness. Although, if you approve it here and now..."
Qin's implication wasn't missed either. If Azula personally approved Qin's plan of action, she would assume responsibility for it. Granted, that would mean sharing some of the glory of success, but in that case, it would still be Qin's plan and Qin's pride and joy making it possible. He would still get plenty of credit. And if the plan failed... well, Azula would bear the brunt of that, as a member of the Royal Family who had given the operation her blessing. Azula's approval would give Qin a massive safety net, something he likely wanted after Xisheng had planted some doubts in his mind.
"I'll have to mull it over. This is a major occasion, after all. I can't just approve such things lightly."
Qin grit his teeth in frustration, but did his best to hide any other telling signs of such feelings. "Of course, Princess..."
With a lot on her mind and the need to speak to her comrade without Qin present, Azula rose from her seat at the strategy table. "Let's take our leave, Lieutenant. I'm sure the War Minister needs some time alone to finalize his strategy."
Though he was still glaring at both Qin and the schematic on the wall, Xisheng said nothing, following Azula to leave the room. Qin bowed respectfully as the duo made their exit.
There was a guard outside of the room, so Xisheng held his tongue initially. But the moment he and Azula turned a corner in the hall and were alone, he spoke up.
"This is bad."
Though she knew he would say something like this, Azula answered nonchalantly. "You clearly don't approve of Qin's plan."
"His plan is to charge forward and pray that our enemies are the stupidest, most incompetent people on the planet! I can think of at least ten ways to render that machine useless and anyone with half a brain could figure it out!"
Azula gave him a slightly annoyed look. "I could only come up with seven."
Normally, Xisheng might have apologized for the perceived insult, but he was too riled up to do that. "All they have to do is dig a big trench in front of it, which they'll have all the time in the world to do since it moves at a spider-snail's pace! Or they could dig a cavern under its path and let its own weight crash it down! Heck, they could just create a downward slope in its path and the thing will become worthless! And to top it off, that moron plans to escort it with just two tank platoons?! A whole ten tanks?! If the Earth Kingdom tries, at all, in any capacity, to fight back, this plan will fall apart almost instantly! And the machine itself is so... spirits, just imagine how many tanks or ships or siege engines we could have built instead of that thing!"
Frankly, Azula was surprised to see Xisheng so vehement about this. He wasn't often the type of person to rant and rage about things. "Calm down, Xisheng. I get it, the plan is terrible. Truly atrocious, the more you think about it... this is definitely a political power play. Qin's blinded by hubris, and his fellows in the war cabinet are all too eager to let him take a shot and fail miserably. This entire thing never would have been approved by any sane person seriously attempting to achieve victory."
"Then you should be able to call it off, right? You're the Crown Princess, just tell him he can't do it."
Azula had expected this question to come up. She also expected Xisheng to not like her answer. "It's not so simple, Xisheng. Yes, technically I could overrule everything that's going on here, but... my political situation is too complicated to do that right now."
Xisheng did indeed look unhappy about this, but he didn't lash out or anything. "How do you mean?"
"On paper, I'm the Crown Princess and anything I say goes. In reality, I'm young and unproven. Much as I hate to admit it, I haven't actually accomplished much of anything since leaving the Fire Nation and embarking on this journey. I technically have the right to waltz into any camp I please and start dictating military strategy, but doing so will paint me as little more than an entitled brat jumping at opportunities to prove herself and earn daddy's favor. All the worse if I cancel this plan of attack but have no viable alternative. Then I seem entitled, brash, and incompetent. I know you hate to hear it, but my political reputation is important to my future as Fire Lord. I can't afford for my very first real impression on other figures of government to be a poor one. Just look at what happened to Zuko: it would require a feat of massive capability to ever truly erase the view everyone at home has of him."
Azula was right: Xisheng really didn't like to hear any of this. But though he hated to admit it, he knew that political maneuvering was more necessary than common people often made it out to be. Countries lived and died by politics, so to say it didn't matter would be foolish. Although it was terrible to think that a political impression was more important than people's lives.
"Alright, but... what if you did have a viable alternative? What if you have some better plan to put forward?"
The young Princess appraised him curiously. "Do you have some such plan?"
"...no. Not off the top of my head, right this moment."
He looked defeated, probably because he thought that his lack of contribution meant the Drill plan couldn't be axed, but Azula corrected him swiftly enough. "Even if you did have some better plan, I still couldn't call of Qin's strategy and implement yours. I could if I had more of a reputation to back my decision, but as it stands, doing that would be bad for both of us. For the reasons I mentioned earlier, it would paint me in a negative light. Furthermore, it would likely raise suspicions about you, a common soldier, and why I would trust you over the war cabinet. I'm sure a great many problematic rumors would spread about us if we were to go that route."
Admittedly, Xisheng could see where she was coming from. The young Princess axes a battle plan approved by the war cabinet, then enacts one proposed to her by a similarly young male soldier that she travels alongside... yes, he could imagine a lot of rumors about her favoritism and some sort of illicit relationship. Rumors like that really could do a lot of damage to Azula's image.
The look on his face must have been telling, because Azula made an addition to her sentiments. "Not that I inherently dislike the implications of such rumors, but, surely you see why they would be an issue..."
Surprised to hear her say that because it implied something very questionable, Xisheng glanced at Azula, but the girl was already looking away from him and clearing her throat.
"Here's what we can do, though: come up with a better plan. We must let Qin's plan run its course, but we can take every measure possible to ensure it is as least catastrophic as possible. Once he fails, I will have a perfect opportunity to suggest something better... or someone better. Between the two of us, I know you have the better mind for this type of strategy, Xisheng. So, I'm entrusting the creation of a new strategy to you. Can you do that?"
Xisheng didn't have any particularly great ideas right now, but in all modesty, he did believe himself to be fairly clever when it came to strategy and tactics. After all, he had impressed a lot of people at the North Pole. And admittedly, he had spent a lot of time pondering how the assault on Ba Sing Se would and could go. He didn't have any formal training, but... surely he could come up with something. Besides, unlike Qin, he would be perfectly willing to consult others.
"I'll do my utmost. Although, uh... when exactly do you need this superior solution?"
"Well, by the time Qin messes up would be ideal, but I know that's asking a lot. This is the most formidable city in the world, after all. I don't expect making a feasible plan to conquer it is easy."
"That's certainly an understatement."
Azula glanced over her shoulder for a moment, perhaps checking to see if anyone was coming their way. "Then I should allow you to begin working on it immediately. You have my authority to do whatever you need around the camp to facilitate your strategizing. I will check with you later tonight to hear what you have so far, but don't feel pressured to have a foolproof battle plan. I just want to be appraised of your thoughts so I can weigh in on them as needed."
"Very well. What will you do in the meantime?"
The girl beside him smirked. "Well that would ruin the mystery, wouldn't it? Aren't you always curious to know what I get up to at such times?"
"Uh... yes?"
"Well then, all the more reason not to tell you. Be on your way, Xisheng. You've got a lot of thinking to do."
With that, Azula gave a parting wave and walked away from Xisheng. A lot of thinking indeed... well, at least that was something he was good at.
"...and Iroh managed to get it down one time, but it was very gradual. There's no way the enemy will let a tactic like that work again. Surely they'll be extremely fixated on repairing any damage to the wall as it happens, meaning a battle of attrition is impossible. So it has to be quick, but how...?"
Xisheng was pacing back and forth in the metal cube on base that had been designated as his quarters here. It really wasn't much, but for a forward staging area, this was about the best anyone could ask for. At least it had a shoddy rug and solid walls, which was more than just about any other soldier in the base. Of course, Xisheng wasn't talking to himself: he had enlisted the aid of Mai and Ty Lee.
Admittedly, the two of them weren't the best people to ask. Neither of them had any real military planning experience, made evident by the general looks of confusion as they both sat on his shoddy bed and listened to him ramble. Xisheng imagined that he was boring Mai out of her skull, but the girl hadn't left yet, so maybe she was tolerating it: very admirable of her.
Perhaps trying to find some way to be helpful, Ty Lee raised a questioning finger. "I know you said it wouldn't work, but what did Iroh actually do? It's hard to believe anyone could actually get through those huge walls..."
Xisheng berated himself for not procuring a map of the city before all of this brainstorming. It probably would have helped explain things, as well as give him a nice visual planning aid.
"As I recall, it was a concentrated artillery bombardment utilizing hundreds of siege engines. But it took three months overall to slowly batter down the wall. Presumably sustained attacks from the other forces prevented the defenders from making repairs. Or maybe they just didn't think a breach was possible. I'm not entirely sure on that part."
This time, Mai raised a question. "I'm a little hazy on military history, but didn't the siege last way longer than three months?"
"Actually, it wasn't a siege. A siege is when you completely encircle a defender and cut off all incoming supplies to..."
He glanced back at Mai to see her cocking an eyebrow at him, either annoyed or just bemused that he was going off on some pointless aside. Seeing this, Xisheng corrected his course.
"...anyway, the battle lasted six hundred days. It's not like I have a full breakdown of what happened at every step, but I imagine a lot of it was just the planning and preparation stage. Then maybe a few failed attacks, some stalemate, some periods of recovery... it's not like Iroh's army was fighting every single day for six hundred days. Needless to say, we don't have that kind of time to pull off a similar strategy."
Mai didn't seem to catch his meaning. "Though I'm glad to hear we won't be camping out here for a year and a half, why exactly don't we have that kind of time? Where's the deadline stopping us from taking things slowly?"
Xisheng stared at one of his walls, imagining the map he had seen in the war room earlier as best he could. "The soft time limit? The Avatar. Every day he's out there, he gets stronger and more skilled, and potentially rallies more people to his cause. The longer the war drags on, the higher the chance he can cause some massive problem. If we can at least get our holdings in order and end open hostilities with the Earth Kingdom, we can be in a better position to deal with him. More resources to commit to dealing with him, and a stronger hold on everything we've claimed up until now. But as for a hard time limit... Sozin's Comet."
Glancing at the ceiling, Ty Lee clearly wracked her brain for relevant info. "That's the thing that happens every hundred years that makes Firebending really strong, right?"
It was a little weird to think that a Fire Nation native would even need that information affirmed, but realistically, it made sense. Ty Lee wasn't a Firebender, and the event only happened once a century. It was a big deal when it was close, but any other time, it made no difference to anyone. There was no reason to care about it from her point of view, until about right now.
"That's right."
Mai immediately grew incredulous. "Wait, so we want to take over the city before the huge power boost? Isn't that stupid? I know you said we want to wrap things up as quickly as we can because of the Avatar, but wouldn't it still be better to wait for a huge boon to our strength before attacking the biggest city in the world? That would have to make it way easier."
"That is also correct."
"So then why are we here right now? Why's this attack with the big drill happening?"
Xisheng sighed as he thought on exactly that. Granted, he had put a lot of thought into it before now, but now he had to put it into words for people that weren't that involved with the military or its politics.
"Keep in mind that I can't say this as an absolute certainty. But it's what I believe and the most likely explanation. The War Cabinet is an assortment of the Fire Nation's highest ranking nobles relevant to the war and the overall function of the military. Generals, admirals, advisors, arms developers like Qin, and the like. For these people, their worth is judged by how much of a positive impact they make on this war. This war that, by any reasonable assumption, should end for certain when Sozin's Comet arrives. That means that members of the War Cabinet have a limited window of time to gain as much prestige and honor as possible for roles in this conflict. Considering that there shouldn't be another serious conflict between sovereign nations anytime soon after this, Ba Sing Se is their last chance to secure a hero's status that would make them second only to the Royal Family in regards to respect and influence."
The young soldier narrowed his eyes at nothing in particular: he was just thinking about the men he was describing. "Other than Ba Sing Se, Gaoling is the only major Earth Kingdom city left to conquer, but it's a merchant city that should be no great challenge, and thus not worth much reward to whoever is responsible for taking it. Ba Sing Se is the most formidable city in the world, unable to be taken even by a renowned general and member of the Royal Family. Whoever is responsible for conquering it will become one of the greatest heroes in Fire Nation history, someone who wants for nothing for the rest of their life: someone whose children and children's children will be regarded as the elite. But that's only if they can do it without the help of Sozin's Comet."
He turned back to face his companions. "After all, almost anyone could brute force the battle with Sozin's Comet on their side. All credit for the victory would go to a cosmic event, not the person who used it to their advantage. Taking Ba Sing Se with Sozin's Comet is just an overall Fire Nation victory. Whoever can take the city without it will have that success attributed to them specifically. That's why Qin is here alone, pushing for a battle plan that relies exclusively on a weapon of his own design. If he pulls it off, his political career will be golden for the rest of his life. He's racing to take Ba Sing Se before any other member of the War Cabinet can come up with a strategy to do so themselves."
Ty Lee, unsurprisingly, looked quite aghast by the notion. "They'd really do all of this for that?! They're already pretty high on the ladder and have lots of influence, they can't just get people killed for a little more!"
Mai, on the other hand, looked more sullen. "They absolutely can, and will. The nobility of our nation has always stepped over whoever they need to in order to reach their goals, even if that goal is just a tiny fistful of extra power. You think any of those War Cabinet people care about how many commoners die along the way to what they want?"
Recalling the office of Mai's father, as well as his political career, Xisheng figured that she may have seen the cutthroat politics of the Fire Nation firsthand. She probably knew very well how ruthless and callous it could get. Still, Xisheng had to object to her statement a little.
"They care, just not for any good reason. Like I said, their future will be altered by how significantly they impact this war: both positively and negatively. If one of them hatches some stupid plan that gets a crippling number of soldiers killed, their career will be done for. Heck, maybe even their actual lives could go that route. That's probably why Qin is so adamant about his drill doing all the heavy lifting. Well, it's probably also hubris and downright idiocy, but I'm sure he considered the benefits of getting as few military assets involved as possible. Which basically means he has both committed to his plan too hard and also not committed to it hard enough. Only a fucking moron could be so impressively incompetent."
Both Mai and Ty Lee looked a little surprised to hear Xisheng speak so ill of someone, and in such an uncouth manner. He was often composed and well-spoken. To hear him outright call someone a fucking moron was unexpected. Ty Lee tried to ignore the odd feeling from the moment and focused on a question.
"You want him to put more troops in harm's way?"
Xisheng didn't notice either of the girls giving him weird looks. "No. His plan with the drill is asinine and doomed to failure. But it's even more doomed to fail than it already was because he won't even commit enough troops to the strategy. He's barely got a strategy at all: aside from blatantly ignoring the dozens of ways the attack will go wrong, he doesn't even have a plan for the next step if it somehow actually goes right. He's got no plan other than 'put a hole in the wall'. No strategy on how to secure and hold the breach, or how to continue to push into Ba Sing Se afterwards. It's better for everyone that he's not putting many lives on the line, but the fact that his plan was allowed to come to fruition at all is infuriating. A War Cabinet full of assholes who have never been to war or at the very least fought personally in one... it should be comprised of decorated officers..."
Seeing that Xisheng was truly bothered by the entire situation, Mai tried to at least guide him back to the main topic before he went on another tangent. "Alright, all of that notwithstanding... why do you have to come up with a plan? I mean, you're just a low-ranking officer. It's not like you could actually put any plan you make into action."
Thankfully, this did seem to get Xisheng focused again. "No, but Azula can. Once Qin's plan fails miserably, she'll have the perfect opportunity to take command of the situation herself and carry out a better strategy. As for why I want to do that... well, if we can beat all of those War Cabinet opportunists to the punch with a solid plan that actually works, we can curtail any further awful attempts like Qin's. Hopefully that will save lives and resources from any theoretical potential future disasters, which would probably only get more desperate at the Comet draws closer."
Though the topic of their conversation was dire, Ty Lee couldn't help but smile a little. She found it truly charming that Xisheng's motivation for all of this was saving other people from a pointless death. Despite all of that talk about how whoever took Ba Sing Se would get unreal glory and prestige, he seemingly had no interest in that. He even seemed willing to let Azula take any and all credit for the plan. Truly, he was the most admirable man she had ever met. That was why she really wanted to help him somehow, even though she knew so little about these affairs.
"Could you... hm... climb the wall with those fancy tanks we have?"
Xisheng didn't get a chance to answer. Mai did it for him. Despite her alleged lack of experience in tactics and strategy, she seemed to have a keen eye for it. "The whole wall is made of stone, and guarded by Earthbenders. They could send any climbing tank flying anytime they wanted."
"Well, what if we could drill through the wall, but like... with smaller drills? The big one is a problem because it will be easy to stop, but what if you could make a bunch of little holes?"
Admittedly, the idea itself wasn't without merit, but Xisheng had to shoot it down anyway. "Unfortunately, such vehicles currently don't exist. Even if we wanted to make them, they wouldn't be complete and ready to deploy before Sozin's Comet arrived."
The brunette looked a little put out, perhaps thinking that her ideas were all stupid. Well, everyone felt bad when their suggestions were all rejected. "Stupid walls... too bad we can't just go around them..."
Xisheng stroked his chin as he contemplated that sentiment. Going around the walls would be the easiest, but it wasn't really feasible. They obviously couldn't fly over them, and they wouldn't be able to dig under them either: at least not in a way that could facilitate the passing of troops required to do anything of value. Still, there was probably something in that notion he could use to their advantage. He just had to find the other factors to combine it with. For now though, he sought to assuage Ty Lee.
"Don't get too down, Ty Lee. If it was easy to come up with a plan to take this city we wouldn't be here. Even Iroh, for all his famed tactics, had a plan that amounted to throwing stuff at it until it worked."
While she didn't feel that much better, Ty Lee at least appreciated his sentiment. Mai, on the other hand, had yet to contribute anything to this impromptu strategy meeting. "Not to douse the fires of your passion, Gohan, but I don't think we're going to come up with some stroke of genius while sitting here. And it's getting late. Why not sleep on it? People usually get inspired when they aren't focusing on the thing they're obsessing over, right?"
The young soldier didn't look too enthused with the idea. "Yeah, but... I'm supposed to tell Azula what I have in mind so far, and I don't really have anything at all. Other than knowing we need to drop the wall near instantly, but knowing what needs to happen is a lot different than having a feasible way to achieve it... still, I know I'm kind of just dragging you guys along into something you don't really know much about. Sorry, feel free to go at anytime. It just helped a little to have someone to bounce ideas off of."
Seeing him be so meek and apologetic about it put a scowl on Mai's face, but not because she was upset. It was just that she knew already that it was going to get the best of her. "Well... if just doing that helps, I guess even people like us can contribute. But seriously, don't expect me to be up all night doing this, alright?"
Fully understanding that she intended to stay, likely along with Ty Lee, Xisheng forgot his troubles for a moment and smiled. He really did have wonderful companions.
Unfortunately, his thoughts turned back to the matter at hand mere moments afterward, and he was frowning once again. Truly, misery loved company.
The next few days saw little in the way of progress for Xisheng's planning. While he still had some rough ideas bouncing around in his head, none of them could come together in a feasible course of action that could actually be pulled off. He had done whatever he could do to try and find some inspiration: he had inspected the various weapons and vehicles on the base, spoken to various soldiers, conferred with both Azula and his friends, and even managed to get Qin to divulge some more information about his precious drill and how it worked.
But he had nothing attainable in mind right now. Xisheng was still at square one: he knew they had to take the wall down with one strike, but he didn't know how they could realistically do that. Even if they had Earthbenders of their own at their side, there was no tactic they could do against the wall by themselves that would quickly create a breach large enough to allow a force large enough to occupy the area to rush in. Any breach that was made would need to be quite large, quite sudden, and unable to be repaired for several hours. The damage had to be something that couldn't easily be fixed by Earthbenders, who would certainly rush to the site of a breach and attempt to block it right away. In fact, the ideal breach would kill the defenders on the immediate section of the wall and be so large that enemy Earthbenders had to go to ground level to even interact with it.
That was a huge ask, and right now Xisheng just couldn't see any way to make it happen. Worst part was, the notion didn't strike him as impossible: he felt that there was some way to pull it off, if he just had the right cards to play. And Xisheng was certain those cards existed too. The Fire Nation owned or occupied most of the known world, theoretically having access to almost every resource possible. Surely they had access to the answer somewhere.
But even if they did, they were unable to make any impact right now. It was the middle of the week, nearing noon: this was the time Qin had decided to launch his all or nothing attack at the enemy. The massive crew of the drill had already spent the last several hours preparing it for its one and only purpose. The handful of tank crews that were to escort the machine had likewise been preparing. Once all preparations were complete, the attack was to be get underway immediately. Unless of course, Qin decided to call it off after he received Azula's answer...
Currently, the War Minister, Azula, and Xisheng stood alone in the war room. Qin had just asked Azula for her final verdict on whether or not she would offer her official endorsement of his battle plan. After all, this was his last chance to get it if he still intended to launch his attack in the next few hours. As for Azula, she spent a moment on a dramatic pause, perhaps pretending that she was putting any real thought into it, but she already knew her real answer. She had decided on it far before now.
"No."
Qin's already strained smile faltered immediately. "Princess, the preparations are already being made. To cancel the assault now..."
Azula was obviously not as perturbed as the older man. "I said nothing about cancelling your assault. You do not have my explicit endorsement, but neither am I forbidding it. I'm young and inexperienced in matters of warfare: you're the War Minister of the entire nation. I lack the wisdom to exact judgment on your strategy. While I'd like nothing more than to receive some credit for the breaching of the wall of this detestable city, I'm not confident enough to take that risk. If you take the wall today, the credit will be solely yours, War Minister. I daresay you alone will deserve the reward of your actions. Bear in mind that I do not speak this way about just anyone."
Xisheng honestly wondered how anyone could miss Azula's true intentions here. Displaying herself as a uninformed young girl that could stand to learn a thing or two from the old guard, blowing smoke into Qin's sails with remarkably vague statements about his just rewards... maybe it was just that Xisheng knew her better than others, but it seemed obvious to him that she had expressed absolutely no confidence in Qin or his plan whatsoever.
But Qin clearly didn't pick up on it. He bought it all outright. Maybe his ego loved the idea of the Crown Princess deferring to his judgment: if he succeeded today, he would always be able to claim that his machinations were beyond even the Royal Family. Maybe he was one of those creeps who liked the idea of a usually haughty young girl acknowledging her place relative to him. Or maybe he was just blinded by thoughts of the prestige and influence that would be his after a theoretical victory. The smarmy look on his face made Xisheng think it may have been a combination of all three.
"I understand completely, Princess. Do not fret over it: I have had years of experience in matters of warfare. This battle will surely allow you to judge the actions of your subordinates with greater wisdom in the future. Even royalty can learn from experience."
Under ordinary circumstances, Xisheng imagined that Azula would have incinerated someone who talked down to her like this, even if it was subtle. But she was probably content knowing that she had this fool dancing to her tune without any inkling of it. Assuming Qin survived this battle, he would be utterly humiliated, and probably realize very quickly that Azula had simply allowed him to merrily march off to his political doom.
Of course, there was some very small chance that Qin would actually succeed, in which case Azula would look like the meek and inexperienced fledgling she was pretending to be, but after the last few days of discussion about the strategy between her and Xisheng, she was absolutely sure the Drill would fail spectacularly. Together, she and her companion had come up with at least fifteen relatively easy ways the defenders at Ba Sing Se could handle the situation.
"Which is why I will be eagerly watching your assault from afar, War Minister. If you take this wall, I imagine you will be in charge of the following barriers in the city as well. Even General Iroh never had the chance to achieve so much glory."
Qin seemed none the wiser to how badly he was being played. "Yes... yes, that is so. With this in mind, I must tend to the final preparations. I will be leading the assault personally, after all. If I may have your leave, Princess?"
"You may."
With a hasty bow, Qin made his exit, prompting Azula to don an amused expression as soon as he was gone. "Men. So pathetically simple."
Xisheng shared her amusement, though he was still a bit too dour over the whole situation to make much light of it. "Not all men, right?"
Azula shrugged. "I suppose I know one or two men whose egos don't outclass their brain. Still, you should be upset that so many simpletons are giving your entire gender a bad name."
"I'll be sure to hold them all accountable in the afterlife. What now?"
Turning serious, Azula quickly left their little exchange behind. "There's nothing else to do now but watch the debacle unfold. As we discussed yesterday, I've already instructed a group of transport vehicles to follow the assault force and evacuate troops back to base if the need arises. But that's all we can do now to minimize the ill outcome of this battle. Hopefully that deathtrap of his is at least easy to get out of. Come, we should at least observe the battle as best we can."
With Azula beckoning him to follow her, Xisheng soon found himself alongside the Princess on the tallest watchtower they could find. The watchman was more than willing to give up his post to them upon instruction, thankfully leaving his telescope behind for them to use. Granted, the Drill was so large it would be easy to see what happened to it even from miles away, but any smaller action would be impossible to see without some magnification. They didn't have to wait long before the ground started shaking periodically, courtesy of the Drill beginning its long march towards Ba Sing Se.
The problem was that it was truly painstakingly slow. It took more than fifteen minutes just for the thing to no longer be next to the base, and another ten before Xisheng and Azula could see the rear of the thing. It was a long, long way to Ba Sing Se, and no matter how pretty the girls in the city were, they'd probably be undesirable old ladies by the time the Drill got there. Considering its current pace and how far Ba Sing Se was, Xisheng estimated that it would probably be three hours at the minimum before any actual fighting broke out, and that was if he wanted to be real generous.
Azula clearly also picked up on this. "I... think we may have gotten ahead of ourselves. I see no reason to stand up here for the next several hours just waiting for something to happen, so I'm going to take my leave."
"Understood. I'll stay here."
The girl beside him cocked an eyebrow. "Oh, I didn't know you were the type to enjoy watching paint dry. Do you also find it thrilling to watch grass grow?"
"The only thing I've got to do right now is think, right? Might help if I do that thinking while staring at the problem."
To this, Azula merely shrugged. "If you say so. I'll return later, hopefully around the time there is actually something to look at."
With Azula leaving the tower for now, Xisheng was left alone to watch over the Drill's slow crawl of an advance, with two platoons of tanks at its flanks and several dozen transport vehicles trailing behind on Azula's order. He wondered if Qin had even noticed them, and if he had, if he had realized yet that Azula fully expected him to fail spectacularly. Xisheng didn't know if the war minister could see behind him in the elevated command tower the Drill sported.
The elevation mechanism for that command bridge was impressive on its own merits, as it was fully capable of laying flat against the Drill's body or raising it far above. As much as he hated to admit it, Xisheng could acknowledge that the Drill had lots of impressive engineering about it. It was just too bad that it was all being wasted on such a stupid idea...
But then, perhaps Xisheng was getting ahead of himself. He tended to be the modest type, and yet here he was, making preemptive judgments on what would or wouldn't work in a field he was a complete layman in. He liked to think that he had a good grasp of tactics and strategy, but his officer rank was not a result of academy training. Technically, he had no official claim to strategic knowledge or why anyone should listen to him. He just thought he knew what he was talking about. So even though he couldn't imagine the Drill having any success at all, maybe he was being presumptuous: Xisheng was just a guy who had made a few common sense recommendations to augment a battle plan once before. He had never actually planned an assault such as this one. Then again, he was pretty sure Qin hadn't either...
Xisheng acknowledged that he was just trying to calm his nerves and ease his burden: after all, if the Drill miraculously succeeded somehow, then he wouldn't even need to worry about coming up with some amazing plan to take down the wall. He wouldn't have to carry the responsibility of men's lives as they went into battle on his plans.
And yet, part of Xisheng did want it. The challenge of taking down the world's mightiest fortification, coming up with a great plan that no one else could... his drive to improve meant that Xisheng inherently wanted an opportunity such as this. He just didn't want to screw it up now that it was finally upon him.
Time continued to pass as Xisheng stared out at the Drill, inching ever closer to its target. Frankly, he was surprised that it had made it as far as it had. Surely the defenders at Ba Sing Se wouldn't wait for it to reach their walls when they could minimize the threat by intercepting it out in the open? But as time continued to trudge along with no combat that Xisheng could see breaking out, he acknowledged that perhaps the EK soldiers really would employ such a tactic. The question was, why? Were they afraid to leave their defenses and engage directly? Or were they simply that confident in their walls? Or, were they carrying out a different strategy that Xisheng simply couldn't see from here?
Eventually, Azula returned to the tower, four hours after Xisheng had first assumed his post. Three hours truly had been too generous of an estimate. Surprisingly, the Princess had her friends in tow: although maybe they were just curious to check on Xisheng since they hadn't seen much of him today.
"We're coming up, Lieutenant. I assume nothing of import has occurred yet?"
Xisheng answered before any of the girls had climbed the ladder to get up to him. "Not yet, your Highness. Although as best as I can tell, hostilities are guaranteed to break out soon: the Drill isn't too far from the walls."
The soldier scooted over to make some room as his guests entered the tower as well. He passed the telescope he had off to the girls so they could take turns and see what they wanted.
Mai was quickly bored with the ability to see nothing of import, so she spoke to Xisheng after passing the instrument along to her friends. "So, have you figured out anything helpful while standing around up here?"
Even though he couldn't really see anything with the naked eye from here, Xisheng kept his eyes on the horizon, where the silhouette of the Drill was visible. "As of right now? No. Well... maybe. Not that it's anything that will make for an actual plan, but I'm surprised the enemy waited for the Drill to get all the way to the walls before taking action. They surely saw it coming hours ahead of time. They could have intercepted it far away from the walls and lost almost no noteworthy advantages. They don't really need the high ground when they can be under the ground. Or just make high ground of their own at the site of a battle. They hunkered down at their walls even though it would have been better to sally out and engage away from them. After all, even if they were routed and needed to retreat, they could easily hop back underground and flee, with our forces being able to do almost nothing to stop them."
Azula scoffed as she peered out at the distant city. "Earthbenders: what can you expect from people who practically worship stone? They'd rather sit and wait for opportunity to come to them no matter how beneficial it would be to go out and seize it. That said, I'm curious why you value this observation so much."
"Knowing how the enemy will likely react to a threat is very valuable information. If they are almost guaranteed to hole up and wait for us to come to them, it gives us more breathing room. Heck, the existence of this base proves it: if Earthbenders from Ba Sing Se had been patrolling and attacking this place from the very beginning, we probably wouldn't have been able to set up this staging area at all. We would have had to establish it even further back. The enemy's unwillingness to do anything other than defend allows us to prepare any type of attack we wish with impunity. That means-"
Before he could finish his thought, Ty Lee, who had acquired the telescope, cut him off. "Wait, wait! I think something is happening! There's a ton of dust kicking up around the Drill!"
Forgetting entirely about his previous thought, Xisheng held his hand out for the telescope. "Let me see, quick!"
Once he had possession of the magnifying tool once more, Xisheng cast his gaze out to the Drill, which was indeed becoming somewhat obscured by dust erupting around it. It made it hard to see what was really happening, but the silhouette of the Drill was still clearly visible. Visible enough that Xisheng could be stunned for a moment when he saw the rear of the Drill lifted up into the air. Its little caterpillar legs left the ground completely, at least in the rear section. As soon as this happened, a massive cloud of dust exploded up into the sky and obscured most the machine, though it wasn't able to hide the flashes of orange light within it. Moments later, the transport vehicles Azula had sent out after the attacking force raced forward into that same dust cloud, and Xisheng was unable to see anything more.
Beside him, Mai cocked an eyebrow. "Kind of hard to see from here, but that didn't look good."
Xisheng sighed. "No, it didn't..."
As for Ty Lee, she just looked surprised. "Wait... is it over already? I mean, I know you said the whole Drill thing was a bad idea, but it couldn't really be over that fast, right? It took hours to get there, could they have really lost in like, two minutes?"
"If what I think happened did happen, then yeah, they could have lost that quickly. Well, I guess the enemy was probably operating for far longer than we saw, but still. I'll need to get a report from someone out there to confirm, but... shit, I knew this was going to happen."
Peeking through the telescope again, Xisheng tried to get a good view of what was happening, but to no avail. The dust was still too thick. At this juncture, all he could do was ponder what had happened, and what was happening now. But even though losing was no good for them in general, this little debacle had given the young soldier an interesting idea.
Over the next few hours, vehicles that had been dispatched for the assault trickled back to the staging area. Occasionally, it was one of the tanks that had gone to escort the Drill. But more often, it was one of the transport vehicles, laden with troops or crewmen from the now immobile beast. A good many of the returning men were unscathed, but a fair deal were injured too. On top of that, Xisheng was certain that not everyone who had left the base for the mission today was coming back.
Notably, Qin disembarked from one of the earliest returning transports: a vehicle that conspicuously lacked any other rescued personnel. The girls found this curious, but Xisheng knew full well why this was the case: the bastard had jumped ship as soon as he could, flagged down a ride, and ordered it to retreat immediately, everyone else under his command be damned. Honestly, Xisheng truly wished that the worthless scum had died out there. Any one of the low-ranking grunts that had sortied with him deserved to come back alive a hundredfold more.
The returning troops continued into the evening, until roughly four hours had passed since the Drill's inglorious demise. At Azula's side, Xisheng was able to listen in on the final report from a logistics officer that had been tallying losses: the Drill, according to eyewitness accounts, was completely irrecoverable, at least as far as the means of this base and its occupants were concerned. Of the ten tanks that had been sent to escort the Drill, seven had been lost, four of which included no surviving crew members. Of the three dozen transports that had been dispatched for rescue efforts, eight had been lost, though most of their crews had survived. Finally, of the five hundred men that had made up the crew of the Drill, approximately three hundred of them were dead or captured: Qin's magnificent vessel apparently hadn't taken easy escape routes into consideration, leaving many crew members trapped in the machine once it was totaled.
It was impossible to get an accurate count of how many Earth Kingdom soldiers had been wounded or killed, but Xisheng imagined that the trade between the two factions looked incredibly unfavorable. For the incredibly high price of soldiers' lives and an astronomical amount of time and materials, the Fire Nation had achieved literally nothing of value. That was why Qin was scrambling to cover his ass in the war room, making up any excuse he could to try and shift blame as he pleaded his case to Azula and Xisheng, both seated at the center table.
"Those worthless tanks didn't do anything! If they had guarded my machine properly, none of this would have happened!"
Qin stepping all over the graves of those tank crews he had doomed instilled Xisheng with a very powerful urge to kill the man on the spot, but for now, he restrained himself. Azula was speaking her mind at the moment.
"According to the reports from the various survivors, there was no enemy in sight, and everything was fine until your precious farce crashed through the ground. Did you somehow expect the tank crews to see underground? Or did you honestly believe a force of Earthbenders wouldn't employ this tactic that we explicitly warned you against?"
Based on eyewitness accounts from troops on the battlefield, Xisheng had learned exactly what had happened to the Drill. It was, unsurprisingly, one of the tactics he had easily predicted as being a huge problem. The Earthbenders opened a big hole directly underneath the middle section of the Drill. The middle section fell into the hole, bending support struts and connections with its weight, and lifted both the rear and front sections into the air. The front section was heavier since it had the actual drill mechanism, but even though it had not been lifted as high as the rear section, the end result was the same: the Drill was completely immobilized. It was only capable of moving forward if the various sections could stay somewhat aligned, and it needed the vast majority of its ridiculous hydraulic legs making ground contact to move at all. The only section with full ground contact right now was the middle, which was resting in a giant hole. Almost none of the rear legs had contact with the ground, and the front section couldn't possibly hope to pull the entire thing out of its current position. The machine was too rigid to move at the curved angle it had been forced to rest in, and the only way it would be able to move again was if it could be lifted out of the hole and straightened out again.
In other words, Qin's glorious masterpiece of a war machine had been easily trumped by the most basic of Earthbender tactics: they had moved some earth, the one thing everyone knew they could do. This was a strategy anyone with half a brain would have known was doomed to fail, but it had been allowed to go on anyway, thanks to the bullshit politics of the Fire Nation. For the first time in a while, Xisheng felt a modicum of serious disgruntlement with his country, or at least with its upper echelon. He couldn't condone a system that allowed blatantly stupid things to happen just to stroke egos or avoid blame.
None of these thoughts left his lips at this time. Right now, Qin was trying to find some worthwhile rebuttal for Azula. "T-that... a mere miscalculation, which we needn't focus on now. All we need to do is recover the war machine, and we can account for the Earthbenders next time..."
Azula cocked an eyebrow at him. "Recover the war machine? And how, exactly, do you plan to do that? Do you have some gargantuan crane ready to pull it out of the hole?"
"N-no, but perhaps we could scrap it piece by piece and repurpose it-"
"Which you will somehow manage to do while under the watchful eye of the enemy?"
At this point, Qin fell silent, the graying man clenching his fists and gritting his teeth as he tried to find some angle to salvage this debacle. But really, there was none, which Azula made very clear with her next statement.
"It's over, Qin. You're done, and you know it. A complete failure of an assault, directly under your supervision, and your supervision alone. Resources thrown to the wind in amounts I'm sure are staggering. And worst of all, a broken promise to your Fire Lord to succeed in his name. Your career is no more. Any prestige you or your family may have had is forever tarnished. When my father learns of what has transpired here, who knows? Perhaps you will not even keep your citizenship. On the bright side, he probably won't waste his time and effort executing a foolish wretch like you. I'll leave your ultimate punishment to the Fire Lord you've failed, but for now, it would be remiss of me to not dole out these consequences: you no longer have the title of War Minister. Leave my presence as once, and bring any and all items of strategic value to this war room. Once that is done, return to your quarters and await your fate. Bear in mind that I've already instructed the guard captain to execute you on the spot if you attempt to flee the base. Now begone."
His face devoid of color and his hands trembling, there was a moment where it seemed like Qin would make some sort of retort. But seeing the utter disdain for him in Azula's eyes, he seemed to think better of it. With shaking steps, the now disgraced man turned towards the door and made an unceremonious exit, perhaps thinking about where his life was going to go from here: or if he wanted to continue living his life at all. It was a bit morbid, but Xisheng could see someone taking their own life if faced with such a massive fall from grace. Frankly though, he didn't feel that bad about the thought: lots of men had lost their lives due to Qin's blind ambition. The world would be no worse off without him.
Once Qin was out of the room, Azula's expression softened a bit. Well, if there was no one to glare at, why take on the wrinkles, right?
"Well, now that we've gotten rid of that worthless trash... tell me, Xisheng: what do we do now?"
That the Crown Princess was turning to him for direction on their next move was a bit surreal. Not that she was necessarily deferring to him, but this was the first time Azula had asked for his guidance instead of asking for his opinion on a plan she already had in mind. It was more evidence that Xisheng was well and truly moving up in the world, even compared to the title of 'trusted vassal'.
"If you're asking whether or not I have a plan of attack yet... I do. But I need to know how feasible it is, and to do that, I need to talk to some people. More accurately, I need to know what level of authority I have right now, Azula."
The young girl focused her gaze on him. "At this moment, you technically have no authority. However, I could appoint you to have any authority I wish, theoretically. That said, Xisheng... we talked about this before. I will be taking a huge risk if I appoint you to a position of authority and things don't pan out. I'll be seen as a naive fool who let nepotism guide us to yet another catastrophe. The shame will follow me in political circles for years, even if I officially suffer no consequences. It's a big leap of faith considering your, no offense, lack of proven skill and talent in this area."
Though it was unpleasant to hear all of that, Xisheng couldn't deny that it all made sense. "I understand. In that case..."
"Do you believe it will work?"
Caught off guard by the interruption, Xisheng didn't manage much of a cohesive response. "Huh...?"
Azula, on the other hand, was looking him dead in the eye, clearly appraising his confidence. "Do you believe your plan will work? If you can tell me with complete confidence that you believe it will succeed, I'm willing to entrust this to you, risks included. So, do you believe it will work?"
Xisheng's brow furrowed as he seriously considered this question. He was happy to have this level of faith and trust offered to him by Azula, but he didn't want to jump at the chance to prove himself or please her. This was all too big to gamble on things like that.
"I need to speak with any high-ranking officers, whoever is in charge of logistics, the top-ranking engineer, and a communications officer. If I can do that, I can tell you whether or not the plan is going to work. I need to know what our forces are capable of before I can commit to a plan of action."
It was unclear if Azula was upset by this answer. Maybe she had been expecting a resounding affirmative. But ultimately, she seemed content with the response. "Very well. I can see no world in which that is unreasonable. That said, if you are going to need certain information before committing to a plan, it would be best to do this anonymously. We wouldn't want any odd rumors getting out of hand. If you are inquiring about these things on my behalf, it will give the impression that I have already appointed you to some position of tactical authority. So, tell me what information you require from these individuals, and I will have it gathered into a report for you to read tomorrow. Is that acceptable?"
Understanding that Azula was in a risky political situation, Xisheng figured this was the best that he was going to get. Besides, an on-paper report would probably be better than speaking to people directly: it meant everyone would have to double-check their information before providing it. It would probably be more accurate that way.
"More than acceptable. That should be enough."
"Alright then. If that's the case, then I suggest you retire for the night: assuming you get the information you want to hear, you may be very busy very soon, Xisheng."
Honestly, Xisheng doubted he would be able to get much sleep with how things were right now, but he simply agreed with Azula's assessment to placate her. He'd probably be up all night thinking about his battle strategy: anxious, but oddly eager to put it to the test as well. Hopefully, that didn't evolve into the same hubris that Qin had displayed today.
As expected, Xisheng didn't get much sleep that night. He spent most of it awake, not even lying in bed, pondering his battle plan. Perhaps it was foolish to do that, seeing as how he lacked all the information he needed to know if it was going to work yet, but he couldn't help himself. For many reasons, it dominated the mind: one, it was the biggest major event on the horizon for Xisheng's life. Two, it was a huge opportunity for him to advance to a new level, to prove himself worthy of even greater responsibility than he had now. Three, Azula's own status also partially rested on it. And four, he was excited for the challenge. Of course, this was all combined with an overarching anxiety regarding the lives of his comrades potentially resting on his shoulders, but that was a given.
Either way, Xisheng barely slept a wink that night, but he was so mentally awake that he hardly felt tired when morning rolled around. Although, according to Mai and Ty Lee, he certainly looked exhausted when they were all gathered for breakfast. Since he was not set to meet with Azula again until noon, Xisheng spent some time with the girls, mostly trying to let their presence take his mind off of things, but their time together passed quickly, and Xisheng was ashamed to admit that he didn't remember most of it. Ultimately, he never really succeeded in thinking about something other than his plan to take down the wall.
By the time he found himself in the war room again, Xisheng was both weirdly excited and quite nervous. Part of him wanted the report to tell him everything he needed to hear, so he could tell Azula that his plan could work. Another part of him hoped the information would reveal his plan to be unfeasible, because then he wouldn't have to bear the responsibility of something so great. Right now, he was tapping his foot nervously as he sat in a chair at the center table, sitting in silence with Azula next to him. Apparently, they were waiting for a soldier to bring the final compiled report the Princess had asked for.
Perhaps realizing that he was too preoccupied to carry on any meaningful conversation, Azula sat in silence alongside Xisheng, making everything feel a bit awkward. Thankfully, the two of them didn't have to sit for very long. A few minutes after they had both arrived, there was a knock on the door, which Azula answered with an invitation. The guest was a masked soldier bearing a written report requested specifically by the Princess. He bowed as he handed it over, leaving the room immediately afterwards.
When they were alone again, Azula silently handed the report to Xisheng, who unrolled the scroll with a slight amount of trepidation. Placing it on the table before him, the young officer bore witness to a detailed report including exactly what he had asked for. An approximate estimate of the available forces that were combat ready, as well as an estimation of how many troops could be efficiently organized and commanded at once with the current command structure present. An inventory of armaments and supplies either on the base right now or slated to be shipped to it in the near future, including siege engines, ground vehicles, ammunition, stationary explosives, and more.
And finally, and perhaps most importantly, a lengthy and detailed answer to a particular question posed to the most experienced engineer on the base. This answer was, strictly speaking, a theoretical one. After all, the engineer in question had not built Ba Sing Se's walls, nor did he know many of its exact specifications. But the man did know physics and how they applied to construction and architecture, and with that knowledge and experience, the engineer-in-chief had, albeit with plenty of complicated lingo and math, answered Xisheng's question with the following: 'potentially feasible.'
Having finished with the report, Xisheng took a deep breath before addressing the girl next to him. "...Azula."
Surprised to see him speak so suddenly after so much silence, the young Princess did not answer verbally, though she did give the man her undivided attention, which he did not miss.
"I believe this plan will work."
Azula took in the now determined and unflinching expression on Xisheng's face as he made eye contact with her, and so she took a deep breath of her own. "...very well. Then as of right now, you are 'Acting Commander Xisheng', whose actions and plans have my full support. Until I say otherwise, the forces at this base are at your disposal. That being the case... what are your first orders?"
Though he wanted to be excited and pleased with his sudden promotion, Xisheng was too weighed down by the gravity of his responsibility now. He couldn't help but remain serious.
"I need to speak to everyone who provided info for that report."
An hour later, the war room was full of more people than it had been since Azula and her group had first arrived. There were a dozen and a half officers ranging from relatively young lieutenants to older majors, men that Qin had not bothered to confer with during his own tenure of leadership. Among these commanding officers were also the engineer-in-chief, the head logistics officer, and the head communications officer. Naturally, the room also had Xisheng, who was currently in a corner, and Azula, who was responsible for summoning all of these men here. With no reason to waste time, Azula, whom everyone was standing before, gestured for Xisheng to come stand by her side as she announced how things were going to be.
"I'm sure that many of you are disgruntled with what happened the other day. Qin's leadership wasted time, lives, and resources. Some of you may have thought that, with his failure, this attempt at breaching the walls of Ba Sing Se would be swept under the rug, this base disbanded, and you and your troops returned to your previous posts. That will not be happening. I will not allow the gathered might of our nation to be squandered so easily. That is why, starting today, this man..."
She gestured to Xisheng, who was standing beside her.
"...will be the acting commander for our next operation against the wall."
This revelation caused a stir among the gathered officers, with plenty of murmuring and whispers to go around. Xisheng could pick out some of it: mostly disbelief and wounded ego. It wasn't hard to understand why. Even compared to the youngest officers of the lowest ranks here, Xisheng was notably younger than them. Not including Azula, he was probably the youngest person in this room. And if there was one thing Xisheng knew, it was that older people really didn't like the idea of being subservient to younger people, most of the time. Azula's decree would not be enough to guarantee their trust or loyalty. Xisheng knew that already.
Of course, it wasn't like Azula could miss out on the unrest, so she spoke on it quickly. "Silence. I understand that this is a drastic revelation for all of you, but know this: this man is my sword. He speaks for me. His orders are mine. Defying his command is defying me. Until I decree otherwise, he commands this base and everyone present here. Is this understood?"
While there were still plenty of looks of disgruntlement and judgment, the verbal response from the gathered officers was immediate and harmonious. "Yes, Your Highness!"
Pleased with the unanimous deference to her command, Azula motioned towards Xisheng once again. "Superb. Then, by all means, commander."
Taking a step forward, Xisheng took in the steely and mostly disapproving gazes of the many men before him. He did not have their trust, loyalty, or approval. And it wouldn't be easy to get it. It would take time and effort, but Xisheng had to start now. That being the case, what the heck should he say? Acknowledge that he was young? No, everyone knew that already. Politely request their aid in leading the next attack? No, that just made him sound like someone without confidence of his own. Maybe... maybe for now, it was best to just stick to business.
"...greetings, gentlemen. Allow me to lay out the general battle plan for our next assault on the walls of Ba Sing Se. Feel free to ask questions: every single one of you will be needed if we are to succeed."
This must have been a fairly good start, as there were a few sideways glances shared among the men that made it obvious Xisheng's first impression was not what they had been expecting. Hopefully it was better than whatever they had expected. Still, with no words forthcoming, Xisheng simply launched right into his plan: something he had not even fully laid out to Azula yet.
"This plan is, ultimately, tactically simple. It will be a significant challenge in regards to logistics, coordination, and organization, but the plan of attack is straightforward: we are going to tunnel under the walls of Ba Sing Se, obliterate the foundations with explosives, drop a massive section of the wall in one strike, and storm in with our forces to secure the breach and fortify the area to make way for reinforcements to support our future incursions into the city."
Silence reigned over the room for several moments, with most of the people present looking bewildered. Eventually, one of the younger lieutenants spoke up. Maybe he wasn't afraid to look like he didn't get it.
"Uh... how are we going to do that?"
Now that someone had broken the ice, the logistics officer spoke up too. "We don't have the mining equipment on hand to even dream of doing that. Last I checked we only have about a hundred digging tools, and they're all hand tools."
One of the older majors in the back added his take as well, with some very thinly veiled derision. "Not to mention the idea of tunneling underground against Earthbenders. That's suicide."
Having already anticipated such arguments, Xisheng quickly brushed them aside. "All fair points. That is why the tunneling will be done by allied Earthbenders of our own. Our nation has long had access to loyal Earthbending combatants, but we've relegated them to home guard brigades and militias out of some misguided sense of superiority. You-"
Xisheng pointed at the logistics officer.
"-are going to dispatch our transports to our longest established colonies in the Earth Kingdom and gather any home guard divisions, militias, and volunteers who are willing to engage in battle for their country. I know that Yu Dao alone has a home guard division that consists of hundreds of Earthbenders. It's high time we use our advantages to their fullest potential and give our colonists the chance to serve just like anyone else."
One of the old majors clearly wasn't happy about this. "You want to use Earthbenders to attack Ba Sing Se? Those disloyal earthworms would sooner defect to the enemy than help us take them down!"
"Yu Dao has been a Fire Nation city for longer than any of us have been alive. Longer than most of our parents have been alive. The people living there today were born Fire Nation, raised Fire Nation, their parents and their parents' parents were the same. They wear our clothes, eat our food, read our books, learn our history, and sing our songs. If you really think they would betray us for the residents of Ba Sing Se just because they share an element, ask yourself this: is there truly no Firebender in this world you would not wish harm upon? I doubt you have unyielding loyalty to every person in this world who shares your element based on that alone."
The old major fell silent at that, unable to say anything to retort. Apparently, Xisheng's justification was good enough for the assembled men to move on to the next point, raised by a fairly young captain.
"Even if we have Earthbenders on our side, how are they going to tunnel under the walls? The enemy will see them, or sense them directly underground and figure out our strategy."
Naturally, Xisheng had accounted for this as well. He had spent hours poring over all of these details already. "We will have many means of concealment and deception on our side. First of all, we know that the defenders of the walls rarely leave them unless it is required to stop an attack, as was the case with the Drill. We also know that they do not patrol the foot of the walls, because we have never used Earthbenders to actually mount an attack. It is unlikely that anyone at the top of the wall will be able to sense someone digging around underneath it. Furthermore, we will be launching a multi-pronged traditional attack to serve as a diversion for the sappers. Massive artillery bombardments will give the enemy the idea that we are merely attempting to replicate the previous success of the traitor Iroh. Our Earthbending sappers will also begin the tunneling process from visually obscured locations. In short, we'll be launching a diversionary attack designed to take advantage of our opponent's complacency as a cover for our true goal."
At this point, it was clear that Xisheng was actually getting some of the men to come around to his plan. There were many looks of contemplation, of people thinking 'this could work'. But there were still some other facets to consider, and they did not go unchallenged. That was good: it meant Xisheng had tactically competent people under his command. This time, it was someone asking about the actual matter of taking down the wall.
"Will it really be so easy to take down the wall? I mean, it sounds feasible in principle, but the wall is massive. I can't see it caving so easily..."
This time, Xisheng didn't even have to answer. The engineer-in-chief present spoke up, which made sense since he was the same guy who had been asked about this question last night.
"No, it could be possible if we strike at the right locations. If we can take down the foundations in either a wide enough or deep enough pocket, the wall's own weight will drag it down and create fractures. It'll practically destroy itself, as long as we can remove enough support from underneath it in one go. Granted, the amount of explosives we would need is... unprecedented, to say the least."
Now, the logistics officer chipped in. "I can have all available explosive supplies diverted to our base from nearby sources. Blasting jelly, black powder, explosive artillery munitions... if we go along with this plan, I could feasibly scrounge up enough explosives to blow off a mountaintop. Surely that would be enough?"
The old doubting major from before interrupted at this point. "Even if we can pull off all of this up to this point, we will need to secure the breach almost immediately to prevent the enemy from repairing it and wasting all of our effort. How are we going to do that?"
Finally, Xisheng was able to speak at his own strategy meeting once again. "The diversionary attack will double as our spearhead. Our forces will be close enough to rush the breach when it is made, but not so close as to prompt an enemy response other than hunkering down. Bear in mind that enemy forces will likely congregate at the sections of the wall that we are attacking, meaning they should be mostly killed or wounded if we manage to take it down. We should have a window of opportunity to storm the breach and secure a foothold in which there is little to no resistance. That said, I am considering dividing our forces into three separate attacks: three attempts to breach the wall, and three opportunities to seize a foothold. However, I won't decide on that variation to the plan until our full forces and resources are gathered."
There was a lot of nodding of heads and murmurs of approval as the many officers in the room glanced around at each other. It was obvious: they thought this plan could work. It wouldn't be easy to pull off by any means, but it could work. Not to mention, they had a commander who had actually thought all of this shit through, as opposed to the previous guy who had just thrown weapons headlong into the fire. It was a welcome change of pace for everyone. And with a sensible plan on the table, suddenly everyone was feeling a bit more hopeful about the whole ordeal. It was still hard to get behind such a young person being in charge, but then again... the last person in charge had been old, and his attack had failed miserably. And this young leader had a feasible plan with feasible ways to achieve it.
Needless to say, Xisheng was pleased that he at least convinced everyone of his strategy. Whether or not he would have their support and loyalty as subordinates would only be revealed later.
"If there are no more questions, then we had best start making preparations now. Communications, send a messenger to Yu Dao and other prominent colonies so they can prepare for the arrival of our transports. Logistics, send our transports out as soon as possible to get our reinforcements from the colonies and any explosives you can manage. Engineering, make sure our siege engines are in order: even if they aren't the main focus of our attack, they'll need to do their part. Combat officers... there's no need to explain the plan to your soldiers just yet. For now, just try to keep their morale up. When the time comes to attack, I need everyone at their best. I will keep all pertinent individuals informed as our strategy evolves. If there are no questions, you are dismissed."
Because Azula was present, everyone offered a salute before leaving. Some of them were obviously begrudging, but Xisheng was pleased to see that some of the officers did it gladly. Apparently, having a good plan was enough to at least get respect from some people right out the gate. Of course, whether or not that respect waxed or waned would probably depend on whether or not that good plan actually worked. Of course it all sounded great theoretically. But it was easy for a plan to sound perfect on paper. Real life was a lot trickier than the theoretical.
Soon enough, Xisheng and Azula were the only people still in the room. The latter was looking at Xisheng appreciatively. "For someone who wasn't initially confident in this plan, it's awfully robust. You came up with all of this over the past few days?"
Able to relax a little bit now that the meeting was over, Xisheng smiled. "Don't praise me too much, Azula. The truth is that I just spend an unhealthy amount of time obsessing over military affairs. Truth be told I've played with the idea of taking down the wall for years. I just didn't come up with an actually feasible way to do it until now."
Though he was trying to play off Azula's praise, it didn't seem to actually work. Azula seemed no less impressed than before. "Even so, your intellect is... admirable, shall we say? Just know that I'm very pleased with what you've come up with. And the way you handled the obvious distaste those officers had for you initially: well done, Xisheng. Very well done indeed."
"Thank you. That kind of praise means a lot coming from you. And speaking of which... I'll do everything I can to justify the faith you've put in me. I know your endorsement of me makes you responsible for any failures that come out of all of this, and that it could seriously affect you for years to come. I won't spare any expense for your success."
Now feeling a little sheepish herself, Azula tried to deflect. It was true that she was placing a lot of faith in Xisheng, but he didn't have to be so earnest about it...
"It'll be our success, Xisheng. If you pull this off, well... as long as we don't follow it up the same way Iroh did, you might become one of the most famous commanders of the war. Maybe even one of the Fire Nation's most respected commanders in history..."
"Even if that were true, I'd still be a commoner."
"Yes, well... there are ways to change that, Gohan. Now, while it may sound odd to do so at noon and right after you've assumed a mantle of responsibility, I suggest you get some rest. It doesn't look like you slept at all last night."
With that, Azula made her exit from the room too, though Xisheng couldn't help but watch her curiously as she left. Just what exactly had she meant by that? Ways to change being a commoner? He could only think of one way to do that, which was...
No, surely that couldn't have been what she meant. Right...? It would just be presumptuous to assume that. Shaking the thought from his mind, Xisheng focused back on the situation at hand. Granted, there wasn't much he could do right now since his orders had been issued. But on the other hand, he was probably going to have to get used to issuing orders in the first place. It was a pretty new feeling, but not entirely unwelcome. He'd have to see if that changed when the time came to order men into battle.
I thought about getting into the battle itself, but, well, I think that deserves a lot of limelight, and this chapter is already pretty long as it is. That being the case, we're going to save it for next time!
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