Focused Fire (ATLA)

“You sure we couldn’t have popped the offer right then and there?” Kai asked in the privacy of the command tent.

Rather surprisingly, it was Mozi who shook his head. “It’d have undone all the goodwill we sowed there with unnecessary suspicion. The colonel is right, this sort of thing is best taken slowly.”

Xing nodded after giving a smile at his lieutenant colonel. “The Mechanist has been dealing with the stick up until now. Let them get used to the carrot, then once Azula’s hold on the region strengthens, we’ll make another offer. With careful information dissemination, he will hear of how she does things, and we could have him willingly working for us.”

“As a civil engineer though?” Ping pondered.

Their colonel shrugged. “Baby steps. We can pick apart his civilian inventions and apply them to military use without his involvement. That way the point of failure is far less critical like what happened with the War Ministry.”

“Eh, it still feels like a roundabout way,” Kai couldn’t help but comment.

“That’s because it is. And sometimes, it’s the best option to take.”

“What about the flying thing?” Rufen asked.

“It’s a minor thing with its limitations. Besides, the surviving officials have already seen it in action, no doubt there’ll be some of them working on replicating it once they return to the capital.”

“They’d do a better job with a sample in hand…”

Xing grinned. “Or references. A good thing we have a few people in the 11th who have seen and interacted with the balloon up close, no? We can offer the War Ministry what information we have on it…for a fair price, of course.”

Kai’s face scrunched up to know that Xing was playing politics again. He and the crown princess were rather eager players in that dirty game. No doubt the royal princess already has plans in motion to deal with the new war minister. It wouldn’t surprise the captain to discover that she might even have a hand in determining who gets the post.

The treacherous scheming of it all should be appalling, but Kai and the other officers of the regiment shared their colonel’s disdain for the rather disappointing performance of the War Ministry. Decades of relative stagnancy, and the former war minister’s only offerings were inventions taken by a refugee inventor. 

War Minister Qin had introduced very little new innovations to the battlefield, whether in the form of weapons, armor or tactics. Colonel Lidai had forwarded Xing’s ideas back then, but nothing came of it. The princess had forwarded the design of the flammenwerfers, but according to Ren that and Xing’s other inventions were lost in the labyrinthine redtape of testing, prototyping and verification. The War Ministry didn’t have the balls to outright reject the designs with excuses of defects or major flaws.

And all because old Qin probably didn’t like the idea of other people being associated with innovations within his domain. That, or he was part of the camp that was trying to rein in Xing’s rise. Kai couldn’t find any other logical reason to acknowledge the colonel’s contributions otherwise.

Having the mountainside drop on Qin might be the spirits giving a sign. Or it was Xing being Xing again. Kai was happy not knowing which was true.

“So, we’ll be dealing with a new war minister sooner rather than later?” Kai asked, and Xing shrugged his shoulders again.

“The moment they’re appointed, Azula will approach them about naphtha, repeaters and flammenwerfers again, and I’ll have her bring up the balloon as well.”

Really, these kids shouldn’t be so avid participants in court intrigue, but it seems that Xing and his royal girlfriend were laying down the foundations for their eventual, official entry into higher court politics. With the crown princess recently taking the position of Colonial Minister, and Xing working on setting down roots, Kai was both disgusted and impressed at the amount of work they were getting done.

Well, on the bright side Fan’s place in the more prestigious schools was more or less secure. Princess Azula’s constant time with Ren had the side effect of getting their daughter very well acquainted with her. And despite the supposed bare tolerance of Fan, the princess had a subtle protective streak towards the girl.

According to Ren’s letters, the crown princess would sigh with faux irritation, but would be among the first ones to stop Fan from wandering out of sight. She planned her visits around the girl’s nap times once she learned about it, and on at least two occasions had helped rock Fan to sleep while Ren had to take care of administrative work. 

No surprise then that Kai had to lose out when Fan started speaking. She knew ‘mama’ first, but the next word she spouted was ‘Zula’. ‘Papa’ was the sixth word she learned to say, after ‘sleep’, ‘num-num’ and ‘fire’. It hurt his paternal pride, but Kai was consoled that it could’ve been much worse.

Fan could’ve picked up Xing’s spirit-touched vocabulary, for example.

Or been exposed to Colonel Dao. 

Shuddering at that thought, Kai returned to the present. “Uh, so what’s next after we return to friendly territory?”

Xing shrugged as he glanced down at the map of the continent’s northern region. “Either we’ll be patrolling the borders or continue with native suppression efforts. General Sho should have something for us.”

It was rather considerate of Xing to still maintain the facade of being directly under the general’s command. With the surprising amount of power his noble rank gave him, everyone expected the 11th to do as it pleased, chain of command be damned. 

Or the boy was probably too lazy to figure out where to take the regiment when he didn’t have a definite goal in view.

A messenger ran into the tent, the urgency of his task such that he only saluted after handing the scroll wrapped in red ribbon over to Xing. A priority message from the crown princess. “The hawk was forwarded from Zilang, sir.”

Xing gave the trooper a nod to dismiss him, and then quickly unrolled the scroll to read its contents. Kai didn’t like the way the colonel tensed up or narrowed his eyes.

“Change of plans,” Xing finally said with a grimace as he broke away from the scroll to regard the officers. “Mozi, once we get back to friendly lines, have Hyung stock up on cold weather gear.” He offered the scroll to the nodding lieutenant colonel. “Admiral Zhao has successfully petitioned for and is mustering the forces for an assault of the Northern Water Tribe.”

“That sounds ambitious…” Kai’s thoughts immediately left his mouth as Mozi read through the scroll with an immediate frown on his face. 

Xing nodded as Mozi answered for him. “He managed to convince several high generals to aid in his petition to the Fire Lord. Admiral Daeyang, General Sho, and other commanders operating in the north are to…provide their full cooperation to Admiral Zhao in this endeavor.”

Mozi stared up from the scroll to stare at the colonel. “This…this level of mobilization hasn’t been seen since Prince Iroh’s siege of Ba Sing Se.” 

“That big?” Ping asked with some worry, and Mozi passed her the scroll.

“Bigger. Several admirals have pledged their fleets to Admiral Zhao’s cause, particularly those patrolling the waters between the home islands and the colonies. With the subjugation of the northern Earth Kingdom realms, the Fire Lord and the War Council have agreed that there is no need for such a heavy naval presence guarding the seas between the home islands and the northern colonies anymore.”

Ping’s eyes went wide as she scoured the message. “They’re stripping the north down to garrisons and border security?”

“Almost down to that, yeah,” Xing said wryly. “Note that General Sho is only asked to contribute some of his forces, compared to the other commanders named.”

The captain squinted at the scroll for a moment. “The regiments of Colonels Dao, Yashen and Koda will remain with General Sho and the 11th to…continue securing the northern states. Everyone else is being ‘recommended’ to the invasion.”

Kai blinked incredulously. “We’re being left out?”

“Quite obviously, too.”

“Then why are you preparing to join in?”

Xing’s eyes hardened dangerously, making Kai almost regret asking. “Because, Admiral Zhao is either about to make a big mistake, or he’s suicidal and doesn’t mind dragging everyone else along with him.” There was a coldness in his voice that Kai had last heard when they found out Duke Cho’s involvement in Shiluo’s idiocy. “We’ll make our way back with all haste. The faster we get back to friendly territory, the more time I’ll have to work with the favors owed to us.”

*****

Azula had not expected the post of Colonial Minister to be an easy thing, but neither did she expect it to be such a…a shit show. Oh, she earned a new audience of simpering petitioners, but the amount of quietly resentful courtiers had been unexpected. 

There were as many generals and admirals who talked behind her back as there were seeking her favor. Royal court became more irritating as officials and useless nobles began to subtly oppose her, mostly by questioning her actions because of her age and inexperience. A few brave idiots dared insinuate that she was being youthfully naive in implementing her policies, even if their effects had been immediate and highly beneficial to the Fire Nation.

The corrupt fools only saw that their cronies and sources of passive income were being relieved of their posts or finally forced to pay up after more stringent auditing from her loyal officials discovered an appalling amount of…willful incompetence.

Her father was ready to lazily order mass executions for the embezzlement, until he realized that it’d mean almost halving the number of nobleborn officials in the colonies.

And, Azula liked to smugly think, it’d leave virtually just the officials handpicked by her to work the colonies. Her father likely factored that in when he reduced the sentences from executions to mere confiscation until the losses recouped (interest included, of course). The calculating look in his eyes before he announced it indicated as much.

There was something about being competent enough to be seen as a concern to her father that Azula found far more…entertaining than picking on Zuko. He was supportive of her proving herself, but clearly he didn’t want her growth to be unchecked. For her part, Azula saw it as a challenge to be eagerly faced, even if she despised having to dabble in court politics.

The princess was still defining the various overlapping factions in court, and found herself highly amused at how isolated her own little faction was. She had the approval of many generals and admirals, but not their interest or loyalty. And the decision to go for the ostracized and exiled nobles and officials with integrity meant that her influence in civilian circles had been very limited.

At least until the second week of her assuming the post of Colonial Minister, and the initial news of embezzlement came in. Then her collection of personnel practically leapt their way out of their social pits purely by the merits and prestige of their spectacular results.

Publicly claiming all the misappropriated funds on behalf of the Fire Lord’s royal coffers instead of the Colonial Ministry scored Azula an irreproachable win in court, and it also better defined her rivals - or more accurately, petty obstacles.

Rivals would suggest that they were her equals in any sense.

The agriculture minister, Shi Ying, had thought herself clever by pushing for a reduction of movement to the colonies, citing that the home islands had to keep its farms and fisheries fully staffed. Ken-Shi, the minister of industries and commerce, supported the motion in stifling growth of the colonies in favor of developing local business all of the sudden.

Azula simply let them carry out the pitiful threat and approve the motion rather than bothering with backdoor negotiations. Instead she helpfully reassured the royal court that with the migration from subjugated Earth Kingdom villages, there’s no labor shortage to worry about in the colonies, and that food and essential goods will continue to flow back to the home islands, so long as the navy does its job.

The princess expected that the home islands would soon see an unhealthy rise in the unemployed and unrecruitable once the so-called essential jobs were all quickly filled up and moving to the colonies to find work became much, much harder. She eagerly awaited that moment, sometime in a couple of months, to see how Shi Ying and Ken-Shi would approach her. Or maybe they’d actually have spines to admit their mistake and request for migration quotas to be withdrawn.

Azula was ready to wring them dry if it was the former, and maybe be more lenient on them if it was the latter. Let it not be said that the crown princess was as petty as those that sought to oppose her.

Ruthless? Yes. Very much yes. 

But not petty.

That was one of the more major plays Azula had to deal with, and thankfully most of the annoyances came from the civilian sector. The military folks still liked her enough - and more importantly she still had father’s approval - that they mostly kept out of her business. 

Mostly.

Every now and then they’d send some sacrificial general or colonel to question Xing’s performance. As if they expected that enforcing compliance in the new territories meant that the 11th must be constantly knee-deep in resistance fighters and bandits.

It was just a show to remind everyone that her regiment was more or less being idle and not doing much, of course. But that didn’t stop Azula from verbally ripping into the idiots bringing up the asinine question. It was rather therapeutic, in a way, to tear them down and reinforce her place in court. 

The less subtle ploys within military politics was so much more Azula’s thing.

Like the late Minister Qin’s leashed Mechanist. On the surface it seemed a decent idea, but having your pet inventor in the middle of an unwelcoming mountain range, deep in Earth Kingdom territory, was a poor move on the minister’s part. His mediocre performance up until now, even after leeching off the extorted inventor’s ideas, showed just how useless Qin was. Hopefully his replacement would be more amenable to actual innovations.

And that was a military politician trying to be clever. 

So when her father approved of the plan proposed by the feckless Admiral Zhao, Azula almost immediately picked apart the more obvious wheels turning about, and began to look for other unseen cogs and wheels that might be turning.

Zhao was a deluded fool, but the traditionalist old guard using him had given his proposal the support it needed to sound credible in the Fire Lord’s ears. The number of generals and admirals latching onto the idea, eager for a chance of glory, was almost disgusting. Especially when Azula remembered that she had spurned a number of them with their pitifully mediocre appeals for favor. 

After Xing’s capture of Omashu and his involvement in the speedy capture of the northern states, it seemed that everybody else felt like they needed to catch up with him. Hence the ludicrous invasion of the Northern Water Tribe. Zhao would get the lion’s share of the glory if the invasion succeeded, even if the Avatar escaped (and no doubt he will), but even with such a force being assembled, there was theoretically enough fighting to be had for others to leech off.

But what would the invasion achieve beyond the need for abstract glory? Nothing concrete at all. The Fire Nation would be invading a patch of ice and snow…occupied by waterbenders. And the Avatar that Zhao used as an excuse for his proposal would likely help the Water Tribe defend their home. He might even end up mastering waterbending simply from fending off the invasion force. Necessity and all that, after all.

Azula would be really surprised if casualties didn’t hit double digits in percentage before the first troops landed.

And even if they beat down the Northern Water Tribe, what then? There was nothing of value to own up there, and the manpower required to keep the place properly pacified would heavily drain the Fire Nation army.

What, they were going to melt everything down to water and boil the ocean? The tribals would just freeze things up and rebuild again. Assuming they didn’t just replicate their ice city in another region.

Azula knew that the civilian ministers saw the foolishness in the proposal, but their own political need to raise themselves aligned them with Zhao. Short-sighted idiots, the lot of them.

But when Xing’s reply to the invasion was a plan to join the invasion force ‘to stop Zhao from making a mistake‘, Azula’s disgust at the invasion turned into concern.

Xing and his spirits, however fickle they might be, have been reliable thus far. If her colonel was expecting trouble, then Azula would do her part in preventing a catastrophic failure. 

Through Overseer Dae and her stable of colonial magistrates, the crown princess ordered the prioritizing the development of the colonial docks, as well as the quiet stockpiling of bandages, herbs and other goods that wounded soldiers might require. Letters were sent to northern colonial governors and Earth Kingdom puppets, ordering them to quietly train up healers and reserve land to be converted into treatment grounds.

It was paramount that all of this was conducted discreetly though, so it was a good thing she could rely on her staff and subjects to get the job done. What was important was that when the time came, Azula and her jurisdiction would be prepared, and her riv- political obstacles would not expect any of it.

It never hurt to sweeten the moment when she proved their inferiority.