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 significant Fire Nation force 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 be easily fixed by Earthbenders, who would certainly rush to the 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.
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. Qin's strategy was something 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. 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.