Zuko shifted in his saddle as he let go of the broken spear in his hand. Without a thought his now free hand went to draw his sword, while the other pulled lightly on the reins to urge his mount to veer just a bit as it rode away from his impaled victim. The cavalry blade flashed out, and he felt some resistance as the metal bit into the back of another Loyalist scout.
Another tug of the reins, followed by another swing of his sword. Zuko clicked his tongue as this strike glanced off the helmet of his target. He really needed more time to get used to mounted combat…
He brought his blade up to swat away a thrusting spear, riding past the offender to be hopefully dealt with by the other riders following after him. Zuko could feel the momentum of the charge still carrying him onwards, and so he let himself be carried by it, urging his mount onwards to break through the spaces between spearmen.
Unlike komodo rhinos who had their thick skin and immense bulk, ostrich horses relied on their nimbleness and their feathers to keep them alive in combat. Their thick and coarse plumage also absorbed the average spear thrust, turning what would've been a mortal wound into a shallow one. Even with the basic training Zuko had, the avians were quick to react to danger, weaving around danger or kicking at it with their large claws.
"Don't stop!" he yelled, raising his blade to keep his men - his men - focused on him. "Keep going! Ride them down!"
His blade came down just in time, and this time the tip fell just in time to run into the neck of a footsoldier. He remembered to adjust his wrist so the blade could smoothly slip free, and then his attention was fixed on the next target. He broke through the spearline after that and urged his mount around to further sow bloody chaos and shatter the formation.
It did not take long for the last of the convoy's troops to be run down. It was barely a hundred of them against a few hundred riders, after all. Zuko raised his blade again as his mount turned and slowed to a halt, calling an end to the charge. He glanced around the rolling grasslands, seeing a few lucky footsoldiers desperately fleeing for their lives.
Seeing the unwitting messengers leave, he then turned his attention to the line of wagons that now lay abandoned on the road. The prince nodded to the first rider that approached him. "Send the message. Make sure to inform the generals that the convoy was not heavily guarded, so they must have expected the area to be safe."
Which would suggest another force already ahead of them, one that was en route to Ba Sing Se or might have already been intercepted by Xing's counterattack. It was impossible to know right now, with how vast the continent was. If it was the former, then this interruption to the supply lines would be useful. Otherwise, it was still this much food being denied to the enemy.
Enemy.
Zuko was still not used to that term. He slowly swept his gaze across the bodies littering the grasslands. These poor souls were supposed to be his countrymen, he was supposed to be their prince. Yet here they were, corpses on a continent far from their home islands, because they were following the Fire Lord's orders.
Not for the first time, the prince let out a heavy sigh as he still struggled to come to grips with his father's madness.
And not for the first time, he promised himself that he would not become too used to the discomfort. He would not bury the discomfort and call it a regrettable necessity as his sister had done. These were his people. Their people, their subjects.
Yet Azula was still right, this was a regretful necessity. These poor men would have to either die or be captured or be put to flight, because the alternative was for the invasion to seep into populated lands, and another group of innocents - the villagers and townsfolk of the continent - would be made to suffer as the armies sacked their way to Ba Sing Se to sustain themselves.
They needed to stall the advance, create a stagnancy that would allow the siblings to take down their father with as little unnecessary losses as possible on every side.
Still mulling on the heavy thoughts, Zuko barely noticed himself guiding his mount back to the forest his cavalry group had first burst out from. General Hwa would soon send her people to pick through the wagons, so his job now was to regroup and recover while the scouts did their thing. He paused for a moment to see several of his riders dismounted and walking carefully across the battlefield, seeing to the fallen on both sides. A very lucky few convoy guards were dragged off to be tended to and kept as prisoners, still alive despite being impaled or trampled or cut open.
A scarred captain rode up to offer a report, and Zuko forced himself to refocus on the present.
"Your highness, there are no further signs of enemy formations; the convoy was truly unguarded."
"Good," the prince sighed, "we'll reform back in the woods regardless, just in case. Have some men start moving the wagons."
He watched the captain ride off to carry out the orders, and sighed again at just how…easy everyone had accepted his station. They did not question his authority, nor did they bring up his poor track record, even if they had every right to. Zuko was given the deference that his station required even if he had failed to capture the Avatar, even if he had been demoted to a mere footsoldier and then bodyguard, even if he hadn't accomplished anything of note especially in comparison to his sister.
Colonel Koda seemed genuinely honored to pass over a few hundred of his cavalry under Zuko's command, and the men so far had listened to his orders with not even a speck of cheek or reluctance, while they showed no annoyance nor exasperation when he sought their veteran advice.
A part of Zuko still struggled with the sense of being undeserving of such respect and authority, even if he was a prince. Even if, as Uncle Iroh had claimed, he had done much despite not achieving much.
Another struggled with the fact that he could have enjoyed this new sense of purpose, of worth, if he hadn't tightly associated his self worth and honor to his father's approval had truly blinkered him so much, as Azula had so bluntly stated.
In the years hunting the Avatar, he had seen only mockery and pity from the people in the ports and colonies. Perhaps it really was all imagined, that the smiles of the magistrates and colonial guards did not hide mockery, that the soldiers in the forts weren't looking down on his exiled state. Perhaps Xing's aid was offered out of genuine concern instead of some laced insult at Zuko's incompetence.
Grunting softly at that uncomfortable thought, the prince rode back into the shade of the forest and awaited further orders.
Such a shame that he could not remain in this simple role forever.
*****
With the once prosperous colonies falling into civil war, business was bad all around, save for certain areas. While most traders either fled to Ba Sing Se or the newly freed Earth Kingdom states to rebuild, Je-Choi found himself in a unique position of profiting while contributing to his patrons' cause.
The Cabbage Food and Logistics Company had built itself an impressive network of depots and stores throughout the colonies and the neighboring Earth Kingdom states, almost entirely thanks to the generosity of Princess Azula. The lack of trade tariffs within the Fire Nation territories meant that Je-Choi had the luxury of investing in transportation and storage technologies to maximize his profits.
His company's fleets of wagons and carts and civilian-grade tanks that once ensured mass transportation of perishable goods to their destinations in a timely manner now served as the trading backbone of Ba Sing Se. Goods were exported and imported in long trains to and from the states aligned with Omashu. From what Je-Choi understood, King Bumi was keeping his hands off further interactions with Ba Sing Se beyond the peace treaty, but that also included not stopping or encouraging trade.
Ba Sing Se offered its massive surplus of grains in exchange for other foodstuffs, and the gold that one decorated the palace and nobles' homes in the Inner Ring were offered up to purchase metal and leather and textiles. Even the deposed Earth King's wardrobe was sold off; there was enough gold thread separated from green and yellow silks to make several tightly wound spools.
The resources Prince Xing imported would either go on to elevate the populace's diet, or feed the new industry of war. Metal ingots were transformed into spear- and arrowheads, leather and silk were woven into light armor, even animal dung was refined into manure or the infamous naphtha.
It was a pity the Cabbage Food and Logistics Company had no naval department, otherwise Je-Choi could have better insight into Ba Sing Se's trade relations with the Northern Water Tribe. Apparently a portion of the weapons and armor made in the city were sent north, in exchange for an influx of blubber and furs and seafood. A northern branch would definitely be worth exploring…once the fighting was all done with, anyway.
In the meantime, Je-Choi kept organizing his caravans, and occasionally personally led convoys to evacuate the few towns and villages still untouched by the invading Fire Nation brutes.
Which could lead to unfortunate situations.
"Leave the caravan and be thankful that you have contributed to the Fire Nation's cause!"
Like this one.
Je-Choi sighed as he calmly ordered his men to comply with the rude demands. Nothing more than terrorists, these Fire Nation soldiers, not like the more courteous one the princess had roaming the roads during her reign.
The trade magnate watched bemusedly as the soldiers swarmed his caravan full of food, barely keeping a scowl of his face at the thought of their grubby hands getting on provisions meant for the needy and the desperate. He calmed himself by listening to the crickets around him sing.
"What's a rich merchant like you doing around these parts?" the commander sneered as he marched up to Je-Choi.
"Food delivery," he answered curtly, biting back his own sneer as he kept an ear on the crickets chirping.
The commander with the stupid looking skull helmet tilted his head in mock amusement. "That so? I don't see any major colonies along this road."
"It's for selling to the settlements along the route."
"Heh. And which bountiful farms did you get all of this from?"
Je-Choi stared at the man right in the eyes. "The farms of Ba Sing Se, realm of Prince Xing and Princess Azula."
The commander reacted by going stiff and gurgling, as two arrows seemingly appeared in the middle of his neck, and three more bounced off his helmet. Other boorish soldiers fell by the wagons, some managing to cry out in surprise as the arrows studded their necks and exposed underarms.
With the ambush triggered, the trader drew his own solid dao blade hidden under his voluminous robes, and slashed down onto a soldier standing beside the fallen commander. His staff too burst into action, revealing daggers and short swords to lunge at the confused looters. Normally, for all the bravery, such an ambush would be disastrous due to the fact that it was mere civilians against a larger group of soldiers.
Thankfully for Je-Choi, the civilians like him were only the (very well protected) bait.
Bolts of fire joined the arrows in picking out the enemy, and then the comforting forms of the 11th burst out of the ground and down from the treetops to swarm their prey. The mail-veiled figures charged in like a wave of violence, sometimes literally pouncing on their victims to bury their blades into necks or faces.
Je-Choi barely had time to watch as his own victim's comrade turned his spear at him, because the earth under the potential attacker folded up and crushed him into a gory paste. Just off to his side, another poor brute screamed as he fought against a wagon driver pinning him down, while the driver's assistant bit on a cleaver and struggled to liberate the soldier from his helmet. The helm came off seconds later, and the cleaver came down several times after that.
The convoy staff and the soldiers of the 11th worked together to bring a quick and bloody end to the fighting, resulting in no losses on their end save for a few crates of vegetables being stained with blood and gore. Ah well, the losses were still well within the margins.
Remembering that he was currently standing idle, the merchant drew up his blade and looked for the nearest enemy to cut down.
"Another successful run," Captain Weikong greeted with a smile as the corpses were being looted.
Je-Choi smiled back as he wiped the blade off his sword with a cleaner patch of a dead soldier's uniform. "Very much so. Only four crates of food lost this time around."
"Mhm. Four ambushes in, you're hesitating far less."
"Indeed. The instruction your men have provided has also been most helpful." Je-Choi did have his doubts after he recklessly volunteered his services in a fit of loyalty and bravado. But now, after killing his…eighth? After killing his eighth foe, the trader had to admit, it was rather…satisfying repaying the prince's and princess' generosity this way. Prince Xing had saved him from a bloody end once, it was only fitting to repay blood with blood, as the old proverb goes.
Plus, it got Je-Choi's old resentment out of his system, all those times being pushed around by both Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom bullies… After years of being mistreated and ignored, the violence he got to vent out was rather therapeutic.
"Here's to hoping we get stopped again before we reach our next stop," Je-Choi remarked sincerely.
"I'll have the scouts keep a lookout for choice prey," the captain replied with a chuckle.
Je-Choi bowed his head in thanks. "While we're waiting for your men to finish their task, should I have mine prepare a light snack?"
"Cabbage and lotus root soup?"
Ah, how good it was to have such an eager customer who appreciated the classics. "With ostrich horse bones as stock, and glass noodles to go with it all."
Captain Weikong grinned. "You spoil us with such luxury, cabbage merchant."
For better or worse, the rest of the journey was uneventful, though the refugees that replaced the crates of food in the wagons on the way back still made the trip worthwhile. Saving a future customer base was an investment that was sure to pay off in the future.