The Northern Pacification Army was making good time in its conquests. Towns and villages were brought into the fold with little resistance, while walled cities were usually besieged and captured within a week. Even by optimistic estimations, the army was ahead of schedule.
Which meant that something eventually had to go wrong to make up for lost time.
Tan-Hwa kept silent as she stood on the raised platform to the left of General Sho, flanking him alongside Dao, Koda, and Yashen, as befitting of the honor of the crown princess personally selecting her for his army.
The other commanders were gathered below the Frostfire, many wearing mild frowns, while a particular group right in front of the platform were scowling.
"With all due respect, general, I cannot stand by and simply allow this state of affairs to go on." A colonel Tan-Hwa couldn't identify spoke on behalf of his equally aggrieved peers. He led a cavalry regiment, she vaguely recalled.
General Sho gave a slight nod of his head, allowing the man to elaborate.
"I know the significance of what we are doing here, of the quiet honor we bring to the Fire Nation for taming this unruly land. But…" And the colonel raised a finger into the air for emphasis. "Quiet glory or not, I will not abide by the cheap tactics that the 11th are employing."
"Cheap tactics?" Sho patiently asked.
"Yes, general. Cheap tactics. Do not think us ignorant to the reports. The 11th have been allowed the privilege of being our vanguard, and with every Earth Kingdom mob they encounter, they reap an easy slaughter to inflate their merits." The commander gestured with an arm to his colleagues around him. "While each of us have to take turns to seize cities and face down proper armies in pitched battles, the 11th are allowed to constantly run ahead, scare away some peasants, and claim some grand victory over pathetic resistance."
"Oi now-"
Sho raised a hand to cut off Dao's booming protest. "Is that what it seems to you, colonel?"
The protesting commander nodded firmly. "I cannot speak for my fellow warriors, but I have been campaigning for more than two decades already. I know a blatant attempt to gain undeserved merits when I see it."
It was Koda who responded, his voice calm and almost breezy. "You are saying that a regiment intercepting and holding or running down forces much larger than itself to be an easy feat, sir."
"Hmph. And you say it isn't? They might look imposing to the courtiers reading the reports, but we all know that peasants and unprepared household guards are barely a threat to any force."
"The 11th's battalions do more than just ambush, colonel."
The colonel's jaw tightened before he replied. "With respect, general, a whole regiment acting as scouts is not such a laudable feat."
"Is that what you truly think, sir?" a young voice rang out above the murmurs, and all heads turned to find Colonel Xing, his armor freshly bloodied, holding a scroll in his hands.
The man glared at his younger counterpart. "Aye. And I'll be man enough to say it to your face: however much the throne favors you and your command, I will not stand for you being put in a position to constantly seek glory while the rest of us have to take our turns being in reserve, nor will I stay silent as you make a mockery of our efforts by inflating the value of your accomplishments, that your efforts are comparable to ours."
Tense silence filled the air as Tan-Hwa and the others watched the exchange. She turned her head to find the general and the three colonels beside her tensing up, as if a brawl might suddenly break out. The other colonels held more mixed reactions; some seemed to stand by and nod along to their colleague's sentiment, while others were subtly shifting away and making space between the Young Dragon and his rival.
For a moment, she wondered if the young Xing would call out his detractor. He now had the rank to do so, after all, as a Royal Champion. It'd be easy to claim that such criticism was also staining the crown princess' honor as well.
Instead, Xing gave a curt nod. "If you think you and your men can take the place of me and mine…"
"I do," the colonel spat.
The Young Dragon nodded again, and then bowed and offered a crisp salute at Sho. "General Sho. I request for a momentary transfer to the rear lines. I request for Colonel Baiyu and his regiment to take the 11th's place as a deep reconnaissance force in the meantime."
Xing lifted his head slightly to throw Baiyu a challenging look. The other colonel huffed before bowing stiffly and smacking his fist into his palm towards Sho. "General Sho, I agree to the task of relieving the 11th of its onerous duty."
Another heavy silence rolled through as Sho and Xing exchanged silent looks. Finally, the general let out a sigh.
"So be it. The 11th will return to the host until we arrive at the next city, and the 5th will take its place in the meantime. Colonel Xing, call your men and women back. Colonel Baiyu, prepare to send yours out. After your words, I expect nothing less than the results the 11th has provided thus far."
It was only after the assembly dispersed, and as Sho left the platform to have a discreet conversation with Xing, that Yashen finally spoke up, surprising Tan-Hwa with the sheer pity in his voice as he shook his head. "The poor fucks…"
"Well, we haven't lost anyone yet," Koda offered as a strange consolation. "So we're still within margins."
Tan-Hwa didn't hide her confusion from her colleagues. "What do you mean?"
It was one of the rare times where Dao's bluntness was somewhat appreciated. "Means we gotta start preparing to pick up the slack after we lose a regiment. And we might wanna up our sentries, just in case."
"Well, at least Xing didn't call Baiyu out," Yashen said with a shrug as he began to leave.
Koda made him pause with a sigh. "You mean it's too bad that we did not get a duel. Now the 11th will find their own way of seeking satisfaction."
"Oh…that's true… The poor fucks."
It took a few days before Tan-Hwa fully understood what her colleagues meant. Things seemed to continue as normal on the first two days of Baiyu leading his men ahead from the main host, and Xing recalling his back. The mood of the army relaxed just a bit at having their resentment addressed, but there was an underlying apprehension in it, one that particularly hovered over General Sho and his friends.
XIng himself seemed to take being recalled at face value, resting in his tent or marching casually with his regiment.
The first reports from Baiyu came on the fourth day. Sho made it a point to read it aloud in the command tent.
"Enemy force encountered, around three thousand strong. The 5th successfully forced them to withdraw. Light casualties sustained."
Not a few gathered commanders were grinning at the report, no doubt feeling vindicated. Tan-Hwa did not share in the cheer, as she picked up the difference in wording from what the 11th previously offered.
Forced a withdrawal, not routed or shattered. No mention of the enemy command being decapitated.
And the 11th always gave exact numbers of their losses - rarely reaching the hundreds - instead of vague quantities.
They might mean something, or be nothing at all.
On the next day, another report was delivered by a weary messenger. Again Sho announced its contents to his subordinates.
"The 5th intercepted an enemy probing attack, at least five thousand Earth Kingdom men. They fought them off with acceptable casualties in return."
Again, fought them off. Not stopped. Not broken.
And how many casualties is 'acceptable'?
Two nights later, the patrols rang their gongs for the first time since they came up north. Apparently an enemy scouting party had snuck up, and almost managed to escape pursuit if not for Koda's cavalry.
On the third report, the veneer of optimism slipped off.
"The 5th fended off a night attack from the enemy. Fought off a second assault in the daytime. Losses are affecting the regiment's operations. Resupply and reinforcements are requested."
"I'll do it," one colonel immediately after the report was read.
Sho only tilted his head to one side.
"I'll send supplies and reinforce the 5th," the commander clarified.
"No."
"General?" The confusion was not limited to just that man.
"Here it comes," Yashen muttered.
General Sho's face shifted into a stern, uncompromising expression. "The role of this army's deep reconnaissance force is to act as scouts and to screen any approaching Earth Kingdom forces. An important part of the latter is to ensure that our enemy does not get a clear measure of our army. To that end, that force is not to be rotated, to minimize the enemy deducing our army's composition. The deep reconnaissance force is also considered expendable."
Sho emphasized the last words and cast a heavy gaze across the tent.
"Until it rejoins the host by explicit order by its general, the reconnaissance force is to fend for itself and operate independently to fulfill its role. We cannot risk being drawn into an unfavorable battle simply by trying to recover it."
He finished by fixing a sharp look on Xing, who seemed a bit too nonchalant about the whole thing. "Did I miss anything, Colonel Xing?"
The boy took a second to laconically lift a finger and offer his reply. "Any failure to fulfill its duties which results in compromising the advance of the Northern Pacification Army, will be answerable to Crown Princess Azula. And if the situation warrants it, Fire Lord Ozai."
There was a pause, and then Xing gave a lazy smirk.
"Of course, if that were the case, I'm unsure if her highness' promise of execution by boiling alive would apply to others outside of my own station. She did not expect anyone else to take up that role."
No reinforcements, no resupply, no assistance. Gulps could be heard and faces slowly bleached of color as the weight of the 11th's, and now the 5th's, duty was made clear.
General Sho nodded curtly. "So no, there will be no resupply or reinforcements. The 5th will continue fulfilling its role, or it may request to withdraw to the host. A request I might consider."
He turned fully to the colonel that had volunteered. "Are you offering to take over Colonel Baiyu's place?"
A second of hesitation, and then the colonel shook his head and meekly stepped back to melt into the crowd.
Sho swept the tent with a hard gaze. "Will there be any regiment willing to replace and relieve the 5th until we reach the next city?"
There were nervous shuffling of feet, but nobody stepped forward, nobody raised a hand, nobody spoke up.
"If it is agreeable," Xing finally spoke up, stepping forwards and saluting at Sho, "the 11th would gladly abandon its requested rest and return to the front. If Colonel Baiyu requests relief, of course."
The general looked around once more. "Are there any objections?"
Colonel Baiyu did not send a request. Instead, the army caught up with the beleaguered 5th days later. On General Sho's order, several regiments rushed out to aid it against its Earth Kingdom assailants - maybe two thousand in number, Tan-Hwa estimated.
They found Baiyu gravely wounded, with half his face crumpled from an earthbended missile. The 5th regiment was more or less in the same battered state. They were starving, and almost all of them wore wounds to some degree, though they'd also lost about a third of their strength.
Colonel Xing and the 11th were immediately ordered to take up the role of deep reconnaissance again, and this time the resentment directed on their backs was tempered with the fact that they had carried out their roles until now without suffering what the 5th did.
Colonel Baiyu was carried back to the colonies by his 5th Regiment, with the orders for both elements to convalesce.
Tan-Hwa then had an inkling of what Yashen had meant days earlier, and she truly pitied the wounded commander.
Because along with the spent regiment went reports, addressed directly to the crown princess. Reports that included both the 5th's performance in fending off and chasing down peasants and house guards, and that of the 11th's in comparison.