Less than a week after their first battle, the 11th Regiment came across their first Earth Kingdom village since the princess joined them. It was a small, quiet thing, somehow untouched by the war despite its proximity.
Orders were passed up and down the line to remind the troops to behave. They might be in enemy territory, but that did not give anyone reason to be utter shits about it. Kai didn’t have to worry so much about his command, since the 1st Battalion was made up entirely of seasoned veterans. He used the opportunity instead to coordinate with the scouts as they began to stalk deeper north.
News of General Wenli’s heinous behavior was picking up speed it seems, as the whispers were encroaching into Chenbao’s settlements. Already some of the more far-reaching scouts were sending back hints of outposts being quietly abandoned by their Earth Kingdom garrison, and approached villages begging for mercy from their inevitable invaders.
Even this village was in a similar state of worry. The regiment’s arrival was welcomed by a terrified headwoman and a small group of fidgeting villagers. No surprise that it was made up mostly of women and the elderly, though a few haggard looking men could be seen as well.
Probably deserters, or those who were let go, judging by the distinct fear in their eyes.
Kai and his own gaggle of officers and guards had followed alongside Xing, Mozi and Koshi’s team to meet with the villagers. He felt some admiration as a number of the civvies showed obvious signs of fear, but steeled themselves rather than flee.
As they drew closer, the captain spied the buildings, and then studied the group again. The chances of an ambush were not high, but not too low either. No doubt Koshi was thinking the same thing, as he and his group of overprotective psychopaths were just a step or two from smothering their colonel.
A reasonable precaution, despite how much Kai found it amusing; All it takes is some overreacting village kid with more courage than sense to foul things up.
They came to a stop at a weak spear throw’s away from the villagers, and Xing began with a sharp parade salute. The rustling of more than a dozen armored figures following after him definitely rattled the reception party.
Xing wasted no time in putting on his ‘hardened soldier in a boy’ voice. “Good day, I am Colonel Xing of the Fire Nation’s 11th Regiment. I am here to secure your cooperation as we use the road that runs through your home. Rest assured that we will not cause any harm or disturbance to your people, so long as none is given to us first.”
Kai fought to keep back a smirk at the wide eyes of the headwoman as they snapped onto Xing, after initially fixing her wary gaze on Mozi.
The woman regained her composure with a steadying breath and hushed the rising anxious whispers behind her. “We…we can’t stop you, can we?” she asked rhetorically. “I’ll inform the others to get out of your way…” She paused, frowning as she seemed conflicted about something. Finally, the headwoman settled for sighing audibly. “Jus- I hope you mean what you say, and leave in peace.”
Xing nodded sharply, his voice steely. “If any of my men…or women are found to be…misbehaving, point them out to us. I will personally deal with it.”
It was rather amusing seeing the old men especially reel back from the confident declaration. The deserters too were busy whispering fearfully to those around them.
The regiment began to march through the village, and Kai had his lieutenants keep watch at various points along the line. He himself led a small group of soldiers to reinforce the princess’ escorts.
“Is it truly wise to leave them be?” Kai heard her asking Xing who had been summoned to join her. The boy was riding just beside her, the still unnamed mongoose lizard keeping pace with the princess’ own mount. The reptile would probably go unnamed, until Xing and the regiment as a whole could ever get over their old habits, and the fighting went well enough that nobody had to resort to making meals out of their mounts.
“So long as they do not cause us any problems, villages like these are rarely worth the time to purge, your highness,” Xing replied almost lazily. “There’s always bound to be survivors somewhere, and forcing them into a situation that incentivizes them to fight back can lead to unpredictable results.”
And the last thing anyone wants is being part in creating a reverse-Xing, Kai added silently in his mind.
A vengeful, brilliant, firebending orphan spared by the spirits had kept the 11th alive from bloody and unlikely victory to bloody and unlikely victory.
A vengeful, brilliant earthbending orphan? Or spirits be kind, orphans? Kai did not want that on his conscience, or his trail.
“I see…” came the princess’ unconvinced reply, but she seemed happy enough to leave it at that.
“Contrary to what many might think, princess, these smaller settlements are rarely the source of resistance. So long as we leave them alone, the news of our victories and the villagers’ imagination are often enough to keep their heads down. Having deserters return to spread the tales often helps with that.”
It was mildly amusing to Kai that Xing took on some of Colonel Lidai’s tone when he adopted a lecturing voice. Equally amusing was the attention Princess Azula gave him despite the barely passable courtesy he was addressing her with.
“It is often when visible, solid action is taken on them that they rise up. A garrison commander feeling like he has to throw his weight around, or a passing army deciding that they are bored… When they experience the ordeals themselves, the villagers’ resentment and hate at something so…close and personal to them is often good fuel to spark resource-wasting resistance.”
The princess was frowning at the words, but clearly thinking it through instead of preparing to dismiss it. No surprise, seeing how smart Princess Azula was. She’d no doubt figure out what Kai had after the old colonel had taken some effort to enlighten him, that it’s those occupying garrisons that leave the surrounding settlements alone that see the least amount of partisan activity.
“It’s a non-zero chance, but having a lower and less severe incident rate means we can afford lighter garrisons. Treat them no differently from how they were being treated before we came, or better yet, treat them better than that by lightening taxes and putting an end to conscription, and they’ll be far less of a problem to us than they are to the Earth Kingdom if we let them retake those settlements.”
Kai tried not to snort as he heard the words. It was almost an exact quote to what the old man once said. Which means…
“Punish them appropriately if they act against us, but treat them like a friendly colony, and they’ll eventually be behaving like one.”
There it was, Colonel Lidai’s ending note. It was good to know that Xing carried those lessons with him. Hopefully it’d stick with the princess far better than it did for the generals and commanders long ago.
Tensely peaceful as the march was going, it felt somewhat inevitable to Kai that a ruckus was caused somewhere down the line. The captain followed the yelling into a cluster of houses, and found a squad of Hans standing rather worriedly at a safe distance while Mozi stood between his angry girlfriend and a group of rather pissed off women.
“-see what you’re doing, you…you…tarts! I knew it was too dangerous for him to be sent out here!” Li Ming yelled as she grabbed tightly onto Mozi’s arm and possessively tugged him towards her. The poor lieutenant colonel was doing his level best to calm both parties down, but was being pointedly ignored by them.
“The good soldier asked to buy food, so we’re just going to show him to our warehouse,” one woman replied with venomous sweetness, the fingers on one hand dancing along Mozi’s shoulder. “You’re clearly overreacting here, girlie.”
Kai ran a hand down his face. “For fuck’s sake, Mozi…” He stomped over with a huff, drawing the women’s attention. Li Ming took the opportunity to drag her proper- boyfriend out of the way. “Right ladies, thank you for your cooperation,” the captain decisively said. “I will handle it from here while the lieutenant colonel sees to more important matters.”
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Like figuring out how to stop attracting Earth Kingdom girls simply by breathing. Seriously, they should’ve expected this. It was Xing, Kai and everyone else’s fault for forgetting.
The women looked affronted, and then outright pined as they watched their reason to spread their legs get dragged off by Li Ming and the Han squad. Kai bit back a curse before he put on his civilian-friendly smile and braced himself. “So, madams, care to guide me to your warehouses to review the food you can sell us?”
“Oh, well…you see…”
“I forgot, the grains had gone bad, I’m sorry…”
“...apologies, think I mistook branches for tubers…”
“...my mistake, I was thinking of fertilizer, not food…”
The lackluster responses before the villagers scattered were expected, but no less soul crushing. Kai left the place with his equally annoyed men - and very puzzled women - to return to oversee the march. He ran into Weikong and Rufen midway through, whose looks of concern were quickly replaced by confusion.
“What happened?” the wiry Rufen asked. “I thought one of us might’ve-”
“Fucking Mozi,” Kai simply groaned, and the other captains immediately took his meaning. “Li Ming was there, so she was putting up an aggressive resistance.”
Both captains, and the veterans close enough to hear, let out a collective sigh.
The commanders went up the line as one displeased group and found Mozi being berated by Ren and Ping. The former was smacking him over the back of his head, while the latter was comfortingly patting Li Ming on the back.
“For fuck’s sake, Mozi, can’t you fucking turn it off?” Ping scolded, one of the rare times the usually smiling woman was frowning disapprovingly at one of her own.
Despite the difference in rank, the man seemed like a teen being caught by his aunties. “I told you, I don’t know what happened!”
Ren snorted as she rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah. You showed up, and they started loosening their dresses, right? At least this time you didn’t have to fight your way out.” She caught sight of Kai and the others, and as one the captains shook their heads.
“Fucking Mozi…” came the general sentiment.
After reporting the incident to Xing - who could only shake his head thanks to the presence of royalty - the rest of the march went on without further issues. A general reminder was put up among the officers to ensure that the lieutenant colonel’s future civilian interactions be heavily regulated, but that was about it.
They came across more meek villages and a couple of abandoned ones, and between them there was only one incident of brash young earthbenders deciding to put up a fight. The boys were barely hiding in the thatch rooftops, and an annoyed Xing had allowed the captains to decide among themselves who got the ‘honor’ of handling the youths.
Weikong won, so he and a select number of non-benders quickly snuck around and summarily brought down the would-be ambushes kicking and wailing before Xing and their fellow villagers.
“Normally, the punishment for such an act is to completely sack and raze the place, and put everyone here to the sword,” Xing told the pleading villagers in an unamused tone. “But we’re on a tight schedule, and I’ll leave the options to you: I kill the boys right now, or you hand over half of the hidden reserves I know you Earth Kingdom villages have.”
To their credit, the civvies did not try to argue, particularly since the wannabe partisans were children of the more prominent residents. The regiment marched out with a new wagon brimming with extra food. Of course, Xing was just happy to get another ‘chassis’ for his flammenwerfers.
The 11th were about one third into their journey to Chenbao when they encountered a familiar face. The scouts returned with bright smiles, and it spread to the higher officers when they heard the news.
Xing went out with Kai and Ren - along with a suitable escort of course - and found a rickety cart slowly trudging along the middle of the dusty dirt road away from them. Even from afar, the contents of the cart betrayed the likely identity of its owner. The soldiers quietly closed the distance and got around the cart, and sure enough, a weathered man in a turban was straining as he pushed his cart along by a worn handlebar.
“Hello again, good merchant.”
Xing’s greeting startled the man to the point where the man almost tipped the cart and its precious contents forwards. He recovered, but his eyes quickly boggled as he took in the sight of the armored soldiers around him. Despite the chainmail obscuring their faces, clearly the merchant recognized them.
“Wh-wha- You! YOU!” he pointed accusingly, and then looked to his goods and quickly backed himself protectively towards his cart. “I don’t trade with Fire Nation ruffians!”
The cabbage merchant’s courage was admirable, but Kai was just glad to see him again. Xing probably was too.
“I recall we paid a premium for your stock the last time,” the young colonel commented with a tilt of his head. “Earth Kingdom currency as well.”
“You took them while I was asleep!” the turbaned man retorted.
“We left payment.” And not to mention they had saved him from a very desperate bandit attack (they must’ve been as starving as the regiment to hit a vegetable vendor), and helped to fix up his cart after dragging it back to their camp.
“That’s not the point! I was supposed to head to Omashu-”
“And make a lower profit by selling your cabbages there?” Xing interrupted, full of amusement. Even considering different trading values, a garrison’s pay was surely more than enough compensation for a cart of cabbages.
The merchant sputtered, and finally huffed in exasperation. “Well, I’m not going to sell any more cabbages to you lot!”
Xing’s head tilted again. “Oh? It’s a shame… I was looking forward to cabbages.” He paused for a moment before shrugging. “Well, no matter. It was good seeing you again. May your ventures be prosperous.”
The soldiers all gave a salute with their colonel before they turned to leave. It only took a couple of seconds, and...
“Uh, wait!”
Kai and some of his comrades had to stifle their chuckles as the cabbage merchant called out to them.
“I… I suppose I can sell you some cabbages…”
They parted ways peacefully, with each soldier carrying a head of cabbage on the way back, and the merchant walking off with a hefty pouch of currency.
Kai was sure he was not the only one wearing a smile underneath his metal veil. It was more than just the cabbages.
After they absconded with the cabbages the last time, Kai and Xing had shadowed the merchant, just in case, and had seen the man not complaining as much as he did now at the loss of his cabbages.
More importantly, they also witnessed the man purposely giving the wrong directions to one of the Earth Kingdom patrols on the regiment’s trail. And only after that did the cabbage merchant notice the pile of yuans left in his cart.
The merchant had done good by the regiment back then, likely saved them from a tough encirclement. It was a debt Kai and the others would remember, one of several unexpected good deeds received from the people of a supposedly hostile kingdom. That it didn’t involve a girl and Mozi made it all the more impressive.
Once they returned to the loitering regiment, Xing ordered that they would be setting camp for the night, nevermind that it was only late afternoon. The newbies could use the practice of working under the sun.
And besides, the cabbage merchant had refused the offer to travel along with the regiment that was sure to overtake him. Giving him the road for the day was the least they could do.