General Iroh did not make a new attempt to conquer the walls of Ba Sing Se immediately. It took place several months after the last one. All that time, the main task of the army was to maintain the blockade of Ba Sing Se. Most likely, it wasn't very successful, if not a complete failure.
It was widely believed that a network of tunnels, leading far beyond the city limits, had long existed beneath the city. Such a move was logical. If I could Earthbend and my city were under siege, I would definitely dig a network of tunnels to transport food and soldiers into my territory.
General Iroh received confirmation of the existence of such a network rather quickly. And it happened by chance. A Fire Nation soldier noticed that a merchant from an area that had been a Fire Nation colony for several months was supposedly exporting his homegrown vegetables and fruits to another village for sale, where agriculture was less developed due to the geographical location. The soldier found it quite strange that the merchant was selling goods but not buying the fish that was readily caught in the other village to profitably resell it in his home settlement. On his day off, he decided to satisfy his curiosity and follow the merchant. That is how one of the tunnels leading into Ba Sing Se was discovered, and the fact of their existence was established.
Soon enough, some Fire Nation soldiers were pulled from the Ba Sing Se blockade. Now, the job of several hundred warriors was to inconspicuously tail the "merchants," so that the moment they handed over provisions, and sometimes a group of refugees, to the defenders of Ba Sing Se, they would be detained.
General Iroh decided not to send anyone into the tunnels themselves. According to the interrogated "merchants" and self-study of a short section of the path, the tunnels were impassable without a good Earthbender who had an excellent feel for their element. They turned out to be littered with various traps and posts of hidden guards who also had a very good feel for their element, meaning it was impossible to approach them without being detected. They would feel it through the slightest tremor of the earth.
Iroh understood that leaving the enemy literally under his own feet was extremely dangerous. The main camp was possibly not attacked unexpectedly only because the soldiers of Ba Sing Se were aware of the Earthbenders in our ranks. They would have sensed an underground march of an entire army toward our positions. However, it now became clear where small groups of Fire Nation soldiers were disappearing to...
General Iroh decided that the tunnels would not be used by anyone. Huge bonfires were built at every known entrance to the underground network, with wood added for several days, and all the smoke was directed into the tunnel network.
From the main army camp, one could observe through a spyglass as black, acrid smoke rose into the sky from somewhere within the inner territory of the Ba Sing Se walls. If the Earth Kingdom soldiers used the tunnels again, they did so extremely subtly. And they used completely new routes.
Throughout this time, the men under the General's command also tried to exhaust the defenders of Ba Sing Se. Several small squads, including Lu Ten's group, simulated intense activity near the walls a couple of times a day, raising all the Earth Kingdom soldiers on false alarms.
Sometimes we even managed to shoot someone down, which further lowered the morale of the enemy army. Iroh used his connections to attach members of the special Yuyan Archer unit to the squads, archers who could hit a fly's wing from a hundred paces. Well, at least they boasted of it.
"The people in this world are amazing," I said admiringly, recalling how one of the archers managed to shoot an Earth Kingdom soldier on the wall in almost total darkness, relying only on sound.
I had long noticed that humanity in this world is slightly different, distinct from what I was most often fortunate enough to observe. No, this isn't new to me. In the course of my infinite reincarnations, I have seen a great variety of those who call themselves human. The difference with the locals, compared to the average representative of humankind, was that they were slightly stronger, faster, more resilient, more agile, and so on. That is, their physical characteristics were slightly better. And this applied even to those who were not Benders of one element or another.
The Yuyan Archers, for example, are incredibly accurate and agile guys. Although they undergo very difficult training. On the other hand, an ordinary person from another world wouldn't withstand it. This means there is something in this world that helps people exceed their limits...
Chi...
It probably contains not only the power of Bending; it can be used for more than just mastering one's element... I need to study the aspect of other uses of Chi, because that is also a form of magic.
Incidentally, another distinguishing feature of this particular unit of the Fire Nation army was that it actively employed girls. They are usually not allowed on the front lines. In the army, they are found only in the Fire Nation's original territories and mostly serve as city guards.
"Jealous, Long?" Lu Ten asked with a smirk, nudging me in the side with his elbow.
"Not at all. I'm just admiring the skills of our archers," I shook my head. Even in the poor light of the bonfire, it was clear that the Yuyan Archer girl was slightly blushing.
"Come on, Long, just admit you wish you could shoot as accurately," General Iroh's son insisted.
"Why should I wish for that? Could you please lend me your bow and one arrow?" I addressed the archer with a second question. She, clearly not particularly eager, still handed me her bow and quiver of arrows.
Under the gaze of our entire group, I listened to the silence, and then abruptly shot an arrow toward the forest.
"Well, we learned that you can shoot a bow and take an arrow out of the quiver very quickly," Lu Ten announced, which caused laughter among the members of his group.
I handed the equipment back to the archer and silently walked toward the shot arrow with a torch in my hands. By the diminishing light of my torch, it was clear that I had walked far enough. Lu Ten even got worried and headed after me with a couple of guys.
"Hey, Long, are you upset?" Lu Ten asked with concern, watching my figure as I knelt by a tree.
"Prince, is it possible for an arrow to pass through a paw and pierce a rabbit's eye?"
"Long, did some rocks fall on you today? You know, from the Earthbenders?" Lu Ten's concern deepened. I turned and held out a rabbit to him, which had died while scratching its head with its hind paw. "Tch, is there anything in this world, Long, that you can't do?"
"Bend lightning..." I said sadly. "Will you teach me?"
"No, then I won't stand out at all compared to you," Lu Ten chuckled, then burst out laughing and walked back toward the camp.
The new full-scale attack on Ba Sing Se was much larger than the first attempt to conquer the city. Immediately after sunset, several saboteurs, who had infiltrated Ba Sing Se disguised as refugees with the help of one, as he considered himself, lucky "merchant," incited mass riots, distracting the soldiers from guarding the walls. After a while, a full-scale attack by General Iroh's soldiers began.
The tanks had undergone a small but important modernization. Now, thanks to harpoons on their hull, they were able to calmly climb vertical surfaces, including the walls. However, when the Earthbenders recovered from the initial shock of seeing tanks climbing the walls of Ba Sing Se, they became easy targets. They were knocked down after a maximum of three hits. But Iroh was not relying on the modernized tanks. They were merely distracting the enemy.
In reality, the actual offensive was conducted where the Earthbenders least expected it: under their own feet. The Earthbenders loyal to Iroh had dug a simply huge tunnel. It was deep underground, so the enemy couldn't sense it. And it was wide enough that the Fire Nation army could pass through it almost in full force in a short amount of time. The construction of such a tunnel, the attempts to make it as safe as possible so that the rock wouldn't collapse on General Iroh's soldiers' heads, created a large time gap between the first and second offensive.
Unexpectedly bursting out from under the ground already inside the walls of Ba Sing Se, the army split into two parts. One went to storm the walls, and the second marched directly toward the enemy capital.
The stab in the back proved monstrously effective. The defenders of the walls didn't believe until the last moment that the people wearing uniforms that looked identical to theirs were ultimately traitors. Or, to be more precise, Firebenders in disguise. More and more Fire Nation soldiers appeared on the first defense wall of Ba Sing Se, and soon it finally fell, landing in our hands.
Unfortunately, the other part of our army could not replicate the feat of the soldiers who attacked the Outer Wall. Iroh's advance was halted by the Second Wall, beyond which the first residential areas began.
Now the idea of a blockade seemed relatively successful. Because the Outer Ring, where the cultivated fields were located, had been captured by us. From this moment on, all General Iroh had to do was wait for the ruler of the Earth Kingdom to surrender the city voluntarily. And he would have to surrender it, or a starving mob would eat him alive.
Following the relatively successful attack, Iroh granted his son a leave of absence. Lu Ten wished to visit the palace, check on his grandfather, who was the current ruler of the country, Fire Lord Azulon. And he invited me along, wanting to give me a tour of the Fire Nation capital. But since I didn't have a day off, Lu Ten decided to be a little tricky. He appointed me as his bodyguard, giving me the opportunity to travel with him.
Among the Fire Nation soldiers, guarding a member of the royal family was a very honorable post, for which you were respected even by those of higher rank. It wasn't for nothing that I constantly hovered around Lu Ten and saved him. It was starting to pay off. Perhaps at the palace, I would be able to learn the secrets of Bending or at least peek in on the royal family's training sessions.
It's a shame that Lu Ten is quite cavalier about practicing Bending. He is content with his current level. Maybe training doesn't give him anything more? Hmm, would he agree to continue our lessons?
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