99 A.G
Once Lin felt completely like herself again, she returned to what she did best and began planning how they could take control of the inner city. After everything that had happened at Lake Laogai, Azula and several of her officers had insisted that she rest for a whole day before returning to command properly.
Lin had agreed and had spent the entire day in bed, getting her well-deserved rest. But by the time she returned to the main camp she already had most of the next operation worked out in her head.
If she was honest, it didn't look like taking the city would be particularly difficult. The Earth Kingdom army had been shattered throughout the Agrarian Zone, with most surviving units either retreating behind the remaining walls, surrendering, or simply refusing to continue fighting.
The Fire Nation now controlled the territory surrounding the city, along with the rail lines and fields necessary to keep their own army supplied for however long the siege lasted. More importantly, the information recovered from Lake Laogai had given them a better understanding of how the Dai Li operated and how much influence they had over the population.
Lin did not want to repeat the fighting they had just gone through by attacking millions of civilians trapped inside the walls, especially if the Dai Li intended to use them the same way they had used the refugees.
There were better ways to take a city without wasting their own manpower. No, Lin would make sure no Fire Nation soldier died from this point forward, she was going to use their own people against them.
Lin entered the main officers' tent with Azula beside her and found her senior officers already gathered around a large low squared table. Maps of Ba Sing Se covered most of its surface, including everything they had learned about the Lower, Middle and Upper Rings from spies, and prisoners.
General Shinu was present along with several colonels from the Second Army, while officers responsible for logistics, intelligence and the newly arrived head of the military police had also been called to the meeting.
Lin took her place at the head, sitting on one of the cushions prepared and waiting for everyone to sit as well. She already knew what she wanted to do, but hearing a second opinion never hurt. Besides she couldn't go over another general, even if said general seemed to like her and allow her room to dictate the orders.
Besides, her officers had spent most of their time in the academy as well, and might notice problems she had overlooked.
"Gentlemen, I have devised a plan that will see us take control of the city, and help with the occupation at the same time." Lin began.
"We will have a three phase operation. The first phase will see us spread information and rumors about the Dai Li's plans. We want the people in the Lower Ring to feel desperate. We will have Toph and our earthbenders infiltrate the city by tunnels and convince the people they are being left to die." Lin said.
"But ma'am, wouldn't that make it more difficult for us? They would fight harder if they feel they have nothing to lose." Colonel Zhou interjected.
"Right, but what if we didn't fight them at all?" Lin asked. "We will direct their anger toward the Dai Li, the city guards and the Upper Ring population. We will use the information we gathered from Lake Laogai against them, we will direct the unrest towards their own. Already we have spies that have informed us that the Dai Li seized their food reserves probably to have them depend on them, it shouldn't be that hard to do so." Lin said.
"Only rumors won't create a problem for them, and the control they have on the city is extensive. How do we keep the unrest going before the Dai Li snuffs it?" Captain Aiku asked.
"The second phase will be starting a rebel cell. We will give them their own weapons and armor we recovered from the battlefield and have the civilians prepare to rise against them. We will have them commit terror attacks against their own while convincing them they are liberating themselves from their oppressive and failing government." Lin answered.
"Apologies, but this is madness, General. You would be giving weapons to a large population of the city, what stops them from using them against us? You would have an even stronger enemy." General Shinu said.
"Normally, that would be true. But the second phase will be complemented by the third phase. Once the Lower Ring is deemed lost by the guards and Dai Li, that will have them retreat to the Middle Ring, we will open the gates of the walls. We will offer them relief, healing supplies and food. We will make it clear that we won't see any civilian as an enemy and that we will do our best to improve their conditions. We can even spin a lie and say that the Upper Ring didn't want to negotiate a surrender with us." Lin finished.
"You want us to be seen as saviors that care about their well-being." Azula concluded. "It will help with occupation indeed, and desperate people will believe it if they get help back. Fire Nation soldiers won't be fighting either so there is no risk of casualties. It's perfect."
"Yes, as the princess mentioned, this plan relies on them taking control of the city for us, without them even knowing about it." Lin finished. "Any questions?"
"I think we should go over the details carefully, General, but it looks good enough for me." Captain Aiku commented. The rest of the officers agreed.
They spent a couple of hours going over every detail of the plan, assigning officers to each phase and giving orders to prepare the weapons, armor and volunteers in the earthbender units for this operation.
Lin was confident it was going to work, even with their characteristic stubbornness, the Earth Kingdom citizens were people after all.
----0000----
Two weeks later.
Hyugh had never imagined himself carrying a pike through the streets of Ba Sing Se. A few weeks earlier, he had been worrying about whether there would be enough food for his family and whether the fighting outside the walls would ever reach them.
Now he stood surrounded by neighbours wearing mismatched pieces of Earth Kingdom armor while people passed swords, spears and shields between one another. The small earthbender girl who had emerged from beneath one of the abandoned buildings had somehow brought an enormous crate filled with equipment for them.
Hyugh had no idea where she had gotten so many weapons and armor pieces, although nobody around him seemed interested in asking questions and he certainly was not going to. He was only one man among hundreds gathering in the street, and as far as the people organizing everything were concerned, he was just another peasant willing to fight.
Everything had started with cruel rumors. People whispered that the Upper Ring had decided to preserve its own food stores while leaving the Lower Ring to starve. Others claimed the Dai Li intended to keep enough supplies for the wealthy and government officials while everyone else survived on whatever scraps remained.
At first Hyugh had not believed much of it. Rumors spread through the Lower Ring constantly, especially since the Fire Nation breached the outer wall, and half of them usually contradicted the other half.
Then Dai Li agents began taking food from the warehouses. They arrived with city guards and claimed the supplies were being redistributed for the war effort, but less food came back afterward.
Portions became smaller, lines to collect them became longer, and families that already had little were told to make do with even less. The wounded soldiers arriving from the Agrarian Zone had made things worse.
Some were missing limbs or covered in burns, while others barely reacted when spoken to. Hyugh had helped carry several injured men into an abandoned house after the military stopped having room for them, and one of them had spent most of the night staring at the wall without speaking.
Nobody from the palace came to help them. King Kuei had done nothing to help them that Hyugh could see, while the Dai Li continued walking through the streets as though everything remained perfectly under control.
People began getting angry but the city guards responded with beatings and there had been some people who had banished after complaining too loudly. Now Hyugh might not be the smartest guy out there but even he knew he was taken by the Dai Li.
Then the papers started falling from the sky. They came in bundles scattered across the Lower Ring, and within hours people were passing them from neighbour to neighbour. Hyugh could read well enough to understand most of what they said, although others gathered around anyone capable of reading the words aloud.
The papers talked about Lake Laogai, imprisoned refugees and people disappearing from shelters. They listed names of officials and Dai Li agents involved in taking civilians away, along with descriptions of how refugees had been forced into the army and sent against the Fire Nation without being allowed to retreat.
That was when several disappearances in Hyugh's neighbourhood suddenly made sense. Women who had vanished after going to collect rations, men who had been taken for questioning and never returned, entire families moved from shelters without explanation.
Everyone had assumed they had simply been relocated somewhere else in the city, yet now people were asking whether they had been taken beneath Lake Laogai instead. The Lower Ring had exploded into anger after that.
Protests filled the streets almost every day, growing larger whenever the Dai Li attempted to break them apart. There were simply too many people for the agents to control anymore, especially once the city guards began hesitating to attack crowds filled with their own neighbours and families.
By the time weapons began appearing, Hyugh had already decided to take the fight to them. Sitting still would just be like laying down to die. He adjusted the borrowed armor around his chest while the people around him prepared themselves.
It did not fit particularly well, and one shoulder plate was badly scratched, but it was better than walking toward armed guards in ordinary clothing. A man beside him had no armor but one look at his eyes and you knew he was going to fight anyway.
A kid came running toward them just then. "They're gathering near the Middle Ring gate again." he shouted, then kept running to let others know.
Hyugh tightened both hands around his pike. "They'll try to push us back." He said.
"Then we don't let them." Another one said.
Someone farther ahead began shouting for everyone to move, and the crowd started filling the street. Hyugh followed with the rest, bolstered by the amount of people marching alongside him. People emerged from alleys carrying whatever weapons they had been given.
Some had proper swords and spears, while others carried tools, wooden clubs or pieces of metal. Earthbenders moved among them as well, several wearing armor that looked battered and some even had blood on them.
The Dai Li had withdrawn from several neighbourhoods already, unable to maintain control everywhere at once, but they were still holding the routes toward the Middle Ring. That was where they needed to go then.
The closer they came to the gate, the louder the crowd became. People shouted about stolen food, missing relatives and soldiers abandoned after giving everything to defend the city. Hyugh joined them until his throat hurt, surrounded by thousands who had finally decided they were tired of being told to remain calm while everything around them collapsed.
City guards formed a line across the main road ahead, shields raised while Dai Li agents stood behind them. Hyugh felt fear settle into his stomach once he saw them, for he had never fought anyone before.
Around him, however, nobody stopped moving, and when the first earthbenders in the crowd raised slabs of stone to protect the people behind them, Hyugh forced himself to continue. The guards shouted for them to disperse though nobody listened.
Stone struck the street ahead and the crowd surged forward, forcing Hyugh to run with everyone around him. He lowered his pike the way one of the rebels had shown him earlier and moved toward the line of guards while people screamed and earth began rising around them.
For the first time in his life, Hyugh was fighting for his life and the life of everyone around him.
----0000----
The operation had worked better than Lin expected. By the time the reports began reaching her, every earthbender unit assigned to the infiltration had already entered the Lower Ring through tunnels prepared beneath the city.
Toph and Azula had gone in with the first groups and were moving between the rebel cells, coordinating where additional support was needed whenever the city guards or Dai Li managed to hold a position for too long.
Although Lin had again requested Azula to stay behind, she had argued that if Toph was going, then she was going to help as well. Lin really should stop saying a mission was dangerous, it only seemed to convince the princess more that she needed to be there.
The uprising had spread quickly once the first fighting began. Entire neighbourhoods were joining in, either helping directly or simply refusing to cooperate with the authorities trying to restore order.
The weapons and armor they had distributed were already moving between groups far faster than the Fire Nation could have arranged on its own, which made the rebellion look considerably more natural from the outside.
Reports from their infiltrators confirmed that the Dai Li were struggling to contain it. The Lower Ring had too many people and too many streets for the remaining agents to control at once, especially now that earthbenders were appearing among the rebels and were openly helping the civilians fight back.
Whenever the authorities concentrated enough men in one area, Toph or one of the other units redirected the uprising elsewhere and forced them to divide again. Lin was particularly satisfied by what they were hearing from the remaining Earth Kingdom soldiers.
Most of the army had no interest in fighting anymore. Units that had retreated from the Agrarian Zone were exhausted, badly supplied and angry with the people giving them orders. Some had joined the uprising after seeing civilians fighting against the Dai Li, while others simply stepped aside and allowed the rebels through.
A few officers were still attempting to organize resistance, but without the army supporting them properly, they could not do much. That meant the first part of the city was effectively theirs before even a single Fire Nation soldier had done any fighting.
Lin stood with her senior officers overlooking the main road leading toward the Lower Ring entrance while messengers continued arriving with updates. General Shinu remained beside her, reading through one of the reports before handing it back to the officer who delivered it.
"The eastern section is almost completely under rebel control." Lin said. "The Dai Li are retreating toward the Middle Ring, and their guards are abandoning several positions."
Shinu smiled. "Then your plan worked, General."
"Our plan worked, while it is true I came up with the idea, everyone did their part." Lin corrected him. "And they all followed their assignments properly."
She turned toward the other officers gathered nearby and nodded toward them. "Good work, all of you. Make sure the men preparing for the next phase understand that they are not entering the Lower Ring as conquerors. No looting, no unnecessary violence and absolutely no attacks against civilians under any circumstance."
The officers nodded solemnly.
"The moment the gates open, the relief columns move first," Lin continued. "Food, medical supplies and engineers before anything else. I want field kitchens operating as quickly as possible, and the hospitals should be ready to take civilians alongside our own people."
Shinu looked toward the massive walls in the distance. "You didn't order your earthbenders to open the gates from the inside. You really think the rebels will open them for us willingly?"
"The people controlling the Lower Ring will do so, yes. We have already offered them that possibility." Lin replied. "They need food, and we have plenty of it sitting outside their walls. Once they realize we are not going to attack them, there will be very little reason to keep us out."
The gates were the most important part of the third phase. If the Fire Nation forced them open, everything they had done would look like another invasion. If the rebels opened them themselves and welcomed the supplies coming through, the image would be completely different.
Lin intended to wait it out if she had to. Luckily she didn't have to wait for long in the end, for another messenger arrived and confirmed that the main gate area was now controlled by the uprising.
The remaining city guards had either surrendered or retreated toward the Middle Ring, while the rebels were already attempting to organize their own people around the entrance. She quickly ordered the officers to get the columns ready just in case.
Soldiers began moving into formation farther behind them, but most of what would cross first were supply wagons and medical teams. Military police followed behind to help maintain order, along with engineers and workers who could repair damaged streets, water lines and help build sewers if needed.
Lin watched the preparations with satisfaction. Once the civilians saw that the Fire Nation could offer food, medicine and assistance while their own government retreated farther into the city, they would welcome their occupation with open arms.
In fact they might even help them keep everyone under control and on the side of the Fire Nation. Instead of being seen as conquerors they will be seen as liberators by their people. It would make everything considerably easier.
Lin was also preparing to go help herself. Her reputation among the people of Ba Sing Se was probably terrible after everything that happened in the Agrarian Zone. Stories about her had surely spread through the entire population already.
And while her methods had quickly brought victory, it also brought a lot of fear in the hearts of the Earth Kingdom's people. Lin knew that fear could backfire at any given time. People usually reacted violently to what they feared.
She needed them to see someone else at this moment. Helping them now would not erase what she had done during the battle, and Lin was not foolish enough to believe it would, but slowly having new rumors and stories spreading about her feeding and assisting people would do wonders to quiet the more fearful voices down.
Lin turned toward her officers once the first column was ready.
"Have them prepare to approach the gates as planned. Once they open, we move slowly and let the civilians see exactly what we brought for them." The officers saluted and separated to their assigned units.
She then pulled out a folded sheet of paper and handed it to one of the messengers. "This needs to be sent as quickly as possible to Chin Village, make it happen, corporal."
"At once!"
Lin remained behind for another moment, watching the wagons line up along the road before heading toward her own place at the center. The city was already beginning to fall into their hands, and so far, they had no casualties.
The war was coming to a close.
----0000----
When the request for assistance had reached Kyoshi Island, Suki had been confused by it. The Fire Nation was asking for help managing civilians and refugees in Ba Sing Se, and the message had arrived urgently by one of their flying machines.
Apparently the Fire Nation had created one large humanitarian problem and wanted help from different places, especially if they were aligned with the Earth Kingdom, as they would be seen without mistrust or fear.
While that had been strange enough, Lin had also offered Fire Nation transportation toward the city, and supplies should they need them. Apparently she had also asked help to Gaoling and a convoy would be sent from that city as well.
Suki gathered the Kyoshi Warriors willing to go, along with healers and volunteers from several villages across the island. Whatever Lin was planning, if civilians were going to need help then Suki saw little reason to refuse simply because the request had come from the Fire Nation.
After they arrived by ship to Chin's port they were quickly guided to another of the Fire Nation's methods of transportation. The machine waiting for them was called a train, and it carried them toward Ba Sing Se much faster than Suki expected, taking less than a week to get to the outer wall.
Most of her group spent the journey staring through the windows as the landscape rushed past, sleeping in the comfortable compartments and they even had a compartment to train. Once they reached the outer wall, everyone became much quieter.
The holes left behind by the Fire Nation attack were enormous, wide enough for the train to pass directly through them. Suki had heard that Ba Sing Se had been breached, but seeing the damage herself made it very real what the Fire Nation was capable of.
Suki hoped they were not being led to a trap where they would be seen as the enemy for aiding the Fire Nation. Beyond the wall, the Agrarian Zone was already filled with Fire Nation soldiers, workers and supply columns. Roads were being repaired and trains moved constantly toward the inner city.
When they finally arrived close to the second set of walls, Suki understood why Lin had arranged for them to come ahead of time. A massive relief camp had been prepared outside the gates with medical tents, food stations and temporary shelters.
The gates themselves were open, and civilians moved between the city and the camp in large numbers while Fire Nation soldiers unloaded food and supplies. It was not what Suki expected to see of their conquest of Ba Sing Se.
Her group had barely stepped away from the train when Lin approached them personally and Suki almost did not recognize her at first.
Lin was not wearing her usual armor, and for once her prosthetics were dirty and visibly worn instead of polished until they shined. There were scratches across the metal and dust on her clothing, while her hair had been tied back with little care.
She still carried herself normally, though, and showed no obvious exhaustion despite everything she must have already done in the day.
"Suki, I'm glad you came." Lin greeted her.
"Lin. I hope your words are true and my people are not exposed to any fighting." Suki said, looking toward the relief camp.
"I promise there is no fighting being done at the moment, the only fighting being done is by Ba Sing Se rebels against their own government in the Middle Ring at the moment." Lin replied.
"And you are not helping them?" Suki asked.
"No, we are only providing food and medical aid. To be completely fair, we are not sure what the King is thinking, they are leaving almost two million people to die while they defend the Upper and Middle Ring. So obviously they rebelled and let us in themselves so that we could help their people."
Suki was quiet for a few moments, while the rest of her people watched the exchange warily. "You can tell me more in detail while we work." She finally nodded.
"Of course. We knew there would be too many civilians for the army to handle properly once the gates opened. Kyoshi Island is seen by civilians as a neutral party so I sent the request early. They know they won't have anything to fear from you."
Suki glanced toward the civilians receiving food nearby. "I didn't expect the Fire Nation to ask us for something like this."
"I figured you wouldn't."
That at least sounded like the Lin she remembered. Suki looked back toward her warriors and volunteers as they began gathering their supplies. She still had plenty of questions about what had happened in Ba Sing Se and how the Fire Nation had managed to reach this point, but the people coming through the gates needed help more than she needed answers.
"We'll do what we can. Where do you need us?"
Lin motioned toward the city. "Come with me. We need people inside the Lower Ring as well."
Suki nodded before turning toward her group and ordering everyone to move out. The Kyoshi Warriors formed up with the healers and volunteers behind them, then followed Lin toward the open gates of Ba Sing Se.
----0000----
Art by @CalypseArt in vgen