"The second force is approaching from the northeast, right on time."
"Through the forest?"
"Yes, sir."
"Send the order then."
Scout Captain Sungho saluted and quickly left the tent, and a mildly annoyed Xing turned to Mozi, doing his level best to restrain himself from leaving the camp and taking care of things personally. "We were talking about casualties."
"Yes, colonel," Mozi curtly replied. "Captain Kai and Lieutenant Toshi led a successful ambush, but there were significant casualties sustained. Between the 1st and 2nd Battalions, the number of fatalities and those close enough to count as such are just under fifty, while the living wounded are about a hundred and fifty."
The young colonel's growing annoyance became a bit more tangible. "How much time did it buy us?"
"No more than two days," the deputy replied without hesitation. "Enough time for us to slip through."
"Just enough," Xing muttered, no doubt thinking about the allies slowing them down. "Maybe I'll have to ask the princess to stop sending her…admirers to us after this."
"Politely," Mozi added as a reminder. After the first few exchanges, it became obvious that the communication between the 11th and their royal patron back in the capital was being intercepted. Xing's lack of writing etiquette managed to become a minor scandal for a short while.
It died out a few weeks after, when Princess Azula presented the court with the rumormongers' own private exchanges for a review on their writing etiquette. According to Sungho and his handpicked team who had returned from their short 'vacation' in the capital, some of the messages were rather damning in their insult to the royal family and other highly influential figures, leading to a bit of thinning of courtiers.
A point was made, and unfortunately for the regiment's scouts, no further issues arose that required another short vacation.
The colonel nodded, and then looked back down at the map of the Earth Kingdom's southern realm, with the marker of the 11th Regiment a good distance north of Omashu, and several Earth Kingdom markers slowly surrounding it. The other Fire Nation forces were not present, as broken and routed armies were not a strategic consideration.
"So we might have slowed down two armies. Only four more to go."
Mozi tried to slow his commander's annoyance. "On the bright side, once we break through, we've only got a few days to link up with the Second Assault Army."
"It'd be a stalemate," Xing said sourly. If messages were to be believed, the Second Assault Army would likely end up simply holding the line against the persistent attacks. Advancing at a slower pace, they had the luxury to secure their flanks from encirclement at least, so their front line should be solid enough. Even if they were pushed back, that direction lay safety, and the 11th had to reach it as quickly as possible.
"Better a stalemate than an outright loss."
The young colonel gave a thoughtful hum as he nodded his reluctant agreement. Mozi couldn't blame him, this whole operation had been doomed from the start. Xing had wanted to argue through the princess against the push for Omashu, but after the incident with Prince Zuko, a bad campaign was deemed far preferable than drawing the Fire Lord's attention.
Despite the war council's planning (or perhaps because of it, Mozi treacherously entertained), this first assault south was tantamount to a suicide mission that had a singular goal of punching as deep as it could towards its goal. A larger second force was supposed to follow in its wake and secure the supply lines, but the Earth Kingdom threw its massive manpower at both elements once they inevitably figured out their enemy's intent.
The result was that the 11th Regiment and the other forces making up the First Southern Assault Army found itself surrounded deep in enemy territory in just under a month since they launched their attack, while the Second Southern Assault Army had been bogged down by dogged counterattacks.
Panic did not break out, but the indecision and infighting that resulted might have been worse. General Yong Cha was torn between continuing the push or retreating back to the Second Assault Army, even as he fended off calls from discontented commanders to step down. Threats were thrown between the general's followers and his detractors, while orders were questioned and the army's cohesion slowly fell apart.
The whole mess made the First Assault Army sitting turtleducks for the Earth Kingdom to bring their forces to bear. Xing and the other uninvolved commanders had seen the signs, but their warnings were ignored as the internal bickering continued.
The battle that followed days later had caught most of the Assault Army by surprise. By sheer ill luck the Earth Kingdom's initial bombardment had nearly decapitated the army's command. Several massive boulders fell short of the gathering Fire Nation troops at first, but then the speed and trajectory caused them to actually bounce into spearmen and firebenders alike, and then crash into the commanders behind.
General Yong Cha was spared that ignoble fate, but the chain of command had been severely weakened with the sudden loss of so many colonels and captains, and the display had severely shaken the common soldiers. Disorganized and demoralized, the First Assault Army would've likely broken and fled if they weren't surrounded.
Instead many of them put up a stubborn but chaotic defense, and were taken apart by methodical applications of blades and earthbending.
Mozi remembered the 11th and its new friends in the 26th, 44th and 51st Companies doing their best to salvage the situation and secure a corridor to retreat, but it had still been a costly thing. The brave 51st had been nearly wiped out trying to hold a flank by itself, while the 26th and 44th managed to bring other panicking elements under their banners in their escape north.
General Yong Cha had died fighting, pincushioned by rocky spikes alongside the officers who had opposed him. Rufen had reported that their bodies were surrounded by a pile of charred earthbenders and common Earth Kingdom soldiers, dragging an impressive amount of the enemy with them.
Thankfully, Xing's flames secured the 11th's relatively safe escape, but the regiment also found itself stuck with a larger group of disorganized Fire Nation soldiers. Several elements were completely leaderless, while those few colonels and captains that made it with the 11th struggled to come to terms with their defeat.
Mozi had watched as Xing quickly imposed his rule over the aimless, panicking men. He challenged six feckless captains and colonels (and only left them with broken arms at worst) to secure singular - if somewhat tentative - command of the bloated force.
Xing had command over almost nine thousand men, but most of them were useless for what he needed right now. The stragglers made for decent frontline troops, but only for conventional battles, basic scouting or foraging parties. That unfortunately meant that it was up to the 11th's battalions and specialists to carry out effective stalling tactics. Xing couldn't trust the outsiders anyway to reliably burn down forests or lay the right kind of ambushes. And the 11th would not be the ones to use fodder tactics, even burdensome allies.
What probably rankled Xing more was that a few of the officers now stuck with him were fresh faced volunteers who were here in an attempt to impress the princess. She'd assigned them to work with the 11th 'as a consolation', whatever that meant.
Most had been gracious enough to cede command to him after witnessing the brutal 1-on-6 beatdown, but a few young commanders only begrudgingly obeyed the even younger colonel of the 11th. Thankfully, that was all Xing needed from them.
Though it might have been far more productive to simply leave the disparate groups behind as bait to buy the regiment more time, Mozi was glad that the colonel did not resort to such things. Helping fellow soldiers right now might lower the margins of escaping in one piece, but not by too much. And there was still something to gain politically from this retreat, with little to no blame that could yet be placed on the 11th's feet for the disaster.
So long as the 26th and 44th Companies made it out, and the stragglers saved by the 11th Regiment remained alive, there would be plenty of testimonies to keep Xing free from any attempts of scapegoating. Instead, Mozi felt confident that either General Yong Cha or the officers in his opposing faction would take the fall, depending on which side had more survivors from this debacle.
A good thing then, that the dead could not be wrongfully punished.
"Have more of the night watch be handled by the outside elements," Xing ordered, bringing Mozi back to the present. "If any of them make noise, tell them they've been volunteered for the next night raid as bait."
"Yes, sir."
Xing paused for a moment. "For tonight's meeting with the other commanders, I want you to present the effectiveness of our stalling tactics so far, along with the casualties. See if you can find a way to properly remind them that the 11th is doing all the work while they're being nothing but dead weight to us. Politely, of course."
Despite his usually reserved nature, Mozi smiled at that order. "Of course, sir."
"Oh, and tell Toshi that as soon as I'm able to get the paperwork, he's going to make captain."
No surprise there. Despite being a newer face, the man had stepped up while Ren was away, and took to command far better than anyone had expected. Still…
"What about Ren?"
Xing shook his head. "Toshi will take command of the 2nd for now. If Ren wants her command, I'll get her a new battalion after she settles in with her kid. Ideally, she'll be happy settling down as a training captain, but…"
"You could always have her rotate with Kai," Mozi said, not too spitefully. It still surprised him that the two of them were a thing, despite how much they outwardly got at each other's throats. But then again, considering that Ren used to be Kai's lieutenant up until Tai Plains, perhaps them bonding shouldn't be so surprising.
That wasn't the real problem for the lieutenant colonel, though. It was more the fact that neither had been thorough in their precautions to prevent Ren's pregnancy. The herbal remedies were readily available, and they were both firebenders, so just overheating the…fluids shouldn't have been an issue. How drunk did they have to be to forget? Even Li Ming knew that on their first night!
At least her reassignment to training overseer was declared a good month before the push for Omashu began. The mess of paperwork Ren left behind was annoying, but it was far better than having the pregnant battle hungry captain in the front lines. The sheer madness of it would've left the regiment's coherency in tatters.
Xing noticed his irritation and chuckled as he donned his helmet. "You can bring that up with Kai if you like. Anyway, if that's all for now, I have an Earth Kingdom army to stall."
"Don't make it two."
Lieutenant Colonel Mozi let out a resigned sigh and let his commander plunge into danger. Koshi and Ping would likely keep him safe, but hopefully Xing wouldn't have to push himself too much. It would be bad if the stragglers ever caught sight of a shivering, barely walking boy. Xing might have to actually kill a few people to restore his authority, or just have the 11th abandon the deadweight.