Chapter Text
General Kuzon of Shijuichi's rise from a fresh-out-of-military-academy Major of a small company in a small division of fresh colony recruits to one of the Fire Lord's military advisors was not entirely accidental. You couldn't get to where hed gotten in three years through luck alone.
At least, that's what he told his reflection every morning.
Yes, his first battle ended with him being the only surviving commanding officer of his division, and yes his fifth ended with him getting promoted again because their general's first choice got ambushed and by the time support got there there wasn't enough left of her to promote, and yes he only became a colonel because his predecessor got a fatal case of earthbent rock spike through the throat after some idiot recruit saluted the man mid-battle , but the promotion after that was through merit alone. Probably.
He could pretend that his recent promotion to General answerable only to the fire lord was in the works before his predecessor was commanded to be a part of a new and untested fleet of ships that were meant to sail in the element whose sole surviving bender had more than ample means and motive to kill every last one of them and who had, apparently, taken down an entire very tested fleet a few months before with no trouble at all. But he didn't want to make a habit out of lying to himself. Former Fire Lord Ozai, may he, presumably, rest in Agni's light, was notoriously... dismissive of his soldiers who came from the colonies. He certainly wouldn't have allowed one into his palace, no matter his rank.
Either way, he was in the palace now, and it was... not at all what he expected.
The current Fire Lord, apparently, was not as well-fed as his position would lead one to believe, and certainly not as feared by the palace staff as his position would demand. He also did not need to be persuaded into recalling the troops from the fronts, which only made General Shijuichi feel a little bit like everything he did to get here was for nothing.
Still, a victory was a victory, so he continued the work.
"Your majesty, may I offer some suggestions regarding the divisions under my command?"
The meeting was about the logistics of withdrawing troops from unconquered and unassimilated territories, as had been the meeting before that, and the one before that, and what seemed like every war meeting since he had reported to the Fire Lord, and what was very likely every war meeting since the day the new Fire Lord was crowned, as well.
"I don't care if there are earthbenders among your troops, nobody is marching through the Si Wong desert!"
Which just showed both how much and how little the current Fire Lord knew about his armies. Yes, he was in charge of most, if not all, of the soldiers who were recruited from the colonies. No, he did not have any earthbenders among his ranks.
Not officially, anyway.
But one-and-a-half things at a time.
"Earthbending isn't allowed in your colonies or armies, your highness. Regardless, my suggestions are more about where they're withdrawing to than the routes they take to get there." He put a list of divisions and colony names on top of the map, facing the Fire Lord. "As all of the troops under my command are from the colonies, I've compiled a list of recommended military instalations for every division to go to, keeping in mind which towns the soldiers and their commanding officers are from."
"Fine." The Fire Lord took it, and looked no more or less tired than he did when general Shijuichi had first met him.
The Fire lord didn't ask what "keeping in mind" meant in this context, so general Shijuichi didn't say. He would have lied, regardless.
After the meeting was over, General Shijuichi began drafting troop reassignments, to enter into effect once the withdrawals were complete.
Just a little bit of reorganization between his divisions once they were out of hostile territory, nothing to worry the fire lord about.
He hoped his troops would enjoy returning home.
Three Points in favor of the current Fire Lord:
He seemed to care about the troops who pledged their loyalty to him.
He listened to advice and considered suggestions without caving to every whim of those under him.
He was, somehow, more well-traveled then all of his generals and admirals combined (Nobody asked him
how
he knew that swamp was a spirit swamp, but their troops would avoid it regardless).
Six points against the current Fire Lord:
He couldn't command his staff.
He couldn't defeat his predecessor. Had, in fact, abandoned an entire
wing
to her, and did not appear to have any sort of plan for if she ever decided to
leave
that wing and claim her right to the Dragon Throne.
Because of the previous point, he may not even be the legitimate Fire Lord at all.
His temper. He wasn't sure if it was because it was alarmingly uncontrolled for a Fire Lord, alarmingly toothless for a Fire Lord, or if it was because he was apparently
working on it
, but it was definitely a point against him.
He was sixteen years old, and had a very sixteen-year-old philosophy when it came to delegating. Namely, he didn't.
He wasn't clearing court of potential dissenters or traitors or people he didn't like, which was, apparently, a thing that Fire Lords were supposed to do. This might not have been a point against him except for the fact that he apparently had
very good reasons
to not like most of his generals, as well as to believe that the hatred was mutual.
He learned about these reasons when he overheard a conversation between General Daichi and another General who had just reported in from the front and was bafflingly insistent that the Fire Lord should have killed him on sight.
"I'm telling you, Fire Lord Zuko doesn't do tortuous mind games. He probably just doesn't remember you."
" How could he not remember me? It was my strategy. I was the one who presented it to Fire Lord Ozai. I was the one he thought challenged him. You can't expect me to believe he just forgot ."
"I know . But General Waido and I have been here for more than a month now and he either doesn't remember who was at that war meeting or he doesn't care and I don't know which is worse."
"Pardon me, Generals, I couldn't help but overhear. Why would the Fire Lord think you challenged him to an Agni Kai?"
As it turned out, there were one hundred and fifty points in favor of Fire Lord Zuko. Most of them buried under some anonymous patch of Earth Kingdom land.
Seven of the remaining eight would recieve a hastily-written letter shortly thereafter.
The General who had spoken to General Daichi and whose name Shijuichi couldn't be bothered to remember retired a few days later. Sick relatives, apparently.
Later that day, he'd be retired a bit more permanently. Earthbent spike through the throat. Nobody ever did find out what happened to Former Fire Lord Azula's Dai Li agents.
And if he bowed a bit lower to his Fire Lord than was strictly necessary, well, he was a Major fresh out of military academy only three years ago, it's only natural that he would be unused to serving in his Fire Lord's court.