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Unbending - or ‘I shall not be King, but Emperor of the Earth' (Pre-ATLA, SI)

When life gives you rocks instead of lemons, you tend to crack heads to make a bloody lemonade.

This anecdote was one driven by two principles: one, I was born in the world of Avatar: the Last Airbender roughly 50 years before Aang got thawed from his cryo-nap; two, I was reborn as a young man that was, by birthright, meant to rule the Earth Kingdom.

My name is Dafeng and… this is going to be a wild ride.

Now, I know what many may think now- you are screwed because the Earth Kingdom is meant to be shackled by the Dai Li’s leadership and… that bullshit has yet to happen.

It took me a few years of maturing enough to be allowed to walk around with a pair of guards on tow, but I could see for myself that the Dai Li still recognized the Earth King, my father, as the sole leader they could ever accept orders from.

This was good news. That is if one ignored the fact we were stuck in several decades of warfare and Ba Sing Se, the most fortified capital in the world, was isolating itself from being an active element within this conflict- thus not only making it longer than it was needed, but causing disruption within the governance and the economy.

The trust people had in the kingdom, what little hope the subjects had for an united front, was shattered by the sense of ignorance that existed within the higher levels. And that wasn’t acceptable.

Education was a priority for me as a child, but my free times would see a curious act unfold as I focused on two lists that were to grow bigger or smaller depending fate itself, one to bear the list of enemies that shall be erased from society and the other aiming to enlist the most brilliant and loyal minds Ba Sing Se could rely on.

In just a few years of life and studying, I had a clear comparison of what came close to the Earth Kingdom. The Qing Dynasty during its late years- the fact that a ‘confederacy’ of sorts existed, one that relied heavily on autonomous governors, proved to be a very dreadful reminder of what the Warlord Era meant to China.

My only ‘luck’, which counted both as a blessing and a curse, was the scarce amount of revolutionary ideas that could try and demand the removal of the monarchy. The country was just too spent and too illiterate to produce a revolution of any kind, plus the war with the Fire Nation was on the mind of most, even those in Ba Sing Se.

I studied, both through tutors and through what officers and diplomats could tell me. The situation was not dire as it could end up becoming in the next decades but… it was bad. And it had to be fixed somehow rather than be ignored.

With that in mind, I started to also study the court’s own political scheme- how to win and lose in that fierce competition. I was still young enough to be ignored as a legitimate threat, but I knew that, once I got a bit older, people were going to start sucking up to me for favors or even plot my demise if proven too dangerous for their affairs.

I still persisted with my plans as I knew that I was going to inherit rubbles of what once was a fairly good kingdom. My father was a ‘deadbeat one’ if you were to ignore the new women that warmed his lap each day. He would seek love for himself without giving any to either his own son and his people.

A shameful display but… one that favored me.

At the age of ten, I was allowed through some careful planning and using my father’s indulgence for alcohol to get his signature on documentation I needed to create a business.

It wasn’t a legitimate company, nor I tried to work for it as one as it was meant to help me funnel what money I would receive as ‘pocket money’ for gifts, which was nothing short of outrageous in value due to how comfy the lifestyle of the Earth Monarch was, to invest in existing activities. Merchants, shopkeepers, services.

The ‘Grand Lotus Initiative’ was pretty much my attempt to push some Keynesian effort and use ‘government funds’ to support the local economy. Ba Sing Se was big enough to be considered the richest city in the world, but most of the money was wasted for stupid shit. And I planned to fix that through a few other initiatives like this one.

Still, the Grand Lotus Initiative was the starting point of what would become a fundamental update on the archaic system that ordained the whole Kingdom’s economy.

I also used some of the corruption created by my father’s inaction to actually take over the Dai Li at 11 by having him sign over the paper that allowed the crown prince to take over the organization since the current king is too ‘busy’ to handle this sort of affairs.

I showed it to the ‘head’ of the organization, this one not being Long Feng much to my relief, and the man was a bit skeptical on the order, but looked surprised when I gave him a well-elaborated list with the kind of accidental murders I wanted him and his group to commit.

He was stunned, baffled even, but overall intrigued as I told him that it would be a three years-long operation. He didn’t question this precise timing, but it was good for him and his group to have a long time period to get this sort of tedious work started.

One by one, all pests started to perish. A stroke, a heart attack and then a sudden broken neck caused by the idiot tripping and falling on their head at a great height. I slowly replaced the void with men that I trusted, people that showed admiration for change and yet had been singled out due to their personality and ideas.

Three years passed and then… It was time for me, at 14, to claim a right I had been preparing for fourteen years.

I took my time to establish some influence in court and through what military officers we had while also using the Dai Li to deal with any Fire Nation mole within the capital. Everything fell in motion fast as I couped the government.

Poison slipped through the controls, my father got stricken and killed by it, and soon tragedy shocked the kingdom as a whole- the king is dead… long live the new one.

I was in my room when I was seen crying over the passing of my ‘beloved father’ and using the very moles we found of the Fire-Nation to create the perfect scapegoat to cover my tracks.

A swift execution ensued to satisfy the wrath of the masses and a speech to contemplate this abrupt turn of events. I didn’t hold my punches as I used this chance to indirectly blame my father and his old associates’ actions for decay that ensued in the kings-

“-Which is why, beloved people of this blessed kingdom, I proclaim that this corruption of the body and of the mind shall no longer be tolerated. Taxes shall now be normalized to fit within the needs of this war but also to allow all those subjects of mine a chance to have a life. No more shall disrepair damage the very core values of the Earth.”

It roused a good reaction as less taxes was always good. But I moved to the point that would have pleased many right away.

“One of my plans is to also expand to a national level the Grand Lotus Initiative which I had created years ago myself under the need to funnel what foolish money I was granted as ‘gift money’ to allow my beloved subjects to see improvements in their lives through personal investments in their career and workplaces or even improve the infrastructure with efficient and useful additions of public works. This is just the first step as many others shall experience success.”

This time the people were all listening. I had introduced the truth to a question they had long been waiting to know the truth of and an official proclamation from the Initiative itself would soon work to confirm this within the few hours ensuing the proclamation.

But it was the last topic that hit the deepest as they were all believing now and I gave them what they wanted to hear after decades of lacking progress on the war.

“And as my final point in this first speech as a king… I have to say I am deeply ashamed of what my ancestors had left unraveling up to this point. The world is ablaze as the fiery Fire Nation had condemned us all to endure the life of victims, the life of people that were attacked unprovoked, the life of people that were deprived of the peace that once allowed good things to happen. I will tell you this with the utmost will and confidence- the war shall end soon and not in our defeat. Never. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight in the forests, we shall fight in the mines, we shall fight in the streets- we shall always fight and never surrender, within the grand spirit of determination and of unyielding might of unbreakable and unbending rocks. The flames shall not claim us. We shall be the rocks used to put the fire away!”

The explosion from the crowd’s own reaction to this speech solidified my first month by having the people’s faith on my side. It was now time to get to work and… get the Earth Army reformed to withstand the plans I had in mind.

The Fire Nation shall face the very brutality of what the Japanese found in WW2 while fighting China.

—-----d-d-d-d—----

AN

Reference: Dafeng

Comments

Freezerburn046

I’m excited yet concerned for the level of brutality you have in mind yet I anticipate a wonderful next chapter all the same

Echan Clinch Apa-ap

Nice meaning iroh is still a general and his son is still alive