Fall of Zaofu

The Fall of Zaofu was one of the final battle in the early stages of the Imperialization of the Earth Kingdom that took place in the area controlled by the city state of Zaofu. It was fought between Kuvira's army and Zaofu, that was commanded by Suyin Beifong, patriarch of the free city. The battle was considered a major victory for the Earth Empire.

History
After annexing the city sate of Yi, Kuvira's army marched onto the final place of resistance, Zaofu. Arriving at the home of the Metal Clan, the army made camp at its gates, where they would give the city twenty-four hours to surrender. During this time, Bolin's loyalty to Kuvira wavered and he deserted together with Varrick and Zhu Li in three mecha tanks. Their escape had not gone unnoticed, however, and Baatar Jr, together with two soldiers, gave chase. After a fierce battle, he managed to force the deserters to surrender and brought them to face Kuvira.

As her town feared annihilation, Suyin developed a daring plan to save her city from destruction. She and her twin sons would infiltrate the camp and kill Kuvira. The plan eventually failed and let to them being captured. At dawn, the army assumed battle formations in order to invade the city if the remaining leaders would not surrender. However, when Korra declared she would intervene, Kuvira and the Avatar faced off in a one-on-one battle to decide the fate of Zaofu, which the army commander eventually managed to win due to Korra still suffering from hallucinations. As Kuvira moved in to finish her off, she was blown back by Jinora and Opal. Considering their intervention broke the peace agreement, Kuvira ordered her troops to attack, though they were held at bay by a powerful whirlwind created by the two airbenders. They were eventually saved, when Meelo and Ikki intervied and saved them. The group eventually got out of danger on Pepper.

After Korra failed to win the duel against Kuvira for the fate of Zaofu, the military commander annexed the city to her empire and decorated its buildings with her banner. She demanded everyone to bow down and pledge their loyalty to her in order to be treated fairly as citizens of the Earth Empire, lest they would be imprisoned as traitors. Intending on distributing Zaofu's wealth over the kingdom, Kuvira ordered the metal protective barriers to be dismantled.