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The invasion of the Northern Water Tribe was a massive attack by the Fire Nation on Agna Qel'a in 15 BG. Shortly after ascending the throne, the young chief Igaluk was forced to fend off attacks by Admiral Xilin, who planned an attack on the North Pole. However, Xilin's plan failed and she was forced to withdraw her forces, ending the Northern Water Tribe raids for decades.
Prelude[]
After the Great War began, the Fire Nation suffered a major victory against both Water Tribe fleets, inflicting heavy losses on both polar fleets. The Nation later began raiding the Northern Water Tribe first, seeing it as a greater threat.
However, due to the North's strong defense capabilities, the raids on them were minor, mainly hitting morale and the economy. However, eventually, Admiral Xilin decided to launch the first full-scale invasion, to finally conquer Agna Qel'a, destroy the city, and build a new Fire Nation colony there. She chose Commanders Cheng and Hu as her subordinates.
Xilin planned a three-pronged attack. The main invasion would be led by herself, with Agna Qel'a as her target. Meanwhile, Hu and Cheng would attempt to land in the west and east of the North Pole, respectively, to establish footholds and slowly conquer the white wastelands.
Meanwhile, the twenty-year-old chief Igaluk had been on the Water Tribe throne for five years. He feared that the Fire Nation would finally launch a full-scale invasion, so he ordered defenses to be built. He appointed General Kova and Master Uukkarnit as his chief advisors.
Invasion[]
The Fire Fleet arrived before Agna Qel'a just before dawn in early summer 15 BG. As the cruisers appeared on the horizon, the waterbenders sailed out to disable several ships, but eventually withdrew as there were too many ships. Igaluk immediately began mobilizing the tribe, while the Xilin advanced toward the walls.
Xilin made her first attempt to breach the walls of Agna Qel'a, but Master Uukkarnit managed to hold her ground and repel the attack. Meanwhile, Commanders Cheng and Hu went their separate ways to conduct covert landings on the pole. This did not go unnoticed by the Water Tribe scouts, who informed the chief, and Igaluk ordered them to go to the coast and observe the situation. Meanwhile, at a rather unexpected moment, Xilin launched another massive attack that allowed her to break through the wall.
There was fierce fighting in the streets of Agna Qel'a, and the Fire Soldiers were ruthless.
The Fire Nationals began their offensive against the city. Xilin advanced with her army but held back. Despite their attempts to defend themselves, the Fire Army entered the inhabited part of the city. Hu and Cheng, on the other hand, began to have problems with the tundra and icebergs they encountered in the North Sea. Meanwhile, the fighting in the city continued throughout the day and was very heavy, until Xilin ordered the city to retreat to the bridgehead as night began to fall.
Igaluk and his commanders were thinking of a further plan of defense. They had devised a plan to lure the Fire Soldiers to designated locations, surround them, and slowly destroy the invasion force. Igaluk, nervous, could not sleep all night. In the middle of the night, scouts returned to the capital, informing the chief that far to the east and west, the Fire Navy was beginning its landings.
As the sun began to rise, Xilin ordered more attacks on the city. The Water Tribesmens put their plan into action, destroying the Fire Soldiers' units one by one. It was quite an effective tactic, although it did not change the fact that the fighting was still hard for both sides. Xilin announced that if she did not penetrate deeper into the capital, she would order a retreat and wait for news from Hu and Cheng. The commanders' situation was not very good, as they had lost several boats during the sailing, and because of the icy tundra, it was difficult for them to find a good place to land.
Cheng and Hu's soldiers were forced to march through heavily snow-covered terrain in extremely low temperatures, causing frostbite to many of the nonbender soldiers.
Cheng was the first to make a landing. However, he immediately noticed that he was in a hopeless situation, as he had to create a bridgehead on exposed ground, and all around him was snow. Although the commander tried to mask his pessimism, his men realized the situation anyway, and their morale quickly fell. Hu did not manage to do so until the next night, and on top of that he ran into a snowstorm.
When Xilin finally fell into trench warfare, Igaluk ordered night sabotage of the occupied suburbs. The chief also knew that the Fire Fleet had landed in the snowy wastelands, but he figured they would pose no threat for a long time and committed most of his forces to fighting Admiral Xilin.
Eventually, the Fire Nation forces began to slowly retreat. The morale of the main forces began to drop significantly, and Xilin grew impatient as she had no news of Hu and Cheng's movements. Eventually, she ordered a retreat back to the sea. As Xilin began to retreat, General Kova began large-scale attacks on the fleeing Fire Nationals. Eventually, Xilin decided to sail further out to sea and send scouts to find Cheng and Hu.
After the Xilin fled, Igaluk ordered Kova and Uukkarnit to destroy the Fire Nation forces in the east and west. Meanwhile, both Cheng and Hu were left wandering the snowy wastelands, with some of their equipment getting stuck in the snow and the nonbender soldiers starting to get frostbite. Commander Cheng eventually decided his mission was doomed and began to retreat, while Hu continued to march forward.
General Kova and Commander Hu engaged in a pitched battle. The battle was relatively short, and the Fire Nation forces suffered significant losses. When Commander Hu was killed, his expedition began to retreat and flee, suffering heavy losses, with very few returning to their makeshift beachhead.
In turn, Master Uukkarnit caught Cheng's forces in an ambush. Many Fire Soldiers were killed again, but the route to the bridgehead was shorter, and Cheng had ordered a fight with withdrawal from the beginning of the fight. Commander Cheng was wounded during the fighting.
Eventually, Hu and Cheng's fleets began to flee, losing more ships in the process. While sailing to safe waters, both fleets encountered Xilin's envoy ships, and the soldiers and Cheng reported the whole incident to the Xilin envoys. When Admiral Xilin learned how Hu and Cheng's expeditions had gone, she ordered a complete halt to the invasion of the Water Tribe.
Aftermath[]
The failed siege severely damaged Admiral Xilin's popularity. Cheng, on the other hand, ultimately survived, but lost his left eye and the use of his left hand forever. Despite this, he continued to serve as a commander and was later promoted to admiral, and his men began to call him "Cheng the Right".
The victory of the Northern Water Tribe built the foundation for the legend of the unconquered North Pole. The Fire Nation stopped raiding the Northern Water Tribe for decades, focusing instead on the Earth Kingdom and the less protected Southern Water Tribe, completely destroying the latter.
The fortifications of Agna Qel'a were greatly expanded during Igaluk's reign to ensure the tribe was ready for a potential next invasion.
Igaluk began many projects to build fortifications in Agna Qel'a. The invasion also saw an increase in the migration of North Pole sub-tribes to the capital, leaving many villages and smaller towns abandoned for decades, and Agna Qel'a further strengthening its position. Igaluk rewarded his commanders, including Kova and Uukkarnit. He appointed Kova as the chief commander of the Water Tribe forces and architect of the fortifications, and promised Uukkarnit that someone from his family would marry into the Northern House, which eventually happened when Uukkarnit's great-granddaughter, Lusa, married Prince Arnook, Igaluk's son and later tribal chief.
The Northern Water Tribe remained free from warfare until the winter of 99 AG, when Admiral Zhao launched a second invasion, even larger than Xilin's, which became known as the "Siege of the North". Zhao's invasion is sometimes called the "Second Siege of the North" and Admiral Xilin's invasion is called the "First Siege of the North", although this is rare. This invasion is sometimes called the invasion of the North Pole.
Trivia[]
- "Invasion of the North Pole" is written as 北极点的入侵, and "First Siege of the North" is written as 北方第一次围攻.
- During this siege, the Water Tribe captured Fire Soldier uniforms, which Chief Arnook later sought to use in Admiral Zhao's attack.
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