TitoVillar
patreon
OPI Chapter 104: Military Shakeup
🕑 Added 2024-02-02 00:57:28 +0000 UTC“Is it finally the military’s turn?”
This is what Kong, Raymond, Jyrex, Sengoku, Tsuru and others are thinking in unison at this moment. They had already noticed that the departments of the World Government were undergoing an internal restructuring, and only the military had not experienced any changes, so they were prepared for this day.
As for Sakazuki, he didn’t care about this at all, he just listened silently.
“First of all, the departments directly under the Supreme Command of the entire army are divided into the Command Department, the Staff Department, and the Department of Military Affairs. The ministers of each department are awarded the rank of general.”
"Finally, the position of Commander in Chief of All Armed Forces will be eliminated." V. Nusjuro said expressionlessly.
When Raymond heard this he felt disappointed, but he still did not dare to interrupt and continued listening to V. Nusjuro's explanation.
“At the same time, the positions of Marshal and three Generals of the army will be added, and the Holy Land garrison will be transferred from the Supreme Command Council of the entire army to the jurisdiction of the Grand Deacon directly under the Supreme Governing Council"
After hearing this the people on the navy side frowned and were wondering where the World Government would find four Admiral level combat forces.
"This is great!" Jyrex was overjoyed. The new restructuring means that the Holy Land Garrison will be directly subordinate to the Five Elders. What a surprise.
V. Nusjuro continued to announce the restructuring plan of the armed forces. "Then, we'll talk about position changes for you. Order!"
At V. Nusjuro's words the six individuals on both sides of the table immediately stood up.
"The current Fleet Admiral Kong is appointed Minister of the Command Department."
'What?!' Raymond looked at V. Nusjuro in shock. Seeing that he was expressionless and showed no intention of explaining, he quickly looked at Kong who was standing opposite, and found that the latter also had a surprised look on his face.
“The current Commander-in-Chief, Raymond, is appointed Marshal of the Army.”
"..." Raymond lowered his head slightly, with a gloomy expression and without saying a word. He had been demoted and now his subordinate had become his superior.
But he didn't dare to express his dissatisfaction with V. Nusjuro, so he could only transfer it to Kong, thinking that the other party might have done something secretly.
Otherwise, why was he demoted when he clearly did nothing wrong?
"The current Navy Admiral, Sengoku, is promoted to Fleet Admiral."
"Sir, if this happens, our navy will have no Admiral." Sengoku showed no emotion at his promotion, but instead calmly raised the issue.
V. Nusjuro just looked at him. “Current Vice Admiral Monkey D. Garp is promoted to Admiral.”
"What?"
"What?!"
Kong, Sengoku, and Tsuru were shocked again. Even Sakazuki was stunned for a moment, and then Sengoku said hesitantly: "Sir, Garp will most likely refuse."
But V. Nusjuro did not pay attention to his words, instead, he spoke to everyone in a serious tone. "From the moment the Dimensional Gate opened for us, from the moment the World Government embarked on the conquest of Other Worlds, we traveled on a warship at full speed."
"Now we no longer have the possibility of stopping or reaching a destination island."
"Although everything went smoothly at first, we all know that this long journey is very dangerous. No one knows that one day we will encounter powerful enemies and may even be counterattacked back on our home world."
"Facing this unknown and dangerous sea, we must mobilize all our elite forces to protect our ship. I don't think even Garp wants us to one day be invaded by enemy forces from Other Worlds, right?"
Everyone was silent. After a while, Sengoku sighed and said: "I know, I'll convince Garp."
“What about the Generals?” Raymond asked expressionlessly.
“The current Vice Admiral of the Navy, Sakazuki will be transferred to the Army and is promoted to General of the Army.” V. Nusjuro said in a deep voice.
This made all eyes focus on Sakazuki. Sengoku, who was now the Fleet Admiral of the Navy, looked even more grim, but the one who reacted the most violently was Sakazuki himself.
"I reject it!" Sakazuki was furious, gritted his teeth and said: "My goal is to clean up the trash in the sea, not play on the land!"
Raymond, who was already annoyed, felt even more irritated. 'What does it mean to play in the dirt? Are you talking seriously?!'
"You can go, Sakazuki is staying." V. Nusjuro issued the order in a deep voice.
Sengoku and others looked at each other and in the end could only leave in silence. When everyone left, only the two of them were left in the conference room.
"Sakazuki, I know that you are not a reckless man. You should understand the current situation of the world. Pirates will not disappear as long as maritime trade exists, and our planet has an exceptionally vast maritime expanse."
When it came to the impression of the Navy's higher-ups, V. Nusjuro had a good impression of Sakazuki. Sengoku was in second place by a large margin.
Because Sakazuki was a perfect military man. Although Sengoku was also competent, he did not reach the former's level of perfection. However, it was difficult to convince Sakazuki to switch from the Navy to the Army.
To be honest, this had been a headache before, but there was no other option. Because the Army needed personnel!
"With all due respect, I think it's because the current navy's attitude towards pirates is too weak. If you are willing to fully support me, all the garbage on the sea will be cleared away within ten years!"
"Sakazuki, I appreciate your confidence, but you must remember that being confident does not necessarily mean that you can be successful." V. Nusjuro was unusually less authoritarian.
“Even if you kill all the pirates in ten or even twenty years, after that, when your generation comes to an end, pirates will still pop up like fish in the sea. What are you going to do?”
"That..." Sakazuki was stunned.
"You should be familiar with Brontosaurus Alder from two hundred years ago, right?"
“Of course, he is a Fleet Admiral who occupies a prominent place in the long history of the navy. He was a Logia-type Lightning fruit user and was the founder of what is known as the Great Age of the Navy."
Sakazuki has great respect for this Fleet Admiral who is known as the most powerful in history and with the harshest and coldest attitude towards pirates.
"So, you should know that during his rule, pirates were almost exterminated, and you couldn't even find a pirate with a bounty of more than one hundred million. Unfortunately, less than twenty years after his death, pirates flourished again."
"Now we finally understand the source of the problem."
V. Nusjuro calmly looked at Sakazuki and said: "The frequent slave trade, the complicated taxes of the kingdoms, the extreme oppression of the nobles, the hostile environment and maritime transportation..."
"The scarce resources and the overwhelming amount of money they must pay due to the heavenly tribute are pushing a large number of people to become pirates."
Sakazuki was completely shocked. He didn't expect the other party to explain the matter so thoroughly, even questioning the existence of the heavenly tribute.
"So we started to change. I think you've noticed our changes, because we believe that if we solve these problems, we can completely eradicate the pirate plague or at least prevent it from growing too much."
"Don't you think this is the best way to eliminate pirates?"
“Then what does this have to do with me joining the Army?” Sakazuki asked reluctantly.
"Because the Army is the main force to conquer the Other Worlds!"
“We can improve legal issues step by step through Levely. Royal families and nobles of various countries can also find ways to rectify them. Maritime transportation can be solved through the use of maritime trains that are being developed. But the lack of resources can only be solved by you."
“If there was an entire world, or even several worlds, with resources that could be harvested at will, then people in every country in our world could truly have enough food, clothing, and live a prosperous life.”
"How many people are still willing to risk their lives in the dangerous sea with swords and firearms?"
Sakazuki's expression was no longer so angry and unwilling after hearing this. Although he was still a little entangled and hesitant, his eyes became much calmer.
It was only when he heard V. Nusjuro's next words that his expression drastically changed.
“The most important thing is, are you willing to hand over such an important army to our entire world to a few people with pirate backgrounds, such as letting Douglas Bullet or Crocodile be the Marshal in the future?”
"What?!"
...
Kabane World.
The dark armored train 'Kokujou' was being repaired at night as usual, and the people and soldiers on the train began to get off and move freely within a certain range.
Three hours later, they will continue driving towards Kongoukaku's final gateway, Iwato Station.
"How is? Do we have any new instructions?” Marta asked. She hadn't gone out. When she saw Laskey return and sit next to her, she gently snuggled her body, as if they were a couple still in love.
This made some of the women around them turn around with some shame and quickly left the end car, which also gave them a short private space.
And this is exactly what Marta wants.
Through communicating with these people, she has discovered that the people here are very conservative in their thinking. Even the slightest joke can make them blush. This is true for both men and women.
In their impressions or rumors, people from the European continent are more open and enthusiastic in character.
So, the current actions of the two are in line with the impression these people have of them.
"We need to stop Amatori Biba from destroying Kongoukaku."
"When will we act?" Marta looked anxiously at Laskey, who looked at her without saying a word, then asked in a low voice: "How many targets can we control just by the two of us?"
"That..."
"Let's wait. There's no rush. We can wait until we reach Iwato Station, and other groups join before we act. We just have to follow them for now."
Marta was a little disappointed after hearing this and didn’t say anything more. She just had to wait one more day, and she still had some patience.
When the Kokujou began to move again, the night passed in the blink of an eye. With the sound of the whistle, it meant that they were about to arrive at Iwato Station.
This made the people on board the Koutetsujou very excited. The atmosphere in each carriage suddenly became lively. Laskey and Marta also looked at each other in silence.
It's time.
They knew that the World Government was finally going to act. From this moment on, they no longer needed to hide their identities!
"Everyone, because Iwato Station prohibits Kokujou from entering the city, we have to get off the train in advance and walk to Iwato Station. Be prepared and line up to get off."
At this moment, Yomogawa Ayame's sweet voice rang from the communication channel, but this news confused the people on board the Koutetsujou.
"Why? Why can't the Karikatashuu come in with us?"
"That's right, how dare they treat Biba-sama like that?"
Even though everyone was talking about it, they still got off the train obediently when the time came. No one would be willing to stay out of town with the Karikatashuu just because they were treated unfairly. In the end it was all empty words.
"What are we going to do?" Marta sensed something was wrong.
"Let's go down first, but don't enter the station. Our first and second objectives are among the Karikatashuu. We will wait for the other groups to arrive."
When most of the passengers in that compartment had left, Laskey took off his baggy yukata and tossed it aside. Revealing a black suit and a crisp white shirt underneath it, he then took out a pair of dark red sunglasses from his pocket and put them on.
Seeing this, Marta also took off her yukata and in the blink of an eye, both of them regained their CP9 elite appearance. Then, they quickly exited the back of the carriage.
