Chapter 204 Struggle for Power

Chapter 204 Struggle for Power

Chapter 204 Struggle for Power
With a steady stream of financial support, the village can increase pensions and mission rewards for the ninjas, improve the treatment of various institutions including ninja schools and orphanages, and even provide a large number of jobs for ordinary villagers through infrastructure construction.

This is also why, even though Orochimaru came to power through a coup, he still received the support of the vast majority of people. Even the Third Hokage took the initiative to endorse Orochimaru's position as Hokage.

Although it was also a post-war reconstruction, when other ninja villages were still quietly licking their wounds, Konoha not only recovered quickly, but even had the ability to extend its tentacles to neighboring countries.

However, the cautious Third Hokage firmly opposed provoking other countries under such circumstances, and that was why the overactive Konoha ninjas did not appear in other countries' territories.

But even so, the number of spies from other countries in Konoha Village has increased significantly in recent times. Not only the four ninja villages from the five major countries, but even those small countries want to find out where Konoha gets so much money.

With money, Konoha can stand tall in the face of the Daimyo of the Land of Fire, without having to worry about the Daimyo and the nobles making trouble about the funds allocated to Konoha Village.

On the contrary, the Daimyo of the Land of Fire was a little frightened for some reason, and even took the initiative to increase the funding for Konoha Village.

Konoha is now thriving, so it is no wonder that Minato is so convinced of Orochimaru, the Fourth Hokage.

"I see. You, the Leaf Ninjas, are a group similar to mercenaries? If we need you, we can hire you to fight for the Beasts Pirates?"

Jin, who had just communicated with someone unknown through Den Den Mushi, looked at Minato with shining eyes.

Not long ago, Jin learned from the spy planted in the First Division that five guys of unknown origin not only caused Admiral Akainu to suffer a small loss, but one of them took Akainu away directly, and Akainu has never appeared since then. This person is none other than Minato Namikaze in front of him!
Although no one knows what Namikaze Minato did after taking Akainu away, but before that, the five of them could even make Akainu lose face. The key is that four of the five people have demonstrated abilities that are suspected to be natural-type devil fruits. The only exception is Minato, whose spatial movement ability is even better than that of the natural type!

"I'm sorry, but ninjas are not mercenaries... Of course, we can also accept war missions, as long as the conditions are right."

Minato was quite persistent in his definition of ninja, and was somewhat uncomfortable with the fact that King lumped ninjas together with those unscrupulous mercenaries.

However, this did not affect his competition with mercenaries for business. When Orochimaru described the pirate world to Minato, in addition to the magical devil fruits and those ridiculously powerful monsters in the pirate world, what he mentioned most was the richness of the pirate world.

It has not collapsed even after being sucked blood by the Celestial Dragons and the behemoth World Government for eight hundred years. If we also take into account the civilians that still need to be supported by the 170-odd member countries of the World Government and the unknown number of non-member governments, as well as the navy with a million people and pirates several times that number.

It is no wonder that the world of pirates can give birth to so many inhuman strong men. Just in the vicinity of Marijoa today, the number of top strong men like Kaido exceeds double digits. Of course, if you want to be serious, the Otsutsuki family in the ninja world are the real monsters.

Just when the Beasts Pirates were trying to seduce the Konoha Ninjas, the pirates of the second team also began to land in Red Harbor. Esdeath, who could not wait any longer, only completed the reorganization of the first team and began to order the pirates to board the bubble pod and head towards Marijoa.

The only way to reach the holy land of Marijoa, which is located 10,000 meters above the sea, from Red Harbor is through the bubble pod. Therefore, even when facing the pressure from the Cosmic Dark Matter Pirates, the Five Elders have never made up their minds to destroy the orbit of the bubble pod.

After all, it is easy to destroy but difficult to build. Even with the almost endless manpower and material resources of the world government, it is extremely difficult to build tracks on a cliff 10,000 meters above sea level.

Otherwise, when the murloc adventurer Fisher Tiger climbed up to the holy land of Marijoa with his physical body, it would not have been considered an incredible feat.

“Hahaha! I never thought that one day I would be able to set foot on the land of Mary Geoise like those princes and nobles!”

"The Celestial Dragons have been collecting gold from heaven for eight hundred years and have hidden it all in the Holy Land. The gold, silver and treasures should have piled up into a huge mountain..."

"Bah! What a bullshit holy land! I'm not interested in treasures. Back then, those damned Celestial Dragons took everyone in our village as slaves. This time, I'm going to make the Celestial Dragons slaves too!"

……

The pirates of the first team crowded into every corner of the bubble pod, and those pirates who were confident in their skills even stood on the top of the pod.

Everyone was looking forward to the massive looting after landing in Marijoa. As the commander of the first squad, Esdeath promised all the pirates that all the treasures and slaves they could snatch would belong to them.

The first batch of pirates who arrive at Marijoa do not need to hand in the spoils or share them with others. They can not only choose the spoils first, but also get promoted in the Cosmic Dark Matter Pirates.

Ordinary pirates are promoted to junior fighters, junior fighters are promoted to intermediate fighters, intermediate fighters are promoted to senior fighters, and as for senior fighters, although they cannot be promoted directly, Esdeath promises that at least one top-level fighter will be born among them.

Because the reward was so generous, a small-scale conflict broke out among the pirates of the First Squadron in order to compete for the qualification to be the first batch to board Mary Geoise.

Finally, it was after Esdeath's coordination that the specific number of pirates was determined. A total of 1,200 pirates will board Marijoa as the vanguard.

At least half of these people are mid-level fighters, and the number of high-level fighters has reached an astonishing double digit, which is equivalent to one-tenth of the core combat power of the Universe Dark Matter Pirate Group.

The reason for such a large-scale deployment is that the mission of the first group of pirates to land on Marijoa is the most difficult.

Not only were they responsible for seizing control of the bubble pod terminal, they were also responsible for covering the subsequent first team of pirates to complete their landing under the siege of the Marijoa defenders.

You can imagine how difficult it is. It is normal for the entire army to be wiped out if things go wrong. That is why Esdeath made such a generous promise.

At the same time as the pirates of the First Division were preparing to board Marijoa in the bubble pod, Cyborg Sora, who had returned to Marijoa long before Sakaski was captured, was reporting the battle situation in Red Harbor to the Five Elders.

"Well done, Sora. You really didn't disappoint us."

After listening to the report of Steel Bone·Sora, Nasujuro Sei nodded with satisfaction. With only tens of thousands of soldiers from allied countries and ordinary goods selected from hundreds of thousands of slaves, they not only resisted the attack of more than 100,000 New World pirates, but also caused huge casualties to the Cosmic Dark Matter Pirates. Although the price was the fall of Red Harbor and the annihilation of the defenders, Steel Bone·Sora was able to achieve such an exchange ratio, and he was definitely an extremely excellent commander.

Under normal circumstances, even if the same number of elite soldiers from allied nations faced pirates who were able to venture into the New World, they would be completely annihilated, and at best the pirates would only have to pay a small price.

If it weren't for the fortress complex and multiple defensive fortifications built by Steel Sora, and the explosive rock traps buried in advance, Red Harbor would never have been able to hold out for so long, and there would be no way to annihilate so many powerful pirates in one go.

The only flaw was that almost none of the nearly 200,000 Holy Land Guardians and slave soldiers survived. But for the Five Elders who didn't care about human lives at all, the death of these lowest-class untouchables and slaves would not move them.

"It's a pity that I couldn't bring Sakaski back. His combat power could still play a key role in the next battle. I should have stayed in Red Harbor to cover Sakaski's retreat..."

Cyborg Kong reflected with great self-blame that if there was anything to nitpick about the defense of Red Harbor in the eyes of the Five Elders, it would probably be the loss of Sakaski, a top-level warrior.

The Five Elders may not care about the loss of manpower and material resources, and they do not care if hundreds of thousands or millions of soldiers and slaves from the allied countries die. However, the loss of a top-level strong man is definitely not insignificant, even for the World Government.

Therefore, Cyborg Sora took the initiative to mention Sakaski, as he was quite familiar with the arrogant and conceited personalities of the Five Elders.

If Cyborg Sora had not mentioned Sakaski, the Five Elders might still have had a chance to hold him accountable.

But now that Cyborg Sora has taken the initiative to admit his mistake, if they continue to dwell on this point, wouldn't it seem that they care a lot about the life and death of a mere Sakaski?

"Hmph! Sakaski is getting worse and worse. He actually fell into the trap of a bunch of low-class pirates. He really brought shame to the World Government! This matter has nothing to do with you, Sora. As the commander-in-chief, you have done everything you should do. Go down and have a rest. We will need you in the future."

The result was just as Cyborg Sora had expected. Before he finished his review, Saint Satan took the initiative to take over the conversation and helped Cyborg Sora clean up the few remaining traces.

"Thank you for your hard work, Kong. I will stop here for the report. Please go to the Army Command Headquarters and wait for orders. The follow-up instructions will be conveyed to you as soon as possible."

Saint Maz also acquiesced to Saint Satan's decision. After all, if we really want to investigate, Akainu himself will definitely be the one to blame.

With such strength as a top-level strong man, he was defeated in such an unclear way. If they were not sure of Sakaski's loyalty to the World Government, the Five Elders would have suspected that he had defected to the Cosmic Dark Matter Pirates.

Even if we continue to investigate further, the person who will be blamed is the deputy commander of the Holy Land Guardian Corps who was responsible for supporting Sakaski and the commander of the guards of Mary Joa.

"Yes, please allow me to leave first."

Cyborg Sora replied as respectfully as possible, then left the meeting room where the Five Elders were.

Outside the door, the two deputy commanders of the Holy Land Guard Corps were anxiously waiting for the summons from the Five Elders. Although they were the king of the Cherro Kingdom and the captain of the guard of the Darkvisk Kingdom, they were still small characters in the eyes of the Five Elders.

They had clearly come together to report the battle situation to the Five Elders, but in the end only Cyborg Sora was summoned, and the two deputy legion commanders could only wait outside the gate for an audience.

"Marshal Kong! Are the Five Elders ready to summon us?"

Seeing the figure of Cyborg Sora, Spark Chelo, the king of Chelo Kingdom, came over impatiently.

Apart from the World Conference held every four years, this was the first time that Spark Cherro had the opportunity to meet with the Five Elders. No wonder he was so excited.

As one of the member states closest to the holy land of Marijoa, the various obligations borne by the Kingdom of Chelo are much heavier than those of other member states, especially the number of visits by the Celestial Dragons is almost the highest among all the member states.

Every time the Celestial Dragons came, it would bring a heavy burden to the people of the Kingdom of Chelo. In order to accommodate the Celestial Dragons, successive kings, including Spark Chelo, would spare no effort to levy extremely high taxes on the people, causing countless people to fall into poverty or even starve to death.

However, Spark Chero and the kings of the Chero Kingdom of all generations do not have the slightest hatred towards the World Government and the Celestial Dragons. On the contrary, the Chero Kingdom has always been the most loyal supporter of the World Government. The reason is very simple, that is, the World Government is Spark's strongest backing.

As long as the World Government still exists, even if the throne of the King of the Chelo Kingdom is overthrown, the Five Elders will help restore the country. This is why Spark is no different from a bootlicker when facing the Five Elders.

At this time, Wesker, the captain of the guard of the Kingdom of Dalwesk, also looked over a little uneasily. Compared to Spark, who had been a king for generations, Wesker, who was born as a civilian soldier, was obviously much more nervous when facing the Five Elders.

However, as one of the few strong men in the member countries, Wesker is also a key target in the World Government's intelligence.

Being able to become the second-in-command of the Kingdom of Dalwisk as a civilian and being named after the first captain of the guard when the kingdom was founded, Wesker's strength should not be underestimated. If the unlucky guy Sakaski had not come to him on his own initiative, Cyborg Sora was ready to let Wesker be in charge of the rear guard.

"Your Excellency the Five Elders has important matters to attend to. I have finished reporting everything that needs to be reported. I have been ordered to go to the Army Command Headquarters and wait for orders. What are your plans?"

Cyborg Sora spoke with a serious expression.

He has completed all the tasks assigned by Borsalino, but next, Cyborg Sora still wants to perform well so as to have a good starting point after the fall of the World Government.

To be honest, Cyborg Sora has always felt a little resentful and even gave up on himself for being the first navy admiral to be defeated by pirates.

(End of this chapter)