However, there were things that both the World Government and the Navy had overlooked...
The World Government and the Navy would never have imagined that the problems posed by the Pirates and the Revolutionary Army would grow beyond control. Retreating was like cross-dressing—there was only zero times or countless times. Once they got used to it, it would be hard to stop!
After three days of war preparations, the fully assembled Divine Eye Pirates officially marched out on the morning of the fourth day. Shiryu and Martin each led four thousand Pirates. These Pirates were organized into mixed units, with New World Pirates as the backbone, elite soldiers from the United States of Night as the main force, and some locals willing to become Pirates added in at the end.
Dolores and Riley led Pirates of the same composition, but since each of them only needed to attack one island, their numbers were smaller. They each commanded two thousand five hundred men.
For this war, the Divine Eye Pirates deployed a total of thirteen thousand men. Including those left behind, the Divine Eye Pirates' total strength was around eighteen thousand men, and their momentum of growth was incredibly fierce!
A major reason for such rapid growth was that Carlos was the King of the United States of Night and could mobilize enormous resources. Most of those eighteen thousand men were individually weaker than New World Pirates, but their collective combat strength was not necessarily inferior.
Of those eighteen thousand, at least twelve thousand were troops from the United States of Night. They were well-trained, and in turn influenced some of the New World Pirates. Combined with the fine equipment Carlos had lavishly provided them, their combat strength was very high, with firearms issued to seventy percent of their forces.