Ortolan: Momonga, Your Bottom Line Keeps Getting Lower!
After Ortolan and the Momonga returned to G-5, they spent more than two months in peace. Spandine, true to his word, promptly sent a large number of unemployed boatmen from Water 7 and Master Tom to G-5.
At this moment, in the base commander's office in Ortolan, he was hunched over his desk writing a plan.
On the sofa opposite the desk, the Momonga sat there, holding a document and reporting some news.
"Is Xiao is now in the zone regarding the training of troops, but we still lack generals who can lead men out. Relying on Is Xiao alone is not efficient enough. When do you plan to recruit people from the Second Division?" Momonga asked.
Currently, the G-5 trio's operations are roughly as follows: Ortolan oversees the overall situation, Momonga is responsible for assisting Ortolan in filling in the gaps, and Issho leads the G-5 fleet to live outside, constantly seeking out pirates to train with, striving to raise the G-5's Marines combat power to an elite level.
With Yixiao's strength, as long as he doesn't provoke any top-tier big shots in the New World, he can handle things right now, so Ortolan is at ease.
"I've already contacted Gion. She said that once she finishes her current work, she will apply to be transferred to our G-5," Ortolan said without looking up.
That's right, the first person Ortolan poached was Gion. He had a good relationship with Gion, was familiar with Gion, and trusted her more.
Besides Gion, Ortolan also contacted Hoshigaki and Kajiki, but Hoshigaki is currently on some kind of mission and can't get away in the short term, so he can't come.
Kajiki that guy, he's now working under Garp. The two of them together are practically a bunch of losers, spending their days eating, drinking, gambling, and whoring, becoming a unique sight in the department—a pair of lazy bums.
On the contrary, Kuzan, having been promoted to Vice Admiral, was transferred to a base as a commander and no longer hangs out with that old scoundrel Garp much.
Kajiki that the guy wasn't interested in G-5 originally, mainly because he didn't want to work under Ortolan, since he always felt that Ortolan was his rival in love.
However, after Ortolan revealed that he had invited Gion to work there, and that Gion had already agreed.
Kajiki agreed, saying he would find some time to give Garp a report and come to G-5 as an overseas assistant.
In other words, nominally he is still Garp's subordinate, but in reality, he will work for G-5. This is good, as it complies with regulations and he doesn't have to sneak around.
After receiving the reply from the Kajiki, Ortolan was also very impressed. This Boiling Sheep is really useful!
Speaking of which, the New World has been quite lively lately. Gecko Moria, Donquixote Doflamingo, Jora Mihawk, and others have all started to exert their influence in the New World, causing quite a few incidents. Today someone attacks the Wang Zhi's Hachinosu Island, tomorrow someone clashes with the Big Mom Pirates. The clash between the old and new forces has already begun to erupt in the New World.
Moreover, it's not just these people from the Ortolan seal; besides Doflamingo and his crew, there's a large number of powerful pirates from Ortolan who have no seal at all, yet they're also stirring up trouble in the New World.
It's estimated that these people will either become stepping stones for the Four Emperors in the future, or they will become resources for the Four Emperors and be swallowed up.
But even now, they still have passion and enthusiasm.
For example, Ikko has encountered a guy named Smoker several times. That guy has the Paramecia Crush- Crush-Crush Fruit ability. He is arrogant and his strength is indeed formidable. He fought Ikko several times but was not defeated!
However, there is indeed a force in this New World Newgate is quite extraordinary, namely the Whitebeard Pirates. Ever since Sand Crocodile challenged Crocodile and was defeated, there has been no news of any powerful figures challenging the Whitebeard for a long time.
But the Whitebeard Pirates are really lazy. As long as no one provokes them, they don't seem to cause much trouble. Here, we are mainly talking about the members of the Whitebeard Pirates. His various miscellaneous pirate crews are still very active, stirring up trouble in various seas and fighting with the New Era of pirates.
Occasionally, some formidable figures would prompt Newgate to personally intervene and adopt them as his godson.
Momonga that Ortolan already had arrangements, the flying squirrel didn't press further. Instead, it continued its report, "Regarding our warship construction, we first need to find a suitable island to use as Shipbuilding Island. This island can't be too far from our G-5 base, and we also need to station troops on it for protection..."
"Do you have any suitable recommendations?" Ortolan asked.
"Yes, I've circled some suitable islands on this nautical chart. You can choose one yourself." The Momonga took a nautical chart from the folder in its pocket and placed it on Ortolan's table.
Ortolan nodded, accepted the chart, but did not look at it immediately.
The Momonga wasn't surprised and continued, "However, shipbuilding isn't just about technology. We need a lot of suitable timber, as well as machine tools and various other equipment. But that's not the most important thing. I've done a survey and made a prediction. Once we start the shipbuilding project, our financial pressure will be enormous. Relying solely on Yixiao and the others to go out and eliminate pirates won't be enough to keep the shipbuilding department running. We need a more stable source of funding!"
The mere mention of funding gave Ortolan a headache; those who aren't in charge truly don't know the cost of daily necessities.
The previous "troop deployment in various countries" plan could only solve some of the problems of manpower and military expenses, but the manpower expenditure of G-5 headquarters still needs to be solved by itself. The Marine Headquarters will not provide support. It can only rely on going out to plunder pirates. This unit is already considered to be doing very well if it can maintain a balance of income and expenditure.
Where would we find the money to build a ship?
Ortolan had actually considered activating the Golden Country on the Skypiea... but in the end, he suppressed the idea. It wasn't appropriate; the current G-5 didn't have the capacity to handle such a terrifying amount of money, and it would be very troublesome if it were exposed.
"Do you have any ideas or suggestions regarding funding channels?" Ortolan rubbed his temples and asked irritably.
The Momonga paused for a moment, then gritted its teeth and said, "Yes, but it might not be well-regarded..."
"How so?" Ortolan asked, raising an eyebrow.
Reputation? What is reputation? Is money more important?
"Protection fee!" the Momonga said in a deep voice.
Ortolan paused, then asked in surprise, "We've been collecting protection money all along, haven't we? Garrisoning troops is one form of protection money. But since we've already stationed troops, asking for more is a bit unethical. Those nobles and royalty probably won't be so easily persuaded..."
"I'm not talking about protection fees for the garrison. What I mean is, we could start a protection fee system for merchants, levying protection fees and tolls on merchant ships that pass through the waters under our jurisdiction..." the Momonga said, its eyes slightly evasive.
After listening to this, Ortolan remained silent for a moment before saying, "Your bottom line is getting lower and lower... Isn't this just like a highway robbery pirate?"
Not all pirates are the kind of vicious thugs who want to kill everyone. The Great Pirate have a little bit of power all understand the importance of sustainability and exploiting resources to the fullest extent.
For caravans they hunted, they would usually take a portion of the funds as 'protection money,' and once the money was paid, they would let the people pass.
After all, if you wipe out all these caravans, who will dare to come here in the future?
Nobody's coming, how are you going to keep sucking blood?
The Momonga sighed helplessly, "What else can we do? I'm not some business genius; these are all the lame ideas I can come up with..."
"If we expand the scale of this shipbuilding industry, while building warships, could we also bring along conventional ships and start a ship-selling business? Would that be feasible?" Ortolan pondered for a moment and asked.
"I don't know. I've never studied these things. If you ask me, we need to find someone with business acumen. This funding issue is giving me a real headache. We're all roughnecks, how would we know anything about this?" the Momonga said helplessly.
Upon hearing this, Ortolan scratched his head, glanced at the sea chart that the Momonga had placed on the table, and then focused his gaze on the Sabaody Archipelago... He wondered if Gild Tesoro was there at the moment.
Why don't you take some time to go and check it out?