Issho: You Need Sincerity to Make Friends!
The fleet of warships, arranged in a protective formation at the front, led Luffield and his fleet forward.
Yi Xiao stayed on Lu Field's luxury cruise ship, chatting with the two of them from time to time, and the atmosphere seemed quite pleasant.
Umit was also observing the situation in the surrounding waters. This was his first time in recent years to be in the waters under the jurisdiction of G-5, so he was eager to see for himself what the situation was like.
In his world, G-5 is located at the forefront of the New World's Marines and pirates, a sea area prone to conflict, and it should be quite turbulent.
However, after entering this territory, he discovered that the number of pirates in the New World seemed to have decreased significantly. Instead, he could see merchant fleets flying the flag of the merchant guild passing through this sea area from time to time.
Even the merchant fleets, upon seeing the G-5 Marines fleet, would proactively extend greetings and inquire if the G-5 Marines fleet needed any assistance.
The flags displayed by these chambers of commerce also gave Umit a strong impression. It was a chamber of commerce organization that had risen rapidly in the New World in the last two years. Their place of origin seemed to be within the G-5 Marines district, and their backer was the G-5 Marines.
Rumor has it that this merchant guild pays a large amount of membership fees to the G-5 Marines every year. It is because of these fees that they can safely travel between the G-5 territory and Totto Land Totto Land. Any merchant guild ship flying their flag can contact the nearby Big Mom Pirates and the G-5 Marines for help when they encounter navigation problems or difficulties.
In today's New World, many big businessmen want to join their ranks. However, this chamber of commerce is quite exclusive. They only make recommendations at the annual fixed meeting of the chamber. In other words, if you don't have some acquaintances or connections, you won't even be able to find a place to pay money to join.
Seemingly noticing Umit's gaze and focus, Lu Field, standing beside him, explained with a smile, "That's the fleet of the Atlantis Merchant Association. I also have some related businesses. By affiliating with this guild, the safety of the New World is basically guaranteed, and it brings me a lot of profit every year. If I remember correctly, don't you also have some smugglers under your command? If you're interested, I can recommend you to join at this year's guild internal meeting."
"Interested." Umit nodded with a smile. "These days, I'm very interested in any business that involves Bane."
Upon hearing this, Yi Xiao laughed and said, "Why go through all that trouble? Once you get to our G-5, Umit will only need to mention it to our base commander, and all this will be done in a matter of a word from him."
The G-5 area of responsibility is quite large. As night falls and the sun sets, the fleet plans to anchor at the island ahead for a night's rest before continuing its journey the next day. At the current speed, it should take about seven more days to reach the G-5 Marine Base.
As they approached the island where they were to rest, Umit quickly noticed that the harbor there was flying Marines flags, indicating that it was a military port with a Marines base. There were even several warships moored outside the harbor!
This surprised Umit. If he remembered correctly, there was no Marine Base in this place.
"Isn't this the trading port of the Sterkall Kingdom? How did it become like this? I was here once a few years ago..." Umit asked in surprise.
Lu Field was also somewhat puzzled, looking at the situation with some confusion.
With a chuckle, he explained, "We at G-5 have a military protection agreement with His Majesty the King of the Sterkall Kingdom. The Marines here is our G-5's garrison, with 6,000 Marines personnel stationed here, equipped with four standard-issue warships and three additional vessels. They are responsible for protecting the Carl royal family and their trade. This model is very common within our G-5 territory; we have troops stationed in almost every country. Because of this system, security in this sea area has been greatly alleviated in recent years. Now, when we hunt pirates, we sometimes have to go outside our territory to find our prey..."
As the Sea Transport King, Umit was quite familiar with the distribution of the sea areas in the world of the New World. After recalling it for a moment, he realized how remarkable it was.
If the G-5 has such a large number of troops stationed in each country within its jurisdiction, then its control over its territory can be described as quite formidable!
And... there's something wrong with the number of troops, isn't there?
If each country had roughly the same number of troops stationed there, the G-5 alone would have tens of thousands of troops stationed in those countries.
Is this the military Marine Base should have?
Doesn't anyone in the Marines find this strange?
He didn't dwell on these doubts, but the weight of Ortolan in his heart increased once again.
His impression of Ortolan could be roughly defined as a "big shot who has connections in both the underworld and the legitimate world," backed by the Marine Headquarters, with extremely strong personal strength, and at the time possessing stable channels of communication between Totto Land Totto Land the Big Mom Pirates, and having close relationships with many big shots in the Underworld.
However, Umit didn't pay much attention to his personal position as base commander. At most, he thought that G-5's combat power was stronger than that of the other Marines, but he didn't know much else.
After such a cursory contact, Umit felt that the fact that this person was the base commander of G-5 was already somewhat outrageous.
This isn't some base commander from the New World, is it? This is some major warlord from the Marines stationed in the New World!
All the other Marine Base in the New World combined don't have as many troops as this big shot, Ortolan.
Just as Umit was thinking about these things, he saw that there seemed to be some construction ships laying something on the sea over the naval port. After the ships got closer, Umit was able to see what it was by the last bit of the setting sun.
Those dredged ships seem to have floating train tracks laid out on the sea.
What is this thing?!
As Sea Transport King, Umit was not without knowledge and understanding of transportation equipment. He knew that these tracks were a necessary component for train vehicles, but these things were generally laid in countries with large land areas, serving as the main arteries between towns.
Only relatively wealthy countries can afford to implement this; most countries don't have the money.
But how did they end up laying tracks over the sea? Can those trains even run on the sea? Doesn't that seem absurd?
"Your Excellency Yixiao, what's the situation with these tracks?" Umit asked quickly. He had a feeling that something was gradually slipping out of his control and understanding.
Yixiao glanced over North Blue, then said with a smile, "This is an advanced technology in the possession of the current King of Dressrosa, the Shichibukai, the Shichibukai Heavenly Yaksha Donquixote Doflamingo Sea Train Doflamingo cooperation agreement with our G-5 regarding the Sea Train, and we plan to conduct trial operations within our G-5 jurisdiction. If it proves successful, we might deploy it in more sea areas..."
Upon hearing this, Umit broke out in a cold sweat. He swallowed hard and asked, "Is there a big difference between these Sea Train and land trains?"
"Aside from the technology, I don't see any difference. It can also transport and pull dozens of carriages, and it's many times faster than our ships..." Yi Xiao thought to himself for a moment, and then said this on purpose.
Upon hearing this, Umit's mood sank to the bottom. As the Sea Transport King, his most successful business was shipping. Although Sea Train could not completely replace the capacity of ships, if they were to become widespread, their capacity would definitely have a huge impact on his existing business.
This is a product that undermines his very foundation!
After a moment's thought, Umit asked, "Lord Issho, I've heard that Bane and Lord Doflamingo are very close. Is that true?"
I smiled and thought to myself, "You've taken the bait, kid. It wasn't for nothing that I brought you here to see the Sea Train."
With a calm smile, Yixiao said, "That's true. As everyone knows, my base commander has a very close relationship with many of the Shichibukai. After all, we're all good partners under the World Government..."
"I don't know, but if I were to ask Bane to introduce me to Lord Doflamingo, would that be appropriate?" Umit asked again.
"My husband has always been very generous and helpful to his friends," Yixiao said with a hint of deeper meaning.
Upon hearing this, Umit understood what he meant: if you want Ortolan's help, you have to become his friend. As for how to become friends, that depends on your sincerity.
Sincerity is a very important thing!