As a Marine Admiral, Only Then Could He Understand How Terrifying the Marines' Enormous Military Expenditures Were!
After that, Ortolan followed Dr. Vegapunk to see many novel technologies, and packed up the ones he felt were worth promoting, intending to take them with him when he left.
Dr. Vegapunk was very pleased with this, as he was researching these technologies with the idea that they could be applied in practice.
As for Dr. Borsalino, although he verbally expressed some disdain for Ortolan's purchasing behavior, he still complied with Ortolan's wishes.
There was nothing he could do; after all, Ortolan was Marine Admiral.
After we had seen all those amazing technologies, it was getting dark outside.
Ortolan wasn't in a hurry to leave. Under Borsalino's arrangement, everyone had dinner together and he was given a room to rest.
Sitting on the sofa in the room, Ortolan dialed Den Den Mushi, then placed it on the table, holding the notebook he had previously compiled and reading.
A moment later, the Den Den Mushi. Tesoro asked with some confusion, "Admiral?"
"Oh, Tesoro, I'm sorry to disturb your rest so late," Ortolan said with a smile.
"No, I haven't finished work yet," Tesoro said with a smile.
"Still working overtime this late?" Ortolan was slightly surprised.
"It's not often, I've just been a little busy these past couple of days..." Tesoro explained first, then asked, "Does the Admiral have any orders?"
"Well, regarding the design of the Golden City, I think some changes are needed. I discovered quite a few new technologies that can be applied here in Punk Hazard. I originally planned to tell you in detail when I got back, but I was worried that you would start construction directly, so I'll tell you first..." Ortolan pondered the notebook in his hand and replied.
"Yes, please speak," Tesoro responded immediately.
"First of all, it's a new type of building material that can be used in the construction industry. In the original building design, the building was already quite unique, but I think that adding these materials would better showcase..." Ortolan quickly explained his design ideas to Tesoro.
This includes the transportation of materials for Island Cloud and Sea Clouds, the design of holographic projection, and the arrangement of climate control systems.
Ortolan's lecture went on for quite a while, with Tesoro occasionally interjecting to ask about the specifics.
By the time Ortolan finished speaking, the moonlight had already bathed the sea.
"In this way, our Golden City will undoubtedly become the most unique Entertainment City on the sea, combining the culture and characteristics of the sky, the deep sea, and the sea surface, along with future technology. It will probably generate more profits than we imagine. As for those technologies, do you plan to promote and sell them through the Golden City platform?" Tesoro asked excitedly.
"That's right, that's how I see it," Ortolan said.
"It seems that once the Golden City project is completed, our revenue will increase dramatically..." Tesoro remarked first, then added, "By the way, Admiral, the revenue statistics for the first half of the year are in. In the first half of this year alone, our fiscal surplus has reached 724 billion Belly. Combining the Golden City project and other planned expenditures for the second half of the year with the revenue from the second half, we roughly estimate that this year's fiscal surplus will reach at least 1.8 trillion Belly!" Tesoro suddenly seemed to have thought of something and reported to Ortolan.
"1.8 trillion Belly!?" Ortolan was pleasantly surprised upon hearing this number.
This means that his vast organizational structure, while completing its own operations, has begun to continuously generate enormous wealth!
And these riches will be continuously transformed into the strength of the New World Marines in the future!
"Yes, but there's one important expenditure that hasn't been factored in. That's the establishment of the Sea Police Force in Dressrosa. So far, Doflamingo hasn't shared the specific financial details with us. Therefore, I can only estimate the scale of the Sea Police Force's expenditure and haven't included this expenditure in the surplus budget. Once they share the details with us, the surplus will decrease somewhat," Tesoro added.
After a slight pause, he continued, "Furthermore, the design changes we just discussed regarding the Golden City should also involve several hundred billion Belly in new expenditures. If we factor all of these into the figures, this year's profit may not be as optimistic as we just mentioned."
"It's alright, we're going to spend this much money anyway." Ortolan didn't see anything wrong with it.
At the same time, as if he had thought of something, the excitement he had just felt gradually dissipated.
A surplus of 1.8 trillion Belly sounds impressive, but it's still far from enough for Ortolan's ambitions and goals.
Only by building a financial hub around Golden City and further enhancing wealth creation can we alleviate his pressure.
This pressure comes from the enormous military expenditure of the entire Marines!
As Marine Admiral, Ortolan now has a comprehensive understanding of the Marines's overall structure, and therefore has a clearer understanding of the previously somewhat vague concept of military spending, which he only knew was enormous.
Currently, including all Marines New World, the nominal total strength of all Marines is 3.7 million!
Of course, there are some odds and ends, but the total amount is this number, which includes all the Marines officers and generals!
The Marines 3.7 million, scattered throughout the world and the oceans, a vast force.
In the First Half of Grand Line, Paradise, there are a total of 500,000 Marines stationed at various bases. There are 18 Marine Base in the First Half of Grand Line, which are basically set up according to the standard of 20,000 personnel. In Paradise, each of the seven routes has four Marine Base guarding it.
This is also the main reason why the Marines was able to suppress the Paradise.
Compared to Paradise, the number of Marines in the New World has decreased significantly. G-5 has a nominal registered force of over 50,000, G-1 has 20,000, G-12 has 20,000, and the remaining three Marine Base are not yet completed. In other words, the total number of Marines in the New World is currently only about 100,000.
After two hundred years, the number of personnel should reach 100,000. Of course, these are all registered Marines.
This shows that the Marines's control over the New World is indeed far less than that of the Paradise region.
According to the Marines register, all branches of the New World Marines and the Paradise Marines together number approximately 170,000 Marines!
Marine Headquarters, Marineford, as the main headquarters of the Marines's Justice Headquarters, actually maintains a full strength of 100,000 men. Of course, this full strength of 100,000 men is completely different from the elite force during the Summit War. It consists of 100,000 men, from ordinary marines to the Fleet Admiral.
Therefore, the total Marines force deployed along the entire Grand Line is approximately 770,000!
The remaining 1.95 million Marines are all scattered across the four major sea areas.
According to Ortolan, the East Blue, as a symbol of peace for the World Government, is also the sea area with the strongest Marines defense, with nearly 150 scattered Marine Base and a total of 900,000 Marines.
That's right. Compared to the Marine Base in the Grand Line, the Marine Base in the four sea areas are not fully staffed with 20,000 personnel. The staffing is adjusted according to the local conditions. In fact, it can be said that there are basically no bases with a full staff of 20,000 in the four sea areas. For larger bases, 7,000 or 8,000 people is already considered very powerful, while for smaller bases, 2,000 or 3,000 people is enough.
The East Blue has the largest Marines force among the four major sea areas, while the remaining forces in the North Blue, South Blue, and West Blue are basically distributed among themselves.
The North Blue has 100,000 Marines, the West Blue has 100,000 Marines, and the South Blue has a total of 770,000 Marines due to the presence of rebels and other insurgents in various regions and the overall situation.
Similarly, much like the East Blue, these four sea areas each have 150 to 170 Marine Base stationed in each area.
On the first day alone, Ortolan, in his capacity as Admiral, checked the details of the Marines's military expenditures and learned that the normal salary expenditures for the 3.7 million Marines alone amounted to a staggering 200 trillion Belly! (Since the Great Pirate Era, the Marines's injury rate has been very high. This expenditure includes medical care, pensions, ongoing disability allowances, etc., as well as the corruption problems within the Marines. It's all recorded in the salary expenditures.)
The bulk of the salary expenditure is within the Grand Line. That's right, the salary level of ordinary junior Marines in the four seas is not as high as Ortolan imagined. For ordinary marines, the basic salary of marines in the First Half of Grand Line is three times that of marines in the four seas!
The basic salary for Marines in the New World is twice that of those in Paradise! (However, G-5 does not receive a salary from headquarters, so it is not included in the calculation.)
So even though the number of military forces in the four seas far exceeds that of the Marines in the Grand Line, in reality, the bulk of the basic salary and military expenditures are actually within the Grand Line.
At first, Ortolan was somewhat surprised by this situation, but he quickly came to understand it, because the risks and dangers faced by the Marines of the four seas and the Marines within the Grand Line were completely different!
This is the basic salary amount the Marines spends per 1,000 territories, totaling 200 trillion Belly.
The Marines's logistics expenditure per cubic meter is as high as 97 trillion Belly!
This includes warship production, weapons and equipment procurement, maintenance of various facilities and equipment, as well as daily living expenses at various bases. That's right, the Marines's biggest perk is that it provides food and lodging, so these expenses are quite staggering every month.
Therefore, the final total military expenditure of the Marines is 357 trillion Belly!
In comparison, Ortolan's surplus of 1.8 trillion Belly is simply ridiculous and laughable.
In reality, these are just calculations on paper, which is why the discrepancy appears so large. The actual situation is not like that at all. After all, military spending is not all paid in cash, and the World Government cannot possibly come up with such a huge amount of cash expenditure to support the Marines every year. That would be too absurd.