Debate at the New World Marine Council on How to Eliminate the Whitebeard Pirates
Sakazuki's shock is entirely understandable, because this situation is quite outrageous.
If Ortolan had 280,000 troops, Sakazuki wouldn't be surprised at all, and wouldn't even bother to pay attention.
Take Alabasta, the desert country, for example.
Alabasta's standing Royal Army numbers 600,000!
Is this large enough? Absolutely!
For this reason, Alabasta is known as a 'military superpower' in the world, but in reality, its Marines has never given Alabasta a second glance.
What is the reason?
The reason is Alabasta's massive military force, which is an army!
In this world, the army and the Marines are completely different concepts. You may be able to support a million army soldiers, but you may not be able to support a hundred thousand Marines!
In the army, as long as you give them food, a machete, and a week of training... that's how an average army soldier is trained, given the current social standards.
Furthermore, since the natural environment of the world is structured as oceans and islands, most countries occupy islands. Usually, there is only one ruling power on an island. Therefore, the so-called army has almost no combat experience, at most having experience in 'counterinsurgency'.
Take Alabasta for example. It has an army of 600,000, mainly to guard the cities in its vast territory. How much combat experience do these troops have, barring any unforeseen events such as rebellion?
The entire Saint Ding Island consists of only one country, Alabasta, so its army is unable to wage war against foreign enemies and can only fight counterinsurgency wars within the country.
Because of the war in Alabasta, the army, which claimed to be 600,000 strong, was not much different from the peasant rebels in terms of combat experience, except for being better equipped. As a result, it suffered defeat after defeat. Alabasta, which was known as a military power, was driven to the capital by the rebels and was almost destroyed.
It's important to know that during this period, Crocodile never directly intervened in the battles between the armies on the battlefield!
In this world, an ordinary person can become a regular soldier simply by giving him a knife, feeding him, and giving him the strength to kill people. The more elite soldiers are equipped with armor, and once they are equipped with armor, they can be considered elite soldiers.
For an ordinary person to become an elite Marines, they need multiple real combat experiences on the battlefield, as well as advanced weaponry, warships to carry them out to sea, and sufficient logistical support such as ammunition.
The cost of training the Marines is something the army simply cannot compare to!
That's why Sakazuki was so shocked. How could you, Ortolan, single-handedly support 200,000 elite Marines at the front line of the New World? Isn't that terrifying?
If this were the army, Ortolan could support 200,000 Marines, which means he could support at least two million soldiers. A ratio of one to ten is already considered low!
Sakazuki was astonished by these events.
The meeting is still ongoing.
After Hina finished explaining the situation of the New World Marines, Momonga tapped the table and said, "According to the Admiral's strategic intentions, the goal is to completely annihilate the Whitebeard Pirates, and he even used the word 'annihilate.' This means we need to completely crush the Whitebeard Pirates, who number nearly ten thousand. Therefore, we need to find a way to make them concentrate their forces. The final result will be that we will have to face the top echelon of ferocious pirates in the New World -on..."
The others had no objections and listened quietly to what the Momonga had to say.
After a slight pause, the Momonga continued, "Although Hina just told us that we have nearly 280,000 elite Marines, giving us an absolute advantage in military strength, please don't be too complacent and think that we can actually deploy 280,000 troops on the main battlefield..."
As soon as the Momonga finished speaking, Hoshigaki nodded in agreement, saying, "That's right. With over 300,000 troops on both sides, to commit them all to the main battlefield, we need an extremely spacious fighting area. This requires finding a large, open, flat island. Secondly, the Whitebeard Pirates aren't stupid; do you think they'd fight 10,000 against 280,000? Finally, if we divert all our forces from the New World to this operation, how will our various bases operate? How will they manage their daily security, pirate suppression, and garrison duties? How will we respond to emergencies? The New World isn't just about the Whitebeard Pirates; we have other enemies. If we expose such a vulnerable rear, wouldn't we be putting easy prey on the enemy's table?!"
Stainless glanced at the Marine Admiral beside him and said softly, "Do you understand? Although we have 280,000 troops, the actual number we can deploy in this operation won't be that many. That's the difference between our Marines and pirates..."
Whitebeard has a pirate army of 10,000, then when he goes to war, he can really gather all 10,000 of them and fight you to the death.
Because they don't need to protect anything, although they are fierce, they are indeed 'disorganized guerrillas', without any pressure outside of combat.
Ortolan has 280,000 Marines troops under his command, but if he were to actually fight the Whitebeard Pirates, he could only muster 100,000, which would be considered quite impressive.
Because they are the Marines, besides eliminating the Whitebeard Pirates, many other factors hinder their actions. They need to protect their Marine Base, safeguard the surrounding waters, and so on...
In the original story, given the Marines's massive size, why did the headquarters ultimately only muster 100,000 men to engage Whitebeard in the Marineford War?
The main reason, of course, is that the Marine Headquarters at Marineford cannot deploy a larger force and cannot provide a larger operational space.
Other elements, similar to those mentioned by Hoshigaki earlier, also constitute a large proportion.
"So the first topic of this meeting is how many troops we should deploy to participate in this operation?" Yi Xiao then spoke up to finalize the first topic.
Ortolan smiled and looked at Sakazuki beside him, "Sakazuki, do you have any ideas?"
Sakazuki gave Ortolan a deep look. "Let me hear it first..."
He was too shocked just now, but now he has basically recovered his emotions. Sitting here, apart from the Whitebeard Pirates, he is still thinking about Ortolan.
Indeed, the idea that he had postponed resurfaced uncontrollably.
Ortolan knew he was coming, knew he would participate in the meeting, yet he showed this information, which should have been kept secret, to Sakazuki.
This was a signal in itself; there was no doubt that Ortolan was testing Sakazuki!
However, although Sakazuki knew this was a test and a signal, he was still unsure of his own thoughts and could not give Ortolan a definite response.
While the two of them were testing each other, the generals in the conference room had already begun a heated discussion.
"Before considering the deployment of troops, shouldn't we first clarify the operational location? Based on the spatial environment of the operation..."
"Idiot, although the Admiral didn't say it, he meant that the initiative is most likely in our hands. Therefore, we can prioritize choosing the battlefield and don't need to rush to besiege the Whitebeard Pirates. Instead, we should first determine the number of troops to deploy, and then select suitable battlefields based on that..."
"So, what is the Admiral's trump card?"
"How would I know? I'm just a Rear Admiral..."
"These are outside the scope of this discussion. Can you please get down to business?"
"In my opinion, maritime security and patrol missions don't require too many troops. What's needed are troops to protect Marine Base and defend the front lines..."
"From this perspective, if Totto Land Totto Land could help us alleviate some of the pressure of defending the front lines, we could free up a significant number of troops..."
"Our strength is our advantage, so even if we can't deploy all our forces, we must establish that advantage. Compared to the Whitebeard Pirates ' 50,000-strong pirate army, it would be more appropriate for the New World Marines to deploy 100,000 troops, wouldn't it?"
"Is 100,000 a bit too little?"
"I think Maynard's figure of 100,000 troops is just right... Any more would be bloated, which would have a negative impact on both combat and command..."
"There's another matter. In our operation against the Whitebeard Pirates, is it really confirmed that it will be an island annihilation? What if it's an annihilation at sea?"
"Idiot, who do you think your opponent is? That's the Gura Gura no Mi Whitebeard! You want to fight him in a naval battle? Don't even mention 100,000, even 200,000 or 300,000, you'd still win!"
"The headquarters had already provided operational suggestions Whitebeard Pirates a long time ago, and none of those suggestions recommended... engaging in a naval battle with the Whitebeard Pirates."
"The Whitebeard Pirates were able to reach the top of the pirate world because of two things: Whitebeard himself was the strongest, and the Whitebeard Pirates' advantage in naval warfare..."
That's right. If you want to annihilate the Whitebeard Pirates, then don't even think about fighting a naval battle with them.
Whitebeard's abilities in naval warfare are terrifying. He doesn't even need to make contact; one punch can unleash a massive tsunami. As long as he keeps creating tsunamis, he can send as many as come to his doom.
To this day, the Marines leadership has never considered resolving Whitebeard's problem through a large-scale naval battle.
That's ridiculous.