Whitebeard Had to Come, or Momonosuke and the Others Would All Die!
The number of combatants and the location of the battle have been determined.
The meeting quickly moved on to the next topic.
That is, how to force the Whitebeard Pirates to enter the battleground according to their Marines's plan, and force them to fight the Marines there!?
The Whitebeard Pirates aren't stupid. The Marines is deploying troops and building a war base here, and they just ignore everything and insist on attacking.
There has to be a way to make them have no choice but to come!
At this moment, the projection screen in the conference room had been updated with new slides, displaying many photos and a diagram of interpersonal relationships.
This relationship diagram presents a pyramid pattern, with the image of Whitebeard himself attached to the top.
Below his portrait are the captains of the Whitebeard Pirates.
Starting with Marco from the first squad, they went in a row horizontally.
Marco and the others did not continue to expand their interpersonal relationships. Only Kozuki Oden the 2nd Division expanded his network under his profile picture, creating a diagram of his interpersonal relationships.
Below Kozuki Oden is Momonosuke's portrait, followed by a row of the Kozuki Family retainers, including Inuarashi, Nekomamushi, Kanjuro, and others.
These people all had a red circle drawn on their profile pictures.
At this moment, Hina was pointing at the portrait of Kozuki Momonosuke with her pointer stick.
"This person is Whitebeard Pirates, the son of Kozuki Momonosuke, the Second Division Commander of the Kozuki Oden. He is also a key figure in our Marines's operation against the Whitebeard Pirates..."
"Currently, Kozuki Momonosuke and these Kozuki Family retainers circled in red have all been secretly arrested by us and are being held in the G-3 Marine Base, which is this prison, under strict guard."
"As everyone knows, the Whitebeard Pirates are a pirate organization that relies on so-called 'family relationships' to maintain their power. Their leader Whitebeard, is called 'Dad' by his pirate crew members, who regard him as a father figure. The Whitebeard Pirates have always declared that they will never let any enemy who harms their family members go unpunished. This has almost become the Whitebeard Pirates' signature declaration."
After Hina finished speaking, some of the Marines scoffed and laughed disdainfully.
Well, the iconic declaration of the Whitebeard Pirates is actually quite valuable.
It wasn't without instances of breaking promises. When Kozuki Oden returned to Wano Country, he was relentlessly pursued by Kaido, who even sent his family to their deaths. In the end, he fled in disarray to Whitebeard's ship. Afterward, Whitebeard did not retaliate against Kaido.
In the original story, Kozuki Oden died directly at Kaido's hands, and afterward, Whitebeard didn't lift a finger.
It is evident that at some crucial moments, Whitebeard can still control his temper.
This is something that the Marines commanders scoffed at. Not only Kozuki Oden, but according to the Marines Kozuki Oden network, this kind of thing should have happened several times.
"So, does the Admiral mean to use Momoko and these retainers as bait to force the Whitebeard to go to war with us? He might not dare to accept an event of this level..." Stainless hesitated for a moment.
Ortolan simply nodded slightly. "You're right. In some crucial decision-making situations, Whitebeard might not be willing to go to war with us for this reason... So, what we need to do now is to make Whitebeard have no choice but to go to war with us."
Gion then spoke up, saying, "In the past, the Whitebeard Pirates did indeed show some restraint on several occasions, including the expulsion of Kozuki Oden from Kaido Wano Country. Our understanding of these matters was completely different from the general understanding on the high seas. Our Marines possesses a vast intelligence network, which is how we learned of these things. The general understanding on the high seas was completely unaware of this. That's why the Whitebeard Pirates tolerated it back then..."
"That's right. Wano Country, most people are unaware of the situation there. Similarly, most people on the high seas are unaware that the Beasts Pirates and Kozuki Oden had such a conflict... In most people's minds, Kozuki Oden joined the Whitebeard Pirates after the Roger Pirates disbanded, without any major upheavals. Therefore, it didn't significantly impact the Whitebeard Pirates' reputation..." The Kajiki explained.
Then, Kajiki gave several other relevant examples.
All of these examples share a very important characteristic: they are almost entirely unknown to the public!
In other words, it was not widely circulated on the sea.
Then, Gion gave several contrasting examples, such as the Whitebeard Pirates for the sake of their 'family'.
These examples also share a very important characteristic: all of these events were sensational and widely circulated at sea!
"Therefore, we believe that the main factors in whether we can force the Whitebeard Pirates to take action are, firstly, the risk. If the risk is relatively small, the Whitebeard Pirates will generally take action, which does not align with our current operational plan. So, our focus should be on the second factor: the spread and influence. Based on the examples mentioned above, the members of the Whitebeard Pirates value Whitebeard's reputation and prestige very much, even more than their own lives. Therefore, they will not allow any event that could fatally damage Whitebeard's reputation to occur, and this is not even subject to Whitebeard's will!" Hina said in a deep voice.
The generals in the conference room listened to these words and fell silent in thought.
After a while, Kaisa spoke up, "So, we need to make a big fuss about Momosuke and the others being in our hands, let everyone on the sea know about it. In the process, we also need to continuously build momentum for the Whitebeard Pirates, to make more people remember that the Whitebeard Pirates have a 'Don't harm their families' pledge. Through the influence of public opinion, we'll force the Whitebeard to make a choice: either they'll be ruined, or they'll engage in a final battle with us and snatch Momosuke and the others from our hands? Is that what you mean?"
"That's roughly the idea," Ortolan finally spoke up.
Then, with some doubt, Hoshigaki asked, "But... is this Kozuki Momosuke qualified?"
"There's a peculiar phenomenon within the Whitebeard Pirates: everyone treats Whitebeard himself as a father figure, except for the 2nd Division Kozuki Oden, who is sworn brothers with Whitebeard. This shows that Kozuki Oden values Whitebeard highly. According to our investigation, Whitebeard himself intends to continuously cultivate Kozuki Oden's abilities in various aspects, perhaps even planning to mold him into the next leader... This makes Kozuki Oden's importance even more prominent. Given Kozuki Oden's importance, the fact that we captured his son and publicized it suggests that Whitebeard cannot ignore this..." Kajiki offered his speculation after listening to Hoshigaki's words.
After finishing her Kajiki, Gion continued, "Not only Kozuki Oden, but also Izo, the 16th Division Commander of the Whitebeard Pirates. During the time when Kozuki Oden left the Whitebeard Pirates Kozuki Oden Izo the Roger Pirates, he fought alongside Whitebeard and had a high reputation within the crew. At the time, he was also Kozuki Oden Whitebeard Oden. Therefore, this Momonosuke is also his young master. We estimate that he will play a significant role in this incident, and I believe that Momonosuke is qualified to be a key figure."
"Then we need to create a situation where negotiations are impossible, so that the Whitebeard Pirates won't try to solve the problem in another way. We need to make sure they know exactly what's going on: if they don't come, Kozuki Momosuke and Kozuki Oden's retainers will all die... How about a public execution?" Strawberry said after thinking for a moment.