An Ominous Situation
In the year 1506 of the Nautical Calendar, four months had passed since the Night Pirates officially decided to launch a war against the Night Pirates.
Over the course of four months, the Night Pirates made ample preparations in the shadows, in terms of personnel and supplies. A fierce and protracted war was about to begin.
The islands that the Night Pirates planned to occupy, except for the Whitebeard Pirates' territory, had all been occupied in the two years or so since the Dark Night Pirates launched their war.
The Night Pirates' large-scale operation could not be concealed, and at the same time, they made no attempt to hide it, gathering a large number of Night Pirates and officers.
With a large army in formation, they arrived at an island close to the Whitebeard Pirates.
This undoubtedly signals that the war between the Night Pirates and the Whitebeard Pirates is about to begin, giving the Whitebeard Pirates time to prepare.
The outbreak of this war was not unexpected for many people, as there had been signs beforehand, but they were postponed due to the outbreak of the Golden Sea Battle.
With the Golden Sea Battle over, the Night Pirates accelerated their invasion and conquest, inevitably leading to a clash with the Whitebeard Pirates.
Moreover, the two pirate crews had previously engaged in a war that lasted for half a year, just three years ago.
The war ended in defeat for the Whitebeard Pirates, who lost dozens of islands that were annexed by the Night Pirates. This defeat was humiliating for many members of the Whitebeard Pirates.
Now that this war has broken out, the battle will surely be even more intense. The Night Pirates are no longer what they used to be. The power and manpower they have shown in their big moves are greater than those in the battle three years ago.
The war horns sounded, and smoke filled the air.
"Teach finally lost his temper? I thought the war would start after the Golden Sea Battle, but I didn't expect him to hold back for a whole year." In the Chaos Sea, Whitebeard, holding a young sword, laughed as he listened to the news he had received.
"Then we'll take it! We're ready!"
Despite the current unfavorable situation for the Whitebeard Pirates, Whitebeard, as the World's Strongest, still possesses the domineering Haki of a king, Whitebeard Pirates have never been afraid of war.
Moreover, facing the Night Pirates, they had no choice but to fight back, otherwise their territory would be easily taken away.
Meanwhile, on Beast Island, in the Babarossa Kingdom, Kaido wants the Road Sign Stone, so the Beasts Pirates are gathering information about Wano Country.
After waiting for months, instead of news of the Road Sign Stone, they received news of the Night Pirates going to war with the Whitebeard Pirates.
"Whoa! Has the war begun? That's great! Teach made me wait so long!" Kaido laughed loudly after finishing his drink.
Kaido has been waiting all along, waiting for the war between the Night Pirates and the Whitebeard Pirates.
Both sides maintained a certain tacit understanding and launched a war against the Whitebeard Pirates. After all, if the Beasts Pirates wanted to expand, the only options besides the western New World front and the northeastern Whitebeard Pirates were to join them.
Whenever the Night Pirates and the Whitebeard Pirates go to war, the Beasts Pirates will join the fray, creating a pincer movement against the Whitebeard Pirates.
Kaido was getting impatient, especially since he was inherently very warlike.
"Laimer, Omon, bring enough men and wait for the right opportunity to take over that old man's territory!"
"Yes, Admiral." Omen and Laimer nodded, especially Omen, who was already impatient. He was naturally warlike, which was why he quickly rose to prominence and became stronger under the protection of the former overlord, the Great Pirate King.
"Admiral, we can postpone the war. The war between the Night Pirates and the Whitebeard Pirates will last a long time. I've gathered information about Wano Country and have some leads on the Road Sign Stone. The Road Sign Stone should be the most important thing, right?" As Kaido was getting carried away, Krell stepped forward to dissuade him.
"Oh? Tell me about it." Kaido became interested; he had longed for the Road Sign Stone for a long time.
The others' gazes also fell on Krell. The Road Sign Stone was something the Pirate King needed, and they wanted to hear Krell's guess.
Over the past few months, they have come to realize just how difficult it is to gather information about Wano Country; scattered pieces of information are of little use.
"There's very little information about Wano Country, but I've discovered something important." As he said this, Krell's eyes flashed, a slight smile appeared on his face, and he gently pushed up the non-existent frame of his glasses with two fingers.
"Wano Country maintains close ties with the Mink Tribe, or rather, the Mink Tribe has been subordinate to the Kozuki Clan, to which the Kozuki Oden belonged, for many years. In Wano Country, they were vassals. Coupled with the Kozuki Clan's creation of the Poneglyph status, this timeline can be pushed back to eight hundred years ago."
At this point, Krell finally voiced his guess. "If the Kozuki Clan really has two Road Sign Stones, I don't think they would put Road Sign Stone together; they would definitely keep them separate."
"In other words..." Krell began, but Kaido interrupted him before he could finish.
"There must be a Road Sign Stone in the Mink Tribe's territory."
"That's right." Krell nodded.
"Where is the Mink Tribe's territory?" Kaido asked.
"According to the intelligence we've gathered, it's a kingdom belonging to the Mink Tribe, the Mink Kingdom, and this kingdom is on Uso Island, on the back of Zunesha," Krell said earnestly, but with a hint of disbelief in his eyes. "It's said to be a giant elephant ten thousand meters tall."
"How is that possible?" Upon hearing this, many people widened their eyes, disbelieving and instinctively retorting.
"If such a large creature really existed, how could we not know?"
Seeing this, Kaido raised his hand, silencing the surroundings.
"Zunesha is real. There have been rumors about it in the New World. It's always moving, and it's said to never stop." Kaido undoubtedly knows more than they do. Zunesha moves constantly, but within a general range; its movements are not random.
There must be many secrets hidden on the back of such a legendary creature, which makes Kaido more convinced of Krell's guess.
"Then find it, and I'll go there myself," Kaido said. "Until then, prepare to plunder the Whitebeard Pirates' territory."
The Beasts Pirates also sprang into action.
Faced with the Night Pirates' undisguised attitude, the Whitebeard Pirates were naturally under great pressure, well aware of the Night Pirates' formidable strength.
The eight division commanders of the Whitebeard Pirates, including Marco the Phoenix and Diamond Jozu, arrived at the seas where a war with the Night Pirates was about to break out.
Many affiliated pirate crews also came to help the Whitebeard Pirates in this war.
This is a sea area called Notting, which is also the main battlefield between the Night Pirates and the Whitebeard Pirates.
This sea area originally belonged to the Whitebeard Pirates, but now nearly a third of it has been taken over by the Night Pirates in the previous war.
The next target is the entire sea area, as well as the other scattered islands Whitebeard Pirates.
Although the main combatants have not yet entered the battlefield, the war has effectively begun.
At the border between the two forces, hidden spies and constant minor skirmishes are gradually sparking a conflict.
To ascertain the enemy's troop deployment, the size of their forces, and the weaknesses in the defenses of certain islands—these are all crucial pieces of information needed in warfare.
In war, besides strength, it is also an information war. A single piece of crucial information can determine the outcome of a war.
However, it is clear that the Night Pirates won this information war. The Night Pirates had laid out their plans early on. While they may not have fully understood the Whitebeard Pirates Night Pirates, they had at least a good grasp of it.
And what about the Whitebeard Pirates?
Marco's face was extremely grim. "We haven't heard anything for so long, it seems they've all..."
Although he didn't say it aloud, the others knew what Marco wanted to say.
Those companions they sent out to gather intelligence on the Night Pirates have likely all been discovered and killed.
If there were no casualties, and the Night Pirates captured him, given their usual Night Pirates, the news would have spread quickly, and they would have been forced to pay ransom.
Not a single message came in; the Night Pirates were like a fog to them, which was what made them feel helpless and worried. From the very beginning of this war, they had already fallen into a disadvantageous position.
Marco was having a terrible headache. All they knew about the Night Pirates was which high-ranking officers were coming and their approximate strength; they knew nothing else.
He clearly understood the role of intelligence in war, especially during the Golden Sea Battle, where he realized that it was precisely because of the power of intelligence that the pirates were able to gradually expand their advantage in the early stages of the battle.
Therefore, after or during the Golden Sea Battle, all forces, including Great Pirate, placed greater emphasis on intelligence and developed their own intelligence networks.
Even so, there was a vast, unbridgeable gap in intelligence between the Whitebeard Pirates and the Night Pirates.
The Night Pirates dispatched their main fighting force: "Snake King" Mobius, "Shadow Snake" Wos, "Iron" Wallace, "Emperor Crocodile" Slada, "Blood Mogdon" Mog Radon, Shiryu of the Rain.
The Night Pirates dispatched the vast majority of their top-tier combatants. While the Whitebeard Pirates had many strong members, it had to be admitted that the Night Pirates' main combat force consisted of exceptionally strong individuals. They had seen numerous footage of the Whitebeard Pirates' battles and had earned tremendous reputations; none of them were undeserving of such accolades.
The Night Pirates have expanded over the years, and they have gained many powerful new members.
Though they didn't say it, they had to admit that the Night Pirates exerted a tremendous, overwhelming pressure on them.
Compared to the menacing Night Pirates, the powerful Whitebeard Pirates understood the situation clearly. Unlike the ordinary members who wanted revenge and to defeat the Night Pirates, they knew that this was a very difficult task.
The Night Pirates have indeed grown into a behemoth.
Marco, for example, doesn't give up easily, but his goal is simply to hold off the Night Pirates; he doesn't dare to hope for any further victory.
The current war situation is extremely unfavorable for the Whitebeard Pirates.
Whitebeard was in the Chaos Sea, facing numerous other pirate crews, and was already being deliberately targeted.
The departure of many key combatants to this area has greatly increased the pressure on the Whitebeard Pirates in the Chaos Sea.
The Night Pirates alone tied up half of the Whitebeard Pirates' strength.
Prior to this, they had also received news that the Beasts Pirates were making unusual moves, seemingly intending to start a war with the Whitebeard Pirates as well.
Several renowned members of the Beasts Pirates have arrived at an island near the Whitebeard Pirates' territory. They intend to take advantage of the Whitebeard Pirates being preoccupied with the Chaos Sea and the Night Pirates to launch an attack on Whitebeard Pirates territory.
At this time, the Whitebeard Pirates' internal defenses were very weak.
They understood the Beasts Pirates' intentions perfectly well, but there was nothing they could do. In order to resist the Beasts Pirates, they had no choice but to divide their forces and send people to intercept them.
The Beasts Pirates, led by a Sea Emperor, wield terrifying power.
Although the forces dispatched are not as strong as those of the Night Pirates, this is only temporary. Who knows if the people sent out now are even a part of that force?
If Kaido of the Beasts were to personally intervene, unless the Pops of the Beasts) returned from the Chaos Sea, they truly wouldn't know how to defend themselves.
The Whitebeard Pirates are now fighting on three fronts: the Night Pirates and the Beasts Pirates. The immense pressure is mounting one after another.
The three battlefields have been basically confirmed: a Chaos Sea, with the Whitebeard Pirates simultaneously dealing with the Night Pirates and the Beasts Pirates.
The Whitebeard Pirates' strength was thus dispersed and distracted. Many forces could see that the Whitebeard Pirates were now unprecedentedly weak, not because their overall strength was weak, but because they had very few forces available.
Fighting on two fronts was already their limit; the Beasts Pirates, who had joined them, could barely handle it.
If the Beasts Pirates send out too much power, like the Night Pirates sending out half their strength or even more, the Whitebeard Pirates will not be able to withstand it, and their entire force will collapse.
Secretly, many forces couldn't help but stir, wanting to take advantage of the situation and tear off a piece or two from the Whitebeard Pirates in the war Whitebeard Pirates the two top pirate crews, even just to get a taste of the spoils.
The Whitebeard Pirates didn't have much power to target them, so how could they let such a great opportunity slip by so easily?
The Whitebeard Pirates have expanded to this point through countless battles and bloodshed, offending many powerful forces and incurring the enmity of many others.
Before this, the Whitebeard Pirates were powerful and had many strong members. Coupled with Whitebeard's own terrifying strength, people naturally dared not speak out against the Whitebeard Pirates, keeping their anger hidden or not daring to retaliate.
But things are different now. The Whitebeard Pirates' vast territory, like a large piece of meat that has lost most of its fangs, is waiting for them to fight over.
Even within Whitebeard's territory, there is some instability.
While the saying "when a wall falls, everyone pushes it down" might not be quite that exaggerated, the immense power of the Whitebeard Pirates certainly attracted many envious and resentful individuals.
The situation for the Whitebeard Pirates is indeed dire.