Persuasion
Of course, the Revolutionary Army paid for the banquet.
People like Leo and Dragon were actually wealthy. The Revolutionary Army did not have many expenses, mostly just clothing, food, housing, transportation, weapons, and warships.
But those were small expenses. Even funding a war to overthrow a regime would not cost all that much, because the Revolutionary Army had a great many high-level fighters, and they were extremely strong.
Counting carefully, the Revolutionary Army had its own commanders in each of the East, West, South, and North Four Seas, which meant it had revolutionary bases everywhere. Those commanders were all formidable. Even if they were not at Shichibukai level, they should have been comparable to mid-tier Four Emperors officers. Combined with Dragon, who specialized in mobile warfare, and several Shichibukai-level powerhouses like Ivankov, Kuma, and Sabo, once war broke out, their enemies would be battered by a storm of attacks.
Sabo had already been able to skillfully use Armament Haki at seventeen. By nineteen, he had been active on various battlefields for over two years. He was battle-hardened and had seen it all.
Moreover, Dragon generally recruited war orphans, so the food burden was not great. With several food-producing bases like Koshiro's, food could not fetch good prices in those remote places. They only needed to collect grain regularly to acquire vast quantities at very low prices, so there was no real financial pressure.
As for Leo, there was no need to say much. He was a tycoon, a futures trader, a barometer for the stock market, a business genius, and an adventure expert. Even if he spent money freely, it would be difficult for him to exhaust it all in his lifetime. But supporting an entire nation was still beyond his means.
That was right. From the very beginning,