Maintaining order on the seas was more important than dealing with the pirates of the New World.
For a long time to come, the Navy would focus its efforts on the Four Seas and the first half of the Grand Line.
Although that was already the case, they still had not done enough.
Order on the seas was nowhere near what they had envisioned. It would take a long, sustained effort.
Rather than restoring order, they were restructuring it, establishing the kind of order they wanted.
Hadn't the old World Government also cultivated pirates?
It had kept pirate numbers at a certain level, threatening the safety of more kingdoms.
To gain the World Government's protection, those kingdoms had to become affiliated nations and pay the heavenly tribute every year.
That was how the World Government had accumulated more than two hundred affiliated nations over the long years at its peak.
But the pirates had to be kept under control. Once they slipped out of control, the number of affiliated nations would keep falling and the World Government would keep weakening, just as had happened afterward.
To achieve their aims, keeping the Navy in check was essential.
They could not allow the Navy to become too powerful.
That power could take the form of troop numbers.
Continued recruitment was a certainty if they wanted to maintain order on the seas.
The Navy needed to cover a wider expanse of ocean.
But they also needed to leave the pirates some room to survive rather than wipe them out in one stroke. The underground forces still needed to exist as well.
Those dark elements would continually breed more darkness.
At the same time, they had to weaken the Navy's influence over the seas, something that could be done gradually and covertly.
Dividing up