Chapter 260 As usual, free the slaves! (Two in one)
January 1504, Haiyuan calendar.
A phone call from the Five Elders made Zhan Guo, who had just spent a wonderful holiday, frown.
The first thing he asked about was the escort mission of 20 warships. This was the first time he encountered such a thing after he successfully took over the position of marshal.
This kind of escort mission also reminded Zhan Guo of the war more than ten years ago that should have shocked the world but ended in silence.
“It’s been quiet for so many years.”
"Why at this time?"
Zhan Guo stood up from his seat, slowly walked to the window with a gloomy face, and looked outside through the window. It was winter now, and the sun was shining brightly at noon. Standing in front of the window, the sunlight hit Zhan Guo's body, making his face feel warm.
After the New Year, the Navy Headquarters has not yet fully resumed operations. Most of the middle and senior officers are on vacation, and only some marines on duty remain in the Navy Headquarters.
There were only a few warships docked at the headquarters' naval port. In the square in the distance, the idle sailors gathered together, basking in the sun and chatting.
However, this rare leisure and tranquility was broken by a phone call from the Celestial Dragon.
After standing in front of the window for a long time, Zhan Guo sighed heavily, walked to his desk, picked up the receiver of the Den Den Mushi, and after successfully dialing the number, he said to the other end of the Den Den Mushi, "Borsalino, come to my office."
"I have an important task for you!"
Three days later, the Navy Headquarters successfully assembled twenty warships, and under the leadership of Admiral Borsalino, they sailed out of the headquarters naval port in a mighty manner.
“It’s really troublesome!”
On the leading warship of the fleet, Borsalino, who was wearing a yellow and white striped suit, scratched his scalp in annoyance and muttered to himself.
The first destination of the fleet leaving the Naval Headquarters was the Sabaody Archipelago.
At this time, on the coast of the Chagos Archipelago, there was a brand new white giant ship docked. The entire ship was nearly two hundred meters long and nearly twenty meters high. It was a traditional wooden sailing ship with a delicate white paint all over, which looked quite high-end.
Although the sails on the mast were furled, the small flags of the World Government fluttering in the wind on both sides of the ship could still let people know the purpose of this ship.
In this world, the only ones who can use this flag are the Celestial Dragons and their intelligence agency, the CP.
Not long after the white ship stopped, a group of CP members in black suits quickly lowered the ladder, and then a group of people walked down the ship one after another. At the entrance of the wooden ladder, they separated into two rows, forming a path.
After a long time, the sound of dense footsteps came from the depths of the island.
Under the gaze of the CP people, a group of Celestial Dragons with bubbles on their heads appeared in their sight, surrounded by their entourage.
The originally quiet port suddenly became noisy with the appearance of the Celestial Dragons and their entourage.
The Celestial Dragons chatted with each other and boarded the giant white ship one after another. At the same time that the Celestial Dragons boarded the giant white ship, the 20 headquarters warships led by Borsalino also arrived at the waters near the Sabaody Archipelago.
Borsalino did not order the fleet to dock, but just stayed on the sea, quietly waiting for the World Government's ships to leave the Sabaody Archipelago.
As the sails of the giant white ship with the World Government logo were raised, dozens of ships left the Sabaody Archipelago one after another.
Shortly after these ships departed, a dozen slave ships belonging to the Sabaody Archipelago Chamber of Commerce docked. Soon after, a group of ragged slaves, their hands and feet shackled, arrived at the shore, driven by the CP. They were forced onto these slave ships and subsequently left the Sabaody Archipelago.
The Celestial Dragons had already made preparations for their trip early on, and they had their CPs clear the area in advance along the way from the Holy Land.
The people of the Chagos Archipelago only know that several islands were blockaded today, but they don’t know what happened on those islands after they were blockaded.
Therefore, no one noticed the travel of the Celestial Dragons.
Oh. It’s not true to say that no one noticed.
Because shortly after the World Government's ships and slave ships left the dock, a blond middle-aged man slowly walked out from behind the shadow of a big tree in the woods beside the dock.
In this cold winter, the man was wearing a white cloak, a pair of large shorts, and a pair of straw sandals. After the boats left one after another, he slowly walked to the shore, looking in the direction where the boats left, his eyes became deep.
"Hmm?" Suddenly, the blond man seemed to have noticed something and quickly drew his long sword from his waist. He pointed the tip of the sword towards the dense forest not far away, his expression slightly gloomy, and said:
"I didn't expect that there are other people here besides me?"
"Come out!"
Not long after the blond man finished speaking, a breeze blew from the woods, and in the blink of an eye, a tall figure in a black cloak appeared in front of the blond man.
"I never thought that the legendary Pluto Rayleigh would be on this island."
"Mr. Rayleigh, did you come here specifically to see the Celestial Dragons off?"
A deep voice came from under the cloak. As he spoke, the cloaked man raised his head slightly, revealing his young face.
"you"
"Then this kid is..."
"Garp's son?"
Like Rayleigh, the person who was spying on the travels of the Celestial Dragons was none other than the dragon who had disappeared from this world for many years.
Rayleigh and Garp can be considered "old friends", and he is quite familiar with the situation on Garp's side. Dragon was once a navy officer trained by Garp with high hopes, and the Roger Pirates have also encountered Dragon several times.
"Long time no see!"
"Mr. Rayleigh." Long greeted Rayleigh with a smile. As he spoke, he turned his head to look in the direction where the Celestial Dragon ship left, and the smile on his face disappeared.
"I heard you're no longer a marine?"
"Haha, that's really ironic!"
Although Rayleigh retired after Roger's death, he still knew something about what was happening in the world. Although the Navy deliberately concealed Long's departure from the Navy, those who were interested could still detect it.
not to mention.
Long is now a wanted criminal!
"A bounty of 360 million berries is offered to the Advisor of the Self-Yong Army, Dragon."
"Garp really gave birth to a good son!"
"Ha ha ha ha!"
Rayleigh seemed very happy to see the dragon. The long sword in his hand had already been put back into the sheath. Looking at the dragon in front of him, he couldn't help but laugh heartily.
Long did not feel embarrassed and asked Rayleigh with a smile: "Mr. Rayleigh, why are you here?"
Hearing Long's words, Rayleigh raised his head and stretched, then said casually, "A retired old man was just wandering around because he was bored."
"But you, why are you here?"
Facing Rayleigh's probing, Long didn't give a direct answer. Instead, he changed the subject and complimented, "Old man? Mr. Rayleigh, you really do like to joke around."
"You are at the peak of your career, the Pirate King's most trusted vice-captain. You can't possibly be associated with a retired old man!"
"Mr. Rayleigh, do you want to make your life more fulfilling?"
Long asked with a smile, a hint of anticipation in his eyes.
Upon hearing this, Rayleigh couldn't help but burst into laughter, shook his head and said, "You're old, what's the point of enriching yourself?"
"I just want to live a simple life now."
Rayleigh put his hands on his neck, seemed to have lost interest in continuing to chat with Long, turned around and walked towards the depths of the island.
"Leave."
"Young man, live your life to the fullest!"
With a wave of his hand behind Long's back, Rayleigh's figure slowly disappeared from Long's sight.
Long did not step forward to stop the idea of persuading him. After watching Rayleigh leave, a breeze suddenly rose from the coast, and the next moment, the coast was empty.
Under the sea, Fishman Island.
"Brother Jinbei!"
"Brother Jinbei!"
Inside the Marine Branch on Coral Street, a resounding shout immediately attracted the attention of many passing fishmen. Jinbei, who was instructing his men in "Fishman Karate" on the training grounds, heard the shout and turned back, somewhat helplessly admonishing them:
"I've told you so many times, don't call me Big Brother when we're in the branch!"
"We are the navy, not some messy social group!"
The young fishman who came to report quickly rushed to Jinbei. Being reprimanded by Jinbei, he nodded hurriedly and said after taking a breath:
"Okay, Jinbe-sama."
"Brother, I have something important to report. This morning, a large number of warships appeared in the Sabaody Archipelago."
"Then the warships escorted a giant cruise ship flying the World Government flag away."
"Not long after these ships left, the slave ship of the Milo Chamber of Commerce appeared in the Sabaody Archipelago and took away the slaves."
"According to the brothers monitoring the Sabaody Archipelago, these people should be heading to the West Sea."
Although Jinbei felt a little helpless about being addressed as such by his subordinates, after hearing this news from the other party, Jinbei no longer focused on the less important title.
Ever since he came to Fishman Island and established the Navy branch, the branch on Fishman Island quickly got on track and began to operate.
The Fishman Island branch is responsible for two main things:
The first is to guard Fishman Island and attack passing pirates; the second is to monitor the waters around the Sabaody Archipelago and collect information.
The reason is very simple. As the "end point" of the first half of the Grand Line, any pirates who set their sights on the "Great Treasure" must use the Sabaody Archipelago as a springboard to travel to the New World.
Monitoring the waters around the Sabaody Archipelago and collecting intelligence will help people like Yoshikazu Tsugakuni, who are guarding the entrance to the New World, to get a firsthand understanding of the situation of the "newcomers" pirates, so that they can carry out targeted interception and attacks.
Since Yoriichirō's route blocking plan was launched, their several branches have also reaped great rewards, killing many pirate "rookies" worth 100 to 200 million.
No one knows how many of those pirates worth tens of millions were killed.
Jinbe and his crew from the Fishman Island branch were promoted at a rate as fast as flying on an airplane, while the New World Navy, led by Yoriichi Tsugakuni, was promoted at a rate as fast as riding a rocket.
Of course, under such siege and blockade, there are still capable pirates who avoid the navy's pursuit and successfully enter the New World.
These escaping pirates also spread the news that there was a navy stationed on Fishman Island, which made the pirates who had originally rushed into Fishman Island without any preparation learn to hide.
This made Jinbe and his crew's identification work much more difficult, and what was even worse was that Jinbe alone with his fish-man subordinates could not deal with all the pirates. In order to increase the success rate of passing through Fish-man Island, the pirates usually chose to travel in groups.
And because the bubble above Fishman Island is so large, it is difficult for Jinbei to intercept those people in the deep sea in advance, which makes Jinbei focus on training troops and collecting intelligence.
He did not forget his mission.
The main tasks given to him by Yoshikazu Tsugakuni were to guard Fishman Island and collect intelligence and pursue pirates.
"The navy escorting the World Government ships also has slave ships."
Jinbei listened to his subordinate's report, pondered for a few seconds, and then asked, "Is the news confirmed?"
"Of course, Brother Jinbei, there are eyewitness photos faxed back."
As he spoke, the fishman who came to report took out a few photos from his arms and handed them to Jinbei.
These photos seem to have been taken on the sea surface and are very far away from the targets being photographed. In the photos, the ships look very small and their shapes can only be vaguely recognized.
Jinbei strictly forbade intelligence officers from approaching the Sabaody Archipelago; being able to identify their appearance was enough.
"Wait here for me. I'll go report the situation to the general."
After seeing this set of photos, Jinbei did not hesitate. After speaking, he took the photos and walked straight to his office.
Mysteria Island.
As Tsugikuni Yoshiichi's naval branch stabilized, a market appeared around the naval branch. Human beings are best at seizing so-called "business opportunities."
The maritime environment has become stable, and such a large group of people in the naval branch will always generate consumption.
Therefore, around the naval branch, people who realized the business opportunities also spontaneously gathered together and gradually formed small towns.
There are pubs and restaurants in towns. The gathering of people drives consumption, and the gathering of people also creates commerce.
Mysteria Island is becoming prosperous at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Just when Yoriichi Tsugakuni received a call from Jinbe, he was "training" with Mihawk in his own branch.
When the Den Den Mushi rang, Yoriichi casually blocked Mihawk's attack with the bamboo sword in his hand, and then took the Den Den Mushi out from his arms.
"A large number of naval vessels escorting?"
"A dozen slave ships?"
"Is everyone on board?"
"Um"
After getting a general understanding of the situation, Tsugumi Yoshiichi made a decision.
Whether it was the World Government's business trip or the Celestial Dragons' travel, none of this had anything to do with Tsugumi Yoriichi.
but
He really had to intervene in matters like the transportation of slaves on slave ships!
This is not the first time that Yoriichi has asked Jinbe to do the same thing. In the past, when Jinbe and his companions discovered slave ships, they would destroy the slave ships and release the slaves.
As for whether freeing slaves would cause trouble for the navy?
Are you kidding me? Are the slave traders just going to rebel against the navy after eating too much? After being intercepted by Jinbei and his men, they can only hope that Jinbei and his men won't kill them all.
Except for the fact that Jinbei failed to control Arlong and his gang at the beginning and blood was shed, most of the time it was peaceful.
The slave traders in the Sabaody Archipelago also realized that Jinbe and his group of navy were not on good terms with them, so they often hid when transporting slaves.
After all, there are not many murlocs monitoring the waters of the Sabaody Archipelago, and it is impossible for them to identify all the slave ships. This means that the slave trading business in the Sabaody Archipelago is still prosperous, but it has moved from the open to the "underground".
As for why the monitoring fishmen discovered so easily this time that these ships were slave ships.
Because this time, those people had no intention of covering up. There were slaves in shackles on the decks of those slave ships, sweeping the ground!
"Jinbei, just like usual."
"Force those slave traders into the sea and free the slaves."
"Those who have homes to return to will be given travel expenses, and those who are homeless or have suffered a severe blow will be sent to Mysteria Island."
"I'll have Kuzan send someone to cooperate with you."
When Ji Guoyuan heard the report, he didn't think too much about it, nor did he take the matter too seriously. He gave the order as usual.
Until now, the work of releasing slaves was done by Jinping and his branch, and then Kuzan, who has now become an admiral and has been in charge of the Navy Headquarters all year round, sent people to cooperate in the final stage and send those slaves home.
After working together for so long, we have already formed a tacit understanding and routine.
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com