Uchiha's personal opinion

Therefore, Vice Admiral Garp faces a problem: how to force the 'Deepsea Rebels' to engage in a direct confrontation with his side.

He has many cards to play, especially the giant army under Lieutenant General Tsuru, which has never been seen before and is considered to be of unparalleled strength. However, the key issue is how to engage the elusive 'Deep Sea Rebels'.

"...The only way now is to use myself as bait to lure the enemy into a decisive battle!"

Lieutenant General Tsuru shared his opinion.

Since the ships' performance cannot match that of the deep-sea rebels, we should try to lure them into our most familiar territory and defeat them with our rich experience.

How to lure the enemy?

A major general asked with some trepidation.

"Vice Admiral Garp will lead all ships in a proactive attack, while I will remain at anchor with the giant force, awaiting the arrival of the deep-sea rebels!"

"Lieutenant General Tsuru said."

"Isn't this risk too great...?"

Lieutenant General Garp was taken aback upon hearing this.

For an army, unless it is a high-level stronghold in the form of a complete fortress like Impel Down, its garrisons are never concentrated in one place. The small strongholds that are scattered and stationed serve two purposes: first, to control the sea area, and second, to prevent the enemy from advancing unimpeded into the main camp.

However, the vanguard fleet's naval superiority was too obvious. So, after the stronghold was attacked, the core naval base had no time to react before the stronghold fell under the fierce attack. By the time reinforcements arrived, not only had the stronghold been completely destroyed, but the enemy forces had also disappeared without a trace.

As a result, the morale of the navy inevitably suffered some setbacks.

"The deep-sea rebels can breach a stronghold in no more than an hour, and all we can do is complete the reinforcement and achieve encirclement and annihilation within an hour!"

Lieutenant General Tsuru briefly reviewed the battle situation at several outer strongholds and gave his own opinion.

"However... even if the enemy can be lured out, the naval ships that have gone into battle may not be able to return to provide support so quickly."

Lieutenant General Kap did not reject Lieutenant General Tsuru's suggestion, but raised another question: "Moreover, they must possess certain special communication capabilities and monitoring methods, so if we were to return to provide support, it would inevitably alert them."

"When the Deepsea Rebels attack our headquarters, we request that Vice Admiral Garp lead his naval officers to abandon their warships and return directly by speedboat with the wind at their backs!"

Lieutenant General Tsuru firmly stated, "As for holding off the enemy, that's my problem!"

"In that case..."

After a moment's thought, Lieutenant General Garp made his decision: "Then I'll leave the Bodi situation to you!"

Chapter 524 Asymmetric Warfare

According to Uchiha Tokumitsu's tactical plan, the main duty of the warship ninja army he brought with him in this battle was to provide battlefield cover and prevent the massive tailed beast lineup from being leaked in advance.

Therefore, even when the Tailed Beast army arrived in the waters east of Ton Island to rest and recuperate, Ashura was still kept in the dark, let alone Kizaru, who had just entered Shells Town.

Meanwhile, Ichiraku Uzumaki remained silent, busy arranging berths and resupply for the three battleships that had been ordered to arrive ahead of time as a smokescreen, and 'inadvertently' letting the rabble of the Republican forces see the existence of the tall and imposing steel behemoth.

After witnessing the warships' imposing presence, the morale of the Republican coalition's underlings was naturally boosted; however, at the same time, news that the Thirteen Republics had joined forces with the Deep Sea Rebels, and that there might even be some shady collusion behind the scenes, also spread widely among the coalition.

Of course, this news quickly reached Kizaru, who was actively preparing for battle in Shells Town.

Despite his lazy nature, Kizaru is undoubtedly a competent high-ranking officer in the Navy. Especially when the opponent is a mysterious figure capable of instigating riots, Kizaru has very reasonably demonstrated the talents expected of an admiral. Not only has he unusually and actively trained his second-rate naval forces, but he has also invested relatively more in intelligence work.

"But where did this kid named Ashura come from? Don't we still have any clue about him?"

In the naval camp in Shells Town, Kizaru was slumped in his office chair, his back arched as he examined the portrait of Ashura sent by a CP0 agent via a video Den Den Mushi.

"Judging from the images left behind when the allied kingdoms were destroyed, it probably possesses the Paramecia-type Water-Water Fruit ability..."

The agent wiped his sweat and replied somewhat nervously, "As for the domineering aura, there is currently no intelligence data available for analysis..."

"So, including the so-called Devil Fruit abilities, it's just based on your speculation?"

Kizaru curled his lip dismissively: "Does this mean that CIPHER POLs these days are all just guesswork and empty space?"

"And this short essay..."

After putting down the portrait, Kizaru picked up the intelligence analysis on his desk, flipped through it a few times, and then tossed it back onto the table: "It's full of speculation, conclusions, and assumptions. Is this any effective intelligence that can guide naval operations?"

The detective wiped his sweat again, not daring to speak.

CP0 is the highest level of CIPHER POL. As a special force directly under the Celestial Dragons, its members have the "killing privilege" and are entitled to kill anyone who gets in the way of the mission, whether they are naval officers or royal nobles. In principle, they don't care who they are.

However, Kizaru is a special case.

Because he had already executed another agent in front of this agent who was trying to expand his operations in Shells Town.

Moreover, Mary Geoise made no comment after learning of this—after all, this was the most critical state of war, and Kizaru's importance was irreplaceable. The killing of a guard dog of CIPHER POL was insignificant compared to the importance of maintaining the authority of the World Government!

Of course, Kizaru knew that there must be some spies and moles within Shells Town at this time, but since war was about to break out, and he also intended to carry out some strategic deception, he absolutely could not allow any more trouble to occur.

"Since intelligence isn't working, then go back to what you're used to..."

A listless Kizaru yawned and said slowly, "Assassination, kidnapping, surrender inducement... I don't need to teach you these dirty tricks again, do I?"

"No need, no need..."

The agent quickly nodded and bowed, saying, "No, no, I misunderstood, I misunderstood. What I meant was that under Admiral Kizaru's wise leadership, we are very confident that we can successfully complete the mission!"

"Then go!"

Kizaru waved his hand, then closed his eyes.

……

Subsequently, within a few days, more than twenty assassination and poisoning incidents occurred in the thirteen republics in the rear. The minor nobles' affairs officers left behind were successively wiped out, and the poisoning incidents in key departments such as water sources and grain warehouses made the people of the republic live in constant fear. Even the National Assembly was brought to a state of semi-paralysis.

Asura didn't have a good solution to this.

After all, he was the only pillar of the Thirteen Republics on the surface. Even if he could withstand a lot of shadow clones, he couldn't save them. As for the ninjas on the three battleships that came to their aid, Ashura's request for reinforcements was rejected very decisively.

"We are an indispensable whole. Randomly removing personnel will only affect the performance of the warships, leading to mistakes or even defeat in the upcoming naval battles, and we cannot afford such an outcome."

The battleship's ninjas, who were in charge, spoke with great confidence.

The reason why the ninjas rejected this seemingly reasonable suggestion so decisively was that they did not want to see the existence of another force, especially a so-called republic with strong local characteristics, because this would inevitably affect the ninja government and the United Company's ability to obtain sufficient benefits from the pirate world.

Therefore, it is reasonable to adopt the attitude of "remaining steadfast in the face of friendly forces in trouble".

However, through Ichiraku Uzumaki's mediation, the ninjas eventually selected a small number of elite personnel to form an assassination squad, which infiltrated Shells Town to conduct special operations and carry out retaliatory strikes.

Although Ashura felt somewhat helpless, he accepted this ending.

The intensity of the war subsequently escalated rapidly.

But this time, Kizaru started to get restless.

Before he could even go into battle, the town of Shells right under his nose started to catch fire.

Although some powerful naval officers were able to detect the ninjas' infiltration using their Observation Haki, they couldn't withstand the constant harassment from the shadow clones. Especially when they saw that after killing their opponents, not only were there no corpses left but they turned into wisps of smoke, and then they would break in again shortly afterward, this bizarre situation made even the bravest naval officers feel uneasy.

"Speaking of which, could there be some unknown Devil Fruit that grants immortality?"

Naval officers were whispering amongst themselves, and there was widespread anxiety.

As for ordinary marines, they constantly encountered various bizarre events, including but not limited to being bombed while going to the toilet, being bombed while eating, falling into the water and disappearing during patrols, etc. They didn't even find out what the enemy looked like. As a result, under various mysterious attacks, the morale of the junior marines began to decline rapidly.

Meanwhile, the naval officers in charge of military supplies were in a state of utter chaos.

Within just two days, the warehouse had caught fire or exploded dozens of times, turning a large amount of stored supplies to ashes.

Although burning the warehouse with fire could mask the shortage of supplies to some extent, the amount of supplies lost this time was simply too enormous! They simply couldn't handle such a huge mess!

As a result, another batch of heads rolled this week. Sensing that the situation was not good, Kizaru had no choice but to order his navy to speed up preparations and set sail for battle!

But just as almost all of the Navy’s attention was drawn to the series of assassinations and sabotages in Shells, nearly half of the marines who remained at the port berths were poisoned overnight!

If the rear admiral in charge hadn't sensed something was wrong and immediately activated his elemental transformation, the entire coastal defense force would probably have been wiped out.

"What on earth is going on?!"

Kizaru could no longer maintain his usual lazy demeanor. His temples were throbbing with anger, and he unleashed a torrent of abuse at the trembling Marine Rear Admiral: "What are you doing! Don't you have any defenses at all?!"

"And what happened to your Observation Haki?!"

Especially when he saw the burning warship and the marines' corpses being carried out of the ship's hold, Kizaru felt his blood rush and could hardly suppress the urge to kill.

This was the first time he had ever lost his composure in front of others.

"There's something I need to tell you..."

After examining the Marine's body, the renowned scientist Vegapunk from the Science Unit, his face grim, pulled Kizaru aside and said, "Although we haven't conducted in-depth analysis, it's certain that the Deep Sea Rebels used a special poison we've never seen before..."

"Not even a clue?"

"I asked with a gloomy face."

"It exhibits characteristics of biological toxins, but it should also contain some kind of special mineral toxin, and it is completely different from existing substances..."

Vegapunk said in a low voice, "The most terrifying thing about this toxin is that it is colorless and odorless."

Having said that, Vegapunk raised his right hand, revealing a dark blue palm.

"This is……"

Kizaru was immediately taken aback.

"toxin!"

Vegapunk answered in a deep voice, while frantically pouring all sorts of antidotes into his mouth.

"How could you..."

This made Kizaru even more anxious.

"I wasn't wearing gloves when I examined the body."

After taking several vials of antidote, Vegapunk's expression softened slightly: "While not fatal, the survival and volatilization of this toxin are terrifying..."

"Isn't there an antidote?"

Kizaru asked, frowning.

"I should be fine with Haki-based active defense, and Devil Fruit users shouldn't get poisoned..."

Vegapunk raised his chin, gesturing to the rear admiral in charge of coastal defense: "Judging from his reaction, although the toxin will cause some negative effects, it will at least not be fatal."

"What should we do then..."

Kizaru took a deep breath, feeling an even bigger headache coming on.

He originally thought that as long as the army pressed in, those rabble would be reduced to dust under the naval attack. But he never expected that the deep-sea rebels, who seemed to only have an advantage in the performance of their warships, would suddenly come to help and show such sharp and strange methods!