Pirates: It's not a mythical beast, it's a phantom god

La guided him step by step.

"Of course, we collected it from the townspeople."

"Then where does the money come from? After all, there's no machine in this town to print Baileys. We ask for quite a bit every month, so how can they always afford to pay?"

"They seem to often sell food, fruits, and other things to people outside...Okay, okay, enough of the suspense! Let's get on with the story."

The unthinking little boy Burfat interrupted the class's question-and-answer game.

Seeing this, La did not hesitate any longer and said directly:

"Actually, as you just said, the townspeople's source of Bailey is indeed trade with the outside world."

"The islanders achieved a trade surplus and brought in wealth by selling various specialty resources.

What we need to do is to expand this surplus and continue to widen the channel through which Bailey flows in.”

Hearing this, Kaido and King nodded. It was obvious that they had some economic common sense.

“So the first thing is to change the previous development ideas.

We can no longer treat the islands under our command simply as a place to dock ships and collect Baileys, but we must actively participate in their management and operation.

We must make these islands our true base.”

"In a nutshell, it's about achieving the transformation from a pirate group to a pirate nation."

Chapter 86 World War Plan Part 2

"Oh? This is somewhat similar to the idea of ​​that old lady Lingling." Kaido said with great interest.

"Yes, I have also studied the details of the Big Mom Pirates before."

“Compared to Hundred Beasts and other large-scale pirate groups, their methods of managing territory are indeed on a higher level.

According to my estimation, with the 'Bankoku', which is still in its infancy, the resources that the Big Mom Pirates can mobilize are several times that of other pirate groups of the same size."

"And the time required to mobilize these resources is far less than that of other pirate groups." La admitted.

"Is that so... What a remarkable old woman! Ulla-la-la-la~"

Kaido thought of the size of the other party's fleet when they met before, and couldn't help but feel a little admiration and envy for this "big sister" who had taken good care of him.

After waiting for Kaido to finish laughing, La continued to explain his plan.

She raised the several sheets of densely written manuscript paper in her hand and said:

“I did a rough study of what the main revenue streams are for these islands right now.

Most of them rely on two commercial routes opened up by shipping companies, exporting some specialty fruits, livestock and fish through passing merchant ships.

As the saying goes, shipping lanes are like flowing gold, so we must manage the two shipping lanes within our jurisdiction well, and it would be best if we could establish long-term and stable cooperation with the owners behind them."

"Do we have to deal with those businessmen again?"

"We can get whatever price we want by putting a knife to their necks. Why bother with all this trouble?"

Burfat didn't like dealing with those smooth-talking businessmen.

"If that happens, no one will come to trade with us again. A one-time deal is not worth much."

La explained, "We need to abandon some of our previous thinking. Now, instead of plundering caravans passing through our territory, we should provide them with necessary protection and even escort."

"Huh? You're kidding, kid. We're pirates, not navy!"

La's words at this time somewhat shocked Burfat's three views.

But La did not rush to refute, but calmly asked another question.

"Burfat, how much profit can you make from robbing a caravan?"

"It depends. A large caravan can usually have tens or even hundreds of millions of people, while a small one can have millions."

"And those caravans that were robbed will avoid us as much as possible next time, right?"

"Well, it will be difficult to catch them a second time unless we set up an ambush in advance."

“And not every time you can just grab Bailey.

Many caravans do not carry much cash, but instead bring specialties from the Four Seas and Paradise to the New World to sell, and then use the Baileys they earn to directly purchase local specialties and ship them back to the New World to earn the difference.

These specialties aren't worth much to us, and many of them just rot in our hands because we have no way to process them," La continued.

“Besides, some caravans are well-armed and employ powerful guards.

Therefore, every time we launch an attack, we have to consider the consumption of weapons and ammunition and the loss of personnel, which will reduce the profit by a few points."

The logic in La's words was very clear, but Burfat felt very irritated listening to them. This was due to his uneasiness about the shaking of his past values.

"So you're saying that pirates like us won't rob anymore, and we can't just lie around and collect money like those fat nobles. Instead, we should become merchants?!"

"What I mean is that with the current size of the Hundred Beasts, they are fully capable of skipping the inefficient stage of armed plunder and instead obtaining greater and more lasting wealth through normal trade."

"As for specific business activities, they still need to be handed over to specialized personnel. The main role of the Beasts is to maintain military deterrence."

"With you like this, will those pirates down there still be able to use a knife in the future?"

“There is a solution to this problem as well.

My current view is to shift the pirate group's main business from raiding to territorial management."

"This……"

"Although the trade records of various commodities left during John's time are not comprehensive, and some smuggled goods do not have clear records...

But I made a rough estimate based on the tribute these islands send to Beehive Island every year."

La did not continue to persuade Burfat, but handed several lists in his hand to Kaido and others.

"This is the annual trading volume of various commodities and the smuggling volume of certain prohibited items on each island. It may not be very accurate, but it should be close."

"hiss--"

Burfat turned his head and was shocked when he saw the amount on it.

He originally thought that sea robbery, which involved carrying sacks of Bailey, was the fastest way to make money, but now he realized that compared with trade smuggling, his efficiency was like digging for gold with a spoon!

But La still did not stop, but revealed a fact that shocked the two even more.

“In fact, there is more than that. Due to John’s previous heavy taxation, the finances of many islands are unable to support the continued expansion of trade. These islands still have a lot of room for development.

A conservative estimate is that if proper planning is carried out and some funds are invested in construction, the trade volume can be doubled or tripled in the next three years."

"And it will continue to grow at a relatively high rate."

Now not only Burfat, but even Jin was a little shocked when he heard this number.

After silently calculating in his mind, he found that the number was beyond the level he could intuitively feel.

"So my suggestion is to allocate some Baili from the Beasts and use it to develop our territory first." La continued.

"Ah? We spend money?! For those townspeople?

Impossible, I said before that we don’t even have enough money to spend on ourselves right now, both weapons and warships require a lot of money.”

When he heard that he had to take out the money, Burfat immediately woke up from his fantasy of swimming in Bailey's ocean like a hen protecting her eggs.

"But with the funds we have now, it's unrealistic to fully arm all the territories, right?

My opinion is to first concentrate resources on improving the defenses on the important islands, and temporarily give up the defenses on the rest.

This way, we can still have some funds left to invest in trade, and when the island's goods are exported next year and our funds become sufficient, we can continue to arm the remaining islands."

Ra expressed her thoughts.

But when Burfat heard that some islands had to be given up, he became even more agitated.

"Give up, give up those islands?! Absolutely not! Those islands were conquered by my brothers and I with great difficulty. How can we just give them up like that?"

"Right, Ossi brat!"

"Ah, ah?! Is there?"

Osi, whose eyes were following Ouba's fork up and down, was caught off guard when he suddenly heard someone calling him.

"Huh?!" Burfat stared at Ossi with his eyes wide open.

"Oh, oh! Yes, that's what happened. Haha~"

"Burfat, you have somewhat misunderstood what I meant."

Seeing that the fishman elder brother's face had gradually turned from red to purple due to excitement, like an eggplant about to explode, La found it interesting and explained a few more words.

"Don't worry, these islands belong to the beasts, and no one can take them away."

Hearing this, Burfat's expression eased slightly.

"how do I say this?"

"I suppose you haven't studied these small islands carefully, Burfat?"

"Uh... I don't have time. I've been worrying about money and people these days. Can you tell me more about it?"

"In fact, most of the small islands scattered around Fenrir Island are unable to be self-sufficient in food, especially those islands near the periphery."

La revealed a surprising fact.

"What?!"*3

……

Chapter 87: Beasts and War (Part 1)

"Yes."

La nodded.

“According to the records left behind, Fenrir Island transports a large amount of food to several surrounding islands every month, and some islands even need to transport fresh water every day.

It seems that this snow-capped mountain on the island is the only place around that can produce a large amount of fresh water."

"Then as long as that place is in our hands, the surrounding islands, no matter who holds them, will have to submit to us.

If we can also control those islands located in important shipping lanes, the rest will be completely invulnerable."

"Yes, is that so..."

As a pirate who roamed the sea all day long, Burfat naturally understood how important and deadly the resource of fresh water was, so his doubts about the La plan were somewhat dispelled.

"And aren't we short of people? Those undefended islands can be used as bait." La added.

"You mean..." Burfat and Jin looked at each other and both understood what La meant.

"Woo-lah-lah-lah! La, you little brat really has a good brain!" Kaido liked this idea very much.

Use undefended islands as bait to lure out those pirate groups hungry for territory.

Once they arrive on the island, it is time for the beasts to interact with them cordially.

At that time, it will depend on their choice whether to enter the warm family of beasts or the warm big stomach of “beasts”.

As for those who voluntarily surrender, we can directly allocate an island to them and let them use their own pirate group to guard the Island of Beasts.

In this way, "the enemy is transformed into our own, and the dilemma is resolved."

"Transforming the Hundred Beasts from a single, expendable, unstable armed force into a more advanced force capable of self-sufficiency and even stable resource production is the first step and the foundation.

After all, it’s difficult to build a skyscraper on unstable land.”

La continued to talk.

"The second step is to invest the resources you have in certain areas in a stable environment and then wait for them to bear fruit."

"Um... could you please explain it more clearly? You're talking about building a building and planting flowers, and I'm confused."

Some of Burfat's classmates who could not follow Teacher La's ideas raised their hands at the right time.

"Okay, I'll try to use fewer metaphors from now on."

The small teacher readily accepted the advice and explained it bluntly:

"What I mean is that Hundred Beasts will completely take over the management of its subordinate islands, just like the 'World Kingdom', taking control of everything from internal personnel appointments to external economic and trade affairs, and establishing a kingdom called 'Hundred Beasts'.

Then, we can use this more efficient system to bring together more people, more money, and more raw materials to do what we want to do.”