Chapter 86: World War Plan (part 2)
“Oh? This is somewhat similar to that old woman Linlin’s way of thinking,” Kaido said with considerable interest.
“That’s right, I’ve previously studied the specific situation of the BIG MOM Pirate Crew.”
“Compared to the Beasts Pirates and other massive pirate crews, their territory management methods are indeed on a higher level.
According to my estimates, with that ‘Whole Cake Island’ still in its embryonic stage, the resources the BIG MOM Pirate Crew can mobilize are several times those of other pirate crews of comparable scale.”
“Moreover, the time required to mobilize these resources is far less than that of other pirate crews,” Ra stated.
“Is that so… What an impressive old woman! Uro-ro-ro-ro~”
Kaido recalled the scale of the other party’s fleet from their previous meeting, and he couldn’t help but feel a trace of admiration and envy for this ‘Big Sister’ who had once taken good care of him.
After waiting for Kaido to finish laughing, Ra continued explaining her plans.
She raised the several sheets of manuscript paper densely filled with text in her hand and said:
“I’ve roughly studied the main revenue sources of these islands now.
Most rely on the two commercial routes opened by sea transport companies, exporting specialty fruits, livestock, and fishery products through passing merchant ships.
As the saying goes, sea transport routes are flowing gold, so we must manage the two sea transport routes in our sea area well, and ideally establish long-term stable cooperation with the bosses behind them.”
“Dealing with those merchants again?”
“With a knife to their necks, what price can’t we get? Why go to such trouble.”
Burufaruto didn’t like dealing with that group of slick-tongued merchants.
“That way, no one will come trade with us anymore; one-off deals aren’t valuable.”
Ra explained: “We need to abandon some old thinking. Now, not only can we not plunder the merchant caravans passing through our territory, but we should instead provide them with necessary protection or even escorts.”
“Huh? You’re not joking, are you, brat? We’re pirates, not the Navy!”
Ra’s words at this moment were quite a shock to Burufaruto’s worldview.
But Ra didn’t rush to refute, instead calmly asking another question.
“Burufaruto, how much profit do you roughly get from robbing one merchant caravan?”
“Depends on the situation. Large caravans can yield tens of millions or even billions of Belly, small ones around a few million.”
“And those robbed caravans will steer far clear of us next time, right?”
“Yeah, unless we ambush them in advance, it’s hard to catch them a second time.”
“And not every time do we hit Belly.
Many merchant caravans don’t carry much cash, but instead bring specialties from the Four Seas and ‘Paradise’ to sell in the New World, then directly procure local specialties with the earned Belly to transport back to the New World for profit margins.
And these specialties have little value to us, even many rotting away because we can’t process them.” Ra continued analyzing.
“Moreover, some merchant caravans have decent armament themselves and hire powerful escorts.
So every outing requires considering weapon and ammunition consumption and personnel losses, which further reduces profits.”
The logic in Ra’s words was very clear, but Burufaruto found it extremely irritating; this was the unease from his past values being shaken.
“So you’re saying us pirates shouldn’t rob anymore, and can’t just lie around collecting money like those noble pigs, but have to become merchants?!”
“My point is that with the Beasts Pirates’ current size, we can completely move past the low-efficiency stage of armed plundering and instead gain greater, more sustained wealth through normal trade.”
“As for specific commercial activities, leave them to specialists; the Beasts Pirates’ main role is still to maintain martial prowess deterrence.”
“Then like you say, will the pirates below still be able to wield their blades?”
“This issue has a corresponding solution.
And now my view is to shift the pirate crew’s main business from external raids to territory management.
“This…”
“Although the transaction records of various goods from John’s era aren’t comprehensive, and some smuggled goods lack clear records…
But I’ve roughly calculated based on the tribute gold shipped to Hachinosu Island from these islands each year.”
Ra didn’t continue persuading Burufaruto, but handed the several lists in her hand to Kaido and the others.
“This is the annual trade volume of various goods on each island and the smuggling volume of certain contraband; it may not be entirely accurate but should be close.”
“Hiss—”
Burufaruto, glancing aside, saw the amounts clearly and was shocked.
He had thought sea raiding, stuffing Belly into sacks, was the fastest way to make money, but now realized compared to trade and smuggling, his efficiency was like digging a gold mine with a damn soup spoon!
And Ra still didn’t stop, revealing an even more shocking fact to the two.
“Actually, it’s even more than that. Due to John’s previous extortion, many islands’ finances couldn’t support further trade expansion; these islands still have great development potential.
Conservatively estimated, with proper planning and some funds invested in construction, the trade volume could increase by one to two times in the next three years.”
“And it will maintain high-speed growth thereafter.”
Now not only Burufaruto, but even Ember was somewhat shocked by this figure.
He silently calculated in his mind and found the numbers exceeded what he could intuitively grasp.
“So my suggestion is to allocate some Belly from the Beasts Pirates first for developing our territory,” Ra continued.
“Huh? We’re spending money?! On those townsfolk?
Impossible. As I said before, our money isn’t even enough for ourselves; both weapons and warships require massive funds.”
Hearing about spending money, Burufaruto snapped out of his fantasy of swimming in an ocean of Belly like a hen guarding eggs.
“But with the funds in our treasure vault now, fully arming all territories isn’t realistic, is it?
My opinion is to concentrate resources first to perfect defenses on those important islands by location, and temporarily give up defending the rest.
This way we can spare some funds to invest in trade, and once the island goods are exported next year and funds become plentiful, then continue arming the remaining islands.”
Ra stated her idea.
But upon hearing about giving up some islands, Burufaruto became even more agitated.
“G-Give up those islands?! Absolutely not! Those islands were hard-won by me and the brothers; how can we just abandon them!”
“Right, Little Brat Aoxi!”
“Huh, huh?! Is there?”
Aoxi, whose eyes were following Obei’s fork up and down, suddenly heard someone call her and was caught off guard.
“Hm?!” Burufaruto’s eyes bulged, staring at Aoxi.
“Oh, oh! Y-Yeah, that’s right. Haha~”
“Burufaruto, you’ve misunderstood my meaning.”
Seeing this Fish-Man boss’s face turning from red to purple with agitation, like an eggplant about to explode, Ra found it amusing and explained a bit more.
“Rest assured, these islands belong to the Beasts Pirates; no one can take them away.”
Hearing this, Burufaruto’s expression eased slightly.
“How so?”
“Surely you haven’t carefully studied these affiliated small islands, Burufaruto?”
“Uh… No time for that~ These past few days I’ve only been worrying about money and personnel; tell me in detail.”
“In fact, most of these small islands in the Fenrir Island sea area can’t achieve food self-sufficiency, especially those near the periphery.”
Ra revealed a startling fact.
“What?!” *3
……
