Starting as a pirate, he rose to become the strongest Shinigami in Soul Society.

Chapter 203 Selects the Navy's new generation of elites to form a new Admiral faction!

Marineford, Naval Headquarters.

Bane was sitting in his general's office at that moment.

The justice cloak he wore on his shoulders was also changed, with the tassels on both sides becoming more ornate, a unique epaulette for a general.

He was very satisfied with the spacious and luxurious office.

"Congratulations, young master." Ain stood in front of Bane's desk, congratulating him with a smile.

"Hahahaha." Bane laughed heartily, "After all this trouble, I've finally achieved my goal of becoming a Marine Admiral."

Thus, he had achieved his first goal in the Navy.

As for the title of Admiral, he hadn't even considered it; it wasn't even on his agenda. His next goal was to expand his influence within the navy as much as possible and to start recruiting talent from the navy to build a mature team.

The power transition at the highest levels of the navy has just ended, but for the middle and upper ranks of the navy, this is just the beginning.

With Sakazuki becoming the Fleet Admiral, his original team will be completely disbanded. From the moment he takes over as Fleet Admiral, he will no longer have any possibility of leading the hawkish Navy. From now on, although he can still retain his tough and ruthless personal style, he must treat everyone fairly within the Navy.

In other words, as a marshal, he could no longer have any obvious labels, such as a hawkish leader.

This is something that none of the major factions in the Navy can accept.

This would also be detrimental to Sakazuki's control over the entire navy.

Similarly, Kuzan's departure also means that the dovish navy has lost its leader.

The only group that remained relatively calm was the neutral faction, namely Borsalino's men, who had never made any demands.

Now that Bane and Yixiao have taken up their posts as generals, they naturally need to build their own teams, just like Sakazuki and Kuzan did back then.

"Ain, what kind of signal do you think we need to send out?" Bane asked, stroking his chin.

Before Ain could speak, Bane added, "We've already spoken with Yixiao. He's prepared to take over Kuzan's political legacy and will be rebuilding the dove faction."

"That certainly aligns with Mr. Yixiao's philosophy," Ain remarked.

After expressing her feelings, Ain said with some difficulty, "But this is a bit of a problem for us. Are you planning to get involved with the hawks?"

"No," Bane immediately shook his head.

On the surface, Sakazuki will no longer serve as the leader of the hawks, but in reality, he has become the Fleet Admiral, and his dominance over the original hawks has reached its peak. Those original hawkish naval members who supported Sakazuki's bid for the position of Fleet Admiral in the first place, didn't they just need a wave of feedback after Sakazuki became the Fleet Admiral?

This was to be expected, and it was the last thing Sakazuki, as a former hawk leader, could do. After doing this, he could no longer be biased.

However, in essence, Sakazuki's foundation is still with the hawks, and he enjoys great prestige among the hawkish navy, so it is unlikely that Bane will shake him in the short term.

"Then, my suggestion is that you need to give more consideration to the new generation of the navy," Ain said after a moment's thought.

"You mean, naval commanders like Smoker and Tina?" Bane asked after a moment's thought.

In terms of personality and stance, Smoker and Tina can both be considered "doves," but in reality, they are not qualified at all. Before the Marineford War, Smoker and Tina were only captains in the Navy.

Although they were all disciples of Zephyr and had considerable connections within the Navy, in terms of status, they were not qualified to choose any faction; at most, they were just expressing their opinions.

The terms "dove" and "hawk" are only used by high-ranking generals, at least major generals and above.

They are the core members of the faction.

Onigumo is a representative core member of the hawkish faction and a staunch supporter of Sakazuki.

Fire Mountain is a clear example of a dove-like naval member, while Vice Admirals like Strobelli are key members of the neutral faction.

Other ranks like naval colonel or commodore are not qualified.

"Yes, they were only recently promoted from the rank of colonel. Although I think they both have a dove-like tendency, it's just a tendency, not enough to be completely labeled as a faction. This is an opportunity for us to win them over, especially Smoker. Judging from the current situation, as long as nothing unexpected happens with G-5, he will soon be promoted to lieutenant general. This is also something that headquarters is pushing for. I think if you personally approve his promotion, coupled with your good relationship with him in the past, he shouldn't refuse to get closer to you. I think the same goes for Tina," Ian analyzed.

This is one of the benefits of being a naval admiral. If Bane had been a vice admiral, he wouldn't have been qualified to build a so-called crew.

After all, at that time, he was not a high-ranking officer in the navy and did not have such a position.

Back then, no matter how good their relationship was, it could only be that of friends or ordinary superiors and subordinates. But now, things are different.

Bane is now qualified to 'label' the rest!

Ain's starting point was clearly good. With Yixiao willing to accept the doves in the navy, and Bane not wanting to take over the hawks and be controlled by Sakazuki, forming a new faction was undoubtedly the most suitable option.

The new faction consists mainly of the Navy's new generation. Their youth means that their thinking is not yet so deeply ingrained that it cannot be changed. As they gradually follow Bane, they will inevitably be subtly influenced by Bane's personal style.

"Bring me the promotion list from the Marine Headquarters after the Battle of Marineford. Let's pick some suitable candidates," Bane instructed immediately after a moment's thought.

In the general's office, all the personnel information was obviously backed up. Soon, Ain found a stack of relevant documents from the filing cabinet and placed them in front of Bane.

Bane flipped through the documents page by page, occasionally calling on Ain to write them down.

"Major General Maynard the Pursuer performed exceptionally well during the Marineford War, fighting tirelessly despite being severely wounded," Bane murmured, looking at the documents in his hand.

He remembered this guy; he wasn't badly strong, but he wasn't particularly powerful either. In the original story, he was defeated by that guy Bartolomeo.

However, it has an overwhelming advantage over ordinary pirates with a bounty of less than 100 million Berries, which is undeniable. In a very short time, it easily defeated a pirate with a bounty of 68 million Berries.

Not a single mistake, not a single poem, not a single post, not a single piece of content, not a single look!

The headquarters has quite detailed information about him. It was through this information that Bane learned that Maynard had not been a member of the Navy for long, only four years ago. Before joining the Navy, he had served as a member of the escort team of a merchant ship. After the fleet was robbed by pirates, he survived and resolutely joined the Navy. Without any special treatment, he learned the Six Powers in a year and a half and mastered Haki in three years as an ordinary Navy member. To this day, he does not have any Devil Fruit abilities.

As far as I can remember, he will be promoted to lieutenant general in about a year, which means that he is capable and worth cultivating.

Thinking of this, Bane said, "Make a note of this, Major General Maynard."

Then, Bane continued flipping through the documents, but after a while, he stopped again, looked at the file in his hand, and said, "Major General Dol?"

Dol is a very beautiful female naval officer, but that's not the point. The point is that the headquarters has specially marked her as "key to development" in this document. Such markings only appear on naval officers who are valued by the headquarters and have outstanding talents and potential.

For example, Tina and Smoker were marked as "key talents" in the files held by Bane, which could only be read by generals and above.

After the Battle of Marineford, Dol was quickly promoted to Rear Admiral of the Navy Headquarters and is currently on standby at headquarters, about to participate in the construction of the G-14 Naval Base.

G-14 was one of the several new naval bases to be built in the New World that were approved at the previous meeting.

At the same time, if Benn remembers correctly, once this naval base is completed, Dole will immediately be promoted to Vice Admiral of the Navy Headquarters and become the base commander of G-14, a position equivalent to Smoker's.

Compared to Smoker, she has more potential because she doesn't have a Devil Fruit ability.

"Not bad, another promising talent has been discovered. Make a note of it, Major General Dor." Bane grinned and gave the order.

Although Ain immediately noted down Major General Dor's words, she couldn't help but say, "Young Master, you're smiling so brightly, could it be that you've fallen for someone's beauty again?"

These words darkened Bane's expression, and he said in embarrassment and anger, "Ain, how could you say that about me? Am I that kind of person? I was just happy to discover a talented subordinate."

"But Major General Maynard's information doesn't make you as happy," Ian complained.

"Cough, how can that be the same? Among so many naval admirals, Dol is marked as someone who is being given special training. This means that even in the Navy Headquarters, where there are so many outstanding admirals, she is a far more outstanding talent than her peers, you know?" Bane said righteously.

Seeing that Bane was about to get angry, Ain smiled and stopped mocking him.

After reviewing a wide range of names, Bane finally finalized the first batch of names.

It contains five characters: Smoker, Tina, T. Penn, Maynard, and Dol.

The number is small, but they are all elites. However, this is only the first batch. If there are more suitable candidates, Bane will continue to recruit them.

At the same time, in Bane's mind, these people were all qualified and meritorious enough to be promoted to lieutenant general very quickly, and could fill the core positions very quickly. After that, they could be used as nodes to continue to extend downwards, and a new faction could be considered to have been formed.

After that, naval officers like Tashigi, who are currently still at the rank of colonel, were also able to join Bane's faction.

Actually, among all the documents I just saw, Brigadier General Peacock, the granddaughter of Chief of Staff A-He, was also marked with the label "key training". Moreover, Bane had met her once, and it seemed that the little girl respected him very much.

However, after some consideration, Bane decided to put the guy on hold for the time being. On the one hand, the guy had a special identity, and on the other hand, Bane vaguely remembered that the guy's eyes always looked like he wanted to whip him a few times.

(End of this chapter)