One Piece Gunslinger

Two revolutionary soldiers said, "No, they were already like this when we found them, and the other dead people weren't wearing navy uniforms, but civilian clothes like this."

Upon hearing this, Sabo asked, "Why aren't you wearing naval uniforms? Are you out on some covert mission? But that doesn't make sense. If you were on a covert mission, you wouldn't be out on a naval warship without changing into a regular ship."

"Tch." To everyone's surprise, these two remained incredibly temperamental after being captured. "Who do you think you are? I can wear whatever I want, it's none of your business!"

G-5 Naval Branch, although a naval unit, behaves more like pirates. They don't even wear naval uniforms, just like pirates who wear whatever they want.

However, Sabo still managed to grasp the key point in this seemingly meaningless statement.

Who are you?

This guy didn't even recognize their banner. To be honest, if a navy officer saw this banner, wouldn't they think it was the Revolutionary Army? Is this navy fake? This is a bit unusual.

Seeing that Sabo remained silent, the two became even more arrogant, showing no awareness of being prisoners: "Heh heh, no matter who you are, I advise you to surrender obediently and try to get lenient treatment. Otherwise, when Lieutenant General Vergo arrives, none of you will survive."

"Yes, yes, Lieutenant General Vergo will come to save us and avenge our brothers."

Judging from their behavior, they really don't take the Revolutionary Army seriously. They act as if nothing can stand against Lieutenant General Vergo. I don't know how they've survived this long with this kind of way of speaking.

However, upon hearing the name Vergo, Sabo immediately remembered that this was the Donquixote Family spy in the Navy that Leon had mentioned.

Sabo has grown a lot in recent years. He can remain calm and composed in the face of these two provocations, and he doesn't care about their retorts. Anyway, someone will teach them a lesson.

Sure enough, the two revolutionary soldiers standing behind them tapped them on the head with the butts of their rifles and said sternly, "Just answer whatever we ask. If you dare to say anything else, we'll shoot you dead."

Sabo, seeing that the two idiots had calmed down a bit, continued to ask, "What are you two doing here after coming out of the base this time?"

"Buy some food to take back; we don't need much left in the base."

The two men were telling the truth, but given the style of the G-5 branch, this so-called "procurement" should be put in quotation marks on both sides.

"Purchasing food? So when did you leave the base?" Sabo continued to ask.

"We arrived here this morning, and last night."

In this way, Saab also gained a general understanding of the flight path between G-5 base and this location. Departing in the morning and arriving in the evening, the return journey to base would then be a matter of tomorrow morning.

Even if these navy personnel spend the night here and return the next morning, they will still be back at base no later than tomorrow evening. If they haven't returned by then, it will inevitably arouse Vergo's suspicion.

If they find that they can't even get through to the Den Den Mushi, they'll definitely come to investigate in person, which will introduce all sorts of complex variables and bring unknown impacts to the entire plan. That would be troublesome.

Considering this, and that this important situation had even caused complications and attracted the attention of the Navy and Vergo, Sabo decided to report it to Leon.

After confirming that he couldn't get any more useful information from the two men, Sabo waved for them to be taken away. Back at his desk, he contacted Leon using a Den Den Mushi (snail phone) with a small metal ball attached to it.

"What? You said you ran into the G-5 branch?" Li Ang rubbed his temples on the other end of the Den Den Mushi. This news was, to be honest, quite unexpected.

Although the First Army's operational location was relatively close to Dressrosa, and naturally also close to the G-5 Naval Branch, Leon still felt a headache coming on after actually running into the G-5 branch.

Originally, this step was not part of Li Ang's plan, and Li Ang did not intend to deal with Vergo, Doflamingo's most capable Admiral, and would bypass him if possible.

The current situation is unavoidable; this unexpected turn of events has forced Li Ang to address this problem immediately.

However, Li Ang was stationed at headquarters to handle various unforeseen circumstances. The larger the plan and the more intricate the operation, the more likely various problems would arise. It was virtually impossible to expect the entire operational plan to proceed smoothly without any errors.

"Continue with the plan, but this time you might need to act faster. After liberating the Kingdom of Enix, then go and confront that Vergo. Make sure you don't get caught in a pincer attack," Li Ang immediately ordered.

Then Li Ang instructed Sabo, "However, there's one thing to be careful about: Vergo is very strong. His mastery of the Six Powers of the Navy and his use of Armament Haki is unparalleled. Be careful when dealing with him. But don't worry about the others; they're mostly a rabble, far inferior to the real Navy."

Leon had to instruct Sabo to take Vergo, who was second only to Doflamingo in terms of fighting power within the Donquixote Family, seriously.

Even Sanji, who had achieved great training, was no match for him when they first met, and was defeated in a direct physical confrontation.

Furthermore, he has no weaknesses; he is not a Devil Fruit user and can be dealt with using Seastone. Even if his ship is sunk, he can use Moonwalk to board a Revolutionary Army ship.

So even after the call ended, Li Ang was still uneasy. Facing such a powerful man, even if Sabo's First Army could eventually defeat him, they might suffer heavy losses and be unable to complete the rest of the plan.

"Prepare the boat, I'm going to sea. Remember not to attract attention, and don't let anyone know it's a revolutionary army ship." After hesitating for a long time, Li Ang finally decided to personally confront this Vergo.

"Setting sail now?" Kerla asked with concern. "Isn't that a bit too early?"

Li Ang is going to go to sea, but not now. He should wait until almost all thirteen countries have been liberated before he goes to sea.

“There’s nothing I can do. Plans never keep up with changes. I have to go there immediately after I deal with Vergo,” Leon sighed. “I’ll leave the rest to you and Robin. Unless it’s something really important, you don’t need to report to me. I trust your abilities.”

After saying goodbye to Robin and the others in the staff, Li Ang left the staff headquarters.

"If we take out Vergo first, things might get complicated on Doflamingo's side, so we need to speed things up. After all, we don't know how often Vergo and Doflamingo contact each other. If Doflamingo finds out that Vergo is dead, then this whole plan will fall apart. This is really troublesome."

Li Ang muttered to himself, saying it was troublesome, but a smile appeared on his face.

"That's what makes it interesting."

Chapter 236 A Truth

Over the next two days, apart from the First Army's continued slow progress, significant victories were achieved on other battlefields. Meanwhile, Sabo's forces only managed to advance to the underground palace of the Kingdom of Enix.

Sabo has put in a lot of effort these past two days, but unfortunately, the generals left behind by Enix are no ordinary people; they are many times stronger than the Grand Councilor of Sandstone.

He actually found a weakness in the Revolutionary Army, which greatly slowed down Sabo's offensive.

It wasn't really a weakness; it was just exploiting the revolutionaries' supposed benevolence and sense of justice. They arrested a large number of innocent civilians, and then used them as a shield whenever the revolutionaries made a move, making them hesitant to attack.

Moreover, many of these civilians were family members of soldiers from the Kingdom of Enix, and the soldiers dared not make any moves, leaving them to their mercy.

So this battle was very difficult for soldiers on both sides. Neither the revolutionary army nor the kingdom's soldiers wanted to step onto the battlefield. Neither wanted to fire at the enemy.

Everyone would then understand that the people on the other side were not the real enemies; the real enemies were the king, his ministers, and their guards who had arrested those innocent civilians.

Sabo had no good solution to this, and could only plan several rescue operations, but the results were not ideal. After several attempts, the enemy still had a lot of civilians in their hands, and Sabo could only use this opportunity to get close to the walls of the palace, but could not go any further.

Judging by the time, Vergo should arrive in the Kingdom of Enix by tonight at the latest, but given the current situation, it's unclear how long Sabo will be stuck there.

“Sabo, at this moment, we should remain calm and understand that such despicable tactics cannot defeat us.”

Just as Sabo was at his wit's end, anxiously scratching his head at his desk, a figure pushed open the door and walked in.

Sabo looked up in surprise and, sure enough, it was Li Ang: "Why are you here? It's not time yet!"

Li Ang clicked his tongue twice and said, "If I don't come, our operation will end in failure. Wang Guotian hasn't been liberated yet, and the G-5 people will be coming to join the fun soon. I'm not worried that you can't hold on, but I'm worried that under these circumstances, we can't guarantee that the news won't leak out."

Sabo was also deflated, and said with a self-reproachful look, "It's my poor command that has led to the slow progress."

"Hey, what are you saying?" Li Ang comforted her. "I said before that this battlefield is the most difficult, and you've done nothing wrong but have made contributions. Besides, the conflict with G-5 was an accident, so it's not your fault."

However, after Li Ang finished speaking, he looked at the row of ordinary people tied up on the towering wall not far away and felt a bit contemptuous.

A country's army exists not to protect its citizens, but to protect the interests of a few individuals, and when necessary, even the lives of its people can be used to protect the interests of those few. This is truly a typical example of a tyrant.

However, once you resort to such tactics, you are no longer a ruler, but merely a bandit who uses force to coerce the common people.

"Sigh, I never expected such a troublesome situation to arise here." Li Ang shook his head and sighed. "They're simply insane. Even if they can hold us off like this, once this gets out, these idiots will be finished."

However, Li Ang understood that the revolutionary army was now after him, and they were capable of anything to protect his life and property: "The current situation is that they have no choice but to take such measures to protect their assets. Even if they end up disgraced, they can still run away with the money and live a carefree life. Dealing with such thugs is really difficult."

"Even you don't have a solution?" Sabo asked worriedly. "If we don't find a good way, the final losses could be quite heavy."

It wasn't that the revolutionary army couldn't conquer the city; rather, the disparity in strength was enormous, and the revolutionary army itself wouldn't suffer any losses. However, if the revolutionary army launched a full-scale attack, it would certainly be a devastating blow to the many revolutionary soldiers. Those civilians were all innocent.

"Hey, don't think I can solve everything or be omnipotent. I'm just a mortal." Li Ang helplessly spread his hands and said, "If you want to rescue all the civilians inside without any casualties, I'll tell you, that's impossible."

Now we can no longer regard that group of people as ministers and guards; they should be treated as a large group of robbers.

Imagine if a group of robbers took hostages in a large hall while robbing a bank. Even if there were only a few robbers, they would be no match for the police in terms of preparedness. The police would be hesitant to act for fear of causing serious harm and would be at the mercy of the robbers, forced to stall for time.

If there were a better way to deal with these robbers without harming the hostages, this problem wouldn't have plagued Earthlings for centuries.

But the Revolutionary Army is desperate for time; they can't afford to waste it like this. This problem must be resolved before nightfall so they can then engage the G-5 branch at sea.

Therefore, even if Li Ang was asked, there was no way to solve the problem without harming any civilians, and he couldn't even reduce the number of victims to just a few.

“While I have a way to break this stalemate, I cannot guarantee the lives of civilians,” Li Ang said, frowning.

Upon hearing this, Sabo also felt a bit dejected: "What's the use of that?"

Li Ang said heavily, "That's at least much better than ignoring everything and launching a direct attack. Besides, a revolution inevitably involves sacrifices. Whether it's the army or civilians, no one can escape this vortex under such a changing era. Although it's frustrating, sacrifices are unavoidable."

“But…” Sabo wanted to argue, but in the end he shook his head and sighed, “It’s already good enough to have a plan that reduces casualties, what more can I ask for?”

Seeing Sabo say this, Leon nodded. It seemed Sabo had truly grown. Sometimes it's like this: you have ideals, but time and things don't always align with them. Sometimes, for the sake of the greater good, you have to sacrifice some lesser ideals; there's no other way.

"Very good, I understand. But you must remember one thing. Unless absolutely necessary, do not easily sacrifice small matters for the greater good. Remember this well."

Yes, if there's a foolproof way, no matter how troublesome, we shouldn't do it this way. This point needs to be made clear to Sabo. Once he gets used to these small sacrifices, he'll gradually become indifferent to them and become the second Sakazuki.

This is a situation that Li Ang would absolutely not want to see.

Then Li Ang led Sabo to the foot of the city wall.

Looking at the high city walls, Li Ang couldn't help but smile bitterly. He had seen this scene many times before.

Whom were the palace walls built so high to guard against?

Li Ang took out a megaphone and shouted to the people upstairs, "Listen up, you people inside, I'm only saying this once."

"What? Did you hear someone talking down there?" a tired soldier on the high wall said to the person next to him.

"I heard it, so what? They're probably just trying to persuade the people inside to surrender. How could that possibly work? They won't give up their treasure." Another soldier said listlessly.

The two of them had been guarding this high wall for several hours in a row, and coupled with their strong war-weariness, they couldn't muster any energy.

However, Li Ang's purpose in coming to Sinicize was not to persuade the nobles and ministers inside to surrender, but to address the forced soldiers, the civilians standing on the walls, and the others locked in their rooms.

It was thanks to the revolutionary army's efforts in recent years, at Li Ang's request, to provide him with a particularly powerful and technologically advanced loudspeaker; otherwise, the people locked inside wouldn't have been able to hear it at all, and it would have been pointless for the people on the city wall to hear it as well.

However, if Li Ang's abilities were to be expressed as a total of one dan (a unit of dry measure), then his intellect and eloquence would account for eight dan. Another dan would be his guns and firearms, and the remaining miscellaneous skills would make up the other dan.

Therefore, equipping the skill of verbal sparring with an amplifier and creating a megaphone is also to maximize its strengths.

Li Ang took a deep breath before saying, word by word, "Death is inevitable for everyone; it may be as weighty as Mount Tai or as light as a feather."

"Wait a minute, this doesn't seem like they're trying to persuade us to surrender." Upon hearing Li Ang's words, the soldier who had been on the wall also looked puzzled. "What are they talking about?"

Another soldier shook his head; "Talking about death? I don't quite understand."

After saying this, Li Ang paused for a moment, giving the people inside some time to react. Then he loudly recited a famous quote from Horatio:

"For all living things on earth, death is inevitable, but no death can compare to facing a powerful enemy..."

At this point, Li Ang raised his voice again: "To be even more noble in order to protect the motherland, hometown, and the justice of our beliefs."

The original text actually says: "But no death is more noble than facing a powerful enemy to protect the remains of one's ancestors and the temple of one's faith."

However, Li Ang made some changes here to fit the current situation. In fact, without the deeds and stories of Horatios, the original second half of the sentence was somewhat inappropriate.

But whether it's Sima Qian's "Some things are heavier than Mount Tai, others lighter than a feather," or Horatio's famous saying, they both express the same meaning in this context.