One Piece Gunslinger

While the revolutionary army's tactics may seem like simple F2A (Free-for-All) maneuvers, that's not the core. The core lies in a small group of people that Leon later gathered separately. Unbeknownst to the others, they held a small meeting and formed a squad.

That's the beauty of this decisive battle.

This small squad consisted of only a few people and was personally led by Leon. Besides the squad members, only Ryu and Fujitora within the Revolutionary Army knew of its existence.

Meanwhile, apart from Li Ang, the rest of the team members were also completely bewildered. They knew what they were supposed to do, but they didn't know why they were doing it, or what the consequences would be.

Li Ang also placed all his bets on this small team. If they could complete the mission smoothly, they would be able to easily and pleasantly deal with the World Government's army on the main battlefield.

Just like in Lord of the Rings, although it seems like the whole world is fighting Sauron's army, the true core is actually just a small group of Fellowship members. The so-called main battlefield is merely a delaying tactic; the endless Sauron army can only hold out for so long. The main focus is on the protagonists' diplomatic missions to various countries to destroy the One Ring.

"Phew. After two years of planning, this day has finally come." After finishing two meetings, Li Ang plopped down in his chair and let out a long sigh.

Neither Ryu nor Fujitora uttered a single word in either meeting, leaving the decision entirely to Li Ang.

"Li Ang, the entire revolutionary army is mobilized, but there's no turning back now." Long finally managed to utter those words after everyone had left.

"Don't worry, Dragon," Li Ang said confidently, "I won't let this plan fail."

It was a fight to the death; if they lost, they would only be left with a lingering existence. But Li Ang couldn't find a reason to lose.

Upon hearing this, Long sighed and left the room.

“You know perfectly well that’s not what he meant,” Fujitora said to Li Ang as he stood up after Ryu left.

“That’s right, of course I know.” Li Ang remained confident. “As I just said, I will not let this plan fail.”

……

The next day, at the General Staff Headquarters.

"Kera, have you seen Robin?" Leon had been in the staff headquarters until noon but hadn't seen Robin, so he asked Kera, who lived in the same building.

"Robin? I saw her packing her things yesterday, she should have left by now," Koala asked疑惑地. "Hey, I asked her, but she wouldn't say where she was going. Didn't you give her some secret mission?"

"Oh, right, right, right," Li Ang hurriedly said. "My brain seems to be getting old; I'm over thirty this year. My memory is declining rapidly."

Li Ang knew perfectly well what Robin was up to, after all, Robin was one of the team members handpicked by Li Ang. However, Robin's mission was still some time away, and he hadn't expected her to have already set off so early to scout the location.

"However, with Robin gone, I feel like my workload has skyrocketed. It's been so long since I've experienced this level of workload. I guess it's time for this old man to find a chance to retire. I'll be counting on you then, Koala." Leon joked while handling various daily tasks.

"Well, I should draft a letter later and find an opportunity to retire."

"What are you saying? You're only thirty and you're already thinking about retirement." Kera rolled her eyes at Leon. "Are you kidding me?"

“Hehe.” Li Ang avoided the question, chuckled twice and said, “Kera, after I retire, I will have my precious apprentice Kera succeed me as chief of staff. And there is no one else but you. Dragon will also agree to my suggestion.”

"No, Master, you should take the chief of staff position. I can't handle it." Kera refused without hesitation.

“No, that’s not true. Kera is no longer the silly apprentice she used to be. In the past two years, even when I’m often away, you and Robin have managed to handle things just fine, haven’t you?” Leon said, shaking his head. “I reckon you’re almost more capable than your master now. I can confidently entrust everything to you two.”

When Kerr heard Leon say this, she also felt a little incredulous: "How is this possible? No, no, I'm still far from that level."

Li Ang chuckled as he lay back in his chair and explained, "That's because you were left with the impression that I was very powerful when you were little. Nephew, that's why you feel that the distance between us has always been so great. But actually, I've been standing still all these years, while you haven't. You've been gradually getting closer to me."

Think about it carefully now. Don't you sometimes find that when facing important problems, your thoughts are almost identical to mine? And sometimes, when I offer my solutions, you can even add to them and provide suggestions. These are all signs that you're gradually catching up with and even surpassing me.

Upon hearing this, Kerla couldn't help but think it over carefully, and it seemed to be true. Especially when faced with important matters that needed to be dealt with, Kerla would often find that Leon's thoughts coincided with her own.

It's so unbelievable when you think about it. Without realizing it, the master you once thought was all-knowing and all-powerful is now just like you.

Li Ang's revelation of this truth even had a certain impact on Kela's worldview. Kela shook her head violently and said, "No, no, I'm not as experienced as Master. No, no."

"Ha, experience."

Li Ang sat up straight and said to Kela, "Compared to me now, you are certainly lacking. But if you compare yourself to when you first met me, you are already better than me."

"Think back to when your master first joined the Revolutionary Army. I had absolutely no experience; I only had a bunch of theories to rely on. But you, Koala, you're already starting from a higher point than me."

"This..." Kera wanted to say something in rebuttal, but couldn't find a reason to refute it. Leon's words made perfect sense; Kera was indeed no longer the naive little girl who knew nothing back then.

Li Ang's words finally made Kerr realize the reality: Kerr, through continuous growth, had completely surpassed the inexperienced young man he once was. It seemed that it wasn't impossible for Kerr to take over as Chief of Staff; he was perfectly capable.

“Great. If Kera takes over my job, then I can rest assured.” Li Ang smiled with satisfaction.

Just as Kerr was thinking about how she should follow Leon's example if she became chief of staff in the future, her clever little brain finally realized a problem.

“Wait a minute!” Kerla shouted. “So why do I have to take over as chief of staff? Or why are you retiring? You’ve led us astray all this time.”

If we rewind the clock, the reason this whole series of discussions started is because Li Ang initially said he wanted to retire. And the initial discussion was actually about how far too early it was for Li Ang to want to retire at thirty.

But as the conversation progressed, Li Ang, this master of sophistry, veered the topic off course. Then, in the final paragraphs, his discussion naturally implied that Li Ang would retire at thirty. Everything hinged on whether Kella could successfully succeed Li Ang after his retirement.

The conclusion drawn from this is that Kerla will soon take office.

But actually, all of this is nonsense. If Li Ang can't retire, all these questions are pointless. Kerla doesn't need to worry about whether he's qualified to take over, or what he should do after taking over.

"Eh? You actually found out? As expected of Kela." After being exposed, Li Ang was not embarrassed or out of breath. He pretended to admire her and said, "It seems that you are indeed at a similar level to your master. My masterful move was actually ineffective."

Kerla, hands on her hips, said, "So you're saying you're just tired of the hassle and want to dump everything on me and quit, right? What kind of chief of staff are you?"

“Hey, you’ve misunderstood,” Li Ang explained. “That’s not what I was thinking. I was just thinking that I can’t be at the General Staff Headquarters every moment, and sometimes I might not even be able to get in touch with you. If that happens, we’ll have to rely on you the whole time. So I’m just being prepared.”

However, Kera's disdainful expression told Li Ang that his nonsense hadn't gained any trust. Li Ang could only shrug and continue with his work.

"Kera, Kera. I haven't lied to you at all."

Chapter 332 The Vegetable Planting Plan

Well, soon, Kerla understood what a routine was and what it meant to be prepared.

Because Li Ang went out to sea alone again not long after, leaving her with the work that belonged to the chief of staff.

It has to be said that experience counts. It was only now that Kerr realized that Li Ang had been looking for a plausible reason to dump all the problems on Kerr so he could go to sea.

Although Kerr was clever, she was ultimately no match for the old rogue Leon, and in the end, she fell for Leon's trick. By the time Kerr realized that Leon was preparing to flee, it was already too late.

At this point, all you can do is learn from your mistakes and remind yourself never to repeat them again.

So where did Li Ang go?

The crops in the field are ripe, and Li Ang is going to harvest them.

So the question arises: where does the food come from? And what kind of food is it?

The cuisine comes from the Golden City of Tesoro, the largest and most prosperous mobile entertainment city on the sea. Li Ang is collecting dishes from that place.

What was the "vegetable"? It was, of course, the wealth Tezzolo had accumulated over the years. Mainly, it was his enormous gold reserves.

This requires a proper explanation of Li Ang's entire process of planting and harvesting vegetables. After all, Li Ang has been growing these vegetables for two years, and now he's skipped directly to the harvesting stage. He hasn't explained anything in between.

Since it's about growing vegetables, then you have to follow the principle of "you reap what you sow."

Li Ang's approach to this is as follows:

The first step was to deliberately send several groups of people in to be enslaved by the Golden Emperor, making them low-level servants and sending them to Tesoro to work for free.

Of course, it wasn't a free labor. In fact, these people who were deliberately sent in were farmers sent by Li Ang. Tesoro and his Golden City were the soil that could grow gold.

What did these farmers do? It's simple: they seized every opportunity to promote the importance of gold, deliberately creating an atmosphere where gold was considered fundamental.

So how is this promoted? It emphasizes four words: lead by example.

As is well known, the golden city of Tesoro has many people who have sold themselves into slavery. The only reason they have done so is that they have lost all their money gambling there. They have even fallen victim to the El Dorado's treacherous schemes, accumulating massive debts. Left with no other choice, these people have to sell themselves into slavery and then work to repay their debts.

However, there's a problem: these people owe a considerable amount of money, enough to keep them from paying it off even after working here for eight or ten years. Some might even be stuck working for free their entire lives. It's tantamount to being slaves to Tezzolo.

That's why they say Tesoro has a lot of money; he makes money faster than pirates who plunder and pillage. While other pirates kill people after looting, Tesoro not only steals everything but also takes all the people.

The key point is that this is still legal, since you lost everything at the gambling table. Moreover, you can use this method to double-cross others; as long as you have enough force, even pirates will be devoured without a trace.

This meant he had connections in both the legitimate and underworld circles, allowing him to exploit and manipulate not only ordinary people and pirates repeatedly, but also to extract money from nobles and merchants—a truly thuggish method of wealth accumulation. Even Li Ang thought Tesoro was a genius.

Okay, I've gone off on a tangent. What I really wanted to say was that these people are working for free here to pay off their debts.

So the second step followed naturally: the first step was to send people in, and the second step was to retrieve them. This allowed the revolutionary army's agents to have a tour of the Golden City.

As the saying goes, it's only right to pay back debts. I, Li Ang, won't renege on my debts. It's just a debt, I'll pay it back. But look, I didn't bring any Beli, only some gold. That should be enough to pay it back, right?

This way, the person was rescued, and the importance of gold was promoted in the process. Because every time the revolutionary army rescued someone, people always saw gold being used to ransom them. Over time, with the added influence of some people who deliberately distorted the facts, the equation of gold = freedom was established in people's minds.

Of course, this step also needs to be done discreetly, so that Tesoro doesn't know that these people are revolutionaries.

Then, someone with ulterior motives will do some subtle things to spread this trend throughout the island and infect the upper echelons, and even Tesoro, and this step of the plan will be completed.

The first two steps embody the concept of "planting." If the first step is to send farmers to plow the land, then the second step is to sow the seeds. The gold that the revolutionary army gives out will eventually be returned.

This is also the most troublesome, labor-intensive, and time-consuming part. Similarly, it is also the most crucial; if you don't plant the seeds first, you can only harvest wild vegetables later.

If you don't understand, that's okay. Now, please welcome Luther, a veteran agent of the Revolutionary Army, to the stage and explain the process using his experience.

"I am Luther, a veteran spy in the Revolutionary Army's intelligence department. I was turned into a toy in Dressrosa, but even so, I always believed that the Revolutionary Army would come back to rescue me. And I did not give up my work, continuing my espionage work in an underground port where toys were used as laborers."

Okay, although I didn't even make an appearance in the end, and all the intelligence I painstakingly gathered was useless. But behind the scenes, I successfully used the revolutionary army's advanced ideology to win over a large group of toys who worked alongside me, and when fighting the Don Quixote family, I encouraged and helped people escape the birdcage.

But all that is in the past. Now, I have come to the golden city of Tesoro to rescue my two comrades.

Bah. As a top-notch agent, I must forget my and those two's identities.

Okay, I've forgotten. I'm a business manager at the Grandet Chamber of Commerce. I'm here to discuss an industrial cooperation in the West Sea with Tezzolo, to renew the contract, and to redeem two of our chamber's excellent salespeople.

Honestly, these two are supposed to be excellent salespeople, yet they fell for such a low-level trap in Golden City. Oh, I think I misspoke. Apparently, it was CEO Li Ang who sent them here intentionally to get themselves killed. I don't know how that works.

"Huh? Gold dust is starting to fall from above. Looks like I'm about to log in. I need to unleash my full potential and successfully renew the contract."

Then Luther came in through the entrance passage and moored the ship at the dock.

Upon seeing Luther's luxurious attire befitting a member of the elite, two scantily clad waiters immediately approached him warmly: "Sir, what can we do for you? May we show you the way?"

Even Luther, a seasoned spy—no, a seasoned manager—was momentarily at a loss for words due to the two waiters: "Uh, this... I..."

"Is this your first time here, sir?"

Of course, this happens frequently. As the world's largest and most luxurious entertainment complex, which travels the world, it naturally receives a constant stream of new customers in addition to regulars. Therefore, the two staff members are quite experienced.

“That’s right. But I’m here to discuss business.” Luther said seriously. As he spoke, he took out a business card from his jacket pocket. “I’m a business manager from the Grandet Group. I have an appointment.”

Upon hearing that they were there to discuss business, the two waiters, despite not having heard of what a mysterious position a business manager was, still demonstrated their professionalism by immediately confirming the details with their superiors via Den Den Mushi (a type of electric scooter).

"Oh, I see. Okay, I understand."

After hanging up the Den Den Mushi, he said, "Mr. Luther, it's been confirmed. Please come with me."

Then one person stayed behind while another hailed a tortoise-shaped car and took Luther to the upper-level office area.

Tesoro does not only own the Golden City; it also has its own businesses in the four seas and along the Grand Line. It can be said that Tesoro's Golden City is not only an independent country, but also a commercial empire far larger than the Grandet Consortium.