One Piece Gunslinger

It turned out that while Li Ang was still causing trouble in the Kingdom of Yutakana, Long received two messages from his subordinates. One was that the Bloodsail Mercenary Group was the mastermind Long had been investigating.

Several years ago, when the revolutionary army was first established, Long noticed that there were several small countries around him that would start fighting whenever they had the chance, squander their money, rest for a while, and then start fighting again. They had been fighting for several years, and it continues to this day.

One can imagine how exhausting and costly a war would be for several years, especially for a small island nation like China. Such a war would essentially wipe out its wealth and its young and able-bodied men.

So what deep-seated grievances led these small countries to fight each other? According to Long's rough investigation, these small countries were originally at peace, but later, due to some minor frictions, they gradually escalated into a protracted war affecting several islands.

Logically speaking, if it's just some minor friction, and everyone tries to resolve things peacefully, these issues will subside in no time.

But this approach didn't work; instead, the situation escalated, and today, the tensions between these small countries are extremely high and seem unstoppable.

As the dragon delved deeper into its investigation, it discovered a problem. War is essentially about spending money; as the saying goes, "When cannons roar, gold pours in," and war is the fastest way to spend money.

So where did all this money end up?

After much investigation and mobilizing numerous intelligence personnel, Long discovered that most of the money ultimately flowed to the Bloodsail Mercenary Group.

Some deals involved the buying and selling of weapons, equipment, food, and ships. Others involved mercenaries who accepted commissions to participate in the war. It's fair to say that Bloodsail made a fortune from the war in recent years.

However, it was precisely because Bloodsail made so much profit from the war that Dragon became even more suspicious.

Several small countries were already broke from fighting, yet they still tried to raise money to continue the war. They were already short-handed, yet they still tried to hire more men to fight. Didn't these people ever consider negotiation? Are they all stubborn fools, only happy when they've completely annihilated others? Are they willing to pay any further price for continued fighting?

Therefore, after identifying a suspect, Dragon focused his efforts on this area. Less than six months later, he received news that whenever any nation considered peace talks, Bloodsail would try to stir up trouble and escalate tensions.

Wow, we've finally found the reason why these small countries have suffered unexplained disasters over the past few years! Dragon is overjoyed. He's been wanting to liberate these small countries for a while, but he hasn't taken action because he's worried about whether there are other people behind it all.

Like Leon, Dragon initially blamed the World Government and the Celestial Dragons when he couldn't find the root cause of the problem. Now that it's been clearly discovered that Bloodsail was behind it all, and not a conspiracy by the World Government, it's time to take action.

Now, if we can resolve the Bloodsail crisis, then the remaining few small, already devastated countries can be pacified by a few people sent by Dragon, and their conflicts can be resolved, leading to their liberation.

The second piece of information was discovered by intelligence personnel while investigating the first matter.

That is, for about 10 days each year, the turbulent ocean currents that constantly surround Luanci Island weaken significantly. Coincidentally, it happens to be during these few days.

Therefore, Long didn't make any detailed plans and didn't even have time to explain things to Li Ang before hastily leading his men to attack. After all, if they waited until next year, the next opportunity would be lost.

After hearing this explanation, Li Ang yawned, then patted Haku on the shoulder with relief and said, "Don't worry too much about this. Long must be confident before he makes a move. He definitely won't fight an unprepared battle."

He then prepared to walk inside, saying, "I should get some rest too. We should trust in Long's strength and leave these matters to him alone."

Just kidding. Judging by the later plot, barring any unforeseen circumstances, Dragon will definitely be able to take down the Bloodsail Mercenary Group without much trouble. Then he'll continue to expand his power step by step until he becomes a major threat to the World Government, standing as a rival. Leon has absolutely no need to worry about Dragon failing in this beginner's level.

"Oh, right," Leon seemed to remember something and asked, "Where are the Kerla people? I haven't seen them."

“Uh,” the warrior replied, “Dragon originally intended to leave the two children on the island. But Sabo started nagging and insisted on going with them, and Kelra also asked to go. In the end, Dragon took them both away.”

"what?!"

"The holiday is over! Johnny, let's get ready to set sail," Li Ang said, abandoning his lazy demeanor.

"Hey, hey," Fujitora retorted, "Who was it that said we should leave this to Ryu and get some rest?"

"Hmph!" Li Ang said angrily, "I'm not going to help Long. I said before that I had to teach Sabo a lesson today. I'm going for Sabo. You just wait, Sabo."

Chapter 120 Predicament

Li Ang never expected that he would have to set off again as soon as he returned to the base.

In his mind, nothing could stop him from taking a vacation. He would leave all the problems to others and enjoy a couple of days of leisure.

However, Li Ang never expected that not only would he have messed up a major incident, but he would also have allowed the little devil Sabo to trick Kera away as well.

Li Ang, who was eager to support his disciple, couldn't sit still any longer. From now on, he would rely entirely on Kella to relax and enjoy his retirement. In Li Ang's heart, only Kella could not afford to make any mistakes.

"So, how long will it take us to get to that Chaotic Magnet Island?" Li Ang asked anxiously, pacing back and forth in the captain's cabin.

"I'm telling you, can't you just stay still and stop walking around like that?" Haku said helplessly, looking at Li Ang who was running around the room. "You've asked this question seven or eight times today. We're already moving at full speed. Even if we're using the fast little sailboat, we won't get there anytime soon. We'll have to wait until tomorrow morning at the earliest. There's no use in you just worrying here."

"How can I not be anxious?" Li Ang stopped and said confidently, "I said I would teach Sabo a lesson today. If I wait until tomorrow, wouldn't I be breaking my promise?"

"Hey, hey," Fujitora couldn't help but complain from the side, "You're really planning to teach that brat a lesson, huh?"

"Hey! Ignore him, he's just making excuses for his behavior," Haku whispered close to Fujitora's ear. "According to him, this behavior is called tsundere."

"Hehe, I heard everything!" Li Ang shouted.

"But that's not the problem right now, alright." After everyone chatted and laughed for a while, Li Ang continued, "The biggest problem now is that Long and his people have been in the chaotic magnetic field range of Chaotic Magnetic Island for several days now. There hasn't been any news from them for several days."

"Yes, we don't know what the situation is like inside, which is a bit worrying."

“No, no, no,” Li Ang said. “It’s not because of the situation inside that I’m worried, but because the people Long is leading are definitely in trouble, that’s why I’m a little worried.”

"Huh? How did we get into trouble already?" Haku asked, puzzled and surprised. "Dragons have extensive combat experience on both land and sea. Although Bloodsail has some ability, I don't think they can completely defeat dragons and their forces."

Li Ang shook his head and said, "The situation is definitely not good now. There has been no news for several days. Think about it, if Long Jin hadn't clashed with Blood Sail in these past few days and had just been staring at each other in a stalemate, that's impossible. They must have exchanged fire."

Then think about the best possible outcome. If the dragon wins the engagement and wipes out the enemy forces in one fell swoop, shouldn't the next step be to control the entire base? Controlling the entire base would naturally mean mastering the method of using Den Den Mushi in the chaotic magnetic field. Resource consolidation and data organization can be put aside for now; it's time to send a congratulatory message to the base.

However, we did not receive any good news from the dragon, which means that the dragon did not achieve a great victory and wipe them all out in one fell swoop.

What if we take a step back and consider a smaller victory? Instead of wiping out Bloodsail in one fell swoop, we secured a small win, establishing some advantages. Bloodsail would then naturally retreat to its base to regroup. Dragons, if confident, would choose a full-scale attack, which would lead to the first scenario: a decisive victory.

If we're not confident, we need to wait for the right opportunity, study tactics, discuss countermeasures, and rest the troops. But this kind of thing shouldn't be done in turbulent waters; we should at least withdraw from the area for a short rest, and be able to contact the base and me to get advice and intelligence.

However, this goal was not achieved. As it turned out, the Dragon achieved neither a major victory nor a minor one. If the two sides were evenly matched, with neither able to gain the upper hand and neither suffering significant losses after the first encounter, then the Dragon would likely have followed the approach for a minor victory and withdrawn to regroup and plan for the future.

Therefore, the only remaining possibility is that Dragon and our Revolutionary Army suffered defeats in their battle against Bloodsail. Unable to retreat or launch a direct assault on the Bloodsail base, they are trapped in a dilemma.

Li Ang delivered his words in a straightforward manner, yet they only grew more alarmed than ever. Firstly, Li Ang could discern Long's current situation simply from the fact that he hadn't communicated with the outside world for several days. Secondly, Li Ang's analysis also made them alarmed by Xue Fan's strength and worried about the safety of Long and the revolutionary army soldiers.

Now it was Haku's turn to be unsettled. Haku could be considered a veteran of the Revolutionary Army, having watched it grow alongside Dragon and investing the deepest emotions into it.

"What can we do? These are almost all the soldiers in our revolutionary army, and I trained them all. If they all..."

It's said that concern leads to confusion. Haku had some confidence in the dragon before, but after Li Ang's analysis, he suddenly panicked.

"Don't get agitated. Those comrades are waiting for us to rescue them. We can't afford to panic. Besides, I didn't say we were in dire straits, just in a predicament," Li Ang quickly reassured him.

Then Li Ang continued, "If we're really in dire straits, I'm afraid Dragon will disregard concealing his identity and strength, leave the command post, and take direct action to forcibly take over their base. Although most Revolutionary Army soldiers don't know Dragon's strength and background, you definitely know his true strength, so there's no need to worry too much about that."

Therefore, we must clearly understand that the purpose of our trip is not to support Dragon, but to keep Dragon hidden, otherwise our nascent cause will receive too much attention from the outside world, even the world government. At the same time, we must minimize the losses of our revolutionary army soldiers.”

Hearing what Li Ang said, Haku also came to his senses and cursed himself for being senile and making a fool of himself.

However, Fujitora was not optimistic: "Since Ryu's force of nearly 5,000 men has failed, we few men going there will probably not fare any better. You don't mean you want me to just drop two meteors down, do you? But what's the difference between that and Ryu taking direct action? In my opinion, it would be better to just take direct action and wipe out all the Bloodsail people."

Li Ang immediately retorted, "How can that be? Can you silence witnesses and erase all traces of the battle? Even if you can handle all of that, you can't expect all our soldiers to be completely tight-lipped, can you? Otherwise, can we silence our own people?"

At this point, Li Ang also became somewhat heavy-hearted, thinking to himself, "It seems that my arrival has already begun to influence the course of history. The Revolutionary Army was exposed and became widely known at the World Conference four years later, but if I don't rush to help now, I'm afraid I will come into the sights of the World Government now."

Chapter 121 Stalemate

"So, can we hurry up and find a way to get here before nightfall, even if the ship is damaged?" Li Ang urged finally.

"There's a way, but it just takes some effort," Fujitora said, scratching his head.

Upon hearing this, Li Ang immediately perked up: "Your Newton Fruit, oh no, Gravity Fruit ability can be used like this?"

Fujitora didn't understand what Newton's Fruit was, but he'd seen this kind of thing many times before, so he wasn't surprised. He said in a deep voice, "If we tow the boat along the way, we won't have to wait until tomorrow morning; we can arrive tonight, though it'll be a bit tiring."

Hearing this, Li Ang slapped his forehead and said in annoyance, "I'm such an idiot, why would I need a ship at a time like this?"

Li Ang was annoyed that despite his lifelong intelligence, he had still inadvertently fallen into a cognitive trap, using many of Earthlings' habits to think about problems.

“Forget about the boat, Fujitora. You take the two of us and fly over directly,” Li Ang said. “The rest of you don’t need to rush. Just slowly bring the boat over. We can arrive tomorrow.”

That's right, that's how it should be! With Fujitora's incredible "transportation," why bother with boats? Why need bicycles? We can just fly airplanes.

Furthermore, Fujitora is practically a fighter jet among aircraft, capable of roaming freely in the sky. If he happens to run into Doflamingo, who is also flying around, he can even exchange greetings.

Feeling the cold wind whistling past, Li Ang couldn't help but wrap his clothes tighter, and said with a touch of emotion, "Being able to fly is much faster than walking on land or swimming in the sea."

Thinking of this, Li Ang suddenly had a brilliant idea, "I feel that your battlefield is not on land or at sea, but in the sky. Only the vast sky above the ocean, and even the more expansive starry sky beyond, is your best battlefield."

Fujitora's Devil Fruit ability can now bring down meteorites, so what if it were to advance further? Perhaps with advanced technology, we could control the orbits of satellites, planets, and even stars in outer space. Creating an artificial star system isn't theoretically impossible, but the question remains: how powerful would that ability have to be to be feasible?

However, that's getting off-topic. Fujitora only had some ideas about the concept of aerial combat with Leon, and treated the rest as a joke.

Later, Haku joined in, and the three of them started having wild, unrelated conversations about the specific uses of Fujitora's Newton Fruit.

After a lively chat, the anxiety in everyone's hearts was indeed relieved.

It has to be said that having someone to carry you makes flying much faster. It was only dusk when the three of them arrived near Chaotic Magnet Island.

"Alright, let's stop for now. We'll go over when it's completely dark," Li Ang said, staring at the blurry figure in the distance. Haku also pulled out a pair of binoculars from his pocket and looked over.

Haku held up his binoculars and looked around for a long time before finally finding the revolutionary army ships anchored at sea off the island: "1, 2, 3... Hmm, I can't see clearly, and I don't know how many they lost or why they're anchored there."

Li Ang took the telescope and looked at it for a long time, but couldn't figure it out. He could only say, "These questions will naturally be answered after we find the dragon."

Everyone understood that being impatient was useless, and they could only wait quietly for the sky to completely darken.

Meanwhile, on Chaotic Magnetic Island, within the Bloodsail Mercenary Group's military base built on the shore, two men were intently monitoring the Revolutionary Army's movements. These two were none other than Brandon and Ford, the two leaders of the Bloodsail Mercenary Group and also brothers.

"Brother, it's been several days, how come we still haven't found out who these people are?" The speaker was a sleazy man with a pointed mouth and monkey-like face.

“Ford, this is also very strange to me. I’ve mobilized all our intelligence personnel, and even asked people in the underground and other colleagues, but we haven’t found any relevant information. It’s as if these people appeared out of thin air.” The eldest brother who said this, Brandon, had a fair and smooth face, dark and deep icy eyes, and appeared to be a handsome and elegant man.

The contrast between these two brothers—one handsome and the other ugly—makes one wonder if they are truly biological brothers.

"This is really strange. There must be some reason for sending troops to deal with us. We don't even know each other, and we have no grudges against each other. I just don't understand what we did to offend them. If it's because some rival hired them to attack us, then there's no information about this unit in the industry. It's really strange."

Brandon frowned and said, "Moreover, this group is very strong. They are not a rabble at all. They are even comparable to the regular navy forces. Such a group could not possibly be unknown. But so far, we have not gathered any useful information."

Ford asked anxiously, "Brother, we can put these problems aside for now, but the question is, how do we solve them now?"

“A direct confrontation is impossible,” Brandon sighed. “Two days ago, we exchanged fire for only half an hour and lost two ships, while the other side only suffered minor damage, forcing us to retreat. The commander inside must be a senior general skilled in battlefield command and combat, at least at the level of a lieutenant general in the Ha army. He is far beyond our capabilities.”

However, they can't possibly launch a forced attack on our fortress in such terrible conditions. Besides, you see, they're currently holed up in calm waters, hesitant and afraid to make any rash moves. If we act rashly and allow them to figure out the direction of the ocean currents, that would be disastrous.

Therefore, our only option now is to stall. Our base definitely has more food supplies than their ships. If we can keep this up, they'll be the first to give up. Then, even with heavy casualties, they'll choose to retreat. That will be our opportunity.”

"But this means that the 'business' during this period..."

"Business matters can only be put on hold for now. It's possible that we'll be stuck here for ten days to half a month, depending on how much food they have stored in their hold."

However, Brandon was unaware that the revolutionary army's ships carried very little food, enough to last only two or three days at most. There was nothing they could do; the revolutionary army was poor. They always carefully calculated the amount of food and ammunition they brought on each expedition. The Kingdom of Yutakana had only just been conquered, and it would take some time before production could resume and supplies and wealth be provided to the revolutionary army.

If that situation were to actually occur, it would be something neither side would want to see. Dragon would expose his identity and the existence of the Revolutionary Army, while the Brandon brothers would obtain the power of despair.

But now, our Li Ang has arrived.