Diarmuid had been studying these matters recently, so he had a good grasp of the current situation of all the Marine bases on the seas. A moment's thought was all it took for him to recall the state of G-7.
G-7 was located in the latter half of the first half of the Grand Line, near the southern Calm Belt, and wasn't too far from Impel Down, one of the Three Great Powers of Justice. Its military force was not very large, with only a little over 10,000 Marine soldiers.
The area it was responsible for was decent, with three allied nations seeking its protection. The G-7 base itself wasn't big; the island it was on was huge, but due to a lack of funds during construction, most of the island remained undeveloped. The base could only house a little over 10,000 people.
"Why do you recommend G-7?" Diarmuid asked after thinking for a moment.
"G-7 and G-8 are positioned at the north and south, respectively, covering the two main sea lanes of the Grand Line. Since I'll be the base commander of G-8, I would hope that the strong Vice Admiral at G-7 is you. That way, if something difficult comes up, it would be easy to ask you, Vice Admiral Diarmuid, for support," Vice Admiral Jonathan said with a chuckle.
"You're telling me that, but I know better. Vice Admiral Jonathan, your strength is at the forefront of Headquarters, and even with how arrogant I am now, I wouldn't dare say I can beat you. Don't mock me with 'Vice Admiral Diarmuid,'" Diarmuid said, rolling his eyes.
Headquarters was a place of hidden talents and unsung masters with many capable people who weren't very famous.
Vice Admiral Jonathan, for example, was an old veteran from the same era as Sengoku, Garp, Zephyr, and Tsuru. In terms of strength, he might be a little weaker than them, but not by much. This guy was just incredibly low-key and didn't have a competitive streak, which made him seem ordinary. If you truly angered him, his rampage would be terrifying.
"Hahahaha…" Vice Admiral Jonathan let out a hearty laugh. After a pause, he continued, "But isn't G-7 a great stage for you? It looks to me like you need it."
Diarmuid nodded. Vice Admiral Jonathan was right. The facilities at G-7 weren't well-equipped, its military strength wasn't formidable, and its development was mediocre. But that's what made it valuable!
If G-7 were a well-equipped, heavily funded base with a powerful army of fifty to sixty thousand soldiers, with the entire island already built into a fortress and the surrounding seas pacified, what use would Diarmuid be there? He wouldn't be able to do anything! He'd just be biding his time and building seniority. There would be no room for his talents.
In contrast, G-7, a base with potential but which hadn't realized it yet, was a treasure in Diarmuid's eyes. If he could go there and develop it into a strong and prosperous base, he could prove to the other Marine higher-ups that he wasn't just a fighter. He could also build and lead the Marines toward prosperity. That was how he could gain their approval to become one of the faces of the Marines in the future.
In fact, as soon as the news of Diarmuid being sent out to be a base commander spread among the higher ranks, many astute leaders realized that Admiral Sengoku intended to groom Diarmuid for the top.
Vice Admiral Jonathan understood this, which was why he called G-7 a suitable "stage" for Diarmuid.
"That makes sense. I'll think about it," Diarmuid said with a smile. After a brief pause, he lowered his voice and asked, "Vice Admiral Jonathan, you've commanded G-3 before. You have experience. Give this junior some pointers. What kind of methods do you need to be a base commander?"
"If you follow the established procedures, there's not much to say. Headquarters allocates an annual budget to each base based on personnel count, with additional maintenance fees. However, in the year 1497, the bases were reformed, and their autonomy was further expanded. Basically, all base commanders have absolute authority over their bases and only need to pass an inspection from Headquarters every two years," Vice Admiral Jonathan slowly explained.
The year 1497 in the Marine calendar was three years ago. At that time, Diarmuid was a Rear Admiral at Headquarters, focused on training, and he didn't pay much attention to such things. But recently, he had made an effort to understand these changes.
Before 1497, the bases were more constrained by Marine Headquarters in Marineford. But after 1497, to encourage them to be more proactive and to prevent them from relying on Headquarters for every problem, the Headquarters leadership made a decision to further grant the bases more autonomy.
It was from that year that the power of the various Marine bases grew unprecedentedly, almost to the point of becoming "warlords." For most matters, they no longer needed Headquarters' input and could act on their own authority.
Base commanders within their jurisdictions could be called kings in their own domains. Capable commanders were able to develop their bases well, while less capable ones let them fall into decline. This was why the various bases had such varying strengths.
As for whether this decentralization would divide the Marines and create a rift between Headquarters and the bases… so far, it hadn't happened.
First, even with the expanded autonomy, Headquarters still held the highest command. If they sent someone with orders, you had to accept them unless you wanted to openly rebel. And if you rebelled, Headquarters' absolute power could crush you in an instant.
Second, although Headquarters had decentralized financially, secretly condoning the bases finding their own ways to earn money, most commanders weren't capable enough to do it on a large scale. If they were that good at making money, why would they be in the Marines instead of, say, a high-ranking official in the World Government's commercial department? Or a successful businessperson?
So, this secret money-making was essentially limited to small-scale, quid pro quo deals, like providing protection for merchant fleets in their area in exchange for fees, or maybe taking on some tasks for countries for higher pay.
Even then, it depended on the commander's character. If they were corrupt, the money would mostly go into their own pockets, not into developing the base. Therefore, the bases still mainly relied on the annual budget from Headquarters. This budget was like a chain the World Government had on the Marines, and the Marines on the bases.
If you didn't have money, how could you be independent? If you couldn't feed and house tens of thousands of Marines on your own, you had to rely on Headquarters for aid. How could you possibly dare to disobey?
And that's the second point.
As for why Headquarters would even allow bases to secretly find money for development, Diarmuid believed it was a tactic to counter the World Government. If a base developed well, it could potentially provide financial support to Headquarters. Over time, Headquarters could save a significant amount of money that would otherwise be spent on military costs.
Headquarters could hide this from the World Government, building up a massive stockpile of funds to be used when they needed to be assertive. It was a tool to counter the World Government.
Of course, under normal circumstances, the Marines didn't openly defy the World Government. In his years at Marineford, Diarmuid had never seen it happen. But he knew it would happen eventually, and the conflict would only grow more serious, perhaps starting with the Seven Warlords of the Sea plan.
Such a plan to legitimize pirates was, to put it mildly, something the Marines would vehemently resist, even if they were eventually forced to accept it.
This was normal; if they didn't have a strong aversion to it, what would make them the Marines of justice? This was likely the start of the deepening conflict between the Marines and the World Government. The Great Pirate Era was the catalyst.
The World Government needed the Marines to stabilize the situation, so they had to increase their investment in them. This caused the Marines to grow stronger during the Great Pirate Era.
On the other hand, the World Government worried that a stronger Marine force would be less compliant. So they came up with all sorts of things to suppress the Marines' power.
This constant back-and-forth created a state of internal conflict that caused the new generation of Marines to have a poor impression of the World Government.
For example, Sakazuki, after being manipulated by the Gorosei during the Doflamingo incident, publicly rebuked them. The Gorosei immediately told him that he had no right to act that way. Do you think Sakazuki was angry? Of course he was!
Afterward, the Marines secretly pushed to abolish the Seven Warlords of the Sea system. They used newly promoted Admiral Issho as their sharp point, who outright embarrassed the World Government at the Reverie, forcing the abolition of the Warlord policy.
Just look at how excited the Marine officers were when they went to capture those former Warlords!
Another example is Borsalino. While he wouldn't defy them openly, he purposely held back. When the Straw Hat Pirates punched a Celestial Dragon at Sabaody Archipelago, Borsalino put on a flamboyant show, but it was all for nothing. He didn't capture a single member of the Straw Hat Pirates, or any of the other Supernovas. In the end, he only caught some small fry to get the job done.
Was Borsalino incapable of capturing them? No. With his power, if he had gotten serious, not a single one of them would have escaped. They would have all died. But he was just playing around.
'I'm just not going to catch them,' he thought.
In the end, he didn't get in any trouble and went back to being an Admiral. As for those three Celestial Dragons, "Sorry, we Marines were busy preparing for the Summit War and didn't have time for you." This was another instance of the Marines playing a game of power with the World Government.
Based on the state of the Marines in the future, Diarmuid could clearly feel the drastic changes coming.
At the moment, the Marines were on good terms with the World Government. In all the years he had been in Marineford, Diarmuid had never seen them oppose the World Government. Their relationship was that stable.
Therefore, in Diarmuid's opinion, the Great Pirate Era was both a blessing and a curse for the Marines. This chaotic and turbulent era would bring a powerful shock to the world's order. This shock would also be a force that would help the Marines grow. The shackles the World Government had placed on the Marines would be weakened to the extreme during this time.
With the World Government's internal and external troubles, if the Marines could seize the opportunity, they might truly be able to bring about a change and become the true representatives of justice.
Of course, these were all just Diarmuid's speculations; they hadn't become reality yet. He just needed to wait patiently, look for opportunities, and see if he could help push things along.
Returning to the topic at hand, the third method Headquarters used to control the various bases was the base commander rotation system.
Although there weren't any strict rules, some base commanders had been in their positions for eight or ten years, if Headquarters issued a transfer order, you had to leave and go work somewhere else.
This was the most powerful form of control. So even though the power of the bases had grown unprecedentedly since 1497, they were still insignificant in front of Headquarters, and to this day, there had never been a single instance of a branch base defying Headquarters.
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