With the number of troops and the battlefield now confirmed, the meeting quickly moved on to the next agenda.
That was how to force the Whitebeard Pirates to follow the Marines' plan, enter the designated battlefield, and engage them there.
The Whitebeard Pirates were not idiots. The Marines could deploy troops and build a war base at the chosen location, but that didn't mean the Whitebeard Pirates would blindly charge in.
There had to be a method.
A way to make them come.
A reason they could not refuse.
At this point, the projection screen in the conference room switched to a new slide. It displayed numerous photographs alongside a relationship chart.
The chart was structured like a pyramid.
At the very top sat Whitebeard's portrait.
Beneath him were the captains of the Whitebeard Pirates.
Starting with Marco of the First Division, the images stretched horizontally across the screen.
However, Marco and the other captains had no further connections branching beneath them. Only under the portrait of the Second Division captain, Kozuki Oden, did the diagram expand outward, extending into a broader web of relationships.
Below Kozuki Oden was the portrait of Kozuki Momonosuke.
Following that was a row of retainers from the Kozuki clan, including Inuarashi, Nekomamushi, and Kin'emon.
All of these figures had been circled in red.
At this moment, Hina raised her pointer and indicated Kozuki Momonosuke's portrait.
"This individual is Kozuki Momonosuke," she said. "The biological son of Kozuki Oden, the Second Division captain of the Whitebeard Pirates. He is also a key figure in our current operation against the Whitebeard Pirates."
"At present, Kozuki Momonosuke and all of these Kozuki clan retainers marked in red have already been secretly apprehended by us. They are being held under strict guard in the prison of the G-3 Marine Base, here."
"As everyone knows, the Whitebeard Pirates are a pirate group that sustains itself through so-called 'family bonds.' Their leader, Whitebeard, is addressed by his crew as 'Oyaji' and regarded as a father figure. The Whitebeard Pirates have long proclaimed that they will never spare anyone who harms their family. This has practically become their defining declaration."
As Hina finished speaking, a few Marines showed faint looks of disdain, letting out quiet scoffs.
To be fair, that declaration of the Whitebeard Pirates did carry real weight.
But it wasn't as if they had never gone back on it.
When Kozuki Oden returned to Wano Country in the past, he was relentlessly hunted by Kaidou. Even his family was forced to flee. In the end, Oden escaped in a sorry state and returned to Whitebeard's ship. Yet afterward, Whitebeard did not launch a major retaliation against Kaidou.
In the original course of events, Kozuki Oden was even executed directly by Kaidou. Even then, Whitebeard still did not act.
It was clear that, at certain critical moments, Whitebeard was capable of restraining himself.
That was precisely why some Marine officers scoffed at this so-called principle. According to Marine intelligence, incidents like this had occurred more than once, not just in Kozuki Oden's case.
"So the Admiral intends to use Momonosuke and these retainers as bait to force Whitebeard into a direct confrontation with us?" Stainless asked hesitantly. "But an incident at this level… he might not be willing to take the bait."
Ortoren merely nodded lightly.
"You're right. When it comes to truly critical decisions, Whitebeard might not necessarily go to war with us just because of Momonosuke. So what we need to solve now is how to leave Whitebeard with no choice but to fight."
Gion spoke up at this point.
"In the past, the Whitebeard Pirates have indeed shown restraint on several occasions. One of those was when Kozuki Oden was driven out of Wano Country by Kaidou. However, our understanding of that incident is completely different from the general perception on the seas. We Marines possess an extremely extensive intelligence network, which is why we know the truth of those events. But on the seas at large, there is virtually no awareness of them. That is one of the reasons the Whitebeard Pirates were able to endure it back then."
Tokikake followed up immediately.
"That's right. Wano Country has been closed off for years, with information tightly sealed. The vast majority of people have no way of knowing what happens there. As a result, most people on the seas never knew that the Beasts Pirates and Kozuki Oden had such a conflict. In the common understanding, Kozuki Oden simply returned to the Whitebeard Pirates after the Roger Pirates disbanded, without any twists or turmoil. Because of that, it didn't cause any real damage to the Whitebeard Pirates' reputation."
Tokikake went on to cite several other related examples.
All of them shared a crucial common trait.
They were almost completely unknown.
None of them had spread widely across the seas.
Gion then provided several examples in the opposite direction, cases where the Whitebeard Pirates had flown into a rage for the sake of their "family" and launched retaliatory actions.
And these examples shared an equally important common point.
Every single one of them had caused a huge uproar and spread far and wide across the seas.
"Therefore," Hina said solemnly, "we believe there are two key factors in determining whether the Whitebeard Pirates will be forced to act. The first is risk. When the risk is relatively low, they usually choose to act. However, that does not align with our current operation. So our focus must be on the second factor: how widely the incident spreads and how much influence it has."
"Based on the examples just mentioned, the members of the Whitebeard Pirates place immense importance on Whitebeard's personal reputation and prestige, even above their own lives. As long as something threatens to deal a fatal blow to Whitebeard's name, they will not allow it to happen. This point stands regardless of Whitebeard's own personal wishes."
The commanders in the conference room listened in silence, all deep in thought.
After a short while, Kaisa spoke up.
"So what we need to do is make it widely known that Momonosuke and the others are in our hands, stir things up as much as possible, and make sure the entire sea knows about it. At the same time, we keep reinforcing the Whitebeard Pirates' image, reminding everyone of their declaration that 'no one is allowed to harm their family.' Using public opinion, we force Whitebeard to choose. Either his reputation is completely ruined, or he comes to fight us head-on and takes Momonosuke and the others back from us. Is that the idea?"
"More or less," Ortoren said, finally speaking again.
Hearing this, Yamakaji frowned slightly.
"But… is Kozuki Momonosuke really important enough?"
Tokikake answered after a moment of thought.
"There's a special dynamic within the Whitebeard Pirates. Everyone treats Whitebeard himself as a father figure. Only Kozuki Oden of the Second Division had a sworn-brother relationship with Whitebeard. That alone shows how highly Whitebeard valued Kozuki Oden. According to our investigations, Whitebeard was also deliberately cultivating Oden in many areas, possibly with the intention of grooming him as the next generation's leader."
"Seen from that angle, Kozuki Oden's importance becomes even more pronounced. And if someone that important has his son captured by us, and we publicly announce it, Whitebeard would find it very difficult to ignore."
After Tokikake finished, Gion added another point.
"It's not just Kozuki Oden. There's also Izō, the captain of the Whitebeard Pirates' Sixteenth Division. During the period when Kozuki Oden left the Whitebeard Pirates to join the Roger Pirates, Izō stayed with Whitebeard and fought alongside him. He holds considerable prestige within the crew. At the same time, he was also a retainer of Kozuki Oden, which makes Momonosuke his young lord."
"We believe Izō will also exert pressure in this incident. Taking all of that into account, I think Kozuki Momonosuke is qualified to be the key figure."
Strobelly pondered for a moment, then spoke.
"Then we need to create a situation where negotiation is impossible, so the Whitebeard Pirates can't look for other ways out. We need to make one thing absolutely clear to them. If they don't come, Kozuki Momonosuke and Kozuki Oden's retainers will all die."
"How about a public execution?"