Chapter 328: A Global Recruitment, The Demonic Carrier's First Council
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Jin broadcast the memorial service for Cocoyasi Village to the entire nation.
Following the New Year's Eve gala, he had begun to systematically build and manage a national radio and video broadcasting system.
A king laying a wreath for every fallen soldier—such a sight was invaluable in this day and age. It was a gesture that could stir the hearts of the people.
The broadcast also laid out the cause, the course, and the conclusion of the war, ensuring everyone knew the "truth."
Death and sacrifice are profoundly moving—and a powerful tool for uniting a people and solidifying their resolve.
Under the tight control of the World Government and the Five Elders, the battle never made it to the world stage. It resonated only within the East Blue and the Winter Blossom Kingdom.
This was the hegemony of information.
Even the World Economic Journal, which prided itself on its independence and fairness, was forced to conceal the truth on certain matters.
And Jin had long ago concluded that to overthrow the World Government, one had to dismantle their pillars of power—and the control of information was one of them.
Everything he did was a direct challenge to the World Government's dominance in technology, military might, information, and currency.
He believed that new forms of media, like radio and video broadcasts, would be the key to breaking the traditional paper media's stranglehold on public opinion.
The history of his own world proved it.
Print was replaced by television.
Television was replaced by the internet.
Times change. One must change with them.
Therefore, he was doubling down on his investment in this area.
In addition to infrastructure, the Hannabal Music Hall and Entertainment Weekly had joined forces to create the kingdom's first video content studio: Kingdom Radio.
It had two channels. One was a public radio channel, accessible to anyone in the world with a Den Den Mushi. The other was an internal video channel for the Winter Blossom Kingdom, producing news, concerts, and dramatic series—the equivalent of a television station.
Under Jin's command were Hannabal and the Gran Tesoro, two of the world's greatest entertainment hubs. Their free and open atmosphere had given rise to a new generation of artists, a place where their talents could truly shine.
Because he controlled these two platforms, in addition to Entertainment Weekly, his influence in the entertainment world was immense.
What aspiring star would dare to cross him?
Of course, Jin rarely paid attention to this side of his empire. He left the planning to Ai.
As a highly intelligent AI, Ai had become more and more human with each evolution, more and more clever. Its big-data analysis, combined with real-world research, gave it an almost unfair advantage in a world with an 18th-century backdrop.
Jin felt that to truly revolutionize the flow of information, he needed to develop and promote a replacement for the biological communication of the Den Den Mushi, like cable television and wireless communication.
Den Den Mushi were too expensive and had too many limitations.
This line of research had already shown promise on Skypiea. It was the magnetic fields of the Blue Sea that were the problem. Jin was currently developing the powers of the Magnet-Magnet Fruit and the Rumble-Rumble Fruit. Only at the level of an Awakening could he permanently alter the environment.
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After the memorial, the compensation for the fallen and the wounded was handled by the relevant departments, all of it photographed and announced to the entire nation.
Jin took this very seriously.
This was the only way to ensure that more soldiers, more people, would be willing to fight and die for their country.
Because his next move was to expand the military.
And this time, it would be a global recruitment.
Currently, the kingdom's military consisted of three naval fleets, totaling about 10,000 personnel, and an air force of just over 3,000. This didn't include the domestic police force.
His military strength was still a bit thin.
After this last battle, his relationship with the Five Elders and the World Government had become... delicate. He had to prepare for the future.
Jin's plan was to use his existing army as a core and launch a massive recruitment drive to build a new, modern army of 100,000 soldiers.
While 100,000 might not sound like much, for a "small nation," it was an enormous force.
This was purely for combat troops—the number would be even larger when factoring in logistics and support personnel.
The cost of training and maintaining such an army was immense, not something just any country could afford.
Alabasta, with its population of ten million, had an army of 600,000? Only Cobra knew how much of that was just for show.
The Winter Blossom Kingdom, with a population of one million, supporting a combat force of 100,000, was verging on warmongering.
But in Jin's eyes, it was a gamble worth taking.
He had been building his foundation for long enough.
It was time to build his army.
Furthermore, after the Summit War, the World Government would also launch a massive recruitment drive to deal with the changing global situation.
By recruiting now, Jin could snatch up a wave of young, talented individuals, strengthening his own forces while weakening his opponent's.
For a short period of time, the number of eligible soldiers was finite.
The first to act would have the advantage.
If he waited until the World Government started recruiting, it was obvious that most people would choose to join them.
Eight hundred years of rule had left an indelible mark on the world, a deep-seated conditioning in the hearts of its people. That couldn't be undone in a day or two.
There were still plenty of people like Aramaki, who revered the Celestial Dragons, who would gladly serve as their dogs.
Even some of the kings, nobles, merchants, and pirates who were currently being exploited and oppressed by the Celestial Dragons... if someone were to attack the World Government, they would be the first to stand up and defend the established order.
That might even include Garp, Sengoku, and Shanks.
They were, after all, beneficiaries of that order, part of the same class as the Celestial Dragons.
Of course, a recruitment drive of this scale wasn't something Jin could handle alone. It required coordination on multiple fronts.
This was where the organizational structure he had spent so much time and effort building would come into play.
An efficient system, designed to serve him.
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