Chapter 25 Cooperation

"Iron Islands, father, this is not..." Prince Riku was about to say something, but was glanced at by King Riku, and the rest of the words were swallowed.

"Iron Islands, only 35 nautical miles away from here, used to be part of Dressrosa. Did Dold introduce the bridge connecting Dressrosa and Greenbit to you two?" King Riku followed the prince's words.

"Introduced, but I haven't seen it in person yet." Lily touched the tip and said.

"Haha, Dold should have said that this bridge is made of steel, and Dressrosa was once famous for its high-quality steel extraction and forging." King Riku sighed slightly and said.

"And 50 years ago, the Iron Islands were occupied by pirates. Because the Iron Islands were only used as a mine by our country, they did not belong to our country in name. Therefore, although our country is a member of the World Government, we can't let the navy come forward to take it back."

"So you want us to help you take it back?" Kaido rubbed his chin and asked.

"Yes and no." King Riku shook his head. "The geographical location of the Iron Islands is quite special. Because of the distribution of the islands, the islands are surrounded by whirlpools that never dissipate all year round. There are only two waterways, one in and one out. If you two need a stable territory, it is definitely suitable there. Once it is conquered, it will be easy to defend and difficult to attack."

"Then what do you want?" Lily asked. There is no free lunch in this world. King Riku can't bother to help two people who are not related to each other to find a territory.

"Development requires money, whether it is the future pirate group of the two or Dressrosa." King Riku pointed at Kaido and Lily, and then pointed at his feet.

"I hope to reach a cooperation with the two of you. The Iron Islands have changed hands frequently in recent years. Now there is a pirate group with 170 million Baileys entrenched there. Once the two of you pay the Iron Islands, I will send people to the island to mine ore, and then the two will share the money for the things sold." King Riku told his men to get the wanted order while introducing his ideas.

"Since you said that this place is easy to defend and difficult to attack, why did it change hands several times later? Doesn't your Majesty feel a little contradictory?" Lily keenly discovered the loophole in the king's words and asked.

"Regarding this point," King Riku coughed and blushed a little embarrassedly, "Because Dressrosa is close to the Red Earth Continent, there are some new pirates entrenched here. These pirates often do not stop to develop the territory, but leave after looting, so the pirates occupying there are generally active in the central island, and the external gaps are generally rarely guarded. The only exception is that 20 years ago, a guy named 'Blood Finger' George was going to manage there carefully, but I heard that there was an internal conflict, and this George was drowned. Later, the dealer took turns to do it."

"Then why not send the army of Dressrosa over there." Kaido asked. Since according to King Riku's meaning, the pirates here are getting worse and worse, they can take the opportunity to occupy it back.

"Uh..." King Riku suddenly choked.

"Mr. Kaido, you don't know that Dressrosa hasn't had a royal army for a long time. It's not that they don't want it, but they really don't have extra funds. The only combat unit is the National Defense Army." Prince Riku saw his father's embarrassment and stepped forward to explain.

"Huh?" Kaido thought of many reasons, and the only thing he didn't expect was that he had no money.

"Over the years, for some reason, the collection of heavenly gold has become more and more, and Dressrosa has lost its main source of income. The country has become more and more poor and can't afford the military expenses of the royal army." King Riku was embarrassed and his face was red. The kingdom really had no money, otherwise it would not have asked Kaido and Lily to cooperate. Although I felt that the two were not bad when I drank last night, after all, these two people were pirates with wanted orders. If they had money, they could either form an army by themselves or spend money to find mercenaries, but the 22 consecutive years of deficits really forced King Riku to have no choice but to resort to this last resort. I hope I can succeed.

"Okay." Kaido took a sip of the black tea in front of him, then put it down again. This thing was too sweet. "In that case, let's talk about the profit sharing."

"Okay." King Riku hesitated. Are we going to talk about profit sharing before we conquer the Iron Islands? But he thought for a moment that it would be better to talk before we conquer them. Otherwise, if the other party raises the price, it will be even more uncomfortable for him.

"My idea is to split the profits 50-50. I will be responsible for providing the people for mining and smelting, and I also have sales channels here, so we can sell directly, and you two will provide the venue and shelter during transportation. This is my bottom price. What do you think?" King Liku did not hesitate and directly put forward the bottom price without any beat around the bush. He really could not wait any longer. He had just handed over the gold from heaven, and now the treasury was extremely empty. Today's lunch was squeezed out of his pocket. But once this plan succeeded, he only had to tighten his belt for a few months and the treasury would no longer be a problem. Dressrosa had not completely given up the smelting industry over the years, and sales had always been there, but importing ore from other places cost extra money, and the round-trip shipping costs were a bit too much for the kingdom to bear. In addition, the sea was not peaceful, and they were robbed and their ships sunk from time to time, which was quite devastating.

Hearing King Riku's words, Kaido and Lily were both stunned. Who would guarantee a minimum price right away? However, the two thought about it and found that this condition was completely acceptable. The ore dug out needed to be smelted, and the smelted steel needed to be sold, but they didn't know how to do all this. Although Kaido knew some of the black market transactions, the black market didn't need so many raw ores. This was not a finished sword, and the ore couldn't be smelted anywhere.

"Okay, we basically agree to this offer, but we want to modify it a little." Lily spoke on behalf of the two, "We hope that the miners from your side will work as our employees, and we can even give them rewards, but we hope that part of our benefits will become real weapons." This is Kaido's idea. Pure steel is much cheaper than weapons. The price of a 10-jin steel is less than half of a 5-jin steel knife. Especially after seeing the honor guard, although the personnel quality is not very good, but the equipment is good. Kaido wants some weapons. In addition to arming himself, he can also sell them at a high price on the black market. As for the salary, it is a surrendered benefit.

"Of course, although our country does not produce famous swords, mass-produced swords with high quality are not a problem for our country." King Riku smiled happily, he understood what Lily and Kaido meant.

"So, do we need to sign a contract?" Lily asked.

"Of course, of course." King Riku stood up and informed the guards, summoned several important ministers, and the two sides held a small ceremony and signed their names on the contract. This matter should not be known to too many people. Although many countries are cooperating with pirates, and even the armies of some countries are pirates, this kind of thing can never be brought to the table. It concerns the face of the World Government. Although the author has doubts about whether the World Government has this thing.

After signing the contract, King Riku was ready to treat everyone to a meal again, but suddenly remembered that the treasury seemed to have no surplus food. Fortunately, at this time, Sir Anbo, as a minister, saw King Riku's dilemma and took the initiative to take over the banquet, which saved the extremely embarrassed King Riku. After the banquet, King Riku held Sir Anbo's hand and asked him to hand over the bill to him. When the treasury was full, he would definitely pay the money back. Sir Anbo refused several times, but he still couldn't beat King Riku, so he had no choice but to give King Riku a 50% discount on the banquet bill.

At night, Lily and Kaido returned to the tavern, and the two took out the information given by King Riku and began to read it.

You won't know until you see it. This Iron Archipelago includes 3 large islands, 44 small islands, and 115 large and small mineral veins, including iron ore, copper ore, aluminum frame, tin ore, and even some precious metal mineral veins. According to intelligence, when the people of Dressrosa were driven out, the mines were blown up. Because the island changed hands frequently, the pirates on the island were unable to mine the mineral veins. It is not a problem to mine the mineral veins for hundreds or thousands of years.

In addition to the introduction of the island, there is also an introduction to the current pirates on the island, "Cheese Cream Pirates", the leader is Cheese Man-Andbo, with a bounty of 100 million Baileys, and the deputy leader, Cream Man-Dehabo, has a bounty of 70 million Baileys.

"Cheese Man and Cream Man?" Kaido touched his chin, "It should be a capable person, otherwise there would not be such a weird nickname."

"It seems that we are lucky. These two things don't seem to be very heat-resistant." Lily smiled.

"Oh, yes, we are indeed lucky, oh, oh."

Please recommend, collect, and comment