Taxes are only within machine gun range!

Chapter 140 Flying Over from the Sky to Steal His Ship!

The next day, early in the morning.

On the helipad, the crews and passengers of UH-1 and Gazelle were all ready to go, and after saluting Milton, they boarded the aircraft.

They're off to fight in the town's defense!
Flora watched the helicopter take off and disappear into the distance, and said, "It should be easy for the helicopter to lick up the ground and take out those cannon fodder, but Lopez will definitely bring in anti-aircraft missiles later, which will make things much more difficult."

“If we return to ground combat, we will definitely suffer casualties.”

Milton shook his head and said, "There's no way around it. Casualties are inevitable. Just because there will be casualties doesn't mean I should stop fighting and surrender. That would only lead to more deaths."

"But in this way, he will achieve his goal of wearing you down with his numerical advantage. Even if we can achieve a 1:10 kill ratio, given the performance of a scoundrel like Lopez, he probably won't care much."

The two towns are going all out to mass-produce troops. How many can they produce? 400 people is the absolute limit. That's just reckless and desperate militarism.

Lopez is absolutely capable of doing something like this, using 4000 people to create such a mess.

“Hmm…” Milton nodded slowly. “That makes sense. So, we should follow Lopez’s line of thinking. Doesn’t he treat his elite troops as treasures, as trump cards to attack us? If I wipe out a portion of his elite troops, do you think he’ll still send these cannon fodder to their deaths?”

In fact, Lopez's idea was very simple, almost an open conspiracy.

Using a large number of cannon fodder to storm the defensive line, disperse firepower and attention, while a small number of elite troops composed of tanks, armored vehicles, special forces and army elites are the key to victory and the sharpest knife to pierce the defense line.

If we can directly strike the latter, then no amount of cannon fodder will be able to get in.

With only elite troops and no cannon fodder, Milton could easily defend against them by sacrificing lives.

If there are only cannon fodder and no elite troops, then it will only endlessly give Milton a chance to rack up battle records.

However, when the two attacked together, they posed a considerable threat to Milton's army of only two or three hundred men.

To put it bluntly, they simply overwhelmed us with their superior numbers and wealth.

Flora understood this perfectly well. She sighed and asked, "The problem is, how can we possibly defeat his elite troops? We don't even know where they're stationed. And even if we did, we wouldn't be able to get there."

“No, we actually know, at least part of it.” Milton watched the helicopter disappear completely before turning and getting into his car. “And we have a chance to launch a surprise attack.”

"what?!"

“Have you forgotten our plan to seize the howitzer? Lopez will definitely send his armored forces to protect it,” Milton reminded him. “What if our VBSS operation goes smoothly and we manage to seize the ship?”

Flora thought about it carefully, then exclaimed in horror: "What the hell?! You...you mean you're planning to seize the ship, take the captain or crew hostage, and force them to sail to Champellico Port as planned? And then you'll fire on them from behind?!"

“Yes,” Milton nodded. “Their defenses on land wouldn’t be pointing their cannons at the coastline, and they couldn’t possibly expect the enemy to come from the sea, could they? These past few days, while I’ve been buying fake news, I’ve been hinting to Lopez that I should attack his land transport routes.”

“You’re crazy…” Flora gave Milton two thumbs up. “What an insane plan! But how are you going to make sure you hit it? The ship will be rocking.”

"Therefore, after the UH-1 completes the rappelling, it must return immediately and hoist as many Type 107 anti-tank missiles and TOW anti-tank missiles as possible from our base camp. If possible, bring your Javelin missiles as well."

Flora's face flashed with an expression of extreme heartache: "Don't call me sister anymore, I'll call you brother, brother, these things are becoming increasingly rare!"

"It's alright, I promise I'll find a way to get you one later." Milton glanced at the "replica" function on the panel and reassured him, "If we don't use this thing, it'll just rot in the warehouse anyway, won't it?"

"As for the howitzers, it's not easy to fire them when the ship is rocking. Just fire a few shots randomly. The D-20 is actually a cannon-howitzer that can fire directly. It would be best if we could hit them, but if we can't, so be it. As long as we can take out their armored forces and elite army, this operation will be a great success."

Flora took a deep breath: "Honestly, if this operation succeeds, I will definitely put the combat record on the company's classic battle list. The publicity effect will be explosive, and our company's business will definitely be booming in the future."

This operation could even be considered a special operation that will go down in history.

Hijack an enemy cargo ship smuggling howitzers by helicopter, then load various heavy weapons onto it in the absolute last minute, launch a surprise attack on armored forces stationed in the port from the sea, and finally withdraw calmly...

Just thinking about it is terrifying.

“But there are still two problems,” Flora added. “First, what if our VBSS mission doesn’t go so smoothly, and we just take out the howitzer and leave? In the end, we’ll still have to face it head-on.”

"Secondly, don't forget, you still don't know what their cargo ship's route is!"

Milton shook his head: "Actually, there are solutions to both."

Flora turned her head curiously and asked, "Tell me about it?"

“If it’s the first scenario, you’re right. Even if Lopez loses the howitzer, he can still force his way up the numbers. If 4000 isn’t enough, he can just throw in 6000. As long as Lopez isn’t afraid to pay the price, he still has a good chance of drowning us—provided that I do nothing.”

Flora chimed in, playing the straight man: "So what are you planning to do?"

"We have no one here, and López is blocking our way... But don't forget, Mexico is behind us."

“You’re PMC, so you can recruit ‘employees’ locally in Mexico—as long as we can control a Mexican city. Perfect, we’ve determined that the Sinaloa Group will destroy Tapachula, right? In that case, let’s just take control of the city.”

Flora stared in disbelief: "Holy crap, you're serious? You, you not only want to be a warlord in Guatemala, but you also want to develop a multinational corporation, a multinational corporation spanning Central America?"

However, this is indeed a possible solution.

Despite the Sinaloa Group's seemingly invincible position, the state of Chiapas, as the most important land transport route, has always been a subject of contention.

The Gulf Group, the Tijuana Group, the Juarez Group, and the Zapata uprising rebels are all formidable opponents that the Sinaloa Group needs to deal with.

They may seem formidable, but in Tapachula, their activities primarily involve sabotage, terrorism, bounties, and assassinations. It's unlikely they'll actually send their "army" over.

After all, the Sinaloa Group only wanted to disrupt Milton's border trade; they never imagined that Milton would dare to plan a cross-border attack.

"Tell me, if we do it this way, will the manpower problem be solved? Our manpower may still be less than Lopez's, but he may not be able to afford to wait."

When Milton only had 200 men, Lopez could overwhelm him with 2000.

But if Milton's numbers reach 400, Lopez's side will need 6000.

If Milton can gather 1000, then the cost of Lopez's all-out attack will be so high that he absolutely cannot afford it.

“Yes!” Flora nodded. “But we have to act now. Sending armed personnel under the name of PMC requires a local employer, right? We need an entity to pay us to come over, right? This needs to be negotiated.”

"Very good, I'll leave this matter to you."

Flora: "...When are you going to settle your overtime pay? Are you treating people like animals?"

Milton patted her on the shoulder: "Just get through the early stages of starting a business."

"As for the second point, which is that no one has sold me flight information yet, I might have been a little worried before, but now I am sure that someone will sell me information before the cargo ship arrives."

"How to say?"

“Didn’t you see the news yesterday?” Milton reminded him. “Even someone with a decent job is willing to sacrifice his life to try and assassinate Lopez… So how many people do you think would be willing to take such a small risk to sell me flight information?”

"Perhaps these people don't like me, but they hate Lopez enough, and that's enough."

Flora thought for a moment and then asked, "What if Lopez forcibly imposes martial law on Champellico Port and forbids any information from leaking out?"

Milton shook his head: "He won't do that... We're fighting Lopez to the death, but Lopez doesn't want to fight us to the death; he's in it for the money. Right now, his most valuable assets are the big city of Quetzaltenango and the port of Champerico. If martial law is declared, will he be able to do business?"

"Moreover, I've received quite a few fake news and fake flight routes during this period. What does this mean? It means that Lopez doesn't intend to prevent me from obtaining information in a mutually destructive way, but rather he intends to let everyone sell information to me at will. In this way, even if I obtain real intelligence, I won't be able to quickly distinguish it from the massive amount of fake intelligence."

However, Lopez overlooked one thing.

Or rather, he could never have known that Milton's panel showed who his allies were.

Milton will only accept information that is counted as "informant" on the panel.

Milton hadn't found any informants listed as sources on the dashboard, so he was certain that all the flight routes he had were fake. Flora muttered under her breath, "How do you know everything..."

As the two were talking, the car had already returned to the tax office in Malacan town.

After Father Raymond was killed, the town's central church was completely razed and turned into a pleasant park.

The tax office is right next to this park, and the police station is right next to it.

After the tax office was repaired, Milton moved his headquarters here. Of course, the tax office itself was also very sturdy, with a layout that was much more reasonable than the police station, and all kinds of equipment were very complete. Milton even replaced his computer with a Dell.

The entire town has now been almost completely transformed...

Many townspeople even have the money to renovate their houses with concrete.

Townspeople taking a walk nearby greeted Milton with great kindness and respect upon seeing him.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Godfather!"

"have you eaten yet?"

"Please don't be too busy or tired."

"Is it because we're not paying enough taxes?"

"'Godfather', where will the townspeople get married after the church is gone? Can they get married at the tax office?"

"Are you stupid?! Just go to the park to get married! What do you mean by getting married at the tax bureau? Is the tax bureau a place where you can get married?"

"..."

The townspeople's lives have become visibly happier.

Just as Milton had predicted, the tax office and checkpoints now require very few field officers, and the townspeople are incredibly conscientious in filling out tax forms and paying their taxes every month.

In their minds, if they don't pay taxes, they will return to the life they once lived under the rule of the old stationmaster Varta, burdened with endless high-interest loans, working several jobs a day just to barely pay the interest, and forced to sell their blood to make a living.

After some calculations, the tax officials were astonished to find that although Milton's tax revenue was slightly lower than Varta's, his net profit far exceeded that of the old stationmaster.

It's a very simple principle: although Varta racks his brains to squeeze money from the ground up and can seem to make a lot of money, the cost of collecting this money is too high. It is often accompanied by violent cases, and it is also necessary to pay the salaries of the field prosecutors.

It also severely suppressed foreign trade.

Of the 1000 in taxes collected, 900 were costs.

Now, with increased trade in the town, almost all taxes are automatically going to the tax office, incurring virtually no cost—again, because the market has grown, the tax office's total tax revenue hasn't decreased much compared to before.

Of the 900 in taxes collected, only 50 was for costs.

The efficiency is frighteningly high.

Milton waved to the townspeople, then walked into the tax office and said to Flora, "Alright, you take care of things in Mexico first. See if you can contact any narcotics officers willing to help, figure out how to counter the Sinaloa Cartel's sabotage, and then get a list of suspects as soon as possible so we can legitimately control that city."

"Received! Received~"

"..."

After taking his seat, Milton called the officials over one by one and inquired about the town's recent internal affairs.

"I asked you to renovate the town's school, buy good textbooks, and hire good teachers. How's that going?"

"Reporting to Mr. 'Godfather,' it's been done exceptionally well! We were very lucky to get in touch with a persecuted scholar in Haiti, a genuine scholar with a UCL degree from the UK. He was surprised by the compensation we offered and was willing to become a teacher!"

Milton thought for a moment, then asked, "Have you been following the children named Neo, Leah, and Ariana? How are they doing?"

Ariana was the kind girl whose father was killed by Milton and whose mother was killed by Van Conn, yet she braved the heavy rain to bring news to Milton.

After the church operation, Milton gave her a very substantial "intelligence fee" as a reward, enough for her to live comfortably until adulthood.

"The two kids behind him are studying very seriously and hard. Neo, on the other hand, wasn't very serious at first. He always wanted to finish his studies as soon as possible and then report to the police station... well, but after that teacher came, he's now quite engrossed in studying, and we rarely hear him talking about becoming a police officer and fighting to the death anymore."

Milton looked at another official: "Hmm...not bad. How's the town's infrastructure? Is the water and electricity supply working?"

"'Godfather' Mr., as you requested, we built a reservoir and managed to import some power generation equipment. Now the waste treatment plant can also generate electricity, as long as there is enough fuel and water."

This region receives ample rainfall, and as long as proper storage and purification measures are implemented, water supply will not be a problem.

"Very good, where's the sewer?"

"'The Godfather,' is under construction... This is the progress..."

"Brandon, how's our air offensive against Lopez going?"

"It went very smoothly. Hitting enemies without anti-aircraft weapons with helicopters is as easy as crushing ants. The only thing limiting the results is ammunition."

"Very good. The new director is coming over. Tell me how the hospital is doing?"

"Well...it's generally going smoothly, but we still have to rely on smuggling for medicine. Genuine medicine is too expensive; no one here can afford it. Mr. 'Godfather,' I suggest you sell health insurance. Most people can afford medical treatment now, but the cost of serious illnesses is still too high. I estimate very few people can afford it. Moreover, if health insurance is done properly, it can actually make money."

"As for medicine, pirated is fine, as long as the effect is similar. Medical insurance is a big deal... This needs to be handled by professionals, I don't know much about it."

"Great job, everyone did a good job. Go take a break!"

"..."

……

After busying himself with official business, Milton woke up in his room the next day.

Yesterday, dealing with government affairs left me feeling dizzy and disoriented.

"As expected, I'm still not suited to be an administrative official... I'm better suited to fighting."

Milton muttered a complaint, and at the same time subconsciously opened his own panel.

Then, a new piece of information in the "Allies" module caught his attention.

"Huh?! We've got another informant, located in... Port Champerico?!"

Milton perked up immediately. He was getting annoyed by the constant barrage of junk and fake news, and now it seemed like he had finally received some real news.

Milton can see this message directly through this panel, but... no matter what, he should still pretend even though he's using cheats.

“Brandon, come here quickly and contact our ‘agents’ in Champelliport. Have them summarize the latest intelligence. Also, have everyone involved in ‘Operation Sea Breeze’ gather in the conference room.”

"Operation Sea Breeze" is the name Milton gave to the upcoming VBSS mission.

Brandon immediately replied, "Yes!"

"Flora," Milton called to Flora, who was yawning in the distance, "come to the conference room too. We're going to work out a detailed attack plan."

"Huh? Attack whom? You already know the flight path?"

“I think I understand.” Milton nodded. “The howitzers will dock at dusk…this is very advantageous for us. We can really fly over and seize his ships, then use the ship's cannons to bombard Lopez's land units.”

(End of this chapter)