Taxes are only within machine gun range!

Chapter 155 Man!

Tapachula Police Station.

Milton sat in his office, which belonged to "Warwind Company," and hung up the phone.

Flora, her eyes lifeless, sat on the table and casually asked, "Is it the headquarters or the rebels? What's the situation?"

“The rebels are just across the river, and they can hold out for a while.” Milton tapped the table. “We’re in a better position. We’ve suffered some casualties, but since our armored forces have been completely wiped out, we can’t win with just infantry.”

The 152mm high-explosive shells also occasionally surprise the enemy.

Flora nodded: "But?"

“There are two buts,” Milton began. “First, our air defense capabilities are still weak. We lack self-propelled anti-aircraft guns and man-portable air defense systems equipped with vehicle-mounted anti-aircraft missiles, so we can basically only take down helicopters.”

"It's not that the enemy's A-37 Dragonfly is completely without threat, but the fact that they've missed several times speaks volumes."

"Unless absolutely necessary, we should avoid engaging in 'dogfights' with them."

Flora, now quite adept at playing along, asked, "And the second 'but'?"

“Our dollars are burning,” Milton said. “Like you said, my tax revenue can’t support an army like this right now, let alone a war.”

“At least we have a lot of savings…” Flora thought for a moment about the numbers, then decisively abandoned the arithmetic and asked directly, “How long can our current funds last?”

Milton replied, "At most a month, the cash flow will dry up."

"They can hold out for so long? I thought they'd only last a week at most!"

The salaries of various personnel, logistics, and equipment supplies, amounting to several million US dollars, are indeed only a week's worth of expenses.

But Milton still has points on hand, which can largely replace dollars, so he can last for a month for now.

“That’s why the regular army always tries to stall me.” Milton waved his hand. “Besides, Lopez also needs some time to import new equipment. Without armored units as cover, his soldiers won’t charge forward.”

The morale of the Guatemalan government forces is currently very low, both on the front lines and in the rear.

The soldiers didn't eat as well as the other soldiers, their equipment wasn't as good, and their most elite troops were completely wiped out by the enemy in an unjust war. How could their morale possibly rise?
“Once we take Tapachula, Warwind Company can start some other businesses and earn some foreign exchange.” Flora nodded slightly. “Then… we’ll have enough manpower to confront Lopez head-on and take the port.”

"Once we have a port, we will have enough funds to support the army."

Once Milton gets the dock, he can collect more taxes, earn more points, and his financial efficiency will increase exponentially.

“I have a little trick to make port trade explode,” Milton chuckled mysteriously. “But now’s not the time to talk about it—don’t forget, these drug dealers have a lot of money.”

"Spending more than you earn? Just increase your savings. So what if you only spend and don't earn?"

"Let's not talk about that for now. Tell me about the situation here. How's your battle plan coming along?"

Flora sighed deeply: "It's all done... Based on the intelligence provided by the chief, I have complete control over the distribution of the sewers, and I know exactly where to set fire to and where the explosion will occur. The septic tank trucks are also ready... Can I take a leave of absence?"

“No.” Milton said without hesitation. “Don’t worry, we won’t rush in immediately. We’ll just force out any civilians who might be there.”

"Ugh!!!"

“Stop sighing.” Milton tapped the table again. “How’s the company’s hiring going? That’s the most important thing we’re here for.”

“We’re hiring right now. We have a great reputation, and we’ve got a lot of people applying,” Flora said. “The only thing that will take a little time is screening who’s reliable… but you can make that decision. So you should see the first batch of new employees joining us tomorrow morning.”

“Very good.” Milton nodded. “Then let’s rest and prepare for tomorrow’s attack. Make sure to keep a close watch on the area around the police station. We don’t want to get blown up before we can blow them up ourselves.”

Flora yawned and stretched: "Don't worry, don't worry... I'm going to sleep now."

After Flora left the room, Milton took a sip of water, glanced at the curtains that were drawn tightly shut, and sat down on the sofa.

In any case, Milton will stay here during this period and will not give the enemy any chance to launch a sneak attack.

"I'll just sleep on the sofa then..."

After changing into a slightly more comfortable set of clothes that could still handle an emergency, Milton lay on the sofa and began to relax his face, upper body, and lower body in turn, imagining static images in his mind.

Milton quickly used progressive muscle relaxation techniques to induce sleep.

After an unknown amount of time, Milton suddenly heard a series of urgent knocks on the door in his hazy consciousness.

He immediately opened his eyes, instinctively maintaining a half-squatting posture, and first glanced at the clock hanging on the wall.

It was just before 6 a.m., and there were no gunshots around. The police station was also quiet, so it didn't seem like it was under attack.

It should just be some new information.

Milton immediately stood up straight, straightened his clothes, sat down at his desk, and adopted a relaxed expression: "Who is it? What is it?"

Brandon's somewhat anxious voice came from outside: "Boss, it's me! Something big has happened!"

“Come in.” Milton picked up the coffee he’d forgotten to empty last night and took a sip. “What’s got you in such a hurry?”

Brandon strode in from outside—and the door to another room nearby opened, with Flora yawning as she followed.

"What is it?"

Brandon glanced at the two men, then quickly said, "Our people who infiltrated the El Carmen community just sent us a message saying that a helicopter came from the north and deliberately avoided our police station!"

“Coming from the north means this helicopter came from the direction of Mexico, not from our side.” Milton nodded. “Any thoughts?”

Flora said, "Either he accumulated his wealth as a minor leader, or he asked the Gulf Group for help and got them to send reinforcements to him."

Milton shook his head vigorously, his tone tinged with excitement: "No, that's not the most important thing right now... Let the people over there tell me the approximate location where the helicopter will land. 'Bottle,' go get the sewer layout map of the El Carmen community. We need to quickly come up with a temporary plan."

“Approximate location…” Flora turned around, repeating it subconsciously, then suddenly widened her eyes, “Wait, you mean…?”

“Yes.” Milton spoke quickly, “I’m going to conduct targeted strikes in that area!”

To avoid accidentally harming innocent civilians in the community, Milton's selection of locations for blasting sewers was carefully considered. The primary goal was to maximize the impact and drive away people, and locations that could blow up other people's homes were mostly avoided.

But if we could find out the approximate location of Cardenas's hiding place, we could add another objective to our plan!

While driving away civilians, they tried to blow up their stronghold!
It's hard to say how many casualties it will cause, but... as the saying goes, we're already here.

"Okay, I'll get ready right now."

"Once the plan is complete, add a new team to execute it," Milton quickly ordered. "The rest of you continue as planned; do not change formation at the last minute."

"By the way, bring our self-propelled anti-aircraft guns and SAM-7s along, and see if we have a chance to shoot this helicopter down!"

"understand!"

The police department immediately sprang into action and quickly reorganized a six-person bomb disposal team.

"Everyone else, follow me!"

Milton stood up from his chair, quickly changed his gear, and climbed onto the self-propelled anti-aircraft gun.

People always use this thing to shoot people, and it seems that many have forgotten that this thing is actually used for air defense.

Soon, taking advantage of the early morning when there weren't many people around, the police force set off and rushed towards the El Carmen neighborhood, which countless people feared.

Because the operation was quite large, the septic tanker truck and the blasting had to be carried out at the same time; otherwise, the Gulf Group and the gangs on this side that had already submitted to the Gulf Group would inevitably retaliate.

Milton equipped all combat teams with military frequency-hopping radios copied using the panel copy function, ensuring absolutely smooth and secure information transmission, enabling them to perform highly coordinated missions.

Thirty minutes later, everyone had arrived at the planned attack point.

Milton sat in the car, calmly summarizing and analyzing the information that the various groups had sent him.

"I didn't expect... that we didn't encounter any resistance along the way?"

Flora nodded and said, "That's good... Originally, we expected one route to be blocked, or at worst, two routes to be blocked. The remaining combat teams were still able to complete their missions and achieve their tactical objectives. Now, that unexpected situation has been avoided."

“I think there’s a possibility,” Milton said after thinking it over carefully. “Cardenas was frightened by our actions last night, so he withdrew his forces and called for reinforcements through some channel, trying to wait for them to arrive before making any moves.”

Flora nodded vigorously: "Very likely!"

"Then we must hurry up and cripple them even more."

Milton harbored immense malice towards this future founder of the Seta Group!
It would be even better if the reinforcements Cárdenas called for this time were the Mexican GAFE soldiers he would use to build the Zeta Group in the future.

This group of people is the leader who will cripple the established Gulf Group in the future; they are an absolute threat and a scourge.

Two minutes passed.

Several manure trucks drove into the community from different directions according to a pre-arranged plan—each truck was loaded with a large number of time bombs.

Soon, reports came over the walkie-talkie that each combat team had taken their positions.

Milton stared at the report showing the area where the helicopter had landed and gave the order: "Move out! Those on the perimeter, keep an eye out for anyone trying to escape. Don't let a single one get away until their identities are verified!"

As soon as he finished speaking, even Milton, who was sitting in the armored vehicle, felt a very slight "earthquake".

A low, muffled thud came from the ground not far away. The road surface bulged upwards as if struck by a giant hammer, with cracks spreading outwards like a spider web. All the dust and dirt were pushed up more than ten centimeters, as if a sandstorm had just passed!

Immediately afterwards...

boom!
An extremely terrifying explosion was heard, and a column of fire several meters high suddenly shot out from the sewer inspection port. Several concrete manhole covers were blown into the air by the blast wave and cement fragments were thrown down like raindrops!
A ditch more than ten meters wide was cut open in the middle of the street, and sewage mixed with feces gushed out from the broken cast iron pipe, which instantly vaporized under the high temperature!

At the same time, several huge fireballs exploded in various parts of the community.

Shortly after the horrific explosion, several people rushed out of the house, looking around anxiously.

Many of them were carrying guns. "Who?! Don't you know whose territory this is?"

"That son of a bitch... something flew into my mouth while I was talking, damn it, ugh—"

"vomit!!!"

"Which animal is blowing up shit?!"

"..."

These drug dealers had barely stepped out of the house, before they could even organize a counterattack... no, before they could even utter a few curses, they were forcibly contained on the spot.

"Shoot! Kill them!" Milton gave the order without hesitation. "Normal civilians who hear that kind of noise would just hide in a corner of the house, too scared to move. Anyone who dares to come out must be a drug dealer!"

Da da da da da…

As soon as the order was given, the vehicle-mounted machine gun and the soldiers following the vehicle opened fire simultaneously. Anyone who did not hide immediately but instead walked into the street looking around would be riddled with bullets.

Amidst the sounds of gunfire and screams, the drug dealers cried out as they tried to roll over and lie down, desperately seeking cover.

But when they saw the filthy things on the ground that had been scorched by fire, their instincts forced them to pause for a moment.

In that short time, machine gun bullets tore them to shreds.

The same scene was playing out everywhere on the street.

"Ahhh!" Finally, some drug dealers who managed to hide behind cover could not bear the humiliation of being buried by the sewer explosion and picked up their weapons to fight back.

Boom boom boom!
Many drug dealers carry submachine guns like the TEC-9 and UZI, a few carry Type 56 assault rifles, and the better ones carry AKMs.

But no matter what kind of gun it is, it is extremely ineffective when facing armored vehicles.

It serves no purpose other than revealing one's location.

12.7x99mm heavy machine gun bullets, as big as a bowl, swept over!

Wow…

Many drug dealers' bodies were immediately smeared with pieces, mixed with the contents of the sewers.

After countless more people died, drug dealers finally realized what was happening.

"Run!"

"Quick, get to the boss's place! There are people there, heavy machine guns, and RPGs!"

"A heavy machine gun can penetrate the armor of this kind of tank!"

"Don't fight them here, ugh!"

Milton watched the drug dealers begin their hasty retreat, sighing as he tried to kill them as many as possible.

"Unfortunately... there were too many people, and they were deliberately spreading out."

"So many drug dealers..." Flora's expression turned serious. "It's a bit scary. These are just the ones who are bold enough to pull out guns and fight at the slightest noise. The real number is probably much higher."

Milton was already prepared: "Drug traffickers are deeply entrenched in this land...it's normal."

“In some places, it’s like a concrete floor, where drug dealers can only crawl out from the cracks in the ground and grow secretly, and they will soon be wiped out… But here, drug dealers can thrive in every corner of the fertile soil.”

“We need to eradicate not only individual drug dealers, but also this land that breeds drug dealers. This is not an easy task.”

Flora nodded in deep agreement: "Yes...we need to address this from many angles: education, investment, reform, and..."

Milton interrupted in a flat tone: "I mean, killing them all is not an easy task."

Flora: "?"

Brandon immediately raised his hand in agreement: "Yes, that's right, that's exactly right! If we can't solve the problem, can't we at least solve the people who created it?"

"You guys are too..."

Before Flora could finish speaking, a huge shadow suddenly appeared not far away, blocking out the sky.

Accompanied by the "click-clack" sound of propellers and engines!

This is……

"A helicopter!" Milton turned his head abruptly. "Their helicopter has taken off, right here, right now?!"

Without waiting for a reply, Milton had already seen everything through the observation equipment.

A Bell 212 helicopter carrying several fully armed soldiers appeared directly in front of Milton, right in the center of the anti-aircraft gun's sights!

Milton paused for a moment, then instinctively fired three long bursts at the helicopter and its flight path, unleashing a barrage of bullets.

A barrage of 20mm shells flew towards the helicopter's engine—

At such close range, the helicopter simply had no way or time to evade the high-velocity and extremely dense firepower of the anti-aircraft guns.

One shell tore through the casing of the left turbine engine, the second hit the main rotor drive shaft, and the third penetrated the connection structure between the tail boom and the main fuselage.

The sharp, tearing sound of metal instantly drowned out the roar of the engine, and the helicopter, which had just climbed, immediately began to spin out of control.

The distance was so close that many people even saw the pilot frantically pulling on the control stick in the helicopter cockpit... But the out-of-balance aircraft didn't listen to him at all and plummeted straight towards Milton!

The nose of the plane hit the ground first, creating a large amount of sparks, and then rolled all the way until it crashed into a house and barely came to a stop.

Fortunately, due to the extremely low altitude, the helicopter did not damage the fuel tank or cause fatal injuries to the occupants when it crashed.

Amidst the thick smoke, several former Mexican GAFE soldiers struggled to crawl out, looking utterly disheveled.

At this point, their minds hadn't even quite grasped the situation.

Didn't we agree to come to the poorest state and beat up some incompetent country bumpkins?

Dealing with these people is like a game of cat and mouse: soldiers with bulletproof vests, advanced combat experience, and efficient teamwork.
As a result, the toilet exploded while the eldest brother was using it!
It hasn't been dug up yet.

The others had barely taken off when they were shot down by the enemy's anti-aircraft guns... Their efficiency was so high that it was nothing like the kind of small warlords or big gangs one might imagine.

As soon as they climbed out of the helicopter wreckage, several guns were pointed at their heads, while other officers flanked them from the side and disarmed them within a second.

"Surrender, we surrender!!!"

Milton glanced at the group and asked, "Who are you, and what's your background?"

“We are retired soldiers of the Mexican Special Forces! We have many old comrades-in-arms, we are brothers... You, you are Milton, right? You must be Milton, right? You have many enemies, you can't afford to offend us again!”

It really was Cardenas's team, the core members of the future "Seta Group"!

The core member of the Zeta Cartel, who was touted as the most ruthless and responsible for the most atrocities in the future, causing the Mexican government endless headaches, is now lying at Milton's feet begging for mercy.

It is enough to know that they are Cardenas's team and not people sent by the Gulf Group.

“What can I say…”

Milton shook his head mockingly at the men, then raised his gun, pulled the trigger, and quickly killed them all.

It wasn't that Milton didn't want to use his old artist's talents, but the community environment was too complicated. Not all the drug dealers were dead, and there were still many RPGs and heavy machine guns. The armored vehicle couldn't stay here for too long.

"'Wine bottles,' search the helicopter for any valuable items. Everyone, begin evacuation."

Flora didn't need Milton to say anything more; she had already started heading that way.

After waving her hand to disperse the smoke, Flora glanced inside the aircraft.

"Holy crap! 'Tax collector,' come quick! We've struck it rich! These guys are really up to no good!"

Upon hearing this, Milton immediately stepped forward and looked in the direction Flora was pointing.

A cylindrical launch tube, about 1.8 meters tall, combined with various optical sights, connectors, antennas, and so on, resembling a "complex rocket launcher," lay stiffly on the ground.

There were also six loose pieces of ammunition nearby—luckily the helicopter wasn't seriously damaged in the crash, otherwise the ammunition would definitely have exploded.

Even Milton broke out in a cold sweat.

"This is... an FIM-92?! They even brought this thing to deal with me?"

In simpler terms, this is a Stinger anti-aircraft missile system!
The infrared + ultraviolet guidance system allows this missile to effectively avoid interference, at least when facing the air forces of countries in Latin America.

At this point in 1994, in this place now, it was a super weapon against enemy air force, an anti-aircraft weapon that hadn't even been unlocked yet!

Although it is still somewhat inadequate for dealing with fixed-wing aircraft, it is still better than the SAM-7, which has nine air defenses out of ten, and can at least pose a very high threat.

They're after Milton's A-37 Dragonfly attack aircraft!
Just imagine, if we don't take them out today, the next time a Dragonfly attack aircraft goes on a raid, we might get hit by a missile like this...

"very good."

"Don't the Guatemalan regular army like airstrikes? It's time to give them a surprise."

"Grab the stuff!" Milton waved his hand. "Let's retreat!"

An experienced author with a seasoned writing style, delivering satisfying moments without causing the protagonist unnecessary suffering. The football matches are atmospheric, and the off-field lives of the stars and the workings of the football world are portrayed realistically and immersively. It can be read as a period novel focusing on football.

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(End of this chapter)