Taxes are only within machine gun range!

Chapter 244 You're treating self-propelled artillery like tanks?!

“‘Godfather’, news from the intelligence department has arrived… The intelligence is accurate, but its timeliness is too poor, rendering it useless.”

That bloody march happened more than a month ago, and the intelligence gathered at that time is probably not very valuable anymore.

“It doesn’t matter, I’m not short of money.” Milton took a sip of his awful Americano. “I don’t know how that mother and son have been these past month. If they hadn’t been completely desperate, they probably wouldn’t have come looking for me. Families of people who have worked for me and sacrificed their lives should be treated well, no problem at all.”

Flora yawned widely beside her: "While we're completely still, the enemy has reinforced their defenses considerably. I think if we don't fight soon, it'll likely turn into a protracted war."

“Just wait for today’s news,” Milton said. “The flyers I’ve prepared can be put out to the public immediately.”

In order to thoroughly demoralize the enemy, Milton wrote many easy-to-understand leaflets that made the key points clear at a glance.

The Mexican peso has plummeted, and state governments are about to be unable to pay their soldiers' salaries!

The impact of unpaid wages on morale and combat effectiveness in the military has been devastating throughout history.

Tell the soldiers that the pesos they have are now worthless, and that in the future they will only receive worthless paper, and that the state government might not even be able to afford to pay them. Naturally, the enemy's morale will waver.

Because Milton didn't actually lie.

Morning arrived quickly, and Milton sat in the officers' mess hall, eating a Mexican-style fried rice dish—a dish with diced ham, carrots, and green beans, which suited Milton's taste perfectly.

The television on the wall had just finished broadcasting the weather forecast, and before the closing music had even finished, the midday news anchor hurriedly appeared on the screen, clutching several sheets of script tightly in his hand.

“I just received an urgent notification,” her voice was a little strained, unlike the usual relaxed and steady tone of a presenter, “The Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank held a joint press conference a few minutes ago…”

"They announced that, effective today, the exchange rate band between the peso and the dollar will be adjusted."

"The peso exchange rate will fluctuate more widely and will no longer remain within the previous fixed range..."

"This adjustment is in response to the current foreign exchange market situation, and the government will take necessary measures to stabilize the economy..."

"..."

Many people didn't quite understand the meaning of this sentence. They looked at each other and asked, "What does this mean? Is the peso worth more or less?"

"I didn't understand, but I think it's worth less now. If money is worth more, why would the host have that expression? She should be very happy, or she should be speaking in a tone of announcing good news."

"A floating range? To put it bluntly, it means the peso is going to depreciate!" An officer, clearly more knowledgeable about these matters, succinctly stated, "The Mexican government used to peg the exchange rate to the wall, but now they've finally exhausted their foreign exchange reserves and can't hold on any longer, so they're going to let it drop!"

"A sharp drop in prices might mean the enemy won't even be able to pay their salaries!"

"This, this might be our chance..."

Upon hearing this, the officers present suddenly fell silent.

opportunity?

Actually, people have been wondering for a long time why Mr. "Hell Tax Collector" hasn't launched an attack yet, even though he has all the equipment ready and his attempts to sabotage behind enemy lines have failed...

The answer many people received was to wait for an "opportunity".

No one knows exactly what this opportunity refers to.

Now, they seem to realize... this is their opportunity!
"Hellish tax collectors," they can even predict things like this in advance?!

Flora wasn't very knowledgeable about economics. Watching the news, she asked, "With this decoupling of the exchange rate, how much will the peso depreciate against the dollar?"

"In a very short time, the decline can reach 50%... After the entire economic crisis, the decline is estimated to be at least 70%. This is a crisis affecting the whole of Latin America, and it will not be easy to get through."

"In other words, Guatemala, or the Alzu government, will also be severely affected by this economic crisis—its fiscal situation was already very bad, and it had already leveraged its resources to speculate on food prices. Now, with this shock, well..."

"That is to say, our current economy is relatively closed and self-sufficient, so it has not been greatly affected."

Since the outbreak of this peso crisis, the entire Latin America has fallen into recession.

As the second-largest economy in Latin America, Mexico's rapid collapse of its exchange rate system and its meager foreign exchange reserves have made many investors realize one thing—

Many Latin American countries have economic structures that rely on external financing, have high current account deficits, and have limited foreign exchange reserves, which pose structural risks. Their economic models are, in fact, very fragile.

This led to a "safe haven" for global capital in Latin American markets, with many countries that were previously net recipients of foreign investment turning into net recipients of foreign investment overnight.

Financing costs soared, and foreign exchange reserves were sold off...

All of this was a devastating blow to the Alsu government, which was already on the brink of collapse.

Not long after Milton finished speaking, an intelligence officer walked in excitedly.

"Mr. Godfather, good news!"

"Suddenly, a large amount of cheap grain appeared on the market, much cheaper than yesterday's market price, even cheaper than the government's grain price!"

Previously, due to unusually high demand, market grain prices were much higher than the standards set by the Milton government.

The Arsu government has consistently used this unusually high price to purchase grain.

Now that we're selling, we can only sell at such a low price...

In other words, the Arsu government's high-level purchase finally gave way, and it went bankrupt.

Next, endless troubles await him.

The collapse of a country's government finances has completely different effects than personal bankruptcy and corporate failure. The biggest gap is that the currency issued by the government and guaranteed by the government's credit will be greatly affected.

However, the problem with the money supply will, in turn, make the economic situation even worse.

“Very good.” Milton smiled. “Then let’s buy some too, to bring our food reserves to a safe threshold… sell them to Arsu at a high price, and buy them back at a low price. The profit from this will be our military expenses.”

"The Arsu government will inevitably fall into chaos in the next few days... There will be no problems on the front lines, this is the opportunity I've been waiting for."

"After the meal, notify all soldiers to assemble immediately and await combat orders."

"Roger that!"

"..."

……

Palenque.

The base of the 31st Brigade in Mexico.

"What? The peso dropped 30% today?! Does that mean I didn't do anything, and 30% of my money disappeared? And in just one day?"

Brigadier General Badr listened to the phone call, his voice trembling with disbelief as he asked, "In a few days, things might get even worse?!"

"What about our military budget? Does that mean our military budget will also be cut in half?!"

"Do you really think I and my soldiers are fools?"

"..."

Across from him came Governor Fede's weary voice: "We can't do anything about it... Is life really that easy for the Chiapas state government? The richest region, Tapachula, has broken free of our control. Not only are they not paying a single penny in taxes, but they've also launched an attack on us, exacerbating our expenses."

"Did any profits from oil and hydropower end up in the state government's pocket?"

"Milton has broken through again, and if the peso crashes again, there's nothing we can do!"

Badr cursed, "So you mean we have to figure it out ourselves? A bunch of useless politicians, you're done for!"

boom!
The general slammed the phone down, his face contorted with rage.

"General... this... this can't be blamed on the governor, can it?" an aide asked in a low voice. "It seems like the federal government caused this mess?"

Badr sneered: "If that were really the case, would I still call and yell at him? Would Fied just obediently let me yell at him? He doesn't know anything. He expected it all along. Don't think I don't know that recently someone has been desperately converting their pesos into dollars and other assets!"

“He’s just afraid that if he leaks the information to us, we’ll do the same, we’ll compete with him for quality assets, and it will make it more expensive for him to sell his pesos!”

"That damn, selfish, two-faced, disgusting politician."

The aide's face immediately turned grim: "Doesn't he know what kind of terrifying monster an army becomes when it's broke?"

Does he think that Bader can cut the soldiers' wages just because he revealed his identity as a general?
Once the soldiers mutini, no matter what brigade commander or brigadier general they are, it won't matter.

Badr tapped the table and took a deep breath: "Instead of letting the soldiers mutini, I'd rather lead them to make money... We have guns, we have the CJNG as allies, are we afraid of not being able to make money? These damn civilian governments are forcing us to become militarists, then we'll become militarists to show them!"

If you don't have money, team up with drug dealers; you'll always be able to get some.

One aide strongly agreed: "Right now, Vic in the Tapachula government is keeping a close eye on us, and Milton is eyeing the oil here. If we experience an internal crisis now, Milton will definitely attack..."

Bader let out a sigh of relief: "Tapachula, Vic... I remember, after Vic was successfully elected mayor of Tapachula, he started converting all of Tapachula's peso reserves into other assets unrelated to pesos."

"I thought he was worried about being targeted by the federal government, but now it seems that he had anticipated this situation and was preparing in advance."

"If I'm not mistaken, he, including Milton, was even shorting the peso and making a fortune from it..."

The advisor then said, "General, Milton might take advantage of the situation and attack. Should we strengthen our defenses?"

“Of course we need to strengthen our defenses,” Bader nodded. “The Arsu government has already informed us that Milton has purchased six new tanks, most likely in preparation for attacking us.”

"By the way, before we resolve the economic issues, we must keep the news under wraps. The soldiers can't know that their assets are about to be halved. We need to explain this to them gradually, making them believe that we're cooperating with drug cartels and can earn dollars." "If all else fails... don't forget, we still have Americans, and we can contact the CIA!"

The adjutants nodded, but one of them thought for a moment and then voiced his concern: "General, Milton is rather cunning. We've blocked the news, but I'm afraid he'll spread rumors within the army. What should we do?"

That is indeed a problem...

Anyone who has fought Milton knows that Milton not only has big, powerful punches, but he also goes to great lengths to establish advantages before he even starts a fight.

Whether it's demoralizing people or causing various forms of sabotage.

“Re-strengthen the lockdown in Palenque, preventing people from leaving or entering. I heard they relaxed controls recently, allowing many people to escape. This situation must be stopped in the near future. Also, have the mayor control the television channels and electricity, restricting other people’s access to information.”

“We have many anti-aircraft guns and anti-aircraft missiles in our positions, which can stop Milton’s planes from dropping leaflets.”

Badr explained the arrangements in great detail to his adjutants.

There's no other way; when facing an opponent like Milton, you can only be as cautious as possible.

After giving his instructions, Badr pressed his index finger to his temple, wondering if he had forgotten anything.

“Well… one last thing,” Bader said. “If we can’t hold out after engaging Milton, then we should retreat in an orderly manner. The enemy is strong, and setbacks are normal and will not be punished. We must keep the soldiers calm and prevent them from collapsing.”

"Any lost position must be reported immediately."

"Because losing ground means Milton can move further forward and directly threaten our artillery positions and our air defense positions, so the front line has to retreat, and these must also retreat with it."

"The temporary loss of front-line positions is not a problem. As long as our anti-aircraft firepower is there, as long as our howitzer positions are there, we can launch a counterattack. Milton will pay a heavy price for every step he takes forward."

To be honest, these most basic things shouldn't have been said by a general like him.

But there was no other way; the quality of the soldiers under my command was too poor, their morale was too low, and the blockade of external information might leak out, so I had to say more to stabilize morale.

Badr was not lying. The command post and all the long-range firepower in the rear were outside the range of Milton's towed artillery. The task of the front-line infantry was to delay the advance of Milton's armored forces, giving their own artillery enough time to fire and retreat.

As long as the cannons are firing, Milton must either abandon the attack or brave the shells and launch a full-scale assault.

Either choice will only dull Milton's sharp sword with each strike.

As for Milton's risky move of hauling the towed cannons to the front lines, Bader believed that Milton would not have done such a foolish thing if he did not want his entire army to be wiped out.

The 31st Brigade has anti-artillery radar, and more than one!
Given the cumbersome nature of towed artillery, if it dared to fire even one shot, it would be covered by counter-fire from all directions within 3 minutes, with a survival time of no more than 5 minutes.

A towed artillery piece with a lifespan of only 5 minutes? Even the US military wouldn't dare fight like that, let alone Milton.

Moreover, as the battle lines stretch further and further, the balance of power between the two sides is likely to gradually reverse... Badr did a simple mental calculation and believed that the probability of his side holding on was still quite high.

If we can hold out until this economic crisis is over and the Alsu government has caught its breath, we might be able to launch a two-pronged attack and completely drive Milton away.

Bader had completely lost hope in the Mexican federal government at this point—it was already at a critical juncture of leadership transition, and now the peso had plummeted, the federal government's finances had completely collapsed, and riots would soon break out across the country. Money was needed everywhere, and fires needed to be extinguished everywhere.

The matter of Chiapas, a poor and remote state, is simply not worth mentioning... The 31st Brigade is already lucky that it is not owed wages, and it is impossible to expect any substantial support from the federal government.

Watching his men rush out, Bader thought to himself that Milton was really lucky.

Just then, a scout suddenly burst into the command post, panting heavily.

"General!"

"Milton's troops have been mobilized!"

"They're coming to attack us! The people up ahead say they've seen tanks and a lot of armored vehicles. This isn't a feint or a test; Milton is coming to fight us!"

Badr remained calm, waving his hand and saying, "As expected... It would be unlike him if Milton didn't come to fight at such a good opportunity. Don't panic, we've already made arrangements, just wait for him to come."

“Milton is a great fighter, he knows how to seize opportunities, he’s very talented… but I’m going to teach him a lesson: not every opportunity has to be seized.”

"Let him fight!"

"All soldiers, proceed with the defense as previously arranged."

At this moment, the booming sound of artillery could be heard in the distance, indicating that Milton's artillery positions had been set up and were now bombarding the front line.

"Roger that!"

"..."

Badr sat calmly in the command room, processing messages from one mid-level officer after another and responding methodically.

Just as he had anticipated, Milton's initial attack did cause some trouble, but with the help of artillery fire, the soldiers did not collapse at the first contact.

The frontline position was held for a full hour before being tactically abandoned in a very orderly manner, and the soldiers retreated in an orderly fashion.

With well-equipped anti-aircraft firepower, Milton's planes dared not get too close, and could only fire a few rockets from a distance, causing virtually no damage...

Boom! Bang bang bang...

After the minesweeper blasted a safe passage, Milton's tank force advanced at full speed. Under the attack of machine guns and tank cannons, the forward defense line composed of drug dealers and ragtag soldiers put up only the most basic resistance before being mercilessly crushed.

The surviving drug dealers and soldiers fled in disarray from the half-collapsed bunker, trying to hide in the defensive lines behind them.

Logically speaking, this situation could easily trigger a chain reaction. If morale is low, the fleeing soldiers at the front could easily overwhelm the soldiers at the rear, causing the entire army to fall like dominoes.

The soldiers of the 31st Brigade, who had just been encouraged, regained their morale under the reassurance of their officers. Some soldiers even carried rocket launchers in the trenches and fired at Milton's tanks!

Da da da……

Almost immediately, machine gun fire and mortar fire from further away came raining down. Machine gun bullets shattered the enemy's body armor, and mortar shells blasted the remaining enemy in the trenches to pieces.

But the armor-piercing shell actually hit the frontal armor of the Type 59, exploding into a cloud of sparks and thick smoke!

As the thick smoke dissipated, a large section of the explosive reactive armor hanging in front of the tank was gone. The frontal armor was intact, but the tank's speed had decreased significantly.

It appears that the sights have suffered some degree of damage...

The artillery of the Mexican 31st Infantry Brigade finally began to counterattack, and shells fell on the battlefield, visibly slowing Milton's offensive.

"Milton's men can't handle this, hahaha!!!"

"It's not as strong as they say."

"Tanks are nothing special..."

"Ha! So they're the only ones with howitzers? We have them too."

"..."

Good news kept coming to Badr’s ears via radio… Although the situation at the front still seemed to be on the defensive, Milton’s army no longer had the feeling of being “unstoppable” as before.

If Milton doesn't give up the attack, then casualties on his side will be inevitable...

At that moment, an adjutant was running towards him, looking happy, as if he had brought good news.

Just as he was thinking this, a large-caliber artillery shell suddenly fell from the sky at an extremely high speed.

Large-caliber howitzer, high-explosive shells!
Right in front of Badr!
boom! ! !
A dull drumbeat rang out, and the flames and shockwaves instantly shredded the adjutant into a charred pulp, with bits of flesh and bone shards raining down on Badr!
The powerful shockwave also blew Badr away, sending him flying back into the command room and slamming him against the wall!

Even the heart seemed to stop pumping blood for several seconds at that moment!
The scorching air burned his lungs, and the overpressure almost crushed them into a flat, thin sheet!

Death was imminent. Bader was dizzy for a while before struggling to use his hands and feet, his vision blurred by lack of blood and his hearing severely impaired, to force himself to find his way and crawl toward the basement.

Boom boom boom...

The terrifying, continuous explosions reached his ears—if another shell exploded near him before he crawled into the basement, Badr would surely be dead.

But he was lucky; he didn't hear the explosion from above until he reached a safe place.

The shelling lasted for a full minute, with at least 30 large-caliber howitzer shells raining down... That's the firepower of a whole heavy artillery company!
Bader was both shocked and furious—how dare Milton? Did he really dare to bring his howitzers over for a decapitation strike and take such a military gamble?

Then just wait to die. Our counter-fire can destroy all of Milton's artillery in an instant!
Just as Badr was sitting in his seat, catching his breath and waiting for the good news that Milton's artillery battery had been wiped out, an adjutant pushed open the door of the bombed-out command post and rushed into the basement.

He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that Badr was still alive.

Bader took a breath and asked, "So, did you take out Milton's artillery?"

The adjutant reported, "General, we've spotted a type of enemy tank—uh, a very strange one?"

"what?"

"Yes, the cannon barrel is very long and very big..."

Badr froze on the spot, then a feeling of absurdity and rage welled up inside him. Ignoring his serious injuries, he almost roared, "Tanks?!"

"What the hell are you calling that tank?"

"That's a self-propelled artillery piece!!!"

(End of this chapter)