Taxes are only within machine gun range!

Chapter 245 Courage (Seeking guaranteed monthly votes)

Self-propelled howitzer!
This kind of battlefield intelligence is so important...

Milton's entire heavy artillery battery of self-propelled howitzers appeared on the battlefield. Badr's side had no intelligence before the battle, and no intelligence after they attacked. Even when Milton's shells were right in front of them, these idiots still couldn't bring reliable intelligence!

Doing business, using drugs, gambling... have completely destroyed the soul of this army.

Badr suppressed his anger and panic, and asked, "What exactly happened? Describe it in detail!"

The adjutant answered tremblingly, giving a general description of the appearance of those so-called "tanks".

Badr was even more furious and confused after hearing this: "That chassis with such a long gun barrel is clearly a 2S5, not a 2S19. How can you mistake this for a tank?!"

You can donate your eyes if you don't need them anymore!

The adjutant stammered an apology: "General... no matter what it is, we have already organized a counterattack! We will definitely make them suffer."

Upon hearing the word "counterattack," Badr felt a wave of dizziness wash over him, as if his injuries had worsened. He quickly asked, "Counterattack? How did you counterattack?"

"Yes, just like you instructed. Didn't you say that as soon as we were shelled, we should launch a counterattack against the enemy's artillery positions based on the information from the counter-battery radar?" the adjutant asked cautiously. "We did exactly as you said."

Upon hearing this answer, Badr was filled with rage and opened his mouth to curse—damn it, this tactic is for dealing with enemy mortar positions or towed artillery positions!
Traditional artillery positions are very slow to move, often taking up to an hour to move. Of course, they can be locked onto by counter-battery radar and subjected to fire coverage.

The enemy troops either abandoned their supplies and fled in panic, or were wiped out along with their artillery...

The problem is, Milton has a damn self-propelled gun!

With sufficient skill, the transfer speed can be controlled within 2 minutes.

By the time the counter-fire arrived, the area would have been nothing but an empty space.

Not only will they fail to strike the enemy, but they will also be caught by Milton's counter-battery radar, exposing the location of their own artillery positions!
If we had known earlier that Milton had self-propelled guns, Badr would definitely have made different tactical arrangements... But we can't even get this crucial intelligence that Milton has an extra heavy artillery unit, and we're completely transparent to Milton. Who can give us a targeted plan?
The real battlefield is far more terrifying than the "fog of war" in the game. Commanders can't see anything and can only make arrangements based on a large amount of messy intelligence and battle reports. They are not prophets and cannot predict what equipment the enemy has acquired without intelligence.

A single critical information gap could cause the entire tactical plan to collapse.

For example, even though Milton's self-propelled artillery had been spotted by scouts and should have emerged from the "fog," the commander, Badr, failed to receive the relevant information due to the scouts' poor skills.

Badr opened his mouth, but ultimately didn't utter the curse.

“Milton has completely outmaneuvered us in terms of information… How did he manage to acquire an entire company of self-propelled howitzers without anyone noticing or leaking a single word? The CIA certainly doesn’t know, if they did,”

The adjutant was still somewhat bewildered: "General, it's just six cannons that can move on their own, is the situation really that serious?"

"Serious?" Badr was almost desperate about the military acumen of his men. "Do you know how terrifying an artillery unit that can run around everywhere, where only they can fire at us, and we can't fire at them? This means all our original plans are null and void. Our supposedly safe rear, those important positions, equipment... are all within their shelling range! Do you understand?"

"If we delay any longer, our command post, our artillery positions, our fuel depots, our warehouses, our logistics supply lines, and our field hospitals will all be reduced to ruins!"

"Even air defense..."

Bader paused abruptly at this point.

Wait, air defense positions...

Seeing that the general remained silent, the adjutant immediately pressed, "General, what should we do? How should we counterattack? How should we defend?"

Completely ignoring the pain throughout his body, Badr practically jumped up from his seat: "Ignore everything else... anti-aircraft positions, immediately, without affecting the front line, move all available forces there! Quickly!!!"

"Damn it, if our air defense positions get destroyed, you'll see Milton's planes shitting on our heads the next second!"

"quick!!!"

The 2S5 has a rate of fire of 6 rounds per minute. Under extreme conditions, an artillery battery can fire 40 high-explosive shells in one minute. In other words, in one minute, they can send their rudimentary air defense positions into the air!

The adjutant instinctively turned his head, took a few steps, then turned back and asked, "General, how should we defend?"

Badr coughed up blood and said, "Don't we have assault guns, armored vehicles, and counter-battery radar? Follow this artillery unit and wipe them out at all costs! Hurry up... cough cough cough!"

The adjutant wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and quickly ran out of the half-collapsed command post. Stepping on the still-hot ground and the numerous charred limbs, he ran as fast as he could.

"..."

"Warning! All units, take cover immediately! Repeat, take cover immediately!"

"First Infantry Battalion, Second Artillery Company, received!"

"Roger that!"

"Hospital admission... Boom! Boom boom boom! Buzz buzz buzz..."

As the adjutant listened to the sounds of gunfire and looked toward the direction of the hospital, where no one answered his calls, a chill gradually crept into his heart.

He quickly relayed the counterattack order as Badr had instructed, then hurried to the backup command post and hid in a basement.

……

Rear of the Mexican 31st Infantry Brigade, air defense positions.

Some soldiers were squatting next to an anti-aircraft gun with drug dealers, eating and playing cards, which was nothing like being on a battlefield.

The roar of artillery fire at the front had little to do with them.

As the most important air defense positions, they are generally located at a considerable distance from the front line, at the innermost part of the layers of defense, and far from the enemy's artillery range.

Whenever there is a possibility of threat, this air defense position is the first to retreat.

In Latin America, where air force is extremely valuable and precious, the mission of this air defense force is also very, very easy—no one is willing to risk being shot down to carry out a mission, and as long as it remains in existence, enemy aircraft will not dare to come.

General Bader called this the "existence-based air defense theory".

Without actual combat, it can instill fear in the enemy air force, thus deterring them from entering its airspace and protecting air superiority.

"So many cannon shots..." A second lieutenant, a cigarette dangling from his lips, played with a deck of cards. "Tsk, I wonder how many people will die this time, and how many officers will be able to scam their own compensation money?"

"Enough talk, play your cards!" The captain slammed his fist on the table and threw down three cards. "How many people are in front of us is none of our business... Hey, whether we attack or retreat, we'll have a good time."

A CJNG drug dealer threw down a card and laughed loudly, "Yes, once we're in the city, the men will have to hand over their money obediently, and the women will have to take off their skirts obediently, or I'll hold them in the water and drown them, hahaha..."

At this time, they were playing a type of Chinese poker called "Poker Chino," which was very popular locally (although there is no such game in China). They were imagining life after the war and were having a great time gambling.

As for the person guarding the radio station, they probably don't know where he went to the toilet.

The next instant, a metal object shaped like a cone and cylinder fell from the sky at a parabolic angle, its enormous kinetic energy smashing the table where they were playing cards and raising a cloud of dust.

Everyone in the air defense position had a mental breakdown; they stared blankly at the shell in front of them, unable to react for a moment.

"This is?"

"A shell, falling from the sky... uh, a dud?"

"Holy crap!" Finally, someone realized what was happening and jumped up in terror. "Why are shells falling on us from the sky?!"

"You son of a bitch, that's because the enemy is attacking! Milton is attacking! The front lines must be collapsing, run!"

"Didn't they just attack? How could they collapse so quickly? If they could reach us, their entire army must have been wiped out before they even got here?"

“What’s impossible? Milton was attacked from both sides before, but he still managed to annihilate two or three thousand enemy troops. He can do anything. Run, or it will be too late.”

"Yes...he's Milton, after all..."

Wow!

Before the drug dealer could finish speaking, another shell fell from the sky and hit him squarely in the head—the grenade wasn't an armor-piercing shell, but it still easily crushed the fragile human body structure, turning the drug dealer almost from top to bottom into a meat patty made of minced flesh, internal organs, and broken bones!
In the blink of an eye, he was blasted into the world of anime by a supersonic projectile!
And this shell was no longer a dud.

boom!
The heatwave engulfed everything around it, drowning out the screams of the drug dealers and soldiers—the violent shock and high temperature also affected the dud that had hit the center of the anti-aircraft position but had not exploded.

The secondary explosion occurred.

boom! boom! boom!
Not only did the duds explode, but the ammunition boxes lying on the ground, the ammunition in the anti-aircraft guns, and the anti-aircraft missiles a little further away also detonated!

Before Milton's first round of shelling was even over, the entire air defense position had already been reduced to scorched earth, with explosions continuing to occur.

The vast majority of people inside the position were vaporized into carbon dust the instant the explosion occurred.

The soldier who left the radio station to urinate happened to witness everything—before he finished urinating, a wave of high-temperature air swept over him, and the urine vapor mixed with the smell of sulfur filled his lungs.

"vomit!"

"Cough cough cough!!!"

The soldier suffered severe burns to his corneas and lung walls, and struggled desperately on the ground until the entire round of shelling ended, with a full 40 high-explosive shells raining down. Only then did he manage to get up and stagger away in the rear.

Milton has broken through! Our army has been defeated! Run!

"Our army is defeated!"

"..."

...At the front lines, in Milton's command vehicle.

"...The enemy's deployment didn't show any major disruptions. Uh, they launched a counterattack using towed artillery. Badr's men are fighting in a formulaic way, aren't they?" Milton muttered. "Isn't that just suicide?"

Flora pondered for a moment, then summarized the intelligence at hand and shook her head with a hint of regret: "Well, news came from the front-line soldiers that the enemy's defenses have weakened somewhat, but the effect is not obvious. The enemy's command system has not completely failed."

"Our decapitation strike seems to have failed. At least we probably failed to take down their supreme commander, Brigadier General Bader, commander of the 31st Brigade."

“After all, he is a general in the regular army.” Milton nodded. “He is indeed significantly different from the ragtag soldiers we encountered before. You can tell from how quickly he was able to launch a counterattack using the counter-battery radar. At least he himself is quite capable.”

Flora shrugged: "It just seems that there's a significant disconnect between his subordinates and his thinking."

"We've already destroyed one air defense position. Once we take out the rest, our air force can move in."

Just as the two were urgently analyzing the battlefield situation and planning their next move, a voice came from outside.

“Reporting to Mr. ‘Godfather’.”

"explain."

"The drone detected unusual movements in the enemy's rear. They formed a team using various armored vehicles and other vehicles, and their direction of advance was very clear: towards the abandoned position of the First Special Heavy Artillery Company."

"They might be trying to find a way to bypass our artillery and take them out!"

Milton nodded slightly: "They finally realized we were self-propelled artillery and finally figured out how to retaliate. That's not easy."

Having ventured deep into enemy territory alone, it seems that Badr is willing to sacrifice his entire force to eliminate the threat of self-propelled artillery.

"Should we divide our forces to intercept the enemy?"

Milton's forces were small, and in order to attack the defensive line, the defensive forces in the rear were not many. The heavy artillery company was constantly moving around in the rear, looking for suitable positions and targets to attack, and there were not many guards there either.

“Hmm…” Milton thought about his stretched troops and pondered for a moment, “Let’s try to trick them first. If that doesn’t work, we can send reinforcements from the front.”

Flora was curious: "A scam?"

“Yes.” Milton nodded. “We fought our way here and cleared many safe routes with mine-clearing vehicles… some of which may also be alternative routes for this hastily assembled support team.”

“If they don’t go this way, they will have to take a much longer route.”

"Badr must be very anxious and pressing us hard... If I can think of a way to hint to these reinforcements that the passage we blasted out with minesweepers is very safe, would they risk taking the shorter route?"

“We have cleared the way forward and can continue to move forward... But in order to avoid being ambushed, outflanked, or having our artillery positions reached, we will also lay a large number of landmines, including various anti-personnel and anti-tank mines on the road that we blew out.”

"The truly safe routes are known only to officers of mid-ranking rank and above."

“But now I can arrange for some more mine-laying vehicles and soldiers to go to that area and pretend to lay mines—their minefields will deliberately avoid the roads that have been blasted open by the mine-laying vehicles, to imply to the enemy that the ‘highlighted’ roads are safe roads and are lightly guarded, with only a few scattered light infantry.”

"If they drive their car over there... haha!"

Flora thought for a moment and said, "It sounds like we could give it a try... but what if we fail? What if the enemy is cautious and doesn't step on the traps you set?"

“Then we can only deploy tanks from the front lines to intercept these reinforcements,” Milton said without hesitation. “We have detailed minefield maps and know where the safe roads are. Even if we set off a little later, we can still catch up with the enemy forces that are trying to take the same detour.”

"What about the front lines? If we divert some of these troops, progress at the front lines may be even slower."

Milton pointed to the sky and laughed, "As long as we keep the self-propelled artillery and let them fire freely, we can take care of them all before they move their air defense positions—then our air force can get in."

"The reason the enemy hasn't collapsed yet is because everyone, including mid-level officers, feels they still have hope and the resources to keep fighting. It must be said that Bader is a very clever man; he blocked the channels of information dissemination in advance, preventing news of the economic crisis from reaching the army for the time being."

"Completely eliminating their key rear targets will not only demoralize the enemy but also allow my transport planes to take off, telling them what's happening outside and that the value of their pesos is almost equal to that of toilet paper in a convenience store!"

Flora immediately replied, "Received!"

Soon, a light infantry unit, painted in camouflage, set off, guided by a drone, to follow the support team sent out by the Mexican 31st Brigade at a very long distance.

This light infantry unit was equipped with rocket launchers and a vehicle-mounted TOW anti-tank missile system. Their objective was equally simple: await orders, and once the enemy entered the target area, pursue them and attack the rear of the convoy at all costs.

The passage cleared by the mine-clearing vehicle is only one vehicle wide. If a vehicle in front hits a mine, the vehicle behind will be destroyed by anti-tank weapons, and the enemy's support squad will immediately become a bunch of iron coffins waiting to die.

"..."

"Charge!" The captain, having received Milton's order, accepted it without hesitation. After informing his soldiers, he shouted, "Brothers, this battle is going to be tough. Our enemy has real armored vehicles, cannons, and all heavy weapons..."

"But we cannot retreat! Only by completing the mission can our artillery continue firing, and only then can our comrades on the front lines survive under the cover of artillery fire!"

The second lieutenant, a former officer of the Tapachula Police Department, had a face full of deep hatred and a voice full of passion: "They swallowed our oil, they slaughtered our compatriots far away, they sold everything to the United States, turned the peso into worthless paper, and then claimed that we were rebels... They sold drugs to our children, and every time they took a city, they raped the wives and daughters of our brothers and sisters."

"Do you agree?"

"No way!" everyone roared. "Charge!"

"For the great war on drugs!"

"..."

Even knowing the enemy was powerful, they accepted this seemingly difficult task without hesitation.

After following for some distance, the scouts brought back some news.

"The enemy has slowed down their vehicles, seemingly hesitant about their next move..."

"They...they seem to be the army that suppressed the protest in Palenque more than a month ago? Damn, they killed so many of our intelligence agents!"

"..."

"The enemy convoy has changed direction; they're taking the shortcut—the road our minesweepers cleared... They're heading into our minefield!"

"Quickly, keep up! Prepare to attack and avenge our comrades!"

The convoy immediately sped towards the 31st Brigade support team.

boom!
As expected, the lead vehicle of the 31st Brigade volunteer team struck a mine after entering the minefield. Milton's interception team lived up to expectations, firing several rockets and missiles to successfully hit the rear vehicle, wiping out the entire support team.

However, the enemy was a regular army after all. In the midst of the chaos, an enemy officer managed to stabilize the morale of his troops, which was on the verge of collapse, and reorganized the support team. Using various cover, the support team launched a counterattack on the spot.

Boom boom boom…

Taking advantage of their firepower, the enemy began to try to use firepower to suppress the enemy and compensate for the disadvantage of their fortifications.

Clang, clang... The sound of exploding shell casings echoed from the ground.

A soldier, gripping his rifle, asked nervously, "Sir, what do we do?"

The lieutenant fell silent for a moment, seemingly recalling something.

He began, “Our previous battles were all conducted under the cover of Mr. Godfather’s superior firepower and air superiority… Now, without those, we can’t fight? Have you forgotten how we used to fight drug dealers in the streets and alleys?”

“Tell Mr. Godfather that we were not cowards before, and we are not now.”

"Tell those reactionaries and drug dealers in front that they can't compete with us in courage..."

"Brothers... Charge with me!"

"rush!"

"..."

Milton, who was waiting for intelligence in the command vehicle, soon received information from the battlefield—not good news from the sniper squad.

They managed to stop them, but the enemy was not easily intimidated by this light infantry force and immediately launched a counterattack...

On paper, the disadvantages in firepower and troop strength are quite significant.

Well... this little problem has a limited impact on the overall war situation. Withdrawing some frontline troops will still be enough to win, but the final losses may be a little greater than expected.

Preserving the self-propelled artillery is the most important objective.

Milton sighed inwardly before turning on the walkie-talkie:
"Objective accomplished, but the enemy hasn't given up resistance, has they...? Alright, I'll be sending heavy equipment over from the front lines. How much longer can you hold out?"

“Reporting, Mr. Godfather,” the officer on the other end replied firmly, “we can hold off the enemy for at least 24 hours.”

Milton looked up, somewhat taken aback.

"Please proceed with the original plan; we do not require support."

Milton paused for a moment, then replied, "I understand. Hold on. Ground support will arrive shortly after all enemy anti-aircraft positions are destroyed... Good luck."

Over there, only the crackling of electricity and the incessant sounds of gunfire could be heard.

P.S.: The Spanish word for "China" is different from the English one; it's spelled Chino.

(End of this chapter)