Taxes are only within machine gun range!

Chapter 246 "The Battle to Protect the Unit Number" (Seeking monthly votes)
First Special Heavy Artillery Company.

Boom boom boom...

The roar of turbocharged engines filled the air as six self-propelled tracks rolled over gravel and came to an open space, gradually slowing down.

The captain, the heavy artillery company commander, had just hung up the vehicle-mounted radio, his expression slightly grave.

"Everyone, speed up! Faster!"

"The enemy has discovered us and has dispatched an armored mobile force to annihilate us. They have now suppressed the blocking forces and are risking their lives to buy us time!"

"Our drones are running out soon. We must destroy as many enemy air defense positions as possible before the reconnaissance system goes offline temporarily!"

"The earthen slope on the right ahead, 200 meters away," the company commander shouted, clinging to the hatch, "Stop!"

"Yes!"

With time running out and the task heavy, the soldiers stepped on the brakes, bringing the six "Hyacinth" vehicles to a steady stop.

"Set up the spade... keep an eye on the level and wind vane!"

The gunners at the rear rushed to the crank handles on both sides at top speed. The iron spade supports, driven by gears, made a friction sound as they were lubricated, and were steadily lowered, firmly securing the massive self-propelled artillery!
At the same time, the gunner was lying on the sight, turning the elevation handwheel with his right hand, and the gun barrel was raised at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"Azimuth... Angle of fire..." A sergeant, tensely relying on his experience from a month of grueling training, shouted without looking up, "Distance 13000 meters, sights..."

The loader had already run over carrying a 152mm high-explosive shell, stuffed the ammunition into the breech, used his shoulder to push the shell into place, and pulled up the breechblock.

"Loading complete!"

The company commander glanced at the timer and shouted, "Fire!"

Boom! Boom! Boom! He had just finished shouting when the sound of heavy artillery roared, accompanied by a cloud of dust, and even the rubble around the outpost was shaken to its core!
The high-explosive shells were ejected from the barrel at extremely high speed and flew into the sky, but all the gunners were squatting on the ground. No one looked at the firing direction. Instead, they continued to do what they were doing, immediately ejecting the shells, kicking aside the still smoking and scalding hot shell casings, and loading the howitzer with the next round.

Fifteen seconds later, news came from the drone reconnaissance team that was directly coordinating with the artillery.

"This round of shelling has successfully covered the target!"

Milton allocated a large amount of information resources to this heavy artillery company, enabling them to fight with extremely high efficiency!
Upon hearing the good news from the reconnaissance unit, the company commander continued without hesitation, "First round, hit! Second round, rapid fire, 6 rounds!"

boom! boom! boom……

High-explosive shells were blasted into the sky one after another—this round of firing contained more than 40 shells, enough to level that air defense position.

Before the contrail of the third shell had even disappeared, the company commander shouted almost as the seconds ticked away, "Withdraw! Pack up the spades! We still have 5 targets!"

The temperature was below 10 degrees Celsius, but the soldiers were all sweating profusely. They rushed to the crank handle as fast as they could, turned it in the opposite direction, and put away the spade.

The cannon barrel has also been lowered.

Boom boom boom...

The tracks of the self-propelled gun turned, carrying the gun away from the abandoned position.

The company commander stood on the command vehicle, leading the entire heavy artillery company to quickly move towards the next target location. At the same time, he kept looking behind him, tapping his fingers incessantly on the vehicle beside him.

A minute later, the company commander suddenly saw several streaks of white smoke streak across the sky, and shells fell violently, causing a series of loud roars behind him.

That's where they just fired—an abandoned artillery position!

Just one minute after they withdrew, the enemy's artillery fire covered the position.

The company commander frowned and said with some surprise, "Strange... The enemy clearly knew that we had self-propelled artillery, so why did they still fire back? Brigadier General Bader seems to be quite capable, otherwise the 31st Brigade would have collapsed by now."

"He must know that counter-battery radar poses a limited threat to self-propelled artillery. As long as the timing is right, the self-propelled artillery can escape far away before the counter-fire arrives... His counter-attack will not only be useless, but will also expose the location of his own artillery positions."

If it were the army under Lopez's command, they would probably all flee after suffering such a blow.

The fact that things have remained stable until now shows that Badr is at least not that incompetent.

The deputy platoon leader thought for a moment and asked, "How about we ask Mr. 'Hell Tax Collector'?"

"Okay." The company commander immediately notified the communications soldier, and they were soon connected to the command post. He got straight to the point, "'Godfather,' we've encountered enemy artillery fire again. Their position has been completely exposed. Should we take out their artillery position?"

The command vehicle of this heavy artillery company was also equipped with an AN/TPQ-37 counter-battery radar. After being counterattacked twice, it had already grasped the location of the enemy's artillery positions.

“Ignore it.” Milton’s calm voice came through. “Badr knows we have counter-battery radar. He’s deliberately stalling for time—he knows he can’t stop your shelling for the time being, so he wants to sacrifice the artillery positions in exchange for some time to move the air defense positions.”

"Don't forget, Badr's artillery is deployed in a dispersed manner. At most, one round of fire from you can destroy one towed artillery piece of the enemy. Using one artillery piece to delay the escape of the anti-aircraft positions is very profitable for Badr."

"Even if you don't fall for it and continue to attack the predetermined target, such a counterattack can force you to change positions after firing a shot."

"Why is the enemy support team still putting up a stubborn resistance even though they have already been cut off and even if they can break through the blockade, they may not be able to capture you? Because they don't need to capture you. They just need to prolong the intervals between your fire to buy time for the air defense positions to withdraw."

"Right now, the most important thing for Bader is the sky. As long as he can keep the sky, he will still have the ability to persevere."

So... don't worry about it.

Time is tight and the task is heavy!

If Milton hadn't been so broke, he would definitely have formed another heavy artillery company to share the burden of such a large workload.

The company commander replied immediately and firmly, "Understood!"

"All personnel, listen up! Attack according to the original plan. We must intercept the enemy air defense positions before they retreat beyond our firing range."

"Yes!"

"..."

……

At this moment, the soldiers of the Mexican 31st Brigade, who should have been comfortably playing cards and drinking, waiting to reap the rewards of victory on the front lines, or waiting to retreat after defeat, were all pale-faced!

The news that they had entered the enemy's artillery range spread like wildfire, sweeping through the entire 31st Brigade at an alarming speed.

No one knows how the news spread, but everyone knows it's true!

"Run, run!"

"The shells are coming! They're going to hit us!"

Just as morale was low and mid-level officers were on the verge of losing control of their soldiers, gunshots rang out.

boom!
A bloody hole appeared in the body of a soldier who was trying to escape, and a large amount of blood gushed out from behind him!

A squad of soldiers drove up from a distance, and the leader shot the deserter without hesitation.

The heavy machine guns on the vehicle, poised and ready to fire, finally calmed the restless soldiers down.

"Everyone assemble here! You must be assembled within 3 minutes, or you will be court-martialed!"

The ordinary soldiers of the 31st Brigade dared not speak out in anger, and could only look at each other with extreme reluctance as they stood together.

Seeing that the situation had been stabilized, the supervisory team softened their tone slightly: "We're not sending you to your deaths, nor are we disregarding your lives... but a retreat in an orderly manner is essential! If you retreat in a rout and Milton catches up with you, do you think you'll survive?"

"We must hold onto the equipment in our positions so we can survive, understand?"

"Now, retreat in an orderly manner according to the training! Move all the air defense weapons to a safe place, then Milton's planes won't dare to fly over our heads!"

"Follow your commander's orders and retreat in an orderly manner—remember, we have not yet failed."

The soldiers breathed a sigh of relief and hurriedly went back to obey their superiors' orders to move the anti-aircraft guns.

However, due to their lack of training and the fact that some of them often overdosed on drugs and damaged their brains beyond recognition, the entire evacuation process was very difficult and various unexpected events frequently occurred.

As the supervisory team confiscated all communication equipment, they were furious at the chaotic state of the camp.

Boom boom boom...

Every so often, intense artillery fire would be heard nearby, signifying the destruction of an air defense position.

The ordinary soldiers didn't know, but the supervising officers and officers did. Milton's artillery was focusing on the anti-aircraft positions, and as long as they hadn't retreated to a safe place, a shell could be falling on their heads at any moment!
The artillery positions had desperately exposed their locations and launched a frantic counterattack, almost as if they were stuffing a letter into a shell and begging the enemy to attack them, but the enemy simply wouldn't fall for it.

So the supervisory team looked impressive, but they were actually quite panicked inside and couldn't wait to leave this hellish place.

"Hurry! Faster! Can you hear the cannon fire? Do you want those shells to fall on your heads? Hurry! Hurry!!!"

At this time, news also began to arrive from other positions.

Just as the officers had guessed, all the shells hit the air defense positions. Except for the field hospital near the air defense positions, which was hit by a slightly off-target round of artillery fire, and the command post, which served as the command center, which was decapitated once, all the remaining shells landed within the air defense positions.

The latest round of shelling has destroyed another air defense position!
Because the enemy's air power was not strong to begin with, Badr did not deploy too much anti-aircraft firepower... After such a bombardment, only 4 anti-aircraft positions are still in good working order.

In the next 10 minutes, the probability of them being blown to pieces is 25%!

With such a short time, evacuation was impossible, so the officers moved the anti-aircraft guns as fast as they could ever imagine, while praying that Milton would point the guns at his comrades instead of at them...

"Quickly, move the ammunition further away and load the lighter items onto the vehicle!"

"Don't block the way, you idiot! Get to the side of the road and do your work!"

"..."

Boom boom boom!
The walkie-talkie brought bad news: another air defense position had been hit by artillery fire, resulting in heavy casualties and the destruction of most of the air defense weapons.

There are 3 positions left, and a two-thirds survival rate.

At this moment, even the soldiers in the position who had not received the message seemed to realize something and quickened their pace once again.

"Can you even run? You can't run while carrying all this stuff? I could run when I was in sports school!"

"Die-hard, move! Move already!" A CJNG drug dealer couldn't help but tap his left and right shoulders and forehead with his fingers, praying, "God help me, don't hit me, don't hit me..."

"Stop praying, damn it! God has no business with 'hellish tax collectors'! Get to work!"

"..."

boom! boom! boom!
A while later, the sound of exploding shells could be heard again.

This round of shelling was aimed at another air defense position very close to them...

In a daze, the soldiers seemed to hear the screams of their comrades, feel the aftershocks of the shockwave coming from afar, and imagine the scene of shells hitting their heads.

"Only two air defense positions are left?"

"Will we make it in time?"

"We've got time. As long as Milton shoves the cannon barrel in the other direction, we can survive!"

"But it's only a one in half probability..."

"I managed to avoid it the last few times, why can't I avoid it this time? I just lost a lot of money. No one can be unlucky all the time. I lost money, but I can definitely win my life... A 50% chance is enough!"

"That's enough! The rest isn't important. Get in the car, run! Run!"

The supervising officers, who had been given a death order to die alongside their soldiers, were moved to tears and immediately ordered the driver: "Step on the gas, hurry up, run!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the familiar, chilling sound of cannons came from afar.

Boom boom boom...

Seeing this, the soldiers couldn't help but cheer: "Good! We've won!"

"A huge win!"

"We succeeded! We're retreating! Hahahaha!!!"

"Damn, this time we were at least 5 minutes faster than usual, no, 10 minutes faster! Is this what it feels like to unleash your potential?"

"Hahahaha! I survived! I survived!"

"We can go home for Christmas now!"

"..."

The entire speeding convoy erupted with an indescribable sense of excitement. The thrill of surviving a near-death experience was even more exhilarating than taking a drug, and it even released dopamine.

Friendly forces were bombed and suffered heavy casualties, but those nearby were cheering for it. It can only be said that this has a unique aesthetic of Latin American armies.

The convoy sped off towards the direction beyond the artillery's firing range when, just then, the radio received a call from command.

The speaker was none other than Brigadier General Badr himself. He coughed violently and asked in a hoarse voice, "What's the situation?"

"Reporting to the general, we have successfully retreated! We have successfully retreated with all the important equipment! We have won!"

Bader suppressed the urge to curse and continued, "Don't be careless. Milton won't give up the shelling. Although you've started moving, you're still within the range of the self-propelled artillery. You're not completely safe yet."

The captain broke out in a cold sweat, his smugness vanished, and he quickly asked, "General, what should we do?"

"Don't proceed at a constant speed along the road. You can take detours, suddenly accelerate, or suddenly decelerate... In short, don't let the enemy figure out your pattern of movement. Even though Milton's drones may be out of fuel and can't see you anymore, you still need to eliminate all risks, understand? This concerns your lives, so don't take it lightly."

"Understood!" The captain ended the call, turned around, and quickly gave orders to the convoy, "Slow down, slow down! Don't go so fast, our speed is too predictable. Milton has eyes in the sky; he might use our speed as a guide to attack us!"

"Fast isn't necessarily safe; sometimes fast, sometimes slow is the safest..."

Sure enough, not long after they slowed down, a round of artillery fire appeared right next to them... Although it was off-target, it dampened the team's sense of victory.

Speed ​​isn't important; irregularity is.

"slower!"

"Speed ​​up, speed up!"

"Go that way, yes!"

"..."

Finally, after driving at varying speeds and erratically, the convoy was about to leave the artillery's firing range.

"We're finally safe..."

"We're so lucky."

Without hesitation, the captain contacted Badr and reported, "General, we have moved out of the range of the self-propelled guns. Milton did attempt to fire, but without success."

“Not bad… For safety’s sake, we can deploy the anti-aircraft weapons by moving a little further out. Although there’s only one left, that one is enough to keep Milton from making any rash moves.” Bader let out a long sigh, as if his injuries had healed a bit. “Heh… After this battle, we’ll have to go back and purchase a batch of self-propelled anti-aircraft guns.”

The self-propelled anti-aircraft gun that Bader mentioned is a genuine self-propelled anti-aircraft gun, the kind equipped with vehicle-mounted anti-aircraft missiles!
There was no other way. Milton's equipment, though not much, was quite advanced and capable of maintaining a high degree of dynamism. Without some advanced equipment, they would be forced to remain passive at every turn.

If they had self-propelled anti-aircraft guns, Badr could calmly and easily move anti-aircraft fire to a safe location should an incident like today occur again.

Unlike this time, we don't have to disassemble it slowly.

"General, Milton's operation has failed. Have they retreated from the front lines?"

"Not for now... It's alright, the front lines can still hold out." Badr's voice returned to calm. "Heh, a very interesting opponent, but unfortunately, I've neutralized all his moves. Right now, we still maintain a numerical advantage, and our control over the skies is barely intact."

"If we're lucky, we might be able to repel Milton's attack within five days and have a happy and safe Christmas."

“I can report what’s going on here to the federal government… If we just need two self-propelled anti-aircraft guns, this passive situation we’re in today won’t happen again.”

"Milton's information about having self-propelled artillery has been completely exposed. He can no longer achieve such a surprise effect as he did today. From now on, our position deployment will be based on his possession of self-propelled artillery!"

"Hang in there, and we'll..."

"Buzzing..."

"..."

The captain, who had been listening with a smile on his face, paused when he suddenly heard the other person fall silent. He quickly asked, "General, what's wrong? Are you alright over there?"

This sudden silence is making me feel really uneasy!

Three seconds later, Badr's panicked voice rang out: "Quickly deploy the anti-aircraft guns! Use all available anti-aircraft weapons! Enemy planes are flying towards you at approximately a 40-degree angle to the southeast!!!"

The captain was stunned and didn't react: "Huh?!"

Badr was going crazy: "What the hell?! Do as I say, and enemy planes are coming, heading in your direction!!!"

It was only at this moment that Bader suddenly realized a very serious problem.

He successfully withdrew a set of air defense equipment... but the problem is that during the time it was transported to its destination and deployed, the airspace over the entire battlefield was undefended.

This window of opportunity is very short, but Milton will definitely be able to seize it!

Badr finally realized what kind of opponent he was facing.

"Ah, okay, okay, I'll go set it up right away!"

Snapped!
Badr, supporting himself with his cane, limped out of the backup command post and looked at the departing attack aircraft formation with a solemn expression.

As he saw the plane fly by, frontline combat personnel reported that they could see Milton's helicopter in the sky...

Boom... Boom!

Not long after, the explosions behind him reached Badr's ears, then slowly subsided.

For artillery, a distance of 20 kilometers and 30 kilometers represents a qualitative change from being within range to being outside range, but for aircraft, it is ridiculously short.

Along with the sound of the explosion, the air defense position and the radio station that never returned also vanished into thin air.

Bad news followed one after another.

"Report! The interception team has been completely scattered by an attack aircraft... The convoy was already stuck in a minefield and had no way to escape!"

"A bomb, suspected to be 500 kilograms in yield, directly destroyed one of our key defense points."

"...Second Infantry Battalion, Third Infantry Company...requires support...BOOM!"

Badr closed his eyes in anguish—he knew that such explosions would occur everywhere on the battlefield afterward.

"No, we must ask the federal government for help, otherwise we won't even make it to Christmas."

"Even with the current economic crisis, even if the federal government is short of money, this military expenditure cannot be spared!"

"Quickly, contact Fiedler and have him lobby those incompetent federal government officials!"

But to Bader's utter surprise, before he could even contact the federal government, it was the state government's liaison officer who called, conveying the federal government's message.

"General Bader!" The voice on the other end sounded surprisingly relaxed, as if he didn't take Milton's attack seriously. "I heard Milton has overestimated himself and launched an attack. How's the defense of Palenque going?"

It's important to understand that the 31st Brigade is a genuine regular army unit with four battalions, unlike the ragtag army that was annihilated before. Moreover, they had been deployed for a full month. In many people's eyes, Milton's small force charging over here was either a futile attempt or at least a recipe for disaster.

Milton's current configuration is less than two battalions, and most of them are people transferred from Tapachula. They are not even elite main forces, and they are on the offensive. How can they fight?
Badr laughed in anger as he watched the constant stream of bad news, his tone surprisingly calm.

"I'm not too sure how the Battle of Palenque is going."

"But I know that the Mexican 31st Infantry Brigade may soon be fighting to defend its designation."

P.S.: Please vote for me! I promise I'll make up for the ones I owe this month! Please!
(End of this chapter)