Taxes are only within machine gun range!

Chapter 248 The Badr Rebellion

After Milton moved his towed artillery positions forward, the density of artillery fire on the battlefield suddenly increased, and the enemy's defensive lines, which had been able to hold out for a while, finally succumbed to the overwhelming pressure.

This is the consequence of losing the ability to counterattack with artillery; once a disadvantage is established, it will snowball and grow larger and larger.

As soon as the tanks charged, several gaps were immediately torn in the defensive line!

Having lost its artillery positions and with various high-value targets, including vehicle-mounted and fixed anti-tank weapons, eliminated, the 31st Brigade has lost most of its means of threatening the king of land warfare.

The tanks, whose offensive had been repeatedly thwarted, finally unleashed their full power—trenches, fortresses, and defensive lines were all crushed to dust before their tracks.

Boom boom boom...

Milton's command vehicle also moved forward.

Meanwhile, Flora listened to several battle reports in the car and sighed, "The firing accuracy has dropped a lot, but thankfully the rocket launchers and towed guns have been moved over... It's not a big problem."

Milton paid close attention to these seemingly insignificant little problems and immediately asked, "What's going on?"

"It's still a logistical problem." Flora's expression was somewhat serious. "Our counter-battery radar power supply can't keep up, and our guided shell reserves have been depleted. Without the assistance of these equipment, our firing accuracy and speed have been greatly reduced."

Counter-battery radar can not only calculate the location of enemy artillery positions by the parabola of artillery shells, but also help friendly forces to calibrate their firepower, replacing experience with mathematics, and enabling rapid and precise strikes without the need for traditional artillery reconnaissance.

Guided shells can even overtake on curves, transforming mediocre gunners into elites among elites.

This also made Milton's army appear so powerful in the early stages.

With this equipment, an ordinary artillery unit that has less than six months of actual combat experience can become a modern artillery unit capable of rapid, indirect, and precise firing.

However, once logistics fall behind, counter-battery radars shut down, and guided shells are exhausted, their true colors will be revealed...

“The soldiers are working very hard, they just need time,” Milton said. “We’ve exposed quite a few problems in this battle, but none of them are fatal and can be corrected quickly.”

"What surprised me most was the enemy."

Milton pointed into the distance: "Look... even though the front line is about to be breached by us, even though some soldiers have started to desert, they are only retreating tactically. This at least shows that their middle and upper-ranking officers still have the will to resist and are not as fragile as we imagined."

"Moreover, the desertion of the lower-ranking soldiers was also because I sent out transport planes to publicize the economic crisis and the peso crisis on a large scale."

"Even a small brigade like the 31st Brigade, which is stationed on the border and has such deep ties with the CJNG, has this level of capability. The opponents we will face in the future will definitely be stronger. The road ahead is long and difficult..."

Having fought a direct battle with a regular army, Milton now feels a strong sense of crisis and is eager to take over the territory, secure the oil, and get the railway under construction as soon as possible.

Quickly take down Palenque, capture the oil fields, and see if there's any new equipment you can unlock!
Just then, Brandon suddenly knocked on the car door.

"Boss! Urgent news!"

Milton looked over and asked, "What news?"

"Winnie, it's that DEA agent who's looking for you."

Winnie... she had mentioned before that she was going to Tustra to investigate the CJNG, and Milton had even set up a safe house for her nearby, and also sold her some light equipment for self-defense.

It wasn't anything particularly good, just an MK-19 grenade launcher—an old one Milton had bought from "Ghost Wolf," an arms dealer in the town of Malacan, which he was now returning and selling to the DEA.

This isn't a revolver-like grenade launcher like the MGL; it's a grenade machine gun!
With a rate of fire exceeding 350 rounds per minute and an effective range of 2000 meters!
It's not that Winnie can't get it; as a field agent, if she really wanted it, she could definitely get it... It's just that buying it from Milton would be a complete black box, which could have unexpected effects.

“I understand.” Milton jumped out of the car, followed Brandon to the communications vehicle, and took the radio. “Winnie, this is Milton. What can I do for you?”

Winnie answered very quickly: "We ran into the CIA."

"Have they forgotten the pain once the wound has healed? Have they even cleaned up their own mess before coming here?" Milton laughed. "This is regular army fighting each other now. CIASAD, you should go to the kids' table. How's the result? How many people were killed?"

No matter how powerful a special forces unit is, even if they are the superhuman, well-equipped, and super-soldier-like special forces soldiers in the movies, they have no right to touch a regular army.

Winnie sighed and said, "It was a Pyrrhic victory, a lose-lose situation."

Milton found it odd: "That shouldn't be the case... Even if they were colluding with CJNG, with the weapons I provided you, it shouldn't have been a Pyrrhic victory, right? Were you ambushed? Did you get ambushed a second time by SAD on your way back to the safe house after exchanging fire with CJNG?"

“If only that were true.” Winnie’s tone was serious. “You were right about the first part. We’ve done a decapitation of CJNG. ‘Archer’ Julio’s core members have been severely damaged. Apart from him escaping by luck, his core deputy and core guards have all been eliminated by us.”

"The SAD did come later, but we quickly repelled them. The process went very smoothly, and we didn't even have to use your, no, my MK-19."

Milton tapped the receiver: "Well... they shouldn't be that weak."

“At the time, we didn’t think too much about it. CIASAD isn’t just a military organization. Everything they do is within logic, and they might even simply not want anyone to die,” Winnie’s voice continued. “But later, we encountered another premeditated ambush.”

Winnie didn't keep them in suspense. After a half-second pause, she said, "MK-19 instantly suppressed these ambushers, but their combat power was really strong. Even under these circumstances, they took down several of our agents... In the end, we killed the vast majority of the enemies, but a few of them still managed to escape."

"They are seals."

seal.

Navy SEALs.

One of the world's top ten special forces, renowned far and wide, needs no further introduction; its very name is intimidating enough.

“Navy SEALs?” Milton’s voice was calm. “The US military has intervened?”

Although both are special forces and both are famous, CIASAD and SEALs are completely different concepts!
SAD is more like an assassin in the shadows, primarily reshaping the geopolitical landscape through covert operations.

The SEALs are already part of the U.S. military and are designed to directly achieve military objectives!
If the Navy SEALs get involved, Milton really needs to think twice...

Thankfully, Winnie quickly added, "Not an active SEAL... a retired MPRI SEAL, but this is already a signal, understand?"

MPRI, Military Career Resources, is poised to become one of the largest private military companies in the United States in the future. More importantly, it has the closest relationship with the U.S. government!
But in any case, as long as it's not an active-duty U.S. military personnel, then it's not a big problem.

Milton let out a long sigh: "Very important information... This means that I've started doing things on a small scale and have officially caught the attention of certain people. Although this attention may only be a sentence in their office report, it still puts a lot of pressure on me."

Winnie chuckled: "Don't worry too much. The US government is highly divided right now. The Republicans have a significant lead in both houses of Congress, and the whole government is fighting amongst themselves. They probably don't have much time or energy to deal with you."

No... Although Clinton suffered a major defeat in this midterm election, he did a good job in the remainder of his term, compromising and cooperating with the Republicans, avoiding becoming a lame duck, and ultimately successfully winning re-election.

Although the Democratic Party was still at a disadvantage in both houses of Congress even in his second term, he managed to stabilize the situation until the Lewinsky scandal broke in 1998.

In other words, Milton doesn't have much time left... The chaos within the US government will soon be over.

Before that, we must secure all the benefits we are entitled to, and then quickly reinvest our resources back into Guatemala to reduce our international influence.

Milton thought for a moment and asked, "What if Clinton manages to turn the tide and actually has time to talk to me?"

Winnie was silent for a long time on the other end: "Then... you need to finish what you need to do as quickly as possible. The reason we can help you take the blame now is because the CIA went too far last time, and because you yourself haven't been noticed by many people. Once this case is investigated, once the impact has subsided, once the internal government reconciliation you mentioned is completed, and once you've developed to the point where you can no longer be ignored, perhaps you will lose the DEA's cover."

"I can assure you that we will not become enemies... but you must understand that one day, the DEA's umbrella will not be able to withstand the increasingly fierce rain."

“‘Hell Tax Collector’, your time is running out. Use this little time to become stronger as quickly as possible.”

Milton smiled and said, "I understand. That's all then. Thanks for the information."

"Come on."

After ending the call, Milton glanced at Brandon.

"Attack now! Take Palenque! If we want to have any ability to defend ourselves, we must take the oil fields!"

"Yes!"

……

call out!call out!call out!
Boom boom boom!
At the front lines of the 31st Brigade, every so often, one could see the trajectories of various artillery shells and rockets streaking across the sky, and a barrage of explosives, like meteor showers, completely leveled each and every position.

The mere appearance of anything resembling a "high-value" target would immediately attract aircraft and result in its immediate destruction.

Even with the officers' strict orders and the machine guns of the supervisory team holding the line, the defensive line finally couldn't hold out any longer.

Just as a person cannot command a car without gasoline to run, commands cannot stop flesh and blood from being crushed by the king of land warfare.

"General, we can't hold on any longer! We can't hold on any longer!"

"The tanks are already rolling over... We have no effective means to retaliate against them..."

"Retreat! Retreat!"

"The front line can't be held any longer, let's retreat a little!" "..."

News kept coming to Badr's command post from the front lines, and everyone was in a flurry of activity and panic.

Not long ago, Bader confidently stated that the president, for the sake of his political life, would definitely force the federal government to compromise and send reinforcements.

but……

Salinas's reply, however, took everyone by surprise.

Not only did they not send reinforcements, they even issued a death order that the 31st Brigade was not allowed to retreat an inch, otherwise they would be deserters and traitors!
Bader then realized that Salinas did want to save his political life, but not by maintaining the battlefield in Chiapas, but by completely escalating the situation!

And the 31st Brigade is the part that will be sacrificed!
"That damn federal government is a bunch of animals!" Bader contacted the Department of Defense multiple times, only to receive the same reply each time, finally breaking down completely. "Sacrifice an entire brigade? An entire brigade? Isn't Salinas afraid of being hanged? If he dares to step down, he will definitely be purged!"

"Damn it, why does it have to be us? Can't it be somewhere else? Why is there a war here?!"

An adjutant thought for a moment and said weakly, "General, maybe it's because we cooperate with CJNG, and CJNG has conflicts with other drug cartels to some extent... Salinas, you know, he has always had unclear relationships with other drug cartels, and maybe he wants to use this relationship to attack us."

Badr finally abandoned his naive idea of ​​asking the federal government for help and summoned his adjutant: "You guys, go contact CJNG. If the federal government won't help us, we'll take care of ourselves! He wants the 31st Brigade to be completely wiped out, is that it? Fine, then let's wipe them out completely!"

“The soldiers will follow me directly, we will become a faction within CJNG and make big money.”

"Bah! If you won't give me aid, then I'll become a warlord!"

The adjutant, whose morale had long been low and who had no desire to fight, was overjoyed and hurriedly said, "Yes, General, I'll go and contact 'Archer' Julio right away!"

Badr waited expectantly for news.

Soon, Julio's voice reached Bader's ears.

"...General Bader?"

Bader was a little puzzled—Julio was always the kind of person with a strong voice, so why was he so weak and even sneaky this time?
However, he didn't think much of it and went straight to the point: "'Shooter,' I've made up my mind. I'm going to lead my men in a complete defection and join Elmenjohn's cartel. From now on, Chiapas will be our territory! With our military force and your economy, Chiapas will be a country within a country! With our addition, no other drug cartel will have any chance of getting their hands on this area!"

Logically, CJNG is just starting out and has already suffered a setback with Milton, so they desperately need an ally. Julio should have agreed quickly...

But no joyful sounds came from the other end of the receiver.

Badr felt a sense of unease: "Julio, what's wrong with you?"

“…General Bader, if you had said that a day earlier, I might have agreed to it,” Julio said with a wry smile. “But now, I’m in Jalisco, and I just got a good scolding from the boss. How can we cooperate now?”

"You went back to Jalisco?!" Badr shouted. "Why? Tustra is still here, the war is still going on... The only one we need to deal with regarding our betrayal is Fied, why did you leave?"

Julio gave another bitter laugh: "Dude, your information is way behind the times... Don't you know? My base was raided by a DEA team, and my core members were almost all killed or wounded. I even lost my little finger in the explosion. I can't keep investing resources in this black hole that I can't see any return on. If we keep fighting, I might not even be able to keep my position within CJNG."

There are already quite a few drug dealers in CJNG eyeing Julio's position.

If Julio doesn't return to the central leadership and find a way to get Elmenjohn to make a statement, consolidate his power, and demonstrate that he still holds the power of a major leader, he might be kicked out!

Bader stared in disbelief: "What am I supposed to do? The state government is on the verge of bankruptcy, the federal government is forcing me not to back down and is happy to see me wiped out, and now you're all gone... What am I supposed to do?"

As the fighting went on, the 31st Brigade was actually left isolated.
No, it's even worse than being all alone. At least someone who's all alone can escape... Badr, having lost all his options, doesn't even have the right to escape.

Julio paused for a moment, then smiled wryly again: "Dude... there's a reason why Milton was able to beat all the cartels in Tapachula to a pulp. We shouldn't have gone against him on his turf in the first place; it was a strategic mistake."

“His territory?!” Badr found it absurd. “Just because we call him the ‘Pan-Madre Group’ doesn’t mean this place is really his territory, does it?!”

"Don't get excited." Julio's voice sounded a little older than usual. "Here's what we'll do: I'll vouch for you. If you come out alive, the new generation at Halix will welcome you. I promise I'll reserve a deputy position for you. We'll cooperate and grow stronger."

"What the hell..."

beep...

Badr simply raised his hand and swept everything on the table to the ground—he, a general, had actually fallen to such a state!

"These bastards, after this war, Milton should award them a national hero's medal!"

"Damn it! Without their strong support, even if Milton were the son of God, he wouldn't have won like this!"

Originally, even if we lost, we wouldn't have been annihilated; at most, it would have been a retreat. But due to various factors, we were forced to the point of being completely wiped out!

A terrible teammate is even worse than Milton!
He had just finished cleaning his desk when an adjutant rushed in.

"General, the front line has completely fallen. Even the supervisory troops are fleeing. We must leave now, or Milton will be here!"

"Let's go!" Badr said viciously. "If we can't hold out, then let's retreat."

“But…” another aide cautioned, “The Department of Defense has ordered no retreat, and the state government has probably received orders as well. What if our logistics are cut off if we retreat?”

Badr sneered: "This is not a retreat, it's a flexible defense. Anyway, the goal is to hold the oil fields. I can explain why I didn't give up the oil fields."

"Besides... I still have so many troops and so many weapons. If they dare to starve us, I'll just turn around and attack Tustra, and massacre the state government!"

"If you won't let me live, then nobody should live!"

"They don't think that just because I can't beat Milton, I can't beat them, or those state troopers with water guns, right?"

"Let's go, move into Palenque!"

"Yes!"

After the officers left, the staff member asked with great curiosity, "General... even if the federal government wants to abandon us, why would Governor Fid do it? Without us, who can stop Milton?"

“It’s simple, because they’re broke.” Bader said without hesitation. “If the oil and gas fields and reservoirs were owned by the state government, they would be much tougher… Without federal funding, they could have struggled in the past, but now it’s an economic crisis. If they’re cut off from funding, Fed will be dead. Since they’re going to die anyway, they’ll definitely choose to die later.”

"Oh, right, organize another batch of recruiters to recruit from Palenque City—grab anyone you see and remember to break up these new recruits."

"Even if Milton takes Palenque, I will leave him with a completely collapsed, desolate ruin."

"go!"

Soon, Badr arrived in Palenque with his personal guards.

This city, which had been suppressed once and ravaged by hunger and economic crisis, was, in Badr's eyes, already at his mercy.

Pulling out soldiers to fill gaps in the ranks is a piece of cake—in recent days, Badr has been sending recruiters to randomly grab people on the streets to replenish the front-line troops.

Now, there's not much difference...

Looking through his binoculars, Bader saw a white van screeching to a halt on the road, and several burly men jumped out and rushed toward a man who looked to be about 35 years old on the street.

In the past, they always did this: once someone was caught, they would be dragged onto the battlefield.

The recruiting officer, on the other hand, receives a commission.

If the "performance" target is not met, the recruiting officer himself will be thrown into the battlefield to personally experience Milton's spectacular fireworks display.

This system of rewards and punishments ensures that Badr will not have major problems with manpower, at least in the short term, and that there will be no shortage of people to fill the gaps.

However, the next second, a gunshot rang out across the sky!
boom!
When the man saw the recruiter running over, instead of running, he actually drew his gun and pulled the trigger repeatedly, emptying the magazine in an instant!
"Gun?!" Badr exclaimed in astonishment. "Where did they get guns? Didn't they collect them all?"

The adjutant blurted out, "An airdrop... Milton's airdrop! And, and those spies we can't find, have they made their move?"

Bang bang bang!
In Badr's line of sight, a recruiter also took out a weapon and killed the man who dared to resist them.

But the next second, gunshots rang out one after another from nearby buildings, and gunfire from all directions instantly wiped out all the recruiting officers.

The adjutant panicked completely: "General, what do we do?"

A city filled with absolute hostility, if Badr were to persist in fighting street battles, it wouldn't be impossible to take it down... but the biggest problem is that Milton's troops are following behind them!
If they really get into street fighting, Milton will probably have shoved his cannon into Badr's backside before he's even taken down a few buildings!
Badr took a deep breath: "Notify the army, we're turning!"

"Go, where?"

“Milton wants oil? Then give it to him! Use oil to keep him tied down, let him count his dollars on the oil fields, let his equipment rust there!” Badr had completely lost his mind and said viciously, “Let’s turn around and go to Tustra!”

"That's outrageous!"

(End of this chapter)