Taxes are only within machine gun range!

Chapter 270 We have the most advanced artillery reconnaissance, what does Milton have?
"Stop bragging. SAD has killed so many people in Milton. Now the CIA calls missions in Milton 'death missions'." Another team member waved his hand. "Put your badges away, don't let anyone see them."

“O’Connor, you should say less. Let’s rest for 20 minutes, have a meal, and then move on… These self-propelled artillery pieces can’t afford any accidents, otherwise, with those useless Arsu, it’s hard to say whether they can hold off Milton.”

O'Connor opened a package of MREs and couldn't help but complain, "Sigh... because a large number of 'Pointer' drones ended up in Milton's hands, related resources have been suspended and are now under investigation. Nico, we can only use big things like Scouts now, and if they fly too close, they can be detected by anti-tank radar."

“Milton didn’t dare to fly too close before, but now that he has the ‘pointer,’ he might even have a slight advantage over us in terms of acquiring battlefield information.”

“That slight lead is insignificant.” Nico scooped a mouthful of mushy mixed grain rice into his mouth with a plastic spoon, rinsed it with water, and said, “Milton has no idea who they are up against.”

"This batch of M109s is the earliest model. It can't match Milton's 2S5 in range, but our guns are simpler to operate, and we are very proficient with them... Suppressing Milton's artillery is not a problem."

"More importantly, we have the most powerful and advanced artillery reconnaissance system. What does Milton have? We also have a considerable number of rocket-assisted projectiles, at least in an emergency..."

Before Nico could finish speaking, the already dim sky was suddenly illuminated for a moment by a bright light.

With just a moment's hesitation, the seals reflexively dropped their food and pounced on the self-propelled artillery, rushing to their positions.

boom!
The explosion occurred the instant I boarded the vehicle!

"Large-caliber howitzers! Milton is attacking!"

As the team leader, Nico was truly baffled—the analysis at the war council was actually correct. Judging from Milton's logistical arrangements, unless he intended to resolve the situation within three days, or at least resolve most of the battlefield, it was unlikely that he would launch an attack.

But he actually launched an attack!
“Don’t panic.” Nico glanced at his men, whose expressions were quite relaxed, and nodded. “We already had a contingency plan in place, specifically to guard against Milton’s move.”

"The next step is to send the drones off to search for high-value enemy targets."

"Lark take off, pay attention to altitude, be careful of anti-aircraft missiles."

"Take off our A37 Dragonfly attack aircraft and be ready to provide close ground support at any time!"

"..."

Nico issued orders methodically, and six M109 tanks set off simultaneously to begin shifting positions according to plan.

This extra dragonfly is actually a "secret weapon" belonging exclusively to this team of seals.

Knowing that Guatemala City had been thoroughly infiltrated by Milton, they simply had a high-ranking official from the Ministry of Defense cooperate by having the plane fly close to his private jet to the airport, and then directly into the hangar after heading to the front lines.

It may play a significant role at crucial moments.

“Heh…” O’Connor sneered, “If our jaguars hadn’t arrived yet, Milton would be in big trouble.”

For this war, the CIA also brokered a deal with the Arsu government to purchase SEPECAT Jaguar attack aircraft from France.

This attack aircraft was jointly developed by Britain and France. It is equipped with two DEFA 30mm cannons and has a total of seven hardpoints, two of which are very unique – two air-to-air missiles can be mounted on the wings.

Most importantly, this aircraft can fly at supersonic speeds!
The maximum speed reached Mach 1.6!

Although Milton's anti-aircraft missiles are not entirely incapable of threatening this aircraft, the threat level is not significant. In an emergency, it can withstand Milton's anti-aircraft fire to carry out its mission!

If Milton hadn't launched the attack, he would have faced not only a multitude of enemy troops, but also a plane that would have been difficult for him to handle.

Boom boom boom...

One explosion after another reached the vehicle, and the frequency and intensity of the explosions proved that Milton had indeed launched a full-scale attack.

"Don't worry about that. Even without jaguars, dragonflies are just about enough... Just keep the front lines alert and don't let Milton get through."

"Get the artillery reconnaissance moving!"

"..."

……

A little closer to the front line.

A fully armed sealer folded up his AN/PVS-23 night vision binoculars, his tone somewhat grave.

"The enemy's engineers are digging trenches and makeshift bunkers. They have cut off the Pan-American Highway and laid some mines...most of them should be anti-personnel mines."

"Yes, about a company of soldiers are hiding on both sides of the road. They should have a lot of anti-tank weapons and may also be carrying recoilless rifles."

"No high-value targets have been found for shelling at the moment."

“We must evacuate now, or Milton will likely find us.”

"..."

The three-person reconnaissance team composed of SEALs, which had been set up at the front line long ago, was constantly transmitting the intelligence they had to the rear.

They were also somewhat helpless.

Although they were directly involved in the battle, they did not take command and their numbers were quite limited—just a heavy artillery company.

The information at hand already needs to be passed through several hands before it can be transmitted to the command center. In addition, the Guatemalan government forces' communication efficiency is low, so a lot of important information cannot be put to use in the first place.

Some intelligence is valid for a period of time, measured in minutes!
Even without the incredibly advanced PDAs the CIA possesses, the SEALs still have ways to make the battlefield relatively transparent using more primitive methods.

For example, have an expert draw a war map, distribute it to the squads, and mark it with symbols such as "Location 1", "Lake 1", "Building 1" so that the soldiers can remember it.

When the fighting starts, there will no longer be a need for soldiers to find a landmark, describe it, tell friendly forces how far away it is, what its location is, and other information that requires secondary or even tertiary processing.

Unfortunately, the Guatemalan army lacked such awareness, and the command also naively believed that Milton was unlikely to launch a proactive attack, so drawing up a military map of Solora was not very meaningful.

Therefore, this military map only circulated within their temporary heavy artillery battalion.

The three-man reconnaissance team packed up their equipment, cleaned up any traces, and began to advance in the direction of the artillery fire.

"This time, we have two main targets and one secondary target," the SEAL team leader said in a deep voice. "With Milton attacking like this, the logistical defenses will be extremely vulnerable. We need to find suitable artillery positions and have the Kaibiles special forces send some troops to try to harass the supply lines as much as possible under the cover of artillery fire."

"Second, locate the enemy's artillery positions, especially their self-propelled heavy artillery batteries. At our fastest, we can give the enemy a maximum of two minutes to relocate... But the captain will deliberately prolong this time in the early stages to see if Milton's artillery will lower their guard. If their decision is to extend the relocation time to more than two minutes, we will have the opportunity to annihilate their heavy artillery battery."

"Even if we don't have that, we have 3 minutes to transfer, while they only have 2 minutes. With that 1-minute time difference, we can still establish a significant advantage."

"Secondary goals: find any other high-value goals that are not easily shifted."

"Hurry... Milton's vanguard has already broken through the first line of defense."

"understood."

Rumble…

The scout took one last look at the distant scenery before turning away.

To be honest, when the SEALs saw Milton's army launch an attack on the defensive line, they knew they were facing no ordinary Latin American warlords.

The offensive line looked disorganized, and the infantry and tanks seemed disconnected, but they knew that this was true combined arms warfare.

Instead of fearfully hiding around the tanks and using them as mobile cover, the infantrymen dispersed around them, protecting the tanks' blind spots, providing information to the tanks, and clearing out individual anti-tank targets.

The tanks relentlessly crushed all fortifications and trampled obstacles in the road—any heavy machine gun position on the defensive line that opened fire was met with a 105mm high-explosive fragmentation round.

The attack had barely begun when the reconnaissance team saw that at least five heavy machine gun positions had been completely destroyed.

The tank units are like a sharp blade, tearing a hole in the defensive line deep inside!

"Fortunately, we made contingency plans, so the collapse of one line of defense is not a big problem."

"keep going."

"..."

They walked a distance towards their goal and occupied a high ground that Milton had not yet captured.

Although it's considered a high point, the view isn't particularly good.

Even with night vision binoculars, you can only see the more obvious movements.

Boom boom boom...

Just then, a series of explosions rang out.

Without hesitation, the seal unfolded the map and took out a walkie-talkie, speaking into the map: "Enemy mortar position detected, one artillery platoon! Three mortars, one shell storage point."

“C作战区域，分别位于A5、A8、A13、B3位置，B3为炮弹储藏点。”

"Allocate firepower as appropriate."

"……receive."

Boom boom boom...

The seal held binoculars, watching the distant artillery platoon.

After completing one round of attack, the artillery platoon very disciplinedly began to pack up their mortars and left the position as quickly as possible.

At this moment, the artillery fire had not yet fallen.

It seemed that the target was not too big or important, so the self-propelled gun did not fire, but instead handed it over to the towed gun position further back.

This significantly extended the shelling time...

Everyone has run away.

The seals felt a little disappointed and turned their binoculars to look at the scattered ammunition storage points... Perhaps because they thought they were far enough away from the firing positions and that they wouldn't fire or reveal their location, their relocation was a little slower.

"Oh?"

Twenty seconds later, just as the ammunition storage point was about to be moved, and just as the sealer was already cursing the Latin American artillery for being completely unreliable, he suddenly saw a bright orange-red flame with charred black in front of him.

The shelling has finally begun!

boom! boom! boom!
For positions that had already been moved, the artillery fire was just blowing air, but the attack on position "B3" was a completely different story.

The powerful explosion triggered a secondary explosion, instantly killing three Milton soldiers.

"B3 hit, 3 enemy soldiers successfully eliminated, over."

"receive."

After reporting, the seal waved, intending to leave the area and find a new reconnaissance point—the recent shelling had undoubtedly attracted the enemy's attention, and this place might not be safe anymore. "We're retreating."

The seals immediately retreated, abandoning the reconnaissance position.

"Hurry, they're really coming this way... Retreat in 15 seconds. Pay attention to the direction, retreat to the side, and guerrilla warfare along the edge of the battlefield."

After quickly cleaning up the traces, the seals got up and, in relative silence, began to move away from the area at full speed.

However, they had only walked forward for less than a minute...

Boom!
Boom boom boom!
Several large-caliber shells directly covered the small slope, and several more shells seemed to be predicting their retreat direction!
The powerful shockwave nearly knocked the lead seal to the ground.

The dirt that splattered on his face was still hot and smelled of gunpowder...

"They've discovered us? So quickly, so astutely?"

"As expected, they are the most powerful elite force in Latin America."

The seal was somewhat alarmed and quickly steadied itself, speeding up its retreat. At the same time, it made a decision in its mind: it must be more careful in the future and never easily make a move unless it was a target of higher value.

The reconnaissance team then became more cautious and guided several more artillery shots, but Milton's army seemed to have become more vigilant in an instant. Except for one round that hit a fixed position, and it is unknown whether it caused any casualties, almost all of the other rounds of artillery shots missed.

Given the dynamism and discipline of Milton's army, towed artillery would likely only pose a threat to fixed fortifications.

Or they might fire randomly, hoping for a lucky break...

"Such a high level of informatization. Once attacked, the decision-making level can know immediately, formulate a plan immediately, and the junior officers and soldiers can execute it immediately. Is this really a Latin American army?"

What terrified and puzzled the scouts even more was that whenever they approached Milton's army, they seemed to be inexplicably discovered. Several times, if they hadn't maintained high-speed and irregular movement, or if they hadn't quickly moved away from the battlefield, the shells would have hit them directly on the head!

On one occasion, the enemy even deployed all-terrain armored vehicles to search for them...

To alleviate the pressure, they directly requested assistance from drones. However, the drones were brought down by Milton's self-propelled anti-aircraft guns with a barrage of bullets as soon as they descended a little!

However, their counter-fire failed to destroy the self-propelled anti-aircraft gun.

In the end, the artillery reconnaissance team not only failed to receive any information assistance, but their teammates were even more clueless and needed their intelligence even more.

As one of the world's most elite special forces, the SEALs felt immense pressure for the first time, as if they were fighting against the ace troops of a military superpower.

This forced them to stay further away from the battlefield and no longer dare to get too close to Milton's army.

"No... If we keep fighting like this, our room for maneuver will become smaller and smaller until we are completely blind. We must find a breakthrough quickly!"

“I have no doubt that once Milton’s occupation reaches a higher level, he will send special operations teams to hunt us down.”

"We need to find at least one key, high-value target that can provide a breakthrough!"

"..."

"Wait... Boss, don't go yet!"

The lead seal was under immense pressure. He paused, took a breath, and asked, "What did you find?"

"Look over there, that thing... isn't it a 2S5?"

2S5……

The team leader was taken aback.

Milton's self-propelled artillery!

……

The front line, not far away.

"Is the pressure really that great?!" Milton frowned as he listened to the battle report. "We've lost track of them five or six times already."

Just now, Milton's army suffered a considerable loss.

The enemy locked onto a mortar position and directly shelled a well-hidden ammunition storage point, triggering a secondary explosion that killed three of his soldiers.

The Battlefield Counter-Espionage System also highlighted three targets. The fact that this function can be triggered indicates that enemy forces have approached his army to a rather dangerous distance.

Milton did not hesitate and immediately ordered the area to be shelled. He even predicted the movement of the three targets, but unfortunately they kept moving erratically, and the shelling was ineffective.

The good news is that things are progressing relatively smoothly on the front lines...

Flora opened the door of the command vehicle, got in, and said, "'Tax Collector,' the first line of defense has been basically broken down by us, and the second line of defense has also been shattered. It won't be long before we take it down."

"But later on, the problems became bigger and bigger... First of all, they probably deployed some modified gunboats on the lake, and there might be mortars or even small-caliber mountain howitzers firing there. The defensive firepower is not on the same level as the first line of defense."

"There's also our supply problem. Even though the rear is being urgently mobilized, it can only last for a maximum of 3 days. On the 4th, 5th, and 6th days, we will face serious shortages of ammunition and power, and supplies will not be restored until the 7th day."

"And the enemy also has a self-propelled heavy artillery company, and a reconnaissance scout that appears and disappears like a ghost... I think that's the biggest problem."

"If the enemy loses the means to threaten our self-propelled artillery, there are ways to solve the remaining problems."

Not enough supplies? Then finish them off in three days!

Is there something unclean on the lake? The "Pointer" drone provides intelligence, self-propelled artillery suppresses anti-aircraft missiles, and Su-25s go straight to the lake to "reap fries"!

Even towed artillery could be dragged to the front lines to inflict heavy damage on the enemy.

However, it was this squad of M109 self-propelled guns that severely limited Milton's performance, preventing him from engaging in asymmetric warfare.

To put it bluntly, the enemy, relying on a powerful heavy artillery battery that clearly showed American involvement, forcibly erased the generational gap between themselves and Milton's army.

Milton tapped the table: "This artillery reconnaissance and self-propelled gun company must be dealt with... Only by taking them out can our heavy artillery company push forward and destroy the enemy's defenses as quickly as possible. In any case, the current intelligence indicates that the enemy is still a rabble, but just a modern artillery unit makes them extremely difficult to deal with."

"So what do you plan to do..."

Before Flora could finish speaking, the alarm on the control panel completely drowned out her voice.

The battlefield counter-espionage operation has sounded the alarm once again.

This time, what appeared on the map was a fast-moving red dot that entered the battlefield at an extremely high speed.

Milton raised an eyebrow.

Damn it, a drone!
Milton raised his hand, telling Flora to wait a moment, then pretended to reach for the walkie-talkie and said a couple of words in a pretentious manner.

"The counter-battery radar has an urgent report that it has detected an unknown aerial target. I suspect it is an enemy drone."

Flora's eyes widened: "Then hurry up and kill it!"

Milton put on his helmet, grabbed his night vision goggles, ordered the convoy to stop, opened the car door, jumped out, and sprinted directly to the self-propelled anti-aircraft gun.

This is an anti-aircraft gun that was previously modified from an LAV-25 chassis. Its performance isn't great, but it's sufficient to deal with the Scout.

If Milton can win this battle, he will be able to unlock a real self-propelled anti-aircraft gun with radar and missiles.

The commander of the self-propelled anti-aircraft gun was somewhat bewildered: "'Godfather'?"

"I've received intelligence that there are drones overhead. Give me the artillery!"

As everyone knows, the "Hell Tax Collector" is a commander, but he is also a "God of War"—from engaging in close combat in the basement and killing all the enemies one by one, to personally piloting a plane over the enemy and precisely destroying a large number of high-value targets...

Therefore, even the lowest-ranking soldiers had absolute obedience and respect for the "hellish tax collectors".

Without hesitation, the gunner gave up his position to Milton.

Milton opened the map, glanced at the location again, and then used his night vision goggles to observe the sky in that direction.

Even with night vision binoculars, and even with the Scout drone's large size, it is almost imperceptible to the naked eye.

But Milton knew the direction, and after a careful search, he finally found his target.

"found it!"

Milton took over the gunner's position without hesitation, pulled up the gun barrel, aimed at the Scout drone in the sky, pulled the trigger, and fired several long bursts.

Buzz buzz!

Extremely dense shells were fired from the gun barrel, and tracer high-explosive shells streaked across the sky, creating a dense barrage!
Milton counted the time in his mind, firing intensely at the Scout drone while calculating when the enemy's counter-fire would come down.

Although tracer rounds only begin to burn and glow a certain distance after leaving the barrel, Milton believed that the scout hiding in the shadows was still very likely to spot him.

hum hum...

The barrage of thousands of shells per second finally left the drone, which was not particularly maneuverable or fast, with no way to avoid it. A shrapnel shell struck Scout's wing, and the high temperature of the tracer round quickly ignited the drone's fuel tank.

The drone, which had just arrived over the battlefield, immediately turned into a fireball and slowly fell from the sky.

"Retreat!" Milton shouted upon seeing this. "Advance towards C7 target, do not make any rule-based movements!"

After running for a minute and a half, Milton heard a violent explosion behind him.

The position we just occupied has been engulfed in flames!

Milton was not surprised but delighted.

He suddenly perked up: "Three minutes for a counterattack! This isn't the counterattack efficiency of the enemy's towed artillery, it's their self-propelled artillery!"

"Counter-battery radar has locked onto their location!"

"quick!"

Just then, a communications soldier hurriedly delivered an urgent telegram.

"'Godfather'! Urgent intelligence: Our self-propelled heavy artillery company was counterattacked by the enemy after firing once. The counterattack lasted for 3 minutes, and the position of our self-propelled artillery may have been exposed."

Upon hearing this news, Milton knew that the most important showdown of the entire battle was about to take place.

Artillery duel.

Whoever wins will have an absolute advantage in the future!

(End of this chapter)