Taxes are only within machine gun range!

Chapter 275 Applying Plaster to the Wall

Inside the command vehicle, Milton rubbed his forehead and forced himself to drink another cup of very bitter espresso.

Even if someone were to hand over supreme command and possess good military skills, Milton wouldn't have time to rest—although he had forcefully breached the first two lines of defense with the most powerful means, the subsequent layers of defense in Solora were equally formidable.

“According to the intelligence provided by the prisoners of war, the closer to the front line, the more likely they are to be newly recruited soldiers or units that are marginalized in the army…” Milton took a sip of water to wash away the bitterness in his mouth and analyzed the intelligence. “Some prisoners of war reported that in order to maintain morale, some quartermasters even took out cash and paid people per head.”

Flora yawned and said, "The subsequent defense lines will receive support from the lake, making them quite difficult to attack. The good news is that their defense lines are retreating, and the special forces personnel and artillery that could directly threaten the supply lines have been eliminated, greatly reducing our logistical pressure."

"Next, we need to consider how to stop their offensive on the lake."

Milton chuckled: "It's actually quite simple, just use a 'javelin'... To be honest, this missile can hit tanks, and even low-flying, slow-moving aircraft, but it's far less effective than using it to hit ships."

Ships are vehicles that look fast but actually move relatively slowly, making them easy targets for Javelin anti-tank missiles.

"Hmm, it feels okay..."

Suddenly, a communications soldier strode over.

“‘The Godfather’, new intelligence from the front lines.”

“Hmm, speak,” Milton said, flipping through the intelligence on the table.

"The reconnaissance drones have detected a large-scale retreat of enemy troops in the rear," the soldier said. "And they are using fast vehicles, and the order appears to be very chaotic."

"They are also moving high-value weapons such as towed artillery armored vehicles at full speed."

"The blows from the lake are much smaller than before."

"However, judging from the feedback from the front lines, the defense of the third line is still ongoing..."

"..."

Upon hearing this news, Milton paused for a moment, glancing at Flora—whose face also revealed an expression of disbelief.

"Ran away? Are you sure?!"

This is far from hopeless. The offensive pressure is still on Milton, and the opponent has already run away?
“Yes.” The communications officer nodded affirmatively. “We can be quite certain that the enemy is retreating—they’re not even making any attempt to conceal it, and the situation is rather chaotic.”

Milton remained silent for a brief moment.

If he had traveled back a few hundred or a thousand years, he would have suspected that the enemy was using some kind of feigned defeat or luring him into a trap. But in modern warfare, such tactics are practically unthinkable.

Heavy weapons have all been withdrawn, armored units have all been withdrawn, and the light infantry left in the city have firepower at most at the level of recoilless rifles and man-portable missiles, and logistical supplies have been completely cut off, so every missile used is one less available.

Withdraw all heavy weapons, feign defeat and let the enemy in?

That means artillery that could only fire indirectly at the limits of its range will now be able to fire directly at the target.

Trying to snipe a 152mm cannon with a small water pipe?

Therefore, Milton did not consider the possibility of the enemy feigning defeat at all; if they did, they would only suffer a worse fate.

Is the enemy really retreating?

"Quickly!" Milton didn't have time to analyze why; he stood up abruptly. "Move the towed artillery positions in the rear forward and get the self-propelled artillery to the front lines! Use them as sniper rifles!"

"Move the self-propelled anti-aircraft guns forward too!"

"Break through the enemy's third line of defense as quickly as possible. Don't worry about being hit by enemy artillery fire; they've all retreated!"

Flora rubbed her ears: "Why are you in such a hurry all of a sudden?"

“You don’t understand!” Milton said, somewhat agitated. “If we attack slowly, the enemy might think they have plenty of time to escape and might try every means to destroy all their supplies before leaving.”

"Damn it, even the SEALs have secretly gone into battle themselves. How could there be a shortage of American aid supplies in Solora? Those are all my stuff! Damn it, I won't allow the Alsu army to burn them!"

In the midst of defeat, the "scorched earth" strategy was not as easy as many people imagined.

Because the enemy's primary objective is often to protect themselves, their first priority is to take away all the important supplies they can carry. This takes time and requires organization. In order to escape quickly, they sometimes don't even bother to take heavy weapons, food, or ammunition, let alone plan to burn and destroy supplies.

Similarly, a scorched-earth policy requires soldiers to have extremely high morale and a certain degree of organization. Otherwise, officers will simply flee by car or plane, and the leaderless soldiers will only stuff their pockets with supplies as quickly as possible and then run away, instead of wasting precious time dealing with the remaining supplies.

Moreover, the destruction of many supplies requires certain conditions. For example, flammable and explosive materials such as ammunition and fuel may cause explosions if forcibly burned, which in turn affects the retreat. In order to avoid suffering huge losses in a single attack, many supplies are scattered in underground warehouses or even in civilian houses. It is completely unrealistic to destroy them in a short period of time.

So the faster you rush in, the more supplies you can capture!

"I see, I understand." Flora nodded. "Then let's hurry and charge!"

"Hmm... We can use a propaganda offensive to tell the enemy that their leader has already retreated. Instead of risking their lives to buy them a way out, they can come to my territory and have fried chicken worth 1 'border region coin'."

Milton never restricts anyone from coming to his territory or returning, as long as the panel doesn't trigger an alarm.

Stable food prices, a stable order, and a victorious army have attracted many residents from the border regions to relocate to Milton's territory.

"..."

boom!
A government army mortar position was instantly turned into an inferno...

On the battlefield, the self-propelled artillery, which had been deployed to the front lines and was ready for direct fire, finally demonstrated its full power.

Once the enemy has no means of retaliation, self-propelled artillery only needs to occupy a relatively high point to fire indiscriminately across the entire battlefield.

Any enemy troops that dare to show their faces will be directly covered by incredibly precise and dense firepower.

They were already a very low threat to armored units, and with artillery and anti-aircraft guns occupying the high ground, they were no different from sitting ducks.

Everyone knows how terrifying it would be to occupy high ground with cannons and indiscriminately sweep across the entire battlefield.

All the artillerymen had to do was locate the enemy, aim, fire, and look for the next target.

It wouldn't be an exaggeration to call it "cleaning up the battlefield".

After losing support from the lake, the entire battlefield collapsed at an alarming rate. Even more despairing was the fact that the officers had already received advance notice of the retreat and had used their vehicles to carry everything they could. The soldiers, trying to retreat, discovered they were no match for the tanks and armored vehicles!

Sometimes Milton's soldiers wouldn't even bother to accept their surrenders, driving right past them and attacking the positions behind them right in front of them, while they could only helplessly watch their comrades being easily destroyed.

Soon, the morale of the government soldiers collapsed once again—and this time, no amount of money could save them.

Finally, after a towed gun accurately hit a heavy machine gun position, there was no further resistance on the entire battlefield.

Milton's excitement had overshadowed his drowsiness, and he immediately ordered his troops to rush into the city to see what good things the government forces had left for him.

"Charge in and immediately seize the enemy's supplies—remember, do not disrupt the normal life order within the city."

Not long after giving the order, Flora boarded the command vehicle while laughing.

“‘Tax collector,’ Riley has sent intelligence. I now know why the enemy retreated without warning.”

Milton immediately became interested: "Oh? Tell me about it?"

"Actually, it's not for military reasons, but for political reasons." Flora didn't keep them in suspense. "Our enemies outnumber us by a lot, but they are a coalition, which is bad."

"Arsu's decision-making team believes that, given the current trend, regardless of whether they can hold Solola, the government forces will be the biggest losers. The other components of the coalition will definitely sit back and watch the two sides fight, weakening both sides to the greatest extent. Therefore, they simply chose to retreat to the rear, intending to join forces with the coalition before the final battle."

"There's another piece of information that's not entirely certain, and it's only circulating internally... Our enemy commander this time, Lieutenant General Reggie, made thorough plans before deciding to resist to the end. It's said that he even planned to use his own dollars and gold to incentivize the soldiers. It was only a transfer order from Arsu that forced him to make the decision to withdraw."

"The specifics are still unknown, but I've heard that some officers who only study military matters and don't participate much in politics believe that if they fight according to Reggie's plan, Solora might not fall so quickly, and they might be able to hold out until reinforcements arrive."

"I don't know anything more. Riley hasn't entered the inner circle yet, so he can't get much detailed information."

"..."

Milton nodded slightly: "Many generals agree with Reggie's point of view. Although we don't have detailed intelligence, we can make an assumption that his plan might actually be feasible... Moreover, money can indeed stabilize morale to some extent."

"I reckon he's a general with some skills."

Flora glanced at him and asked curiously, "Judging from your expression, do you have something on your mind again?"

“Call back and tell them to make some propaganda videos and posters,” Milton said. “Make Reggie’s picture look a little ugly, and add some exaggerated pictures, just to send a message to the enemy that under General Reggie’s brilliant command, the ‘Hell Tax Collectors’ have obtained a lot of American supplies, and many people have made a fortune as a result.”

“I can immediately commission a medal called ‘Transportation Captain’ and award it directly to Reggie to coincide with the publicity campaign.”

“I’ve spent a lot of money on promotional resources, and now we can get our promotional machine up and running.”

"If it works, that would be best; it might even exacerbate the conflict between the military and the government. Even if it doesn't work, it can still disgust Reggie, damage his mentality, and at the same time, inflict damage on the enemy society."

"Similarly, our morale will also be boosted."

Because everyone knows that the main responsibility for this evacuation lies with President Arsou, but Milton not only failed to clarify, he also shifted the blame for sending all the supplies to people onto Reggie.

The person who wronged you knows better than you how wronged you are.

This method is simple, direct, and its intention is blatant, but it is undeniably effective.

“Ruthless enough.” Flora agreed. “Alas, it’s a bit of a shame that you’re not someone who purely solves problems with military force. That’s a bit of a contrast to your public image.”

"Alright, enough talk, let's get ready to enter the city and see how much loot we've amassed this time."

At this time, the tank units had already entered the city of Solora and began clearing out some scattered enemy troops—the vast majority of whom had already chosen to surrender.

The moment the officers abandoned their soldiers and fled, they lost all fighting ability.

Some small-scale uprisings occurred, with some soldiers choosing to defect and unilaterally join Milton's army without his consent, launching attacks against their former allies.

As Milton entered the city with the main force, a communications soldier received a message on the radio.

After a moment's thought, he decided to report to Milton.

"'Godfather,' you just said to try not to disturb the lives of the city's residents, but... the soldiers at the front have discovered some strange phenomena, and the officers are unsure what to do."

Milton nodded. "Speak."

"Hmm... well, they've discovered some strange religious practices, they seem a bit crazy, but they haven't attacked the army. Should we disperse them, or leave them alone?"

"We've discovered that many slums have walls covered in religious symbols... Perhaps, once we've taken over the cities, we can hand the matter over to the Ministry of the Interior?"

The Ministry of the Interior is the department responsible for the overall management of the police.

Flora glanced at Milton.

The soldiers at the grassroots level were unaware of the details of the "primitive voodoo cult" in the city, nor were they aware that the enemy had begun to spread terrorism in this land.

At this stage, not directly attacking the military is a very wise decision.

If Milton makes a mistake in his decision-making, and if this "malignant tumor" is allowed to develop for a period of time, it won't be long before Milton faces a highly costly counterinsurgency campaign that yields no results.

Milton glanced at the soldier and said, "Requisition the cement mixers and renovation companies in the city."

Flora and the soldier both exclaimed in confusion, "Huh?"

Milton said expressionlessly:

"Break them up and make them into wall plaster to fix the walls they've dirtied."

“Last time I used these cults, I invented a new word, ‘Jingguan,’ but it didn’t seem to attract enough attention and it hasn’t been included in the dictionary yet… This time, let’s use them to invent another new word, ‘Huo Nizi,’ to make them pay attention to the mixing ratio.”

There is an old Chinese saying, "You can't plaster a wall with mud," which means that if you break a person into too many pieces, you can't use them to plaster a wall. You have to be careful about the proportions.

Flora paused for a moment: "First of all, I don't think that's what you meant... Secondly, stop ruining our zoo and renovation company!"

(End of this chapter)