Taxes are only within machine gun range!

Chapter 278 The Anti-Milton Alliance Never Gives Up
Milton opened the panel, and the first thing he saw was a series of production lines.

Production lines for AKMs, matching bullets, special ammunition, some commonly used optical sights, grenades, and even small-caliber mortars are all ready and available for exchange.

Of course, Milton does not yet have the necessary supporting supply chains. To get the production lines running, they either have to buy them from abroad or redeem them using points.

The former is slightly cheaper, but it also has a big problem – Milton's navy is not strong enough right now, and if it is blockaded, it could easily lead to the collapse of the supply chain.

The latter is slightly more expensive, but the advantage is that in an emergency, the production line can be kept running even at a higher cost.

Previously, the production line for the A-10 attack aircraft was completely unrealistic and had no practical value at the current stage. However, the production line for basic weapons is a different story.

If it can be established, it will not only provide a large amount of tax revenue and credits, allowing Milton's finances to enter a virtuous cycle, but also provide many jobs, further stabilizing society and fundamentally eliminating the breeding ground for many extremist ideologies.

Milton can earn points several times over through the panel, use these points to invest in production, collect taxes from this production, and earn points in return...

As long as the cycle is not interrupted, it won't be long before Milton's territory's economy and manufacturing industry can develop at an extremely high speed, not only crushing the surrounding warlords, but also suppressing the surrounding countries!
Guatemala is too small and lacks many resources; one country alone is far from enough to make the region truly autonomous.

The surrounding area, or at least a large region around Central America, must be united in some way.

Eliminating Arsu was never Milton's ultimate goal.

Milton returned to the command vehicle, first glancing at the progress of Solora's capture. After confirming that it would take some time before the capture was complete, he looked at Flora and said, "'Bottle,' contact the Industrial Information Department back home for me."

After controlling three provinces and becoming a regional warlord, Milton's civil service group was not entirely composed of "veterans" who had fought alongside him from small towns; many new talents had entered the government.

Whoever is skilled and who agrees with Milton's philosophy is qualified to sit in this position.

The Ministry of Industry and Information, which is responsible for various planning, is an example of this.

Flora yawned and reached for the walkie-talkie: "Hey, can't you just do it yourself...?"

Soon, the phone was handed to them, and the minister's voice came through the receiver.

"Mr. 'The Godfather'!"

Milton cut to the chase: "What are the recent employment figures? I want the real ones; I consider anyone who tries to fool me a traitor."

Traitors are to be shot by cannons—the common people call them "traitor firepower nets."

“It’s very low, almost at full employment.” The minister gave a wry smile. “‘Godfather’, this is definitely not just good news… Although everyone can find a job, there is a big problem with the job structure.”

"For example, low-end labor jobs are currently barely saturated, and not everyone can find work... But as we develop, there will definitely be a significant shortage of this type of labor. If we don't supplement the workforce, companies may face the dilemma of rising costs."

"Of course... this is good for workers, but I think it requires a reasonable balance, and both businesses and workers need to have their interests protected."

The minister paused for a moment, then continued his report:
"Next is the area with the biggest problems—high-end industries."

"There is a huge shortage of positions such as university teachers, skilled workers, engineers, etc. This shortage has a really big impact because companies or universities find that even if they offer high salaries, they can't recruit people because there are simply no such people in our territory."

“We tried recruiting in Mexico, but the situation there is just as unfavorable.”

"Without these, your planned 'semi-industrialization' cannot proceed."

"..."

The minister succinctly summarized the current employment environment... Indeed, sometimes full employment does not mean that there are no problems with the employment structure.

Milton glanced at Flora and said, "I understand. I can import some production lines for the military industry recently. Now that I've taken down Solora, there shouldn't be a shortage of grassroots workers for the time being. Someone will give you the documents for details."

"Regarding high-end talent... I'll figure something out."

"Yes!"

After hanging up the phone, Milton looked at Flora and asked, "Didn't we say we'd have Warwind Company recruit people from Ukraine? How's that going? We're in dire need of manpower internally."

Flora shrugged: "It's going quite smoothly. Many people have already joined and are undergoing basic training. They'll be able to come here soon."

“Hehe…” Milton nodded in satisfaction. “By the way, don’t they know we’re at war here? They haven’t shown any resistance?”

“First, we did some psychological preparation,” Flora replied. “Second, the US dollars you pulled out are very powerful. You don’t know, we found an engineer who speaks English and Spanish… and he’s driving a taxi and has a lot of debt on his hands.”

In the early days after the collapse of the Soviet Union, many places even had the power to issue their own currency, which shows how chaotic the order was.

Many people lost all their assets overnight.

Flora sighed again: "Do you know what his conditions were? He said he would come with us if we paid off his debts."

"Of course, I didn't do that; I paid him his salary as usual."

Milton nodded again: "How are the production line negotiations going? I need aircraft engines, rocket engines, tank production lines, I even need shipyards... How are these negotiations going?"

Flora shrugged: "These things aren't so easy to talk about. But we've heard from the company that they've expressed a strong willingness to negotiate... They're really short of money, 'tax collector.' You're quite lucky to have found a good time, a time when there's hope for real development."

"They are really, really short of foreign exchange and light industrial products, while the US dollars and gold we have are just too tempting."

As long as it can be sold.

If we can develop our own aero-engines and rocket engines, then we may be able to develop our own fighter jets, missiles, and even spacecraft!
Manned spaceflight may be a bit of a stretch, but launching navigation equipment into space is certainly a viable option!

"Great, how much will it cost?"

Flora retorted, "Do you think this is like buying vegetables at a market? Cash on delivery? This kind of transfer of sensitive materials and technology comes with additional terms. At this stage, the company is testing the other party's bottom line, but you have to negotiate the specific terms yourself, because you are the boss and you have the right to sign these terms."

For example, payment terms, maintenance regulations, confidentiality regulations that do not transfer technology to third countries, and possibly even orders for petroleum products or agricultural products.

It may even come with some political conditions.

Flora paused for a moment, then added, "Moreover, they seem to have another intention, which is to buy the cooperation. We have to be the legitimate government of Guatemala, or show them a very high probability that we will become the legitimate government, otherwise the risk is too great, and many promises are hard to keep."

“That makes sense.” Milton nodded with a smile. “If they hadn’t made these demands, I would have thought they might be trying to scam us.”

Flora said somewhat relaxedly, "I feel like once we defeat this so-called 'Anti-Milton Alliance' and fully launch our strategic offensive, these projects will be able to start smoothly... However, I feel like they won't be so easy to defeat later on, given their numerical disadvantage." Milton lowered his head slightly again upon hearing this, looking at the panel.

[F-5E fighter jet unlocked]

Needless to say, supersonic fighter jets are the best killer against the government forces' Barnyard air defense missiles, which don't even have radar.

Once the afterburner is activated, it will be difficult for the cypress tree to catch up with the plane.

With such a fighter jet and a suitable pilot, Milton could easily take out enemy air defenses by surprise and then allow ground attack aircraft to enter the fray.

Recently, due to the increased enemy air defense firepower, Milton's air force has been unable to enter the battlefield when they are most needed.

The addition of fighter jets can perfectly solve this problem.

The mission of fighter jets is to seize air superiority.

It can not only completely suppress enemy fighters, but also pose a huge threat to their air defense positions.

Milton firmly believed that if the SEALs had already arrived, then even more formidable air units, capable of ignoring the vast majority of their own anti-aircraft fire, would likely reach the Arsu camp soon as well.

Judging from the current battlefield situation, the Arsu government has begun to gradually transform into a proxy, which must be guarded against.

[Self-propelled anti-aircraft gun unlocked: Type 2K22 "Tunguska"]

"This, haha, a self-propelled anti-aircraft gun that got wiped out by Chechnya as soon as it came out..."

Of course, despite the complaints, this thing actually performs quite well.

两门2A38型30毫米机关炮，8枚9M311地对空导弹，1RL-144M目标搜索-跟踪雷达系统，数字式火控计算机……

With a high level of informatization, the integration of anti-aircraft artillery, missiles, and radar allows for the detection of many attack aircraft as soon as they enter the firing range, enabling corresponding deployments.

At the same time, it can also pose a huge threat to low-speed, low-altitude targets such as attack aircraft and helicopters.

More self-propelled mortars and more self-propelled rocket launchers have also been unlocked.

More importantly, these items are not only useful, but also very cheap.

"We've robbed a warship, wiped out so many drug dealers, and seized so much territory. Finally, we can once again undertake a large-scale upgrade of our equipment..."

Seeing that Milton remained silent, Flora couldn't help but remind him, "The news of the government forces' defeat should have spread by now, but the 'Anti-Milton Alliance' doesn't seem to be backing down. How are we going to fight from here on out?"

"Wait a little longer," Milton smiled. "By the way, I have some good news for you."

"what?"

"Our planes can return to the field in the next battle."

"..."

……

"Anti-Milton Alliance" Joint Command.

"What? Our 'ally' has slowed down?" Reggie was furious. "If they really don't plan to fight anymore, I'll surrender to Milton right now!"

Reggie is very emotional right now.

They had only been defeated for a short time, yet all sorts of propaganda posters appeared in the cities behind their lines.

His headshot was slightly distorted, while behind him were a large number of tanks, a large number of airplanes, various speedboats piled up at the dock, a large amount of light equipment, and captured government soldiers.

There were large characters on it, such as "The best friend of the Pan-Madre region" and "The most professional transport captain in all of Guatemala".

The meaning is very clear: it's mocking Reggie for not only fighting poorly but also sending supplies to Milton, implying that after fighting the enemy, he not only failed to weaken them but actually strengthened them.

Amidst the growing skepticism from the rear, many began to berate Reggie, suggesting he should have stayed out of the fight, since not fighting wouldn't have made Milton stronger or provided him with so many supplies.

Even within the civilian government, there have been calls to replace Reggie with a "more capable" person as the joint commander.

Reggie was furious – it was Arsu who told him to back down, it was Arsu who told him to back down as soon as possible!
One of the staff officers shrugged: "Uh... no, what they said was that they wanted to establish a solid defensive line in place to ensure that logistical support would not be attacked, so they temporarily halted their advance."

"The Monte family originally arrived in 7 days, but now it's estimated to take 10 days; those further north, it will take half a month."

"However, judging from Milton's previous performance, he pays great attention to the construction of the rear. It is normal for him to spend at least a month building up a city after it has been captured."

The staff officer concluded with great confidence, "Even if Milton attacks, we are confident we can defend against it this time."

"Oh?" Reggie sneered. "If those two bunches of trash don't come, how can we stop Milton's attack? How long has Solora been building up its defenses, and how long have we been building our new lines?"

The staff officer chuckled: "General... don't worry, with the president personally putting pressure on us this time, our reinforcements will definitely come. Even a fool knows that if this defensive line collapses again, Guatemala City will only have one last defensive line between itself and Milton. They certainly won't dare to think about any balance or weakening of either side anymore."

"President Arsu's confidants personally flew there; they were indeed there to secure logistical supplies, not just making excuses."

"the most important is……"

A smile appeared on the staff officer's face: "The plane the Americans promised us has arrived."

The humiliation on Reggie's face vanished instantly: "Oh? A jaguar?"

"Yes, the entire seal crew was wiped out, which angered the Americans. They expedited the approval process, and the plane will arrive tomorrow, and it will be a secret arrival!"

"This is a supersonic attack aircraft, piloted by an American himself—it can ignore Milton's crappy anti-aircraft guns and missiles and roam freely in his positions!"

"All of the 'Hell Tax Collector's' self-propelled anti-aircraft guns, all their so-called powerful equipment, will be completely destroyed in the next battle."

"General...believe me, our counterattack is about to begin, and Milton's end is not far off."

P.S.: Something unexpected happened in the group chat, and we argued for an hour. Sorry.
(End of this chapter)