Taxes are only within machine gun range!

Chapter 281 A Difficult Choice
Porto Barrios, Izabal Province.

As Guatemala's only Atlantic port, coupled with its natural topographical advantages, the Ubico family, who occupy this area, have always been in a relatively advantageous position.

In other words, this place was naturally suited for separatist rule.

It was already winter, and Eunice had to wear some thick clothes, but even the thickest clothes couldn't hide her figure.

"Miss, we're about to leave."

“Okay.” Eunice stood in front of the mirror, getting ready for a long time before finally speaking. “‘Hell Tax Collector’ really surprised everyone.”

The family that controlled this land and other high-ranking officials were all summoned together by Eunice's father, Wyatt, for a meeting!
This is something that hasn't happened in many years.

Wyatt had planned to retire and hand over everything to his two descendants, Heinz and Eunice, but this time he couldn't hold back.

Eunice shrugged, walked away from the mirror, and headed towards the villa's front door: "There's nothing we can do. Things just didn't turn out the way we expected."

A woman in her forties led Eunice into a limousine, where she sat on the left side of the back seat.

"Therefore, our strategy must also be adjusted."

Almost everyone once concluded that Milton, after replacing Lopez as the master of this land, would inevitably be irreconcilably opposed to the Arsu government.

The Arsu government will try to form an alliance with the other three to crush Milton.

Milton either continues to maintain his separatist regime under immense pressure, waging a low-intensity war for ten or twenty years until a victor emerges, or until Milton is willing to compromise. Alternatively, Milton may succumb to the pressure, causing his separatist regime to collapse, and he may flee to another country with the wealth he has amassed over the years, becoming a wealthy man.

There's no way around it; the two sides are simply not on the same level in terms of size. Moreover, the Arsu government represents the "official" side and can obtain a lot of external assistance.

It's quite obvious which side has the advantage.

However, Milton was a formidable fighter, while the Allied forces were of questionable strength. Therefore, most people did not believe that the Allied forces could truly eliminate Milton, making the second possibility less likely.

The Ubiko family's idea was simple—whichever side they sided with, the pressure on that side would be greatly reduced.

Arsu will have the opportunity to annihilate Milton, while Milton will gain ample breathing space.

Milton moved his army north and annihilated Mexico's regular army. Then, without stopping, he turned south again and instantly collapsed the Solora defense line that the Alzu government forces had built while Milton was fighting in the north.

Despite being outnumbered, Milton was on the offensive!
beep...

The sound of a car engine running at low RPMs could be heard.

Eunice took matters into her own hands, pushed open the door, and entered her father's manor villa.

The hall was already crowded with people, and Eunice attracted a lot of attention as soon as she entered.

Wyatt saw his daughter coming over and waved, "Eunice, come sit next to me."

Heinz arrived a little earlier than her and nodded slightly to his sister.

Soon, everyone was seated in their places, looking at Wyatt and waiting for him to say the first words—in the past, people would have exchanged pleasantries and wasted some time.

After all, previous wars were all "wars of attrition," low-intensity conflicts, and it was normal for a war to last for more than ten years. Even if some time was wasted, the situation on the front lines would not change significantly in a short period of time.

But now, let alone slowly talking for months, the situation might have been like this when I went to sleep yesterday, but I don't even recognize this world when I wake up today.

Milton brought the intensity of the battlefield to an extremely high level that many people could not adapt to.

Huge changes can happen in just a few hours.

“Alright, the most important topic today is that we must make our own choice.” Wyatt coughed, the wrinkles on his face trembling with his movement. “The current situation no longer allows us to wait and see.”

Heinz nodded in strong agreement: "If we continue to wait and see, not only will we fail to gain the greatest benefit, but we may even be purged no matter which side wins."

"Gentlemen, what are your opinions? Should we cooperate with Milton, or cut off all ties with him and stab him in the back, leaving him to be attacked from both sides?"

A middle-aged man said almost without thinking: "The Alzu government is the official government of Guatemala. I think no matter how we try to play both sides, we should ultimately stand on the side of the government. That is the force with which we have deep interests."

The other person scoffed dismissively, "Ha... I bet it's because you own a mansion in Guatemala City, isn't it?"

"What the hell..."

"Stop, don't argue." Wyatt slammed his fist on the table, his face grim. "Get to the point."

"...Heh." The middle-aged man turned his head. "My point is clear: don't forget, we have connections with the government. We can just verbally criticize them to secure our own interests. But if we really turn against them, will we still be able to do business?"

“I also think that if we have to choose between the two, the Alsu government is the first choice. All of Milton’s current advantages will completely disappear once the Americans get serious.”

"He may want to be the next 'Napoleon of Central America,' or he may want to be the next Che Guevara, but no one can succeed, and Milton will be no exception."

"I agree."

"A bunch of old fogies from the old era! Can't you see it now? Milton's victory across the country is a foregone conclusion; it's just a matter of time. Do you really think Milton is like those other people? Look at the areas he controls; look at what they've become in just one year!"

"Ha! Is it as impressive as you make it out to be? Once we send troops out, sneak around and outflank Milton from behind, his so-called economic miracle will collapse immediately!"

"..."

The hall was incredibly noisy, with everyone making their own judgments based on their own interests.

However, most people still believe that they should not cooperate with Milton and should do everything possible to maintain the status quo.

After arguing for a while, the noise in the room gradually subsided, and everyone turned to look at the three people sitting at the head of the table.

They may be able to influence decisions, but the ones who can actually make the decisions are actually the three mentioned above.

Wyatt took a sip of tea and asked his son, "Heinz, what do you think?"

"From a purely domestic perspective, Milton is the obvious choice. He has a greater chance of winning, and most importantly, under his management, our long-term interests may be greater... Everyone can see that his economic governance achievements are nothing short of a miracle." "By cooperating with him, we should be able to earn more money in the future."

"Moreover, Milton is actually quite clever. He chose a time when a major war broke out in Europe, which is one of America's core interests. At that time, external intervention can only be limited. Milton will most likely only face some special forces, which will be secretly sent over... I think under these circumstances, Milton still has a great chance of defeating the Arsu government."

Wyatt nodded.

At this moment, Eunice couldn't help but say, "Moreover, someone just said that the coalition forces were attacking from both sides... Even if you only glanced at Solora's battle report, just one glance, you wouldn't say such a stupid thing."

"With the entire Allied forces in such disarray at the highest command level, each with their own agendas, how can they possibly outflank Milton from both sides?"

"Once we outflank Milton, you'll be surprised to find that the Allied forces' marching speed suddenly slows down. Various 'force majeure' factors prevent them from arriving at the battlefield on schedule, and they need us to hold them off for now."

“They will only slowly come up after Milton has completely torn our army apart.”

"Given our geographical location, if we really want to go to war with Milton, we can only join the allied forces and attack from the front."

"..."

To be honest, Wyatt himself was slightly inclined to support the Alsu government, but the fact that his two children held the same view made him waver a little.

After listening to the two men's statements, the middle-aged man remained silent for a moment before asking, "Even if what you say is true, what will happen if the Milton government faces economic sanctions from the United States after it comes to power?"

“Let’s assume he succeeds… Milton is also Castro, defeating the American attack on every front, but wouldn’t that just be the next Cuba? Would that really benefit us?”

Even Eunice paused for a moment when the question was asked.

Who can predict the future?

Choosing Arsu could expose Milton's destruction, at which point the mad "Hell Tax Collector" might sink everyone here to the bottom of the sea.

Choosing Milton might offend the United States, and then things still won't be easy.

“Hehe…” Wyatt laughed at this moment, and he sighed, “It’s still because we’re not strong enough. We can only choose to join Milton or Arsu, instead of letting others choose to join us.”

"So, the final decision is to maintain a friendship with Milton and completely break with the government?"

“I think this matter might need further discussion. After all, Milton and Arsu haven’t put any pressure on us yet, so we should still have some room for discussion.”

It's really hard to choose either side.

The future is shrouded in mystery for them.

“We have no choice now.” Heinz, who was in charge of the army, shook his head firmly. “If we join Arsu, I don’t know if Arsu can win, but we will definitely be the losers. According to all the intelligence, the coalition is too unreliable. Even if we join forces with the coalition, we, as a force that chose to join last, will definitely be left at the front and in the most dangerous place as cannon fodder.”

"Before the Battle of Solora, I might have hesitated a little about which side to join, but now, from a military perspective, my answer is firm: we can only cooperate with Milton."

"As Eunice said before, our allies are actually happy to see us crushed. Even if a coalition with its own ulterior motives wins, it will suffer extremely heavy losses. If the loss of troops is too severe, I believe that Arsu may turn around and divide us up in the future."

"By then, we will truly be doomed."

Wyatt felt that the times were changing drastically, and the entire country was heading toward an uncertain future in an unstoppable trend.

Anger flashed across the middle-aged man's face as he asked, "Mr. Heinz, military, military! You can't just think about military issues. What about all our business? If we offend the United States, do you think they'll treat us well in the Caribbean?"

"Do you know what kind of impact it would have on us if the Americans stopped doing business with us? Our economy would completely collapse! Do you know how much we depend on the Caribbean and how much money we make from our ports?"

"I absolutely disagree with getting involved with Milton!"

"..."

Heinz slowly said, "If a country can completely collapse our economy just by talking, I think such an economy is likely to harm us... You can't just look at the immediate benefits; you have to take a longer-term view."

As the "boss" of this area, their thinking is different from that of their subordinates. Their subordinates only want to be "the mayor's wife," and who the mayor is is completely unimportant.

But Heinz, as the future heir, had to think long-term; the family could not fall, no matter what.

The living room erupted into another fierce argument.

The differences between the two sides are so great that they cannot be bridged at all, and they cannot even reach a consensus.

Wyatt, his head throbbing from the noise, waved his hand and said, "Alright, alright... let's talk about it another time. Everyone, you can all leave now."

"Let's discuss this again the day after tomorrow and come up with a solution that both sides can agree on!"

"..."

After leaving the reception room, Heinz called his sister back.

"Eunice, what do you think?"

Eunice shrugged: "I don't think they'll agree to it. We might even split up internally. That's where you come in."

"Having gone through so much, I believe Milton is the future. Unfortunately… however, I actually have another question." Heinz changed the subject, "If we cooperate with Arsu, we'll inevitably become cannon fodder… but if we cooperate with Milton, and he wins and eliminates the other three forces, what will our fate be?"

Eunice fell silent again, and after a long while said, "I can go to Milton's place."

"it is good."

Just then, a man rushed over, glanced at Eunice, and seeing Heinz nod, reported directly, "Mr. Heinz, latest intelligence!"

"The allied forces have set off again, and they are actively converging!"

"The staff analysis said that this is likely to be the largest battle in Guatemalan history."

(End of this chapter)