Taxes are only within machine gun range!

Chapter 293 Land Preserved, People Lost
Solora.

This offensive, which started strong but ended weakly, is gradually coming to an end, with only sporadic cannon fire heard in the valley.

Large convoys loaded with supplies have begun to retreat to the rear...

This offensive, launched while the front lines were "undefended," ended hastily without achieving any results.

While the "Hell Tax Collector" chose to send his main force across the mountains to strike directly at the Monte family's private army, they also launched a general offensive against Solora almost simultaneously.

This is a rare opportunity!

The garrison left in Solora must complete its mission of holding the city with inferior and non-elite forces, and defend it before the main force returns to reinforce.

However, the Allied forces did not make much progress in their hasty attack—Milton took away the main force but not the heavy firepower, and at the beginning of the battle, the attackers were even at a firepower disadvantage.

The Allied soldiers were in agony as they watched the positions they had built up, which they had easily given up, now become impregnable barriers.

Heavy weapons and logistics were put in place, but Milton led the main force to slaughter 5000 people, almost putting the Monte family in dire straits. The news of the victory, which directly dislocated an arm of the Allied forces, sent morale plummeting to rock bottom.

At this moment, a joint forces field helicopter landing pad.

A mid-level officer with connections at the joint command and prior knowledge of some inside information jumped onto the helicopter.

The helicopter took off quickly and moved far away from the battlefield.

He knew that not long ago, the joint command had deployed their ace – a squadron of Jaguars capable of breaking through Milton's air defenses, along with three elite pilots.

The officer's reason for choosing to leave was quite simple.

If this operation succeeds, Milton will be killed in the parliament building, and the fall of Solora will be imminent. There will be no need to continue risking being killed on the front lines.

Conversely, if Milton hadn't been blown up... then given the "Hell Tax Collector's" personality, he would have been furious and would have sent his main force up to throw everyone present into the volcano!

In any case, retreating is the wisest choice.

beep...

The helicopter took off and returned to Guatemala City, landing on the military helipad at the military airport.

The officer jumped out of the plane and looked at the ground and sky below, immediately feeling a sense of security.

Even if Milton's arms were long enough, they couldn't reach that spot...

The thought had barely crossed his mind when his gaze was suddenly drawn to six small black dots in the sky.

F-5?! Su-25?!
Two fighter squadrons!
What's going on? Didn't the Jaguars attack the Quetzaltenango council? Why are there two enemy squadrons appearing in Guatemala City instead?

He had just made out the silver-gray paint scheme of the fuselage when the three escorting F-5 fighter jets suddenly dipped down in unison, their exhaust nozzles exploding with a "boom" and bursting into a bright red flame, the pale blue tail flames instantly turning bright.

The F-5, which was flying at subsonic speed, suddenly accelerated to supersonic speed of Mach 1.5 and broke away from the formation!
Afterburner!
Have the F-5 attack aircraft squadron found their target?
The officer instinctively ran in one direction, trying to get as far away as possible from high-value targets like helicopters.

Looking up again, sure enough, an F-5 roared towards the airport!

The speed is terrifying!
Immediately afterwards, the only dark bomb on the plane fell from under the wing.

The short, cylindrical fuselage, with a faint metallic sheen on the tail fin, was blown off its rack and pulled diagonally downwards by gravity the next second!
"Damn it! That's an M117 aerial bomb!"

750 pounds!
It was also the only bomb carried by the F-5; the others were all air-to-air missiles.

The M117 bomb was dropped from the rack towards the hangar, where a Dragonfly attack aircraft was parked. A pilot was attempting to climb onto the plane and try to struggle.

The officer dared not look again and immediately covered his head and lay down!

Because the airport ground crew prioritized convenience and didn't believe the capital would be attacked, the hangar, that godforsaken place, was filled with machine gun ammunition, rocket pods, and aerial bombs!
Just as he lay down, the ground suddenly shook violently. First, a blinding orange-red flame exploded from the direction of the hangar, and a mushroom-shaped column of smoke, carrying rubble and sheet metal, instantly rose from the ground. Then came a terrifying explosion, and the shockwave pushed him to roll several times on the ground.

A 750-pound bomb wouldn't have that kind of power, but the ammunition in the hangar was detonated one after another.

Several pieces of shards landed directly on the ground not far from him...

A wave of heat mixed with the smell of burnt metal hit him. He squinted at the hangar—the once-pretty hangar roof had been blown off, twisted steel beams were broken and stuck in the smoke, and most of the walls had collapsed, revealing the wreckage of the "Dragonfly" attack aircraft inside.

Boom boom boom…

The F-5 flew past at extremely high speed and symbolically fired a round of machine gun fire at the ground, shooting off the rotor of a helicopter.

After several tens of seconds, the shrill sound in the officer's ears turned into a continuous buzzing. He struggled to get up and looked up at the sky, but the contrail of the F-5 had long since faded and was almost invisible.

It's so fast!
Even after the plane had left, the sound of explosions continued to echo in my ears.

The three F-5s flew separately. Besides the attack on the airport, the officer vaguely remembered that the directions of the other two explosions seemed to indicate the presence of anti-aircraft weapons and radar...

The officer immediately discerned the fighter squadron's tactical intentions: "They're here to destroy our counterattack capability..."

"What about the attack aircraft squadron?"

He barely managed to lift his head—the Su-25 squadron hadn't dispersed, but instead dropped high-yield bombs on a sanatorium specifically for high-ranking officials.

One bomb after another, all of them landing very close together!
In the officer's view, the sanatorium had already partially collapsed after being hit by the first bomb, and the second bomb seemed to continue dropping directly along the crater created by the first bomb—the power of the aerial bomb imploding inside was astonishing, and the entire building collapsed almost instantly!
The three Su-25s did not stop bombing. They circled around and flew back to the sanatorium, dropping another round of bombs on the ruins!
"What is Milton doing... He finally managed to fly in, why is he staring at the sanatorium and trying to bomb it?" the officer muttered blankly. "He spends all his money on planes and cannons, he's penniless, and he's just jealous of other people living well, isn't he?"

That doesn't justify such a violent bombing, does it? It doesn't justify such hatred, does it?
The officer didn't understand anything, turned around and walked towards the airport's backup radio station—if there were any problems, he could just ask his "connection" in the joint command.

The location of this mysterious command center remains unknown to this day, known only to core personnel.

Thankfully, the radio station is still intact.

The officer's fingers flew as he lifted the dust cover off the backup radio, his trembling thumb pressing the power switch. With a soft "click," the green indicator light on the radio panel lit up steadily, and the familiar static noise immediately drifted from the speaker.

He pressed the fire button, his voice slightly unsteady: "'Mountain Peak,' this is 'Glove,' calling from Operation Channel 1. Please respond!"

After speaking, the officer released the button, his eyes fixed on the flickering signal indicator and radar. The static continued, but there was no sign of a response—usually at this time, his superior, a respected major general, would answer within 10 seconds.

But this time, nothing came from the other side.

The officer frowned and glanced at the sanatorium subconsciously.

A terrifying thought began to emerge.

He abruptly shook his head, forcing himself to stop thinking, and turned the tuning knob half a circle to switch to the backup channel 2.

This time, when the fire button was pressed, there was a hint of urgency in the voice: "This is 'Glove'. The west hangar has been attacked. M117 hit. 'Dragonfly' destroyed! Approximately five or six people killed. Requesting instructions for the next deployment step. Please respond!"

"..."

The officer was now truly anxious; his hands were trembling uncontrollably as he switched to backup channel number 3.

But there was still no response from the other end!
He tried to contact other officers, but they either replied that they couldn't reach him or simply asked him in a strange tone, "Aren't you connected with the joint command?"

In short, no one could contact the joint command, and the brain of the coalition forces suddenly went offline!

Boom boom boom...

The officer, without even glancing at the planes that had finished dropping their bombs and were rapidly retreating, shouted to his subordinates:
"Quick, find a car, drive! To the sanatorium!"

Still reeling from the horrific images of the hangar explosion, the subordinate instinctively asked, "Which sanatorium? Sir, are you going on vacation?" "Survive my ass?!" the officer nearly screamed, "Go to that bombed-up sanatorium!"

"Oh! Yes, yes!"

"..."

Because the explosion of a high-yield bomb also has a devastating impact on roads, the closer you get to the sanatorium, the more congested the traffic becomes.

Even honking by military vehicles was useless.

Enraged, the officer climbed onto the machine gun turret and fired wildly into the air for a full three seconds.

The previously congested road suddenly cleared a space just wide enough for a car to pass through.

Ignoring the scrapes, the military vehicle fired shots and knocked off the rearview mirrors of other vehicles along the way, finally arriving at the high-class sanatorium that had been reduced to ruins.

The sanatorium's building structure has completely collapsed, and the garden pool is full of various cement blocks and stones.

The officer tried desperately to reassure himself, kicked away the rubble, and came to the ruins of the building.

There is a large crater there, formed by repeated bombings.

Upon looking inside, the officer's legs went weak, and despair and collapse immediately filled his eyes.

Military supplies were scattered all over the ground, along with dismembered limbs...

This really is the joint command post.

Milton found information about the location of the joint command and immediately dispatched two squadrons to carry out an incredibly successful decapitation strike against the highest levels of the coalition forces!

The Americans in charge here, senior officers from the Department of Defense, and senior commanders from other coalition forces...

They're all dead! They're all dead!
In that instant, the coalition forces lost their minds!

All coalition forces were completely disconnected at this point!
"Do not……"

The young soldier who was driving was also frightened. He asked tremblingly, "Sir, what... what should we do?"

"Notify the President!" The officer whirled around. "The most important thing now is to immediately re-establish a coalition command center and set up information relay stations!"

“Right now we lack decision-making power, the military cannot communicate with each other, all parts can only fight independently, and information is not shared… Do you know how terrible that is?”

"It's not as simple as us losing excellent commanders and having to replace them with mediocre ones!"

"Who is Milton? Would Milton not know our current situation?"

"During this period, if he makes any arrangements, our allied forces can only maintain the most basic communication, which is far from sufficient to deal with this madman's plans!"

“I, I temporarily took command of the Solora army. Once the news of my beheading got out, their morale was ruined. We must retreat immediately.”

"I can't help you with anything else!"

"Quickly! Notify Arsu! Tell him to figure something out!"

"Yes!"

"..."

Soon, the phone was answered in the president's office, and there was a slightly noisy sound on the other end.

Clearly, as the supreme leader of a nation, the Arsu government was also aware of the decapitation of the joint command.

The person who answered the phone was the president's secretary. After hearing the officer's report, she immediately said she would report the matter to the president for handling.

However, as a secretary who knew nothing about military affairs, she did not grasp the seriousness of the matter and did not prioritize it in her reports.

In her view, the main force of the army was still intact, and losing command was not the biggest problem. It was okay to report to the president in two or three days.

The most urgent thing now is for those high-ranking officials and politicians who usually hold sway over the country, talk endlessly about war, and treat soldiers and casualties as mere numbers, to suddenly realize that war has come upon them.

Why do so many politicians talk about war so easily and launch wars so readily?
Because the war won't reach them.

But after today, regardless of status or wealth, anyone could be killed without a complete body in an air raid!
The first thing many interest groups surrounding Arsu need to consider is moving out as soon as possible.

Arsu, who was also busy, asked, "What is it?"

The secretary chuckled: "I plan to put the military matter at the top of my high-priority list. You'll see it after you've dealt with the most important things... or, should I report it to you now?"

Arsu thought for a moment and shook his head: "Let me finish the most important things first... There are still officers, so many American aid workers, and so many soldiers in the army. Guatemala City is still very safe."

"Right now, protecting the top leadership, ensuring their safety, and restoring internal stability are the most important things."

"Yes."

……

Quetzaltenango.

Milton, who had just left Parliament, was in the command vehicle, anxiously awaiting the results of the bombing.

The interrogation process was too rushed, and the truth serum wasn't very reliable. Even with the information on the panel, it was extremely difficult to notify the pilots and get them to find the sanatorium in a short time.

Even with guided bombs, accurately hitting a building repeatedly is not so simple.

Targets located in the basement also have a chance of surviving.

But soon, good news arrived.

"Reporting to 'Godfather', the mission was a complete success. Your intelligence was very accurate. The area beneath that sanatorium is indeed unusual and is highly likely to be the joint command post."

Mildoo was immediately invigorated.

"Contact Brandon!"

"Let him pursue the enemy, and analyze their command, coordination, and tactics to see if the enemy's supreme commander has been taken offline!"

"Contact 'Bottle'!"

"The enemy's current ability to integrate and process information is now almost zero."

"Assemble the main force... Take advantage of the enemy's information integration, processing, and transmission being paralyzed, and immediately prepare a battle plan!"

"We need to be quick. Arsu isn't stupid. He will rebuild the joint command center at lightning speed. Once it's rebuilt, even if a pig is sitting inside, many of our advantages will be gone! Our window of opportunity is very, very short!"

"I'm going to give Arsu a question... Should we save people or save land?"

Milton set his sights on Guatemala City, the country's capital, but he did not designate the city as his next strategic target.

The general pulled the chariot.

(End of this chapter)