Taxes are only within machine gun range!

Chapter 295 The Brain-Dead Army
After the order from the "Hell Tax Collector" was delivered, no one complained. They all stood up and gathered, ready to wait for the next order.

The young soldiers were eager to make a name for themselves.

All the soldiers had a premonition that if they won the war, they would follow Milton to defeat Arsu and become the new government, in which they would hold a very high position.

The detailed commands came down quickly.

“The enemy forces that attacked Solora have begun to retreat—but Mr. Godfather will not allow them to come and go.”

"The enemy's supreme command was completely wiped out in Mr. 'The Godfather's' plan. Now the enemy is just a bunch of headless flies, waiting for us to swat them to death!"

“The brutal, weak, and incompetent man has been sitting on the chair in Guatemala City for far too long. It’s time to overthrow him!”

"rush!"

The soldiers were incredibly excited.

Surprisingly, both sides are quite optimistic about this battle so far.

The Pan Madre Group has secured Solora, meaning that only two lines of defense remain between Guatemala City and the enemy. Many people don't think it's a big deal; they think there are still two lines of defense.
Now, having annihilated the Monte family's army, they are finally marching towards the capital!
Even in modern warfare, the fall of the capital does not mean the complete collapse of the old government's power, but its political significance is still very great.

This means that the Arsu government is no longer a national government!

The soldiers quickly learned their mission.

First, in coordination with the defenders of Solora, weaken the enemy forces attacking Solora as much as possible before they retreat, preventing them from successfully withdrawing to the Tekpan defense line.

The next step is to attack Chimaltenango, which will be a tough battle. The city must be captured in the shortest possible time, and Guatemala City must be brought close.

At that time, various propaganda machines will work in conjunction with the military to put maximum pressure on the defenders of Guatemala City, forcing them to make the decision to shrink their defensive lines.

They would have to bypass Guatemala City and get behind them to engage in open battle with the Northern warlords who were rushing towards them—this was the most important and difficult battle of the mission.

These were all battle-hardened soldiers, and they could certainly see that the plan was simple and direct, without too many steps. Even if it failed, it would simply revert to conventional tactics and wouldn't cause the entire battle to collapse.

If successful, they would engage in a decisive battle with the enemy in the field, avoiding the urban warfare that would result in the greatest casualties.

With the enemy's highest command offline and all units forced to fight independently, such an attempt has a chance of success!
The "Hell Tax Collector" painstakingly managed to create such a rare opportunity for a decisive battle in the field for these soldiers who were fighting desperately on the battlefield. He hired pilots from the former Soviet Union, killed Americans, spent so much money and resources that could not be replenished in a short time.

Milton never treated their lives as numbers...

All the soldiers were incredibly excited!

Everyone boarded the troop carriers, tanks, various self-propelled guns, supply vehicles, trucks towing artillery, and so on, according to their memories from training.

Now, in the two main battalions of the Pan Madre Group, there are no longer light infantry in the traditional sense. All the infantrymen have been mounted on infantry fighting vehicles, making them true mechanized infantry companies!
When all units rushed forward at the same time, it finally felt like a "steel torrent".

Any unit with low morale would collapse upon seeing this scene.

"rush!!!"

"For Mr. 'The Godfather'!"

"For victory!"

The 2nd Tank Company, consisting of 28 tanks, charged ahead, followed by 3 mechanized infantry companies, while the command vehicle coordinated the formation from the right side of the center.

To ensure sufficient impact and coordinated infantry-tank operations, this seemingly simple configuration is actually the most efficient and has the strongest combat capability.

The infantry's formation when on and off infantry fighting vehicles is completely different from that of tanks in combined arms operations.

However, Milton's soldiers, through rigorous training and numerous battles, have gradually learned true infantry-tank coordination.

Many officers who graduated from military academies and were "armchair strategists" gradually abandoned many of their old ideas.

For example, in this troop deployment, theoretically speaking, the optimal layout is not simply to have two tank companies break through in front and three mechanized infantry companies follow behind.

Theoretically speaking, the best formation is one tank company with one mechanized infantry company on each flank, and another mechanized infantry company directly commanded by the commander in the center. This formation is symmetrical, balanced, and efficient. Moreover, the commander only needs to communicate with the commanders on the left and right flanks, which is very convenient and quick.

Theoretically, the most efficient command and control structure, and the highly balanced and efficient combat formation that maximizes combat effectiveness, should be the best solution.

The fact that Milton's military school was able to start bringing up these things and discussing these issues indicates that it had already begun to show results.

However, in actual combat, officers discovered that this so-called theoretically optimal framework actually exposed many unforeseen problems when fighting broke out.

In actual combat, there is one problem that is most easily overlooked.

Military ranks, as well as the conflicting tactical objectives of armored and infantry units—tanks and infantry need to cover each other, and officers in different units will have different approaches.

This is not about being afraid of death and deliberately sacrificing others to save one's own troops, but rather a difference in thinking between different branches of the military.

According to theoretical methods, the company commanders of tank companies and mechanized infantry companies have the same rank, but they have conflicting tactical philosophies.

When the two sides disagree, it inevitably affects the efficiency of operations—because the commander himself does not have absolute control.

Even disregarding rank, many battle reports clearly show that mechanized infantry companies coordinated better with artillery units, while their coordination with tank units was relatively awkward. (Note 1)

Many analysts have concluded that artillery and infantry are compatible and complementary in terms of tactical concepts—infantry soldiers are even quite willing to let artillery serve as commanders during combined arms operations.

But what logic is there in this? What rationality is there in this?
There's no logic to it, but for officers, since this phenomenon objectively exists, it must be taken into consideration.

This is the difference between "armchair strategist" and actual combat.

Of course, Milton has been intentionally coordinating the training of these units as combined arms forces, and this strange factor, which could affect theoretically optimal combat effectiveness, is being eliminated little by little.

This is also why Milton's soldiers have such high morale—only after fighting a war do they realize just how big the gap is between themselves and the enemy.

Boom boom boom...

"..."

……

In front of the Tekpan defensive line.

The soldiers who were originally tasked with attacking Solora were leisurely packing up, planning to abandon Tekpan as planned and retreat directly to the Chimaltenango defense line.

The atmosphere on the battlefield was even somewhat relaxed, giving many veterans a sense of familiarity with the low-intensity wars they had fought in the past.

A soldier yawned: "Logically speaking, battles against the 'Hell Tax Collectors' are usually very tense and intense, so why is this one so leisurely?"

In the past, when fighting the resistance, they would basically stay in the trenches and fortresses, firing some religious shots, waving flags and shouting slogans. They would fight for who knows how many months, and then the officers would suddenly declare victory, and they would be able to move to a new place and move forward.

But when they encountered Milton, they learned what "mobile warfare" meant.

Want to use the toilet?
No way!

Milton dared to use trench warfare to achieve great results, and then bury all the troops who were trenching into the trenches.

"If you're told to retreat, then retreat immediately! Stop talking nonsense!"

The class monitor scolded, "Stop asking questions and just follow orders!"

The squad leader was a good man and knew the company commander. He knew some information that hadn't been fully disseminated in the army, the most important of which was a horror story—their joint command post had been wiped out!
The vast majority of commanders, including Americans, were killed in that attack, including their battalion commanders.

The reason why the entire unit reacted so slowly was that the deputy battalion commander who took over was an incompetent person with connections. Without the highest command, he couldn't even handle some basic matters properly.

The intelligence system collapsed completely. Whenever intelligence required coordination from a joint command, it would become a complete mess and could not be effectively transmitted.

The current situation in Milton and with our allies is completely opaque.

For officers, this was a horror story—everyone knew what the "hellish tax collector" was going to do, but nobody knew what he was going to do. They tried to ask their superiors who had information, but they couldn't get in touch with them at all. When they asked around, the answer they got was, "Sir, you are the highest-ranking officer here."

Milton's sword was about to strike, but no one knew the specifics, and no one came to coordinate the scattered army.

There wasn't a single officer with sufficient ability, experience, and rank to maintain order—the troops attacking Solola had by then become a disorganized mess.

At this point, no tactical objective could be achieved, and retreat was the only option.

"Let's retreat quickly, the Solora garrison could attack at any time."

One soldier couldn't hold back any longer and, while packing up his things, questioned, "I really don't understand... why are we so inefficient? We don't fight, we don't run. Even I can guess that Milton is probably preparing to mobilize his main force to counterattack us."

"Is there a problem with the command center? What do you mean it's like the system has crashed?"

"I heard, I only heard... the battalion commander still hasn't returned!"

"Is it real or fake?!"

"No wonder we're like we're brain dead!"

"Damn... If we lose command, if the information we report can't be seen by the commanders, and if Milton also knows about this, he can make many decisions that he couldn't make before!"

"Damn it, Milton did so many terrible things when we still had eyes and ears... Now that we're half blind, he might already be taking his pants down on our heads and ready to shit, and we haven't even noticed!"

"What you said is fucking terrifying... Milton really did drown a lot of people in filth!"

"Run! Hurry... Even with the Americans commanding us, we can't beat Milton. If the Americans leave, what will we fight with?"

Once suspicious points are discovered and discussed openly, many issues that were previously deliberately ignored suddenly become incredibly glaring.

“Don’t you think the retreat order is strange? Why are we abandoning the Tekpan line and running straight to Chimaltenango? Weren’t we taught a lesson from our hasty departure from Solora last time? Look at that position over there, where a lot of people died but we still couldn’t take it. I helped build it.”

"Yes, don't they think that the higher-ups have completely given up on counterattacking Solora? Don't they know how exhausted we are? If Milton easily takes Tekpan, how will we fight back with the infrastructure we built there? We struggled so much against Solora, let alone the fact that Solora will have another barrier in the future."

"Guatemala City is right behind Chimaltenango...sigh."

"let's go."

The men loaded the goods onto the truck, then turned over and sat in the open cargo box with the others, squeezing in with each other so that they couldn't even stretch their legs out.

It's drizzling a little now, and it's incredibly uncomfortable.

Aside from the unwavering belief in escaping this black box, leaving this hellish place, and finding solace in the steadfast Chimaltenango, fear was evident on the faces of half the group.

The others weren't unaware of the problem at the joint command, but they were also slow to realize that their troops had become brain dead.

boom……

The car engine was already running, carrying these soldiers as they retreated to the rear.

Many people breathed a sigh of relief as the battlefield of Solora receded into the distance and gradually disappeared from their sight.

As they retreated, a soldier carrying a radio, crammed into the vehicle, suddenly shouted, "Everyone, be quiet! Someone's connected to the radio..."

Soon, a weak, tired, and anxious voice came: "This is the...reconnaissance platoon, is anyone here?"

"Yes, we are the...2nd Infantry Company. What's the matter?"

"Have you received any messages from above regarding the movements of Milton's army? ... Nobody above is responding to me, so I have no choice but to contact you."

"What news could there be? Haven't you heard? Our command system is broken. Our battalion commander is useless now. What information could he possibly gather?"

"Damn it! I knew it! You guys better run!"

"We're retreating now. Have you found any information?"

"Milton's forces—I didn't dare look closely, but they were all made up of tanks and armored vehicles, the kind that covered the hills and fields, probably more than 200 armored units, charging towards you! Run for your lives if you don't want to die! I'm running too!"

200 armored units?!
Before they could even process the shock of the number, a massive fireball suddenly rose up ahead... The truck carrying countless people in front of them exploded!
Immediately afterwards, the roar of artillery fire came from behind!
The people in the convoy turned their heads in shock.

No one saw any large numbers of armored units.

But what they saw was dust billowing into the sky.

"Run! Step on the gas!!!"

Note 1: This formation is the best combat formation derived from Western practice. It is based on the experience of the United States in actual combat and has no logical basis. Because Milton was in the West, I applied it directly. This does not mean that the situation in this set of experience is a common phenomenon.

(End of this chapter)