Taxes are only within machine gun range!

Chapter 305 They are the "Little Tyrants" of Latin America!
Tapachula "Takeout" Special Operations Command Post.

Milton sat in his seat waiting for news from the radio, while the others sat upright in their seats, not daring to utter a word.

To ensure the secrecy of the operation, the task force has been disconnected from headquarters and has been handed over to the frontline commander.

Many officers were very nervous—in their view, even the most powerful special forces would be extremely risky to fly alone deep into enemy territory and land at an enemy airfield to carry out combat missions.

If the operation fails, the losses will be exceptionally high.

Milton's thoughts at this moment were not on whether Flora's operation would succeed—he did not believe that Honduras was strong enough to deal with this surprise attack.

What he was really concerned about was something else.

As the occupied territory expands, the land-based communication system is clearly starting to become inadequate, and the illusion of the Pan-Madre Group's invincible information-based military is about to be exposed.

For the sake of maximum secrecy and for the true meaning of "national security," having our own communications satellite is an urgent need.

We must have our own communication satellites and encryption technology under our own control in order to avoid being held hostage in future wars.

While waiting for Flora's message, Milton also opened the exchange shop on the panel and looked at the items that needed to be unlocked.

After gaining national power, they were indeed able to purchase a small number of communication satellites, the official channel being to buy old Soviet satellites that were still in orbit.

However, the quantity is very limited, and it won't be long before it becomes obsolete...

Purchasing finished satellites directly from the panel manufacturer can only be considered a temporary solution. To achieve true self-reliance, we need to quickly acquire more relevant technical personnel and develop the most important industrial sectors as much as possible.

Just as Milton was browsing the few old satellites, a voice suddenly interrupted him.

"'The Godfather'! We have news!"

Milton turned off the panel and nodded slightly, saying, "Take it."

Being able to connect to command at least means that Flora has left Honduran airspace... so she's safe.

Judging from the time, a mission that takes half an hour should indeed be about time to return to base by now.

"'Wine bottle'? How's the mission going?"

From the other end, Flora's slightly mysterious voice came: "You did a great job, and you even took out two Honduran F-5E fighter jets... Most importantly, I have a big surprise for you."

Milton thought for a moment, then changed to a strange tone: "Oh...it seems you stole someone else's 'final weapon'? I'm really curious, what is Arsu up to in secret?"

Flora, who had originally planned to surprise everyone, couldn't catch her breath and after a long silence, she let out a loud "hehe": "You'll see when you look at the sky. We'll begin our descent in half an hour."

The special operations command post was located near the airport. Milton didn't say much after hearing this, ended the call, stretched, walked out of the command room, and glanced up at the sky.

Flights from Honduras usually appear in Milton's field of vision.

After waiting for nearly 25 minutes, two small black dots suddenly appeared in the sky at the edge of the field of vision.

The one flying further ahead, at a higher position, is naturally a "commercial airliner" that departed from this airport; but the other one looks quite astonishing.

The fuselage was painted a light gray with a metallic sheen. The wings were straight, unlike the swept-back shape of passenger planes—two wings extended out from the middle of the fuselage to the sides, and each wing had two engines mounted underneath. The engines were silver-gray cylinders, much thinner than the fuselage...

"C-130?!"

The Honduran military does have a C-130 transport plane, but there's no need to take it back... This kind of transport plane is certainly useful, but it doesn't seem worth taking such a big risk.

Even if we take a step back and say that the "surprise" brought by a C-130 is not enough to make Flora so excited.

Milton raised his eyes, a sense of unease creeping into his mind. He then gestured and gave a brief instruction:

"telescope."

"Yes!"

Soon, an M19 telescope was handed to Milton.

Picking up his binoculars, Milton began to observe the "C-130" even more intently.

Just by looking at it, Milton noticed the problem—the port landing gear bay had been heavily modified, and it looked like it was specifically designed for weapons!

It uses the C-130 frame, with weapons mounted only on one side of the aircraft...

Milton took only 0.1 seconds to guess Arsu's "Final Weapon".

"AC-130 attack aircraft!"

That "air gunship" that can circle the battlefield for more than 4 hours and has terrifying firepower, if it is not shot down, the firepower that one AC-130 can unleash on the battlefield is almost equivalent to 2 to 3 self-propelled heavy artillery batteries!

The 155mm caliber land gun looks large and powerful, but the problem is that it can only be used for indirect fire, and after one minute of firepower output, it must be retreated immediately to find a new position to set up the gun.

The AC-130 is a direct-fire weapon with a very short deployment time. Once a target is detected, it can fire continuously until the target is destroyed.

Against an enemy with some air defense capabilities, it is of course not much different from a target drone... But Milton's current enemy is a "rookie". The current time point is 1995. After destroying air defense positions and seizing air superiority, the enemy has very few man-portable air defense weapons that can threaten the AC-130.

Similarly, the power of man-portable air defense systems is insufficient to bring down an AC-130 in one shot.

With the AC-130, enemy forces deployed along the riverbank will immediately feel what it means to have nowhere to hide and what it means to suffer terribly—the sustained firepower of the air gunship is unmatched by the Su-25 and A-37.

"No wonder Arsu considers this his 'weapon for the final battle'."

"By keeping the intelligence strictly confidential and allowing an AC-130 to suddenly appear over the battlefield under the protection of Honduran fighter jets, it can indeed cause huge casualties to our attacking forces."

"Arsu does have some ideas this time... unfortunately, not many."

Milton made a disparaging remark about the enemy, then continued looking at the AC-130 that was about to become his own, and also noticed a minor flaw.

There were no weapons hanging, not a single one.

Before Arsu could even arm his "weapon of the final battle," it was stolen...

米尔顿毫不犹豫，立刻打开了面板，在里面找到了40mm博福斯机炮、1门M102型105mm榴弹炮和一门GAU-12加特林机炮！
The 105mm howitzer has nearly 200 rounds of ammunition, the Bofors cannon has nearly 300 rounds of ammunition, and the Gatling gun has more than 5000 rounds of ammunition!
It truly exemplifies what an "airborne gunship" is and what extremely terrifying firepower is.

Once these three cannons are installed, any armored or ground target that dares to show itself on the battlefield will be instantly killed!

After a brief moment of excitement, Milton immediately began thinking about the next step – the installation of the weapon system. Although it was only three cannons, the various circuits, system integration, and adjustments still required top-notch designers and engineers.

It won't take long, but it requires professional personnel.

"Immediately recruit our top-notch military engineers, and have 'Warwind Company' use its overseas bases to find suitable engineers and designers at high prices, the best military technicians, the best..."

"Don't be stingy with airplanes, just airlift them here and get them to me within a day!"

"Get the weapons mounted on the gunships as quickly as possible! Get them to the front lines!"

"..."

After delivering the order, Milton didn't immediately take a good look at the new equipment he had received. Instead, he turned around, got into the car, and quickly ordered, "Arrange a special plane to fly to Xaltenango."

"Contact Olya for me, and contact all the high-ranking officials who are currently unemployed. Get them to the television station and prepare to take my orders."

Such a transnational military operation against a neighboring country is bound to stir up a storm in international public opinion—despite Milton's extensive experience, in this era, a small country like Guatemala cannot attract any public attention.

A small group of elites may know that an unusual warlord has risen in Guatemala and may be making some arrangements against Milton.

But the public's memory lasts no more than 7 days.

So far, Milton is not exactly unknown internationally, but he is only being watched by a small group of elites who wield power and capital.

But this operation ended...

He is not far from having complete control of the national government in Guatemala.

Milton could imagine what the outside world would think of this country in the future.

The "Little Tyrant" of Latin America!
The top-level encirclement and suppression operation, which was formed by the Mexican regular army, drug traffickers, the Guatemalan National Army, and the Honduran army, ended up being unilaterally massacred by the Pan Madre Bloc!

In Latin America, a powerful force has emerged that is completely out of step with its neighbors. In terms of both military strength and economic level, it has an overwhelming advantage over the surrounding countries. Encircling it is like adding countless zeros together, which is utterly ineffective.

Similarly, Honduras will certainly condemn Milton strongly.

Milton must respond diplomatically to this.

By the time they arrive in Quetzaltenango, Honduran officials should also be aware of this military operation.

After arriving in Quetzaltenango, Olya called. She already knew what had happened in the neighboring country. Her tone was slightly complicated as she asked, "Good afternoon, 'Godfather'—your deeds are spreading very, very fast. Hmm, it seems the United States got the news faster than the Honduran authorities."

Milton, without any pleasantries, bluntly issued the orders: "Two tasks. First, issue a broadcast statement—the Pan Madre Group's army thwarted the neighboring country's invasion this morning."

"Second, arrange for reporters immediately; I want to give a speech."

Olya replied, "Received."

After ending his call with Olya, Milton contacted the Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs, whom he didn't know very well but who appeared very reliable on the panel.

His task was simple: contact the Honduran government, which was embroiled in conflict with the Honduran military, stabilize the internal situation in Honduras, and declare that the operation was not directed against Honduras, but rather a response to the Honduran military's unauthorized intervention in the Guatemalan civil war.

The Honduran military is the enemy, but the government could certainly try to win them over.

After giving the instructions, the convoy of special cars arrived at the TV station.

By this time, a large number of reporters had gathered outside the TV station—only a small portion of these reporters were people that Milton had asked Olya to invite.

In other words, even before Milton and Honduras released any official information, many journalists had already learned of the news and rushed to the television station in hopes of interviewing Milton.

As expected of the media, their information network is incredibly efficient!

In fact, as a war zone, there shouldn't be so many journalists here. However, a bold journalist accidentally discovered that Quetzaltenango was actually very safe. So he decided to take advantage of the information gap to get local news in the safe war zone... However, this matter was quickly spread, and a large number of journalists who were eager to compete came to the scene, which quickly made the so-called "war zone" advantage of the area disappear.

So there are a lot of journalists in Quetzaltenango.

The spokesperson planned to hand Milton a hastily prepared statement—in case Milton was unable to arrive on time, the spokesperson would go on stage and read from the prepared statement.

Milton waved his hand, refused the prepared speech, and went straight to the stage.

Reporters at the scene could no longer contain their excitement, and even with security guards maintaining order, the scene was still somewhat chaotic.

“Mr. Milton”

"Quiet." Milton raised his hand in a calm tone. "This is not a market, and everyone here should be well-mannered. You reporter over there, you go first."

"Rumor has it that you launched a military operation against Honduras? What signal are you trying to send?"

Milton waited until he finished asking before speaking: "This operation is not aimed at Honduras, but at our people... our citizens, our nation has a country that can protect them."

"The whole world should know that any aggression against our country will come at a price."

"This operation will surely be recorded in military history."

"..."

After answering that question, Milton called on another reporter.

The panel indicated that the journalist belonged to the Honduran military and had legitimate press credentials, but primarily traveled to Quetzaltenango for espionage activities.

Milton deliberately lit him up to see what he had to say.

The reporter, somewhat agitated, questioned, "Don't you think your reaction was a bit excessive? Shouldn't you have engaged in diplomatic communication first, instead of taking unilateral action directly?"

The Honduran military is furious about the horrific losses—two advanced fighter jets, various attack aircraft, a wide range of weapons, AC-130s, and the negative international repercussions.

Now everyone knows that Milton used their faces as rags to polish his shoes.

Milton stared at him, then said coldly, "If we succumb to the aggression of a powerful enemy and choose to resolve the conflict through peace and compromise, everyone will understand us, but no one will respect us. And if we launch a military operation to disarm the aggressors, perhaps no one will understand us..."

"But everyone will respect us."

(End of this chapter)