Taxes are only within machine gun range!

Chapter 307 Our gunships have taken off

Chanperico Port.

A patrol team of police officers is on a speedboat, constantly "salvaging" all sorts of people at sea.

The fighting on the front lines in Guatemala City is becoming increasingly tense. Many forces were originally scheduled to be transferred to the front lines, while the defense of the coast was handed over to Milton's current main naval fleet.

But in the last two days, things have been a little different.

First, the garrison responsible for protecting the coast reported that a large number of enemy troops might be trying to break through the defense line from the sea. When they urgently dispatched troops to investigate, they found that it was not the enemy troops, but a large number of civilians, vagrants, gangsters, criminals and so on who had fled from the enemy-occupied area.

It was as if all the different groups of people had reached a consensus at this moment and were holding a swimming competition around the Guatemalan coastline.

It's winter now, the temperature is only around 10 degrees Celsius, and the water temperature is bone-chillingly cold!
Wow…

A police officer and his colleague struggled to pull a emaciated woman out of the water. She was so cold that she didn't even have the strength to shiver, and her ability to think had deteriorated.

According to procedure, the first step in rescuing an unidentified person from the water is to confirm their identity in order to prevent them from causing trouble.

But when the police officers saw that the only thing left on the dying woman was her soaking wet, tattered clothes, they all fell silent.

Pain is always buried deep in memory. Since Milton became the ruler, the police officers' memories have gradually been filled with their current lives. Only now do they realize that Milton has only been here for a year, and their lives before that were not much better than the woman in front of them.

“First, have some hot water.” One officer, seeing the silent sergeant, finally decided to be accommodating. He filled a thermos with hot water from the speedboat's cooler and took out a hand warmer. “At least, at least we can confirm you pose no threat now, at least it complies with emergency procedures…”

The woman trembled, and even though her consciousness was fading, her will to survive made her pick up the kettle and scald herself with the boiling water.

Her eyes snapped open only after she regained consciousness.

"Police officers? You're police officers?!"

"Where is this place?"

The officer, holding a hand warmer himself, continued searching the sea while casually replying, "Ma'am, this is the open sea. We'll take you to Port Champelli later... Um, while we can guarantee your identity is most likely correct, we'll still need to go through an identity verification process once you're ashore. We hope you can understand our work..."

Before she could finish speaking, the woman jumped up from the speedboat, ignoring her still-numb limbs, and looked around at everyone on board. Her face instantly filled with terror: "Where's my child?! Have you... have you seen my child?"

child……

As for the husband, many people don't need to guess to know that he must have been pulled to the front lines, placed in the most dangerous position, and turned to pieces in one of the "Hell Tax Collectors'" shelling attacks...

The officer was stunned for a moment: "You brought a child with you, and you still dare to swim in this kind of weather?!"

The woman's voice was filled with panic: "I...I made a simple raft, but the waves were too big..."

All the remaining officers on the boat fell silent. Finally, the sheriff spoke up: "I regret to inform you that we have not found the raft you mentioned."

At this moment, the cold winter wind blew, and the oncoming waves made the speedboat look rather unsafe. Looking around, all you could see were the rising and falling waves and the endless sea...

You can't see anything except the seawater.

Anyone with common sense knows that unless a miracle occurs, no child could survive in such an environment.

Even if you can swim, the icy seawater can cause rapid hypothermia and death.

As the officers sighed inwardly, a sudden "thump" came from the side.

"Hey!"

In his sight, the woman who had just been pulled up took advantage of everyone's inattention and jumped into the sea again.

"Quick, throw the rope over!"

"Hurry up, damn it...is this guy crazy?"

"..."

A flurry of activity ensued on the speedboat. The police officer, who had just been drinking water, quickly threw a rope over—in this environment, even wearing a life jacket, jumping directly into the water to rescue someone was not very realistic.

Unlike last time, this time the woman did not grab the lifeline. Her body bobbed in and out of sight in the waves, and soon she disappeared from view, gradually sinking to the bottom of the sea.

"..."

The officer who pulled him up was silent for a while, his voice tinged with self-reproach: "...Sigh, I shouldn't have said that. If I had said that we had other rescue teams, maybe they would have already rescued her child and let her wait for news at Champelli Port, and perhaps she wouldn't have jumped into the sea."

"It's no use." The sheriff, who had been searching the sea, spoke calmly. "It's just that she went from jumping into the sea to jumping off a building—she's already lost her husband, lost all her property, and now she's even lost her child. How can she live?"

The officer was a little unconvinced: "But the situation here is different from Guatemala City. As long as you are willing to work hard, it is very easy to make money again in Mr. Godfather's territory. Just like me, I used to be a police officer in Lopez. I worked for 10 years and owed 5 Guechar. Now I have 1 'border currency' in savings."

“But she won’t believe you if you tell her these things.” The sheriff sighed helplessly, unscrewed his thermos and took a sip of hot water. “She didn’t receive much education growing up, and her entire worldview was shaped by the old society. It’s not something that can be changed by just saying ‘you can start over here.’”

"Like us, our initial understanding of the 'Godfather' was only that after his arrival, our food could change from tortillas to bread, or even cake or bacon."

"In the television propaganda, most of the things the 'Godfather' said were things that even uneducated people could understand—that no one would go hungry after he arrived. We naturally knew that the reality was not that simple, and that these things could not be understood by her in a short time, but the pain of losing everything could crush her instantly."

"Ugh……"

The search team continued their "human salvage" operation at sea with mixed feelings.

After rescuing the two people, the speedboat returned to Port Champelli as planned.

After taking the two people who had been pulled from the water to the monitoring room, and after they had showered and returned to the canteen for a meal, the team of police officers learned from television why so many people had suddenly appeared at sea in such a short period of time, either on makeshift rafts or simply swimming to escape.

Because of that madman Arsu, a nationwide mobilization was launched!
Not only the areas he occupied, but even his two "allies" began unprecedented conscription and comprehensive militarization in their own territories!

Everyone either serves those who go to war, or goes to war.

The once arrogant gang members finally got their comeuppance. The army drove military vehicles directly into the streets and alleys, arrested these brave and violent people with gun-fighting experience, and loaded them onto conscription vehicles, transporting them to the front lines one vehicle after another.

The community's security quickly stabilized in a strange way.

The homeless are in an even worse situation; they have no chance to resist and are said to be thrown into battle after only three days of training. The once chaotic slums are now much safer.

But those who fled here say that no one is happy about this "safety," because it is actually more like a form of terror.

Something even more terrifying than gang warfare or being robbed by thugs has arrived.

The fighting on the front lines continues to worsen, and people keep dying. Once these gangsters and homeless people are all gone, who will be next?

It couldn't possibly be those rich people and high-ranking officials, along with their families and children, could it?

"The enemy has mobilized all their forces." A policeman said indignantly while eating his meal, "They mobilize all their forces when fighting their own people, but why don't we see them using that same ferocity against foreign enemies? Against the Americans?"

"Can that be the same?"

"Let's overthrow the Arsu government as soon as possible... that madman."

"..."

……

Meanwhile, at Vevetenango Airport.

To avoid leaking intelligence and to maintain maximum secrecy, AC-130 was secretly transferred to Vevetenango Airport shortly after arriving in Quetzaltenango.

On one hand, this place is very close to the border, allowing us to allocate all available resources to equip the AC-130 with weapons. On the other hand, the high altitude and numerous mountains make it easy to defend and difficult to attack.

Even if the enemy did send special forces, it would be difficult for them to pose any threat to the airport.

A large number of military trucks disguised as ordinary vans traveled along the Pan-American Highway from Quetzaltenango, from Puerto Ciampellico, and from Mexico to this airport.

Even many experts whose reliability had been verified by the panel came here by plane to help the engineering team integrate the weapon systems.

During this time, Milton even slept in the airport's designated basement.

Every morning when I wake up, I check on the progress of the "gunship" project.

As for Flora, the great contributor, Milton didn't let her sit idle either. After awarding her a "National Hero" medal, he sent her to Mexico to use her connections and company funds to see if she could resolve the satellite issue.

Ordinary commercial satellites are no problem, as the former Soviet Union had plenty of them. However, buying a military satellite that is completely under one's control, or even directly purchasing the launch technology, is not so simple.

Multiple rounds of negotiations are needed. Even if we use the power of the panel to buy the technology and personnel, we still need to hire an engineering team from China to build the rocket launch base here.

Therefore, the work on AC-130 was handed over to Milton.

In the basement, Milton was having a brief conversation with the frontline commander, Ishimaya, to get an update on the current situation at the front.

Ishimaya's slightly relaxed voice came through: "The offensive is going quite smoothly so far... We have successfully cleared all the enemy outposts and remnants on the periphery, the offensive positions have been completely stabilized, the warehouses are full, and the captured supplies can support the battlefield for at least 30 days of high consumption, or 45 days of low consumption."

"The rear defenses against Guatemala City have been set up under Brandon's arrangement. After your successful special operations against the enemy airfield, the enemy's morale is very low, and there is no possibility of breaking through the defenses for the time being."

"We are currently conducting final artillery and bombardment of high-value enemy targets, and the general ground offensive is expected to begin in the early hours of the day after tomorrow."

"..."

“Understood. If fire support is needed, you must be informed,” Milton said slowly. “It’s mandatory, understand?”

Others try to avoid using friendly resources when fighting wars. In the previous guerrilla warfare, even a little mortar support was precious, and various units fought over it. But now, the orders from above are to strictly prohibit taking on hardship without effort, and to request support immediately when problems arise.

Ishimaya exclaimed, "Received..."

"very good."

Milton hung up the call, stretched, and strolled over to the heavily concealed hangar—a recent report had indicated that the armament installation on the AC-130 was nearing completion.

The AC-130 now in the hangar looks significantly different from when it landed; three very conspicuous cannon barrels can be seen protruding from the port side of the aircraft.

From front to back, they are the GAU-12 Gatling gun, the 40mm Bofors cannon, and the soul of the AC-130, the 105mm howitzer!

Although it was a homemade AC-130 and might not be as good as the US military's, Milton couldn't take his eyes off it after just one look.

An engineer wiped the sweat from his brow, walked toward Milton, saluted, and said, "Reporting, 'Godfather,' the modifications are basically complete, and the ground test results are quite good. All the aerial test targets have been arranged, near the river and with mountains nearby, which fairly simulates the current situation on the front lines."

Milton was very satisfied. He couldn't help but walk towards the plane and sit down in front of the control panel for operating the cannons.

"Very good. Gather all crew members and loaders, prepare for the first round of testing..."

"..."

buzzing...

Two hours later, the AC-130 began to circle counterclockwise around the target, tilting the entire aircraft to the left to ensure that the cannons could always be aimed at the entire battlefield.

beep...

Boom!Boom!Boom!
boom!
With just a light touch of the fire button, the shell is fired from the muzzle, destroying the target, and all Milton has to do is aim from above... The feeling of sweeping through infantry, with all targets just waiting to be harvested, is incredibly satisfying.

Milton and the other gunners operated the cannons on the gunboat, unleashing a barrage of fire at the target, while the technicians nearby recorded errors and other minor issues.

Soon, the AC-130 ran out of ammunition and landed back at Vevetenango Airport.

Seeing the eager looks from the ground technicians, Milton praised them generously: "Excellent, very good... but there's still a small error that needs adjustment..."

"Try to complete the final debugging before dawn the day after tomorrow."

"We must ensure that our brave soldiers hear this message when the river-crossing battle begins—"

"Our gunships have been launched."

(End of this chapter)