Capítulo 1456: Chapter 689: You Really Have an Issue, Huh? (6)
On July 13, a small logistics convoy of the xican Army was ambushed on a remote highway from Laredo to San Antonio. The attackers used rocket launchers and automatic weapons, executing their plan with professional ruthlessness. The battle was brief yet intense; by the ti reinforcents arrived, all that remained were the charred wreckages of trucks and the grim corpses of a dozen soldiers, stripped of their gear.
At the scene, the blood of soldiers was used to graffiti the emblem of a powerful drug cartel.
The masterminds behind the attack surfaced quickly.
African-Asian-European Transnational Drug Trafficking Syndicate—Third Brother Group!
Leader: Xie Zhile.
The next day, July 14, the temporary governing authority of xican Texas issued an announcent titled “Texas Peace Terms” through all controlled radio, television stations, and newspapers.
The core content of the announcent was straightforward and brutal.
1. Bounty Hunting: Any citizen (regardless of nationality, race), as long as they provide xican authorities with leads that result in the capture or killing of any form of ard resistance mbers, saboteurs, or drug traffickers, will receive a bounty. The bounty varies based on the target’s importance, ranging from a minimum of 2,000 US Dollars to a maximum of 2 million US Dollars. All bounties will be paid in cash and the identity of whistleblowers will be kept absolutely confidential.
2. Collective Punishnt Warning: Any family or community proven to harbor, fund, or not report attackers will face severe punishnts such as water, power, and supplies cut-off until the attackers are surrendered. The entire community will bear the consequences of an individual’s actions.
3. Amnesty for Surrender: Minor participants who voluntarily surrender to xican authorities and hand over weapons within 72 hours of the announcent will receive amnesty or significant sentence reduction.
This announcent was like a bomb dropped, instantly causing an uproar throughout Texas and the entire United States.
Human rights organizations fiercely criticized it as a “barbaric decree encouraging snitching,” turning “justice into vigilantism,” and creating countless false accusations and neighborhood terror.
Arican dia comntators lanted, calling it “poison from xico City,” aid at “undermining the last bonds of trust in Texas communities.”
However, in the real Texas, especially in the grassroots communities tornted by war, poverty, and violence, the effect of this announcent was much more complex.
For many impoverished families struggling for basic needs, 2,000 US Dollars is an unfathomable sum, enough to drive them to risk everything.
And the colossal bounty of 2 million tempts countless people, their hearts racing at the nas of known resistance leaders and big drug traffickers.
In the initial few days following the announcent, the hotline established by the xican Military for reporting was almost overwheld.
A flood of information ca in, difficult to distinguish truth from falsehood.
So reports stemd from personal vendettas, “I report my neighbor, he’s always sneaking out at night, I suspect he’s a resistance mber!”
So reports were purely for the bounty, “I know a hiding spot for a drug cartel, just behind that abandoned repair shop in the western district!”
But there were indeed precise reports that led to major victories:
In a small town near Waco, a gas station employee, dissatisfied with a local white militia squad for long eating for free with an arrogant attitude, secretly called the hotline in accordance with the “Terms,” accurately describing their hideout and activity patterns.
The next day, the xican Special Forces executed a precise raid, killing the eight-man squad in their sleep, and the employee quietly received a 40,000 US Dollars bounty.
Money beca the most effective corrosive agent, gradually eroding the soil of the resistance movent.
Distrust and fear spread within communities, and people began looking at each other with suspicious eyes.
The traditional community protection chanisms, under the naked lure of money and the threat of severe collective punishnt, slowly failed.
Even within the resistance organizations, everyone beca wary.
They no longer dared to easily trust new mbers, acting more covertly, communicating more difficultly, infighting and conflict increasing, as everyone feared the people around them might sell them out for the bounty.
The Terms to “Stop Civilian Ownership of Firearms and Ammunition” were officially promulgated at the end of July, requiring all non-xican military and law enforcent personnel to hand over all firearms and ammunition within fifteen days, violators would be charged with “endangering national security,” punishable by the death penalty.
In the hearts of traditional Texans, guns are not just weapons; they are the continuation of the pioneering spirit, a symbol of independence and self-reliance, the “Second Andnt” engraved in their cultural genes, more vital than many people’s lives.
This move by the xican authorities was seen as not just conquering land, but castrating their souls.
Of course, there was no agreent.
In remote rural areas, farrs were busy not surrendering weapons, but hiding more rifles, shotguns, and ammunition in cellars, barn ceilings, or even buried deep within fields overnight.
Seniors pointed to those guns and told their children, “Your great-grandfather used this to defend the land from Indigenous people, your grandfather used it to hunt during the Great Depression, your father used it to scare off intruders, and the xicans want to take it away? Only if they step over my corpse!”
In towns, especially those already filled with hostility towards xican rule, this law beca the most effective recruitnt advertisent.
“They want to take your guns today, tomorrow they’ll break into your hos and take your families! Tolerate that?”
The resistance organizations keenly captured this sentint
“What are they afraid of? Unard compliant citizens? No! They fear every free Texan holding a rifle! To hand over your gun is to surrender your last dignity and ability to resist! Take up arms, protect your ho, your state, your rights!”
Violence escalated with astonishing speed and intensity.
On July 20, just three days after the order was issued, a squad of xican soldiers performing a “confiscation propaganda” task in a small town east of Houston encountered precise gunfire ambush from multiple directions, clearly by civilian gun owners. Two soldiers died on the spot, and five were injured.
On July 25, the most serious incident occurred in San Antonio. A confiscation team composed of xican soldiers and the newly created “Texas Security Assistance Brigade” made up of collaborators, encountered intense gunfire from rooftops and windows when entering a community known for stubbornness. The fight quickly spread, with seemingly the entire community involved, resisting fiercely with hunting rifles, AR-15s, and even old revolvers.
The xican Army had to deploy armored vehicles and helicopters to barely suppress the situation, turning the clearance operation into a brutal urban battle, resulting in heavy casualties for both sides and innocent civilians.
“They are not confiscating weapons; they are launching a war on Texas culture!”
“Rise up and resist!”
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