Rise of the Argentine Empire

The next day, at eight o'clock, Saint-Hesse woke up to Luke, the butler, having already prepared the hot water.

Still reeking of alcohol, he took a bath, changed into clean clothes, and shaved his beard before sitting at the table for breakfast.

Buston was already waiting in the living room, reporting on his work.

"Boss, Tom and the others have had their accommodations arranged, in a building next to the Radical Party, the residential building purchased under the name of the New A Newspaper."

Saint-Hesse took a sip of milk.

"Arrange for two large buses for us today, to go to Future Agriculture."

"Very well, I'll go take care of it immediately."

"The foundations for the Port Industrial Zone have been laid, and preparations for the first floor's construction are underway. The initial setup of 8 factory areas are all under construction, with over 1,000 workers currently on site, and several construction companies are building simultaneously."

"The cafeteria has been built, and efforts are being made to resolve the workers' accommodation issues."

"With so many people, the issues of meals and accommodation must be ensured for safety."

Over 1,000 people, the cost of feeding them every day would be very high. Currently, everything is being transported from Blanca Port, fortunately, Blanca Port has no shortage of food.

If the required special steel can be produced, then synthetic ammonia and sulfuric acid plants can not only be localized but also used for export, with huge profits. The investment in synthetic ammonia units using natural gas as raw material is relatively low, but it is still unaffordable for Saint-Hesse, especially since Argentina also has no way to produce special steel. The price of special steel sold by the Germans is more than ten times that of ordinary steel.

Saint-Hesse already plans to continue investing in building a special steel plant, but this will still take time.

As for why build Fertilizer Factory No. 2, the annual output of the Rein Fertilizer Plant located in Maria City is only 200,000 tons. This year it can be fully operational, but it is still far from the initial target of 800,000 tons. Blanca Port has very good construction infrastructure conditions. At least he does not plan to arrange the fertilizer plant and sulfuric acid plant in Blanca Port, after all, this is the city area, but plans to arrange it in the relatively sparsely populated south.

The main raw materials for synthetic ammonia include natural gas, naphtha, heavy oil, and coal. The raw materials for the Maya Fertilizer Plant come from natural gas produced by the Argentine National Oil Company, and Blanca Port is closer to the Patagonia natural gas production area.

In the seven or eight years after the war, the world's synthetic ammonia industry has made rapid progress, from a single unit producing 200 tons per day to the current synthetic ammonia plant producing nearly 400 tons per day. Saint-Hesse also has some bargaining chips with the Germans, and he has enough patience and funds.

With the successful development of large, high-pressure centrifugal compressors driven by steam turbines, conditions have been provided for the large-scale production of synthetic ammonia units. Currently, there is already the possibility of impacting a single unit with a daily output of 500 tons.

And currently, the Soviets and Americans, British, and French all have the ability to produce large-scale synthetic ammonia equipment, which can be introduced. Especially France, where the relationship is good, which gives Saint-Hesse the ability to put pressure on German chemical companies. After all, money talks.

Especially the greedy Americans, as long as you give enough money, the Americans will give you God, so Saint-Hesse's American Sequoia has never lacked partners. As for the CIA, it is now turning a blind eye, after all, neither Sequoia Investment Bank nor Blackstone Capital has harmed the interests of Great America, but many rich people are making a lot of money here.

Argentina has extremely abundant natural gas reserves, and the distribution is also very wide. Currently, the natural gas production is also the first in Latin America. Maya Fertilizer Plant, as a major customer, has a fairly good relationship with the Argentine National Oil Company, but recently the Argentine domestic oil company has been under strong pressure from American oil capital.

The explosives from the Maya Explosives Factory have come in handy, and the blasting and mining in the Port Industrial Zone are very useful.

In the morning, Saint-Hesse took Tom and the others to the Party and Government Building in Blanca Port to familiarize themselves with the premises.

In the afternoon, he had already pulled two carloads of people to a small town called Pedro Luro near the Colorado River.

Here, Future Agriculture has a paddy field farm, which has already cultivated 100 acres of farmland for rice production.

As for why there are only 100 acres, in the end, before rice cultivation is mechanized, the required manpower and resources are extremely large. 100 acres is already the limit operation for Future Agriculture at present.

Compared to the farms in northern Argentina, with thousands of acres of wheat and cotton fields, 100 acres is indeed a bit lacking.

Rice cultivation is different from Future Agriculture's wheat cultivation in the north, and the requirements for manual labor are very high, because currently most of the harvesters, tractors, and other agricultural machinery in the world are produced by countries such as the United States, France, Germany, and the Soviet Union, and are basically used for wheat cultivation.

American agriculture began to popularize tractors in production in the 1920s, which also allowed it to enter its golden age. Currently, Argentina, except for large farms, has not popularized mechanization in most areas, which is also a huge opportunity for the Rein Tractor Factory, but currently it also faces competition from foreign tractors.

Argentina suddenly opened up to nearly 10 foreign-funded tractor companies, and Layton Tractor Factory does not have any obvious advantages. Now it only has in-depth cooperation with the second-rate Japanese agricultural machinery company Kubota, and has introduced production lines.

The time for Layton Tractor Factory is also running out. Without this layer of protection policy, Saint-Hesse does not know how long it can continue to persist.

Argentina does not have a rice cultivation history, and currently the only country in the world that can engage in rice machinery is Japan. Saint-Hesse just happens to have cooperation with Japanese Kubota in developing tractors and importing tractor production lines, but currently there is still no machinery such as rice harvesters and planting machines.

Saint Hesser didn't show much. This trip to the village, more than a hundred kilometers away from Blanca Port, was to show these people and let them learn about rice planting.

After Saint Hesser got out of the car, he met the person in charge of the farm, Mark Chagall, who was responsible for the construction of the rice fields here.

"Mr. Saint Hesser, welcome to visit here."

Saint Hesser had notified Future Agriculture in advance, telling them not to call him boss.

"Hello, I brought people here to visit and experience it."

Tom and others also got out of the car and saw the paddy fields here, which were still being irrigated. They were a little curious. Saint Hesser didn't tell them that he planned to let them also try the feeling of rice transplanting, like remembering the bitterness of the past.

Starting last month, preparations had begun to reclaim the paddy fields. Reclaiming paddy fields means turning wasteland into paddy fields. Future Agriculture has sufficient experience in reclamation, but this is different from the past, after all, it is not as simple as dry land.

Fortunately, there are sufficient agricultural tractors. With advance planning, the farmland can be leveled and neatly arranged, and standard rice fields of 100 meters long and 30 meters wide can be divided. Moreover, Plari International also helped immigrate many rice-growing farmers, learning while reclaiming, which is going well.

Then, water conservancy irrigation facilities and field roads were built. The Colorado River has abundant water resources. Today is just the last step, filling the reclaimed and fertilized fields with water and turning them into real paddy fields.

Irrigation needs to last for a day until the paddy fields no longer absorb water before the next step can be prepared.

In the later stage, it is also necessary to prepare for the development of combine harvesters, high-speed rice transplanters, and some large and medium-sized agricultural machinery. The cultivation of seedlings must also be industrialized.

Mark carefully introduced these paddy fields. There were also many Chinese people in the distance providing guidance. Growing rice is not only a technical job but also a physical one.

The 100 acres of land are basically transplanted by hand, just waiting for the paddy fields to be completed. In fact, paddy fields are also troublesome, especially the rat holes underground. If they are not blocked, the water will flow away in vain due to imperfect water conservancy facilities.

Saint Hesser also carefully learned that these rice varieties are all experimental products, and the 100 acres are divided into several plots.

In the evening, they spent the night here. This is an ordinary small town. Early the next morning.

Saint Hesser got up early to prepare for rice transplanting, and also took these partners to experience life.

These are all considered to be an important foundation for him. Most parts of Argentina are still dominated by agriculture. If you don't understand these, it will indeed be difficult to integrate Argentina in the future.

South of Blanca Port, there are very few big cities. This place has rich agricultural potential.

"Minister... Councilor Saint Hesser, do we really have to go down to farm?"

Tom was a little unaccustomed to it. Most of these excellent young people came from the city. Coming to Blanca Port was already a huge sacrifice. Really going down to the field to transplant rice would be a big breakthrough.

"Try it, it's actually pretty good, this doesn't count as anything."

Saint Hesser was wearing a shirt and trousers. He rolled up his sleeves and trouser legs and walked down to the paddy field from the edge of the field. There was no slippery feeling. It could only be considered raw fields, not ripe fields. The soil in the paddy fields had also been broken many times by tractors, and the fertility was relatively ordinary. The situation was relatively tight. He picked up the seedlings tied with cloth strips and skillfully threw them into the distance.

He took a handful in his hand, turned around, faced the edge of the field, calculated the spacing, and began to retreat step by step to transplant rice. This time, more than a dozen high-quality rice seeds were transported from the Philippines, Thailand, South Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Japan for cultivation and planting for trial planting.

Each plot is a bit different. Currently, there are no hybrid rice varieties in the world. The yield is not very high. It is not easy to screen out rice varieties suitable for Argentina. Fertilization is also required to prevent diseases and insect pests.

There is still a long way to go for scientific breeding, and large-scale promotion will also take a lot of time. It can only wait for agricultural mechanization, otherwise it will be difficult to promote successfully.

Because rice planting is far more labor-intensive than wheat, and there are not enough people to plant it. There is not too much to worry about fertilizers. The promotion of Maya Fertilizer Factory is quite difficult. A large part is exported through Plari International, and a small part is given to Future Agriculture.

Agricultural production and industrialization require a lot of materials. If you simply rely on imports, that is very terrible.

Once an international blockade or embargo occurs, it will become scrap iron, similar to North Korea in later generations. A stable industrial system is still very important.

Tom and the others hesitated for a while and also went down to the field to start imitating, transplanting rice. A dozen people were each responsible for some areas, slowly retreating backward. The Chinese people next to them gestured some basic techniques and guided the planting. In the morning, they transplanted more than 10 acres of land. A very good thing about these paddy fields is that there are no stones.

Simple rest at noon, continue in the afternoon. The speed of rice transplanting has accelerated a lot. By the time they finished work in the evening, many people could hardly straighten their backs, but no one complained of being tired. Saint Hesser's speed was quite fast, and he was a good hand.

"Councilor, you really helped a lot this time."

100 acres, not too much, not too little. In addition to the Saint Hesser team, Future Agriculture here also hired many people. In one day, all the rice seedlings were transplanted.

Everyone was so tired that their backs ached.

"Everyone really helped a lot this time."

Saint Hesser said, he himself was a little sore, this is physical work.

After the seedlings are planted, the subsequent management is very important.

This time, not only the Radical Party was brought over, but also the city hall. These are all talents he values very much. Doing these jobs requires not only meticulousness but also hard work.

...

"What, he went south to farm?"

Otto was confused and said in disbelief.

"Yes, they went south yesterday."

"What are they doing? Isn't the port construction going to be done?"

"I'm not very clear on the specifics. Judging from the situation, they can come back in the next two days."

"Send someone to keep an eye on them."

"Okay, Mayor."

Otto has been a little upset recently. Seeing that the investment promotion in the port-adjacent industrial zone is doing very well, but the free port and the trade industrial zone don't even have a factory planning to move in, which makes him quite annoyed.

He also specifically went to find the young civil servant who had been transferred over, but the result was that no news was obtained.

He had no choice but to ask Saint Hesser for help again, but he was also a bit stingy and didn't make any promises at all.

Saint Hesser himself is someone who doesn't get up early without profit. He cares more about interests, and he has no way of thinking about working for others for free.

After reaching the destination for training, the Saint Hesser team also set off to go back.

Looking at the green rice fields in the distance.