Rise of the Argentine Empire

Aside from that academic exchange trip to the United States, Saint Hérse has rarely left Argentina, and even less so visited foreign capitals. He did, however, spend two days in Rio de Janeiro, the capital of Brazil.

This wasn't enough to get a complete picture of Rio de Janeiro, and the foreign Falcon Intelligence Bureau wouldn't spend too much energy on such things anyway. They were more focused on serving the economy, which meant making more money. This was true for the American branch, Brazil, Western Europe, and Japan.

Saint Hérse obtained economic and financial intelligence from various major economic powers through the Falcon Bureau, controlling these investment banks and trading companies to earn astonishing wealth.

Based on historical knowledge and some forward-looking perspectives in his mind, he could earn excess profits by making venture investments in potential future companies and talents.

At the same time, he also provided basic decision-making ideas to the heads of American Sequoia, Plarrey International, Blackstone, and European companies, as well as creating various financial derivative ideas and routines to avoid risks and make money with the flow.

Basically, if a project had Saint Hérse's approval, the success rate could be increased by more than double.

Montevideo accounts for almost one-third of Uruguay's population. If you include the suburban satellite cities, it's close to half. However, in terms of public infrastructure, it seems relatively backward, and this is without the presence of slums.

Whether it's the new city or the old city, almost more than half of the people don't have running water facilities or electricity. They can only rely on river water for their daily use, so it's common to see people bathing and washing clothes in the river. As economic development stagnates, job opportunities become scarce.

These are all external manifestations. Saint Hérse is more concerned with the economy and employment. Rio de Janeiro's economic development is obviously better than Montevideo's. It is Brazil's economic, industrial, and financial center. Industries such as textiles, clothing, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, printing and publishing, and metallurgy occupy an important position in Brazil.

Backed by mountains and facing the sea, with an excellent harbor, it's just that the urban planning is relatively average. There are obvious distinctions between prosperous areas and suburbs, even backward suburbs. The city center is extremely prosperous, but the suburbs may have problems with electricity and water.

In comparison, Blanca City's public infrastructure planning is very reasonable. Whether it's the old city or the new city, the infrastructure has always been in a state of excess supply, with no shortage of water or electricity.

Not only is the electricity price low and sufficient, but the construction scale of the water plant has always been larger than the population scale. Every residential building has a sufficient supply of tap water. The current construction of the canal is also for a stable supply of fresh water in the future.

The large-scale procurement of tap water steel pipes has also promoted the development of the steel industry. The advanced planning of thermal power plants has made Blanca City and San Martin City in the central region the brightest cities in Argentina at night.

Most of the thermal power plants are arranged in the downwind direction of the suburbs, so the air pollution is not serious, and the electricity price is not high. Southern Power has also received a lot of subsidies because of this, and the industrial electricity price is also very low.

Blanca City, San Martin City, Olan City, Morado Town, and Otto City, these cities controlled by the Saint Hérse Group, all have very advanced infrastructure planning, with relatively wide roads, many green plants and parks, and sufficient electricity and tap water supply.

Such a situation is very rare in Argentina or even the entire South America. Not to mention tap water, power generation is a big problem. Originally, Argentina's coal was imported from the United Kingdom, which was expensive and artificially controlled in supply.

Now, Argentina's coal imports from the United Kingdom have been reduced to a minimum. High-quality coal from South Africa, Australia, Indonesia, Colombia, and India is imported to Argentina in large quantities by sea, and is used in large quantities by thermal power plants and steel mills, allowing Argentina's power generation to enter positive growth.

The improvement of these public infrastructures is also one of the advantages of attracting immigrants from inside and outside the province as well as foreign immigrants.

At the end of last year, Argentina conducted another national census. In recent years, by absorbing immigrants and unregistered population censuses, coupled with the naturally growing population, Argentina's population has increased by more than 6 million compared to the 1950s. Last year, Argentina's overall population reached 25.5 million.

Argentina's population is far more than the historical 20 million.

In the past few years, Argentina originally expected 1 to 2 million immigrants to leave Argentina for the United States or return to Western Europe. As a result, a large portion of these people were stabilized, and they chose not to leave Argentina for the time being.

Among them, many people chose to go to Blanca City, San Martin City, and La Plata City, and found good jobs, and the rate of peso devaluation and the rate of inflation were not so outrageous.

Argentina has also attracted more new immigrants as a result, which was very scarce even in the Perón era.

Blanca City, San Martin City, Buenos Aires City, Olan City, and La Plata City are the five cities that received the most new immigrants last year, adding approximately 300,000 new immigrants.

Under the promotion of various factors, La Pampa Province is the fastest-growing province in Argentina in terms of population. It currently ranks third among Argentina's most populous provinces, with a permanent population of over 1.94 million, and this is already the data from the end of last year.

It is second only to Buenos Aires Province with 8.7 million and Buenos Aires City with 4.07 million.

In October 1955, La Pampa Province had a population of 2.79 million, and the population of the provincial capital, Blanca City, alone increased from 1.35 million to 1.94 million, not to mention the population growth of the other three coastal cities.

Among the three coastal cities, Otto City has a population of 190,000, Bratovici City has 110,000, and Puerto Colorado City has 70,000.

Otto City is the closest to Blanca City. It was originally a small town with relatively developed agriculture and animal husbandry, providing Blanca City with live pigs, grains, and various industrial raw materials. After administrative division integration, it has become a small and medium-sized city.

Otto City is located on the south bank of Blanca Bay. The coastal highway and railway currently under construction have connected Otto City and Blanca City. It is greatly driven by Blanca City and has a relatively good deep-water port that does not freeze or silt up all year round.

The port is developing rapidly. Otto Port Area has built 6 production berths, including 3 berths of 10,000 tons or more. Otto South Port Area has 2 production berths of 10,000 tons or more, and the import and export volume has begun to rise steadily.

Otto City has developed rapidly through the development of trade and basic processing industries. Some of Blanca City's more polluting industries have been introduced to Otto City, including thermal power plants, oil refineries, chemical plants, paper mills, printing and dyeing plants, etc.

Otto City focuses on developing and introducing the wool textile industry. The area near Otto City is a sheep breeding area. Currently, more than 140 wool textile mills have been introduced and developed, with more than 10,000 employees. It is developing very rapidly, mainly providing OEM services for well-known foreign brands in Blanca City.

In October, the city of Brato Vici was officially renamed Brato City. Although its development wasn't as rapid as Otto City's, it still attracted many factories, with a focus on supporting food processing and exports, leading to the development of over 60 food factories.

The port city of Corolodora also vigorously developed the import and export of ores, with oil from the south and coal from Australia and Colombia being transshipped there.

The coastal cities of La Pampa Province are developing relatively quickly, with San Jose planning to construct a T-shaped development corridor to connect the coast and the interior.

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The Potassium Triangle area is not far from Peru. As a border trade city, Oran City is supported by three major industries: tobacco, mining, and import/export trade. Its development has been rapid in the last two or three years, and its resident population has quietly exceeded 200,000. Nearly 80,000 people are foreign stowaways or new immigrants year-round. Its economic scale has also surpassed that of the provincial capital, Salta City.

In fact, before Oran City developed, Paraguay and Bolivia had been providing seasonal workers for the sugar industry in Tucuman and Salta provinces. The Mapuche people from southern Chile crossed the Andes Mountains to Mendoza to harvest grapes and shear sheep in Patagonia.

Now, these people from neighboring countries have settled in Argentina. Young Marochas (black-skinned women) work as maids in middle-class families, and men work in factories.

Oran City is not their final destination. Opportunities and jobs are relatively scarce, and the more prosperous cities of Blanca and San Martin have become their final destinations.

Thanks to Oran City, San Martin and Blanca have also attracted tens of thousands of immigrants from Peru and Bolivia. Like the Chinese immigrants in Cordoba City, these immigrants mainly come from impoverished backgrounds or lack opportunities in their home countries. They come to neighboring countries to make a living, belonging to a semi-migratory type. They have not completely severed ties with their motherland. Although it is somewhat troublesome to return to Argentina for family visits, it is not like being tens of thousands of miles away from home.

Some of the more successful immigrants also engage in trade between Argentina and their home countries or establish immigration agencies, accumulating their first pot of gold for doing business.

Under San Jose's plan, the current city hall of Blanca City has been strictly implementing policies, attracting more and more people and constantly opening up opportunities. Because the European market has been opened up by San Jose, one of the benefits of the devaluation of the Argentine currency is that it can produce at a lower cost than Europe, making exports very profitable.

The largest city in central Argentina has changed hands. San Martin City now has a population that has completely exceeded Cordoba City's 690,000. Cordoba City also added 10,000 residents last year.

According to incomplete statistics, the population of San Martin City had reached 800,000 by the end of last year, and may have already approached 900,000, half of the new population coming from other provinces, with many foreign immigrants.

The attractiveness of Buenos Aires and Cordoba has greatly decreased because the security there has deteriorated, and most importantly, there is a lack of stable jobs. Immigrants cannot participate in strikes and should be more cautious, otherwise they may be repatriated.

The more tolerant and free cities of San Martin and Blanca are more attractive to them.

San Martin City now has sufficient land reserves. The originally planned Maria large-scale hydroelectric power station generates more electricity each year than expected due to abundant rainfall in the past two years. Three more generating units have been added, now reaching 110 million kilowatt-hours, 30 million kilowatt-hours more than before. In addition, with the introduction of electricity from other regions, the power supply in San Martin City has been stable and sufficient.

Cheap electricity can attract many factories with high electricity demand. The city hall is building larger hydroelectric power stations in areas with abundant water resources. The large-scale Cordoba Province hydroelectric power station, with an annual power generation of up to 1.8 billion kilowatt-hours, is jointly developed and constructed with Cordoba City, which is enough to supply more electricity demand.

The San Martin City Hall is widening the river from San Martin City to Rosario, and in the future, it will be able to connect to Argentina's largest river, the Parana River, through waterways.

Before the merger of Maria City and San Martin County, the construction of the urban area had already taken initial shape. After the merger, the power and governing scope of the city hall were expanded.

Industrial construction has therefore accelerated. Now, in addition to the urban area, the development of suburban counties has also been driven by the urban area, and development has greatly accelerated.

In addition, the city hall supports the development of many industries. San Martin State-owned Assets has built a number of state-owned factories with market competitive advantages, obtaining more tax revenue and profits.

Among the newly established dozen state-owned factories, San Martin State-owned Steel Plant, San Martin State-owned Cotton Textile Factory, San Martin First Chemical Plant, San Martin Second Power Plant, and San Martin Construction Company are all large-scale factories and companies in Argentina, and their technology is relatively advanced, introducing a batch of European advanced technology to open up the central and western markets.

The development of private factories in San Martin City is also very rapid. The textile and garment industry is also among the best in Argentina, focusing on supporting the development of various light industries, such as food processing, papermaking, watches, ceramics, sugar making, furniture, toys, etc. While forming differentiated development with Cordoba, Maya Chemical, Xinkeon Heavy Industry, and Philip Industries, these heavy chemical factories have also maintained a certain advantage in competitiveness.

These vibrant factories are blooming everywhere. The San Martin City Hall is learning from the Blanca City Hall and has also established many specialized wholesale markets, so that various small factories can also develop and the economy is more active.

With the strong injection of San Martin City's population, Cordoba Province, although not as good as La Pampa Province's rapid development, also reached 1.9 million people in the census at the end of last year, only a few tens of thousands less than La Pampa Province.

Cordoba Province is located in the heart of Argentina, and its development is not bad. The presidential palace is now also from the Cordoba faction, and some important industrial layouts will be arranged in Cordoba Province.

The status of Cordoba Province in Argentina has always been very important, roughly equivalent to the Sichuan Province of New China.

After the rise of La Pampa Province, the status of Cordoba Province has not declined, but has instead improved somewhat, only that the status of La Pampa Province has rapidly increased.

The southern region of Argentina is much more stable. La Pampa Province has established its own small group, uniting with surrounding provinces to make the economic pie bigger.

With the help of La Pampa Province, Little Uken Province and Negro River Province have also found a way to develop. Little Uken develops mining, and Negro River develops agriculture, animal husbandry, and processing industries, providing various resources to La Pampa Province. Recently, Mendoza Province has also become closer to La Pampa Province, and San Jose has finally managed to win over a relatively important province.

The construction of oil pipelines in Chubut Province further south and the maintenance of shipping routes in Saint Bruce Province have also benefited a lot.

In particular, the oil exploration and exploitation in Chubut Province and Little Uken Province have discovered many large oil wells, allowing the Southern Petroleum Company to rapidly grow, adding another money bag to San Jose.

Leidun Motors has made the Fiat 600 a hit in Latin America. The cheap small car market has opened up, and the prepared One-Tractor-Three factory, by replicating the Fiat 600 production line, has increased its production capacity three times but is still not enough to sell.

The complexity of the automotive industry chain is much higher than imagined, but with the support of Fiat automotive engineers, expanding production capacity is still not a problem.

Leidun Motors Research Institute offers high salaries to poach people from all over the country and even Europe to form a larger-scale automotive technology research and development team, planning to accelerate the launch of its own brand of small cars.

What really has the potential to allow Leidun Motors to break through is still in Germany. Leidun Motors sends one-third of its profits to Audi Motors in Germany, uses one-third of its profits to update and expand its factory buildings and production equipment, and retains the remaining one-third.

The Blanca City Hall and the Cohen Consortium guarantee high annual investments in heavy chemical industry and equipment manufacturing, which is why Leidun Motors' rise is not so difficult.

If it were simply investing in the automotive industry in Argentina, it is estimated that Leidun Motors would have been half-dead like another Argentine automaker, Ditellia Motors.

The Ditrelea Automobile Factory belongs to the Ditrelea family and is one of the few industrial entities in Argentina, unlike other Argentinian comprador capitalists.

The Ditrelea family had previously offended Perón for opposing wartime Nazism, leading to difficulties with the Presidential Palace and import/export matters.

Now, with the influx of many American companies into Argentina, the competitiveness of companies controlled by the Ditrelea family is generally weak.

This has severely impacted the Ditrelea family, who even arrogantly sought help from the Blanca City Hall, but San José didn't pay much attention to them.

After Ditrelea's death, his son, Ditrelea Jr., inherited the company, and the situation improved significantly. He also opened a new factory in Blanca City and secured some orders from Southern Oil and Power Company to help manufacture oil pumps, storage tanks, and some power generation equipment.

After Perón went into exile in 1954, most Argentine workers became 'orphans,' with no one to provide them with shelter or a voice. Argentine workers lost the benefits they had gained under the Perón regime.

Workers in state-owned factories in Buenos Aires began to wield the weapon of strikes again, which also affected small and medium-sized factories.

Blanca City, due to its political and economic stability and convenient port, attracted many small factories to relocate there.

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San José's second act as the new high-ranking official was directed at his own people—the La Pampa Defense Force.

This was the second step in establishing a standardized and authoritative provincial government.

After all, the military is too expensive, even if it's just the cheapest army, and La Pampa Province is short of people for economic development.

Due to the mixed composition of personnel, the reputation of the La Pampa Defense Force was also generally poor, and corruption existed.

The force needed to be standardized, and problematic individuals needed to be removed.

Establishing a good image for the army would help achieve the authority of the provincial government.

Moreover, the three divisions with over 20,000 people had completely exceeded actual development needs. There were no security issues, nor were there any immediate concerns about coups from the Presidential Palace.

San José's plan was not simply to reduce the army but to use the guise of spring training for the Defense Force. In December, he began a large-scale spring military exercise, conducting military training and live-fire drills.

Interior arrangement, physical training, armed cross-country runs, live-fire shooting, and political ideology were all included. Soon, a group of soldiers couldn't handle it, and these were all included in the assessment.

Those responsible for the training were also true elite instructors. They might not be good at fighting, but they were skilled at training.

After a series of drills, although many soldiers were still far from being excellent, they were at least qualified soldiers. Those who were just coasting along began to consider leaving.

After the training, live-fire exercises followed immediately.

In addition to military honors, a large number of military scholarships were established to stimulate soldiers' enthusiasm and initiative in training.

Through this large-scale military exercise, a group of excellent and elite soldiers were selected.

And through the live-fire military exercises, a group of people with command abilities were also selected.

Then, an elite infantry division was formed.

The second step was to re-select personnel for specialization throughout the army by conscripting soldiers and providing training.

Artillery battalions, tank battalions, and special forces were formed separately, followed by an air force squadron. Then, a group of soldiers and officers who were slightly weaker in physical fitness and command but had professional talents were selected.

In this way, a relatively good division was slowly cultivated. However, it was not enough to form a full division, only two regiments. Even with this, their combat effectiveness could even surpass the original three regiments.

The eliminated officers and soldiers, whose combat effectiveness also formed a combat gradient with the new elite division and specialized soldiers, would also have a portion in it, but there would definitely not be many such people.

After nearly four months of publicity and groundwork, most people in the La Pampa Defense Force, which had been established for a year and a half, understood San José's intention, which was a real reduction in the army.

On December 1st, the La Pampa Defense Force reduced its army by two regiments, a reduction of 6,000 personnel. The Third Division of the Defense Force was completely disbanded and cancelled, and its personnel were reassigned locally, without causing too much disturbance.

On December 2nd, the La Pampa Provincial Government organized a job fair for ten thousand people and a military college admission committee, and contacted 50 large and medium-sized factories to solve employment problems for veterans. Those who were willing to go to university would also be organized for special entrance examinations.

Although the best university for admission was the Blanca City Higher Vocational School, the difficulty was indeed much less than normal exams.

The Blanca City Higher Vocational School is currently the largest university in Blanca City besides the National Southern University. Other newly established universities do not have such a large enrollment scale.

Higher education in Blanca City is still slowly starting. The number of universities opening next year is likely to reach 15, many of which are newly established municipal universities.

The Blanca City Municipal Government intends to upgrade the Blanca City Higher Vocational School to Blanca College, on par with the soon-to-be-established La Pampa Polytechnic Institute.

In addition to job fairs and college entrance exams, the La Pampa Provincial State-owned Assets Committee established the La Pampa Provincial Construction Company, specializing in contracting the construction of canal projects, absorbing 1,000 people locally with decent wages.

The newly established La Pampa Engineering Transportation Company also absorbed 300 freight engineering drivers, and even more skilled people had already gone to drive tanks.

Except for a few individual cases, most veterans quickly found new jobs after receiving a severance payment.

On December 22nd, the second round of demobilization occurred, with another 8,000 personnel cut and the Second Division disbanded and cancelled, along with another three regiments.

This time, the veterans were also well settled. Blanca City can now absorb any kind of labor. Steel, construction, chemical, machinery, automobile, and shipbuilding industries are all major employers, especially for these well-trained strong laborers.

In just one month, San José conducted two rounds of demobilization. The La Pampa Defense Force was left with only one division of three regiments, 9,600 personnel. The army command structure was also streamlined and optimized, and its combat effectiveness was greatly improved.

This demobilization was completely without any special circumstances. San José has always been pragmatic about these matters and doesn't say much, just carries it out thoroughly.

Any opposing voices are directly suppressed. When it comes to being ruthless, no one is more ruthless than San José.

Carrots and sticks, forming elite divisions, confiscating firearms, dispersing squads, handling in batches, giving money for work, all in one go, smoothly and successfully.

San José's demobilization also went through batches of screening in the early stages. It wasn't a matter of packing up an entire regiment or company and sending them away all at once, but rather taking the essence and discarding the dross. Those with organizational skills, those who could cause trouble, those with development potential, and the young ones were all retained.

Moreover, during the training and when training work skills, talks were conducted in batches. Not many actually wanted to develop in the army; more were for the benefits, and many applied for demobilization in the first batch.

This streamlining of the Defense Force went quite smoothly. Garrison rotations were carried out, and a batch of high-quality labor was provided to Blanca City. Some young demobilized soldiers even went to university for further studies.

This demobilization once again allowed certain people in La Pampa Province to see San José's methods, and the public support rate increased significantly again.

The resistance to reforming municipal governments in various places was also reduced a lot, and centralization became easier.

San José took advantage of the situation to further strengthen his control over municipal governments in various places and accelerated the municipal government reform process.

In addition to demobilization and army specialization, San José increased investment in the La Pampa Military Academy, significantly increasing the school's budget to train professional officers belonging to the La Pampa Defense Force.

Artillery, infantry, armored, aviation, electronics... all seven departments were established, and enrollment will be expanded next year.