Rise of the Argentine Empire

June 2nd, afternoon,

La Pampa Province Government Office, high-ranking official's office,

The busiest morning of the week has passed. Today, Saint Hesser is wearing thicker clothes. He is lying on his chair, pondering some things. Yesterday, he spent the whole day playing with his daughter, Brittany. This was the first time he spent Children's Day with his family. I have to say that even with Saint Hesser's vigorous energy, dealing with children is still a bit difficult.

Considering safety issues, the father and daughter only casually played in a large manor outside the Posca district.

This still made Saint Hesser look a little tired. His daughter hadn't seen her old father for too long, and she pestered him to run around all day. Last night, his youngest son disturbed him for most of the night, crying loudly.

Besides the crowded urban area, the suburbs of Blanca City are also slowly becoming more populated. Several large islands in Blanca Bay have also been developed into resort tourist attractions. Saint Hesser rarely goes there to fish anymore.

The Free Port New Area and the coastal industrial zone are even more crowded. There are a large number of small factories and companies here, and commercial trade is developed and very prosperous. Compared to the Alta area, which is more suitable for migrant workers due to its large factories, and the high-end and atmospheric eastern main urban area, this area is more likely to attract people to come for food, drink, and entertainment.

The entertainment options here are more abundant, with shopping stores, soccer fields, theaters, bars, cinemas, and various small restaurants. The number and scale of entertainment venues are much larger than White Light Avenue, and most importantly, the consumption here is not that high, quite affordable, and the public security conditions are good now, with standardized operations, attracting a large number of people to relax after work.

Regardless of the era, work is mostly just to support a family. The time after work is the time that truly belongs to oneself, which is the real life, making people feel alive.

Working in a factory is boring and numb. Staying for a long time makes a person seem particularly dull, while entertainment after work allows people to be themselves again.

This is the place with the most vibrant atmosphere in the entire Blanca City. Many couples date, get married, and have children here, contributing a large number of new additions to Argentina's population.

Severe winter is approaching, and some winter material security work in La Pampa Province is also underway. This year's winter is expected to be colder than last year, possibly reaching the level of the Patagonian Plateau, which makes the cold-weather materials in Blanca City and its surrounding areas seem insufficient.

For example, cotton quilts and honeycomb briquettes, which were not very popular last year. Saint Hesser asked several steel plants to reduce their winter steel production and transferred the coal reserves for iron smelting to the market, which alleviated the supply. He also transferred cotton warehouse materials from the Blue Cloud Textile Group, increased power generation, and some electric heating equipment and hot water bottles produced by Maya Chemical became hot-selling goods.

In recent years, the weather has become more and more abnormal. Saint Hesser gently exhaled, stood up, stretched, and stood in front of the window to look at the scenery.

This year, production work is difficult to carry out in winter, and more energy is needed, and the demand for various raw materials is also very large.

Although Saint Hesser had planned ahead several years ago, external resources still cannot keep up with demand. He underestimated people's desire for work, especially the tide of unemployed people in Buenos Aires. When strikes cannot solve livelihood problems and families cannot even afford basic meals, and with more and more bad news, many people have to start looking for work to support their families.

After a while, someone knocked on the door, then gently pushed it open.

A tall, attractive young girl with long black hair and a floral dress walked in. This is Saint Hesser's secretary, Cecilia Sanchez, who is specifically responsible for liaising with the La Pampa State-Owned Assets Committee.

"Your Excellency, this is the report from the La Pampa Grain Reserve Company, this one is the construction suspension report from the Medanos Steel Plant, and this one is the report from the Blanca Meat United Factory."

"Okay, put them here."

Saint Hesser did not directly connect with the specific departments below. A joint department meeting had already been held in the morning. Some urgent reports and documents would be submitted through the secretary to the departments in charge and to him, the boss.

His four high-ranking officials all have departments specifically responsible for management, in charge of various agencies and departments, but all important documents will be sent to him for specific approval. It is estimated that he is the provincial leader with the most power in Argentina.

Saint Hesser also has a secretary's office with 12 confidential secretaries responsible for liaising with various departments, which is one of Saint Hesser's ways of managing La Pampa.

Of course, most of the time, the heads of departments personally report important work.

Cecilia was selected last year through the first civil service examination organized by La Pampa Province.

"After the new year's acquisitions, La Pampa Province's grain reserves have reached 9.3 million tons, enough for the entire Argentina to eat for two years, or even longer. Argentinians prefer to eat meat. Last year, Argentina's population was just over 28 million, and the amount of grain consumed was about 9.5 million tons."

Saint Hesser, through the Agricultural Association and the La Pampa Department of Agriculture, as well as Future Agriculture and several grain reserve companies, has expanded grain production, and the surplus grain is being stored more and more, causing doubts among many of his subordinates.

Even raising pigs can reach millions.

Last year, La Pampa Province, Rio Negro Province, Chubut Province, and northern provinces expanded the planting of wheat and rice, more than doubling the planting area. With the support of irrigation systems, fertilizers, and mechanization, grain production increased three times, resulting in a bumper harvest, which directly filled the grain depots of the grain reserve companies, forcing them to build more grain depots.

Saint Hesser estimates that it will become one of the world's largest grain reserves this year, with even more than 2 million tons of grain not yet in storage. Somewhat different from the Northern Hemisphere countries, Argentina as a whole had a bumper harvest this year, with timely rainfall every time.

He is storing grain to exchange it for good things, such as some of Argentina's scarce heavy industrial equipment and technology, military industrial equipment, mining technology, etc. In terms of industrialization, Argentina lacks everything. Although steel production is increasing year by year, many equipment cannot be imported, and Saint Hesser can only hope to exchange for some good things this time.

Argentina's crude industrial system needs to be filled with various things.

These are all advance layouts. Saint Hesser will only sell these grains at normal market prices, and it can also improve relations and obtain some friendship from a potential superpower in the future, which is very cost-effective.

After a while, Cecilia came in and took away the approved documents on the table.

"Export the excess grain reserves to some warehouses in western Australia in advance, which can alleviate the pressure and speed up the mobilization."

The Pularie fleet already has many large freighters, transporting hundreds of thousands of tons a month, which can clear half of the reserves in half a year. He has already built many grain depots in Western Australia in advance. He has acquired some grain merchants in Southeast Asia, which can store grain in Southeast Asia.

Any natural leader must first learn to manage their emotions and not let people easily see their bargaining chips.

Saint Hesser always smiles in front of people, with an imposing presence, and it is difficult for people to guess what he is thinking. For example, in this presidential election, he personally went down to the field to let the public choose Frondizi, which is extremely rare in Argentina.

A provincial governor personally campaigning, but this also made Frondizi value Saint Hesser even more. If he were not too young, he really had the idea of letting Saint Hesser lead Argentina's economic reform, serving as the Minister of Economic Affairs in the cabinet, or letting him serve as the Governor of the Central Bank of Argentina.

Saint Hesser has deep relationships with multiple banks and consortia, and has led the establishment of several important banks, such as Barron Bank, Blanca Commercial Bank, La Pampa Industrial Bank, La Pampa Commercial Bank, etc., and has made some key remarks.

Generally, Saint Hesser knows that economic reform is difficult to succeed, because Frondizi is completely leaning towards the United States and plans to use American loans to develop the economy, so he has no intention of entering the new cabinet. This cabinet is even larger than Juan Perón's, which correspondingly expands the power of the presidential palace.

The Ministry of Defense is still the military's territory for influencing the presidential palace. Currently, Saint Hesser only has General Tomps left inside.

Somewhat similar to Saint Hesser, Frondizi also values ​​oil and steel, but lacks long-term planning and necessary development measures. Simple support and loans are meaningless and may even lead to more foreign debt.

Because iron ore and coal are extremely rare in Argentina, the most important raw materials for developing the steel industry are these two. The reason why the steel industries of South Korea and Japan can develop is because they can easily use their relationship with the United States to obtain more resources.

In the upstream mining chain, he not only sends purchase orders to India, Africa, Southeast Asia, and other places, making friends with local dignitaries, purchasing more types of minerals from multiple points, and establishing a stable supply system.

He also personally acquires mines in Australia, South Africa, Colombia, Bolivia, and Brazil, establishes local mining companies, or conducts joint mining to obtain more advantageous raw material prices.

In addition to mines, Saint Hesser has also repeatedly acquired some undeveloped land that may contain mineral deposits. There are already more than 20 large and small mining companies abroad, mainly distributed in surrounding countries and the Western Australia region.

This is because the surrounding countries are relatively controllable. Although Uruguay and Paraguay have also entered the era of military government, they are very close, and there is no problem with settling accounts after the autumn. Bolivia also pays more attention to Argentina's expressions. As long as it is legal and compliant, and pays taxes regularly, and employs more than 80% of local people, then it is completely a local company.

The current Bolivia has relatively good relations with the Potassium Triangle region, and trade is also very close. Bolivia needs Argentina to import cheap industrial products and low-interest loans to develop its economy, and Argentina needs Bolivia's various rich mineral deposits, mainly large iron mines.

Western Australia is also a relatively safe place, not easily hacked.

This allows the steel produced by Saint Hesser's steel mills to have lower costs and stable quality, resulting in higher profits.

Most importantly, this prevents the steel mill from becoming a debt-ridden business.

A leader who doesn't plan for the overall situation is not a good leader.

Even before building the steel mill, Saint Hesser had already started planning for various production raw materials, which allowed his steel mill's competitiveness to compensate for many technical shortcomings, buying time for development, and the decrease in costs made processing with supplied materials profitable.

These are some small experiences Saint Hesser gained from the development of the steel industry in Japan and South Korea. If raw materials are lacking, adopt a port-based steel industry model for quick import and export, and ocean freight is becoming increasingly cheaper.

......

Frondizi's rise to power changed the existing political situation in Argentina, and the military's return of power also brought Frondizi's prestige to its peak.

The Radical Party behind him became less important.

However, in Argentina's political ecology, the various political parties are indeed not that important. The super-presidential system gives the Argentine president supreme power, and the military also looks down on these various political parties that are not presentable.

Currently, Argentina has two Radical Civic Unions, namely the People's Radical Civic Union led by Balbín and the Intransigent Radical Civic Union led by Frondizi, which split last year.

Some internal struggles within the Radical Civic Union became public at the end of the year before last, and by last year, they had reached an irreconcilable point.

At that time, the interior was divided into two major factions, and the two rivals each attracted a large number of people, forming two cores, and eventually completely broke apart, but it was obvious that Frondizi's image was more positive, and his image among Argentine voters was more upright. He was a scholar-type civil servant, and the military ultimately chose him.

Internal divisions and struggles within capitalist political parties are the norm. If they are truly united, the military would be afraid to hand over power. Whether it's a real show or a fake one, it has to be done thoroughly.

Regardless of the external reasons of the military or the internal reasons of the Radical Party, the split was already irreversible.

As one of the largest third factions of the Radical Party, Saint Hesser naturally followed Frondizi. In Saint Hesser's view, this was not political speculation. Balbín's personal ability and luck were significantly worse than Frondizi's. Moreover, Saint Hesser had already started to develop some relationship with Frondizi when he was in Buenos Aires, so it was reasonable and appropriate to do so.

Saint Hesser served as the head of the new Intransigent Radical Civic Union in La Pampa Province, and 95% of the local Radical Party members transferred to the Intransigent Radical Civic Union in situ, completely without any rules.

Perhaps when the time is right, Saint Hesser will also establish a Southern Radical Civic Union. This is a means to quickly expand one's influence. It is better to split others' political parties than to directly establish a new one, but this also has many disadvantages.

Regarding the internal split of the Radical Party last year, Saint Hesser was not too surprised, and even felt it was somewhat natural.

In the absence of external threats, the biggest crisis is often internal. Without the pressure of directly facing the Peronist Party, the Radical Party expanded wildly and became the largest political party in Argentina. The distribution was uneven, and there were many factions. Not only did Frondizi want to become the President of Argentina and be remembered in history.

Everyone has ambitions, and Balbín is also relatively old, so he simply took the opportunity to make a move, as opportunities would be even harder to come by in the future.

In order to win over Saint Hesser, Balbín even promised to let Saint Hesser serve as the Prime Minister of the Cabinet or the Minister of Finance, both of which are powerful figures, but Saint Hesser refused.

His power base is not in Buenos Aires now, and even being a Vice President is not a good position.

May is good weather. In this election, Saint Hesser publicly expressed his support for Frondizi, and a large number of votes from La Pampa Province voters were cast for the Intransigent Radical Party, which allowed Frondizi's votes to easily surpass Balbín's. However, La Pampa Province is not the largest vote warehouse. When Frondizi won Buenos Aires Province and Buenos Aires City, as well as Córdoba Province and Santa Fe Province, he was already able to become President.

The military was relatively satisfied with Frondizi, but Frondizi secretly reached an agreement with Standard Oil Company to allow the company to develop Argentina's oil, and the impact of this matter exceeded everyone's imagination.

......

In June, Saint Hesser used administrative power to establish 11 large-scale laboratories and research institutes, involving metals, medicine, biology, electronics, energy, military weapons, and nuclear physics, making annual financial allocations to enrich the scientific research strength of La Pampa Province.

Some of these laboratories are affiliated with the National University of the South, while others are affiliated with the La Pampa Institute of Technology, the Blanca Academy of Sciences, and other colleges and academic institutions. Some are independently invested, and some are affiliated with large companies such as Southern Power and Southern Oil.

Each laboratory is not too large, ranging from less than a hundred people to thousands, employing a large number of young scientific research geniuses to conduct various research.

Saint Hesser has unearthed many scientific research geniuses. In fact, Argentina does not lack various geniuses, but lacks the soil to cultivate geniuses. As long as there is money, the universities in Blanca City can dig up enough geniuses. If Argentina doesn't have them, go to Chile. If Chile isn't enough, Bolivia is also possible, and even Brazil has them.

In the Saia Industrial Laboratory, Saint Hesser saw some test weapons with world-leading qualities, some light weapons and heavy weapons, most of which only had experimental value and no industrial production value.

The Saia Industrial Laboratory is jointly established by Saia United Industrial Company under the La Pampa State-owned Assets Committee, New Cohen Heavy Industry, La Pampa Military Academy, La Pampa Institute of Technology, and San Martín Aircraft Factory. It is mainly a military weapons-based laboratory responsible for following world-class light and heavy weapons. The objects of experimentation include armored vehicles, tanks, rifles, rocket launchers, special military materials, fighter jets, and other light and heavy weapons. It is the highest-standard weapons laboratory in La Pampa Province.

The San Martín Aircraft Research Institute under the Saia Laboratory relies on resources to research the Arrow 4 fighter jet and small aviation aircraft and helicopters. The San Martín Aircraft Factory has also obtained a large number of military orders from the La Pampa Defense Forces.

The national defense capability of a country depends not only on the number of weapons it possesses, but also largely on the country's military scientific research talents. These talents enable the country's various facilities and equipment to be continuously updated and become stronger. The Saia Laboratory is on the surface, and there is also a more powerful Southern Physics Laboratory, responsible for researching nuclear weapons, which has already made breakthrough progress.

The La Pampa Military Academy is not only for training the officers needed by Saint Hesser, but also various weapon design talents are extremely important. The Technical Industry Department is one of the most popular departments in the Military Academy.

Saint Hesser is extremely tolerant of the establishment of universities, directly amending the La Pampa Provincial Constitution. Basically, the construction land for public universities starts at 1,000 acres, and the La Pampa Institute of Technology has a site of approximately 3,500 acres, reserving ample space for the development of the college. The approval of some private universities is also very lenient, and the construction land is basically more than 500 acres, and it is free, with various construction economic subsidies.

The number of universities in Blanca City increases every year, and the quality and development are not bad. Many public universities are directly run by the Provincial or Municipal Government.

......

Similarly, Argentina also lacks the soil to cultivate outstanding leaders. This cannot be changed. The intensity of competition is not enough, or rather, there is a lack of luck. Immigrant countries, except for the United States, which is extremely lucky, it is difficult to say that any country has truly become a powerful and strong power relying on immigration. Brazil is not good, Mexico is not good, and Argentina is not good. Mexico is tragically far from God and too close to the United States. Brazil is the closest to success, but the common problems of tropical countries, coupled with deindustrialization and a lack of consistent political parties, are a series of factors.

But Brazil and Mexico are not the only ones who have fallen on the road to becoming a major power, so this is inherently a thorny path.

La Pampa's economic development continues to move forward rapidly, absorbing more population. Saint Hesser both establishes large companies and cultivates more small companies, expanding the market.

Using his relationship with the President of Bolivia, coupled with the investment promise to help build 3 large factories, Blanca United Steel easily won the mining rights to a super-large iron ore mine in Bolivia, solving the raw material supply problem for Argentina's steel industry.

Iron ore is an important raw material for the steel industry. Coal seems less scarce, but Saint Hesser has already used his American, French, and British companies to win the mining rights to 11 coal mines in Australia, South Africa, Colombia, Indonesia, and Mexico, and is continuing large-scale acquisitions.

This is much cheaper than simply importing. Thunder Mining has also established security companies abroad, which can basically guarantee safety, and has given a large amount of political donations to the local administrative civil servants.

As long as it is not a real war, these light and heavy weapons are already sufficient to ensure the safety of the mines. After all, justice, fairness, and communication only exist under the barrel of a gun. Saint Hesser needs weapons to protect the safety of his property, especially some mines in Africa.

The two security companies that Saint Hesser previously established began to play their part, selecting some young people locally to join the security company to protect the safety of the mines.

In addition to Mexico and South Africa, the environment in Indonesia and Australia is also very good, and Australia is not a completely centralized country. The autonomy of each state is very high, giving Saint Hesser room to play. Western Australia is still very poor and needs a lot of employment.

Thunder Mining established local mining companies, legally paid taxes, and provided employment, which is very popular.