Reborn Brazil as a Plutocrat

Chapter 661 Arms Race

Author: Durian Shield

Chapter 661 Arms Race

When General Crook proposed that Fang Lang send the Rio de Janeiro aircraft carrier battle group south, Fang Lang also said that he would only send destroyers south. This is a taboo in the workplace, let alone in the military.

Although General Crook said this at a private gathering, Fang Lang's words still made General Crook frown slightly. But he was not angry. Although Fang Lang was his subordinate,

But Fang Lang is no ordinary subordinate.

In his opinion, with Fang Lang's strength and status, he was qualified to raise objections to his opinions. More importantly, he had never been a self-righteous general, and he could not do anything without listening to other people's suggestions.

As a general with outstanding records under him, Fang Lang can put forward his ideas, which will also be more conducive to him formulating future naval strategies and filling in his possible omissions.

Therefore, his frown soon relaxed, his face turned solemn, and he said with a slightly sincere tone:

"Oh! Are you worried that when they see our aircraft carrier fleet, they will devote more energy to the navy and pose a threat to our navy in the future?"

Fang Lang, who noticed General Crook's frown, thought General Crook would be angry, but he didn't expect him to adjust so quickly. He couldn't help but raise General Crook's evaluation to another level in his heart.

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But from General Crook's words, Fang Lang could also see that as Minister of the Navy, although he knew that Argentina was taking action, he did not know much about their real situation.

We don’t even know the information that Argentina is inspecting the British Giant-class aircraft carrier. At this time, Argentina has made it clear that it wants to enhance its military strength and intends to seize dominance in South America.

However, domestic military personnel also have conflicts between the navy and the army. After all, the military expenditure for a year is only so much. The price of a warship in your navy can allow the army to support a division.

"So, your judgment is that Argentina is nothing to worry about, and we don't need to pay too much attention to their actions?"

If there had not been a war between the United States and the Soviet Union, or Brazil had not been involved, Juan Veron would never have allowed the two armies to clash.

There is a saying in our hometown: If you are in good ways, you will get many help, but if you are in bad ways, there will be little help.

A normal arms race is what Fang Lang is looking forward to, but if this arms race is forcibly accelerated from the beginning, it will not be what Fang Lang wants.

If they also send destroyers, we will send cruisers next time, and if they send cruisers, it will not be too late for us to send the aircraft carrier battle group south."

After a long period of hard work in the army, after being promoted, I mostly use the knowledge I learned from the army to look at problems.

Seeing that General Crook seemed to have been deceived by him, Fang Lang quickly denied it:

"Of course not. Although Argentina has many problems, they are still one of the powerful countries in South America. We certainly cannot turn a blind eye to their little actions. This may make them mistakenly think that we are weak and can be bullied.

Like us, they are agricultural countries. They reluctantly started industrialization transformation by receiving a large number of Nazi remnants from Germany.

Finally, another reason is that I feel that the current policies of the new Argentine government are simply a joke.

However, Portugal has not participated in a large-scale war for many years, and has long been in a backward position in terms of military theoretical research.

In this case, it is even more conceivable what Brazil can learn from Portugal.

It may really have some bad effects on the international community, especially when Uruguay is sandwiched in the middle.

At this important time point, fully developing the economy is the focus of our work in Brazil, rather than shifting the focus of work because of the provocation of a clown.

When purchasing from Shata Company, he can at best act as a middleman and earn a small price difference. How can the navy entrust Fangyuan Shipyard to independently develop and manufacture it?

That's why General Crook was so surprised after hearing what Fang Lang said.

Now, they are eager to expand their influence by upgrading their armaments before completing basic industrialization.

This will greatly consume their foreign exchange reserves and slow down their industrialization process.

No one has ever told soldiers that they should have faith and know why they are soldiers. Everyone joins the army to get paid as soldiers, which is why military coups often occur in Brazil.

But in Brazil during this period, their naval officers mainly studied relevant military theories and knowledge in Portuguese military academies.

Hearing what General Crook said, Fang Lang couldn't help but frown. What happened? Wasn't this old boy deceived by him just now? Why didn't he seem to have listened to his previous words at all now?

While Fang Lang was talking, he was observing General Crook's expression. When he saw his slight nod, he couldn't help but breathed a sigh of relief and continued:

Hearing this, Fang Lang smiled slightly, refilled the tea in front of him, and then said calmly:

"So, the conflict between us and Argentina is just a border friction at most. If they don't take the initiative to go to war with us, we actually don't want to take the initiative to go to war with them. Right?"

Hearing Fang Lang's question, General Crook did not say anything, but nodded slowly. Seeing this, Fang Lang didn't take it seriously. He smiled, picked up the teacup and took a sip before saying:

"If this is the case, why should we directly send the aircraft carrier battle group there and let things develop in an often uncontrollable direction?

It is better to follow my method and slowly drag Argentina into the quagmire of an arms race. With their current industrial base, they simply do not have the ability to produce their own arms and can only rely on external procurement.

As everyone knows, from the very beginning when they actively accepted the remnants of the Nazis in large numbers, they were already on the opposite side of most countries in the world.

If the Brazilian Navy sends its aircraft carrier battle group to the South Pacific to show off its power at this time, the Argentine aircraft carrier plan that should have been repeatedly verified may be brought forward.

If this is the case, maybe we can bring down the economy they have finally developed with just one step."

After Brazil takes advantage of this rare opportunity to completely complete its industrial transformation, it will not be too late to turn around and deal with Argentina.

But we are completely different. Now we have the ability to produce our own Fletcher-class destroyers, and a new type of guided-missile destroyer is about to be finalized.

Neither Uruguay nor Argentina consider it a threat. But at the same time, the Fletcher-class destroyer can be regarded as one of the most advanced destroyers of this era.

This is not what Fang Lang wants to see. It's not that Fang Lang is afraid of a strong opponent. He knows very well that the competition between Argentina and Brazil is at most a small-scale arms race.

This may push Uruguay to the side of Argentina, which is a taboo in diplomacy and obviously inappropriate. But a Fletcher-class destroyer has no problem at all.

Because of the situation at Fangyuan Shipyard, although the replica work of the Fletcher-class destroyer has been completed, the new guided missile destroyer has not yet been released!

At this time, if the arms race between Brazil and Argentina suddenly escalates, the Brazilian Navy may miss out on its shipyards in updating its equipment.

The first reason why I only let the Fletcher-class destroyers go to the South Atlantic is that our waters are not bordering theirs. If we let the aircraft carrier fleet go south, the first person who will be nervous is not Argentina, but Uruguay.

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At this time, he also thought of what Fang Lang had just said, that Brazil was in an important period of transformation from an agricultural society to an industrial society. At this time, he did not want to really go to war with Argentina.

Let soldiers participate in the basic knowledge learning organized by the army in their free time, so that even if they retire, they can take the exam and join the Brazilian police force.

In the eyes of European and American countries, they are actually not much worse than the African countries in everyone's eyes now. Of course, the navy is a high-tech branch, and many officers still have certain academic qualifications and knowledge levels.

As for the navy, we will first send a Fletcher-class destroyer to the South Atlantic to declare our strength, and then we can see the movements of their navy.

Now General Crook really looked at Fang Lang differently. In Brazil, most soldiers are relatively simple, and many of them do not have a wide range of education and knowledge.

There is no problem in looking at the problem from this perspective, but considering the problem purely from a military perspective will often lead to people doing things in a simple and crude way, only knowing what is happening but not knowing why.

You must know that the Brazilian army during this period was actually very backward, if it were not for participating in World War II and being exposed to some of the latest strategic and tactical theories.

Although the funds for the Brazilian Navy to upgrade its equipment will most likely flow into Shatta Company's pockets, this is not what he wants.

But I have to say that Fang Lang's words are very reasonable. Brazil and Argentina have a direct border on land, but there is really no border on coastal defense. If he takes the position, because of Argentina's frequent actions on land, he will send

The navy provokes the opponent.

It is far from comparable to their country’s warships that were still in the First World War period. In this way, we can achieve the purpose of warning the other side while not leaving any provocation to the international community."

Hearing this, General Crook frowned again and said with some dissatisfaction:

"Isn't this just a refueling tactic? According to what you said, if we send an aircraft carrier battle group directly to their doorstep, will they have to consider equipping their navy with aircraft carriers?

Aren't they increasing their troops on the border now? We only need to increase the number of troops slightly higher than theirs, and we can steadily overwhelm the opponent.

What's more, you also want to build an aircraft carrier. Wouldn't this drive the Army crazy? Therefore, although the Argentine Navy has begun to actively seek to purchase aircraft carriers, it is not so easy to get approval in Argentina.

At this time, General Crook finally understood Fang Lang's plan. He wanted to take this opportunity to support his family's shipyard!

But, I have to say, what he said is very reasonable. With Argentina’s current industrial base, it can’t even produce ships on its own, let alone warships.

Now it was General Crook's turn to hesitate. It was absolutely impossible for him to deliberately start a war with Argentina. Brazil, which had just experienced a world war, also wanted a peaceful environment and would not be forced to do so.

, no one wants to ignite the war again.

When the time comes, we don’t need to fight, we can drag them to death.”

"Then what? Is the General really prepared to fight Argentina?"

"Of course not, our navy is never afraid of any threats. If the Argentine Navy really wants to try our skills, I will let them understand why the Atlantic Ocean is so salty.

But when Fang Lang thought about the problem, he was different from all the soldiers Crook knew. His overall view and strategic vision even surpassed his own. This shocked General Crook.

It seems that in his heart, he is still more inclined to directly send the aircraft carrier battle group south! After thinking for a while, Fang Lang gave General Crook another cup of tea, then looked at General Crook with a searching look on his face and said

:

It will not trigger a large-scale war between the two countries. After all, Argentina is not stupid. Their initial strategy was to wait until the war between the United States and the Soviet Union involved Brazil and make Brazil injured before starting to attack.

So, he quickly shook his head and said:

"No, I don't really want to go to war with Argentina."

Now everyone is too lazy to pay attention to him. Once he takes an extra step and does something excessive, his good days will be over."

If necessary, we can produce our own cruisers or even aircraft carriers. In this case, how can they compete with us?

To sum up, the current Brazilian army is in the same situation as the Kuomintang army in the early days of the Anti-Japanese War.

Of course, he couldn't tell General Crook directly what he really thought. Fortunately, he was already prepared when he made this suggestion.

Crook was stunned by Fang Lang's words. He did not expect that Fang Lang's perspective had jumped out of the military level and began to consider issues from the diplomatic level. This situation was even higher than his.

What I mean is that we just need to respond reciprocally to them. There is no need to reveal all our trump cards to the other party just because of their little actions.

The Brazilians have not realized that an army without culture is a stupid army. Among the entire Brazilian army, only Fang Lang has launched cultural learning courses in his fleet.

"The second reason is that our Brazilian economy is now in a period of rapid development due to the European Renaissance Plan. The country is also in a critical period of transition from a traditional agricultural economy to an industrial economy.

If we want to engage in an arms race with Brazil, we will really be dragged into the quagmire by Brazil. At that time, the foreign exchange reserves that could have been used to develop the economy will be replaced by warships, tanks, rifles and artillery.

In the end, what can Argentina get? Maybe, their country's economy has been dragged into the abyss before their equipment is fully equipped. Don't talk about going to war with Brazil by then, the people in the country may start to rebel.

Already.

In this case, wouldn't Brazil easily win? At the same time, the Fang family's shipyard and military industry companies also received full support from the Brazilian government because of the arms race with Argentina, and truly became Brazil's military industry giant.

This is killing two birds with one stone! How could this young man have such a superb strategic vision?

(End of chapter)