Rise of the Argentine Empire

The first round of the Black City gang war was coming to an end, and the Radical Civic Union also began to clear the field, warning the gangs to keep a low profile.

The warnings from above made the gang leaders aware that they couldn't fight anymore, at least for the time being. So, the entire Black City entered a brief period of peace, and they needed to reorganize, purchase weapons and lost ammunition, and recruit new members.

Saint Hilaire also instructed Twilight's End to be more discreet, while producing more practical old weapons, opening new factories outside the city to secretly produce them.

He even planned to prepare a production line in Uruguay, across the river, to prevent it from being destroyed. Frankly, Uruguay was a very good location, close to the two largest arms markets in South America.

......

January 1, 1952, Radical Party Headquarters, large conference room.

Saint Hilaire transformed into the person in charge of arranging the conference venue, arranging the venue layout, and was specially allowed to audit the qualifications, guaranteed by the director of the headquarters office, Luis.

This time, the Radical Party's National Supreme Committee was convened, and the goal of the meeting was to prepare for the next presidential election, yes, three years in advance.

One of the topics of this meeting was to first select a suitable presidential candidate within the party, and then prepare for the next presidential election in 1955. The Radical Party's disastrous defeat last year allowed Perón to be re-elected.

Therefore, this time they will select a new presidential candidate during this period to prepare more fully. Unexpectedly, Arturo will still be elected.

Saint Hilaire estimated that there were about 130 committee members present, all leading figures of the Radical Party, ranging in age from their thirties to their fifties and sixties, and the overall momentum was actually okay.

Sitting in the front row were the members of the Radical Party's Supreme Committee, a total of 13 people. Saint Hilaire only knew 3 of them, namely Arturo Frondizi, and the person sitting in the middle. To his right sat Arturo, and in the middle sat the current chairman, Mr. Tuán Pittro, a gray-haired old man in his sixties.

It seemed that the three people who would be speaking this time were Arturo, Tuán, and Allende, because microphones had been arranged in front of them.

Below were six rows of people, with 20 people in each row. The closer to the front, the higher the status.

All were men, not a single woman. This still needed the test of time.

Last November, Mrs. Perón solemnly cast Argentina's first vote belonging to a woman while lying in bed.

Mrs. Perón had even wanted to be Argentina's vice president, but this time fate did not favor her. She was defeated, and fate played a huge joke on her.

Argentina's electorate had more voters, which was considered social progress.

Saint Hilaire glanced around, not needing to know many people, just quietly standing behind as a door god, a ruthless audience machine.

There were still many important figures this time. These committee members were the leaders of the Radical Party branches in various places. Saint Hilaire only knew two acquaintances here, one congressman and the office director, Luis. Saint Hilaire chatted with Luis about some things, but not in depth.

The other was the head of the Radical Party in Black City, Keynes Thomas, who was once a supporter of Commander Thompson in Black City.

The two exchanged simple greetings and did not communicate much. They were considered colleagues, and vaguely began to know that Keynes was an important leader of the Córdoba faction.

Because he was sitting in the first row of the rostrum, his status was obviously not low, but of course not in the middle of the first row.

Saint Hilaire also stood at the back, listening to Tuán's speech. They looked high-spirited, completely lacking the awareness of an opposition party. Of course, the initial speeches were too much nonsense and clichés, nothing more than preparing carefully, building well, and summarizing last year.

Arturo, who became the Radical Party's vice-presidential candidate last year, is the Radical Party's current young and promising leader, only 44 years old, young and energetic, and full of personal charm. If he hadn't lost the election last year, he might have served as vice president, or even president.

But he still couldn't defeat the dictator, Big Mouth Perón, who used some underhanded methods, and the Radical Party was powerless to resist, especially since Mrs. Perón's prestige was very strong among the working class.

Last year, the military also firmly stood on Perón's side. The Perón government, which the landed gentry regarded as an enemy, had two pillars: the military and the workers.

Frondizi was born in 1908 in Corrientes Province, Argentina. He studied law at the University of Buenos Aires and obtained his lawyer's qualification in 1930. When he was a lawyer, he was known for defending Argentine industry and opposing foreign trusts.

Now he is a strong leader of the Radical Party, a staunch leader of the Radical Civic Union, more radical and strong compared to the conservatives, and enjoys the support of the Innovation and Change Movement faction and the National Route faction among the four major factions within the party.

Saint Hilaire was not qualified to sit down. Those who were sitting down were all committee members elected by the Radical Party from all over the country. Saint Hilaire is currently just a small minister in Black City in the Radical Party, not an important position. Of course, if calculated according to the power behind him, he could rank in the top ten here.

Currently, the executive vice chairman is Arturo Frondizi, while Tuán Pittro is the chairman. Tuán is very old and has reached retirement age. The next leader will be Arturo, and Allende, who sits to Tuán's left, is an important supporter of Arturo.

Tuán still started the speech with full vigor, first criticizing Perón for not fulfilling any of his promises to the people. The suppressed wealthy people are now the basic base of the Radical Party, as well as the middle class.

It wasn't until Frondizi began to speak that he listened carefully.

Frondizi wore glasses, was elegant, and very refined. Saint Hilaire compared him with the big shots he knew, such as General Thompson and Professor Pukins, and most of them didn't have this aura.

"A great man should be like this!"

Saint Hilaire thought in his heart.

"Perón is particularly good at bragging, plus his capable assistant, Evita. This person is very interesting, loves to give speeches, has a big mouth, and likes to tell jokes and make funny remarks as a politician, but unfortunately, our Radical Party is also powerless to compete with them."

"We must fully recognize Perón's weaknesses and attack him. This person, well, does things without finishing them, brags loudly, and doesn't do anything well. He spent 2.5 billion to buy railways. Our treasury originally only had 6 billion pesos. I really suspect that this guy is a spy sent by the British!"

"Moreover, inflation is too outrageous now. The five-year economic development plan has not achieved much success, and coupled with the drought, the capital of rich agriculture has actually experienced food shortages, which is simply unforgivable. There's something wrong with Perón's brain, it's all water. Damn it, he knows shit about economic development."

Frondizi couldn't help but swear. Argentina, with such a good situation, was messed up by Perón, which really made the patriot Frondizi feel heartbroken.

"We are in a moment of transition from agriculture to industrial and commercial development. Now inflation has been increasing. A large number of grassroots people expect to obtain food and increase wages."

"Damn this son of a bitch Perón, he's really not a good person. I really want to shoot him directly. Our country's factories have been turned into waste by him. The United States and Europe are developing too well. Argentina is now just a pile of cow dung."

Saint Hilaire also sighed in his heart that he was so right, and couldn't help but clap his hands. After being here for almost two years, Saint Hilaire deeply agreed with this sentence, and finally someone said what was in his heart.

Just after clapping twice, Saint Hilaire embarrassedly realized that he was the only one clapping in the room, and immediately stopped, feeling a little embarrassed.

Then, after a few seconds, the others in the audience also began to applaud, and the meeting entered its climax.

Arturo, as a well-known figure, was witnessing him swearing in public for the first time, which was obviously out of sorrow for the country's development and disappointment in its failures, a genuine patriotic heart.

Evidently, everyone was somewhat surprised to hear such a person use foul language.

Unfortunately, this capable man was eventually overthrown by the military after becoming president.

As for the reason, it was because he attempted to liberate the Justicialist Party and then unite with Cuba, which infuriated the military and led to his removal from office.

The meeting continued for a while and finally ended, with a very good atmosphere generated and everyone feeling confident.

San Jose stayed behind to leave last, preparing to tidy up the venue.

Frondizi was also among the last to leave, and he chatted briefly with San Jose, familiarizing himself.

Moreover, the two were alumni of the same university and the same major, and Arturo and Professor Perkins were university classmates.

Perkins also held a leadership position in the Blue Alliance, but not in the Radical Civic Union; he disliked such matters and only held a nominal position on the presidential think tank.

Now, San Jose could be considered to have the attention of a big shot, though he hadn't graduated yet.

These resources would have to wait until after graduation to be used, which made him a little excited.

Frondizi encouraged San Jose with a few words and then turned to leave.

San Jose seriously considered whether to graduate early, as development at the school was too slow.

Graduating a year early would allow him to do more things.

Currently, everything was being developed covertly and wasn't very visible; at least in politics, these could only be considered rookie moves.

To be honest, this meeting didn't contain any important information; it only announced Arturo's nomination as the new presidential candidate, which most people approved of with a show of hands.

Also, the Radical Civic Union was somewhat wary of the military.

Unfortunately, they didn't consider other options; after all, with the military being a major power, the Radical Civic Union could only try to befriend them and even support some military figures.

The relationship between the two wasn't very equal.

San Jose sighed a little; to be honest, he didn't want a military government to come to power, as it would damage Argentina's foundations too much.

However, the military's power was currently too strong.

Therefore, this needed to be carefully planned; it would be best to have two more democratically elected governments.

If the Radical Civic Union and the Blue faction of the military could unite to oppose the Red faction of the military, then there would at least be some hope.

The military's opponent had already become the Peronist Justicialist Party, so their strength needed to be consumed as much as possible.

However, the Peronist Party couldn't be crushed to death by the military; it was like the relationship between Pepsi and Coca-Cola.

If Pepsi were crushed to death, then Coca-Cola's disintegration would be inevitable.

But San Jose also keenly noticed that there were some internal divisions among the people of the Radical Civic Union, and Arturo himself seemed to be a performing artist, especially skilled at stirring up emotions.

Calming down, however, revealed that there was a lot of empty talk and boasting.

Arturo seemed similar to Peron, and he didn't know if his feeling was right.

This made him somewhat disappointed; in his memory, Arturo seemed to have been overthrown for being pro-American and betraying national interests, which didn't seem quite right.

But he needed time.

After everyone left, San Jose sat quietly in the back row, lit a cigarette, and pondered the future direction.

San Jose also obtained some important news from this meeting, which was that Peron was preparing to take action against the Pope.

Moreover, in Argentina, in addition to the military and the labor unions, there was another detached force, which was the Pope.

This was also very important and had to be taken into consideration.

Some of the things Peron was doing were already infringing on the Pope's interests, and it seemed that one of the reasons Peron stepped down was being excommunicated.

When Evita was alive, Peron maintained good relations with the powerful forces of the Church, which was effectively the state religion.

In 1947, he enacted a law stipulating that public schools should provide religious education.

Peron submitted this law to the House of Representatives as a way to establish unified moral education that would culturally and spiritually unify the Argentine people.

But now Evita, also known as the famous Mrs. Peron, was beyond help; her health was getting worse and worse.

Cancer, in any sense, even in another hundred years, there would be no way to eliminate it, let alone now in the 1950s.

Peron was also beginning to lose his mind and preparing to attack the Church.

From a national perspective, this matter couldn't be said to be wrong; in fact, the direction was completely correct, but in terms of means, it seemed a bit elementary, similar to the naivety of the Socialist Party.

Peron himself had eliminated the Socialist Party, but now he was preparing to follow the old path of the Socialist Party to confront the Church.

In other words, Peron was preparing to take action against the three largest forces in the country: the military, the labor unions, and the Pope.

This was truly remarkable, no wonder the Radical Civic Union was already preparing to take over the country.

"Too many turtles in a small pond, too much demonic wind in a small temple."

Being afraid of this and that was not San Jose's style.

Making compromises in the short term was inevitable, and joining the Radical Civic Union was the right choice.

If the Radical Civic Union really chose to be pro-American and betray national interests in the future, he believed that he would have enough ability to clean house by then, but not to let the military do this job.

The military must return to its proper position.

In the next few years, it was necessary to make the military more disciplined and weaken their power, to make the military and the Peronist Party fight harder, or rather, to make the Blue and Red factions clash more and consume more energy.

......

After this meeting, San Jose also had to hold the annual summary meeting of his own factory.

51 years had passed, and 52 years had arrived.

This year, San Jose's company had developed very rapidly, with several unexpected surprises.

Thunder Mining, Rain Military Industries, Prairie Food, and Blue Cloud Shoes and Clothing, as San Jose's cash cow companies, had developed very rapidly.

The fertilizer plant had also started production, and the Eagle Cigarette Factory would usher in a bumper harvest of tobacco leaves in February and March.

Cohen Brothers and Prairie International, as sales companies, had also developed relatively rapidly.

Cohen Brothers' recruitment of human resources had gradually expanded from northern Argentina to Brazil, Bolivia, Uruguay, and Paraguay, which allowed San Jose's factories to avoid facing a labor shortage.

The cement plant was in the midst of tense preparation, and the construction of Morado Town was relatively slow.

It is worth mentioning that the Chinatown in Cordoba had developed well, which helped San Jose a lot.

They united to open restaurants and also helped Blue Cloud Clothing Factory and Shoes and Clothing Factory with OEM production, which was developing fairly well, and their construction team also followed San Jose's construction and built houses everywhere.

This was an unexpected development, and San Jose also intended to give them help.

Most of the forces in Argentina were relatively powerful, and for the time being, he couldn't find suitable partners, and these Chinatown people were very good partners.

One person can't earn all the money.

San Jose could provide them with some military protection, and they could provide a lot of manpower support, so the cooperation was quite pleasant.

Some of them came from Southeast Asia, and some came from Peru, and the number of people had increased a lot.

San Jose was also looking for partners for some factories to outsource some less important processes in order to improve the company's development speed.

These new immigrants, like an army of ants, were doing very well.