Rise of the Argentine Empire

The recent series of events in Blanca Port has exposed many problems within the Falcon Bureau, especially regarding the speed of response to dangerous emergency management.

It's necessary for the main responsible personnel of the entire Falcon Bureau to conduct a serious self-examination. The Falcon Bureau's development has been very slow in the past year, and its intelligence gathering capabilities are also very poor, urgently requiring improvement. There is a need to establish a more efficient system and introduce new blood. If things don't improve, a batch of people will be replaced.

Saint Hesser contacted the United States and transferred the director of the Falcon Bureau, Guerrero, back, along with a group of elite individuals, the kind who can easily compete with the CIA.

Most of these people are graduates from Argentine universities who have done very well in American intelligence, greatly assisting with Sequoia, Blackstone, and Enco Electric.

Argentina is now like a powder keg, and it's unknown when it will explode. We can't spread our forces too thinly. Moreover, the situation in several branches is not very good. It's time to properly rectify and update the Falcon Bureau's structure.

With the rapid development of high technology in the world, it's necessary to update a batch of new work equipment, such as miniature cameras, bugging devices, and miniature firearms. It is also very necessary to establish some secret tool laboratories and recruit some mathematics experts and cryptography experts to develop new intelligence transmission systems.

The intelligence password cracking agency needs to develop towards higher talent. The Falcon Bureau is severely lacking in this area. The handling of some telephone and telegraph communications is also very important. It is imperative to form a national information intelligence network to accurately process intelligence.

This is necessary for technological change. American Enco Electric can provide Saint Hesser with great assistance. After all, technological innovation is happening every day. Since the establishment of NATO in '47, the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union has become completely irreversible, especially with the Warsaw Pact.

The goal is to develop the Falcon Bureau into a modern and efficient intelligence agency; otherwise, Saint Hesser wouldn't even know what's happening in the capital, and it would be too late to respond when the time comes.

He patted Buston on the shoulder to comfort him, offering a few words of encouragement. He knew Buston was somewhat frustrated, but Buston had done a decent job, considering it had only been a few months in Blanca Port, and Saint Hesser hadn't brought too many people with him.

Judging from the hidden situation in Blanca Port this time, the superficial intelligence didn't have too many problems, but looking at the deeper levels, things are not very optimistic. If Saint Hesser hadn't taken action against the Chief of the Police Department, there's a high probability he would have been completely controlled.

Don't underestimate anyone, even if it's just a small reptile, it can still bite you.

......

With the complete downfall of the Guy family, the situation in Blanca Port is slowly improving, deterring a significant number of people.

The construction of the new International Free Trade Port is about to begin. Saint Hesser owns one-third of the port's wharf shares, and the portside industrial zone can continue to expand in scale. The original 15 square kilometers were a bit small-minded, and this time the city hall has allocated another 20 square kilometers.

Saint Hesser plans to invest in building more factories here. Besides the main reason of the peso devaluation, the establishment of factories itself is also increasing Saint Hesser's and Argentina's national strength.

The profits from the Andean Condor Cigarette Factory are about to arrive, estimated at 18 million US dollars, significantly more than last year. The spending of this huge sum of money is a problem.

Besides some necessary expenditures for expanding reproduction, continuing to expand tobacco field planting and improving cigarette factory technology, 8 million will be allocated to Oran City and Morado Town for expanding mineral resources and some factory expansions in the potassium triangle area, and 8 million will be used to invest in Blanca Port, enough to build several large factories.

Oran City is starting to invest in some primary processing factories, especially the production of some chemical raw materials. The potassium triangle has no shortage of various salt mines, and these mining processing plants belong to Thunder Mining, providing raw materials for Maya Chemical and also generating a lot of profit.

Because Morado Town is located in the highlands, its population capacity is actually limited. After developing for almost two years, it only has over 10,000 people, most of whom are workers from several factories.

Besides various salt and mineral resources, the Andes Mountains also have many non-ferrous metal mineral resources that need to be explored, especially copper and manganese mines, which are very important for the subsequent expansion of special steel production. Furthermore, the demand for bullet exports is particularly high, and the construction of a copper smelting factory is also imminent; importing everything is still too expensive.

Eva Perón City (La Plata City),

Fernando López is an ordinary worker at the La Plata Steel Plant, 25 years old this year, living in the Ensenada district, in the outermost corner of the chessboard-like neighborhood, working as a stevedore at the Ensenada Port since the age of 16, with a very strong physique.

La Plata City's urban construction is quite interesting, with every street being straight and perpendicular.

In recent years, with the decline of Argentina's international trade imports and exports, La Plata City's main port, Ensenada Port, has lost many jobs. Fernando has become a self-employed worker, barely surviving on the relief funds from the National Charitable Foundation.

He also has 5 children to support at home. His wife, Ana López, does not work, focusing on taking care of the children, and also has to find some home-based handicrafts to do to subsidize the family, making life quite difficult.

The La Plata Steel Plant's unloading wharf is located far outside the city in a new port, which is a combined passenger and cargo port. It is now mainly used by the steel plant and the coal-fired power plant. There are huge storage warehouses operating here, with iron ore imported from Brazil piled up like mountains, placed directly in the open air.

In contrast, the storage of coal requires much higher standards. This coal is piled up in pre-built super-large coal storage warehouses, which are both environmentally friendly and can reduce the rate of coal oxidation, with better ventilation conditions.

Most of the originally planned 1.25 square kilometers of the new port has already been used up. Currently, preparations are being made to continue expanding eastward to build more coal and steel storage warehouses to meet demand. After all, prices are cheap now, and Prari International's transportation capacity has never been fully loaded.

Initially, Fernando had planned to try his luck at the new wharf. He only had physical strength, but the loading and unloading at this new port were all done with large port machinery, using giant construction machinery, unlike the original cargo wharf which still required a lot of manual labor.

It just so happened that the La Plata Steel Plant was recruiting workers, so he went to try it out. Unexpectedly, entering the factory required doing some math problems and simple practical operations. Fortunately, these were not difficult for him. He had only dropped out of school because his family was poor, but his mind was still good, but he never had any opportunities.

So, he became a member of the La Plata Steel Plant in a daze, and the salary he was given was almost twice as much as being a stevedore, and it included room and board!

He didn't go to the alleys to spend money with his workmates, nor did he buy new clothes, nor did he drink or gamble. He could save a lot of money in a month, and he watched the Balun Bank savings book issued by the factory with satisfaction. The numbers were increasing every month. The happiest thing every month was to take out his salary and do some bank wealth management. The work was quite hard, but it was also very happy.

When his beloved Ana and five children were eating well and living warmly, he felt that everything was worthwhile, and the treatment at the steel plant was already very good. He had one day off every week, and he cherished this job very much.

Fernando became a staunch supporter of the steel plant. He was meticulous in his work, memorized the safety regulations thoroughly, and quickly became a squad leader. His salary continued to increase, and he also did a lot of things. The team he led never had any production accidents and was often at the forefront in production rankings.

When Isai, the person in charge of the steel plant, under the request of Saint Hesser, internally hired some personnel to protect the factory, Fernando signed up immediately, participated in training, patrolled the factory area, protected the factory, and received extra subsidies.

The steel plant's factory area is very large. For the convenience of patrolling, the factory equipped the security personnel with the new A1953 motorcycles produced by Layton Motorcycle Factory. These security guards wear custom-made factory security department uniforms and are equipped with various weapons.

It looks very good. The factory with more than 10,000 people arranged 500 security personnel in three shifts, equipped with guns and ammunition, and there were also 1,500 reserve training personnel.

The smelting of the first batch of molten iron, a milestone event, was overshadowed by some scandalous news and the chaotic situation within the Church. In the eyes of other countries, this was a very significant event.

In the city of La Plata, with the increase in steel production at the steel plant, the number of workers employed rapidly increased. A series of factories surrounding the steel plant were also established, including rolling mills, rebar factories, stamping plants, hardware factories, and other small factories, all revolving around the steel plant's steel production. The original rolling mill could no longer meet the massive output of steel, especially with the third blast furnace under construction.

The La Plata Steel Plant is the first large-scale iron and steel complex built in Argentina after more than 100 years of its founding. The entire plant area has reached 17 square kilometers, a super-large plant area, not including the nearly 2 square kilometers of the new port area's docks and warehouses.

This kind of good thing, establishing a large-scale coal and steel complex from scratch, also includes many advanced technologies, which is rare in history. Argentina has therefore mastered a complete set of coal and steel combined smelting technology, solving a major problem. The next step is to rely on itself.

Since San Jose built this giant steel plant, Argentina's small and medium-sized steel plants have also rapidly gone into production. In just over two years, mainly relying on private investment, Argentina's steel production has rapidly increased from less than 400,000 tons to nearly 3 million tons. If the third blast furnace at the La Plata Steel Plant goes into production, then this number will approach 4.5 million tons, which can be considered globally瞩目.

San Jose picked up a great bargain, after all, with the current global economic development, the demand for steel is very large. The current profits of the steel plant are very considerable, and it can also be exported to Uruguay and Paraguay, such as construction steel, or turned into various industrial products, such as tractors, motorcycles, fishing boats, etc. In the future, it can also manufacture cars.

Some people also went bankrupt because of the steel plant. Several small steel plants in northern Buenos Aires were abandoned. Some were due to funding problems, and some were due to cooperation issues.

In the new year, San Jose plans to continue investing in expanding the steel industry, building more blast furnaces and converters. However, whether to locate them in the city of La Plata is a problem. The location of the new steel plant also needs to be considered, with Bahía Blanca and Rosario being possibilities. Transportation needs to be convenient, mainly because Argentina lacks coal and iron, just like the Japanese.

With affordable domestic steel, Argentina's economic decline was miraculously contained. However, most areas are still half-dead, with only a few cities continuing to develop.

With these basic steels, even if they weren't that good at first, with the establishment of the metal laboratory, it became logical to establish a special steel plant. Special steel is different from traditional steel. It is mainly composed of alloys and generally has good oxidation resistance, corrosion resistance, high-temperature resistance, and other characteristics. It can be used in extremely harsh environments and is mostly used in special industries.

Currently, Argentina's most advanced metal production process is actually in the hands of Rheinmetall Military Industries. The initial purpose was to save costs. When producing assault rifles in the early days, because these guns required alloy steel, which was more expensive than ordinary steel, the price was very high, and it was even impossible to buy it even with money. It was forbidden to export and could only be smuggled.

However, the profit from arms production is very high. Ordinary steel can be bought everywhere, and even Brazil has a lot of it. Scrap iron can also be used to make steel, but it needs to be constantly experimented with, just like cooking.

Therefore, San Jose invested a sum of money to set up a small metal laboratory for Rheinmetall Military Industries for the research of metal materials. Later, when cooperating with Austrian United Steel, he simply set up several small electric arc furnaces for Rheinmetall Artillery Factory for the secondary processing of ordinary steel to produce special alloy steel.

Thus, a strange combination was produced. Besides various military factories, Rheinmetall Military Industries also had a small special steel plant and a second-hand metal recycling plant. Of course, it is now going to be shut down. The La Plata Steel Plant can already produce enough ordinary steel.

The output of these small converters is not particularly large. At most, 100,000 tons of alloy steel can be smelted in a year, which is enough to meet the needs of Rheinmetall Military Industries for producing various armaments and experimenting with tank materials. After the seamless steel pipe technology was obtained, various specifications of gun barrels can now also be imitated and produced, but the quality does not seem as good as the original.

For example, the extremely common 304 stainless steel in later generations of New China is a very important special steel. The reason why San Jose is very familiar with this 304 stainless steel can be traced back to a mobile phone. This mobile phone used an austenitic 304 stainless steel frame,

which made him particularly curious, so he conducted a more in-depth research. He may have forgotten the details, but he still remembers most of the proportions, because this is really commonplace, the two numbers of 18% chromium and 8% nickel are still deeply imprinted in his memory.

It is not enough to only have Rheinmetall Military Industries' alloy plant. The next step is to establish a real special steel plant. In the future, the first product of the La Plata Special Steel Plant will be 304 stainless steel, and other metal material smelting plants will also need to be established.

San Jose's Rheinmetall Military Industries imports a large amount of Brazilian steel to produce submachine guns and assault rifles, and now it can also use its own alloy steel.

The next step is to develop Maya Chemical. It is difficult to localize this kind of heavy investment in basic industry. Originally, Germany was not very willing to export complete sets of technology to Argentina, but the commissioning of the La Plata Steel Plant changed the thinking of some German chemical companies. They secretly did business with Argentina, not giving the Americans too many excuses. The Germans themselves are also more profit-oriented in doing business.

The most important factory of Maya Chemical Company is the Maya Fertilizer Plant in San Martin City, with an investment of nearly 10 million US dollars. This investment can be said to be quite a loss, and it can also be said to be a profit. Before having its own technology, it is normal to be slaughtered.

The most important equipment of the Maya Fertilizer Plant is the three sets of German-imported synthetic ammonia equipment, which are currently the more advanced synthetic ammonia equipment in the world.

Fertilizer is a standard heavy industry product, and the complete three acids and two alkalis is also the goal pursued by Maya Chemical.

Prari International not only has cooperation in countries such as Spain and Germany, but has recently contacted a chemical company in the Netherlands. The Netherlands' urea production technology is very advanced, no less than Germany. The Germans originally wanted to make trouble, but also lowered the selling price, and are willing to provide more technology exports. A more advanced synthetic ammonia plant can also be built, and the price is cheaper than the original San Martin Fertilizer Plant.

The production line of concentrated sulfuric acid and the production line of ammonia are actually not too difficult. However, the key components are all consumables. There are not many countries in the world that can make high-airtight and high-temperature and high-pressure metal pipes. Only the United States, the Soviet Union, the Netherlands, and West Germany have mastered them. The special steel plant still has a long way to go.

With these basic heavy industries such as steel and chemical, it can also reduce the difficulty for the development of many industries in Argentina in the future. San Jose is having Southern Energy, which is composed of coal-fired power plants, apply for an oil license to extract oil in the south. Earning too much for the Americans is equivalent to helping the enemy. Unfortunately, the presidential palace is determined to open up the oil industry.

The Uruguayan iron ore, which is extremely important to the La Plata Steel Plant, has also begun construction. A large number of second-hand construction machinery purchased from Western Europe are constantly transported to Uruguay. Mine port construction, upgrading heavy-duty railways, and ore blasting are all steadily advancing. Removing the layer of soil on top of the ore allows for the initial collection of iron ore.