Rise of the Argentine Empire

It wasn't just the divisions within Argentina's various political alliances; the splits within the Argentine army were becoming increasingly apparent, with the military beginning to fracture into two main factions.

One faction advocated for the military to withdraw from politics and support a constitutional government, while the other still demanded that the military directly control the government, pushing for a movement where soldiers acted as protectors of the nation.

This gave San Jose a chance to breathe and develop. Within the national defense forces, there were many who supported La Pampa's military reforms and expansion.

San Jose could also be considered a product of the Cordoba military, just an unorthodox officer. This mark couldn't be changed, and it was the reason he could attract a large number of military talents.

Now, many people saw the La Pampa Defense Force as an extension of the Cordoba Defense Force in the southern provinces, and indeed, many of the core members within the La Pampa Defense Force came from Cordoba.

This earned San Jose considerable goodwill within the national defense forces, rather than the naive attempts at ingratiation he had made previously.

In truth, San Jose had also come to a realization: without strength, everything was in vain. Even the most powerful economic strength couldn't override the state machinery.

Moreover, it was impossible for Argentina to see economic oligarchs like the Rockefellers or Morgans of the United States controlling the state machinery. Besides, with the development of the national economy, it was bound to become decentralized. Only small countries and backward feudal societies could see families controlling the state machinery.

Unless Argentina was content with such a state of development, merely lying flat wouldn't be enough; it would probably have to be divided into several pieces.

San Jose used to have General Jose and General Thompson in the national defense forces, but now their relationship had become much more distant.

This situation was particularly serious in the Buenos Aires capital garrison, who were naval and air force factions. The army actually had a good impression of San Jose, and they weren't concerned about the defense force's strength.

Besides the military, his political enemies began to look for his problems with a magnifying glass.

San Jose Cohen's background was thoroughly investigated, and his Gaucho identity became a point of attack. Many people tried to dig up dirt on him, but it was basically all trivial matters.

Mistresses, etc., weren't a good place to start. After all, even former President Peron had been attacked for preying on young girls, but it was seen as a symbol of charm. Argentines worship the strong, and attraction to women, as long as it wasn't forced or illegal, should be respected.

San Jose never embezzled a single cent, and even spent his own money to subsidize the city hall.

He had no criminal record, not even a fight. He was completely a "good citizen" in the traditional sense, and it was completely legal to command the police department to quell riots to prevent more citizens from being harmed.

His university studies were also quite excellent, and his performance as a councilor in Blanca was also quite adequate. His resume could be described as perfect, quite courageous, quickly quelling the rebellion, reforming criminals, and various measures to develop the economy were very useful.

The only problem might be the age issue, but the La Pampa Province constitution didn't have this restriction or regulation because the La Pampa Province constitution wasn't perfect.

This allowed many people who despised and looked down on him to only engage in verbal attacks, but they couldn't easily strike.

San Jose never shied away from his Gaucho identity. Such an identity was actually very popular in La Pampa Province.

La Pampa Province, which is the southern part of the Pampas and Patagonia, used to be the territory of Argentina's minority indigenous peoples.

This meant that there were a significant number of Indian mestizos and Gauchos in La Pampa Province, almost half of the La Pampa Province natives had Indian ancestry, although most of it existed through maternal bloodlines. Most of the male Indian tribes were wiped out by General Roca and the national army at the time.

These Indian tribes used to have a name called the Ranqueles. Their leaders, Leancura and Mangin, used to be very famous. His tribe once attracted a large number of fleeing Gauchos, making them Argentina's most troublesome domestic problem at the time.

The war made La Pampa Province and Rio Negro Province sparsely populated at the time (they were already sparsely populated). La Pampa administrative region wasn't allowed to build an independent defense force. La Pampa Province only slowly relaxed this ban last year.

San Jose seized the opportunity to merge and divide Buenos Aires Province, which was equivalent to "revenge," and also established and formed the La Pampa Defense Force, which was also seen as a role in the revival and strengthening of La Pampa Province.

And dispersing and introducing talents, expanding the market, increasing immigration, expanding the population, and developing the economy didn't show any tendency to split Argentina, and was also valued by some civil servants.

San Jose was regarded as a hero of Blanca City.

Most people could benefit from the development of Blanca City, and the influx of population didn't affect the good development of the original locals, as long as you didn't court death.

President Aramburu himself didn't want to continue being president, and was more inclined to "return power to the civilians."

… …

San Jose was now not only wooing military officers in large numbers, but also attracting elites who were dissatisfied with Buenos Aires. The three southern provinces worked together with one heart, and with Blanca City as a production base, they could very well stabilize prices.

Inflation had also been greatly reduced, restoring Argentina's credibility in the international community and improving the economic situation of the southern provinces.

Blanca City had become a new window for developing foreign exchanges.

Blanca City had received more foreign investment than Buenos Aires for four consecutive months this year, becoming a new darling of international hot money in Argentina.

Blanca City wasn't far from the Argentine market, and it was also convenient for transportation to several nearby countries. San Jose had raised a lot of funds for the public works construction of Blanca City.

A batch of skyscrapers over 50 stories high had begun to be built in the eastern and western main urban areas to welcome international financial investment.

San Jose also proposed to build a stock exchange in Blanca City to further compete for domestic funds, and at the same time accelerate Argentina's financial modernization reform.

"Everyone knows that Argentina's original stock exchange can no longer meet the needs of the stock market's prosperity and development."

"Our neighbor Brazil has two major stock exchanges, while we Argentina only has one, and the system is very backward, unable to meet the needs, and has become an obstacle to our financial modernization."

"I hope that the parliament will allow me to propose that we establish an Argentine Stock Exchange in Blanca City to revitalize the Blanca City financial market faster."

"We all know that the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange was founded in 1854. It used to be able to represent the aspects of the Argentine economy and could compete with the New York Stock Exchange, the American Stock Exchange, and the Sao Paulo Stock Exchange, but now it has fallen far behind. Many excellent Argentine companies aren't willing to list on the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange and lack trading channels."

After obtaining the consent of the City Hall and the Council, Saint Hesser formally submitted documents to the La Pampa Provincial Assembly to establish the Argentine National Stock Exchange, focusing on the listing and financing of small and medium-sized companies, targeting small and medium-sized enterprises.

Alternative names include the Blanca Stock Exchange, the Argentine Southern Exchange, and the Pampas Stock Exchange, with the aim of revitalizing the Argentine financial market and alleviating the thirst for funds from booming companies.

Saint Hesser does not have a single listed company in Argentina, but he has at least 10 companies that meet the listing standards.

Apart from the fact that the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange is indeed terrible, he also doesn't want to expose his financial strength too much, or rather, lose control.

After several reforms, the Cohen Consortium has become a very complex financial system.

Centered on Barron Bank, with Barron Insurance, Barron Securities, and Plari International, these financial securities platforms complete the absolute control over its subsidiaries.

The financial strength that is now exposed is still only the tip of the iceberg, but it is already very amazing. Just like La Plata Steel Plant, Plari Food, Miranda United Beverage, and Maya Chemical, these are basically at the level of number one in Argentina.

The Rhein Military Industry before its disintegration was also the number one private military company. Now, the new Cohen Heavy Industry has transformed into a comprehensive military-industrial machinery industry group.

For many companies such as Thunder Mining and Leidun Motors, Saint Hesser did not directly appear in the list of shareholders, but instead entrusted his subordinates to hold them on his behalf.

In addition, there are a large number of overseas assets, the acquisition and holding of some potential companies such as Sequoia Capital in the United States, brokerage firms in Brazil, Honda in Japan, Tokyo Electronics, and Audi in Germany, all of which are very concealed.

After the Falcon Bureau completely went underground, many non-core members and supporting companies were split up, and these parts alone could form a large trading company.

Saint Hesser also began to streamline and merge some companies and factories, and abandon some unnecessary trading companies, in order to prevent too much energy from being involved, and at the same time, he could also release some of his development experience and models.

Many companies and factories in Argentina are too primitive. Although trade protectionism can well protect local factories, they lack international competitiveness.

This is very fatal. Many Argentine companies are vulnerable. Since Argentina's opening up last year, nearly 20 medium and large companies have been acquired by American companies and become subsidiaries.

In automobiles, tractors, grain and oil production, agricultural trade, food processing, and textile and apparel, foreign companies, especially American companies, have created great competitive pressure on Saint Hesser.

Many companies and factories in Blanca City already have a very large competitive advantage, which is very remarkable in Argentina.

… …

Some world-leading factories have begun to appear in Blanca City, such as electric lamp factories and fan factories. These are slightly more technologically advanced, but they are not high-tech local factories.

Most of these factories are invested by the Blanca City State-owned Assets Committee, introducing foreign technology, building factories, and at the same time attracting local investment to produce parts and supplies.

For the core components of electrical appliances, such as the motor of a fan, the method of imitation is adopted. Pachon Copper, which is controlled by Thunder Mining, has established wire factories and motor factories for these core components in Blanca City.

For other things like fan iron sheets and shells, you only need to knock and beat them, and you can make them with a small mechanical factory.

Sean Glass Factory, headquartered in Blanca City, has developed into a large glass company. It has established 3 large glass factories in Blanca City, and also accepts glass bulb orders. It can be said to be quite extensive. It can not only produce automobile glass and food glass, but also electrical glass and building glass.

Saint Hesser, with his bulging wallet, set the scale of the new plant of the Blanca Steel Plant at 6 million tons, directly on par with the La Plata Steel Plant.

The newly built blast furnaces are larger in scale, more technologically advanced, and more energy-efficient. Not only do they use Austrian and Belgian steel blast furnace construction technology, but under Seine's leadership, they also introduced the most advanced American steel company production technology, directly leaping into the world-class level.

In the future, there will be 3 super-large blast furnaces here, each with a designed volume of 2,500 cubic meters, with an annual output of 2 million tons of molten iron. The planned construction time is 2 and a half to 3 years, and the estimated investment is more than 80 million US dollars.

Blast furnace No. 1 is already under construction, and No. 2 and No. 3 are also preparing to build the foundation.

The 3 large blast furnaces are located on the easternmost side of the Alta district, which can also reduce environmental pollution to the city center. A large industrial import and export port with an annual throughput of more than 20 million tons will also be built here.

Hans Steel Plant will also continue to expand its ironmaking capacity, and will use 1,000 cubic meter and 1,580 cubic meter blast furnaces with cheaper prices and mature technology to quickly expand its ironmaking capacity. The construction time can also be faster.

… …

"Business is business, and feelings are feelings. You are all very excellent, but market competition is actually very cruel. I wish you success."

Impacted by internationalization and the myth of overnight wealth, many excellent civil servants in the Blanca City Hall resigned to Saint Hesser, and many civil servants in the Blanca City State-owned Assets Committee left in batches.

Another very important reason is that many international companies are poaching people. A capable City Hall official can be a very good lobbyist.

But only God knows how long this lobbyist can be used.

Some also have the reason for the internal City Hall to attack competitors.

Saint Hesser didn't retain them too much, and it was time to replace a batch of fresh blood.

Market competition is very cruel. Some are because of making a game, and some are unable to recognize whether the platform is powerful or the individual ability is powerful. If it is the former, the probability of tragedy is high.

It is too common to turn your face and deny people after leaving the platform. Now Blanca City has become an immigrant city, and many things are completely different.

Saint Hesser has seen some of the methods used in later generations.

For example, a position needs to be moved.

And the civil servants of the City Hall cannot be dismissed at will.

Then, you can unite a private company and poach you at a high price. If you really resign from public office, you can just find an excuse to kick you away, or go back on your word.

The money of the boss of a private company is not easy to earn.

Some people are made a game, and then they find that it is not so good, and they want to go back but they can't.

"Mayor Cohen, you are a good boss."

Many subordinates said this to Saint Hesser when they left, and Saint Hesser sneered at it.

A good boss can't be eaten as food.

Saint Hesser directly organized a civil servant examination to fill the positions in the City Hall.

A large number of new people flowed into the Blanca City Hall.

As for these civil servants with one or two years of experience, they may soon run into walls everywhere in the society.

Many of these people are old people that Saint Hesser wanted to replace, but it was not easy to move them before.

This time, he can just set up a game and get rid of them, and he only needs to spend some insignificant money.

However, there are still several very capable talents, which is indeed a pity.

Saint Hesser also has the idea that the sky is going to rain, and maybe it can bring new changes to the competition in Blanca City.

After all, the current entrepreneurial environment in Blanca City is indeed quite friendly.