Rise of the Argentine Empire

On June 10th, Saint-Hesse inspected a batch of new equipment at the La Pampa Defense Forces, all purchased from Cohen Heavy Industries, including a batch of new assault rifles, pistols, rocket launchers, transport vehicles, tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, bazookas, winter cotton clothing, bulletproof vests, and other large quantities of new equipment.

New Cohen Heavy Industries has developed into a factory cluster, establishing a military industrial chain through the acquisition of factories.

Among them, the Grim Reaper man-portable rocket launcher impressed Saint-Hesse deeply. Its power and accuracy have surpassed the American 89mm M20 rocket launcher, weighing 7.28 kilograms, with a range of 130 meters, and a vertical armor penetration thickness of 280 millimeters, demonstrating amazing power. It accurately hit the target during live-fire exercises.

The M58 also has the strong support of Fiat Group's military factory, plus the addition of scientific research and design personnel from a newly established large-scale military research institute, which ultimately designed and manufactured this black-green steel monster. The K58 is an infantry fighting vehicle on the same platform, with the same chassis, designed along the way, which can also reduce research and development costs.

It has to be said that developing a main battle tank is not easy. More than 40 factories and research institutes are involved in supporting design and production, including Branca Steel and various parts factories, special ceramics factories, and other large numbers of factories cooperating.

Although the M58 is not as good as the world's top level, it is also very good, and New Cohen Heavy Industries is responsible for production and assembly.

There are also the Falcon helicopter F6 prototype and the Arrow 3 fighter jet test flight, which have also achieved good results. Saint-Hesse plans to establish a Tank Aircraft Design Institute separately, focusing on the research and development of aviation weapons. Argentina also needs an aircraft that can airdrop nuclear weapons. Research and development is nearing completion, and Saint-Hesse can't wait to see this big guy.

Having a bomb is important, but the tool to drop the bomb is also very important.

This is different from the original San Martin Aircraft Factory. This is a real large-scale investment, supporting industry-academia research, supplementing the lost combat design talents, directly establishing an aviation department at the National Southern University, recruiting outstanding scientific research and design personnel at home and abroad, and enrolling flight students at the La Pampa Military Academy.

The development of the Branca Shipyard is also very fast, and a 100,000-ton mega-ship is under design, which is a key project.

On June 18th, La Pampa Province, Little Uken Province, Patagonia Province, Argentine Southern Petroleum Company, Argentine National Petroleum Company, French National Petroleum Company, and Italian Eni Petroleum Company reached an agreement on developing oil and natural gas in the southern region of Argentina and building a $150 million oil and natural gas plant. High official Saint-Hesse attended the founding meeting.

The French National Petroleum Company is the famous Total Petroleum Company of later generations, one of the most powerful oil companies in the West. Eni Petroleum Company is the Italian National Petroleum Company, which has cooperated with Saint-Hesse's Southern Petroleum Company.

The Pampa Oil and Natural Gas Company will be established on the basis of the natural gas plant to develop the vast oil and natural gas resources in the south and develop the petrochemical industry.

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Recently, a batch of companies selling narcotic health products have appeared in the Bolivia region and the Amazon forest region, specializing in exporting to the United States. They have even used a new process to manufacture a high-purity "flour," with annual sales exceeding 5 tons.

One of the gangs is highly associated with the Potassium Triangle region and is called the "Doomsday Twilight" tobacco planting company, specializing in planting these plants, with amazing profits.

The main members of the Doomsday Twilight Company are very mixed. It is a powerful underground criminal gang. The manipulator behind it is a Brazilian, and the headquarters registration address is in Bogota, Colombia. The money laundering gang is in Uruguay, a very ordinary private bank. Data shows that at least $10 million has flowed into Argentina.

In just one year, the actual sales scale of this tobacco company has reached $16 million, and the profit is an amazing $12 million. The cost of these products is indeed not high, mainly purification and transportation, mainly targeting American customers, who are very rich.

This is a business with higher profits than arms, active in the Brazilian, Mexican, Colombian, and American markets. The German Bayer company is the pioneer in manufacturing this flour.

In a routine shootout, Doomsday Twilight disintegrated, forming three new companies: New Doomsday Twilight, Soul of Angels, and Free Twilight. Brazilians and Argentines withdrew from it, selling more than 20 tons of flour and production equipment, making a huge profit.

… …

In terms of import and export trade, the total import and export volume of La Pampa Province has continued to increase, and more than 10 large import and export companies have been developed, accelerating the development of La Pampa Province. Valentin Trading, Guerrero Trading, Martinez Trading, and Ireland Trading are among the best.

The most important is still Prall International. Prall International Trading Group has firmly ranked as the largest trading company in Argentina. Because the trading rights of the Argentine Official Import and Export Association have been greatly reduced, it has become the second largest import and export entity in Argentina, and Prall International has successfully taken the top spot.

It has established direct or indirect trade relations with thousands of customers in more than 30 countries and regions around the world. In 1957, the total import and export volume has reached 343 million US dollars, accounting for about 6% of Argentina's total import and export trade, and it is also the largest trading company in La Pampa Province.

There are also some family trading companies. They don't have many people, maybe just husband and wife, with a few children at most. They use the relationship of the previous generation with Europe to develop business. After reaching a certain scale, they develop business with other countries. They are actually doing quite well and have solved a lot of employment.

They have provided many sales channels for products manufactured in Argentina. Many factories in Argentina have no way to specifically recruit employees as salesmen. This requires maintaining an office, which is very uneconomical for factory owners who are careful and save costs.

The economy in Western Europe is developing rapidly, and national income has greatly increased, increasing consumption capacity and requiring many new things. Some products produced by Argentine factories are still very marketable and competitive.

Especially after Saint-Hesse continuously invested and established a certain scale of heavy chemical industry, the prices of many industrial raw materials have fallen relatively sharply. Among them, steel, electricity, metal products, wood, and chemical raw materials have all experienced large declines, attracting some family factories from other provinces to set up new factories in Blanca City.

After all, the transportation in Blanca Bay is also very convenient.

In Argentina, many family businesses have a lot of potential and talent to carry out import and export business, but repeated economic and political crises have hindered this possibility.

Saint-Hesse strongly supports such family businesses in Blanca City. Family businesses are an important force in the economic development of Blanca City. Unlike large companies, family businesses are small in scale, but they can also create a lot of economic value. For example, the large-scale building materials companies and clothing companies in Blanca are basically 80% family businesses, as well as 60% of auto parts companies, 70% of trading companies, and 95% of small restaurants and small shops.

Although family businesses have various drawbacks, Saint-Hesse never cares about these, because he has too few cards in his hand. Rather than waiting for formal modern enterprise groups, it is better to let these small family businesses grow wildly.

Many small family businesses don't even hire workers. If they feel they lack workers, they will have more children. This coincides with Saint-Hesse's thinking. Small family businesses have become an important force in La Pampa's fertility, and the scene of many bosses' wives doing clothes with big bellies is quite popular.

Family workshops and outsourced family workshops also create a lot of economic value. For most Blanca City women, this can bring a lot of economic income, and there are also birth subsidies from the city hall and provincial hall.

There are also some women who work full-time or part-time in the flesh trade, but not many. Saint-Hesse deeply hates this industry, and even the police department severely cracks down on it. This industry has had some impact on population growth, and some gang groups have therefore been destroyed.

Saint-Hesse is not unwilling to support women's employment and part-time work, but a country must be strong, and a sufficient population is essential. While Argentina's thinking has not undergone a large-scale transformation, having one more child is one more.

Once urbanization fully arrives, even if you want to have children, you won't have the chance. Some of Saint-Hesse's ideas, influenced by the Radical Party, have affected the southern provinces. Economic development is aided by La Pampa, but the population is also being heavily drawn into La Pampa Province. Besides attracting foreign immigrants, they have had to start encouraging births, which has greatly increased the birth rate in the southern provinces, even affecting La Pampa Province.

In recent years, Saint-Hesse has insisted on buying articles from some population experts to publish books, advocating the crisis of population decline.

Under the temptation of money, or rather, under the pressure of survival, many Argentine scholars have researched many things, forming widespread social opinions. Many cities with small populations, including free cities, have also begun to encourage births.

La Pampa Province's employment rate has also remained stable. Anyway, just developing world trade is enough to support a big city. The coastal cities of Otto, Bucato, and Puerto Colorado have also found ways for sustainable development. Job opportunities have increased more than twentyfold, attracting a large increase in population.

The populations of the three cities have reached 270,000, 240,000, and 180,000 respectively. Blanca City has transferred some industries to them, such as paper mills and dyeing factories with relatively high pollution. Major banks have also provided a large amount of financial assistance and loans to the three coastal cities.

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While Saint-Hesse was tirelessly developing La Pampa Province through agriculture, the French finally felt a sense of pride.

Modern France's ability to maintain its position as one of the world's five major powers amidst fierce competition is inseparable from one person: Charles de Gaulle.

From Free France to Fighting France, from the French Fourth Republic to the French Fifth Republic, De Gaulle is reshaping the entire France.

Saint-Hesse has actually been trying to establish various relationships with Europe, but as of now, besides Italy, there hasn't been much breakthrough. The UK has already started to act in concert with the Americans, not to mention other grudges. Spain is senile and decrepit, the Federal Republic of Germany, as a defeated country, does not have a high status, and other small countries are even less worth mentioning.

And the most likely major European country to achieve a breakthrough in relations with Argentina, besides Italy, is the French Fifth Republic under the leadership of De Gaulle.

The cooperation between La Pampa Oil and Gas Company and France's Dassault Group is for this purpose.

Saint-Hesse's connection with France can be traced back to the French-Vietnamese War, where he made a real war fortune. France, fighting a war thousands of miles away, needed countless war materials. When the cannons fire, gold flows in abundance.

Initially, Prari International established a large number of material transit centers in Saigon and Medan, and earned a sum of money by purchasing a large number of tramp freighters to transport weapons, ammunition, and military supplies for the French army, and still owns a large number of warehouses in the Nanyang region.

Selling weapons to the resistance forces in Indonesia, the Irrawaddy River region, and Malaya is just not successful.

Perhaps this is the reason why they cannot establish a strong regime. Even Singapore, a small but strong country in Southeast Asia in the future, is not very mainstream and was kicked out of the Federation of Malaya.

Truth is only within the range of artillery. Without a strong army, without blood and fire, it is impossible to become a strong and independent country. The ultimate fate of most countries can only be described as mediocre, including Argentina today.

De Gaulle successfully won the French presidential election and is carrying out large-scale reforms in France, developing nuclear weapons, an independent French army, a defense system, advocating reconciliation with the Federal Republic of Germany, uniting the Benelux countries, and building a Europe for Europeans. The Gallic Rooster is undergoing transformation.

Shortly after becoming president, De Gaulle went to Algeria to inspect and appease the people, attempting to keep Algeria. If Algeria were still in French hands, France's strength would be even greater. Algeria has always been regarded as French territory and is rich in resources, and would also become a nail France hammered into Africa, which is extremely important for France.

However, it is now a bit too late. The failure in the war has left France unable to suppress the Algerian national resistance movement. The main thing is that there are also three forces that have had a significant impact on Algeria: the first is the Americans, the number one player in dismantling the French colonial system; the second is the Soviets; and the third is the bearded men of North Africa and the Middle East, such as Egypt under the leadership of Nasser.

Nasser is a hero to the Egyptians. He centralized power in Egypt, promoted centralism, increased the power of the president, carried out the nationalization of enterprises, implemented land reforms, and also built large-scale public projects, such as the Aswan Dam.

Now some people in France are also starting to oppose the war. The disastrous defeat on the Vietnamese battlefield has made the French start to doubt themselves. The people are starting to wonder whether it is right to send their sons to the battlefield. France has never lacked fighters, but whether it is necessary.

After all, this is a mess left by his predecessor, and De Gaulle cannot be unaware of it. Despite this, he is still working hard to maintain French rule in Algeria.

If France hadn't been thinking about maintaining Vietnam in the first place, Algeria might still have a great chance of staying with France, increasing the strength of modern France by another 30% or even more wouldn't be a problem. That way, France would be a great power with a population of over 100 million and a land area of 3 million square kilometers, second only to the United States and the Soviet Union in strength, and history would be rewritten.

Superpowers need to control vast land or sea areas. Vast territories allow a country to achieve self-sufficiency through mining and growing food, which is a very important factor. In fact, France also satisfies the needs of food and mining, and is even an important food exporter in the world, but its territory is still too small.

And a country with vast strategic depth allows its army to retreat and reorganize calmly in a ground nuclear war or a land war in the traditional sense, so as to counterattack. At the same time, vast territories allow a country to conveniently deploy long-range radars and missile silos. A country with a small territory and lack of strategic depth is very fragile militarily, even if it is rich.

Moreover, French is spoken by most people in Algeria, and integration into the mainland is not difficult. Population is an important component of a great power. A great power should have a large number of educated citizens, highly developed infrastructure, and a high degree of cultural and economic capacity to bring nearby areas under its direct control.

But how could the arrogant French tolerate these things? Even De Gaulle can't. It can only be said that times have changed. Although France can maintain its position as a first-class power, it has no chance of becoming a superpower. But this itself is unrealistic. Even with Algeria, it can only be said that there is a little hope. After all, the Soviet Union at its peak had a population of over 200 million and was a true beacon of human civilization.

The characteristic of a superpower is that its economic and military power far exceeds that of any other country, and with its strong military and economic strength, it has the ability to directly or indirectly interfere in the politics or economy of other countries or even use force to maximize its interests and seek world hegemony.

In modern times, only three countries have aspired to become superpowers: the United States and the Soviet Union, and the British Empire can barely be counted. However, after the independence of India, Canada, and Australia, the United Kingdom has gradually lost its global influence.

The United Kingdom gradually lost its superpower status starting in the 1950s. The United Kingdom is now unable to compete with the Soviet Union and the United States politically, militarily, and economically to maintain an equal position.

After the two world wars, the strength of the United Kingdom was severely weakened and it was unable to maintain its vast colonial empire system. The British Empire gradually disintegrated from then on. What the former 'Empire on which the sun never sets' could control was limited to the British Isles and some overseas territories, and it was unable to challenge the United States and the Soviet Union that rose after World War II, so it was naturally excluded from the ranks of superpowers.

Therefore, Brazil, India, Russia, and the European Union, which can only unite, in later generations all have the potential to become superpowers, but the gap between potential and becoming is still 100 Argentinas. This is an insurmountable gap. The greatest possibility of becoming a new superpower lies in New China.

The Soviet Union and the United States began the Cold War in 1947. Their strength was more reflected in their military power, the most important of which were nuclear weapons, such as the future Tsar Bomba.

In fact, the Soviet Union has always been at a disadvantage in its competition with the United States, mainly because its economic weakness is relatively large, the imbalance between light and heavy industries, with heavy chemical industry as the main focus, ignoring the development of light industry and the tertiary industry.

Moreover, the domestic and foreign markets are too small, especially after the split with New China, it became even more obvious. Tito's Yugoslavia, the second most powerful in the bloc, also broke up, leaving only East Germany. The remaining younger brothers could not be supported, and North Korea, Vietnam, and Cuba were mainly blood transfusions.

Despite this, the Soviet Union is still a beacon of human civilization in terms of system, possessing a strong political system, having the right to vote on major world affairs, and being able to mobilize a lot of resources to achieve global goals. The United States barely countered the Soviet Union ideologically because of its wealth and the most powerful and perfect capitalist system.

In addition to these, there is the military. Now the United Kingdom and France are also making various efforts, including developing nuclear weapons, to ensure their independent great power status and to be able to play a global role on the international stage.

France is such a role. Even if it cannot resist the United States and the Soviet Union, it will never allow itself to be a second-rate country, which would be a disaster for the French nation.

De Gaulle took the revitalization of France as his responsibility and sought to establish more relationships. He also had a strong interest in recognizing New China, but before the detonation of nuclear weapons, he chose to remain patient.

However, even with De Gaulle's ability, it was not enough to prevent Algeria's independence, because the timing, location, and popular support were not on the French side.