Rise of the Argentine Empire

After a high-profile inspection of the Freeport Industrial Zone, Saint Hesser returned to the Provincial Government to preside over his duties.

He also gained a lot from this inspection, reaching secret cooperation agreements with several influential local councilors for the purpose of mutual benefit and economic partnership.

At the same time, he also had in-depth communication with the uncompromising Radical Party headquarters, gaining the support of some Radical Party elders.

A portion of the Falcon Intelligence Group, Saint Hesser's most important intelligence department, formed a stronger and more covert organization called the "Osprey Squadron." Besides protecting the personal safety of Saint Hesser himself, his family, and important members of the Cohen Consortium, they also gathered more information, both favorable and unfavorable, for Saint Hesser.

The Osprey Squadron also shouldered more important responsibilities, moving around Argentina and abroad, with their presence felt in many organizations.

The military also sent personnel to consult with Saint Hesser. Saint Hesser's influence in the Navy was growing, although it couldn't compare to the Army system, there was still considerable room for maneuver.

Argentina now possessed the largest navy in South America. Although most of the ships were old, outdated vessels淘汰老破艦艇 discarded by the United States, their paper strength still looked formidable.

Therefore, Saint Hesser's acquisition of the Argentine Navy's support gave him a small voice in the military.

But what impressed Saint Hesser most this time was the rising prominence of Blanca City's "Big Five High Schools."

The La Pampa Province's education reform was still ongoing. The compilation and proofreading of primary and secondary school textbooks had yielded preliminary results, but ultimately, talent cultivation depended on the schools, and the Big Five High Schools were the best among them.

They were the San Martin Memorial High School in the East District, the private Cohen High School in the West District, the Alta High School in the Alta District, the Blanca International High School in the Achiriqi District, and the long-established Blanca First High School in the East District.

Except for the private Cohen High School, the other four were public high schools.

This was the essence of Saint Hesser's elementary education system reform.

Behind every "Super High School" was a massive investment of funds, the best teachers, the most advanced teaching facilities, and advanced management experience.

For example, the initial private Cohen High School recruited outstanding primary school graduates with excellent academic performance and first-class qualities from all over La Pampa Province and even Argentina, to make them the elite for Argentina's future development. The ultimate goal was to drive the entire nation forward.

Later, the elite high school concept was criticized by Saint Hesser, who proposed reforms.

The private Cohen High School gradually developed into a boarding military high school, drawing heavily on various management and development experiences from later generations. It expanded from elite students to ordinary high-quality students, and the scale became larger and larger. Basically, the number of students in each grade exceeded 2,000.

The largest public school, Blanca First High School, even had more than 4,000 students per grade, which could greatly meet the needs of talent cultivation. In fact, Blanca High School.

Blanca First High School was established in 1954 by Saint Hesser as a brand-new high school. It adopted a six-year junior and senior high school system. The school covered an area of over 200 acres and recruited a large number of students from the entire La Pampa Province, using class-based teaching.

Ordinary students adopted cramming-style teaching and a sea of questions strategy, which could quickly and massively cultivate engineering talents for reserve. Was cramming-style education useful? Yes, it was. Was the sea of questions strategy useful? Yes, it was. Ordinary students didn't need too much happy education, but rather to learn more knowledge and then get into a good university.

Their interests, hobbies, and even future career plans could be developed in university. This was an important channel for ordinary students to change their fate.

Elite students and genius students adopted a university-style cultivation model, sending top talents to the four strongest universities in Pampa: National Southern University, Blanca University, La Pampa University of Technology, and La Pampa University of Science and Technology.

This could also continuously improve the university system in Blanca City. Ordinary students became the foundation for maintaining the necessary operation of the university, and elite top talents were the boosters for the university's leap forward. Moreover, there were also a large number of talents among ordinary students, who were only lagging behind due to certain reasons.

The Big Five High Schools, through entrance screening, militarized management, and block modular management, could quickly turn ordinary students into ordinary university students, and elite students could develop into excellent quasi-research science and technology personnel, enabling talent to develop explosively.

Moreover, the Big Five High Schools also recruited a large number of new immigrant students without discrimination, which greatly reduced the conflicts between immigrants in Blanca City and opened up upward channels.

The systematized cultivation of talent also gave Blanca City a strong talent backing for development. Some genius elite students could even have huge decision-making authority and easily enter major laboratories and research institutes.

San Martin Automobile planned to directly promote Kelsey to the deputy director of the San Martin Automobile Engine Research Institute after graduation. The same was true for Du Yier. Both of them were received and affirmed by Saint Hesser.

San Martin Automobile was the first automobile manufacturer in Argentina to adopt technology introduction, digestion, and then localization. It started from purchasing and disassembling best-selling brand models from major automobile factories in Germany, Britain, Italy, Czechoslovakia, Spain, and the United States, and implemented a imitation strategy. Now it has independent research and development, and the speed is very fast. This is also related to the development of the San Martin Aircraft Factory era, which introduced a considerable number of talents.

After San Martin Automobile became independent, it received 10 million US dollars in technical research and development support from the Cohen Consortium, 40 million US dollars in low-interest loan support from the three major commercial banks, and 5 million US dollars in rewards from the La Pampa Provincial Technology and Industry Committee. With financial support, San Martin Automobile took a full-stack independent research and development route, reverse engineering, and systematic research and development of automobiles. The overall technical level also quickly approached Layton Automobile, creating great pressure on Layton Automobile.

Now, the prototype car of the new San Martin Automobile No. 1 has begun to prepare for mass production. Saint Hesser praised it after driving it, and directly allocated more professional talents to San Martin Automobile to build, debug, and optimize the production line, and prepared to launch a brand new automobile brand.

The surprises that San Martin Automobile brought to Saint Hesser were far more than that. Other aspects, such as the integration of complete sets of automobile accessories and independent research and development, were also very different from other Argentine automobile factories. Many other Argentine automobile factories were more like assembly plants.

Therefore, Saint Hesser was very optimistic about the potential of San Martin Automobile Factory. He invested so many resources in Layton Automobile, but he didn't see any results, while San Martin Automobile was so outstanding, making him more confident in the development of the Argentine automobile industry.

Argentina itself does not have much automobile culture or automobile genes, and the domestic market is also quite small, so the development of the automobile industry is full of difficulties. However, Saint Hesser is still full of hope for the development of the Argentine automobile industry.

Looking at the history of automobile industry development, the three super powers of the automobile industry in later generations have become more and more powerful. Other countries such as Italy, France, and Britain have about half the strength of Germany, Japan, and the United States. Saint Hesser once lived in the New China era and witnessed the process of New China's independent automobile industry from small to large, killing everything in its path. He was not very afraid of the automobile industry giants, but he also knew the potential and upper limit of the Argentine automobile industry, at most comparable to Italy and France.

Karl Benz invented the automobile, and the German trio of Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Volkswagen are famous all over the world. Henry Ford's assembly line led the first automobile industry revolution, laying the foundation for the United States as a superpower. The American Big Three, Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler, Kiichiro Toyoda and Taiichi Ohno proposed lean production, and the Japanese trio, Toyota, Honda, and Nissan, competed globally.

But Argentina cannot abandon its automotive industry simply because its opponents are strong. Moreover, with Argentina's population growth, the country's population is now vaguely approaching 27 million, a full 6 million more than in the original timeline, a large portion of whom have come to La Pampa Province.

Therefore, Argentina is not without the possibility of exploring greater opportunities in the future, and La Pampa Province has a very good chance of pushing its overall managed population to 5 million. Many unemployed people from the southern part of Buenos Aires Province are flocking to La Pampa Province in search of opportunities.

At the same time, this also makes San José feel that, as expected, with a sufficient population, Argentina is not lacking in talent; it simply lacks channels for discovery. It's like Messi in later generations, who didn't have the opportunity to stand out in Argentina, grew up in European clubs, but never forgot that he was an Argentine. This is what makes Messi so rare in later generations.

In addition, La Pampa University of Technology has established cooperation with numerous companies such as San Hai Shipbuilding, Blanca Military Shipyard, and New Cohen Heavy Industries in professional fields such as military weapons research and ship design technology. Its development even has a tendency to surpass Blanca University, which can be said to be quite excellent.

As Argentina's second-largest military weapons development company, New Cohen Heavy Industries has also completed its talent reserve and accumulation in recent years. From light weapons such as pistols and assault rifles to various heavy weapons such as artillery, machine guns, and rocket launchers, they have made breakthroughs and are even planning to redevelop a new generation of tank infantry fighting vehicle platforms, fulfilling San José's unfinished dream.

During the inspection of Blanca Middle School, some students also left a deep impression on him.

"Although my country is poor and backward, she is always my great motherland, and I am willing to change her…"

This is what San José saw in an essay by a young junior high school student named Tomás Holman. His mother died from illness, his father was hacked to death by a gang, and he was surviving in Blanca City with his younger brother and sister. He scored 17th in the entrance exam, which exempted him from all tuition, room, and board fees, and he was given a separate dormitory where he could live with his younger brother and sister.

Although this article seems naive and is just an ordinary article for the Argentine Spanish literature course, it still shows the importance of patriotic education in middle schools. Moreover, Blanca Middle School has indeed helped many poor students, allowing them to continue their studies, which is also one of San José's original intentions.

Although most Argentine schools can provide teaching, many do not have canteens and dormitories. Tuition, meals, and accommodation are all obstacles, causing many Argentine children to drop out of school.

In Blanca City, whether it is universities, middle schools, or primary schools, schools in La Pampa Province not only build a large number of dormitories and canteens, providing them to students at low prices, but even those with excellent academic performance can receive living allowances. Although this has become a large financial burden, it has greatly allowed Blanca City to have a talent reserve.

This Soviet-style, or rather, New China-style education reform has stimulated the cohesion and patriotism of many New Blanca residents, creating a beneficial aspect for integrating into Blanca.

This is rare and even impossible to occur in Western countries.

San José is also very willing to invest resources in it. Just like New China, even if he doesn't plant an apple tree, he still wants to plant an apple seed for the future of Argentina.

Here, people of Indian, Chinese, and Middle Eastern descent can obtain good educational resources. In addition to the five major middle schools, there are also a dozen or so middle schools that are also like this.

This education system is far from perfect, but it has indeed changed Blanca City and La Pampa Province.

…

Starting from the second quarter, the economic development speed of La Pampa Province continued to accelerate, and the economic vitality also became higher and higher. The number of factories in the industrial zone continued to increase. Although the influx of population into Blanca City was somewhat restricted, it was unprecedentedly welcomed in the suburbs and the three coastal cities. The overall population of La Pampa Province is still increasing rapidly.

A large number of high-paying jobs, high-quality companies, quasi-top universities, and high-quality medical care are concentrated in the limited five or six districts of Blanca City. This is the essence of Blanca City, and its prosperity exceeds that of Buenos Aires. Some people even call Blanca City "Little New York of South America," but San José extremely dislikes this title. This title is just like New China's Little Mumbai or India's Little Shanghai, which is very vulgar.

The times have given many Argentines many opportunities. In Blanca City, it seems that you can make money doing anything, and gold is everywhere, so the population is still increasing, and the overall strength of La Pampa Province is still rising continuously.

In the southernmost part of the Médanos District, there is a town called Bártos, located on the edge of Blanca Bay, with a permanent population of less than 20,000, and there are no decent schools or industries. However, it has developed rapidly in the past two years. First, the Blanca Bay Coastal Expressway, and then the Buma Railway renovation project, made it a convenient transportation hub.

And it is far more convenient than many small towns, because it has deep water and wide harbors, which are very suitable for building deep-water wharves, and the distant islands also protect it.

The Médanos District quickly realized the value of Bártos, and the Médanos United Steel Plant quickly started the construction of the second port. Loading and unloading iron ore and coal here is even more convenient and safer than the first port.

This is just a small microcosm of the economic development along the coast of Blanca Bay. There are too many small towns like Bártos. An opportunity can quickly rise, connect to the city, and become an important part of Greater Blanca City.

The suburbs of Blanca do not have too many restrictions on the influx of population. The base itself is large enough, and the main restriction is in the city. Therefore, many people also stay in the suburbs of Blanca City, hoping to have the opportunity to enter the city of Blanca City.

The influx of population has brought many new development opportunities to the suburbs of Blanca City.

San José announced his future economic and industrial plan in the new five-year industrial plan, which is to double the total economic value within five years and for the population of La Pampa Province to reach 8 million, catching up with the total population of Buenos Aires Province. Most of the participants had calm faces, not surprised, and even quite excited.

In fact, for Argentina, a country with a weak industrial foundation and basically lacking everything, the development of La Pampa Province is itself a huge miracle.

Most of Argentina's industry still relies on importing parts and assembling them, which is a huge assembly factory.

A new economic development competition is about to begin, which is also an opportunity for most civil servants, an opportunity for talent to flow.

Every time some families and power groups are eliminated, new people will take their place.

From a business perspective, the Cohen Consortium has almost extended to every aspect of the lives of ordinary La Pampa residents, from real estate construction to automobiles, from banking and finance to food, from schools to hospitals. No La Pampa resident can be separated from the Cohen Consortium in terms of clothing, food, housing, and transportation.

Starting last year, the total output value of the Cohen Consortium exceeded 870 million US dollars, accounting for almost 5% of the entire Argentina. However, at the same time, San José is weakening the connections between the Cohen Consortium, but not to the point of letting the Cohen Consortium escape his control.

The Cohen Consortium may be too powerful. Layton Motors alone has an annual output value of 200 million US dollars, and other large companies such as Southern Petroleum and La Plata Steel have long exceeded 100 million US dollars in annual output value.

And companies like Barron Finance, Philip Industries, Maya Chemical, Southern Energy, Thunder Mining Company, Andes Tobacco Company, Blanca Steel Company, San Hai Shipbuilding Group, and Plarrie International are all super giants with an annual output value of 20 million to 100 million US dollars.

There are so many other Cohen-affiliated companies, large and small, that San José himself can't count them all, such as the Cohen Brothers Company in Rosario, a bunch of factories in San Martín City, a batch of factories in Buenos Aires and Córdoba City, some factories in Orán City, and Future Agriculture.

San José had to sell some of the Cohen Consortium's factories to prevent the Cohen Consortium from becoming too large. Some were simply acquired by the Blanca City State-owned Assets Committee to transfuse blood into Blanca City.

Some factories also went bankrupt due to poor management, especially some factories in San Martín City and Córdoba City. Most of the small construction companies were sold or merged, retaining only Cohen Construction. Even so, Cohen Construction is still a large first-class construction contractor ranked in the top five in Argentina.

Some uncompetitive companies under its umbrella were also shut down and transferred, merged into the Cohen Consortium, or directly nationalized.

The city of Blanca continued to focus on developing industries such as petrochemicals, shipbuilding, electronics, machinery, and automobiles, continuing to introduce the latest technologies from the United States and Europe, building super-large factories, and promoting industrialization.

State-owned factories in La Pampa Province and city-owned factories in Blanca would be the focus of development.

Blanca First Construction and Third Construction Company, along with Blanca City Investment Company, merged to form Blanca City Infrastructure Investment Company, becoming Argentina's largest infrastructure construction company with over 10,000 employees, which could accelerate the construction speed of various infrastructure and buildings in Blanca.

La Pampa Construction Investment Company began its off-site expansion, with the suburbs of the three coastal cities rapidly transforming into super construction sites. Various industrial parks and roads began to be built on a large scale. Loans obtained from banks quickly came into play, turning into reinforced concrete, transforming barren land into high-rise buildings and industrial parks.

The emergence of various engineering machinery allowed New Cohen Heavy Industries, Philip Engineering Machinery, and Leighton Industries, the three major engineering machinery companies, to develop rapidly, branching out from construction engineering equipment, excavators, cranes, mixers, forklifts, mining machinery, tractors, diesel engines, agricultural machinery, machine tools, and various other engineering machinery, carving out their own niche.

Synchronized with the increase in the number of factories was the rapid expansion of higher education and scientific research. With industrial competition, the living standards of most Blanca residents had begun to surpass those of Buenos Aires.

From the Blanca urban area on the north shore of Blanca Bay to the new urban area in the west of Blanca Bay, and then to the new county industrial zone and the city of Otto on the south shore, the infinite possibilities of economic rise could already be seen.

With the basic completion of the La Pampa Canal and the completion of the hydropower plant, the irrigation and urban industrial and agricultural water needs of La Pampa Province were basically alleviated, and the La Pampa Reservoir could solve a large part of the water demand.

The Colorado River to the south and the Salado River to the west had been connected, providing a large amount of water for Blanca. The Salado River had not been extensively developed originally, and the canals being developed were still being widened and deepened.

With the water supply problem solved, Blanca's economic development had fewer worries. There were still some rivers on the Pampas, and La Pampa Province and Buenos Aires Province had also begun to establish cooperation. Joik County was the first stop for cooperation, with the Joik River, which had a not-small runoff, planned to be dammed up to build some reservoirs.

Due to rainfall issues, agricultural production in southern Argentina was only possible in the southern Pampas and along a few rivers. With the completion of canal construction, various agricultural irrigation facilities were also successfully promoted, ushering in a new round of agricultural growth.

The competition among several tractor factories also improved pricing power, and the quality was no worse than imported ones, with prices 20-30% cheaper.

This was indeed incredible in the eyes of most Argentine politicians.

Regardless of economic development, or the construction speed of canals and factories, it was indeed very fast. Some factories and construction companies carried out three-shift operations to speed up progress. Coupled with the role of various engineering machinery, tractors, and trucks, a large canal of several hundred kilometers could be dug out in less than a few years.

The canal allowed Blanca to become a river-sea port city and also solved some of the water shortage problems.

......

Argentines inherited the laziness of Southern Europeans, valued social welfare, and were not diligent in their work, even less so than Mexicans, and only slightly better than Brazilians.

This was normal. Latin Americans, on the whole, were mostly not as diligent as East Asians, nor could they compare to Europeans. This was quite fatal for late-developing countries.

The welfare of the Peron era had accustomed many people in Buenos Aires to high welfare.

Blanca, however, was completely different. It expanded rapidly from a small town, taking a completely different path from an ordinary southern town to an industrialized megacity, and it was also somewhat different from San Martin in the center and Oran in the north.

There were more factories and more people here. In addition to the traditional Italian and Spanish descendants, the newly arrived Brazilians, Chinese, Indians, Chileans, Mexicans, Peruvians, and Central Americans did not completely aim to settle in Argentina as their main goal. Now, more than half of Blanca's population was a floating population, working in migratory patterns.

Blanca was so unique that it had become completely different from traditional Argentine cities. The hardworking people of Blanca gathered together to achieve an incredible Argentine economic miracle.

For most ordinary Argentines, it was already very good to receive their salary on time, then be able to get good pay, have a place to live, and be able to travel during holidays.

Blanca promoted the development of light and heavy industries throughout the city, promoted immigration, built transportation facilities, and introduced foreign capital, and had already taken the lead in Argentina.

After deep cooperation with Cordoba, complementary development was carried out in education, economy, industry, trade, and talent exchange, and the economic development of the two places was getting better and better, which aroused the dissatisfaction of Buenos Aires.

The Department of Medicine of the National University of Cordoba cooperated with the National University of the South to help establish a Department of Medicine and a hospital. Blanca had built more than a dozen hospitals in recent years, poaching doctors everywhere to meet the medical needs of the huge population.

After governance, Blanca's nightlife became prosperous again.

In addition to a large number of businesses and factories, various commercial associations and chambers of commerce also appeared in Blanca, developing together and exerting a great influence.

Several major gangs on White Light Street maintained a low profile during this riot and complied with the law, so they did not suffer too much loss.

The largest Night Queen Nightclub was promoted to the largest nightclub in Blanca, and the head of the gang, Hector Torres, also became a celebrity in Blanca, laundering his identity and going ashore.

For Saint-Jesse, as long as they didn't mess around, he wouldn't be too excessive. After all, the young people of Blanca also needed a place to release their stress.

The Ditella Commercial Company behind the Night Queen Nightclub operates five bars, six underground casinos, and also owns 3 luxury cruise ships and a real estate development company, which can be regarded as financially wealthy.

Hector did not fall like a meteor, but his business grew bigger and bigger. He had some influence in both the white and black worlds of Blanca, and he was low-key and not as arrogant as some new gangs.

Saint-Jesse used to spend a lot of money to develop the economy and industry, introduce a huge population, and create wealth. The entire city of Blanca was also extremely chaotic. Over the years, all kinds of great gods rose up one after another, and many also reshuffled and fell.

Blanca's underground order was also divided into urban and non-urban areas, from all kinds of street thugs to roadside gangland groups, and then to overt forces that had turned from black to white, which was very lively.

After taking office, the new Police Chief Diaz Wilson also exerted outstanding abilities, thoroughly organizing and mobilizing more than 10,000 Blanca police officers, and also formed 5,000 extra-staff police officers to strengthen the security of Blanca.

Moreover, the special police force was also used to organize a 500-person special force with powerful firepower, which could easily quell various chaos and crimes.

The Blanca Police Department also had its own intelligence department, which could quickly grasp various trends.

......

Recently, there were frequent quarrels in the Argentine Congress. People in the army accused people in the federal government and the presidential palace of being useless. The economy of Buenos Aires was developing slowly, or even regressing. The national economy had not improved much, and it was leaning towards the United States.

The civil officials accused the military heads of holding a large number of state-owned companies, the security situation in the capital was worrying, and the overall population loss was serious.

In general, the Argentine economy as a whole has continued to develop in recent years. What is more embarrassing is that the population explosion and economic growth are mainly concentrated in a limited number of provinces and cities, and the capital has basically not developed much, which will seriously affect the status of Buenos Aires.