Rise of the Argentine Empire

"Recently, with the support of our boss's various resources, we have achieved phased results. Coming here today is to better facilitate subsequent development," Guerrero began, then continued,

"We must share the boss's worries and not rely on him for everything. This isn't good for developing our own abilities. The boss trusts us so much, we must do even better."

"Captain, just tell us what to do, and we'll listen to you," Aragon immediately raised his hand and said.

"Okay, listen to me first. I propose the following development directions:

First, make the Silver River Valley even more solid and reliable."

"Second, recruit peripheral members."

"Third, continue to expand."

"Fourth, sell resources to make money."

"Fifth, recruit locals to farm and grow vegetables for self-sufficiency."

"Who agrees? Who opposes?" Guerrero looked around.

Aragon immediately raised his hand again.

"Captain, the first four are understandable, but this farming thing is a bit far-fetched, isn't it? Farming takes at least half a year," he said. After all, he was from the Gaucho people and knew how to farm; it was a traditional skill that couldn't be lost.

"Yeah, there's no future in farming in this godforsaken place. We might as well just get a few more salt lakes and buy grain from outside," another leader named Best also raised his hand.

"Your suggestions are all good, but we'll implement it according to my plan. I'll explain how to implement it later..."

Guerrero directly made the decision.

"......."

"Okay, just kidding. These are the five policy development guidelines I've arranged according to the boss's instructions."

"Oh, if it's what the boss said, then it makes a lot of sense."

"Then there's no problem. How should we farm? I actually really like farming."

"......"

The others at the conference table immediately changed their tune.

Guerrero was speechless for a moment, took a sip of mate tea, and then continued, "Alright, alright, let me first talk about the reasons for my five development directions. As everyone knows,

Building the valley requires money to buy resources, which involves the third point. The third point is simple: extract these mineral salts. After extracting them, we definitely have to sell them. Do you know what the boss buys these mineral salts for?" Guerrero paused dramatically.

"Captain, what are those salts used for?" Aragon asked again, raising his hand. 'Big brother, you're being too obvious,' Guerrero thought, speechless.

"That's right, that's a very good question. The boss uses them to supply fertilizer plants to produce fertilizer. Then, everyone, think about what fertilizer is for. It's for farming! So, the solution is simple: we have to send mineral salts to the boss, which definitely involves a problem:

How to sell them. These minerals are all produced into good fertilizers, so we have to showcase and promote them to the people who come here to buy fertilizer,

They definitely want to see if it's real or fake, and whether fruit trees and wheat fields can increase production after fertilization. And this place is different from the black soil of the Pampas; it's relatively barren. The local use of quebracho fertilizer has a general effect.

If we want to sell fertilizer and have long-term cooperation, we have to show that under the same conditions, the land fertilized with our fertilizer is more fertile than other people's land, and produces more grain and fruit, so that we can promote it better."

"Captain, just tell us what to do, and we'll do it!"

"Yeah, if we're farming, we can just find more people to do it. They have to farm anyway, so they might as well farm for us."

Guerrero was speechless again. 'You guys believe such illogical things?'

"Alright, alright," Guerrero began to assign tasks and delegate these matters.

Under Guerrero's arrangement, the Viper Squad began to recruit local people into the outer organization to expand their strength, organize training, and take down several new villages, eliminating those rural tyrants.

"Captain, I found that someone in this village is growing raw materials for cocoa powder. It was brought over by some Colombians. I heard it's quite profitable, much more profitable than selling fertilizer." This village originally belonged to the Axe Gang, but it hadn't been managed before.

"Pull it all out, burn it all, and then use the land to, um, plant green vegetables."

After a while, a thick smoke rose, and a fiery snake rushed into the sky. All evil vanished into thin air.

"Captain, we've burned all those broken things. By the way, are we growing the vegetables ourselves?"

"Let's grow them ourselves first. The green vegetables shipped from outside are too expensive. We can't just eat meat all the time; we're lacking vitamins. Look at all the white marks on your fingernails; you're definitely lacking vitamins."

Damn it, no wonder the Axe Gang was so rich; they were secretly dealing with cocoa powder! It's simply intolerable.

"Captain, should we recruit some orphans and raise them from a young age?"

Most of them were war orphans left over from more than a decade ago. Many locals would establish "child soldiers" as cannon fodder, who were loyal and unafraid of death. Guerrero deeply abhorred this kind of thing, influenced by Saint Hesse.

Back then, Saint Hesse liked to catch people to study during his time in the City Guard, organizing study groups. To make them study seriously, he made up many local catchphrases, such as "Reading changes destiny," "People who love to learn are more handsome," "Studying hard can get you a wife," and "Studying hard can give you a chance to make a fortune." Guerrero, Aragon, and others were all fooled into studying for a while and made a lot of progress.

Later, Saint Hesse saw fewer and fewer people, and he was too busy with things, so he didn't have time to do this anymore and disbanded the study group. However, it still influenced quite a few Gaucho soldiers, which is why Saint Hesse was able to pull together a group of good veterans to form the Thunder Cross.

Although Guerrero wasn't a Gaucho, he deeply agreed with Saint Hesse's words and was one of the two or three soldiers who persisted the longest. Saint Hesse even gave him several books.

After his girlfriend dumped him, he believed these things even more. After retiring from the army, he didn't forget to study and even took night school to learn many more things.

When suppressing the gang, Saint Hesse also taught him how to be an undercover agent and recommended 'An Actor Prepares'. Guerrero had a high comprehension.

"There's no need. Let's send them all to school."

Guerrero thought for a moment and said.

Guerrero also recruited many workers and farmers in and around Oran to prepare for the salt mining and planting plan.

With Saint Hesse's consent, Guerrero named the mining company "Thunder Mining". Saint Hesse didn't have suitable personnel to be in charge of the mining company, so he let Guerrero handle it freely.

Guerrero had people purchase a batch of large water pumps on the market, directly expanding the scale of production.

Guerrero came to several small salt lake salt marshes. The scenery was still very beautiful. Some of these salt lakes were white, and some had yellow water.

The Potassium Triangle has an average altitude of about 3,000-4,000 meters. The evening climate is also relatively cool, and there are often high concentrations of salt solutions a few centimeters below the swamp surface: potassium salt, borate, sulfate, and magnesium salt.

Now, crude development requires the establishment of large-scale salt evaporation ponds for evaporation and salt extraction, pumping salt solutions day and night. The temperature difference between day and night is relatively large.

"Captain, there's no problem building salt evaporation ponds here, but there's no way to farm. It's all saline-alkali land..."

Aragon also followed Guerrero to inspect these salt lakes.

"I've already found a suitable place for farming."

Of course, Guerrero wasn't stupid enough to farm on this plateau. He had already bought 1,000 acres of land near Oran as an "experimental field."

"Hehe, that's good,"

The initial investment isn't very large; it just requires getting more territory.

The largest force nearby was the "Wheel of Souls Frontline." This was also one of the most powerful forces in the Potassium Triangle. Understanding it was shocking. This force, nominally a gang, was practically a small warlord.

It occupied a full 16 salt lakes, encompassing 6,000 acres of land, or 24 square kilometers. Its core membership numbered over two hundred, with strong firepower, including motorcycles, pickup trucks, and some machine guns.

Its influence extended to over 40 villages, and it also cultivated cocoa powder. It was a very powerful and tough nut to crack.

This was much larger than the annihilated "Free Axe Gang," which barely had sixty or seventy members and controlled only four or five villages.

After gathering sufficient intelligence, Guerrero began recruiting local manpower and, with the support of various squad leaders, conducted training.

He prepared to find an opportunity to devour this behemoth. Of course, a direct assault was out of the question; they needed to find a suitable method.

Guerrero also had a headache. He only had thirty-odd soldiers under his command, and although their quality was decent, it was far from enough to take on this gang.

They needed time for faster development. This was a fierce battle, but one they had to fight.

......

After receiving Guerrero's new telegram, Saint Hesser fell into deep thought.

Where am I?

What am I doing?

What should I do?

The phone still didn't work, so he could only reply with a telegram.

"Captain Guerrero, your idea of developing Thunder Mining is excellent. Your actions are extremely dangerous. I hope you will stop this dangerous behavior, gradually withdraw, and prioritize the safety of the Viper Squad. That's enough; there's no need to make it so big. It's best to coexist peacefully. I will give you more funds. The fertilizer factory needs more raw materials. You must pay attention to the method. Best wishes, Saint Hesser."

After receiving the telegram, Guerrero didn't know how to handle it for a while and could only ponder hard.

Saint Hesser also sent him a sum of money for purchasing, about 10 million pesos, enough to purchase a large amount of minerals, hoping that he would not have such dangerous ideas.

Guerrero thought for a long time, slapped his thigh, and felt that he finally understood the boss's hint.

"Extremely dangerous" meant that the Viper Squad was currently weak, while the motorcycle gang was very fierce.

They couldn't confront the motorcycle gang head-on. They had to shrink the battle line and first build up their own strength. This coincided with the first of the five policies hinted at in the boss's previous telegram.

As for growing grain, that was his own interpretation. He had to carefully consider the boss's meaning. The boss's previous telegram mentioned the fertilizer factory's raw materials more than once, and this telegram mentioned the fertilizer factory again.

The fertilizer from the fertilizer factory definitely needed to be sold, and they needed customers. The boss said to investigate more, look more, and ask more. Now, they definitely had to rely on themselves.

Moreover, they should not be hostile to the motorcycle gang at present. They should purchase more salt mines from them, let them build and expand themselves, and become partners. When the time came to turn against them, they could obtain ready-made salt fields.

If it really didn't work, they could peacefully annex them at that time, cleaning out the bad leaders. There were still good people among the bottom-level soldiers and gang members.

When their strength developed to be large enough, they needed to lower their vigilance and develop independently.

Building the base well could also better protect the garrison's safety. Cooperating with the motorcycle gang could also numb them. Doing communication and going undercover was his old profession. Only by figuring out the bottom line of the motorcycle gang could they achieve final victory.

Guerrero's brain quickly spun and came up with ideas, listing them one by one, and then carefully comparing them with his original plan. He found that it was too rough, and the implementation was not very reasonable. The whole thought process was completely smooth.

Guerrero couldn't help but sigh. His original plan was too hasty and too radical. The boss's method was very good. He still needed to learn more.

So, he once again improved the five guidelines, optimized them, and made them more suitable for the start-up and development of Thunder Mining.

Guerrero quickly sent someone to send a letter to the motorcycle gang, saying that they wanted to do big business with them.

Only then did he relax.

......

The next day, Saint Hesser went there again. He didn't expect that there was a master brewer in the new Chinatown. He definitely couldn't let him go.

This was the brewing talent Saint Hesser had always wanted. He had to recruit them and send them to the brewery. High-proof liquor was a very high-profit market that must be taken down.

Tequila, brandy, vodka, and whiskey, these Western spirits, are mostly distilled liquor. Although the alcohol content is high, they lack a bit of flavor and aroma. If possible, at least the brewery would have a heavyweight product, even if it doesn't ultimately succeed, it can also make Western liquor.

After some inquiries, Saint Hesser learned that this old brother did not work in Chinatown, but went to a small hotel in the city to work as a dishwasher.

After a good search, he came to the back kitchen of that broken hotel and found Liu Jiukang, who was washing dishes.

"Brother Liu Jiukang, are you interested in working at the brewery and developing your own liquor?"

This Brother Liu was not very old, his leg was a little lame, and he worked as a dishwasher in this hotel, and his salary was not high.

He was only in his forties, and his craftsmanship belonged to traditional brewing techniques. He could not be considered a family of brewers for generations.

Liu Jiukang worked as a helper and dishwasher in this restaurant. Apart from brewing, he had no special talents. He occasionally made his own wine and gave it to people to drink. He was old and unfamiliar with the place.

"It's not that I can't, but I haven't received my salary for almost a month here." Liu Jiukang hesitated. He knew Boss Saint Hesser. He was an acquaintance of Brother Chen and had opened several factories. It was still good to help in the factory.

He had also applied for a job at that time, but he was rejected because he was not quick enough during the trial work. This time, the big boss came to invite him personally, which was exactly what he wanted.

"I'll help you get your salary, and I'll give you an extra month's salary." Saint Hesser persuaded Liu Jiukang in a few words, and he was also a little happy. He was lucky.

After a conversation, Brother Jiukang learned that he was not going to work in the factory, but to brew wine at the winery, which was great. He was an old hand at brewing. He had been learning since he was ten years old and had been immersed in wine vats all his life.

"Boss, I want to ask if your new wine has a name? Can I give it a name?" Liu Jiukang said after hesitating for a moment.

"Okay, I'll let you name it," Saint Hesser said generously, not caring at all. For him, who was too lazy to name it, it might be a time-honored brand.

Saint Hesser first went to find the owner of the hotel, asked for a month's salary of 1,700 pesos, and gave him some more.

Liu Jiukang also left with him directly. Saint Hesser sent him to the Prari factory and asked him to familiarize himself with the things with Kloss first. He didn't have to go to work. He could tell him what equipment he needed.

Saint Hesser told Kloss that this was a brewing master from the mysterious East, and he must be well entertained. At that time, the salary would be paid according to the deputy director's salary, and if the research and development was successful, it could be paid according to the director's salary.

At that time, the two of them would go to Maria Town to work together.

Saint Hesser then left the Prari factory.

He planned to go to the brokerage company the next day to buy the house. He was too lazy to let people pay rent.

After buying it, he packed his things and prepared to leave.

The next day, Saint Hesser arrived at the brokerage company. After some bargaining, he finally bought Room 606 of the Bauhinia Apartment. He also asked Kate if Elena in Room 605 was renting. He said that the owner was Elena, who bought it eight months ago.

Saint Hesser felt a little emotional. It turned out that Elena was a little rich woman. After finishing the house, Saint Hesser had nothing else to do.

He planned to stay for another day, and the day after tomorrow, he would go to Rosario to see how Lucifer was doing, and then go directly to Bu City, rushing to school.