Rise of the Argentine Empire

On the drive back to Buenos Aires, besides dealing with Nora, Saint-Hose was also pondering something: why was the population growth in Argentina and its neighboring countries so slow?

Countries like Uruguay, Paraguay, and Bolivia, with such vast territories combined, should logically have a population of one or two hundred million in the 21st century.

Back in Buenos Aires, Nora offered to help him, but with Natalie at the New Argentina Newspaper and the university being unsuitable, Saint-Hose could only arrange for Nora to go to Plarri International and have them find something for her to do.

...

The moment he saw Elena, he suddenly felt like something was wrong with himself. He seemed to have thought very little about Elena, his official girlfriend, during these two months of winter break, taking the relationship a bit too lightly.

The two had dinner at the Orange Peel Restaurant in the evening before returning to Saint-Hose's home.

The receptionist at the restaurant recognized Saint-Hose; it seemed like this guy had brought several different girlfriends here. How fickle.

The two lay on the sofa.

"Cohen, do you have other women outside?"

Elena leaned against Saint-Hose, drawing circles with her finger, saying somewhat calmly, her voice a bit cold.

"That's not the case. During these two months of summer vacation, I've been busy handling things. First, I went to Maria Town, then to Oran, and then I even went to Salta. I spent the last few days in La Plata. Look, I've gotten quite a bit darker."

Saint-Hose said seriously, quickly pointing to his tanned skin,

Then he brushed some of Elena's hair aside.

"You can see."

"Okay, I believe you. I took three days off this time, so you have to keep me company. I haven't seen you in two months. I'm a little sleepy tonight. Can you stay by my side for a while? Is that okay?"

Elena's voice grew softer and softer, indicating she was truly tired.

"You sleep. I'll sing you a song, one my mother used to sing to me when I was little."

"Mmm."

Elena closed her eyes, preparing to listen to Saint-Hose sing. Her little boyfriend seemed a bit too honest.

"Today is your birthday, dear mother, I offer you white and beautiful flowers, these flowers bloom on the high mountains, I picked them there this morning…"

"…Today is your birthday, dear mother, today is your birthday, I sing this song for you, from the depths of my heart, it carries infinite respect, love, and hope…"

This song is a famous Argentine Spanish folk song. His mother used to sing it to him many times when he was a child. Saint-Hose would occasionally hum the melody,

But he couldn't remember the lyrics until last month when he was strolling in Oran and saw a tall, thin gaucho youth wearing a large straw hat across the street, playing a guitar and singing cheerfully.

Only then did he learn the name of the song, "A Little Gift." Saint-Hose saw a bowl on the ground in front of him and thought he sang well.

He got interested and threw in 500 pesos, intending to run away, but was enthusiastically pulled back by the fellow countryman, who seriously taught him the lyrics. Today was the first time he sang it for his girlfriend.

With Saint-Hose's singing, Elena quickly fell asleep. Saint-Hose covered her with a blanket and went to the study next door.

Saint-Hose also knew who Elena was working for. There were no airtight walls in Argentina, and Argentina's intelligence secrecy system was, to put it mildly, very average. The Falcon Intelligence Agency was preparing to show its skills.

Guerrero would arrive in Buenos Aires in a few days after arranging things.

Elena's teacher was a minor nuclear physics prodigy, providing some scientific peripheral technical support to the Argentine National Atomic Energy Commission.

"It's a pity that Argentina can't develop the 'egg' at all. It hasn't been developed even by the 21st century."

Saint-Hose stroked his chin, feeling a bit like laughing.

It should be known that only the United States and the Soviet Union had atomic bombs now. Britain didn't have them, France didn't, and New China didn't either.

Argentina's Atomic Energy Commission was established earlier than France's. Argentina wasn't France and couldn't develop this crucial national weapon.

"It seems like they spent 100 million US dollars and three years to develop a light bulb? It seems like it's this year, damn it, my girlfriend isn't involved in this, is she? Damn!"

He suddenly remembered a joke: President Perón tried to develop an atomic bomb and a hydrogen bomb but found a big swindler, and Argentina had no industrial base to support nuclear weapons development, so it became a big joke.

The presidential palace seemed to have spent a lot of money to build a so-called high-tech laboratory, and to maintain secrecy, the location was set on an island in the middle of a lake.

"Damn it, how does this kind of thing feel a bit tragic when it happens to us Argentinians?"

Saint-Hose had just wanted to laugh at Perón's stupidity, but he no longer felt like it. Alas.

He remembered seeing a newspaper at the end of March and the beginning of April this year, saying that President Perón announced that Argentina was about to develop a hydrogen bomb and would be the first country in the world to have a hydrogen bomb.

"Damn, isn't this because there were Soviets in the potassium triangle, Oran? But at that time, I had just arrived at the University of Buenos Aires and was busy studying, so I didn't pay attention to this matter. Plus, the intelligence system here wasn't well-established, so I didn't pay much attention to this aspect."

Last semester, Saint-Hose thirstily acquired knowledge, or he went to the slums to investigate, and later he went to work on the newspaper.

He even thought Argentina was holding some kind of international conference with so many reporters. No one reported such a small matter. It really felt like he was oblivious to everything happening around him, focusing only on studying.

"Damn, it seems like I need to have the people from the Falcon Intelligence Agency investigate this matter. This is not funny at all. This is my country, 100 million US dollars! The loss is too heavy. It's a pity they didn't even produce a fart."

Saint-Hose realized at this moment that such a thing happening in his own country was not funny at all, and this matter seriously depleted Argentina's national fortune, turning Argentina into a big joke, while Perón single-handedly raised the level of development of Argentina's tourism industry.

He also remembered that in April and May, there seemed to be many more foreigners in Argentina's taxis and buses. He was really immersed in studying at that time and didn't pay much attention to these things, and he didn't have much contact with Elena at that time either.

"No wonder there are Soviets in a small place like Oran. They seem to be looking for nuclear facilities all over the country. Now I guess they haven't found them yet. Half a year has passed, and there's no news."

Saint-Hose only knew that Argentina's "nuclear facility" was fake, seemingly on a small island.

When laughing at someone else's stupidity, he realized that he was even more stupid. This was what Saint-Hose thought of himself.

"This time, the Falcon Intelligence Agency also needs to be trained and tested to see how good they are. There aren't many opportunities like this. There should still be quite a few CIA people in Buenos Aires now, hehe."

Saint-Hose's eyes became a little cold. Perhaps he had to secretly kill a few CIA people for letting him miss such important information. He would find a few elites from the armed forces to do some black ops. Spies from other countries openly running to our country to disrupt and spy on information are truly arrogant.

"Ideally, all these people should be killed."

Saint-Hose's mood was a bit irritable and depressed.

I ran to the toilet and lit a cigarette to slowly calm down. Now that I have the Falcon Intelligence Agency, these things will gradually decrease. At least such important news won't be missed in the future.

"The clown is actually myself."

...

The next day, at dusk,

At the former Margaret Manor, the Rein Research Institute, Saint-Hesse drove Ilena here for a visit today.

This huge manor no longer has the gloom of the past. The walls have been repainted white.

The popularity has also become very strong. Saint-Hesse took her to see Cicero, as well as the director and employees, and introduced them carefully.

The two had dinner in the manor.

The night was beautiful, the moon was very round, and Saint-Hesse's mood had calmed down a lot.

"It's not the Mid-Autumn Festival tonight, but the moon is so round," Saint-Hesse thought to himself.

Saint-Hesse occasionally flips through the lunar calendar, a gift from Chen, an old man in Chinatown, Cordoba. September 15th this year is the Mid-Autumn Festival, and the moon is big and round.

He also specially held a celebration party and invited the new steel mill team to celebrate.

Under the faint street lights, Saint-Hesse and Ilena walked on a road in the manor, chatting about some trivial things.

Several security personnel from the Thunder Cross followed nearby, each carrying an M1911A, with a Chicago typewriter on their chest, to prevent any unexpected situations.

It has to be said that Ilena is indeed very good-looking, with delicate features. Her eyes shone with a captivating luster in the night, like stars in the sky, sparkling.

The two walked on the path, Saint-Hesse looked at Ilena's back.

Sometimes she puts her hands behind her back, and sometimes she swings her hands around, as happy as a little girl who just got candy, completely without the sleepiness of last night. The past two months of experiments must have exhausted her.

Ilena told him today that this is her second love. The only bad thing is that she often can't see him.

Since experiencing the singing incident last night, the relationship between the two has made rapid progress, and everything has begun to fall into place.

The two walked side by side on the road again. Occasionally, when they got closer, Ilena took Saint-Hesse's hand, and even once it landed on his thigh.

Ilena was unaware and continued to hop around, making Saint-Hesse couldn't help but shake his head. This senior sister seemed a little immature.

After a while, Ilena was a little tired.

The two sat on the seat, Saint-Hesse holding Ilena's hand.

Suddenly, a blush flew on her face. Just now, a dark cloud flew over, covering the moonlight, making it a little dim, but she could still see the shyness on her face, which made Saint-Hesse feel inexplicably hot, almost unable to hold back.

Ilena said word by word: "Cohen, will we be together forever?"

"Yes, we will definitely be," Saint-Hesse's tone was not very firm.

"Your words are enough."

"The moonlight is so beautiful tonight."

Saint-Hesse said seriously this time.

"Yes, it's so beautiful," Ilena responded.

The two continued to talk about some things, Saint-Hesse occasionally amused Ilena, telling some classic little jokes, and Ilena also laughed cooperatively, with a bit of a romantic atmosphere.

"Cohen, there seems to be a mouse on the ground over there, I'm so scared,"

Ilena suddenly jumped up, sat on Saint-Hesse's lap, and hugged his neck.

Saint-Hesse didn't answer, directly put his arms around Ilena's waist, picked Ilena up and put her on his face, and ran all the way.

The manor was very large, Saint-Hesse remembered the route.

He ran to a house in one breath, and Saint-Hesse put Ilena down.

Ilena and Saint-Hesse looked at each other.

The two burst into laughter, and Saint-Hesse's depressed mood dissipated a lot.

After laughing, Ilena patted her chest with lingering fear.

"That mouse was really big just now, so scary. I won't be able to sleep tonight."

"I'll sing you Twinkle Twinkle Little Star later..."

"Okay."

"Let's go back, it's getting late. We won't go back to Bu City tonight, we'll stay here," Saint-Hesse continued.

The two went directly into the house, which happened to be his exclusive villa.

After taking a shower, lying together, saying some sweet words, they fell into a deep sleep.

The third day,

Saint-Hesse took Ilena to visit many scenic spots, the Metropolitan Cathedral, San Martin Square, and the Puerto Madero district.

He also took her to Santa Fe Avenue and bought some gifts for her.

With a feeling of guilt, Saint-Hesse earnestly and honestly accompanied Ilena for 3 days, which also evoked his beautiful memories of last year. He basically ignored other things and let Andre handle them first.

Nora and Natalie also tacitly didn't disturb him.

...

This semester, Saint-Hesse, based on the process of traveling thousands of miles and reading thousands of books, plans to recharge himself again, and just happened to have some doubts about the Argentine population growth problem, so he picked up the book again to study it.

Saint-Hesse was in the library of the economics department and suddenly came across a book, "The Rise and Fall of the Argentine 'Cattle Party'", a thin volume.

"What is the Cattle Party? How come there is a Cattle Party in Argentina? That's strange."

Saint-Hesse remembers that there was a Cattle Party in the Tang Dynasty or the Ming Dynasty during the Niu-Li Factional Struggles.

"These large landowners and estate owners were originally called Caudillos. In essence, they were a combination of warlords and aristocratic families. They still had a huge influence after Argentina's independence.

The Argentine Constitution of 1853 stipulated a national structure that combined federalism and unitarism, granting the provinces considerable legislative and administrative autonomy while emphasizing the central government's centralization."

This is a compromise constitution, after all, it is better than a fragmented Argentina. Saint-Hesse saw many autonomous organizations in northern Argentina.

"This constitution is a huge compromise to these caudillos, especially in many provinces. Some large landowners own land starting at 100,000 mu, and the largest landlord family, the Anchorena family, owns at least 1 million acres of land.

Argentina once had 400 families similar to the Anchorena family forming an elite circle.

Most of them started their fortunes in the cattle industry, and then seized national power, colluded with British capital, sold railway rights, and made a lot of money while manipulating the country.

This circle is called the "Cattle Party". Argentina ascended to its peak with their capital and reforms, and also fell from the altar due to their autocracy and monopoly."

"At the end of the 19th century, the emerging political party Radical Civic Union launched two uprisings successively to resist the ruling position of the Cattle Party.

Although they both failed, they fully demonstrated their strength and forced the government to introduce the Sáenz Peña Law in 1912.

The era of large-scale immigration to Argentina in the 19th and 20th centuries further strengthened the power of our country's bourgeoisie and middle class with the influx of a large number of foreign immigrants.

These caudillos gradually withdrew from the historical stage on the surface, but they are still powerful landlord aristocrats, and the new generation of landlords is more advanced."

"You, are you Cohen?"

Saint-Hesse took the book, flipped through a few pages, and was about to take it back to study it carefully. The author who wrote this book about the Cattle Party wrote it boldly enough, interesting.

As a result, he heard a girl's voice, which sounded familiar, but he couldn't remember who it was.