Rise of the Argentine Empire

The city hall's finance department finally approved the special loans for these two Birone projects. The Department of Production and Development provided advice and necessary assistance, offering three alternative towns for selection: Dolores Town in the west of Ke City, Deán Funes Town in the north, and Maria Town in the southeast.

The locations of these three towns are mostly within a 150-kilometer radius of the city center. Maria Town was immediately favored, as it is expected to be one of the larger towns in the future of Cordoba Province.

However, to maintain appearances, inspections were also conducted in the other towns to save face, receiving "enthusiastic" receptions.

The final inspection target was set as Maria Town, which was Saint-Hesse's primary goal.

While the National Bank was approving the loan, Aragon went to a car rental company in the city to rent a large pickup truck, took a leave of absence in advance, and went to the town area outside the city. Klose arranged his work for the day.

Actually, they could have taken a train, but trains in Argentina are prone to delays and are slow. Moreover, the train station is located outside Santa Maria Town, making transfers quite troublesome, so driving themselves was more convenient.

Maria Town is about 130 kilometers away from the city center, downwind. It has a small train station and a wharf, exporting wool, beef, etc. Transportation is relatively convenient, making it a traditional agricultural and pastoral town.

This was also Saint-Hesse's third time leaving Cordoba City. The previous two times were to inspect the other two towns.

Dolores Town is located in the western highlands. Although the climate conditions are relatively good, land prices are the cheapest, and there are abundant labor resources, transportation is not very convenient. There is no river transport or railway, and the altitude exceeds 1000 meters. For Cordoba, with an altitude of 500 meters, increasing the altitude is a significant difficulty.

Deán Funes Town is a satellite town of Ke City, with the most convenient transportation, the most foreigners, and a mixed population. There is also an underground mafia. It also has a railway and was almost hacked by the valiant townspeople and mafia members. The town's economy is fairly good, making it the second alternative town.

This time, to ensure safety and avoid the unexpected incident, the mayor also seemed not very welcoming, hearing that a new foreign mafia, the "Bird Brothers," had killed his son.

When going to Maria Town, they all brought a revolver and ammunition and wore bulletproof vests, which provided some peace of mind.

Aragon cannot drive and does not have a driver's license. This pickup truck is also a big guy.

Although Saint-Hesse had a driver's license in his previous life, and Klose can only ride a bicycle, this pickup truck is considered relatively primitive. It has a manual transmission, and Saint-Hesse, accustomed to automatic transmissions, was afraid of accidents, as it was dilapidated. For his own safety, he simply hired an experienced driver.

The driver was a middle-aged uncle in his forties, a typical descendant of Italians. He asked Saint-Hesse to call him Old Bill. He seemed very talkative. It was said that he had been in the mafia, bragging to Aragon and showing off his large floral arm tattoos, almost making Saint-Hesse think he had entered a den of thieves again.

Saint-Hesse sat in the passenger seat, while Aragon and Klose sat in the back. Saint-Hesse watched the surrounding scenery with interest. The four of them wore wide-brimmed hats. Saint-Hesse fastened his seat belt and looked out the window.

The pickup truck was not driven fast, only about 20 miles per hour.

This was also related to the cement roads here, roughly equivalent to a provincial highway, somewhat dilapidated, with two-way lanes and not many vehicles on the road.

The pickup truck rumbled, emitting black smoke. They left the city and then the suburbs, and finally reached the prairie, feeling the prairie style. The car windows were opened, and there were few people, with an endless prairie in sight.

This is the legendary Pampas, the "treeless prairie." Saint-Hesse had once ridden a steed and galloped freely on the prairie.

The sun in the sky was hazy. After about three hours, Aragon chatted with the driver, Saint-Hesse occasionally interjected, and they made occasional jokes. The journey was neither near nor far.

The journey was safe and sound. The public security in Argentina is basically okay.

Leaving the main road, they were greeted by a Spanish-style town. It is said that the local ranchers are all pure descendants of Spaniards.

The ranch workers are mostly descendants of Italians and other white people, such as descendants of Persians and Turks. The total area of Maria Town is only six or seven square kilometers. The population in the town center is only about 40,000, and the suburbs have less than 10,000.

Saint-Hesse compared it and found that the area was twice the size of his university in his previous life, and the population was about the same as his university's student body. However, the land outside the town was very vast, which was what Saint-Hesse valued.

The overall scale is relatively large, with the economy mainly based on trade and agriculture.

The facilities in the town are relatively rich. There are four streets running southeast and three streets running northwest.

The town government is located in the center of the town. There is a post office, a police station, a commercial street, and a supermarket. A river runs through it, and there is a small wharf.

Besides bars, there are no other entertainment facilities. There are several community clinics, or rather, branches of a hospital, three Catholic churches, a library, and some small parks.

There is also a Catholic school. For middle school, one has to go to Juanse Middle School in the suburbs of Cordoba City because there are not many children left in the town, not enough to form two classes. Therefore, the original Santa Maria Middle School was abolished.

There are also some military fortress buildings left over from the colonial period. The planning is much better than the previous two towns, with a decent appearance. Although small, it has all the essential features.

The rest are basically breeding farms and some small factories, such as flour mills and slaughterhouses. Most of them seem to be in operation and look good. Besides the residents in the town, the residents live relatively scattered, mostly in detached houses, and the houses are also relatively large. However, Saint-Hesse saw a wooden house that looked a bit old, not as safe as reinforced concrete.

Of course, the current depression is also related to Argentina's current Five-Year Plan. In order to develop industry, many local farmers and herdsmen have left the town to work in big cities.

They arrived at an open space where several people were already waiting, including the mayor of Maria Town and the approval officer from Cordoba City and the government affairs personnel who had arrived earlier.

Mayor Cabo Bamonde is a burly man in his fifties with a grizzled beard, tall and sturdy. He came over and shook hands with Saint-Hesse.

The municipal affairs officer is a young man, about twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old, who looks very refined, wearing a formal suit.

They are called Juan Carlos and his deputy Corina Bellamy, who is a young girl who has just graduated.

After a brief greeting, they started chatting. Mayor Bamonde's ancestors were once Spanish colonial expeditionary forces. Although he was anxious, he patiently chatted with Saint-Hesse.

Bamonde was very enthusiastic, constantly introducing the advantages of the town. After all, the town is about to go bankrupt and urgently needs new financial resources, otherwise the entire town may be canceled.

Carlos and Bemira are responsible for supervising the funding for the plastic bottle factory this time to prevent the bank loan from being used for other purposes.

The budget for the construction of the factory this time is more than one million US dollars, half of which is in foreign exchange, and many equipment needs to be imported from abroad. The land for the factory is provided by the local mayor for site selection services. The group walked and talked.

Argentina's foreign exchange is currently sufficient, and it can import the equipment needed for plastic bottle factories from Germany, Great Britain, and the United States.

Looking around, the town wasn't very big. It had only been established for over eighty years, with flat terrain and an altitude of less than 200 meters. Most of the pedestrians on the street were elderly, as many young people had gone to the city to make a living. There were still some horse-drawn carriages on the roads in the town, and the most common vehicles were pickup trucks. Newfangled things like motorcycles were also seen, and occasionally some vehicles resembling jeeps.

It seemed that the local farmers, like Americans, liked these big pickup trucks. However, I didn't see any gas stations or similar facilities in the town; the supporting infrastructure was indeed lacking.

This factory construction was different from the Prarli cannery, which involved renovating an old farm. This time, the plan was to build new chemical plant support facilities. Of course, the initial investment, including factory construction and water and electricity supply, was not a small amount.

Argentina has a developed railway system, and this was a small station, making it convenient to transport raw materials such as ethylene. The state-owned oil company's chemical plant was located in the coastal city of La Plata, and transshipment only took a day and a half. The only trouble was that after the bottles were manufactured, they still needed to be transported to the city, which was also quite inconvenient.

According to some memories, this town had the best transportation among the three towns and was one of the small cities with the best future development, making it very suitable for San Jose's establishment.

To this end, San Jose had already made plans to acquire a thousand acres of land in the early stages to develop a large industrial park. Perhaps the soda factory could also be relocated here in the future, which could save a lot of transportation costs. The only issue was that it might be more difficult to recruit employees here.

However, this was also part of San Jose's grand vision. Although the original cannery was located in a semi-suburban area, the costs were high, the space was small, and the land was leased. If the rent were to increase or the land were to be reclaimed one day, it would be troublesome. Moreover, it wouldn't be suitable to buy it, as it would be quite expensive. It would be better to directly establish an entire industrial base here.

San Jose was increasingly satisfied with this place, but he didn't show it on his face.

"Respected Mr. Carlos, this place is far from the market and the transportation is not very convenient, which is not conducive to the future development of our factory. The train station is also quite old, and the town is not big, which is not conducive to the daily life of our factory employees. There are no entertainment activities, not even a cinema or a place to relax," San Jose said with a frown.

"Moreover, this place is desolate, and it will take a lot of money to build a factory, so the investment is also a big problem."

"Mr. San Jose, the transportation in our town is actually quite good. This river can accommodate ships of 3,000 tons..."

"Our town can provide special funds to help you build the factory. As long as you come to our town to set up a factory, we will do our best to provide assistance..." The mayor's voice became smaller and smaller, as he knew that Santa Maria Town was unlikely to get this plastic bottle opportunity.

"How much funding can the town provide to help us build the factory?"

"And the factory we build may be relatively large. How much land area can you provide? We need at least this much," San Jose held out a finger.

"Ah... we can probably provide 5 million pesos in assistance and support, as long as you guarantee that the total tax amount exceeds 5 million pesos within three years. We can provide your factory with 1,000 acres of land," the mayor seemed a little disbelieving and hurriedly said.

"If it's not enough, we can provide another 500 acres of land, just by demolishing a small ranch," Sure enough, he was a tycoon; a small ranch occupied five hundred acres.

"Okay, our plastic bottle factory should be located here. If we need more land in the future, we will contact the town," San Jose finally made a decision.

According to Argentina's nature, it was estimated that it would take a lot of time to build the factory, which would be a good opportunity to purchase the necessary equipment.

The three of San Jose went to the mayor's house as guests, ate a roast lamb chop, and drank a cup of mate tea.

Santa Maria Town was a traditional agricultural and pastoral town with a solid foundation, but not many factories were willing to set up factories here.

Moreover, the Five-Year Plan had caused many farmers and herdsmen to leave the town and go to the capital or the provincial capital. The town was also relatively depressed. There were still two or three hundred households in the northeastern town area originally planned for the plastic bottle factory, but now there were more than half fewer, after all, the best city was the capital, or the provincial capital.

The town had begun to decline two years ago, although Santa Maria Town still maintained its land price strategy.

Then came the signing, but when signing, they found that they were using acres. 1,000 acres was roughly equivalent to 6,000 mu. San Jose repeatedly checked several times to make sure he had not misread and signed his name.

San Jose had also inspected the other two towns. Either there were many people, but the transportation was inconvenient, or they were relatively wealthy and not so eager to increase tax revenue.

Santa Maria Town basically met most of San Jose's needs and could also provide cheaper funds for subsidies, which made San Jose quite satisfied.

This time, someone needed to be selected to supervise here. In theory, Cross was the most suitable. Factory Director Cross was meticulous and organized, and he also knew some flexibility, but because the cannery still needed him to be in charge of the current factory.

Aragorn was quite honest and was one of the few people San Jose could trust at present, but he currently had a military position. After thinking about it, only Li Qingyun from the production department was more suitable. Old Chen had a high evaluation of Li Qingyun, and even Cross was quite satisfied with Li Qingyun's work, as he was alert and tactful.

With him watching, the results should be pretty good.

Of course, if there were more suitable personnel at that time, they could also be found to come here as a supervisor, but most of the people in the factory now were relatively flexible, and the sales department still needed to continue promoting products.

A simple meeting was held with Mayor Carlos and Municipal Civil Servant Bamonde to finalize the specific details and decide to start construction as soon as possible to meet production needs.

It was necessary to contact cement plants for cement, as well as sand, gravel, steel bars, brick factories, etc. Fortunately, the Cordoba Municipal Construction Company, a subsidiary of the Municipal Government Housing Department, provided a construction team to be responsible for the construction, renovation, and land leveling of the new factory. San Jose only needed to send someone to monitor the progress of the project.

This was the first time he had built a factory himself. He finalized many planning details. That day, the mayor also celebrated with the town's residents.

As for the cooperation of the chemical laboratory, Cross had already contacted a university of science and technology. The newly established laboratory was fully sponsored by Prarli Company, and several young chemical engineering students in their junior year,

as well as a chemical master who had just returned from the University of Chicago in the United States, served as a part-time teacher in the chemistry department and spearheaded the establishment of the project. All property rights of the plastic bottle technology belonged to Prarli Company, and San Jose provided a large amount of funding for sponsorship, and students could also directly join the plastic chemical plant after graduation.