Rise of the Argentine Empire

Saint Hecse traveled north on a coast guard ship, which was much faster than going south. There were also many more ships going north and south than in the previous days. Fishing boats of a few hundred or thousand tons and bulk carriers and ore carriers of tens of thousands of tons were frequently seen.

The journey was smooth, and they soon reached the territory of La Pampa Province. The market value of the Argentine National Stock Exchange had inflated dramatically, market speculation was heating up, and there were more and more speculators. The overall market value was beginning to catch up with Buenos Aires, and some strong companies from other provinces were starting to move in.

The three coastal cities of La Pampa Province had initially established a relatively complete education, medical, and transportation system. They had respectively applied to the Argentine Ministry of Higher Education and the La Pampa Provincial Government to establish Puerto Colorado University, Otto University, and Bucato University. With Saint Hecse's support, the Provincial Department of Finance allocated 5 million US dollars to each for school construction.

The graduates of the National University of the South in Blanca City had begun to enter society. Although they were not as outstanding as the University of Buenos Aires, the discipline settings focused on science and engineering would inject new strength into the development of Blanca City. Other institutions, such as Blanca University and La Pampa University of Science and Technology, as well as several higher vocational colleges, were recruiting a large number of students and could also contribute to the development of Blanca City.

According to incomplete statistics, there were more than 50 research institutes of various kinds in Blanca City, ranging in size from hundreds to thousands of people, combined with universities and commercial entities to promote scientific research and economic development.

Saint Hecse repeatedly emphasized the important role of higher education for Blanca City and La Pampa Province, advocated for further expanding the university system, and was keen on establishing a vocational education system, combining higher vocational colleges with secondary vocational schools to provide high-skilled workers and engineers for Blanca City's industrialization.

The ten major research institutes in Blanca City were basically affiliated with large industrial groups. The San Martin Aviation Manufacturing Research Institute, the Leyton Automotive Research Institute, and the New Cohen Military Weapons Research Institute employed a large number of engineers and R\u0026D designers.

In La Pampa Province as a whole, there were approximately 78,000 students registered in primary education in '58, and 16,000 in higher education, an unprecedentedly large scale. Among them, industrial and commercial disciplines accounted for the majority. Engineers, accountants, financial personnel, doctors, nurses, and teachers were already being awarded degrees. The University of the South was currently the only university awarding degrees, and the students of the other newly established universities were only in their junior year at most and had not yet graduated.

In the future, there will also be various majors such as aviation pilots, agronomists, and architectural designers. The Provincial Government has already begun to classify the new universities as provincial universities and municipal universities, which can receive additional investment and budget funding.

Investment in education has always occupied a very important position. La Pampa Province has transformed from an educational desert to an educational highland. According to Saint Hecse's idea, each metropolitan area will have at least one university, with those with a good economic foundation being undergraduate colleges, and those with a poorer foundation establishing vocational schools.

In terms of medical care, Otto City, for example, had already established two hospitals. Provincial-level highway construction was also advancing rapidly, extending from the coastal expressway. La Pampa established the "La Pampa Province Highway Construction Act." Provincial-level highways are generally two-lane in both directions, and expressways are four-lane in both directions. Blanca City also has an upgraded version with six lanes in both directions.

Since the merger of La Pampa Province and Blanca City, road construction has never stopped. Blanca City was the first to be built, and subsequent large-scale borrowing and financing allowed the later metropolitan areas to gradually catch up. With good transportation construction, the speed of economic development has also become faster and faster.

Whether it is the fundamental development of heavy chemical industry, or the vigorously supported light industry and trade processing industry, the demand for labor is extremely high, and the profits generated have led many people to take risks. Fraud, forced labor, and illegal crimes continue to occur.

Blanca City itself attracts cheap labor and immigrants, and it is common to see a mixed bag of people. This is an inevitable path of economic development, resulting in environmental pollution and various crimes.

The rapidly growing population is an important way for Saint Hecse to expand the economy, and it is also the result of economic development, constantly opening up overseas markets and attracting more people to pour in.

Argentina's population growth rate in the past decade has been comparable to that of Mexico, the second most populous country in Latin America, and is rapidly approaching the population of Mexico. New immigrants are an important reason.

But for Saint Hecse, Blanca City has become his largest base and source of public support, far surpassing San Martin City. Blanca City's position in Argentina is also approaching Cordoba, the second largest city.

In particular, Blanca City has the role of uniting the Patagonian provinces of southern Argentina, and its position in the Presidential Palace is also rising rapidly. Coupled with the second largest port, the second largest trade import and export city, the second largest economic city, and a population comparable to Buenos Aires, its rising position in Argentina is becoming more and more obvious.

In the past, minor crimes were regularly dealt with by personnel from the Blanca City Police Department, but now these criminal gangs have begun to smuggle arms, seriously endangering the development of Blanca City, which is intolerable.

With the rapid expansion of the economy and territory, public security problems are becoming more and more serious, even instigating strikes and colluding with Buenos Aires and other military local forces in Argentina to carry out infiltration, which he cannot tolerate.

In particular, important industries for Argentina's future, such as the oil industry and the automobile industry, Southern Petroleum and several developing automobile companies have been severely threatened.

On the other hand, no one dares to provoke the steel industry. Saint Hecse controls Argentina's three largest steel plants, and the boss of Hans Steel Plant is also an important supporter of Saint Hecse.

Of course, Saint Hecse cannot give up the oil and automobile industries. These are important industries that can enable a country to rise. Development can easily increase the strength of La Pampa Province tenfold or even dozens of times, containing the industry of national rise and national rejuvenation.

In particular, the development of the oil industry can be said to affect the future of Argentina. The five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, as well as the economic powers of Europe and Asia, all have extremely developed oil industries.

In later generations, a bunch of oil companies from the superpower America, such as Exxon, Mobil, the Standard Oil system, and the non-Standard Oil system, the three barrels of oil in New China, Shell and British Petroleum in the United Kingdom, TotalEnergies in France, Gazprom after the nationalization of Russian oil oligarchs, Rosneft, Eni in Italy, Canadian Natural Resources, Repsol in Spain, Indian Oil, and Petrobras in Brazil are all extremely powerful.

Not to mention a bunch of oil-producing countries in the Middle East and the Americas, such as Saudi Aramco, Colombian Petroleum, and others, such as Indian National Oil, Brazilian Petroleum, and Mexican Petroleum, are all lifelines of the country.

Saint Hecse also established Southern Petroleum for this reason, to seize the oil market.

Unfortunately, the development of Southern Petroleum is still relatively slow, and it is becoming more and more difficult to compete with American oil companies.

After all, Southern Petroleum is just a local small company. Although it has developed rapidly, its status is not comparable to Argentine National Oil, and its funds are relatively limited. The cost of exploitation has risen sharply, and exploration has not been done well.

In less than a few years, the population of the Medanos District has expanded from 30,000 to 400,000, an increase of almost more than 10 times. The Medanos Steel Plant alone employs 30,000 workers, and some surrounding factories also employ a large number of workers. Recently, the education system and medical system are also being improved, and a large number of schools and hospitals are being built.

When the Medanos Steel Plant first started construction, the economy of the Dafen area of Medanos County was still very backward. Although the area was large, the economy was mainly based on fishing and agriculture, with a single economic structure and a lack of population attraction. It was a backward town in economic development.

Construction workers building the steel plant hired one-fifth of their workers locally, which quickly stimulated the local economy. Then, as the steel plant was gradually completed, the population increased, and some locals also began to learn from the city of Blanca, building houses and becoming landlords. The District Government was responsible for improving the local water and electricity construction, and the population quickly gathered. The steel plant also built a large number of residential buildings to provide housing for the recruited workers.

Building a factory locally can drive the development of the surrounding economy. The city of Blanca needs a state-owned steel plant. As an excellent seaport, Puerto Medanos is very suitable for the development of port-adjacent steel industry, and the steel layout of the port area is more reasonable, which can save a lot of costs.

The raw material wharf of Puerto Medanos is divided into a coal wharf and an iron ore wharf, and a coking and sintering process is added between the two raw fuel wharfs, occupying one side of the U-shaped layout.

After the coking and sintering plants in the middle, blast furnaces, converter steelmaking plants, rolling mills, pipe mills, bar mills, large steel mills, and warehouses are arranged in sequence. Finally, the finished product wharf transports the steel products to overseas sales locations with high efficiency.

The development of the Medanos Steel Plant can be called a model, with relatively small investment and huge returns. Although the smelting technology used is not as advanced as that of Blanca Steel Company, the construction speed is fast, and the smelting technology is also very mature, which can be quickly put into the market, mainly targeting the markets of Chile, Peru, and even New Zealand and Australia, mainly based on export trade.

Medanos Western Steel Trading Company has developed its own export merchant fleet, which is very profitable, and imitates the La Plata Steel Plant by investing in overseas iron ore mines to reduce ore purchase costs and develop rapidly.

The Medanos Steel Plant is ambitiously preparing to expand its production capacity, which is far more radical than Hans Steel and Blanca Steel. It has deeply grasped the essence of San Jose's debt-driven development and signed mortgage agreements with several large banks in Argentina to introduce...

In the past two years, Argentina's domestic steel consumption has surged from 1 million tons to 4 million tons, and has been hovering between 3 and 4 million tons. With the commissioning of several large steel plants, the number of exported steel has exceeded domestic consumption, which is a profitable business.

Although the smelting technology of the Medanos Steel Plant is relatively backward, the profit margin is still very high.

Medanos District is a key development core in the south of Blanca and an important node connecting the three southern cities.

In addition to developing the steel industry, Medanos District has also begun to establish a trade free port special customs zone to attract foreign factories.

According to the regulations of the special customs zone, goods that cannot be produced in Argentina can be imported duty-free for the purpose of building factories and assembling products for sale in the Argentine market, which has attracted the participation of 2 British factories and 1 American factory.

Waiting for him at the port were Lollong Modriguez, the head of the District Government and the Medanos United Steel Plant, and Eddie Luco, San Jose's old classmate, as the second-in-command.

Lollong has successively been in charge of Blanca's import and export trading company, the port-adjacent industrial zone, and the Blanca investment promotion department, as well as the deputy district chief of Alta District. He is San Jose's main supporter and an important member of the uncompromising Radical Party's southern faction.

Eddie has successively served as the head of Blanca Second Construction Company and the La Pampa Transportation Construction Promotion Association. He has already shown outstanding performance in company management and economic development. He is currently preparing for the state-owned Medanos Port Area Management Company and the Medanos Building Materials Company, while also being responsible for investment promotion, education, and police department work in the Medanos Industrial Zone.

Lollong belongs to a relatively young group under San Jose. He is only 30 years old this year and has helped San Jose start the port-adjacent industrial zone development project. He has experience in state-owned factory management, port area construction, and urban management.

The Medanos District Government is now dominated by the uncompromising Radical Party and has more than 500 employees, most of whom are young people transferred from Blanca's Alta District and Posca District, as well as young people selected in this year's civil service examination.

"Principal, this time I hope that the city and province can give our district more policies and funds so that we can develop faster."

"Your district's development in the past two years has indeed been good. I will ask the province to study it more."

San Jose has seen along the way that the factory planning is reasonable, and he has also put in a lot of effort. He used to be the person in charge of this factory when it was first listed. In addition to the resources and manpower given at the beginning, it is not easy to develop to the present.

It is already comparable to the development of Otto Port. The driving effect of a large factory is indeed good.

"Your district's public security is doing a good job, and there are no organized strikes."

The city of Blanca is already in chaos, but San Jose still has no intention of returning to the city. Small fries are not worth mentioning, and the big fish behind them have not yet come out.

......

Belgrano Naval Base, the coast guard ship circled around and docked here. Compared with the tens of thousands of tons of warships, the coast guard ship instantly became mini.

Since General Jose stepped down, and his successor, Talim Dumont, also retired as Commander-in-Chief of the Navy the following year, San Jose finally seized the opportunity to re-establish relations with the people at Belgrano Naval Base. Moreover, the new navy also began to lean towards La Pampa Province. The Argentine Ministry of Defense is too poor, and the navy is also having a hard time. Having a big gold master next to it, it will definitely seize it.

Unlike the time with General Jose when the city of Blanca was in a secondary position, this time La Pampa Province occupies an absolute dominant position.

As one of Argentina's three major naval districts, taking Belgrano, the strength of the La Pampa Defense Force is vaguely not inferior to that of Cordoba and the Capital Defense Force.

San Jose is reorganizing the La Pampa Defense Force, strengthening military training, and also using the form of training air force and coast guard forces to create a small navy and a small air force, and the combat effectiveness is improving rapidly.

Moreover, San Jose is very generous. After the recovery of New Cohen Heavy Industry, the development speed of the military factory has also been several times faster. The light and heavy weapons research and development department is expanding very quickly. Some foreign weapons that could only be copied in the past have now begun to design and produce independent weapons. Other military groups such as San Martin Military Defense Group and Alta Military Shipyard have also developed.