Rise of the Argentine Empire

The time after the opening ceremony was indeed quite busy, with a lot of professional books to read and study, making it busy but fulfilling.

He hadn't been idle either. These full three months were a period of his frantic learning and recharging.

As for the beautiful university life of skipping classes that he had imagined at the beginning, that simply didn't exist. Professor Pukins, for some reason, had people watching Saint Hecate especially closely. According to him, it was because he didn't want to waste a good seed, which made Saint Hecate suffer and enjoy it. Although, in his opinion, it was just retaliation.

He also went on a few dates with Elena, and occasionally exercised with Cicero and the others to prevent over studying.

"There's a lot of hair in the sink today. Could it really be that the less hair you have, the stronger you are?"

Saint Hecate looked at the few hairs in the sink and grabbed his own. Very secure.

"It should just be a false alarm."

Elena was also quite busy as a new student, and coupled with the fact that they had different majors, Saint Hecate simply focused on studying. He wasn't a master of time management, and still had to prioritize his studies.

This period was truly a four-point line: school, restaurant, rented house, library, which couldn't help but remind him of the fear of being dominated by the college entrance examination in his previous life, except the experience was too different, and he had to waste time on useless walking.

"I didn't expect to have to study even after transmigrating. If you don't study well, you can't possibly have a good life after transmigrating," Saint Hecate thought, and looked at a few more pages of the book.

The frequent walking also made Saint Hecate deeply critical of the fact that Argentine universities didn't have dormitories or cafeterias. Such a free public university policy really had many problems, and also that the school must have a cafeteria, eating is very important!

Currently, genius-level figures among the lower-class people in Argentina still couldn't afford to attend the University of Buenos Aires unless they were sponsored. However, Argentina's secondary school system didn't allow these geniuses to be valued.

Secondary school needed to be studied for six years, and with basically not much choice and competition, Argentine secondary schools simply had no intention of selecting geniuses.

Most people entered society after graduating from secondary school. The restaurants in the city center were too expensive, and the rent was too expensive, even scholarships couldn't cover it.

Free tuition didn't allow ordinary people to go to university, but rather benefited the wealthy families and dignitaries. Although tuition couldn't cover all the expenses of the university,

It could also alleviate some of the pressure on government education funding. Also, the school not setting up a cafeteria made him have to run outside of campus just to eat a meal, seriously wasting his study time!

......

Saint Hecate thought about it again and again, and the more he thought about it, the angrier he became.

"This is really, the more you endure for a moment, the angrier you get, and the more you step back, the more you feel you're losing out."

In the end, he still felt that he couldn't convince himself well. One day, while silently drinking a beverage and reading a book, he finally felt that he had to take action.

Let them change a little, even if nothing ultimately changed, he had to criticize such behavior.

Saint Hecate strongly agreed with a saying, which was that without investigation, there is no right to speak. So, he gave the Falcon Intelligence Group its first task in Buenos Aires, to collect intelligence and conduct research.

Devoto Town, Buenos Aires, the Falcon Intelligence Group's Buenos Aires station.

Saint Hecate saw that the person in charge of Viper Team Three was Rombetta Dexi, and the head of intelligence in Buenos Aires was Andrew Borg.

Team Three currently didn't have many members, having been split off from Team One, with only four people. Most of the members still remained in the Potassium Triangle, which needed to train peripheral members more.

The Intelligence Group only had three people, who were rookies Saint Hecate had recruited in Maria Town, and now they could barely be considered veterans.

At the same time, he himself planned to take action, and the people from the Intelligence Group and Viper Team Three were also assigned tasks, responsible for assisting in research and investigating forces within the city. To ensure safety, one person from the Viper squad would lead one intelligence operative.

After arranging some work, he also issued investigation tasks and investigation techniques, etc.

In fact, these intelligence operatives weren't that weak, but they were also afraid of encountering some ignorant small-time thugs. Two people together would be safer.

Saint Hecate didn't really want to be with an intelligence operative, and thought of a suitable candidate, the big guy Cicero. He could go ask and see. At the very least, his physique wouldn't be a problem for taking down a few small gangs.

......

Friday noon,

Saint Hecate came to the Engineering Department to find someone. There were generally no classes on Friday afternoons at the University of Buenos Aires. Professors usually went on vacation to other places on Friday afternoons. Many teachers took leave, so in the end, they simply didn't schedule courses for Friday afternoons, which was equivalent to working 4.5 days a week.

He saw Cicero welding a machine. He was wearing a vest and shorts, and wildly lifted a giant motor, assembling and welding it, not knowing what it was for.

"Hey, Cicero, are you interested in going to the outer city with me this afternoon to "relax" a bit?"

"The outer city? I haven't been there before. My dad usually doesn't let me go to those places, saying it's too chaotic."

Cicero took off his vest, then wrung out the sweat.

The outer city area was now a slum in Buenos Aires, with a relatively mixed population. It was also the largest area away from the city center, said to house over 50,000 people.

"It's okay, then I'll go myself. I'll find you to help with things later."

Saint Hecate wasn't too surprised either. Cicero's family also lived in the academy district, and his mother was a middle school teacher, which was indeed normal.

Yesterday, Saint Hecate "visited" many places in the outer city area.

Today, Saint Hecate sat in the subway car, heading to the outer city. He planned to visit as a reporter. For safety, he also prepared two pistols, a fake press card, and didn't bring a gun permit.

Sorry, there were no police here at all.

Argentina was the first place in the Southern Hemisphere to have a subway, but his subway was also steam-powered, and the cars were made of wood, moving very slowly.

Most of the people in the outer city area came from Bolivia, Paraguay, and the northern provinces of Argentina. Some were farmers,

Some were herders like Saint Hecate. Younger people mostly did odd jobs. Most of them couldn't join large factories and enjoy Peron's benefits,

Some of the better ones could join some factories and become workers, such as recycling plants, cement plants, brick factories, food packaging plants, sugar factories, and docks,

Female workers could go to laundries, rubber factories, textile, chemical, pharmaceutical, and cosmetics factories, etc.

Perhaps earning over 2000 pesos a month.

This was the best-case scenario,

The older ones and those who weren't so lucky wouldn't fare so well,

Most could only be scavengers, barely making a living, with monthly incomes below 1000 pesos being very common.

Also, if a woman didn't have an income and had some looks, then she could only occasionally do part-time work, which was also very common. After all, this place was very large. The number of people in one outer city area was equivalent to a large area of ​​Science City, which was completely incomparable.

In the entire city of Buenos Aires, the immigrant rural population exceeded 1.5 million, accounting for 29% of the city's total immigrants. Unlike the skilled workers in Rosario, most of these people were unskilled workers, and their willingness to leave was not strong, resulting in poor employment.

Compared to the population here, Science City was much better. Science City currently had relatively few slums. There were fewer immigrants, mostly from the province. For housing loans, the provincial housing bank provided relatively adequate loan subsidies,

Most places had housing agencies to help rent houses. The family of Theo Brito, a neighbor from his predecessor, with a family of 7,

Could also afford to rent a house and eat in Science City. This was a condition that Buenos Aires didn't have. Science City and the surrounding areas had a large number of farms and ranches, as did Maria Town. The job situation was much better than in Buenos Aires.

The outer city area was also a paradise for crime, but it was much better than the gang-ridden New Chicago area. That was the real place of crime, where gang firefights could kill many people every day.

The black taxi gang that Saint Hecate had seen came from the New Chicago area.

Near Ramsgate in the outer city area, this was the Argentine version of the slum, although the current Peron government simply didn't acknowledge the existence of slums.

It wasn't raining now, and dust filled the air. Saint Hecate could only wear a mask. On rainy days, it was probably just muddy ground.

He specifically found a 50-year-old man here named Yokra Accajoa to be his guide. His clothes were relatively clean, but he probably hadn't showered in a while, and the smell was a bit strong.

He hired him at a "high price" of 150 pesos a day, and then the two sat in a relatively clean open space to talk.

“I come from the Caaguazú Department of Paraguay. I came here when I was 21, it seems like January 1925, it was still summer, but not too hot.

Back then, Buenos Aires was truly prosperous. I found a job paying 1000 pesos a month. In those days, 5 pesos could buy 2 pounds of bread. Unfortunately, it didn't last long. I clearly remember being laid off when I was 25, and I never found a formal job again…”

“At that time, I had just gotten married, and a new president came to power. They dissolved many small factories, and I lost my job again.

I could only make a living by scavenging. Later, my wife died of illness because I didn't have money for treatment. I miss her so much… We didn't have any children.” Yukhla's face looked somewhat sad.

“After Mawa passed away, I couldn't afford to rent a house anymore, so I came to the train station. There are many homeless people like me here. Sometimes I can work as a porter at the dock, but my health is getting worse and worse.”

“I can only make a living by scavenging. Fortunately, my house isn't made of wood.”

“Can you give me a tour?”

“No problem, Mr. Reporter.”

“In this block, seven or eight families live together. More than half of the people don't have houses and can't access basic services like water, electricity, and gas.”

Yes, the water here is somewhat polluted and unclean, not like the tap water in the central city.

San Jose came to a "house." It was made of simple broken bricks and cement, and it was low, dark, and more than two meters high. This room was estimated to be 10 square meters.

Newspapers were pasted on the walls, and the air was filled with a stale smell mixed with the smell of dead rats. The only furniture in the house was a small bed, a bench, and some useless garbage.

After the tour, San Jose went to interview other people. After walking for a long time, San Jose saw a woman in her 20s, washing clothes. She seemed to be a laundry worker, with a pale and haggard face, her hands white from being soaked, and her body hunched over.

“Madam, I'm from the *Buenos Aires Metropolitan Daily*. Can I interview you?”

“I'm sorry, I don't have time.”

“I can pay you, 50 pesos per hour.”

“No problem, Mr. Reporter, what do you want to ask?”

“Can you tell me about your situation?”

“My name is Mary. I'm a laundry worker here. I wash clothes thirty-one days a month. I'm 24 years old this year. I'm from the Chaco Province. I married my husband, but he ran away. I have a son now…”

“I can earn 1500 pesos a month, which is enough for household expenses, but the bread is too expensive.”

Mary didn't stop washing clothes, coughed, and continued washing clothes, a happy smile suddenly appearing on her face.

San Jose saw a skinny little boy who looked about five years old running in from outside, his face covered in dirt, his hair matted and covered in mud, and you could vaguely see lice jumping around.

“Mom, I was lucky today and earned 20 pesos!”

After saying that, he stuffed a tattered bill into Mary's pocket, then cautiously looked at San Jose and Yukhla, hugging Mary's leg, looking a little scared.

“I'm sorry for the trouble. This is my son, little Robert. He's 9 years old this year. He occasionally goes scavenging with adults to earn some money to supplement the household income.”

The two asked and answered, chatting a lot.

“Thank you, Ms. Mary. This is your payment.”

San Jose took out 100 pesos from his pocket and handed it to the woman.

“Thank you, you are too generous, Mr. Reporter, this is already two days' income for our family.”

San Jose actually wanted to give more, but in the end, he didn't. He handed the bread in his pocket that he hadn't eaten to little Robert, opened his mouth but didn't say anything more, and hurriedly said goodbye to Mary and her son.

After the interview, San Jose left the outer city and gave the hiring fee to Yukhla.

“Boss, thank you so much. If you need anything, you can come to my house and find me.”

In the following two weeks, San Jose also interviewed many excellent middle school students who didn't go to college, mostly because they didn't have the money to live in a house in Buenos Aires, either because the time spent on the road was too much, or because the family was difficult to maintain, affecting and abandoning their studies, or being expelled from school.

Occasionally, he would also encounter some small gangsters, mobsters, scavengers, beggars, and workers working in harsh environments.

Were there people who wanted to provoke San Jose? Of course, there were.

Most of the first few who didn't have eyes were beaten up by San Jose, and those who were even more blind and tried to retaliate simply had their hands and feet broken, letting them lie down for a few months. If there were really criminals with guns, San Jose would just shoot them down.

So, throughout the outer city, a "urban legend" circulated: a person wearing a reporter's uniform was very unfriendly to gangsters and mobsters, but was nice to children and the elderly, affectionately calling him "the Robin Hood of Buenos Aires."

San Jose also saw school children kicking pig bladders, just like playing football. He couldn't help but sigh that Argentinians, from young to old, were mostly football fans.

… …

After collecting the material, San Jose's thoughts couldn't calm down for a long time.

His original intention was to reflect on his own eating problem, but he found that there were so many people who didn't even have food to eat, didn't have jobs, and education was even more outrageous. They couldn't even afford to go to middle school, let alone college. The Eva Foundation was just a palliative charity relief.

Unfortunately, he was temporarily unable to change these things. In the end, he decided to return to his original intention and first hit the Ministry of Education's target. As for the development issues of the slums, he would collect the data first.

San Jose was also a little fortunate that his predecessor was not such a completely bottom-level person, otherwise he would have had to start with a bowl.

Regarding the initial intention of getting food, it still had to be done. San Jose came up with another plan. He would start with newspaper publicity, write a column article, then change the skin, change the person, and submit it.

Bombarding Argentina's university policy with real facts and data, using the exaggerated self-media style of later generations, and clickbait titles, would basically be adopted by the city's newspapers. This was a news hit.

《The Reasons Behind the Lack of Student Canteens and Dormitories at the University of Buenos Aires Bring Tears to Parents and Cries to Students》

《Shocking! Why Don't Argentine Universities Have Canteens? The Result is Disappointing》

《In-depth Interpretation of the Highest Education Ministry's Policy, Decoding the Real Reasons》

《What Force Causes Poor College Students to Drop Out of School?》

One article after another, written by San Jose, combining Eastern and Western styles, using shock titles, and mixed with San Jose's emotional output,

strongly criticized Argentina's university policy, especially the lack of canteens.

It formed a spontaneous spread that triggered public discussion among city residents, trying to force the Argentine Ministry of Education to reform. Finally, it vaguely put forward a learning direction, which was the Soviet-style university campus construction, which was very suitable for learning, and the cost was not as high as American-style private universities or British-style universities.

In particular, the problem of college students' food and accommodation was solved, accusing the Argentine Ministry of Education of inaction, laziness, and unfairness.

In name, ordinary people are exempt from tuition fees, but in fact, they are engaged in elite education. In name, tuition fees are exempt, but textbook fees are not, and housing cannot be loaned, and the interest rate is frighteningly high.

They expanded the enrollment of students, but rejected the real civilian geniuses. Attached were his interview information and a large amount of detailed information and data reports, which caused a sensation, and then was suppressed by the Peron government authorities, who summoned and warned the newspaper and San Jose.

Although this publicity campaign failed, it also made San Jose truly see the power of public opinion, and it also caused some discussion in Buenos Aires. The managers of the University of Buenos Aires did discuss some things, which can be regarded as a kind of progress.

This was a simple attempt by San Jose.

… …

The three-week weekend survey was neither long nor short. Perhaps it was not in-depth, and perhaps many people in the slums only needed a job to get rid of poverty.

For San Jose, this shock was still huge. In his previous life, as a person living in modern New China,

he had mostly seen some urban villages, and most urban villages only had slightly worse sanitary and living conditions, and everything they should have was there, and even the living conditions were not bad.

In his previous life, he had never really seen or contacted slums, and most of his understanding came from movies, such as India's *Slumdog Millionaire* in Mumbai, and Brazil's *City of God* in Rio de Janeiro.

Only by actually visiting and investigating did he truly feel that this world was not friendly.