The car drove slowly towards the restaurant. The Modena restaurant was located near Columbus Avenue, passing through the third and fourth districts. It was a relatively remote place.
Durant, who was sitting next to him, was still a little restrained. The two chatted casually, and the air suddenly fell into silence.
Saint Jose said nothing more, turning to look at the street outside the car window. The climate in early spring was not hot, with a hint of cool breeze. It was a very suitable time for the construction site to start. The citizens were also busy one after another. Feeling prosperous,
There are more people on the streets today than in the past few days. Job advertisements in the Lingang Industrial Zone are all over the Port of Blanca. Stimulated by the advertisements, many citizens go out to find jobs that suit them. Saint Jose begins to fulfill its original purpose campaign promises.
Under the strict requirements of the City Hall and the Police Department, we have beaten, arrested, and locked up some people. Public security has been greatly improved. Plus, I have work to keep busy. There are fewer people making trouble. After all, this is a small place. of a city.
Columbus Avenue, where Southern University is located, is not a wealthy area, but the road is quite spacious.
Lingang Industrial Zone has officially begun large-scale construction. To build, construction teams and construction workers are required. It is too slow to train a batch of construction workers locally, so it is mainly based on a few construction companies in Maria City. The number of local workers will not be recruited in the future. It will be less,
Increasing the employment rate is also St. Jose's guarantee to ensure new jobs. In addition, St. Jose is also supporting some new construction companies locally.
The Modena restaurant is said to be a French restaurant. The location is quite unique. The surrounding area is not too busy and there are many trees. It seems that the owner Monad is a Frenchman and has spent time in several big cities in Europe such as London, Paris and Berlin. For a short time, after World War II, because the Pétain government surrendered, I felt that the future was not very good.
He simply immigrated to Argentina and stayed in Buenos Aires for more than a year, and then came to Puerto Blanca. He said it was because it was very similar to his hometown of Lyon, and the overall look was relatively clean and tidy. .
Monad also boasted a lot of things. For example, when he was in the First Army, he killed the Germans in the Battle of Verdun, and the killing was miserable. He also resisted the Germans on the Maginot Line. After being surrounded, he followed other The troops broke out and ran to Paris,
He saved France's vitality and participated in the Dukirk evacuation. However, Saint Jose thought that he was only forty years old. He was a soldier at the age of six or seven? I thought it was quite outrageous, so Saint Hesse listened politely.
The further back he went, the more I felt that at least what he was saying was quite true, and it was quite interesting. At least starting from the Maginot Line, it was quite true.
Today's meeting took a lot of thought, and Professor Durant didn't seem to particularly care about Monad's bragging. Anyway, the food in this restaurant is still good. As for bragging, the French seem to be quite good at it.
Monad opened a bottle of high-end wine that was said to be produced by a French winery, priced at $2, and then slowly backed away. The price made Durant very painful.
"The next dish is the Girardeau oysters from France, which are great when eaten raw, and the last dish, foie gras, will be served immediately."
Monad said something before leaving, and then walked quickly toward the kitchen with small steps.
San Jose and Durant also slowly talked about urban development. They even talked a lot about the situation in Maria City. Puerto Blanca is not a remote country, but in terms of economic development, it is on par with the capital and the province. The gap between governments is indeed huge.
For example, the current main force in building the Lingang Industrial Zone is three construction companies from Maria City.
In the past two years, the construction industry in Maria City has grown by leaps and bounds with the intentional support of Saint Jose. Four construction companies with more than a thousand employees have emerged, including Cohen Construction, Harris Road Construction, Qingyun Construction, and Yuhua Construction. It took most of the expansion of the city of Malia and the city of Oran in the north, and began to expand to other places.
The boss of Qingyun Construction is Chen Qingyun, a former employee of St. Jose. Chen Qingyun was supported by St. Jose from the beginning. Being a construction worker is actually not that simple, and even requires some retraining.
Therefore, architecture schools and the like have also been established. At least one must have a primary school diploma to become a construction worker. Most of the construction workers in Maria City come from Bolivia, Paraguay and northern Argentina, and their education level is indeed average.
The boss of Yuhua Construction is also a person named Lin Yuhua from Cordoba's Chinatown. This is quite unexpected. During the development period of Maria Town, he was a construction worker. Later, he started contracting small projects and gradually became a large-scale construction worker. A contractor, he finally established his own construction company. He has a pretty good relationship with Cross now, and his methods are quite high. With the approval of Saint Jose, he obtained a lot of loans.
Cohen Construction is St. Jose's own company, and it intends to control its scale. After all, the construction industry and real estate industry are not very suitable for St. Jose. He is more behind the scenes, and now has the status of a training school. Some group leaders who come out here, Gradually, he became a small contractor. Harris Road Construction was mainly responsible for building cement roads, which was also supported by St. Jose.
I remembered that when I came to Puerto Blanca to run for parliament two months ago, the Radical Party headquarters was not rich. Apart from formal notifications, it did not give San Jose many resources. The Radical Party here was also severely suppressed.
Fortunately, the Radical Party was able to maintain the size of the two candidates, and with a series of operations in St. Hesse, it was possible to become a member of the parliament without any risk. It was not until after taking office that the construction of the Lingang Industrial Zone was proposed, and the municipal government Thanks to the establishment of a relationship with the Hall, Saint Jose finally took root. This united most of the radicals.
Now the Blanca branch has expanded a lot in size. It has established several new departments and a new headquarters. It has recruited and screened a group of young and energetic members, trained them, and placed its own people. Finally, it has been mastered. Division.
As the first city in the hands of San Jose, the construction industry in Maria City has expanded faster and faster with the urban infrastructure. Coupled with administrative reforms, the integrated development process of the city and county has accelerated, and it has integrated development with General San Martin County. The city area expanded directly from 20 square kilometers to 5006 square kilometers.
The residential population has also crossed the 200,000 mark from 158,000 in one fell swoop. There were more than 50,000 people in the suburbs of the original San Martín General County. Now the new city has 220,000 people, making it a veritable medium-sized Argentine city and the largest city in Cordoba Province. second biggest city.
The next step of expansion and construction can be carried out. The only problem is that the province of Cordoba is arguing with the city of Maria. Should the newly merged city be called San Martin or Maria? Cross also sent a telegram to let San Jose makes a decision.
St. Jose actually prefers the city of St. Martin. After all, St. Martin is more famous as Argentina's national hero, and it is also conducive to attracting more people. The original city of María will be regarded as the district of María. Maria District can be expanded more than ten times in size, and the suburbs can be divided into several towns. The reply briefing has been sent back to Cross.
Moreover, with the commissioning of the La Plata Steel Plant, the problem of steel bars is no longer a problem, and the expansion of the Sidek Cement Plant has also accelerated. Argentina has no shortage of raw materials for cement production, and with French technology, the price of the cement produced has fluctuated. As the scale expands, production costs will be greatly reduced.
With cheap steel and cement, construction costs will also drop a lot.
In the next few years, St. Jose's requirements are that most of the current fiscal expenditures of the city of Maria are invested in infrastructure and vocational and technical education. Higher education is still quite difficult. St. Jose's positioning of the city of Maria is basically a production base. and industrial cities,
The scientific researchers of the newly established San Martin Aircraft Factory arrived, and the city of Maria had its first research institute. However, this research institute burned too much money. In order to generate revenue and maintain a balance of payments, San Jose could only provide aircraft. The manufacturing plant opened some processing plants to allow them to generate income. The old tractor factory in Cordoba was also moved here and the original affiliated factories were reopened.
The industry in the city of María in central Argentina is growing at an alarming rate. It not only has the most fertile land in Argentina, but also has copper mines, tungsten mines and other minerals. San Jose has already prepared to invest in the construction of a special steel plant here to provide Steel required for the production of tanks, arsenal artillery, and Sanhai Shipbuilding services.
Prali Food has also been involved in various aspects such as meat product processing and grain production. During this economic crisis, it merged and acquired two major state-owned glass factories, and also acquired several flour mills, oil pressing plants and other various processing plants. It has made rapid progress and shipped goods. Export transshipment will also be transported through the Port of Blanca in the future.
What surprised Saint Jose was that the number of Chinese in Cordoba Province, including the cities of María and Cordoba, was growing rapidly, from a few hundred in previous years to tens of thousands, including some Black households, the Saint-Joseph-Jean-Maria Police Department provides them with shelter and help and integrates into local society.
Most of these Chinese come from the Southeast Asia region. Now the national independence movements in Southeast Asia, especially Indonesia and Malaya, and frequent wars have caused many people who seek advantages and avoid disadvantages to flee here. Argentina has become one of the new destinations, second only to in the United States.
As an international new arms trader, Saint-Jesse sold arms worth more than 10 million US dollars in Nanyang this year, excluding French arms sales, and made huge profits. A large part of it was through cooperation with small local warlords. , there are even some Chinese organizations,
From the beginning, it was pistols, rifles, firearms and bullets, military shoes and socks, and later it also included mortars and other light artillery. If he didn't dare to be too arrogant here, he even wanted to sell tanks.
According to the estimates of the arms factory arms experts, these batches of arms can arm at least a 30,000-person light infantry force, which is amazing. In this way, Saint-Jesse has become the world's largest new arms trader with high quality. recognized by the French.
The two chatted while eating for a long time before getting to the main topic.
"Mr. Congressman, actually the main purpose of my visit this time is to seek sponsorship,"
"No matter how poor you are, you can't afford education. I am willing to help Southern University get some sponsorship. I will donate another 10,000 US dollars privately. This money can be used as you like. At the same time, I hope that Southern University can establish a normal college.
At the same time, we will establish a medical department, an affiliated hospital, and an affiliated middle school and primary school. I can ask people to donate a special fund of no less than 500,000 US dollars. I can even ask the bank to provide a low-interest loan to accelerate the development of the university. "
St. Jose knocked on the table, found a comfortable position, leaned back on the chair, stated his request, then stopped talking and looked at Durant seriously.
Starting from the second half of this year, the devaluation of the Argentine peso continues to accelerate, and a black market for foreign currency exchange has emerged. The exchange rate of U.S. dollars in the black market has become increasingly outrageous. There are also some valuable currencies such as pounds and francs, among which gold is the most popular.
While 10,000 US dollars can already build a 6-story teaching building in Argentina, 500,000 US dollars can do even more things. As for low-interest loans, Barron Commercial Bank will build a 6-story teaching building in Puerto Blanca at the end of November. It is ready to open. He will invest 20 million US dollars here to boost the economy of Port Blanca.
"I think these conditions are acceptable. We at Southern University need to save ourselves."
Durant thought seriously for more than ten minutes, and finally stood up and spoke seriously to Saint Jesus. After speaking, he took out the cooperation agreement from his bag and planned to sign an agreement with Saint Jesus first.
St. Hesse watched Durant conjuring a stack of cooperation. He was a little stunned. He also stood up and stretched out his hand with a smile.
"Then, happy working together."
To be honest, Southern University is still far from being a formal university, and he does not see the possibility of solving it in the short term. Saint Jose also needs a university to strengthen the scientific research capabilities of Port Blanca, and even medical, biotechnology, etc. , the two have a basis for cooperation.
The two initialed the agreement, and Saint-Jesse also signed a check from Barron's Bank for $10,000. The rest had to be handled by others, such as the establishment of an affiliated hospital, an affiliated middle school, an affiliated primary school, and the construction of teaching buildings. It is possible to cooperate, even with the Institute of Nuclear Physics. This is the advantage of being far away from the political forces in the capital.
After signing the agreement, Durant breathed a sigh of relief, and Saint-Jesse also took a sip of the drink, which was Coke produced by Prali Foods.
"Actually, Principal Durant, have you joined any political parties now?"
Saint Jose asked with great interest, even if the National University of the South is still very weak, with the progress of the construction of Blanca Port, the development of this university will not be any worse.
In the future, Durant will definitely rise. To be honest, there are not many talents in the education system in his camp, so Durant is a good candidate to win over.
If the Radical Party wants to make progress, it must also attract some suitable progressive targets, especially the three parties of politics, military and academia. A principal like Durant with great potential is very suitable to be brought into his camp.
After a while, he plans to visit the naval barracks in Port Blanca. The Argentine Navy is also a good target for penetration. As the second largest military port in Argentina, a large navy is stationed here.
"Well, it seems they have joined the Republican Party. They didn't pay much attention to what happened a long time ago. They just signed an organization application."
“So have you heard of the Radical Civic Front?”
...
After coming out of the restaurant, St. Jose and Durant walked to Southern University. In less than twenty minutes, the road became more and more remote.
It is indeed small and well-organized. Although it looks a bit shabby, it is not as good as the middle school building in the previous life.
Some buildings seem to be in the colonial style. The highest floor in the school is only four floors. You can see the campus at a glance. There are only some simple fences around the campus. It seems that you can also see the farms in the distance. Some sheep are directly there. Outside the fence, there are some cows running happily and pushing against the fence.
There are also some students, but their mental state does not seem to be very good. They even feel that they have been "cheated", just like the feeling of attending a pheasant university. Fortunately, Southern University is not a pheasant university.
"Cohen, it's true that this place is still a little rough, but with your financial help, the school building will be expanded soon."
Durant did not feel embarrassed and greeted the students enthusiastically. The students responded one by one, but they were not very interested.
"Well, it's indeed more than I imagined. Let's buy the surrounding land first. If the land becomes expensive in the future, it will be difficult to build."
As a St. Jose who has witnessed the start-up of campuses with thousands of acres in later generations, the campus that can be seen at this glance is only a few dozen acres. It is really too small and cannot be used at all. Reserve land is very important.
"Okay, Cohen, it's up to you."
Durant has just agreed to join the Radical Party, and the relationship between the two has taken a step forward.
Then it was time to plan for expansion of Southern University.
