Reborn in Brazil As a Plutocrat

  Chapter 661 Arms Race

  When General Crook proposed to let Fang Lang send the Rio de Janeiro aircraft carrier battle group southward, Fang Lang also said that only destroyers would be sent southward. This can be said to be a taboo in the workplace, let alone in the army.

  Although General Crook said this sentence at a private party, Fang Lang's words still made General Crook frowned slightly. But he was not angry either. Although Fang Lang was his subordinate, Fang Lang was not an ordinary subordinate.

   In his opinion, with Fang Lang's strength and status, he is qualified to raise objections to his opinions. More importantly, he has never been a self-righteous general, and he can't do things that don't listen to other people's suggestions.

  Fang Lang, as a general with a brilliant record under him, can put forward his ideas, and it will be more conducive to him to formulate future naval strategies and fill in his possible omissions.

  So, his frown quickly relaxed, his face changed into a trace of solemnity, and he said in a slightly sincere tone:

   "Oh! Are you worried that when they see our aircraft carrier fleet, they will devote more energy to the navy and pose a threat to our navy in the future?"

Fang Lang, who noticed General Crook's frown, thought that General Crook would be angry, but he didn't expect him to adjust so quickly, and couldn't help raising General Crook's evaluation by another level in his heart .

  But from General Crook's words, Fang Lang can also see that, as the Minister of the Navy, although he knows that Argentina is making some moves now, he doesn't know much about their real situation.

  Even Argentina is investigating the intelligence of the British Giant-class aircraft carrier. At this time, in Argentina, although it has made it clear that it wants to improve its military strength, it intends to seize the dominance of South America.

  However, domestic soldiers also have conflicts between the navy and the army. After all, the annual military expenditure is only so much. The price of any warship in your navy can make the army support a division.

   What's more, you still want to build an aircraft carrier. Isn't this going to drive the army crazy? Therefore, although the Argentine Navy has begun to actively seek to purchase aircraft carriers, it is not so easy to pass in Argentina.

  If the Brazilian Navy sends its aircraft carrier battle group to the South Pacific to show off its power at this time, the Argentine aircraft carrier plan that should have been repeatedly verified may be advanced.

   This is not what Fang Lang wants to see, it's not that Fang Lang is afraid of a strong opponent. He knew very well in his heart that the competition between Argentina and Brazil was at most a small-scale arms race.

   It will not trigger a large-scale war between the two countries at all. After all, Argentina is not stupid. Their strategy from the beginning was to wait until the US-Soviet war involved Brazil and make Brazil hurt. Then start to attack.

  If there had been no war between the United States and the Soviet Union, or if Brazil had not been involved, Juan Veron would never allow the armies of the two countries to wipe out their guns.

  Fang Lang is looking forward to a normal arms race, but if this arms race is forcibly accelerated from the beginning, Fang Lang is not willing.

  Because of the situation of Fangyuan Shipyard, although the imitation work of the Fletcher-class destroyer has been completed, the new guided missile destroyer has not yet come out!

   At this time, if the arms race between Brazil and Argentina suddenly escalates, the Brazilian Navy's equipment update may miss his shipyard.

  Although the funds for updating the equipment of the Brazilian Navy may still flow into the pockets of the Shata Company, this is not what he wants.

  Purchasing from Shata Company, at most he can be a middleman and earn a little difference. How can the Navy entrust Fangyuan Shipyard to independently develop and manufacture it?

   Of course he couldn't directly tell General Crook what he really thought. Fortunately, when he made this suggestion, he was already prepared.

   "Of course not, our navy is never afraid of any threats. If the Argentine Navy really wants to try their skills with us, I will let them understand why the water in the Atlantic Ocean is so salty.

The first reason why I only let the Fletcher-class destroyers go to the South Atlantic Ocean is that we don’t border their waters. If we let the aircraft carrier fleet go south, the first one that will be nervous is not Argentina, but Uruguay .

  This may push Uruguay to Argentina, which is a taboo in diplomacy and obviously inappropriate. But a Fletcher-class destroyer has no problems at all.

  Neither Uruguay nor Argentina feel it is a threat. But at the same time, the Fletcher-class destroyer can be regarded as one of the most advanced destroyers of this era.

  It is far from being comparable to those warships in their country that were still in World War I. In this way, we can achieve the purpose of warning each other and avoid leaving provocative words for the international community. "

  Crook was taken aback by Fang Lang's words. He didn't expect that Fang Lang's perspective had already jumped out of the military level, and he began to consider issues from the diplomatic level. This situation is higher than him.

But I have to say that Fang Lang's words are very reasonable. Brazil and Argentina have a direct border on land, but there is really no border on coastal defense. The Navy provoked each other.

  It may really have some bad influence on the international community, especially when there is a Uruguay in the middle.

  Fang Lang was observing General Crook's expression while speaking, and seeing his slight nod, he couldn't help but heaved a sigh of relief, and continued to speak:

   "The second reason is that our Brazilian economy is now in a period of rapid development due to the European recovery plan. The country is also in a critical period of transition from a traditional agricultural economy to an industrial economy.

  At this important time node, fully developing the economy is the focus of our work in Brazil, rather than shifting the focus of work because of the provocation of a clown.

   It won’t be too late to turn around and clean up Argentina after Brazil takes advantage of this rare opportunity to completely complete the industrialization transformation.

  Finally, there is another reason, that is, I feel that the current policy of the new Argentine government is simply a joke.

  They, like us, are agricultural countries. Relying on receiving a large number of Nazi remnants from Germany, they barely started industrial transformation.

   Before the basic industrialization is completed, they can't wait to expand their influence by upgrading their armaments.

   As everyone knows, when they actively accepted a large number of Nazi remnants from the beginning, they have already come to the opposite of most countries in the world.

   There is a saying in our hometown: If you are right, you will get more help, but if you are wrong, you will get little help.

  Now everyone doesn't bother to pay attention to him. Once he gets too far and makes some excessive moves, his good days will come to an end. "

   Now General Crook is really looking at Fang Lang differently. In Brazil, most of the soldiers are relatively pure, and many of them do not have a wide range of education and knowledge.

  After a long period of hard work in the army, after being promoted, most of them are using the knowledge they have learned from the army to look at problems.

  It’s okay to look at the problem from this perspective, but only considering the problem from the military point of view will often lead to people doing things in a relatively simple and rude way, only knowing what it is, not knowing why it is.

   But when Fang Lang thought about the problem, he was different from all the soldiers that Crook knew. His overall view and strategic vision had even surpassed his own. This shocked General Crook very much.

   You must know that the Brazilian army during this period was actually very backward, if it weren't for participating in World War II and being exposed to some of the latest strategic and tactical theories.

  In the eyes of European and American countries, they are actually not much different from the African countries in the eyes of everyone now. Of course, the navy is a high-tech arm, and many officers still have a certain degree of education and knowledge.

  But in Brazil during this period, their naval officers also mainly studied relevant military theories and knowledge in Portuguese military academies.

  But Portugal has not participated in a large-scale war for many years, and it has long been in a backward position in the study of military theory.

  In this case, it is even more conceivable what Brazil can learn from Portugal.

   Brazilians also don't realize that an army without culture is a stupid army. Of the entire Brazilian army now, only Fang Lang has carried out cultural study courses in his fleet.

   Let soldiers participate in the basic knowledge of army organization in their spare time, so that even after they retire, they can still take the exam and join the Brazilian police force.

   No one has ever told the soldiers that they should have faith and know why they were soldiers. Everyone joins the army for the purpose of serving as a soldier, which is why military coups often occur in Brazil.

  To sum up, the current Brazilian army is in the same situation as the Kuomintang army in the early days of the Anti-Japanese War.

  That's why General Crook was so surprised after hearing what Fang Lang said.

   "So, your judgment is that Argentina is nothing to worry about, and we don't need to pay too much attention to their actions?"

   Seeing that General Crook seemed to be limping a little bit by himself, Fang Lang quickly denied:

  "Of course not. Although Argentina has many problems, they are also one of the powerful countries in South America. We must not turn a blind eye to their small actions, which may make them mistakenly think that we are weak and deceptive.

  I mean, we just need to respond equally to them. There is no need to show our hole cards to the other party just because of their little move.

   Aren't they ramping up troops on the border right now? We only need to increase the number of troops slightly higher than theirs, and we can firmly overwhelm the opponent.

   As for the navy, we will first send a Fletcher-class destroyer to the South Atlantic to declare our strength, and then we can take a look at their navy's movements.

  If they also send destroyers, we will send cruisers next time, and if they send cruisers, it will not be too late for us to send the carrier battle group south. "

  Hearing this, General Crook frowned again, and said with some dissatisfaction:

   "Isn't this a refueling tactic? According to what you said, if we send an aircraft carrier battle group directly to their doorstep, they will consider the issue of configuring an aircraft carrier for their navy.

  If this is the case, maybe we can drag down their hard-earned economy with just one click. "

  Hearing General Crook's words, Fang Lang couldn't help but frowned. What's going on, hasn't this old boy been limp by himself just now? Why does it seem like he didn't listen to his previous words at all now?

  It seems that in his heart, he is still more inclined to directly send the aircraft carrier battle group south! After thinking for a while, Fang Lang added a cup of tea to General Crook again, and then looked at General Crook with a searching face and said:

   "And then? Is Your Excellency the General really planning to fight Argentina?"

Now it is General Crook's turn to hesitate. It is absolutely impossible to say that he wants to go to war with Argentina deliberately. Brazil, which has just experienced a world war, also wants a peaceful environment. , no one wants to ignite the flames of war again.

  At this time, he also thought of what Fang Lang just said, that Brazil is in an important period of transition from an agricultural society to an industrial society, and at this time he doesn't even want to really go to war with Argentina.

  So, soon he shook his head and said:

   "No, I don't really want to go to war with Argentina."

  Hearing the words, Fang Lang smiled slightly, and after filling up the tea in front of him, he said unhurriedly:

   "So, the conflict between us and Argentina is at most just a border friction. If they don't take the initiative to start a war with us, we actually don't want to take the initiative to start a war with each other. Right?"

  Hearing Fang Lang's question, General Crook didn't make a sound, but nodded slowly. Seeing this, Fang Lang didn't take it seriously, and after taking a sip from the teacup with a smile, he said:

   "If this is the case, why should we directly send the aircraft carrier battle group to let things develop in an uncontrollable direction?

   It is better to follow my method and slowly drag Argentina into the quagmire of the arms race. With their current industrial base, they simply do not have the ability to produce their own arms and can only rely on external procurement.

   This will greatly deplete their foreign exchange reserves, while delaying their industrialization process.

   But we are completely different. Now we have the ability to produce our own Fletcher-class destroyers, and the new guided missile destroyers are about to be finalized.

  If necessary, we can produce our own cruisers and even aircraft carriers. In this case, how can they compete with us.

   At that time, we don't need to start fighting, dragging them can drag them to death. "

  At this time, General Crook finally understood Fang Lang's long-distance plan. He wanted to take this opportunity to support his family's shipyard!

   But, I have to say, what he said is very reasonable. With Argentina's current industrial base, it can't even produce its own ships, let alone warships.

  If you want to engage in an arms race with Brazil, you will really be dragged into the quagmire by Brazil. At that time, the foreign exchange reserves that could have been used to develop the economy were replaced by warships, tanks, rifles and artillery.

   Finally, what can Argentina get? Maybe their country's economy has been dragged into the abyss before their equipment is fully equipped. Don't talk about war with Brazil at that time, maybe the people in the country will rebel.

  In this case, wouldn't Brazil win easily? At the same time, because of the arms race with Argentina, the Fang family's shipyard and military enterprises have received full support from the Brazilian government and have truly become Brazil's military giants.

   This is really killing two birds with one stone! How could this young man have such a superb strategic vision.

  (end of this chapter)