When General Crook suggested that Fang Lang send the Rio de Janeiro aircraft carrier battle group south, Fang Lang said that he would only send destroyers south. This was a big taboo in the workplace, not to mention in the military.
Although General Crook said this at a private gathering, Fang Lang's words still made General Crook frown slightly. But he was not angry. Although Fang Lang was his subordinate, he was not an ordinary subordinate.
In his opinion, Fang Lang's strength and status made him qualified to object to his opinion. More importantly, he was never a self-righteous general, and he would never ignore other people's advice.
As a general under his command with an outstanding record of military achievements, Fang Lang can put forward his ideas, which will be more conducive to his formulation of future naval strategies and fill in any omissions he may have.
Therefore, his frown soon relaxed, his expression became solemn, 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 noticed General Crook's frown and thought that General Crook would be angry, but he didn't expect that he would adjust so quickly. He couldn't help but raise his evaluation of General Crook by another level in his heart.
But from General Crook's words, Fang Lang could also see that as the Minister of the Navy, although he knew that Argentina was taking some actions, he did not know much about their real situation.
They didn't even know that Argentina was inspecting the British giant-class aircraft carrier. At this time, Argentina had already made it clear that it wanted to improve its military strength and seize the dominance of South America.
...
...
However, there is still a contradiction between the navy and the army in the country. After all, the annual military expenditure is limited. The price of any warship in your navy can support a division in the army.
What's more, you 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 an aircraft carrier, it is not so easy to pass in Argentina.
If the Brazilian Navy sends its own aircraft carrier battle group to the South Pacific to show off its strength at this time, the Argentine aircraft carrier plan, which should have been repeatedly verified, may be brought forward.
This was not what Fang Lang wanted to see, nor was it that Fang Lang was afraid of a strong opponent. He knew very well that the competition between Argentina and Brazil was at most a small-scale arms race.
It would not trigger a large-scale war between the two countries at all. After all, Argentina is not stupid. Their initial strategy was to wait until the US-Soviet War dragged Brazil into it and caused Brazil to suffer serious damage before launching an attack.
If there had not been a war between the United States and the Soviet Union, or if Brazil had not been involved, Juan Perón would never have allowed the two countries' armies to accidentally clash.
Fang Lang is very much looking forward to a normal arms race, but if this arms race is forcibly accelerated from the very beginning, it is not what Fang Lang wants.
Because according to the situation of Fangyuan Shipyard, although the imitation work of the Fletcher-class destroyer has been completed, the new 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 out on its shipyard.
Although the funds for the Brazilian Navy's equipment upgrade will most likely flow into the pockets of Shata Company, this is not what he wants.
If he purchased from Shata Company, he could at most be a middleman and make a profit from the price difference. It was not as good as the Navy entrusting Fangyuan Shipyard to independently develop and manufacture.
Of course, he couldn't tell General Crook his real thoughts directly. Fortunately, he was well prepared when he made this suggestion.
"Of course not. Our navy is not afraid of any threat. If the Argentine navy really wants to test its mettle with us, I will let them know why the Atlantic Ocean is so salty.
The first reason why I only sent the Fletcher-class destroyer to the South Atlantic is that our sea borders are not adjacent to theirs. If we send the aircraft carrier fleet south, the first one to be nervous will not be Argentina, but Uruguay.
This could push Uruguay to Argentina's side, which is a taboo in diplomacy and obviously inappropriate. But a Fletcher-class destroyer is completely fine.
Neither Uruguay nor Argentina would consider it a threat. But at the same time, the Fletcher-class destroyer is one of the most advanced destroyers of this era.
It is far from comparable to their warships that are still in the World War I era. In this way, we can both warn the other side and avoid giving the international community provocative remarks. "
Crook was stunned by Fang Lang's words. He didn't expect that Fang Lang's perspective had jumped out of the military level and began to consider the issue from a diplomatic perspective. This perspective was even higher than his.
But it must be said that what Fang Lang said makes sense. Brazil and Argentina have a direct border on land, but there is no border on coastal defense. If he comes to power, he will send the navy to provoke the other side because of Argentina's frequent actions on land.
It may indeed have some negative impact on the international community, especially when Uruguay is involved.
As Fang Lang spoke, he observed General Crook's expression. When he saw him nod slightly, he couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief and continued:
"The second reason is that Brazil's economy is now in a period of rapid development due to the European Recovery Plan. The country is also in a critical period of transformation from a traditional agricultural economy to an industrial economy.
At this important juncture in time, our priority in Brazil should be to develop the economy with all our strength, rather than shifting our focus because of the provocation of a clown.
Once Brazil has taken advantage of this rare opportunity and completely completed its industrial transformation, it will not be too late to turn around and deal with Argentina.
Finally, there is another reason, which is that I feel that the current policies of the new Argentine government are a joke.
Like us, they are an agricultural country, and they barely began their industrial transformation by taking over a large number of Nazi remnants from Germany.
Now, before even completing basic industrialization, they are eager to expand their influence by upgrading their armaments.
Little did they know that from the very beginning they actively accepted a large number of Nazi remnants, they had already gone against most countries in the world.
There is a saying in our hometown: Those who are in the right will have many supporters, while those who are in the wrong will have few supporters.
Now no one wants to pay attention to him. Once he goes too far and does something excessive, his good days will be over."
Now General Crook really looked at Fang Lang in a different light. In Brazil, most soldiers were relatively pure, and many of them did not have a broad academic background and knowledge.
After a long period of hard work in the army and getting promoted, I often use the knowledge I learned from the army to look at problems.
There is nothing wrong with looking at the problem from this perspective, but considering the problem purely from a military perspective will often lead to people doing things in a simple and crude way, only knowing the results but not the reasons behind them.
But Fang Lang's thinking was different from all the soldiers Crook knew. His overall view and strategic vision even surpassed his own. This shocked General Crook.
You have to know that the Brazilian army during this period was actually very backward, if it had not participated in World War II and been 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 everyone's eyes now. Of course, the navy is a high-tech branch of the military, and many officers still have a certain level of education and knowledge.
But during this period in Brazil, their naval officers mainly studied relevant military theories and knowledge at the Portuguese Military Academy.
But Portugal has not participated in a large-scale war for many years, and has long been lagging behind in military theory research.
In this case, it is easy to imagine what Brazil can learn from Portugal.
The Brazilians also did not realize that an army without culture is a stupid army. In the entire Brazilian army, only Fang Lang has carried out cultural learning courses in his fleet.
Let soldiers participate in basic knowledge learning organized by the army in their spare time, so that even after they retire, they can 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 are soldiers. Everyone joins the army just to be a soldier and get paid, 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 War of Resistance Against Japan.
That's why General Crook was so surprised after hearing what Fang Lang said.
"So, your judgment is that Argentina is not a concern at all, and we don't need to pay too much attention to their actions?"
Seeing that General Crook seemed to be fooled by him, Fang Lang quickly denied it:
"Of course not. Although Argentina has many problems, they are still one of the powerful countries in South America. We certainly cannot turn a blind eye to their small actions, which may make them mistakenly think that we are weak and can be bullied.
What I mean is that we just need to respond to them in an equal manner. There is no need to show all our cards to the other party just because of their small actions.
Aren't they increasing their troops on the border now? We only need to increase the number of troops slightly more than they do to gain a firm advantage over them.
As for the navy, we will first send a Fletcher-class destroyer to the South Atlantic to demonstrate our strength, and then we can see what their navy does.
If they also send out destroyers, we will send out cruisers next time, and if they send out cruisers, it won’t be too late for us to send the aircraft carrier battle group south.”
Hearing this, General Crook frowned again and said with some dissatisfaction:
"Isn't this a tactic of adding fuel to the fire? According to what you said, if we send an aircraft carrier battle group directly to their doorstep, will they consider equipping their navy with aircraft carriers?
If that is the case, we might just be able to bring down their economy that they have worked so hard to develop.”
Hearing General Crook's words, Fang Lang couldn't help but frown. What was going on? Wasn't this old man fooled by me just now? Why did he seem to have completely ignored what I said before?
It seems that in his heart, he is more inclined to send the aircraft carrier battle group directly south! After a little thought, Fang Lang poured another cup of tea for General Crook, then looked at General Crook inquiringly and said:
"And then? Is the General really going to fight Argentina?"
Now it was General Crook's turn to hesitate. It was absolutely impossible for him to deliberately go to war with Argentina. Brazil, which had just experienced the World War, also wanted a peaceful environment. No one wanted to ignite the war again unless they had no choice.
At this time, he also thought of what Fang Lang had just said, that Brazil was in an important period of transformation from an agricultural society to an industrial society. At this time, he did not want to really go to war with Argentina.
So, he quickly shook his head and said:
"No, I don't really want to go to war with Argentina."
Fang Lang smiled slightly after hearing this, and after refilling the tea in front of him, he said slowly:
"So, the conflict between us and Argentina is at most a border dispute. If they don't take the initiative to go to war with us, we don't actually want to take the initiative to go to war with them. Right?"
Hearing Fang Lang's question, General Crook didn't say anything, but just nodded slowly. Seeing this, Fang Lang didn't care. He smiled and picked up the teacup and took a sip before saying:
“If that’s the case, why would we just send an aircraft carrier battle group over there and let things develop in an often uncontrollable direction?
Why not 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 purchases.
This will greatly deplete their foreign exchange reserves and slow down their industrialization process.
But we are completely different. We now have the ability to produce Fletcher-class destroyers ourselves, and the new type of missile destroyer is about to be finalized.
If necessary, we can produce cruisers and even aircraft carriers by ourselves. In this case, how can they compete with us?
By then, we won’t need to fight them, we can just drag them to death.”
At this time, General Crook finally understood Fang Lang's long speech. He wanted to take this opportunity to support his family's shipyard!
But, I have to say, what he said makes a lot of sense. With Argentina's current industrial base, it cannot even produce its own ships, let alone warships.
If they want to engage in an arms race with Brazil, they will really be dragged into the quagmire by Brazil. By then, the foreign exchange reserves that could have been used to develop the economy will be exchanged for warships, tanks, rifles and artillery.
In the end, what will Argentina get? Maybe, before they even have enough equipment, their country's economy will be dragged into the abyss. By then, let alone going to war with Brazil, the people in their country may even rebel.
In this case, wouldn't Brazil win easily? At the same time, Fang's shipyards and military enterprises also received full support from the Brazilian government because of the arms race with Argentina, and truly became Brazil's military giant.
This is definitely killing two birds with one stone! How could this young man have such a superb strategic vision?
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
