Chapter 285 Winter of 1402

Just as the coalition was about to set off, trouble broke out in the south. Laszlo, the King of Naples, announced his conversion to Orthodoxy and joined Rome in declaring war on the Venetian Alliance.

This directly disrupted the rhythm of the coalition. The alliance was troubled by whether to go south or east, so they argued for two days and finally decided to divide the troops, 15,000 people went east and 10,000 people went south.

I really don’t know what language to use to describe it. They can only recruit mercenaries again. But now the Italian market is gone, and they can only recruit from the Holy Roman Empire and the French market.

The alliance can only use the money at the bottom of the box to save the emergency, and Rome has to raise taxes to deal with it. But in terms of size, Rome is still bigger.

Most of Venice’s fleet has been conscripted into armed merchant ships, and the spice trade with Egypt has been greatly reduced. But the trade export volume has not changed, because it is now under the responsibility of the Roman East India Company.

The East India Company has accumulated a lot of spices, transported them to the other side through Egypt, and then sold them. The money earned is divided into half to the company’s branch in the East.

All the industries that Venice was proud of were in depression, and their army was not good at all, so the ruling group gave the governor an idea to capture Constantinople from the sea and force Rome to sign a peace treaty.

The governor approved the proposal and prepared to capture Constantinople in one go. He ordered 90% of the country's ships to be assembled and armed, with the main force going to Constantinople and the others to rescue Crete and Rhodes.

This time Venice really spent a lot of money, because after several months of destruction, the number of Venice's ships dropped from 3,300 to 2,800. This is more than 2,000 ships going out directly. In the ruling group's imagination, Rome would surrender immediately after seeing such a large fleet, and it had to be obedient.

The war situation in northern Italy fell into stagnation again. The originally sunny weather rained for more than a month, followed by occasional drizzles, and the roads were muddy and difficult to walk. Peter had no choice but to let the army rest and think about the next tactics.

In a letter to his father, he wrote: The Empire's army can quickly destroy the enemy's army, but be careful of their navy. It is best to find a way to destroy their main force in one go.

Mircea agreed with this and ordered the Greek despot Theodore to pay attention to the dynamics of Venice and report it in time. At the same time, 20,000 people were recruited for military training.

After the order of the Governor of Venice was issued, it instantly aroused opposition, because this would use most of the ships for combat, which would have a great impact on Venice, a maritime country.

Moreover, Venice looked good on paper, saying that there were 3,300 ships, but it was just a number, but the ships sunk and looted by Rome and pirates were real. The Venetian government and merchants had a maximum of 2,000 ships, and with so many ships, where were the sailors?

According to 50 people per ship, 2,000 ships would require 100,000 people. This was to move the entire city of Venice onto the ship, which was obviously impossible.

The Venetian Parliament and the ruling group had a long argument. Since the strength of the various merchant factions was similar, it was impossible to rule dictatorially. The long argument began again.

Florence had regretted it at this time. They had joined the alliance only because they were brainwashed by the threats exaggerated by Venice. After joining, they found that they had no benefits at all, but lost a lot.

Some people began to be dissatisfied, and they began to attack the Obici family of the consul. But Obici was also very distressed. Now he could only go all the way, otherwise he and his family would be finished if he stopped now.

————Dividing line————

The war between Rome and the Venice Alliance also affected trade. Countries such as the Holy Roman Empire and France found that the goods that usually needed to be purchased through Italian city-states could be imported directly from Rome.

The goods gathered from Constantinople were transported to Western Europe using the Danube River. Because they bypassed several middlemen, the price was a little cheaper. The orders of those nobles and citizens increased directly, and Hungary in the middle also made a fortune.

In order to further attract Western labor, Rome also opened up the white slave trade, encouraging those pagans to capture a large number of Western Europeans for trading, and Rome would also provide reasonable prices based on market prices. This order attracted the attention of North Africa and Granada, who were both short of money.

The plundered population is placed in Anatolia. Isn't it said that there will be no people in the hollow? Now there are people. They were slaves at the beginning, responsible for development, planting and construction. Some obedient ones will be freed according to the time, while the worst ones will become serfs and have no hope for life.

In addition to Anatolia, Cyprus and the Aegean Islands will also buy some to supplement the labor force for local plantations. The sugar cane they produce is also a high-value export commodity, which requires a large number of laborers.

The Orthodox Church will preach and brainwash them, and those who are free will be promoted as models, and the rights obtained after joining the team serving Rome will be explained, including the possibility of promotion to officialdom and obtaining titles, which is a great temptation for civilians.

During this period when they could not go to war, Bavaria and the Palatinate sent letters to Venice, expressing their willingness to join the alliance. This made the governor burst into tears. Finally, there was support from a big man. It would be great if all the seven electors supported it.

Peter also received this news. The elector joined the war, and it seemed that he had to find a way to go to the southern region.

Just right, the sky cleared up. But winter is coming soon, and it is most important to take advantage of this opportunity to continue to expand the results of the war. Peter ordered Wojcick to lead his troops to the north to attack the Styrian region, and Constantine went south to seize the Istria Peninsula. Try to finish before Epiphany.

"The Roman army is coming!!!", this sentence spread like a plague to all parts of Austria, and they fled with their families to avoid becoming the dead souls under the knife of Rome.

Bavaria and the Palatinate accelerated the assembly of troops, and the Wittelsbach family assembled nearly 10,000 troops to support the south. Prepare to join forces with the Salzburg Bishopric and the Trento Bishopric to jointly deal with Rome.

Bohemia and Brandenburg continued to watch the show. Jobst was actively preparing to give Brandenburg to Vlad because he had taken hundreds of thousands of gold coins from Rome. It happened that the ruler of the County of Meissen was about to die, and he had no heirs, so giving him this place together was also a gift.

The Bartland family had no roots in Germany, so it was difficult for Vlad to rule here. The local family power was also an obstacle. In Peter's opinion, if the religious war that affected the entire Western European world could be expanded to Brandenburg, then it would be relatively easier to rule.