Chapter 5 Family Life

"Where is my mother?" After retreating, Peter asked the attendant beside him.

"Your Highness, the lady is preparing dinner in the backyard!"

Peter walked through the corridor and came to the manor. This is connected to the castle. When Peter just entered the manor, his mother, Maria, saw him.

"Oh, my child. Are you okay in the territory? You have lost weight."

As soon as she saw Peter, Grand Duchess Maria turned into an old mother mode. She asked Peter this and that.

"Mother, I'm fine. Don't worry!"

As Peter said, he asked someone to show his mother the things he brought back from Constanza.

Except for his mother Maria, other family members ran over when they heard that Peter was back.

"Brother, you are back."

The first one to run over was Peter's younger brother Mikhail. This boy, two years younger than him, was originally the future ruler of Wallachia, but now Peter has taken the lead. But don't worry, he will have a good future.

"Come. Let your brother see if you have grown taller." Then they kissed, hugged and lifted up high, which was very warm for the family.

"Peter, you play with your brothers and sisters first. I asked the kitchen to prepare your favorite dishes!"

"Great"

During the preparation of dinner, Peter kept playing with his brothers and sisters. Either he competed with Mikhail in strength or gave them the gifts he prepared. Among them, Mikhail got a set of armor, another brother Vlad got some books, and the two sisters had four maids. He bought them from Crimea.

After the servant notified that dinner was ready, Peter stopped fighting with his brothers. At the table, everyone was eating delicious food, but old Mircea and Peter were a little worried.

Mircea was not unmoved by Peter's proposal. It's just that he was a little unsure whether he could annex such a large piece of territory, because there were two big guys, Hungary and Poland, next to him. If he wanted to buy it, he didn't have that much money. Unless it was like the Teutonic Knights. (The East Pomerania region was purchased for 10,000 gold coins)

But for now, the expansion of land should be kept in mind. Because according to the news, the Ottomans may have a big move in the Balkans.

The current situation in the Balkans is: the Ottomans turned Serbia into a vassal after the Battle of Kosovo. At the same time, Bulgaria was divided into three countries, but the Bulgarian Tsar still did not surrender to him, which made Bayezid decide to completely destroy the country.

From the current situation, Wallachia is very dangerous. Because there are only two Ottoman vassal states between him and the Ottomans, he must be fully prepared, which is why he called Peter back from Constanta.

The next day, Mircea and Peter were staring at the map on the table in the conference room, with only three close ministers beside them.

"According to the news, the Ottomans are planning to annex Bulgaria and Vidin, but recently they have transferred their troops to Asia Minor. This gives us an opportunity."

"Father wants to take advantage of this time to support Bulgaria?" Peter asked.

Mircea nodded, and then added, "This is not my idea alone. The Hungarian King Žigmond sent me a letter, proposing that Hungary and Wallachia jointly establish a new Bulgaria." ("Žigmond" is pronounced in Hungarian, and is often translated as "Sigismund")

Peter had long thought that the Hungarian king would definitely win over Wallachia. Because of its geographical location, it is destined that they must join a camp.

"Father, since we are going to respond to Hungary, we must be prepared for defense." Peter suggested to his father that new castles should be built in Bucuri (Bucharest), Giurgiu and other places, and military training should be increased. Mircea agreed.

In order to resist the Ottomans, Mircea also tried to form an army composed of farmers and citizens. And Peter also helped. With his help, Wallachia conducted its first census. And a law was formulated that free farmers needed to join the army. As long as they received training and obeyed the call, they could not only get a military salary, but also other rewards.

In this case, the enthusiasm of farmers in Wallachia to join the army immediately increased a lot. And Grand Duke Mircea also established the Military and Political Council as an institution for the ruler to lead the army, which not only accelerated the construction of the army, but also strengthened centralization.

The following few days were full of joy. Putting aside political affairs, the life of the Grand Duke's family was actually very good. As an elder brother, Peter conducted a series of "love education" for his younger brothers. After all, whether in terms of strength or other aspects, Peter could crush them. This also made them very unconvinced.

"Humph, big brother, wait, one day I will become more powerful than you!"

"Okay, I'll wait for you. I hope you won't let me down."

In this way, a month passed, and Peter had to return to his fiefdom. Before he left, Mircea talked to him alone. It is unknown what they talked about, but from then on, the Wallachian army began to conduct large-scale training.

————Dividing line————

Peter led the guards along the avenue. Passing through Bukuri, Giurgiu and other places, he saw the city defense there. It was much better than what he had seen a year ago, especially Giurgiu, which was regarded by the local garrison as a lock on the Danube.

On the way back, Peter also went to a manor in the north. He had just bought it a month ago, and the price was very low. The reason was that the manor owner ordered the farmers to dig a well and suddenly some black stuff sprayed out. It was very sticky and had an unpleasant smell. The manor owner had no choice but to sell it at a low price. So Peter bought it.

By the way, this place was later called Ploiesti. It is an important oil city in Romania.

After a month's journey, Peter finally arrived in Constanta. Archon Alexander had been waiting for him for a long time.

"The great lord has returned to Constanta, may God be with you."

Peter enjoyed this ceremony very much, because he used to see it in books, but now he felt it in person. This also made him enjoy it. After all, he was a man who was determined to change history.

Arriving at the city hall, Alexander immediately reported the latest work to Peter.

"Your Highness, more than 1,000 people came here during your absence. They all fled from Moldova."

"Moldova, what happened again?" Peter asked.

"I heard that the lord of Chilia spent money lavishly, resulting in more expenses than income, so he had to increase taxes."

Alexander's words made Peter's eyes light up. How could he forget about banks?

At this time, financial institutions had not yet evolved into banks. Some wealthy families would lend money to people who were in urgent need of money, and then collect principal and interest when due. Moreover, wealthy families were only found in southern Italy, and there were no institutions similar to banks in various countries.

"What do you think of our lending business?" Peter asked Alexander.

Alexander thought for a while and answered. "Your Highness, currently only Genoa and Venice are lending in Eastern Europe. If we join, it will inevitably be a more difficult battle, but the profit will also be very large."

After getting the affirmation of the supervisor, Peter immediately decided to enter the lending industry. Of course, the principal cannot be too much, 10,000 ducats will do.

In addition to trade, Peter also runs another industry here, the salt industry.

At present, if you want to eat salt, you can only buy it from coastal countries or principalities with salt mines in the Holy Roman Empire. Generally speaking, the principalities with salt mines are relatively wealthy, such as Lübeck.

However, their salt production is very rough and tastes bad. After investigating the local situation, Peter built several salt ponds in the north of Constanta and also built a ditch to drain the bittern. Those fools didn't know that as long as they dumped the bittern, they could harvest salt that is a hundred times stronger than now. Unfortunately, they didn't know.

Because of the European climate, Peter used the salt boiling method to obtain salt. After the production stabilized, a large amount of salt could be obtained every day.