Chapter 7 Army Construction with Surplus
With the trade surplus as capital, Peter could expand his army. Various weapons are also produced through the weapons workshop he opened. Only when you know that you have food and guns can you not panic.
Moreover, Peter also improved transportation. Various bridges were built, roads were built, and rivers were dredged, which made Dobroga's trade channels smoother. Before that, Peter abolished Dobroga's inbound and outbound taxes, as well as the fees for the use of roads and bridges. This is also an important reason for the rise of commerce in Constanta.
Peter still has many tasks ahead. But the most important thing is to expand the army.
The infantry and archers are easy to deal with, but the cavalry is a bit difficult. You must know that it is still very expensive to set up a cavalry in Europe now, except for those with particularly strong financial strength.
"Let's put it aside for now, let's expand the infantry first." Peter said to the financial director Alexander.
In Peter's mind, the next step is to expand the army, recruit some free people from other places for training, and then integrate them into a legion.
"Sir, we can recruit troops from Bulgarian refugees and domestic farmers for training. If we can give them some discounts, they should be happy to be loyal."
"Just what I wanted!"
Peter agreed with Alexander's opinion. There was still a large undeveloped area in his territory. It can be used as a fiefdom for these soldiers.
Outside the city hall, a large number of merchants and craftsmen were selling various goods in the market.
"Come and take a look. The fine beeswax and wine are all new arrivals."
"Come and see my jewels from Hungary and Bohemia. Come and see them all."
Although some cities stipulate that merchants are not allowed to hawk, this only applies to Western Europe. Eastern Europe does not yet have such restrictions.
The expansion of Constanta Port has activated foreign trade. Generally speaking, cities near the sea will be richer. Constanta is no exception. In addition to the previous sales of grain, fishery is also very promising.
Constanta is one of the most prosperous towns in Southeast Europe. The only ones that can compare are Athens, Belgrade, Constantinople and Edirne.
In peacetime or in Central Europe, as a lord, Peter really didn't want to work hard. You just need to manage the territory well enough to collect taxes to support your life.
Unfortunately, he is now in Eastern Europe, and in the Balkans. And he came during the rise of the Ottomans, plus Poland and Hungary. This doubled the difficulty of his survival.
However, look at the current situation. He can still live a prosperous life and build a great cause.
Currently, Peter's main source of income is the export of salt and grain and dividends from the Chamber of Commerce. This gave him the capital to do great things and also allowed him to continue to build an army.
Don't underestimate these two commodities. In the 1415th century, salt was in very short supply. Especially in Eastern Europe, because salt is produced in the United Kingdom and Western Pomerania, Poland, Lithuania, and the Teutonic Knights do not produce salt at all.
In this era, European salt production was low, so the price was high. In the UK, because a large amount of coal is used to boil salt, the salt production is quite high. However, British salt is not only supplied to Eastern Europe, but also to England, Scotland, Ireland, France, the Low Countries, and northern Germany. In short, there are many buyers of British salt, so there is no need to worry about sales.
Moreover, because the licensing system set up by Hanseatic merchants to suppress competitors blocked the possibility of others intervening. Although, it is very profitable to transport salt to the east coast of the Baltic Sea and sell it. However, without a license, the British could not intervene in the salt trade here.
But Peter was different. He could sell salt to Poland and Lithuania overland. Trade could also be carried out by sea via the Dnieper River north to the Grand Duchy of Moscow. And during this period, there were millions of people in Northeast Europe. You can imagine how big this consumer market was.
Moreover, although Poland and the Teutonic Knights were mortal enemies, they did not prevent people from both sides from doing business. In addition, salt is a scarce commodity in the Baltic Sea region. Therefore, merchants from the two countries often buy salt from Hanseatic merchants in the Teutonic Knights country and transport it back to the country for sale.
The situation in Poland is not bad, because they are close to the German region in the west and can import relatively low-priced salt from the German region. But Lithuania was not so lucky and could only rely on salt re-exported from the Teutonic Knights. It’s not that there weren’t Polish merchants who could bring salt over. However, land transportation costs far more than sea transportation. The salt of the Teutonic Knights country was transported directly to Königsberg by Hanseatic merchants on sea ships through the Kattegat Strait between Denmark and Sweden, and the transportation cost was low.
If Polish merchants took the salt imported from eastern Germany through the entire Poland and delivered it to Lithuania, the cost would be too high. Because, in addition to the high cost and small volume of land transportation, the numerous tax collection gates on the land are also an important reason for the high cost of land transportation.
Wallachia has a geographical advantage. Relying on the Danube River and Moldova, the salt produced can be transported to the north by water and land.
It can be said that as long as you have salt, you have endless wealth.
Peter came to the infantry training ground, where Constantine was training new soldiers.
"To the left, how can you go to the right?"
"Hold your weapon steady, haven't you eaten yet?"
"As for you, take it."
Seeing Constantine angrily scolding these recruits, Peter gained more confidence in facing Ottoman in the future.
In order to better train the army, Peter spent a lot of time writing a training outline. As a traveler, you must know the famous Spanish Phalanx. Others, such as Morris's Square, Gustav's Line, and Napoleon's artillery tactics, are all somewhat understood.
If possible, Peter would like to use Napoleon's tactics. But that is unrealistic. You must know that European artillery is still in the bronze gun age. The cost of equipping a small bronze cannon is very high. Because the current price ratio of silver to copper in Europe is around 1:15, and the price of copper is too high. Forget about a small lord like Peter, the cost is too high.
Moreover, let alone Napoleon's artillery tactics, he did not have the conditions to even engage in Gustav's line formation. Because the Gustav Line Formation used a large number of musketeers, and they were flintlock musketeers. At this time, let alone the flintlock gun, even the matchlock gun had not been invented. So don’t think about setting up any musket phalanx. Let’s complete the spear phalanx first!
The spear phalanx requires high discipline and courage. In terms of courage, Peter wasn't worried. It's just that in terms of discipline, he is a little unable to do what he wants.
Because few of these people are literate, and they don't understand what left and right are. So Peter painted their hands with two kinds of paint. Look one way when you say left, look the other way when you say right.
Peter also personally trained 12 squad leaders and cavalry teams. In addition to training personal combat skills and battle formation coordination, he mainly taught several commanders some wartime marching, camping, defensive facilities and buildings against enemy attacks, day and night sentries, and emergency order transmission. and skills such as the order of evacuation from the war zone, identifying the enemy's situation, and analyzing the battle situation.
Seeing that they were all training in full swing, Peter also mounted his horse and went to train with the cavalry.
At this time, he seemed to be possessed by Alexander the Great. He was riding on a black horse, holding a broad sword in his right hand, staring at a row of thatched men fifty steps away. Lift it up, and then lightly kick the horse's belly with the spurs under his feet. The horse immediately gallops quickly, and the distance of fifty steps is reached in the blink of an eye. Peter's body on the horse tilts slightly to the right, and the broad sword in his hand rises and falls with his right hand. The "heads" of the thatched men were cut off one after another, and then they ran for more than twenty steps before stopping the horse. Looking back, a total of four thatched men were "beheaded".
"My lord is so awesome!" a cavalryman exclaimed.
"What's this? There's no one in Dobroga who doesn't admire you." Another experienced cavalryman said to him.
Although he was only eleven years old, Peter did not fall behind in various military trainings. Here, there are no electronic products, so you can improve your physical strength and skills.
He learned all the soldier courses such as horse riding, archery, weight lifting, etc., and he imagined himself as the savior of Rome. Lead an army to defeat the traitors and become the master of Constantinople.
No matter who you are, you will think so. After all, there are many Jingluo.
And for the powerful Ottoman cavalry troops. Peter thought for a long time and finally decided to use a crossbow to restrain them.
Compared with the bow, since there is no need to aim at the same time when pulling the string, the physical and technical requirements for the user are relatively low. Although the reloading time is much longer than that of a bow, generally speaking it has a longer range, more lethality, and a higher hit rate than a bow. In ancient times, it was a powerful long-distance killing weapon.
There are also many types of crossbows, except for the portable and flexible waist-tension crossbows. The bed crossbow with a longer range and more power also became Peter's manufacturing list.