Chapter 165 Moving West and Going South
For Sigismund, the fall of Belgrade meant that the door to southeast Hungary was wide open. If Serbia or Wallachia takes this opportunity to attack, Hungary will be in danger.
After Belgrade was captured, Transylvania cheered. This undoubtedly cheered them up, but for the Hungarian army, this was huge bad news. When the commander heard that Belgrade had been captured, he withdrew from Atelaide.
The Transylvanian army took advantage of this to push Hungary to the vicinity of the Tisza River, and Sigismund's plan for a quick victory failed. It was also a great victory for the Orthodox Church over the Catholic Church.
After capturing Belgrade, the legions continued their advance westward and entered the Tisza River. If the Tisza River is lost, then Buda, which has no natural dangers, will be the next target. Therefore, there are only two options before him, either to continue fighting or to negotiate with his ex-wife.
Sigismund sent someone to test Mary. He offered to pardon her and restore her religious membership as long as she made peace and admitted her mistakes.
Mary was happy with this condition. Why didn't she realize that her ex-husband was so conceited before? He obviously came to seek peace, but the conditions were as if he had won.
Mary rejected this so-called peace exchange and put forward her own conditions for the withdrawal of troops: that is, all the land east of the Tisza River would be under her rule, and the rest would not matter.
"Go back and tell Zigmund that one day I will get back what belongs to me and let him wait."
The messenger could only report the news to Sigismund, but as expected, he would not agree to this request. He promised that the Hungarian nobles would eat him. He could only stop quietly, hoping that something unexpected would happen to Mary.
After retaining her power, Mary began to establish her own rule. She enfeoffed some nobles and let them manage the place, and transferred the former Catholic Church's properties to the name of the Orthodox Church. These became the backbone of Transylvanian society.
Then there was the restoration of the economy. As a large number of Catholic nobles left, most of Transylvania's property was also taken away. Mary relied on the Chamber of Commerce and local minerals to obtain some income, relied on land decrees to stabilize the situation, and could also collect agricultural taxes, which provided a long-term income.
Mary also sent people to Bukur Yesti to express her willingness to form an alliance with Grand Duke Mircea. Mircea had been waiting for her for a long time. Not only did she give her many gifts, but she also formally formed an alliance with her. Wallachia gave Transylvania protection, and in return Transylvania would give 10,000 gold coins a year.
Seeing that Hungary was about to fail, Serbia quickly expressed its loyalty to Wallachia. Fortunately, Wallachia did not want to swallow him up for the time being, so he just let him watch from the sidelines.
Soon Sigismund's funds ran out, and mercenaries and troops pillaged surrounding villages for their own pay. This caused the villagers to flee to Transylvania, which intensified the conflict between the farmers and the king, and even the church was not able to take action. Army commanders could only watch as Orthodox crosses were erected on Hungarian soil.
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The spread of Orthodoxy in the West is going smoothly, and it is also making good progress in the East. Especially in Crimea, the Church has advanced to the edge of the peninsula and is preparing to advance to the mainland.
Some of the Tatar tribes were destroyed, and a city was built to rule in the center of the peninsula, which Peter named Veruga.
With Viruga as the center, Wallachia's rule in Crimea began to stabilize and expanded northward. Due to the tolerant policy towards slaves and serfs, a large number of slaves from Kaffa fled here, which cost the Tatars a lot of money.
In southern Greece, Theodore's Principality of Morea decided to completely annex the Principality of Athens. He gathered all his troops, crossed the Isthmus of Corinth, quickly captured Athens and Thebes, and captured Nelio, Duke of Athens. At the same time, he acknowledged Venetian territory and tried to appease them. Venice didn't pursue it too much, and the profits were much more fragrant than the land.
After capturing Athens, Morea became the most powerful country in Greece. Other small countries can only survive between the three countries of Wallachia, Ottoman and Morea.
The autocrat Theodore has made his daughter Sophia the sole heir, which has been opposed by Constantinople. Manuel is ready to give his future son a place to hone. Morea is just suitable, but his younger brother Give it directly to the niece. After the niece gets married, the land will become someone else's. Where would the Roman Empire be by then?
The growth of Wallachia threatened the King's Castle. Manuel always felt that they would want to replace them like the Serbian Empire, but he didn't know when. And now they still need Wallachia to fight against Osman, and he still has a sense of luck. They are all from the same clan, so they should not turn against each other.
In terms of Balkan diplomacy, Mircea extended an invitation to all Balkan principalities for their rulers to gather in Bukur Yesti to celebrate his 40th birthday.
Except for Venice and Morea, all other small countries came. They came to congratulate them with expensive gifts, and Mircea responded happily and kept them drunk.
The banquet started normally, and the Dukes gradually relaxed. They drank wine and talked about the glory of their ancestors, and soon passed out.
"Here, please go back and rest."
Mircea sent people to invite them back to the castle room to rest, and sent soldiers to guard them closely. When they woke up, they found that they were under house arrest, which made them panic.
Although this kind of behavior is very immoral in Western Europe, this is Eastern Europe and the Balkans. No one cares about them and will not care about their life or death.
But the Grand Duke just sent someone to ask them to stay a few more days and discuss exchanges between countries. The main thing is that tariffs between countries are unified according to Wallachian standards.
The countries invited mainly include the Kingdom of Epirus, the Principality of Gjirokaster, the Despot of Arta, the Principality of the Aegean Islands and the Principality of Chandia, all of which are Latin countries in Greece. It was all Latins who were the ruling class, most of them were Orthodox and Greeks, and Mircea saw an opportunity for a division between the ruling class and the people and decided to bring them to their knees once and for all.
Although it has not yet reached the Aegean Sea, Wallachia's influence has already reached here. This is why the rulers of these islands came here.
The two archipelago principalities were soon released. Wallachia would not do anything to them for the time being, but the principalities on land were in trouble. They were forced to sign a lot of treaties, including reducing tariffs on Wallachia, reducing the oppression of Orthodox Christians, etc., and without any country to save them, they could only become vassals of Wallachia.