Chapter 235 Romania’s influence on the West

Chapter 235 Romania’s influence on the West

In addition to serving in the government, Peter focused more on navigation and commerce.

In the Golden Horn of Constantinople, a fleet was parked quietly. The Romanian flag was flying above, and the crew members inside were full of energy and ready to set off at any time.

"Your Highness"

Mason, who is responsible for dealing with other countries, has made preparations and will take over the task from Peter before leaving.

"This search for the east is to get rid of the obstacles of the pagans. God has given us a good harbor to explore the blue land and the country flowing with gold and spices."

After talking a lot, Peter handed Mason some documents, which were diplomatic letters that were submitted to the local rulers after arriving in a new country. One of them was not only made with the highest quality ink and paper, but was also filled with compliments.

The fleet set off. Because it had to cross Egypt, it was not very large, with only 50 ships. After crossing Egypt, they planned to find a place to build a dock shipyard as a forward supply position. Then explore east.

As for the news from the investigation in Suez, they traveled around the area along the ancient road and finally concluded that it would take at least 1 million people to work continuously for 50 years before it can be reopened. This is still a preliminary result. The specifics are You have to wait until you do it yourself.

Last year's financial summary has also come out. Romania's income finally exceeded the 10 million mark, reaching 10.42 million silver lei, which is 1 million gold coins.

The biggest increase in revenue is from tariffs and taxes on salt, wine, and beehives. Romania's trade is growing rapidly, among which beeswax, wine and other commodities are sold the most and earn the most revenue.

Then came the land tax and poll tax, both of which also increased significantly due to Romania's encouragement of reclamation and immigration. Then came the industrial and commercial taxes. Craftsmen from the Ottomans and Italy contributed to economic development in cities such as Constantinople, and luxury goods industries such as weapons, armor, and jewelry were restored and developed.

Relying on the wealth gained from 10 years of reforms, Mircea and Peter can continue to expand the army and invest in other aspects. The training level of the standing army was inferior to that of the surrounding countries. Mircea attached great importance to this army and therefore continued to expand it.

In addition to expanding its army, Romania began to increase its influence in the West. In Hungary, Queen Mary reused Transylvanian nobles and officials, and even used leu as currency. Originally, this move made the nobles dissatisfied, but under her rule, the situation in Hungary improved. The economy was also relatively stable, and the small and medium-sized nobles and citizens supported her, so Mary could continue to secure her position as king in Buda.

"Your Majesty, Zigmund has already assembled a large number of troops and will attack Buda soon. Judging from the current strength of the kingdom, it cannot withstand it. We must ask for reinforcements."

Her ministers hoped to be rescued, and Mary thought so too. The troops brought from Transylvania were not enough to protect such a large territory, and Croatia in the south was also preparing to make a fortune from Hungary. As far as the eye can see, only Romania can help them.

Mary sent an envoy to Constantinople to request reinforcements. In addition, she wrote a letter in her own hand and asked someone else to secretly deliver it to Peter. She knew very well that if he agreed, half the battle would be won.

Mary also made a lot of efforts to promote the integration of Hungary and Romania. For example, she established Orthodox Christianity as the state religion, began to use Greek and Romanian for writing and translation, and used Lei and Romanian weights and measures. Due to the currency crisis and civil war, , these policies were implemented without much effort. If everything goes well, Hungary's annexation to Romania will be a hundred years from now.

In Bohemia, which is adjacent to Hungary, the great nobles united to attack Wenzel. Wenzel was worried that they would attack his family, so he had sent his wife and daughter to Bavaria, but the Duke of Bavaria refused to allow them to enter, so he had to turn to Constantinople, hoping to ensure their safety.

At this time in Bohemia, calls for religious reform became more and more intense. Wycliffe's works entered Bohemia under the cover of the Orthodox Church, and the prestige of Catholicism dropped to a freezing point.

In Naples, King Laszlo used his relationship with Romania to centralize power and win over the church and citizens to deal with the nobility, while the nobility had close ties with the Papal States and other forces. Laszlo's marriage was even more attacked, and the struggle between the two parties was intensifying.

As for Croatia and Bosnia, which are sandwiched between Hungary and Naples, Romania has long regarded them as its own. No matter how much they make a fuss, it’s just a splash and it’s gone in an instant.

----Dividing line----

In Augsburg, Sigismund, a strong contender for the Holy Roman throne, signed an agreement with Albrecht, the self-proclaimed Archduke of Austria. If the Archduke of Austria had a son in the future, he would marry Sigismund's daughter Ili. If Sigismund had no sons, his daughter would inherit all his titles.

With this document, Albrecht was extremely happy. He wanted to create people well, strive to realize this agreement as soon as possible, and restore the glory of his ancestor Rudolf. At the same time, in order to continue to curry favor with Sigismund, Austria continued to provide him with soldiers and political support.

Bartland also gave a lot of support. For example, Sigismund owed 500,000 silver coins one after another. Because he had no ability to repay and the other party had a professional debt collection team, he could only continue to use Hungary's title and city as collateral. The towns and cities in the Pozzoni area were mortgaged, and the local residents were helpless. They thought they couldn't be worse than Sigismund, so they accepted them.

Then, the bank directly auctioned the land, and finally an Eastern nobleman named Ceausescu purchased the land and the title of Duke of Pozzoni for 600,000 silver coins. Become a small local independent force.

This ruler usually did not show up and appointed a governor to govern the area. Moreover, he was an Orthodox Christian and funded the construction of a series of churches, missionary schools, road repairs, tax reductions, etc. Pozzoni quickly restored prosperity. The residents all wanted to meet Duke Ceausescu, but no one thought that the Duke was in Constantinople to discuss other matters.

Seeing that Constantinople did not fall, the voices asking the West to send Crusaders disappeared a lot, and were replaced by Romania's calls to continue to recover the lost territory. Like Iberia, the land was restored to Christian hands. However, it is not a good thing to be militaristic. What Romania needs now is to rest for two years, stabilize its rule, and add military operations to the itinerary first.