Chapter 125 Unification of the Peloponnese
The golden sun shone on the soldiers' armor. Both sides stared at the enemy on the opposite side. Even the horses shouted, as if they couldn't help killing the enemy.
Sapreno took the lead in attacking. The cavalry attacked the enemy's infantry phalanx. Theodore quickly ordered the archers to shoot arrows. The artillery also fired at the enemy.
As soon as the firearms came out, some cavalry were frightened. They had never seen this thing before. Although it was not powerful, the sound it made frightened the horses.
Some knights fell off their horses, and the people who rushed out from behind were tripped again. The original charge had become unbearable. Theodore took advantage of this to launch a general attack, and the mercenary group withstood the offensive and even counterattacked.
Although Theodore had more troops, the military ability of the mercenary group was much better than that of the peasant soldiers. In this way, they fought until dark, and then they withdrew their troops.
At night, the mercenary group launched a sneak attack in an attempt to reverse the situation, but was repelled. Dozens of people were also lost.
The next day, Theodore launched a general attack, and all the soldiers rushed forward to attack the mercenary group. After what happened yesterday, the mercenary group decided to make a last gamble. They launched a charge, but were dispelled by the sound and bullets of artillery and muskets. Wallachia's things are easy to use.
The mercenary group's strength has been exhausted. Without the cavalry, their combat effectiveness is reduced by half. But because of their own captain, they are struggling to support it.
At this time, a sound came from the west. Sapreno looked there and found that it was an ambush on the opposite side. It turned out that Theodore still had a trick up his sleeve. At the same time, he couldn't figure out where he got the money to hire so many people.
Seeing that the other side had an ambush, the Achaean army began to disintegrate. The first to run away were the peasants who were temporarily recruited. They had never seen such a scene before, and it was still important to save their lives.
If one soldier escaped, two or three soldiers would flee the battlefield. This would cause a chain reaction, which would turn into a disintegration. Even if the mercenary group forced them to return to the battlefield, it would be a drop in the bucket.
Theodore took advantage of this to launch an attack, and Achaea was defeated. Sapreno fell off his horse while killing the enemy, and the surrounding soldiers rushed up and killed him. Sapreno died, and Theodore wiped out the remaining enemy troops in one go.
The Battle of Patras lasted for two days. In this battle, Theodore killed more than 2,200 enemy soldiers at the cost of more than 700 people, and captured 2,000 people. Seeing this, Patras also surrendered smoothly.
Except for a few fortresses, the entire Principality of Achaea was annexed by Morea. The rest was just lingering on, and after unifying the Peloponnese, Theodore ordered to maintain peaceful relations with Venice, which made Venice very satisfied and felt that this person was quite reasonable.
It took only one month from the beginning to the end of the war, and it was over when Peter came to Karmada. He listened to the people on the dock discussing the war and felt that this father-in-law was really good, worthy of being the toughest Roman royal member against the Ottomans.
Although the grain productivity of the Peloponnese is not good, it is very good for both growing grapes and raising silkworms. Peter thinks it is a good choice to take this opportunity to buy some land.
After conquering Achaia, Theodore's next target is Athens. The Principality of Athens has long been on high alert. It not only guards the only access to Athens, but also continues to ask Venice for help, offering to give all the land just to give itself a manor.
Venice was somewhat tempted by this condition, but still held back, because Athens at this time was a broken city and had no value at all. And they were not obsessed with land, just trade and profit.
And Theodore continued to hit the fortress hard, trying to take it all down. This is also a long process, and no one knows how long they will surrender.
However, the territory has doubled, and the difficulty of governance has also doubled. How to turn the Western feudal system back to the Eastern centralized system is a difficult problem, and it also takes time.
And because of the conscription of soldiers, the economy of Morea has been suppressed to the lowest level, and the next step must be to restore the economy.
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In order to thank his in-laws for their help, Theodore allocated a piece of land in Patras to Wallachian merchants and reduced taxes. Thanks to the geographical location of Patras, Wallachia can have direct trade with Italy.
The geographical location of the Balkan Peninsula is very special. The region is the only region in Central and Eastern Europe protected by mountains and oceans. However, from ancient times to the present, it has not become an obstacle between Asia and the West, but a bridge. As the gateway to the southeast corner of Europe, the Balkan region is also the frontier for controlling North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia.
The Balkan region has long maintained close trade relations with Italy. Many commercial cities are distributed in the Danube River Basin and the Adriatic Sea Coast. Ragusa is the most important trading base for Italian merchants in the Balkan region. Italian merchants mainly trafficked in silver mine resources in Bosnia and Serbia, and exported Italian textiles to the Balkan region in exchange for leather, wool, cheese, fish, honey and slaves.
The Peloponnese was also a grain-producing region, and it also supplied flax, which was transported to Constantinople to be processed into cloth. During the Paleiologus dynasty, due to the development of agriculture, grain in the southern Balkans became one of Rome's main exports, sold to cities in Western Europe.
The addition of Wallachia was undoubtedly a small piece of the original pie. However, such a move also caused discomfort to Venice, and they could not tolerate other countries getting involved.
Moreover, Wallachia's commercial expansion is too fast, and it may take away all of Venice in a few years. But they can't fight Wallachia. After all, they will lose credibility if they declare war immediately after signing the agreement.
Theodore confiscated a lot of land from the rulers of the Principality of Achaea, and distributed part of it to his soldiers and the other part to the peasants. This can guarantee the army and income.
As for the capital, it will continue to be in Mystras. Because this is the capital of Greek culture, when Constantinople was in danger, many scholars continued to study Greek culture here. After the unification of the Peloponnese, it will be more prosperous.
But for other aspects of construction, the remaining betrothal gifts must be obtained. The 100,000 lei of money is almost gone, and the army can really spend money.
Peter wants to see what his bride looks like, but now he finds the despot and says that he is the heir of Wallachia. Will he believe it? Or wait until the official meeting.
Peter doesn't want to travel here either. If there is Athens, he also wants to see the Parthenon. The ruins of Sparta have become dust, the glory of ancient Greece and Rome is long gone, and now is the era of Wallachia and the Ottoman Empire.