Chapter 176 New Methods
Facing the encirclement formed secretly, Wallachia also has countermeasures. Although there are many countries, each of them has its own ulterior motives.
Wallachia adopts a policy of defeating one by one. Facing Hungary and Poland, Wallachia adopts the method of supporting agents to deal with them. Transylvania and Mazovia are carefully selected opponents. In addition, it also has a relationship with the Teutonic Knights.
As for Genoa and Venice, Wallachia introduced the Hanseatic League, Florence and Milan to confront them, and spread the news that Genoa is ready to sign a better treaty, further breaking the relationship between the two countries.
For the Ottomans, it is a heavy blow. A large number of light cavalry harassed the border, causing certain difficulties for the Ottomans, but not too hard, so that the Ottomans had a certain illusion that Wallachia would not fight them for the time being. So they put all their efforts in the east and confronted Timur.
At this time, Wallachia strongly supported economic development, and all walks of life were booming. All these provided the basis for the expansion of the Wallachian army. Farming well is the kingly way.
After conquering Serres, the Knights continued to strengthen the castle and prepared to attack Thessaloniki. The local Ottoman administrator was a little scared and had transferred his property to Anatolia, ready to run away at any time.
Faced with the enthusiasm of the people for the holy war, the higher-ups tried to restrain themselves. They didn't know how many troops and supplies would be needed for the war to rekindle, nor did they know when it would end. They would fight the Ottomans, but not now.
And just after Peter's wedding, Mircea also found the future husband's family of her youngest daughter. In northern Italy, the second son of Gian Galeazzo Visconti, the ruler of Milan, Filippo Maria Visconti.
In 1262, family member Ottone Visconti was promoted to Archbishop of Milan by Pope Urban IV, and his nephew Teobaldo became Pope Gregory X in 1271, further enhancing the family's power. In 1277, under the resistance of Ottone and other small princes, the Della Torre family that ruled Milan was overthrown. Ottone came to power and the Visconti family began to rule Milan. Ottone adopted a strategy of supporting the nobles to consolidate his own and the rule of the entire family. Unfortunately, the good times did not last long. Guido Della Torre of the Della Torre family defeated Ottone's nephew Matteo I Visconti in 1302 and exiled him. The Della Torre family was restored, but he did not rule for long. He was forced to flee for inciting the people to fight against the Holy Roman Emperor Henry VII. With the support of Henry VII, Matteo I returned to Milan to continue to rule and was appointed as the imperial agent. He expanded his power to Pavia and Cremona.
The current ruler of Milan, Gian, is a cruel, cunning, and unscrupulous dictator, but he is also a shrewd politician. He has won many victories in foreign wars and captured Lombardy and most of Veneto, Lizolia, Emilia, and Tuscany. Most of them used conspiracy and trickery to obtain cities, and the number of times he relied on force to break the city was not much. In order to promote commerce, he built a canal from Milan to Pavia, which greatly developed agricultural irrigation and transportation industries, which also led to rapid growth in dairy processing and commercial grain production in 20 years. The handmade textile industry has also made significant progress.
Marrying the Visconti family not only can gain an additional ally, but also can use the Milan region to intervene in the affairs of the Holy Roman Empire, as long as the other party agrees. For this reason, he sent people to Milan to find out the other party’s attitude.
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In cities such as Buda and Pécs, local residents found that the prices of Hungarian leather and other products had risen too much. After asking around, they found that the nobles and residents in Wallachia liked Hungarian clothes and products, so the prices of these products soared.
Wallachian merchants bought a large number of products, and Hungarian nobles also ordered farmers to produce these, and town residents also joined this army.
Moreover, the rulers of Wallachia were crazy and actually banned their people from producing such things. Violators would be punished with fines and imprisonment. Such a great thing fell on Hungary.
Farmers gave up producing food and turned to producing leather and textiles. Nobles and merchants hoarded a large amount and waited for the price to sell. No one forgot to produce food, and no one produced these low-profit products. But they didn't know that all this was a conspiracy, a conspiracy that existed hundreds of years ago.
Europe now has no concept of trade war, and no execution to solve the consequences of trade wars, but for Peter, these are relatively simple. Although he doesn't know what the execution results will be, as long as Hungary declines, Wallachia will make money.
Moreover, the currency in circulation in Hungary has increased several times recently. Some people think that there are counterfeit coins, but they can't find them. So they change their minds and think that Hungary's economy is developed and the currency has increased.
Nonsense, how can counterfeit coins be so easy to spot. Generally speaking, counterfeiting coins is to add more lead, but Peter is going to play a big game - silver coins without silver.
How to make it without silver? It's not enough to use copper and lead alone. Copper and lead alone will become bronze, which is completely different from silver coins. But if it is replaced with copper-tin alloy...
The alloy of lead and tin, in which the lead content accounts for 37 and the tin content accounts for 63%. The solder is silvery white in appearance, very beautiful, looks very much like silver, and is very soft. At the same time, because of the high lead content, its density is also high, and it can be used to impersonate silver.
After calculation, if 10% copper is added to the "silver coin" to increase the hardness of the "silver coin". Then, adjust the proportion of lead and tin to achieve the same density as the imitation silver coin. In this way, the same size of coins are as heavy as real money, and the appearance is also silvery and shiny, and the hardness is not bad, and it is difficult for outsiders to tell. Unless... someone burns this "fake coin" with a big fire...
However, as long as someone puts the coin in the furnace and heats it to more than 200 degrees, they will be surprised to find that the "silver coin" melts, but there are not many such boring people in the world who will throw the silver coin into the fire to heat it...
After several attempts, Peter can finally make silver coins without silver. Because it does not contain expensive silver, the cost is very low. In fact, the price of lead and tin is lower than that of copper at this time. Therefore, the cost of this counterfeit coin is lower than that of silver-copper alloy counterfeit coins. Mass production will definitely be profitable...
The only disadvantage of this counterfeit coin is that it cannot encounter high temperatures. Once it encounters a temperature of nearly 200 degrees, the currency will soften or even liquefy. However, these days, generally no one is crazy enough to throw coins into a big fire. A small temperature of about 100 degrees will not reveal the flaws. Only a high temperature of nearly 200 degrees in a big fire can test out the problem. By the time the counterfeit coins are discovered, Peter has already shipped them out. If they are really discovered, the Hungarian market will be in chaos in the end. And this is exactly what Peter wants to see...