Chapter 282 Response
The eleven countries formed an alliance and naturally did not hide it from Rome. Constantinople held an emergency meeting to discuss countermeasures.
"Your Majesty, the joining of Florence and Aragon directly affects the future maritime strategy of the empire. Both countries have quite good fleets, which is a pressure on our navy."
"Not only that, even the bishop of Rome has joined. If he says he wants to make an eastern expedition, I am not sure if the empire is ready."
The ministers talked about the power of the Venice alliance, and the more they talked, the more outrageous they were. Mircea was so angry that he directly used his greatest strength to knock the bell.
"Look at you, you are scared of an alliance that is not even as big as the empire. Yes, they are all countries with good combat effectiveness, but don't so many countries have weaknesses?"
Mircea was troubled by this new alliance, and at the same time it also fueled his ambition. If the Venice alliance can be defeated, then the Roman forces can come directly to Western Europe.
Mircea gave an order again, and the country recruited some troops again, and the shipyards were fully operational. They must not cut back on the army, at least for now.
Peter also received the news. The expansion of the war was a foregone conclusion. It seemed that the expedition had to be launched in advance.
"Eleven countries, it seems that the Eastern Alliance has allowed Rome to enjoy it in advance."
Peter smiled. His father's orders and troops were in place. The expedition would be launched soon, but due to weather reasons, it had to be postponed.
Taking advantage of the leisure time these few days, Peter began to rehearse the future siege of Venice. Venice is different from other cities. It is built on an island. On the left is the Venice Lagoon and on the right is the Adriatic Sea. There is only one main road in the city that connects to the outside, so a navy is needed to blockade it.
Peter and the generals rehearsed more than a dozen times and finally concluded that a navy is necessary to ensure the capture, otherwise relying on the army alone is a suicide mission.
If Venice is not possible, Austria will be the first choice. Peter decided to capture the Duchy of Carniola in Austria and open up a passage to northern Italy.
Since it has joined the alliance, Austria has also begun to gather troops to defend important cities such as Vienna, and Ljubljana, located in the south, has also sent heavy troops for defense.
The Count of Tyrol, who belongs to the same family, also gathered his soldiers to serve his relatives. This is not a blood relationship, but his territory will suffer after Carniola is conquered.
Now the most important thing for Rome is the construction of the navy. If there are not enough ships, they can be taken from merchant ships; sailors can be recruited from fishermen and coastal residents, and the demand can always be met.
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Now, the most concerned war is on the island of Rhodes. The confrontation between the Orthodox Knights and the Catholic Knights makes religious fanatics look forward to it. The Knights Hospitaller protected the port and harvested a lot of food support. There is still water in the city, so they can defend until they die.
After the Dragon Knights landed, they began to make large siege equipment. The Diocese of Athens provided the Knights with goods transportation, and the Patriarch of Constantinople gave the Knights the meaning of holy war. The Knights trained the army while using catapults and artillery to attack the city of Rhodes.
The Knights Hospitaller can only rely on the city wall defense, hoping that Venice or someone can bring troops to rescue. Before that, they still have to defend here.
The Venetian fleet on Crete attempted to rescue Rhodes, but was forced to retreat under the threat of pirates. The Venetian navy was forced to split into several sections, each of which was attacked by Rome.
While the alliance was still gathering the army, Mircea took action again. He issued an edict announcing the abolition of the Golden Seal Edict issued by Alexius I that granted Venetians privileges, and the privileges granted to Western merchants by successive emperors were also abolished. Rome prohibited merchants from trading with countries in the Venice alliance, and those who violated the rules were exiled.
Mircea's actions caused heavy losses to some merchants. They all traded with the West, and most of them were members of the Venice Alliance. The business was not good when the war started, and this was directly cut off.
However, this also made the Roman sea merchants who originally competed for trade shares in the west change to squeezing the territory of Crescent merchants in the east. Because after the edict was issued, Mircea issued a second order: to give merchants who traded to the East one to three years of tax incentives, or even tax exemptions and subsidies.
This was to lure them to expand to the East, and a large number of sea merchants began to flock to cities such as Antioch, Ashkelon, and Alexandria. By trading with local merchants, they gradually took control of local commerce, which also dealt a blow to the local industry and commerce.
The small fleets of Venice and Genoa suffered again. They found that in addition to cannons and jet Greek fire, the Roman navy also had throwing Greek fire. The raw materials were placed in pottery jars, ignited and thrown out, which directly avoided the problem of damaging their own ships.
The fancy firearms made the Western fleet suffer for the first time. Not only that, they also used a large number of fire weapons such as meteors and Greek fire, which caused heavy losses to the Western fleet. There was even a result of three Roman ships against 15 Venetian and Genoese ships.
After Aragon joined the alliance, it quickly transferred the navy from Barcelona and Sardinia to assist. Sicily was also preparing to invade Naples. Fortunately, Laszlo was well prepared, and the two countries confronted each other in the Strait of Messina.
Laszlo also saw more and more hostility towards Naples. In this case, he didn't pretend. Laszlo officially announced in Naples Square that he would expel the Papal envoy and declare war on the Papal State.
This made Boniface IX panic. Who could have thought that he would really do this? He just declared war like that. He quickly asked for mercenaries. Remember, it would be best if they were Swiss.
Aragon joined the war, and a country was angry. The Kingdom of Castile originally planned to cooperate with Aragon to capture Granada in one go, but now that it had joined the war, the plan had to be postponed.
France was also angry. If its own protectorate went to the war, if the other side attacked Genoa, it would still be a matter of whether it would join the war or not. The country has not yet recovered from the war with England.
Although these are the countries that joined, there are many who joined the war in the name of the family. It was still the same reason as the Crusades. The family had a large population and needed other sons to fight for territory to survive. Various duchies, counties, and manor lords asked other sons to go out and earn a territory, because they thought that their ancestors also obtained territory through the Crusade hundreds of years ago. Now, they want to expand the family's influence through war again.
A noble crusaders were assembled. They mainly came from the Holy Roman Empire. They had different horses and armor. Some even came on two legs. This shows how uneven the level of this noble army is.
However, Venice still promised everyone that after defeating Rome, it would only need three-eighths, and the rest would be yours. This was a big shot of stimulant for everyone.