Chapter 18 Preparation

Since they were going to attack Moldova, they had to gather the army. Some boyars had already gone back to gather the army, and some had directly paid a large sum of money to the Grand Duke to be exempted from military service.

But it takes time to gather the army, and not all the troops can be gathered. Some of them need to guard against the Ottomans in the south, and some need to guard against Hungary in the west. After all the calculations, Mircea could only bring out 20,000 troops at most.

Although it is said that if you are well prepared everywhere, you will be poor everywhere, but there is no way around it. Unless your border is the sea. (No, they will have warships to attack you)

Mircea was also desperate. Whether Wallachia could become strong or not depended on this move. He took out all the fiscal surpluses of Wallachia in recent years to manufacture weapons and collect supplies. But it is still winter now, and marching will cause too many losses.

At this time, Grand Duke Roman of Moldova was supporting Fyodor Kolyatovich, a nobleman in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. He was from the same family as the current Grand Duke Vytautas, but he did not want to be commanded by Vytautas, so he started to rebel a year ago, and he did not know what conditions he used to convince Roman to support him. And he also led the army to fight.

And Peter was also ready to fight. His goal was the two most important fortresses in Moldova-Kilya and Akman.

The owner of Kilia had already offered Peter a price of 8,000 Venetian ducats and a manor.

The owner thought that such a large amount of money was impossible for a child like him to take out, but he did not expect that the messenger would directly hit him in the face with gold coins.

Sorry, I spoke too loudly just now. Please...

With so many gold coins, the lord signed the transaction documents very happily. Then he left with the gold coins. In Peter's opinion, this place is definitely worth the price.

Territorial transactions have never been hidden from the eyes of the upper rulers. Grand Duke Roman of Moldova began to get a little nervous because Kilia's geographical location is too important. It is an important node on the northern trade route and a barrier to the south.

He originally wanted to bring this place under his rule in a few years, but he didn't expect Wallachia to take the lead. How could this not make him angry.

But territorial transactions are voluntary (or they can be pointed at with a sword), unless he snatches it, but this would be a declaration of war on Wallachia.

Damn, this is what Roman thought in his mind.

Since military means don't work, then try trade. Roman ordered that wine be banned from exporting to Dobruja and that Dobruja wine be banned from passing through Moldova.

Wine is an important export product of various countries and territories. In the Middle Ages, ordinary Europeans did not drink white water. Whether it was nobles or civilians, they liked to drink wine or beer as daily drinks. Only serfs with extremely low status would drink white water, and they drank raw water.

Roman thought that this would allow the other party to negotiate with him, and Kilia would come back. But has he ever thought that this would also give the other party a reasonable excuse to attack?

Peter told Mircea about the matter, and he omitted the reason. After all, one result is enough.

"What, he is too bold, this is a provocation to Wallachia."

"Yes, father, the ruler of Moldova has proved that he cannot be a qualified grand duke, and must be replaced by someone else."

Mircea was persuaded. Instead of being a grand duke, it is better to fight hard, maybe a bicycle can become a motorcycle.

Moreover, Moldova's natural resources are also very rich, especially agriculture. Various types of black soil can be found in Moldova. Its territory is covered with more than 1 billion tons of 1-meter-deep fertile humus soil, 5,000 tons of nitrogen fertilizer, 6,000 tons of phosphate fertilizer, and 700 million tons of potash fertilizer. There is gray soil in the south, de-alkali soil in the middle, and typical black soil in the north. More importantly, 80% of Moldova's land belongs to the grand duke and has not been given to the nobles below.

Moldova is one of the important links connecting the East and the West in trade. A trade route starts from the Middle East in the east, passes through Ackerman (also known as Belgorod), Kilia, Moldova to Lviv, and then reaches Western Europe. The trade route to Central European countries such as Transylvania and Hungary must pass through Suceava, Moldova. With so many trade routes passing through Moldova, Moldova naturally becomes a cargo transit station for international trade.

Since Kilia is already in the bag, Ackerman is his next target.

In the Middle Ages, the Dniester River was the main trading area, and he was one of the main trade routes from the western part of Eastern Europe. The purpose of the Ackerman Fortress was not only to protect the opinions of the city, but also to control trade with Europeans and Slavs.

The Ackerman Fortress has a wide enough moat on all four sides (up to 14 meters). The appearance of the building resembles the irregular polygon of the fortress. The height of the wall ranges from 5 to 15 meters, and the width is also from 1.5 to 5 meters. It is not easy to conquer this.

And Mircea also decided to move the capital. He asked Peter if there was a suitable place, and Peter immediately expressed his idea.

Bukuri, this place has convenient transportation, and there are Giurgiu and Danube as shields. If the capital is established here, it can radiate to all places. However, the construction of the new city takes a long time, so it is still in Kemplong.

In recent years, with the economic development of Wallachia. A new type of merchant has emerged in trade: the package buyer.

Buyers are familiar with the sales situation in the market, know what kind of products are easy to sell and where to sell them, and at the same time, they understand the supply of raw materials and can get the raw materials needed to produce a certain product. These are their advantages.

Through buyers, some peasant handicraftsmen can obtain a relatively stable income through them. And buyers also use their flexible information to sell goods to places with high prices to obtain the maximum profit. This is also a way to activate the economy.

At the same time, the development of commerce has also promoted the rise of handicrafts. There are some larger workshops in the textile, brewing, woodworking and other industries. In Constanta, there is a large handicraft workshop that employs more than 100 people. (Guess who it belongs to?)

There are almost no guilds in Wallachia, and the guild system from Western Europe has no soil for survival. The guilds they established are just spontaneous organizations of some small merchants, and their role is minimal.

Some boyars also invested in industry and commerce because they found that the income from agriculture was too little, and their own expenses were still increasing. So they had to rely on other ways to earn income. And trade is one of them.