Chapter 208 Taking Over

It took a total of 15 days to break Constantinople, and more than a month if preparations were included. This should be the second fastest time to break the city. (The first fastest time was in 1204, which took five days)

Of course, killing and looting were inevitable after the city was broken. When the Wallachian army first entered the city gate, they were in neat formation, but after entering the city, some of them immediately broke the formation, fanned out and poured into the streets and alleys of Constantinople, and began to kill and loot. When Mircea learned about it, he immediately sent his guards to stop them, and it took a lot of effort to suppress them.

In the evening, Mircea held his entry ceremony. Accompanied by the guards and ministers, Mircea rode slowly on the street, with cheering people on both sides of the street, and then he rode all the way to Hagia Sophia.

Patriarch Theodosius had been waiting for a long time, and he announced to everyone that the savior had come. Everyone cheered, and Mircea enjoyed this moment.

Then the Patriarch was ready to invite Mircea to enter the Hagia Sophia, but Mircea thought of something more important than this.

The Constantinople Palace had been surrounded by them. Mircea led his troops into the bedroom of John VIII. Queen Mother Jelena was also there. At this time, she was hugging the little emperor tightly and did not allow anyone to get close.

"Don't come over. I am the queen mother. My son is Basilius. If you dare to do anything to him, you will be punished by God."

Mircea walked in. Facing the half-crazy queen mother, he had no sympathy.

"Come here, the queen mother is talking nonsense. Hurry up and ask the doctor to come and treat her."

After receiving the order from the Grand Duke, the soldiers separated Jelena from John and sent her to the doctor for "treatment".

In the following days, Mircea hunted down the opposition in Constantinople. In addition to those who lost their lives because of the destruction of the city, some people ran to Galata to seek refuge, but they were sunk by the Black Sea Fleet when they were on the boat, and their whole family died in the sea.

As for John VIII, Mircea first wrote to Theodore to ask if he wanted to be an emperor. Before the letter was sent, the other party sent someone to Mircea with a letter refusing to be an emperor. He would not go to Constantinople, nor would he be Basilius.

Since the most promising person withdrew, John VIII was still there, but without the queen mother, and all the ministers around him had changed.

Mircea appointed himself as the highest official of Constantinople, the senior commander of the palace, the supreme person, etc., and appointed his son Peter as the senior commander of the army, and took control of all military and civil affairs.

At this time, the population of Constantinople was less than 50,000, and the industry and commerce were depressed and agriculture was withered. Mircea saw this and allocated some funds on the one hand, and moved some farmers to nearby villages to resume food production on the other hand.

The chief executive of Genoa got the news first. He came to the place where the palace of Constantinople met with foreign ministers. John VIII sat on the throne and Mircea was beside him. The messenger understood that the only one who was really in charge was the Grand Duke of Wallachia.

Out of courtesy, he saluted John VIII first, and then saluted Grand Duke Mircea. Then he said a lot of nice words, and then he left.

Mircea knew that they were the only two left to talk. So he asked someone to take the little emperor down to rest, and he talked to the Genoese in person.

"Great Grand Duke of Wallachia, the Supreme One, Genoa congratulates you on your success."

"The Genoese are really fast, it seems that Galata is well managed by you."

The Galata Administrator of Genoa thought it was a compliment, and hurriedly said that they all benefited from the prosperous Black Sea trade, and said that without the kindness of Constantinople, it would not be possible to reach such a height.

In fact, Genoa's nervousness was that they were afraid that the other side would suddenly lead troops to attack Galata. Now Galata's garrison is less than 2,000, and you are afraid if there are suddenly tens of thousands of soldiers next to you. But if you want to use your own eloquence to make them withdraw their troops, you are thinking too much.

Genoa is no longer as glorious as it was in the past. Galata and Caffa are their only colonies in the Black Sea. If they are gone, it will be a disaster for Genoa, which started out as a trade.

Wallachia refused to allocate a piece of land for Genoa as their colony, and only recognized that they had preferential policies in trade. Now that Mircea controls Constantinople, they are afraid that he will suddenly take back Galata. Although Wallachia's navy is not as good as Genoa's, their army is not a little behind, and they are afraid that the other party will use its size to kill themselves.

The people of Genoa said that Galata is willing to give up the previous tax-free policy and instead hand in 2% of the profit every year, and allow Wallachian merchants to enter. Mircea did not expect the Genoese to be so generous suddenly, so he agreed to this condition. In exchange, the Genoese can continue to manage Galata for five years, and then consider whether to continue to maintain it after five years.

Genoa is now a vassal state of France. Although its navy is still the second in the Mediterranean, it only has dozens of battleships and will soon be surpassed by Wallachia.

When the Venetian Parliament was about to send 800 people to aid Constantinople, they received the news that the Wallachian army had captured Constantinople. Both the parliamentarians and the governor were upset that they did not pay enough attention to this matter. Now that Wallachia's occupation of Constantinople was a foregone conclusion, if they still wanted to continue their trade in the Eastern Mediterranean, they had to establish a good relationship with him.

Moreover, the market of Wallachia was also very large. Many Venetian merchants had great interests here, and they also acquired Western Anatolia and Smyrna. Their territory in the Aegean Sea was under great pressure, so reconciliation with Wallachia was the only way.

In Wallachia, the people were once again excited when they learned that the Grand Duke had occupied Constantinople. Although some people thought it was treasonous, most people thought it was a just act to protect the holy city from being controlled by pagans.

Mircea once again became a myth or threat in the eyes of monarchs of various countries, especially the Polish King Władysław. He now felt that Wallachia was already Poland's biggest opponent and needed to be hit to force it to be non-threatening. But the conflict between him and the Teutonic Knights and Lithuania hindered the implementation of the plan.

The small countries that split the Ottoman Empire were shocked when they heard the news. Before, Wallachia attacked the Ottoman Empire with the permission of Constantinople and the encouragement of the Patriarch. Now that they have become the masters of Constantinople, they can openly launch a holy war, which is not good news for the now divided Ottoman Empire.

Fortunately, those Catholic nobles will not watch Wallachia dominate alone. They can join forces with the Catholic principalities in the Aegean Sea to form a Wallachia encirclement. Plus Wallachia needed to stabilize Constantinople internally, which they had plenty of time to do.