Chapter 210: Make Friends with Distant Countries and Attack Nearby Ones

So, after Peter received his father's financial emergency letter, he also received his appointment letter as the head of the treasury.

This made Peter laugh and cry. He was really not a cash cow and could not provide a large amount of funds for the reconstruction of Constantinople. But fortunately, his father sent the current treasury information together.

"Your Highness, I have dealt with the property of a group of people before, but there are too many places to spend money, so there are currently 400,000 lei in the treasury."

"What, too little."

400,000 is only enough to maintain Constantinople for a minimum of two months. Not to mention building a city. At present, other places also need money. The finances of the entire Wallachia are running at a high speed. Even if there is a surplus, it will take some time to allocate.

Now he can only do his best to supplement the surplus of nearby cities such as Adrian and customs. In addition, force those who owe taxes to pay taxes as soon as possible. According to estimates, these people owe taxes as much as 6 million lei. With this money, they don't have to be stretched.

Galata's tax revenue was also handed over to the treasury, a total of 50,000 ducats. This amount of money was only enough to renovate a few churches. I don't know when this place can be taken.

In addition to the expansion of the government, the expansion of the company was also very smooth. After the success of the Ross Company, the Chamber of Commerce established the Oriental Company responsible for Anatolia, the Levant and other places, with a start-up capital of 150,000 ducats.

They have established trading houses in Antioch, Alexandria and other places to engage in local trade and reclamation. The spirit of navigation in Greek culture has been reawakened. In the eastern Mediterranean, there are already many Greek and Wallachian ships crisscrossing the sea.

At the same time, the Wallachian Navy started the first battle, with 16 warships of the Principality of the Aegean Islands against 8 Wallachian warships and 10 armed merchant ships. Wallachian warships were equipped with artillery and firearms, and the enemy still used traditional boarding operations. In the two-hour battle, the Wallachian ship was sunk without even touching the hull, but their bows and arrows also caused some casualties.

The Aegean Islands no longer had the ability to fight back. They could only watch in horror as the Wallachian navy imposed a blockade on them. No supplies were delivered, and the letters written by the Duke could not be sent out. If this continued, it would only be a matter of time before the Aegean Islands were annexed.

The key country of the anti-Walachia alliance was defeated, and the encirclement was torn. But Venice didn't care about this. They were concerned about whether they could open up the market in Wallachia and go to Eastern Europe. If they could change, it would not be impossible to give up the Aegean Islands, as long as they controlled Crete.

At the same time, Wallachia reached an agreement with the governor of Caffa to acquire the city of Caffa for 5,500 gold coins. Of course, this was only a private agreement between the governor and them, and Genoa would not recognize it, but with Wallachia controlling the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles, they could not clamor for revenge. If they failed again, it would be miserable.

The government's expedition was temporarily over, but the civilian crusade had just begun. The first batch of Orthodox Crusaders was formed by the Andre Society and the Dragon Knights, mainly composed of peasants, urban civilians and adventurers. After getting approval from above, they launched an attack on the Turkic state of Taike in the southeast, aiming at the capital of Antalya.

There were 6,000 civilian crusaders in total. They set out from Smyrna and marched eastward. When they met a small group of Turks, they killed them all without mercy.

There were many Christians in the coastal areas. Seeing that the Crusaders were coming, they welcomed their arrival as they did hundreds of years ago. Seeing this, the Emir of the Turkic state waved people on the one hand and assembled troops to fight on the other. Cyprus had organized an unsuccessful one before, and this time should be the same.

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Just when Peter was allocating finances and planning the army, his old friend came.

"Ah, dear Mason, what are you doing here?"

Peter hadn't seen Mason for a few years. The last time he heard about him was that he became a member of the city council in his hometown of Florence. He has a bright future.

"Dear Governor, can't I see my old friend?"

Mason said half-jokingly, and then told Peter the real purpose of his coming here.

As a country in central Italy, the Republic of Florence is relatively developed economically, but it has never been able to match trade countries like Venice in terms of trade. It relies heavily on overseas markets and Venice. In order to expand the market and avoid being strangled, the parliament decided to send envoys to the emerging country of Wallachia to expand trade and increase relations.

But who should be sent? Mason, who had just been elected as a member of parliament, volunteered. He said that he had a way. The other members of the parliament were skeptical, but still let him go. However, in order to ensure that he was telling the truth, another person was sent to accompany him.

"Mason, is this the way you said?"

The other person was a little incredible when he saw Peter. He never thought that Mason could actually get in touch with the governor of Wallachia. But there is such a young governor in Wallachia?

No, the Grand Duke of Wallachia would never give the governor to a young man no matter how much he thought, unless the other party was someone he trusted or his relative. From this thinking, this person's status is even higher.

"My friend, I am here with a request from the Republic of Florence, hoping to discuss trade and commerce with your country." Mason told Peter about Florence's request, including trade concessions and mutual trade. After hearing these requests, Peter felt that Florence was really good and a reliable partner.

"I will hand over these requests to the Grand Duke, but why did you come here first? Shouldn't you go to Constantinople?"

"Hehe, isn't this a little more reassuring? Besides, Wallachia is now the master of Constantinople, and Florence thinks this is an opportunity to surpass Venice."

Venice is the biggest obstacle for Wallachia to dominate the Eastern Mediterranean in the future. If they can pull in a few countries on land to distract Venice's attention, it will be a great help for Wallachia.

Mason stayed here for a few days and left for Constantinople. Before leaving, he told Peter a piece of news that Portugal and Castile were planning to head west recently and had built many ships. Peter understood that they were planning to find new routes and new continents.

Wallachia would not get involved with them for the time being, after all, they were too far away, but he was also marching eastward, but the land was slower than the sea. As for colonial expansion, he was also doing it in Sicily, North Africa, and Ukraine, and he was doing quite well.