Chapter 291: Continued Advancement

(The writing is a bit messy, please forgive me)

Francesco left Constantine with this condition, and the first peace envoy from the West left. The city is still waiting for the arrival of envoys from other countries.

In the military camp, Peter was writing a so-called long article. Although it was long, it was still very good compared to a thesis. He didn't need to translate a theory ten times and then change the format.

"Add a little more, OK, done!"

Peter picked up his work and read it carefully. The content inside was all criticizing the Catholic Church, attacking the chaos and corruption of the church. It mocked the Holy Roman Empire as the cow of the old Roman man. They relied on their own education and higher knowledge than those people, and squeezed them out of their money.

They turned a blind eye to God's instructions and Jesus' suffering, and their only mission in life was to squeeze, squeeze, and squeeze. They would not stop until they squeezed out the last bit of money from them.

And they also colluded with some businessmen and did robbery under the guise of peace. Do you still want to obey these hypocritical hypocrites? They are a shame to God.

In addition to a large number of attacks on the Catholic Church, Peter also wrote a little to promote the Orthodox Church. Including integrity, honesty, and fighting against pagans for many years. They are the orthodoxy of the Christian world.

"Okay, hire a few minstrels to spread this to various places in northern Italy. In addition, print some more and post them everywhere for me."

Peter is determined to start a religious riot in northern Italy. Since the Catholic atmosphere here is so strong, let him reduce it a little.

The siege of Venice is still proceeding in an orderly manner, and Milan will not send troops to rescue because it cannot win. Now their only hope is that Venice's sneak attack can succeed.

————Dividing line————

Venice finally gathered 300 warships and armed merchant ships, equipped with more than 10,000 sailors. It can be said that most of the naval forces have been deployed, and these sailors are still equipped from private merchant ships.

As for those merchant ships, some were destroyed, and the rest went to ports in various places for refuge. Venice's basic food and daily necessities trade can still be maintained, but it is unknown what will happen after that.

"My Lord, according to the instructions of the parliament, we must rescue Crete, Rhodes, and then capture Constantinople. In this way, Rome can negotiate with us."

"I hope this will succeed. Rome is no longer the same Rome."

Simone, who is in charge of commanding the navy, is praying. He is not optimistic about this operation. Venice has never won a single battle since the beginning of the war. A large number of ships have been sunk by the Roman navy. This time, the navy formed by the whole country may become Rome's experience package like that coalition.

Nikephoros stepped up the training of the navy. He wanted to be ready before the arrival of the Venetian navy. Rome also focused on intelligence offensives, and released hundreds of messages in a row for Venetian spies to spread to the mainland, from resting in the port of Aaron to attacking Crete. Since there are spies, I will drown you with human sea tactics.

In addition to information warfare, Peter's intelligence chief Petkov began his new skill: rumor-mongering. He began to spread the word that Bologna and Milan were planning to negotiate with Rome. They were originally tricked into joining by Venice. This news made the Venetian leadership nervous, and they sent envoys to the two countries via the Papal States to ensure that they were still in the alliance.

In addition to the national level, there were more private levels, such as this family escaping and that person wanting to run away, which caused the trust of these allied countries to plummet. If rumors are spread too much, false ones can become true.

Most importantly, the Cossacks sent by Rome have seriously affected the trade in northern Italy. The economic order has been disrupted. Except for Savoy and Florence, which can do business with France and Aragon, the inland areas and Venice have suffered the greatest losses.

"Help, please, don't..."

A large number of people were plundered as slaves. They had to walk to Ljubljana to assemble and then be transported to the Roman area. Craftsmen can receive higher treatment, but they have no freedom for life. They have a better destination in Constantinople, Moldova, and Wallachia. The rest were all packed up and sent to Anatolia for reclamation. Some young and beautiful women tried their best to avoid being forced to work as laborers, using tricks that they despised to confuse these soldiers. If they were lucky, they could hook up with officers.

Various farces were staged every day. Some people wanted to hook up with the Roman prince, even if they were lovers, they could live a peaceful life, but this prince had no interest in them at all, and would rather sleep with books than see these people. Rumors began to spread among them that they were pedantic, old-fashioned, and not good.

"Do I look old-fashioned?" Peter asked his friend Nicholas.

"Your Highness, these are all spread by those prostitutes, you don't have to take it to heart."

"You are quite busy recently. You feel uncomfortable without a woman to accompany you for a day, right?"

"Your Highness, these days are really boring. When are we going to attack Venice? My family is waiting for my triumphant return."

Peter looked at the map and said. "Soon, I will leave them nowhere to escape."

Northern Italy and southern Germany were harassed by various rumors, and the articles criticizing Catholicism issued by Rome caused unrest in the local upper class. The first to do so were the Diocese of Salzburg and Trento, where some citizens used the article to organize armed forces to seize power. There was also a certain amount of discussion in Milan, Genoa and other places, and the Vatican was furious and issued an order that Rome must withdraw within 40 days, otherwise it would face terrible punishment.

In addition to posting in various public places, Peter also had a bunch of translations and used bards to spread these articles in local languages ​​to other places, especially Bohemia and Brandenburg, hoping to reduce the obstacles to his brother's rule.

The city of Venice had no power to fight back against the Roman army. In early March, Padua, an important transportation hub in Venice, fell. The food and reinforcement routes from Milan were cut off, and Venice only had the land city of Chiggio to transport, but the looting of the Roman cavalry made this road precarious.

Bologna was already thinking about retreating. There were originally more than 70,000 people here, but the Black Death reduced 30,000. In addition to the years of fighting between Milan and the Papal States, they just wanted to live in peace. Now that the Roman army is coming, if they don't want to be destroyed, surrendering is also a good choice.

As the environment in Venice deteriorated, a large number of noble sons came to northern Italy with the intention of fighting against heresy and making a fortune. Although their status is quite high, their equipment and weapons are really hard to describe. The models are different, the quality of equipment is uneven, and some even have no equipment and only bring horses. It would be good enough if such an adventurer did not cause trouble, but he also recovered lost territory and established meritorious services. Just think about it.