The Eagle of Eastern Europe

Naples and Rome are separated by the Strait of Otranto. It would be dangerous if the two countries jointly blockade Venice, so Venice sent people to Naples to persuade the king to remain neutral.

Laszlo was very useful in this situation. It was so comfortable to have two powerful countries begging him based on his special geographical location. So he started a policy of false neutrality and was ready to end at any time.

Mircea also gave Peter a new title: Despot of Illyria. This was Peter's first autocratic title, and Mircea also gave him the power to conclude treaties and engage in foreign wars, which meant allowing him to expand. This is what Peter needs too.

Stanissa also joined in the conquest, and the Duke of Allgäu supported his son's actions. Peter appointed him responsible for the management of some areas and enfeoffed some noble estates to him. Other generals and soldiers divided up the remaining land.

After briefly pacifying the people, Peter began his strategy of conquest of Croatia. Croatia was stronger than Bosnia, but not much stronger, but in order to reduce casualties, he had better ask Prince Pozzoni of Hungary for help. (I beg myself?)

After acquiring Bosnia, Peter ordered a part of his soldiers, together with part of his navy, to attack the Venetian islands in Illyria. These islands were occupied by Venice, which ensured the security of Venice itself to a certain extent. Occupying this place now allows the Venetian navy to divide its forces and relieve the pressure on the empire.

Roma seemed to be in a hurry against the alliance, but in fact it was as stable as an old dog. Simultaneous punches from both sides have been defeated many times in history, but Rome withstood them this time. Not only because of the strength of the soldiers, but also because the people rallied around the ruler and the country's power was fully mobilized.

Nikephorus adopted other methods to deal with the serious imbalance in naval power. That is, everyone should not have a hard time. They constantly set off from Athens and Cyprus, disrupting the trade routes, and stop doing business from Alexandria to Antioch, Venice to Latakia. Let's go crazy together.

The number of privateering licenses issued by Rome reached 100. Not only can you get all the goods robbed, but you can also get a two-thirds gold coin bonus based on the value of the goods. This made the entire Eastern Mediterranean lively, especially the Venetian and Genoese merchants. Everyone knew that there were heavy rewards for killing the merchant ships of these two countries.

Venice continued to look for allies and even thought of finding Tamerlane in Samarkand to deal with Rome. The governor looked for allies within the HRE, and the Grand Duchy of Austria became his choice.

At this time, Austria was already in a state of panic because of the ransom issue. 600,000 yuan could only be collected by selling the entire Austria. Now, the first batch of 150,000 yuan was paid to redeem the Archduke and then the rest was collected.

Albrecht really didn't want to go to the East to fight. These days were simply hell. His neck ached when he thought about life there. Such a big piece of wood was placed on his neck. Is it a human thing?

So when he heard that Venice asked Austria to send troops to attack Rome, he directly refused. Even if he becomes a general, he is not willing to continue fighting.

The special envoy persuaded Albrecht to be willing to join the war at the appropriate time. But for now he needs to rest, and there are still a lot of things waiting for him to deal with in Austria.

Austria was unable to do so, so Venice tried to persuade neighboring Milan to send troops, promising to give him part of the Veneto region as reward. Duke Gian was itching. He wanted to expand his territory, but he also didn't want to fall out with Rome. Originally, if there had been no war, his son Filippo would have married Roman Princess Elena this year, but now he can only postpone it.

Mircea also noticed Milan's wavering. Naples was still excusable, and Milan still had to consider it. He set a price for Milan's participation in the war. Except for the eastern part of Venice Island and overseas areas, all the land of Venice in northern Italy belonged to Milan. Genoa can also be rowed to him. Don't you want to go to the sea? This is coming.

But the uncertainty in Milan made Mircea reconsider the need for a marriage. Engagements can also be broken, but the question is, which country can compare with Milan?

Rome also suffered some losses due to the disturbance of maritime traffic, but it was much less than that of Venice, because Roman merchants could also transport goods by land, while Venice relied nearly 100% on sea transportation. It did not have as vast a territory as Carthage. Whether Shinra can maintain basic needs is a problem even if it does not have trade relations with the countries within its borders.

Two months after the war broke out, Croatia and Durkadir joined the war against Rome, Moscow and Lithuania were neutral, and what frightened the most, especially the Austrians, was that Hungary joined the side of Rome. And began to mobilize troops to the borders of Croatia and Austria.

A behemoth like Hungary joined the Roman side, which crushed the alliance on land. At the same time, the relationship between the two countries has become closer, and Croatia, caught in the middle, is in danger.

Prince Pozzoni's army was mobilized to go to the border area between Hungary and Croatia. At the same time, the Chamber of Commerce Bank stationed in Buda loaned the Queen 100,000 ducats as a reward.

Seeing that the other party had gathered such a large ally, Venice could not lag behind, so it took the gold directly to Rome and asked Boniface IX to call on the Crusaders to attack Rome. They are heretics anyway, and it doesn't matter if they start over again.

Peter was also preparing to go on the road. He planned to take 16,000 men to attack Croatia. During his exchange with Hungary, he learned that there were 10,000 more people who could help him. Therefore, he was not afraid at all and prepared to conquer Croatia in one go.

In April, the Venetian admiral Alvio and the Roman navy led by Nikephoros launched a battle in the Ionian Sea. The Venetian side had 65 warships and 110 armed merchant ships, while the Roman side had 42 warships and 102 armed merchant ships.

The warships of both sides were mainly Clark sailing ships, but at the tactical level, Venice mainly focused on boarding enemy ships. The Roman fleet mainly used artillery to attack from a distance.

Nikephoros began to adopt a new method of warfare utilizing artillery and Greek fire. That is to arrange the combat fleet into a long linear formation. Before this, the form of maritime combat was usually two ships approaching and fighting alone. In contrast, a fleet fighting in a battle line allows each ship to use its own broadside firepower to attack without worrying about accidentally injuring friendly ships. Therefore, the entire fleet can perform more firepower output per unit time. Another advantage is that after maintaining a battle line, even if one of your own ships has moved to a certain extent, there are still other ships that can come up to make up for it, making your own battle line more powerful than a certain part of the enemy's ships. The ship is relatively stationary, allowing for a sustained concentrated strike.

Nikephorus has no idea about this tactic, but maybe a miracle will happen.