The Eagle of Eastern Europe

"Where is my mother?" After retreating, Peter asked the attendant beside him.

"Your Highness, Madam is preparing a dinner in the backyard!"

Peter walked through the corridor and arrived at the manor. This is connected to the castle. As soon as Peter entered the manor, his mother, Mary, saw him.

"Oh my boy. How are you in the territory? You've lost weight."

As soon as she saw Peter, Grand Duchess Maria transformed into her old mother mode. Ask Peter this and that.

"Mom, everything is fine with me. Don't worry!"

As Peter spoke, someone showed his mother what he had brought back from Constanta.

Except for his mother Maria, all other family members came running when they heard that Peter was back.

"Brother, you are back."

The first one to run over was Peter's younger brother Mikhail. This boy, who was two years younger than him, was originally the future ruler of Wallachia, but now Peter got there first. But don't worry, the future will give him a good one.

"Come. Let me see if my brother has grown taller." Then they kiss, hug and lift him up, which is very warm for the family.

"Peter, you go play with your brothers and sisters first, and I asked the kitchen to prepare your favorite dish!"

"marvelous"

While dinner was being prepared, Peter played with several of his younger siblings. Either compete with Mikhail or give them the gifts he prepared. Among them, Mikhail got a pair of armor, the other brother Vlad got some books, and the two sisters got four maids. He bought it from Crimea.

After the servant informed him that dinner was ready, Peter stopped the fight between the brothers. At the table, everyone ate delicious food, but old Mircea and Peter were a little worried.

Mircea was not unmoved by Peter's proposal. It's just that he is a little unsure about being able to annex such a large piece of territory, because there are two big guys, Hungary and Poland, next to him. If he wants to buy it, he doesn't have that much money. Unless like the Teutonic Knights. (Purchased the Eastern Pomerania region for 10,000 gold coins)

But for now, land expansion is still in mind. Because according to the news, the Ottomans may take major actions against the Balkans.

The current situation in the Balkans is that the Ottomans turned Serbia into a vassal after the Battle of Kosovo. At the same time, Bulgaria was split into three countries, but the Bulgarian tsar still did not surrender to him, which made Bayezid decide to completely destroy the country.

Judging from the current situation, Wallachia is very dangerous. Because there were two Ottoman vassal states between him and the Ottomans, he had to be fully prepared, which was why he called Peter back from Constanta.

The next day, Mircea and Peter were staring at the map on the table in the conference room, with only three close ministers beside them.

"According to the news, the Ottomans are planning to annex Bulgaria and Vidin, but recently they have transferred their troops to Asia Minor. This gives us an opportunity."

"Father wants to take advantage of this time to support Bulgaria?" Peter asked.

Mircea nodded, and then added, "This is not my idea alone. King Zigmund of Hungary sent me a letter proposing that Hungary and Wallachia unite to establish a new Bulgaria." ("Zigmund" " is pronounced in Hungarian, often translated as "Sigismund")

Peter had long thought that the Hungarian king would definitely win over Wallachia. Because of their geographical location, they are destined to join a camp.

"Father, since you want to respond to Hungary, you must prepare for defense." Peter suggested to his father that he build new castles in Bucharest (Bucharest), Giurgiu and other places, and increase military training. Mircea agreed.

In order to resist the Ottomans, Mircea also worked hard to form an army composed of farmers and citizens. Peter also helped. With his help, Wallachia conducted its first census. And a law was formulated that free farmers needed to join the army. As long as they accepted training and obeyed the call, they could not only get a military salary, but also other rewards.

Under such circumstances, the enthusiasm of farmers in Wallachia to join the army immediately increased a lot. In addition, Grand Duke Mircea also established the Military Council as the institution for the ruler to command the army, which not only accelerated the construction of the army, but also strengthened centralization of power.

The next few days were very enjoyable. Putting aside political affairs, the life of the Grand Duke and his family was actually very good. As the elder brother, Peter conducted a series of "love education" on his younger brothers. After all, Peter was able to crush them in terms of strength or other aspects. This also made them very unconvinced.

"Hmph, brother, just wait, one day I will become even more powerful than you!"

"Okay, I'll wait for you. I hope you won't disappoint me."

After a month like this, Peter had to return to the fief. Before he left, Mircea also talked to him alone. The specific content of the conversation is unknown, but from this time on, the Wallachian army began to conduct large-scale training.

----Dividing line----

Peter led the convoy and set off along the avenue. Passed by Bukuli, Jiurjiu and other places, and saw the city defenses there. This was much better than what he had seen a year ago, especially Giurgiu, a castle that had been turned into a great lock on the Danube by the local garrison.

On the way back, Peter also went to a manor in the north. He just bought it a month ago, and the price is very low. The reason is that when the manor owner here ordered the farmers to dig a well, some black stuff suddenly spewed out, which was very sticky and emitted an unpleasant smell. The manor owner had no choice but to sell it at a low price. No, Peter bought it.

By the way, this place was later called Ploiesti. It is an important oil city in Romania.

After a month's journey, Peter finally arrived in Constanta. Consul Alexander had been waiting for him.

"The great lord has returned to Constanta, may God be with you."

Peter enjoyed this ritual very much, because he could only see it in books before, but now he felt it in person. This also prevents him from enjoying it. After all, he is someone determined to change history.

Arriving at the city hall, Alexander immediately reported the latest work to Peter.

"Your Highness, more than 1,000 people came here during your absence. They all fled from Moldova."

"Moldova, what happened again?" Peter asked.

"I heard that the lord of Qilia could not make ends meet because of his extravagant spending, so he could only increase taxes."

Alexander's words made Peter's eyes light up. How could he forget about the bank?

At this time, financial institutions had not yet evolved into banks, but some wealthy families would lend money to people in urgent need of money, and then collect principal and interest when due. Moreover, wealthy families can only be found in southern Italy, and there are no institutions similar to banks in other countries.

"What do you think of our lending business?" Peter asked Alexander.

Alexander thought for a moment and answered. "Your Highness, the current lending business in Eastern Europe is only carried out by Genoa and Venetian. If we join, it will definitely be a difficult battle, but the profits will also be very large."

After receiving the approval from his supervisor, Peter immediately made the decision to enter the lending industry. Of course, the principal cannot be too much, just 10,000 ducats.

In addition to trade, Peter also ran another industry here, the salt industry.

Currently, if you want to eat salt, you can only buy it from coastal countries or principalities with salt mines in the HRE. Generally speaking, principalities with salt mines are relatively wealthy, such as Lübeck.

However, their salt production was very rough and tasted bad. After Peter inspected the local conditions, he built several salt ponds in the north of Constanta, and also built a ditch to drain the bitter brine. Those fools didn't know that as long as By dumping the bitter brine, they can harvest salt that is a hundred times stronger than now. Unfortunately, they don't know.

Because of the European climate, Peter resorted to boiling salt to obtain table salt. After the production is stable, a large amount of salt can be obtained every day.