Daming Greedy Wolf Star

Chapter 408 Defeat like a mountain

The victory of the Principality of Athens was actually unexpected.

Not just Zhu Zhanhe's surprise, but everyone's surprise.

It's not that Zhu Zhanhe didn't think that the Holy See and the Holy Roman Empire would launch a surprise attack while he was away from Europe, so he made preparations before leaving.

Before leaving, he did two things. The first thing was to let everyone try to hide the news of his departure, and let the Holy See and the Holy Roman Empire know as late as possible.

As for the second thing, Mu Sheng was asked to patrol the Aegean Sea line after he left, and Wang Jinghong, who had been waiting in the Suez area for a long time, led the fleet into the Mediterranean Sea to start trading.

Whether it is the time of March, it is very early for this era, or for the matter of war.

But only the Mediterranean region is an exception.

Because of the special climate in the Mediterranean region, winter will not have a particularly large impact, so Zhu Zhanhe made the arrangements early.

The reason for the victory of the Principality of Athens this time was that when Wang Jinghong led the merchant fleet to trade with the Kingdom of Aragon and the Kingdom of Castile, he discovered the traces of the fleet of the Principality of Venice and sent someone to report it to Mu Sheng.

Then Mu Sheng was also very decisive. He was still patrolling the Aegean Sea area at that time, and he immediately ordered to change the course and head towards the Adriatic Sea.

As a result, the first confrontation at sea broke out in the Principality of Athens, also at the corner of the Mediterranean Sea in the Peloponnese Peninsula.

The outcome of the war is self-evident. With the most advanced artillery and white phosphorous eggs in the world, the Ming army quickly wiped out the fleet of the Principality of Venice, which was known as the strongest fleet in the Mediterranean and was also a caravan.

In addition, because Zhu Zhanhe was not around, Mu Sheng, as the person with the highest official position after Zhu Zhanhe, immediately issued an order to Junbao.

On the one hand, an order was sent to Jane Xiao, who was near Nicoburg, to let him pay attention to the surprise attack of the Holy Roman Empire in the land war.

On the other hand, Zhu Sanfeng, who was in King's Castle, was ready to dispatch the Black Sea Fleet to and from King's Castle and the Sea of ​​Azov.

This Black Sea fleet is actually responsible for supplying Qian Yong who was in the highlands along the Volga River and is now in Astrakhan, the Golden Horde.

But because Qian Yong has already arrived and occupied Astrakhan, their supplies can also be taken overland from the Syr Darya River, so there is no big problem in temporarily withdrawing them.

All these arrangements are actually quite rare in such a temporary outbreak of war, even if it still seems a bit hasty.

However, Mu Sheng did not expect that the attacks of the Holy See and the Holy Roman Empire would come to an abrupt end.

Papal State, Rome.

Unlike the previous meeting where Sigismund used the Holy Roman Emperor to convene the monarchs of various countries, only three people gathered in Rome this time.

Pope Martin V, Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund and Doge Francesco of Venice.

"Are you two satisfied?"

Francesco didn't yell as Sigismund and Martin V imagined, he didn't even have a little anger, and there was only endless calm.

"At the beginning, I didn't agree to attack the group of hell legions at sea. You nobles who live in castles and manors don't know it, but we Venetians know how powerful their sea power is."

"And you also know, of course, if you don't know, I can tell you that they didn't use their full strength in this battle, and there weren't many ships that were many times bigger than us."

"And according to the news we got five years ago, they have at least twenty ships of that size."

"Notice……"

Having said that, Francesco knocked on the table with a gloomy tone.

"This is just news from five years ago. As five years have passed, no one knows how many ships they have scrapped and how many have been built."

Martin V and Sigismund didn't raise their heads, they just lowered their heads and remained silent.

The fiasco of the fleet of the Principality of Venice was beyond their expectation.

The fleet of the Principality of Venice is by far the strongest sea power in the Mediterranean that they have been able to mobilize. According to their original estimate, the Principality of Venice will be able to stop even if it loses to Ming's treasure fleet.

Maybe three years, maybe two years, one year, or even just half a year, this can give them the greatest degree of initiative.

This kind of initiative will not only force the Ming army to become conservative in its land offensive, but also allow them enough time to convince more allies and mobilize more forces.

However, the strength of the Daming Treasure fleet far exceeded their expectations.

The more than [-] people this time are not all the sea power of the Principality of Venice, because the Principality of Venice itself is a country that relies on the sea for food, and there are almost no land troops. It can be said that [-]% of them are sea power.

But even so, this time the Principality of Venice lost more than [-]%.

Daming hasn't tried his best yet, how many people will they send next time?Is half of the sea power of the Principality of Venice?Or all the rest?
All, that is impossible, Francesco is not a fool, he will not gamble the entire Duchy of Venice for the rule of Martin V and Sigismund.

To put it bluntly, in the end he chose to join this alliance. Apart from being forced by the ten-member regiment of the Principality of Venice, Francesco also came with the idea of ​​drinking some soup, or even eating two bites of meat.

But now, not to mention the meat, even the broth has not been drunk yet, and I have lost one-third of it.

This is unacceptable to Francesco.

"I don't know how you two plan, but we, the Principality of Venice, really cannot afford such a loss."

Seeing that Martin V and Sigismund didn't say a word, as if they didn't want to pay a little bit for this defeat, Francesco also spoke again.

"I declare that the Principality of Venice withdrew from the Holy Roman Empire, next..."

With that said, Francesco stood up and looked at Martin V and Sigismund who raised their heads in shock with meaningful eyes.

"Good luck to both of you!"

After finishing speaking, Francesco turned around and left. Not only did he not give the two most appealing people in Central Europe a chance to save him, he didn't even give him any face.

Because, Francesco now has confidence.

At the beginning, the Principality of Venice responded to the call of the Holy See and the Holy Roman Empire and sent troops to face the Ming army at sea. This was not requested by Francesco, but was forced to agree.

He is different from the ten-member group who are full of thoughts about how to put their rights above the governor. He is more concerned about the gains and losses of the entire Principality of Venice.

As the largest commercial country in the Mediterranean, the Principality of Venice learned about this powerful maritime force from the Arabs as early as Zheng He's third voyage to the West.

So at the beginning, Francesco did not want to respond to the call of the Holy See and the Holy Roman Empire, and confront the Ming Dynasty.

But helplessly, the governor of the Principality of Venice is not the emperor of Ming Dynasty. On the head of the governor of the Principality of Venice, there is also a ten-member group responsible for electing the governor.

The group of ten who were dazzled by the interests and only wanted to gain the attention of the Holy See and the Holy Roman Empire forced him to join the coalition.

Well, the first sortie of Venetian consolidation ended in failure, and lost as much as a third of its sea power.

The ten-member group wants to be above the Governor of the Principality of Venice. As the Governor of the Principality of Venice, why does Francesco not want to solve this sharp sword that has been hanging over his head?
He had long wanted to dethrone the ten-member regiment, but there was no suitable opportunity, and the defeat of the Principality of Venice this time gave him an opportunity.

When the news of the defeat was sent back to Venice, Francesco made a mistake. Taking advantage of the fact that the ten-member group did not know the news, he quickly aroused public opinion and forced himself to unite with the Holy See and the Holy Roman Empire by the original ten-member group. , and the news of this defeat was released.

Of course, the ten-member group that elected the governor of the Principality of Venice will not be deposed. Even if Francesco has an absolute advantage, at most the ten-member group will not be replaced.

Therefore, he chose to accept it as soon as it was good. The group of ten will no longer dictate the affairs of the Principality of Venice. In exchange, Francesco will no longer pursue this matter through public opinion.

Therefore, although it sounds unbelievable, the defeat of Venice this time was actually a good thing for Francesco.

As for the Holy See and the Holy Roman Empire...

Francesco wasn't worried, at least not particularly.

Ming's sea power is extremely powerful, and the Holy Roman Empire can be said to have no sea power at all, but the Holy See does have it, but at this time the Holy See cannot command other sea power.

Who is the remaining sea power strong enough?The answer is the Kingdom of Aragon, the Kingdom of Castile and the Kingdom of Grape Buds.

Among them, the alliance between the Kingdom of Aragon and the Ming army was exposed long ago when Mu Bin raided Rome, and the Kingdom of Castile and the Kingdom of Aragon wore the same trousers, so there is no need to think about these two.

As for the last remaining Grape Sprout Kingdom... don't even think about it.

The Grape Sprout Kingdom, which is outside the Strait of Gibraltar, is not actually a country along the Mediterranean Sea. The Holy See and the Holy Roman Empire have no way of contacting the Grape Sprout Kingdom.

from the sea?Stop making trouble, let alone the Strait of Gibraltar, the entire western side of the Mediterranean Sea is controlled by the Kingdom of Aragon and the Kingdom of Castile, and the Holy See has no way of getting through.

From land?It is also impossible, because the Kingdom of Grape Sprouts is on the southwest corner of the Iberian Peninsula, and it has to go through the Kingdom of Aragon and the Kingdom of Castile when walking from land.

Therefore, Francesco is confident, because he is the only sea power that the Holy See and the Holy Roman Empire can rely on.

Of course, he didn't want to be tough with the Holy See and the Holy Roman Empire. Like the Ming army, the Holy See and the Holy Roman Empire were also existences he couldn't afford.

The reason why he chose to put down the pick now is simply because Francesco wants some tangible benefits, and now is the best time to get benefits.

It's just that he didn't expect, neither did Martin V and Sigismund. Before he left Rome, another battle report came.

Jian Xiao, who was stationed in Nicoburg, was not afraid of the Duke of Venice's surprise attack from the sea. On the contrary, he chose to advance beyond everyone's expectations.

Previously, because of the heavy losses in Nicoburg, the Holy See and the Holy Roman Empire urgently mobilized a small number of troops, with a total of no more than 3 people, stationed in Belgrade in the middle of the Western Carpathian Mountains and the Alps.

The purpose is not to stop the advance of the Ming army, but just to serve as an outpost to be able to know the movements of the Ming army as soon as possible.

Now, they got their wish, because they learned the news that Jian Xiao led the army to break through Belgrade in the first place.

From the sea to the land, in a short while, the Holy See and the Holy Roman Empire were really defeated.

Because they are getting closer and closer to Budapest, the capital of the Kingdom of Hungary and Sigismund's hometown.

(End of this chapter)