At four o'clock in the afternoon, Cabinet adjourned the meeting.
Vitus returned to the study to deal with the documents, and suddenly heard a message: Jean Coeur was in trouble with his shipping insurance business, and he came to ask for help.
"He encountered this kind of problem in the early stages of his business. He was really unlucky."
Vitus asked Eunuch to summon the visitor, and the first sentence he asked during the meeting was, "When you signed the agreement, did you record the relevant risk types in detail?"
Coeur hurriedly took out a stack of agreements and showed the emperor the clauses at the end of the agreement, including but not limited to the following scenarios: storms, fires, running aground on rocks... but war was not included.
Vitus was confused, "What do you mean? Some ship owners deliberately seek trouble and force you to ask for insurance premiums under the pretext of war? In this case, I will send someone back to the company with you to find out the situation before making a decision."
This result is in line with Coeur's expectations. As long as the emperor's people appear in the company, these troubles will naturally disappear without a trace. Once this matter spreads, the number of customers will increase significantly.
"In the past few years, Aegean Sea's shipping business has been unable to continue. Fortunately, Black Sea has not gone wrong, and the company can focus on the Black Sea."
In Coeur's understanding, Black Sea is equivalent to the inner sea of the Eastern Roman Empire.
Although Hungary, Moldavia, Lithuania, and Georgia own a section of the Black Sea coastline, their navy is almost non-existent, and together they cannot muster ten main battleships.
Ocean Trade depends on naval strength, Eastern Roman Empire obtains Black Sea sea control, and its merchants monopolize Black Sea Trade accordingly.
There are frequent ships between Constantinople and Chersonesus. Coeur can still survive by shifting its business focus in the next stage to this route...
October late, Crete North Sea shore, Candia.
This city is the capital of the island and the trade center of the Eastern Mediterranean. The port is lined with masts and merchant ships from all over the world are moored.
In recent years, the destructive power of artillery has increased day by day, and the Venice people have carried out large-scale reinforcement of the original fortifications.
In view of the de facto alliance between Venice and Ottoman, Duke Candia hired some Ottoman craftsmen to build a low, thick polygonal defensive wall with numerous Triangle Fort.
The north side of the city wall coincides with the coastline, and strong coastal defense fortresses are set up in key areas to be alert to attacks by the Eastern Roman Empire fleet.
Duke Candia is equivalent to Governor of Crete. He has a two-year term and is elected by Venice Great Council. His power is strictly restricted. The current Duke is Giovanni Loredan, the younger brother of former naval commander Peter Ronaldo Loredan.
It has been two months since the war started. During this period, the Duke's main job has been to resettle refugees.
The total number of refugees from Euboea, Modon, and Coron exceeds 8,000. During peacetime, the Venice descendants of Crete were nearly 13,000, and now the population has exploded to 20,000, placing a heavy burden on the entire island.
The Duke thought for a long time and decided to leave some people in the city and disperse the remaining people in public estates in various places.
Not only that, Crete needs to supply the main force of the fleet and various expenses of 20,000 crew members. In the future, a large number of the Army will be sent from the mainland, further increasing the logistical pressure.
"This island has a population of only more than 200,000. How can we supply such a huge army? Sooner or later, it will be overwhelmed." The Duke picked up a pen and paper and began to write a letter to the mainland to complain. His idea was to get the mainland to allocate more funds and use the money to purchase grains at Egypt - where the price of grains is at a low level all year round.
"The local government is issuing the first batch of public debt, and this amount of 200,000 Ducat for grain purchases should be able to be allocated."
The Duke put the letter paper into an envelope and asked his servant to send it back to Venice. After finishing his work, the Duke walked out of the mansion gate and went to the naval command post on the other side of the Plaza de la Signoria.
The naval command post is a complex of buildings that occupies a huge area and is no less than the Duke's residence. The main building is a three-story marble house. The Duke walked into the hall and saw some captains doing nothing, killing time with board games.
Among them, the most popular ones are chess and tarot cards.
Venice Most of the naval officers come from aristocratic families. These utensils are very luxurious. The chessboard and chess pieces are made of expensive ivory. The tarot cards are hand-painted by painters with exquisite patterns, more like a work of art.
(Note: Tarot cards during this period were used as card games, not as divination tools.)
The Duke shuttled among the crowd, found fleet commander Marcello Kanal who was observing the chess game, and invited him to talk privately.
"The air here is stuffy, it's time to go outside for some fresh air." Marcello left the command post and walked slowly along the edge of the Lord's Square.
This is the center of power for the entire Crete, surrounded by a series of magnificent buildings, demonstrating the authority of Republic of Venice. These include the Duke's Residence, Monastery of San Marco, Naval Command Post, and Army Command Post.
The sky was gloomy and the north wind was howling. Marcello bought a piece of bread from a vendor and sat on a bench at the edge of the square. He did not eat the coarse-tasting black bread, but tore it into small pieces and threw it to the foraging pigeons.
The flock of pigeons cooed and gathered together, their wings flapping and making a noisy sound. They scrambled for the torn bread crumbs. Some bold pigeons approached Marcello in an attempt to get more food.
After waiting for a moment, the Duke spoke first, "The mainland requires us to severely damage the main force of the enemy fleet within half a year and force Palaiologos to negotiate. What are your plans?"
Marcello reacted coldly, "Great Council are just a bunch of idiots. The enemy's Double-Deck Warship are huddled in the port and Cruiser are running around outside. How can I defeat their main force?"
The Duke reminded, "You have to do something. If you continue like this, sooner or later someone in the country will impeach you."
Marcello:"Really? I have wanted to retire for a long time."
The Duke knew that this was just a friend's angry words, so he persuaded him to change his target and send mercenaries to harass the coastline. On the one hand, it weakened the enemy's power and lured their fleets to fight. On the other hand, harassing the coast was considered a military achievement and could offend the local fools.
The two discussed for a while and decided to target the west coast of Greece, which is close to Ionian Islands and is convenient for the raiding team to assemble and rest.
Today, the main force of the Eastern Roman Empire fleet is reduced to Chalcis, and Marcello's first task is to monitor this fleet.
For the sake of safety, he is willing to allocate ten warships, twenty Armed Merchant Ships and many small and medium-sized Galleys to carry two thousand mercenaries to carry out this harassment mission.
The Duke comforted his friends, "Mercenaries regard war as a profession. Some of them have fought for more than 20 years and accumulated rich combat experience.
In a head-on decisive battle, twice the number of mercenaries may not necessarily defeat the Greece Legion. The reason is that the quality of the commanders is low and it is difficult to cooperate with each other. Once the scale of the war is reduced and a harassment battle involving dozens or hundreds of people is launched, the mercenaries may not necessarily lose to the opponent."