PART 7
War with the Austrians to the north was imminent. They were constantly building towns on our land, getting borders mixed up and always arguing, every time saying they had land further and further south.
As war was declared on Austria to the North, France and Savoy joined the war. In the beginning, all three nations sent all of their men to our poor allies Lorraine, and much of the Austrian country was open to our attack. 13000 men under leadership of Paolo Fragoso, the Lieutenant Admiral, were sent to Mantua, and started to besiege the city. Another small group of men were sent to some of the northeastern Austrian places, where troops were being trained, and about 3 separate armies of Austria were defeated shortly after being called to battle.
After Mantua’s capture, the war began to change. The previous naval victories in Cote’ D’Azure now turn into a large defeat, pushing the Navy back. (These had been going on a long time similar to Venice),
but a major land victory was marched when our Army, beginning the invasion of Lombardia, defeated 12000 Austrian soldiers. (Our ranks had been reinforced by the small group of men and an army of 3000 soldiers who were trained recently.)
Fear was evoked into the new leader, Giano De Campofregoso’s
heart as he rose to the throne, because a week later thousands of French and Austrian troops who had finished and annexed Lorraine appeared in Piemonte, and massacred the army that had shortly been stationed in Savoy to prevent Savoy from training troops. Giano decided that the enemies would be attacked after Milan in Lombardia was captured. As it was, the weary men prepared to attack the armies attacking Piemonte, and they would be outnumbered almost 2:1. They were luckily stopped short when Austria sent us a proposal, offering not only Mantua but Lombardia as well.
(By the way everyone I did not expect the war to go this easy, I had no idea the AI would spend ¾ of the war in Lorraine,
Giano was rejoicing and gladly accepted. Genoa had now eliminated the Austrian holdings north of the po, and won a war against two superpowers at one time (although France didn’t do much).
Then, our allies who had never done a thing for us, Prussia, tried to drag us into a war against a huge Baltic alliance. Giano wanted peace, and therefore he declined. We were invited to an alliance with England, in a war versus Austria, Savoy and France, and Giano laughed at the proposal.
In 1486, a guild of carpenters started to complain, and making trouble by refusing and murdering tax collectors. We could have abolished a tax to give in to their needs, but Giano was not one who believed in weakness over punishment, and had them all executed, as an example to the public not to try to go against the laws.
The people of Siena, the town where these construction workers were, were unhappy with this and 14000 Sienians revolted. When Paolo’s army reached there, the revolters torched Paolo’s camp, and then the next morning they ambushed everyone, and Paolo was forced to retreat, although he was able to kill 4000 men on the way and in the night. Paolo directly attacked the rebels the next month, and massacred all of them, again leaving a warning to the Empire Di Genoa that Genoa controlled you now, not whatever puny state did before.
In 1488, Gian Gelleazzo came into a time of peace for Genoa, and upon doing this ordered for tax collectors to be put throughout the land of Tuscany, and Gian Gelleazzo’s main ideas were to slowly build up the economy through promoting more tax collectors every year.
Due to Gian’s economic growth, he became known as an excellent minister for a while.
Then, a lot of merchants in Apulia feared tax collectors being created there, resulting in an unhappiness amongst the merchants. The merchants also rallied up 11000 people to rebel, and the Genoese Army was forced to march down there from Roma, where after no cooperation from the population and an attempt to put down some of the rebels, a large group forced the army to retreat. The next invasion went the same way, but although we had to retreat, the rebels were left disorganized, and on the next invasion, we were victorious and the population was punished with the fact that a tax collector now would be put there.
A painter by the name of Marco Paladino was hired, and he painted several portraits of Gian, as well as one of Genoa. And for the next few years, Genoa would keep promoting tax collectors throughout the land, and would prosper. In February of 1493, enthusiasm for the navy happened to us, and the enthusiastic people built 5 galleys as a gift for the government.
In 1494, an agricultural revolution happened in Liguria. By now, Gian was recognized as one of the best leaders of Genoa yet, second only to Adorno for uniting one of the southern Italian states. Some could say Genoa was in it’s Golden Age, also known as the Golden Age of Gian.
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