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Theodore roused himself from administrative tasks to support his lieutenants in the Nebbio against Marchelli's expeditionary force. He needn't have bothered, as before the king could arrive on the scene the threat presented by Marchelli was abruptly curbed on June 22nd by his humiliating defeat at the Battle of Rutai, in which a poorly planned attempt to rescue a stranded garrison resulted in the Marchelli's army being encircled and shot to pieces by the rebels in the valley of the Bevinco. Marchelli escaped with his beaten force, but at the cost of a thousand dead, wounded, or captured. The victory was widely credited to Count Andrea Ceccaldi, the victory of the First Battle of Calenzana in 1732, but it would have been impossible without the nearly spontaneous mustering of rebel sympathizers throughout the northern Castagniccia. It was an impressive demonstration of Corsican determination to evict the invader, at least when he strayed too far into the interior, but whether Theodore and his generals could translate such ardor into the long and tedious work of siegecraft remained questionable. True to form, most of the irregulars who had given Ceccaldi his victory melted back into the mountains and returned home with their muskets as soon as the Genoese fled.

This victory was followed a week later by the surrender of San Pellegrino after weeks of bombardment supervised by the minister of war, Count Anton-Francesco Giappiconi, and Lieutenant-Colonel of Artillery Antoine Dufour. With their surrender of the 80 or so surviving soldiers of the garrison, the entire eastern coast of Corsica from the Cape to Porto Vecchio was now vacated by the Genoese. That, in turn, freed up much of Theodore's artillery, which was badly needed elsewhere. A few pieces, principally of "light" artillery (presumably 12 and 8 pounders), were diverted northwards, perhaps with the hope that field artillery would be of some use in the generally flat and open plain of the Nebbio. The most dire need, however, was at Ajaccio, where Marquis Luca Ornano had abandoned the siege of the city after being embarrassed by a successful sally against his position by the garrison. Ornano complained that he had no support—too few muskets, not enough ammunition, no money to pay his troops, and no artillery. He was right, although not because of purposeful neglect; the mountains were a formidable obstacle to the transfer of supplies. Sea transport would have been ideal, but the presence of the Genoese fleet and the fact that the rebels in the Dila held no ports made this quite unthinkable. Dufour, whose background was military engineering, was charged with moving eight 24-pounder cannons with their carriages and ammunition, as well as various other munitions and supplies, on the backs of mules over the length and breadth of the country. To mollify Ornano personally, Theodore decided to travel to the Dila as well.

Over the course of June, Theodore's administration was busily minting an official currency to give his reign some of the trappings of regal legitimacy. Corsica, of course, had no mint and no minters, but eventually a rather unlikely engraver was found to craft the dies—a priest from Orezzo known as "Settecervella" ("Seven-brains") who was locally renowned as a counterfeiter of Genoese currency (and, Costa adds, quite proud of his work, describing it as practically a service to his country). Theodore placed Count Giampietro Gaffori at the head of the effort, giving him the title of "President of the Currency." His followers roved through the rebel-held regions to find brass to melt down for copper. Several pro-rebel monasteries voluntarily contributed candlesticks, plate, and other metal implements for the purpose.

The denominations were 2-soldi, 5-soldi, and 20-soldi (one lira). The lower denominations were ostensibly billon (silver and copper ally), but the silver content was vanishingly small. The Corsicans joked that the "TR" on the coins, which stood for Theodore Rex, actually stood for Tutto Rami ("all copper"). The 20-soldi coins were silver and reasonably fine, but rare in comparison to the "billon" pieces. Workmanship was poor, and there was an initial setback where the mint workers themselves refused to accept payments in the currency they had made. Very quickly, however, the money began circulating outside the island. Independent captains trading illicitly with the rebels at Bastia were at first reluctant to accept the pieces, but soon realized that despite having a negligible silver content and being of shoddy workmanship, the pieces commanded high prices as collectibles; the novelty of Theodore and his reign was such that there were numerous collectors on the continent who were willing to pay high prices for them. The pieces were in such high demand that a mint in Naples began churning out counterfeit Corsican coins of the -soldi and 5-soldi varieties solely for the purpose of selling them as curios. With just as much silver content (that is, practically none) and considerably better craftsmanship than Theodore's coins, there was really little reason for Theodore to object to them; his goal, after all, was to raise the profile and legitimacy of his state, and the Neapolitan counterfeiters were unwittingly aiding him in that task while turning a profit.[A]




Despite the best efforts of the Genoese navy, supply ships continued to reach the rebels. A large consignment of muskets and ammunition which had been purchased in Livorno by Father Gregorio Salvini, a Corsican priest, managed to outrun a Genoese patrol ship in mid-July and reach Bastia intact. Although Bastia was a poor port, it did have a well-armed citadel, and while the gunnery of Castinetta's militia was presumably atrocious it was nevertheless enough to keep Genoese armed feluccas and galleys from attacking merchant shipping once it had reached the port. The Genoese, of course, intensified patrols in the area, but they could not get too close; in late July, some of Castinetta's men rowed out at night to a Genoese galley anchored just outside the range of the citadel's guns and stormed it, taking advantage of the fact that Genoese galleys (being rowed by galley slaves) had comparatively few fighting crewmen. The Corsicans captured the ship, but had no use for the galley itself and set it ablaze after beaching it. Theodore, who was a vocal abolitionist, had decreed that galley slaves were to be immediately freed when taken, and foreigners among them were either to be repatriated if possible or offered the chance to join the foreign company of the royal army. His position on slavery met with no opposition from the Corsicans, as the Genoese had long used the onerous penalty of galley slavery to punish Corsican dissidents and criminals and the practice was universally detested.

As the French began cracking down more harshly on their nationals who did business with the Corsicans, Livorno became the primary transit point for trade with the Corsican rebels. It was certainly geographically appropriate, given its proximity to Bastia, and it was politically convenient as well. As mentioned, both the Grand Duke Gian Gastone de Medici and the imperial governor of Livorno Karl Franz von Wachtendonck (the very same man who had led imperial forces on Corsica and was defeated by Ceccaldi at Calezana two years earlier) were friendly to Theodore, and while the official line was that trade with the "malcontents" was illegal there was little done to actually enforce this. Theodore's most effective agent there was a Florentine merchant, Francesco dell'Agata, whom Theodore had met during his preparations between 1734 and 1736 and like many was immediately attracted to the baron's charisma and sense of purpose. Intensely loyal to Theodore, dell'Agata used his skills and contacts acquired during his mercantile career to operate what was essentially a major smuggling operation, concealing goods and laundering payments while strenuously denying that he had anything to do with the Corsicans.

Although arms continued to flow into the island, the rebels were beginning to have issues with manpower. July meant harvest season, and many irregular and militia soldiers (and entire units at times) dissolved to return to their fields and orchards. Had the Genoese not recently been chastened at Rutali, it would have been an excellent time for a counterattack; as it stood, the Genoese did little of anything. Marquis Simone Fabiani, captain-general and governor of the Balagna, offered to raise men at Orezza, the country of his in-laws, but Theodore ordered him to remain in place; he did not want to lose Calenzana, and after the loss of much of the Nebbio it was olive oil from Balagna which was presently paying the bills of the merchants who came to Bastia selling arms.[B]

Count Gaffori, after managing the mint, went to the interior of the country to raise troops in the vicinity of Corti. While there, however, he was stymied by Colonel Ignazio Arrighi, who had returned to Corti after falling out with Cavaliere Felice Cervoni, and Gaffori wrote back to Theodore complaining of Arrighi's interference. Theodore, who was planning on heading south to meet Ornano anyway, proceeded to Corti with his royal guard to investigate matters, only to find that Arrighi refused him entry to Corti. Despite patient negotiations, Arrighi still resisted, so Theodore's guard caught Arrighi entirely by surprise and took the town by storm. Arrighi fled to Vico, and disavowed Theodore's sovereignty. His party, which became known as the indifferenti ("Indifferents"), comprised those Corsicans who were opposed to Theodore but still defiant towards the Genoese, and it was soon joined by Marc-Antonio Raffaelli (a relative of Father Domenico Raffaelli, one of the Prisoners of Savona) and Theodore's own justice minister Father Giovanni Aitelli, who had long been upset with Theodore's religious policy. Their defection was a serious blow to Theodore and the rebellion, and although the indifferenti were supposedly hostile to the Genoese there was little fighting between those two factions and it was speculated that their leaders might be in the Republic's pay. Nevertheless, Theodore resolved to continue with his mission to the south, with Dufour's caravan of cannon crawling along behind.



Timeline Notes
[A] All this stuff about the currency is basically true. They really did find a counterfeiting priest named "Seven-brains" to design the coinage, and there really was a mint that opened in Naples to sell counterfeit Corsican currency to collectors. You can actually buy the Corsican coinage pictured above, but you'd better be loaded because the coins are extremely rare and the examples I've seen online sell for a few thousand dollars a piece.
[B] IOTL, Fabiani did indeed return to Orezza to raise troops. On his way there, he was ambushed and assassinated. Who did it and why is still not exactly clear. It was claimed that the attack was a vendetta killing to avenge the death of Luccioni, the man who had betrayed Porto Vecchio to the Genoese and had been executed by Theodore, but as Fabiani was not at all involved in Luccioni's execution it's not clear why he specifically would be the target. It was also claimed that the murderers were in the pay of the Genoese, who were absolutely willing to pay assassins or at least put bounties on the heads of the rebel leaders and tried to have Theodore killed on several occasions. Also possible is the involvement of Giacinto Paoli, whose home territory in Rostino was very near Orezzo. Paoli's clan and Fabiani's clan were traditional enemies, and Paoli also hated Fabiani personally, being intensely jealous of the high position he had been given. Paoli had allegedly been spreading false rumors about Fabiani prior to his death and attempting to turn other rebel leaders against him. Since all I can do is speculate as to how it really went down OTL, my decision ITTL is that the absence of Paoli, the capture of Calenzana, and the improved situation of the rebels (which makes Fabiani's return to Orezza less necessary) butterflies away his assassination. That said, however, not everyone will be so lucky as to escape Genoese-paid gunmen. The butterflies go both ways, as it were.