and Demetrios Tornikes, to chase the Bulgarians. The two generals led their troops across the passes of the Rhodope Mountains in constant fear of an ambush. When they unexpectedly heard the sounds of the horns of shepherds and swineherds, they broke into a run in panic, abandoning their baggage. The fiasco outraged Theodore, and he ordered them to hurry to his camp at Adrianople, but both commanders disobeyed. A Bulgarian renegade in Nicaean service, Dragotas, switched sides and laid siege to Melnik in the summer. Theodore hastily departed from Adrianople to lead relief forces to the town. The Bulgarians lay an ambush for him along the Rupel Pass, but he avoided it and Dragotas abandoned the siege on Theodore's arrival. From Melnik, Theodore went to Thessalonica and dismissed his old opponent, Philes, from the governorship. He closed down the local mint, because he wanted to establish a centralized system of financial administration in Asia Minor, with a new treasury at Astritzion on the Asian coast of the Hellespont. Theodore invaded Macedonia and forced the Bulgarian garrison in Veles to surrender, but drought prevented him from continuing the military campaign across the arid Ovče Pole. He went to Serres, where he confirmed the fiscal privileges of Macedonian towns. He also ordered the arrest of Constantine Kabasilas, Archbishop of Ohrid, assuming that Kabasilas was Michael II of Epirus' loyal supporter. A report about a Mongol invasion of Asia Minor forced Theodore to leave Macedonia in late autumn of 1255. After the report had proved false, he launched an attack against the fortress of Tzepaina. He had to abandon the campaign, because his army could not pass across the narrow and frosty mountain passes. He returned to Anatolia around the end of the year. He showered his confidants with honors and gifts. He made Manuel Laskaris and Constantine Margarites the commanders-in-chief of his troops in Thrace and charged George Mouzalon with implementing military reforms. He also ordered the punishment of members of old aristocratic families. Constantine Strategopoulos and Theodore Philes were blinded; Alexios Strategopoulos and Alexios Raoul's four sons were imprisoned. Theodore's cousin, Michael Palaiologos, fled to the Seljuks to escape imprisonment. Theodore took advantage of the emperors' right to control aristocratic marriages to establish family ties between his lowborn favorites and the old aristocracy. George Mouzalon married Palaiologos' niece, Theodora Kantakouzene Palaiologina, Andronikos Mouzalon wed a daughter of Alexios Raoul. Theodore decided