control of Albania Skanderbeg's primary reason for allying with Alfonso was his fear of 21-year-old Mehmed II, whose ambition was to reconquer Justinian I's empire which stretched from Syria to Spain. Mehmed had been planning a campaign against Albania since Skanderbeg had defeated his father at Krujë in 1450. Another factor was that Krujë geographically dominated Durazzo, which was only 150 kilometers from Brindisi, the nearest Italian port. Mehmed's ambitions were symmetrical to Alfonso's and it was clear that there would be some sort of clash between the two in Albania, the epicenter of the conflict. Mehmed was one of the first monarchs since Roman times to keep a massive centralized army under his personal control. Besides controlling a huge army, Mehmed was widely acknowledged for his far-reaching wisdom which allowed him to produce a highly advanced military armed with the newest models of the cannon. The strength of the Albanian resistance was supposed to be fierce, but Alfonso wanted to see the League become powerful enough to seriously challenge the Ottoman Empire, much unlike the Venetians who were troubled by the growing Albanian state. In May, Alfonso sent two experienced Catalan officers with 200 men and plenty of supplies to Krujë and, on 7 June 1451, he established an alliance with George Arianiti, the most powerful League member from southern Albania. Later that same year, Alfonso created similar alliances with John Musachi, George Stres Balsha, Muzaka Thopia, Peter Himariot, and Simon Zenevishi, all important Albanian nobles allied to Skanderbeg. Skanderbeg was pleased with Alfonso, but dissension in the League over political issues was still present. Paul Dukagjini and Peter Spani remained aligned with Venice and established friendly relations with the Sultan. In 1451, Mehmed was focused on defeating the Karamanids and Menteşe in the East, but it was in his intentions to return to Albania. During this brief period of rest, Skanderbeg took up the rebuilding of Krujë and erected a new fortress in Modrica in the Drin Valley near Svetigrad (which had been lost in a 1448 siege) where Turkish forces had previously slipped through unhindered. The fortress was constructed in the heat of summer within a few months when few Turkish posts were present. This came as a huge blow to Ottoman efforts whose Albanian operations were thus inhibited. Meanwhile, the Venetian cities had been trying to antagonize Skanderbeg's allies against him in order to halt Aragonese