War Palace and Knee Pillow, Austria’s Destiny

In 1848, Hungary established many new armies, including the National Guard, Homeland Defenders, New Hungarian Legion, Hungarian Legion, Self-Defense Forces, etc.

This unit led by Gergey Artur and Petofi was the famous homeland defender force in later generations.

As Hungary's earliest revolutionary and Kossuth's close comrade-in-arms, Petofi theoretically should not have been sent to the front line of the war.

However, as the Hungarian revolution progressed, the resistance to reform became greater and greater, the drawbacks became more numerous, and the contradictions increased day by day.

Petofi's poems became more and more sharp, so sharp that even the reformists thought he was too radical.

Petofi's straightforward character is not suitable for political struggle. In addition, Kossuth also needs a trustworthy supervisor.

So Petofi became Gergey Artur's partner. Although the former was not a soldier, he had one of the most powerful troops in Hungary. The name of this troops was the "March Youth".

In fact, the so-called "March Youth" is an army composed of young Hungarians and some workers who support the revolution. Their beliefs are quite firm.

Gergey Artur was also very good at military training, so he immediately put aside his contempt for the often drunken poet.

Their mission was to collect the taxes and military levies that the Transylvanians had owed for many years. Originally, everything went very smoothly. The Szekes declared their allegiance to Hungary, and the number of Homeland Defenders increased by 30,000 in one breath.

But soon rebellions broke out in various places. The Austrians in Kolossberg gathered tens of thousands of troops, and the Saxons, Protestants, and Transylvanians also successively joined forces.

There have been seven or eight independent forces in the entire Transylvania region, and all of these forces are targeting the Hungarians who own the most land and wealth.

Landowners, nobles, and government officials were killed every day, so the Hungarian government passed retaliatory measures with little impediment.

Historically, Hungarian retaliation resulted in more than two hundred villages being razed to the ground, tens of thousands killed, and hundreds of thousands displaced.

After that, various ethnic groups in Transylvania began to kill each other, and scenes of human tragedies were played on a loop.

Franz was not prepared to let this happen again, so he asked Puchner to take the initiative to quell the rebellion in Transylvania.

Of course, the method must be flexible and cannot be killed blindly. Anyone who opposes Hungarian rule and is willing to be loyal to the Austrian Empire can be won over.

As long as they do not oppose the rule of the Austrian Empire, there is no need to rush to use force to solve the problem. Money, land, and official positions can be promised to them.

As for those who must split the country, oppose the Austrian Empire, and build a Greater Romania, they must die.

(Modern Greater Romania refers to Romania including Moldova.

The so-called Greater Romania at that time meant that all the lands once ruled by the Romans should belong to the Romanians, and they were the orthodox heirs of Rome. )

The main thing is not to let Puchner cross the line, the guy often goes from one extreme to the other.

Historically, Puchner's original purpose was to hold back part of the Hungarian troops. He even wrote a suicide note and sent his family to Russia.

However, as the war situation worsened, the Hungarians continued to draw some troops from Transylvania to resist the Austrian attack.

Coupled with their previous perverse behavior, Puchna will be welcomed by the Transylvanians wherever he goes.

As a result, Puchna, who had the right time, location, and people, was victorious in every battle, and his military strength increased from more than 20,000 to nearly 100,000.

Then he became arrogant and insisted on leading the Transylvanian army to attack the Hungarian mainland. He also threatened to capture Budapest before Prince Windischgratz.

As a result, Prince Windischgrätz was defeated by Gergei Artur, while Pukhna was defeated by János Damojanic and fled, and finally relied on Russian talents to regain the victory.

In short, Franz's order to him was to only attack the enemy within the territory and not to pursue the enemy deep into the territory.

Franz still needed to resolve the British and French issues before he could deal with the Magyars with peace of mind.

Covered with greenery and gurgling streams, a remote and peaceful village is located here. The land in the entire village belongs to a certain lord in Budapest, and the serfs in the village have long been accustomed to everything.

Until one day a well-dressed gentleman said that they no longer need to pay land rent to the gentleman and can distribute the land equally.

Although they didn't understand why, the villagers accepted it all with joy.

When the tax official came again to ask for unpaid taxes from the villagers, the villagers did not hesitate to beat the tax official to death on the spot. The villagers were more willing to believe that it was beneficial to them, and they were sure that they had paid taxes on time and in full every year. payment.

At that time, Transylvania had two administrative systems, each with its own sphere of influence.

This village was originally under the jurisdiction of the Austrian government, but after the Hungarian rebellion, the Hungarian government declared that the taxes paid to the Austrian government in previous years were invalid. These villages must pay back taxes to the Hungarian government for ten years.

In addition to this foolish move, the Hungarian government also passed a resolution that the government would help landowners collect the 1848 ground rent in advance, and 30% of this money would be used to fight the Austrian Empire.

The Hungarian government had no money, so it wanted to get ideas from the landowners, but these landowners also said they had no money.

In the end, after repeated push and pull, the two parties came up with such a cunning operation, that is, the government would collect land rent from farmers in advance, and then the two parties would split the account between 30% and 70%.

A group of uninvited guests came on the muddy dirt road in the countryside, leaving deep marks left by the heavy ruts.

A worried young man looked at the black smoke rising not far away. He knew that another village was doomed.

Even from a long distance, he could hear the cries of women and children, the shouts and curses of men, and the crackle of the burning wooden roof of the adobe house.

"The solemn oaths can no longer be heard. The claims of liberty, fraternity, and equality have not been realized. We have got rid of Metternich, but we are still stuck in the old era!"

Petofi's words made Gergey Artur shrink his head, and the latter finally knew why the former was expelled from the Grand Council.

If this sentence had come out of someone else's mouth, they would have been arrested by the military police as a reactionary.

“We laughed at Barnet and thought he was just a lackey for the Austrians, but the reality was we weren’t doing any better.

The land policy is a mess. Compatriots of all ethnic groups hate and kill each other. Today we let two villages disappear forever in this world. What about tomorrow? Will it be our turn? I have no idea! "

(Barnet is the former Prime Minister of Hungary, a well-known conservative, and an expert in animal husbandry. His interest is breeding sheep.)

In fact, historically the first prime minister of the Republic of Hungary should have been Baujani. However, due to the emergence of Franz, a series of changes in events led to a dramatic increase in Kossuth's influence and prestige, directly replacing Baujani's status. .

Historically, Baujani became the first Prime Minister of the Republic of Hungary, which was also full of coincidences and accidents. He was only 42 years old at the time, and his qualifications were relatively low, and his background and strength were not strong.

But no real nobleman was willing to stand up and come to the stage. Coupled with Kossuth's reciprocation, Baujani became the prime minister.

Although Kossuth is far stronger than Baujani in terms of ability, another advantage of having the former come to power is that it can quickly intensify conflicts.

After all, the latter was born into a noble family. Even when he became the Prime Minister of Hungary, he looked forward and backward, and generally remained conservative.

If the prime minister at this time was Baujani, then Franz might have to wait more than ten years to solve the Hungarian problem.

But Kossuth is different. He is just a small nobleman in Slovakia. He does not have a huge family to manage, let alone worry about his own huge wealth (because he does not have it at all).

This kind of people are often eager for quick success. Only when Kossuth comes to power can conflicts in all aspects be quickly intensified. Only in this way can Franz uproot this cancer.

"Mr. Petofi, I don't think you should be too pessimistic. Britain and France are not that easy to deal with. In order to concentrate on fighting against powerful enemies, the Austrians may one day negotiate with us.

When the time comes, you must advise Mr. Kossuth not to be too idealistic and win independence first, and then revive Hungary. "

As a soldier, Gergey Artur had his own opinion. Britain and France were both great powers, and the defeat of a few battles could not defeat them.

If the Austrians want to defeat Britain and France, or at least win a peace treaty that is beneficial to them, they must mobilize the strength of the whole country.

Therefore, the Austrians should choose peace talks to resolve internal conflicts, just as Austrian monarchs have done throughout the ages.

Gergei's only worry was that Prime Minister Kossuth would act out of temper and refuse to negotiate with the Austrians.

Then the Austrians will most likely turn around and deal with Hungary first, which will be a great disadvantage to Hungary at this time.

Among other things, Hungary's weapons and equipment are a big problem at this time. Since the Hungarian government has always refused to purchase new Austrian equipment, many soldiers have weapons older than their age.

Such an army certainly cannot withstand long-term consumption. As long as it lasts for half a year, his soldiers may have to fight the Austrians with broadswords and spears.

Petofi raised his head and drank the wine in the flask, then sighed and said.

"Hopefully we can wait until that day, but hopefully it won't be the day we are enslaved again!"

What Petofi wanted was true independence, not continued peace with the Austrian Empire. This coincides with Franz in some aspects. Franz does not want to continue making peace. What he needs is complete unification.

The massacre continues, the war does not stop for a moment, and the blood of innocent people is flowing all over the earth.

Before Puchner organized a real armed force, hundreds of villages in Transylvania had been massacred, but the number of victims was at least half compared to the historical Transylvanian Massacre.

The only thing Franz could do was this.