Chapter 159 Hungarian Civil War

"Why haven't you found them yet?"

Sigismund angrily scolded his men in Buda. It's been so long, and we can't even catch a single person. What's the use of you?

"Your Majesty, calm down. We have found out that the pagans in Belgrade helped the king. We have punished them."

Sigismund's face eased a little after hearing the news. It was good to get some money without catching Mary. And they were all pagans, but the Transylvania region has been a little unstable recently, and he still needs to use troops to suppress it.

Since most of the targets of the massacre were Orthodox Christians, Wallachia, who belonged to the same religion, could not sit idly by, and Hungary had to be wary of them.

Sigismund was very short of money now, because he had to bribe many nobles, some from Hungary and some from the Holy Roman Empire, especially the Holy Roman Empire. His brother Wenzel had no heirs, so the King of Bohemia and the King of the Roman People would be his sooner or later. But these needed to be elected by the nobles, so a lot of money was needed to make them support him. It happened that he took advantage of the rebellion of the Orthodox Christians to take their property for himself, and his wallet became much more comfortable.

In addition to slowly looking for Mary, he also had to run the election in the Holy Roman Empire. There was no king busier than him. Why didn't the nobles buy it?

At the same time, the main members of the Andrew Society in Transylvania gathered in Cluj.

"The pagans are too rampant. They think that if they send troops, we will surrender. It's impossible."

Bishop Busolav said that he would fight the Hungarians to the death, because his diocese is the Brasov diocese with the most Hungarians and Germans. He fought wits and courage with the Catholic Church here and successfully gained a foothold here.

"But can we win against Hungary? You know, they have a lot of troops."

The bishop of Timisoara made a suggestion, because the Hungarian army is not good at dealing with foreign countries, but it is more than enough for internal affairs. What's more, they have no combat experience and are just a group of rabble. How can they compete with each other?

"We have to fight even if we can't win, otherwise they will always bully us. We have to let them know that we are not easy to mess with."

"Yes"

"That's right"

Those who can be bishops in Transylvania are fanatical believers of the Orthodox Church, or people who hate Hungary. So they actively participate in the anti-Hungarian movement, and the ultimate goal is to separate Transylvania from Hungary.

The massacre in Belgrade shocked them. Hungary's cruelty to the Orthodox Christians is no longer ordinary cruelty. They can't wait any longer.

In the spring of 1396, the Orthodox Church led by Bishop John of Cluj launched an anti-Hungarian uprising. The Hungarian War officially broke out.

The rebels gathered more than 3,000 people in Cluj. They attacked the manors of local nobles, confiscated their property and distributed it to the peasants, and issued a declaration that all Orthodox serfs would be free from now on, calling on them to fight for freedom.

And this outbreak swept across Hungary like a gunpowder barrel explosion. The situation of Hungarian peasants was very miserable. The nobles united and increased taxes several times on the original basis, confining all peasants in a fixed place and not allowing them to move at will. If the peasants wanted to terminate the employment relationship, it would be even more difficult. They were exploited by the feudal nobles to the point that they only had one breath left. The people were living in poverty and life was extremely difficult. There were only two ways for the peasants. One was to be exploited to death by the nobles; the other was to revolt and overthrow the noble power and be the master of their own house.

The peasants and urban poor in Hungary decisively chose the second way, because the first way was to wait for death, and the second way had a glimmer of hope to survive. For the poor masses in desperate situations, as long as there was a little hope, they were willing to try.

In cities such as Pécs, peasants and urban citizens launched an uprising to drive out officials and announced the establishment of an independent agency for governance. For a time, Hungary was full of smoke.

Sigismund was stunned. Why did so many rebels suddenly appear when he was fine, and the momentum was not small.

However, this situation did not allow him to think too much, and he quickly dispatched troops to quell the rebellion. First, wipe out the rebels in nearby towns, and then in other places.

At this moment, the Hungarian nobles had no time or mood to negotiate with Sigismund. They passed the conscription decree. After all, protecting the king was protecting themselves.

The untrained peasants were certainly no match for this group of well-trained soldiers. Soon the rebellion in several surrounding cities was resolved, but the rebellion in border areas such as Transylvania continued. The rebels there got a batch of firearms, bows and arrows, and armor from nowhere, causing great losses to the Hungarian army. In addition, the Wallachians were in the majority, and they quickly occupied a large area. The Hungarian army could only shrink in several cities to hold on.

The civil strife in Hungary also made foreign forces ready to move. The Polish King Władysław planned to obtain the Hungarian crown through the relationship with his wife Jadwiga. Laszlo, who was fighting with Louis in Naples, also wanted to unite some Hungarian nobles to seize Hungary. Grand Duke Mircea also had ideas about Transylvania.

The forces coming from three directions made Sigismund unable to cope, but in his opinion, Poland was busy with Teutonic affairs, and Naples was still fighting internally. These two were not a threat for the time being. The only thing he had to guard against was Wallachia, which had suddenly risen in recent years. They had been interested in Transylvania for decades. They would not let this opportunity go.

At the same time, he ordered the army to enter some important cities, such as Belgrade, to prevent sudden loss.

In order to obtain more troops, Sigismund also recruited mercenaries from the Holy Roman Empire and persuaded some nobles to help, including Austria. Vienna sent 1,000 people to help, which was the largest number of noble reinforcements.

After patching together, Sigismund assembled an army of 10,000 people and marched towards Transylvania with great momentum. It was bound to extinguish the flames of resistance.

The impact of this war on Hungary was huge. Sigismund wanted to make Transylvania his own direct jurisdiction, and the Vlachs wanted to be independent or join Wallachia. The confrontation between Catholicism and Orthodoxy intensified. Every day, churches were smashed and believers fought. This triggered a migration of residents.

This war, which combined religious conflicts, ethnic conflicts, and peasant conflicts, broke out completely, but once it started, it would not stop according to human will unless both sides compromised or one side completely overwhelmed the other.