Chapter 1043 Never Act on Impulse

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

The unit led by Gergely Artur and Petofi was the famous Homeland Defenders Unit in later generations.

As the earliest Hungarian revolutionary and Kossuth's close comrade-in-arms, Petofi should not have been sent to the forefront of the war in theory.

But as the Hungarian Revolution progressed, the resistance to reform became greater and greater, the drawbacks became more and more, and the contradictions increased day by day.

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

Petofi's straightforward personality itself was not suitable for political struggles, and Kossuth also needed a trustworthy military supervisor.

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

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

Gergely Artur was also very good at training soldiers, so he immediately put away his contempt for the often drunken poet.

Their mission was to collect the taxes and conscriptions owed by the Transylvanians for many years. Everything was going very smoothly. The Szekes declared their allegiance to Hungary, and the troops of the defenders of the country increased by 30,000 at a time.

But soon rebellions broke out in various places one after another. The Austrians in Klosberg gathered tens of thousands of troops, and the Saxons, Protestants, and Transylvanians also pulled up hills one after another.

Seven or eight independent forces appeared in the entire Transylvania region, and all of these forces pointed their spearheads at the Hungarians who owned the most land and wealth.

Landlords, nobles, and government officials were killed every day, so the Hungarian government took retaliatory measures almost without hindrance.

Historically, the retaliation of the Hungarians caused more than two hundred villages to be razed to the ground, tens of thousands of people were killed, and hundreds of thousands of people were displaced.

After that, the various ethnic groups in Transylvania began to slaughter each other, and scenes of human tragedy were played in 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 you can't just kill and kill. As long as you oppose Hungarian rule and are willing to be loyal to the Austrian Empire, you can win them over.

As long as you don't oppose the rule of the Austrian Empire, there is no need to rush to use force to solve it. Money, land, and official positions can be granted to them.

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

(Modern Greater Romania refers to Romania including Moldova.

And the so-called Greater Romania at that time meant that all the lands that the Romans had ruled belonged to the Romanians, and they were the orthodox heirs of Rome.)

The most important thing is not to let Puchner cross the line. This guy often goes from one extreme to another.

Historically, Puchner's original purpose was to delay 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 withdraw troops from Transylvania to resist the attack from Austria.

Coupled with their previous perverse actions, Puchner would be welcomed by the Transylvanians wherever he went.

So Puchner, who had the right time, place, and people, won every battle, and his troops 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, and threatened to capture Budapest before Prince Windischgrätz.

As a result, Prince Windischgrätz was defeated by Gergely Artur, and Puchner was beaten and fled by Janos Damojanic, and finally relied on the Russians to win back a city.

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

Franz still needed to solve the British and French problems before he could solve the Magyars with peace of mind.

A remote and quiet village is located here, with green shades and gurgling streams. The land of the entire village belongs to a certain master in Budapest, and the serfs in the village have long been accustomed to everything.

Until one day, a well-dressed master said that they no longer need to pay rent to the master, and the land can be evenly distributed.

Although they don't know why, the villagers accepted it with joy.

When the tax officer came again to ask the villagers for the overdue taxes, the villagers did not hesitate to beat the tax officer to death on the spot. The villagers were more willing to believe in what was good for them, and they were sure that they paid the taxes on time and in full every year.

At that time, Transylvania had two administrative systems, and the two sides were not under each other and had their own sphere of influence.

The 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, and these villages had to pay back taxes to the Hungarian government for ten years.

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

The Hungarian government had no money, so it wanted to take advantage of the landlords, but these landlords also said they had no money.

Finally, after repeated tugs and turns, the two sides came up with such a trick, that is, the government would collect rent from farmers in advance, and then the two sides would split the money 30% to 70%.

A group of uninvited guests came to the muddy dirt road in the countryside, and the heavy ruts left deep marks.

A young man with worried eyes looked at the black smoke rising not far away, and he knew that another village was finished.

Even from a long distance, he could hear the crying of women and children, the shouting and cursing of men, and the crackling of the wooden roof of the adobe house when it burned.

"The solemn oath can no longer be heard. The claims of freedom, fraternity, and equality have not been realized. We got rid of Metternich, but we are still trapped in the old times!"

Petofi's words made Gergei Artur shrink his neck. The latter finally knew why the former was expelled from the Great Council.

If this sentence came from someone else's mouth, I'm afraid he would have been arrested by the gendarmerie as a reactionary.

"We laugh at Barnett and think he is just a running dog of the Austrians, but the reality is that we haven't done any better.

The land policy is a mess, and compatriots of all nationalities hate and kill each other. Today we let two villages disappear forever from this world, what about tomorrow? Will it be our turn? I don't know!"

(Barnett is the former Prime Minister of Hungary, a famous conservative, animal husbandry expert, and his interest is breeding sheep.)

In fact, the first Prime Minister of the Republic of Hungary in history should be Bautjanyi, but due to the appearance of Franz, a series of events changed, which made Kossuth's influence and reputation soar and directly replaced Bautjanyi's position.

In history, Bautjanyi became the first Prime Minister of the Republic of Hungary, which was full of coincidences and accidents. He was only 42 years old at the time, with little experience, and his background and strength were not strong.

But no real noble was willing to stand up and come to the front, and Kossuth's return of favors made Bautjanyi the Prime Minister.

Although Kossuth is far more capable than Baugani, there is another advantage of letting the former take office, which is that it can quickly intensify conflicts.

After all, the latter is of noble origin. Even if he becomes the Prime Minister of Hungary, he is cautious and generally conservative.

If Baugani is the Prime Minister at this time, Franz may have to wait for more than ten years to solve the Hungarian problem.

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

Such people are often eager for quick success and instant benefits. Only when Kossuth comes to power can the conflicts in all aspects be quickly intensified, and only in this way can Franz eradicate this cancer.

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

When the time comes, you must persuade Mr. Kossuth not to be too idealistic. Win independence first, then think about reviving Hungary."

As a soldier, Gergey Artur has his own views. Britain and France are both great powers, and the failure of a few battles cannot 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 whole country.

So the Austrians should choose to negotiate to resolve internal conflicts, just like the Austrian monarchs of all generations.

Gergey's only worry is that Prime Minister Kossuth will act on impulse and refuse to negotiate with the Austrians.

Then the Austrians are very likely to deal with Hungary first, which is very disadvantageous for Hungary at this time.

If nothing else, Hungary's weapons and equipment are a big problem at this time. Since the Hungarian government has always refused to purchase new equipment from Austria, many soldiers have weapons older than their age.

Such an army would certainly not be able to withstand long-term consumption. If the war lasted for half a year or a year, his soldiers might have to fight the Austrians with swords and spears.

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

"I hope we can still wait for that day, but I hope it is not the day when we are enslaved again!"

What Petofi wanted was real independence, not to continue to make peace with the Austrian Empire. This coincided with Franz in some ways. Franz did not want to continue to make peace. What he needed was complete unification.

The massacre continued, the war did not stop for a moment, and the blood of innocent people flowed all over the land.

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

This was the only thing Franz could do.