Chapter 622: A Few Things About Hungary

On October 2, 1845, the first half of the Great Illyrian Line was officially opened to traffic.

This means that from Trieste to Zagreb, it will officially connect to Neretania, and Croatia will be directly ruled by Austria.

The Hungarians suffered the most, because they had one less hole to suck blood from the Austrian Empire, and they could no longer continue to exploit the Croatians.

But to be honest, although Franz had been mentally prepared for the poverty of Croatia, he was still scared.

The tax revenue contributed by the entire "kingdom" was not as much as that of a city in the coastal area, only less than five million florins, which was lower than one twentieth of Bohemia at that time.

Bohemia is now the largest economic province in Austria, followed by Venice and Vienna. The highest overseas contribution rates are California, Mexico and Zhenla.

Although Austria now has the ability to levy taxes directly, it still has to respect tradition and Hungary, and send the taxes to Pressburg first and then transfer them to Vienna by the Hungarian government.

However, the amount is naturally not all, after all, the Hungarians also intercepted most of the taxes when they collected taxes, and these originally disappeared taxes were directly used for local construction and development subsidies.

The high-level officials in Vienna felt that it would be more beneficial to consolidate the border than to give the money to the Hungarians. After all, everyone had seen the Hungarians' true face at this time and would not do that kind of useless work again.

On the other hand, it was also because the Austrian Empire was strong and confident, so they dared to say no to Hungary.

In fact, Hungary has made a lot of efforts. In order to prevent the construction of the Great Illyrian Railway, they can be said to have done everything possible.

First, they colluded with local gentry and incited the people, claiming that the railway would cause earthquakes, drive animals crazy, and even trees would never grow again.

These words were also said when Austria built the railway, so the officials in charge of the construction were very experienced.

In addition, these words can only deceive those people who have never seen the world, and Croatia is Austria's traditional source of soldiers. Many people have joined the army, and many of them have not only seen the railway, but also ridden the train to fight.

They know how magical the train is and what the railway can bring to their hometown. Nothing is more convincing than seeing it with your own eyes.

In addition, even if these soldiers are retired, they are still the most influential people in the local area, so ordinary people naturally have no intention of resisting.

As for those gentry who took the lead in making trouble, many of them are Hungarians. This group of people usually rely on their special status to bully men and women and exploit the people in the countryside, causing complaints. They can coerce the people by relying on their accumulated power in daily life.

But this thing doesn't work at all in front of the royal power, the army, and the church. The church and the soldiers are building roads under the banner of the royal family. It's funny that these gentry from Hungary say that tradition.

The people who are already full of anger are naturally busy adding insult to injury when they see that the gentry is going to lose. They wish that the train would hit all the Hungarian nobles to death now.

If it doesn't work openly, then they can only play covertly. Since Croatia is mountainous and mostly stone structures, it is easy to cause large-scale landslides once blasting is carried out.

Some Hungarian leaders hired some desperate men and fanatics to do direct destruction, but the power of gunpowder in this era was limited, and a large amount of black powder was needed to cause sufficient damage.

And the team with barrels of black powder was very conspicuous, so most of them were easily intercepted.

Even if someone brought it in batches later, it would be difficult to cause damage. Not to mention that the Croatians were xenophobic, a group of foreigners inexplicably entering the mountains was suspicious.

Coupled with the propaganda of the church and local Croatian nobles, many hunters who retired from the hunting camp directly caught them as prey.

Moreover, blasting is also particular, and it needs to be buried at a certain depth in a specific location, and those desperate men who fight for money obviously do not have this skill.

In the end, the Hungarian Parliament could only frame the Croatians for rebellion and prepare to directly control Zagreb to eliminate the pro-empire faction and force the kingdom faction to take power.

However, the Hungarian army was driven back as soon as it entered Croatia. In fact, Franz knew that the former would not be content, so he sent Albrecht to Croatia in advance.

The Hungarian generals were very familiar with this royal grand duke, and some of them had even fought with his subordinates in previous battles.

No matter how confident these people were, they did not dare to directly attack the army led by the royal family. After all, they were nominally here to quell the rebellion for the empire rather than the rebels.

So the two sides simply talked and exchanged information, and then each withdrew their troops and left.

However, Hungary's explanation for the unauthorized dispatch of troops for large-scale military operations was obviously not satisfactory to Vienna.

However, Austria had too many things to deal with in the past two years and had no time to fight with this traditional ally.

In fact, both sides knew that the final result of this matter could only be in vain, so Vienna and Budapest also tacitly understood it.

However, these things hit Kossuth hard, and he doubted that the great Hungarian Empire could not restore its former glory.

But on the other hand, Kossuth had been elevated to a height that did not belong to him. He was once a small lawyer, now a national leader, and a future head of state.

Any man who has tasted the "taste" of power will inevitably be intoxicated by it, and Kossuth is no exception, so he quickly got out of his lost mood.

"Fellow countrymen! The evil Austrians are taking away our legal rights, and our property has been shamelessly violated! Freedom or death!"

"Freedom or death!"

The young people in the audience were excited. They all believed that Austria caused the poverty of the Hungarians. As long as they could overthrow the rule of the Habsburg family and take back their rights, they would be able to live a good life that everyone envied.

Kossuth on the stage listened to the crowd's shouts. He seemed to hear people calling his name. The warm atmosphere made him feel like he was in heaven and intoxicated.

Count Szechenyi could only close the window tightly and draw the curtains.

"Crazy! All crazy! Can't they see that the times are progressing? Can't they see how the Austrians beat France? Do they really think that reviving the Hungarian Empire will make people live a good life?"

Count Széchenyi knocked on the table heavily, and the cups on the table bounced.

"Fools are so arrogant and stupid, but it's not bad. When they are all dead, Hungary will be ours. After all, the emperor always needs someone to manage this land."

Prince Esterhazy poured a glass for himself and another for Count Széchenyi. At present, among all the Hungarian loyalists, they are the first to choose to be loyal to the royal family and are also the most powerful.

"Come on, cheers, toast to our future!"

Count Széchenyi took the glass and looked at the other party's pride in drinking it all, and couldn't help but sneer in his heart.

"All those crazy people are dead, do you still want to follow in their footsteps?"