Chapter 669 In the East

On Christmas Day in 1845, German immigrants living in the Hungarian region of the Austrian Empire gathered in the royal manor to celebrate this wonderful holiday.

After six years of development, the manor has been truly established. The former wasteland has now become a fertile field.

Agricultural towns have also been established with the manor as the center. Although there is only a circle of fences and low walls around it, no horse bandits dare to attack them anymore.

Because the immigrants have spontaneously established militia organizations, although they are far from being a real army, they are enough for some scattered soldiers.

In fact, in addition to the Germans who are strangers in a foreign land, there are also some unwelcome Hungarians in the royal manor. Some of them are serfs, some are too poor nobles, and some are people who go against the mainstream thinking.

They all have one thing in common, that is, they are victims of the Kingdom of Hungary. Most of these Hungarians were once listed as refugees by the Hungarian government and planned to be sold to America (the slave trade in North and South America is very developed) to be white slaves.

Most of the German immigrants suffered more direct blows, that is, several bandit riots and massacres specifically against Germans.

So at this time, people of two different nationalities seemed very warm in the same home.

In autumn, the black land is covered with farmland, golden wheat waves dance in the breeze, and rice ears in the rice fields compete to grow towards the sun.

The immigrants worked hard on this land, and their sweat blended with the black soil, showing a harmonious picture.

The land in Hungary is really suitable for the development of agriculture. Whether it is wheat, corn, grapes, or beets, they are all very strong.

To be honest, they all lamented the fertility of this land. They didn't expect that the wasteland would become fertile land so easily.

Especially the black land under their feet, which grows whatever they plant, is so much better than the barren land in northern Germany.

Of course, these immigrants didn't know the saying of black soil. They just thought that their efforts moved the heaven, or that the Austrian imperial family was wise and powerful and gave them this fertile land.

In short, they would not thank the Hungarian government, let alone pay taxes for it, which was enough for Franz.

Although agriculture is the foundation of a country, industry is the tool for the prosperity of a country in this era, so Franz did not expect much income from his own agriculture.

Colonial agriculture naturally has to make money, otherwise how can it be maintained? What is the purpose of developing it?

In the cold winter, everyone began to prepare for Christmas celebrations.

Without a suitable Christmas tree, they just built one with corn and wheat straw and decorated it with colored paper.

However, Christmas on the Great Plains was extremely wild, and people would light up the Christmas tree at night for a bonfire party.

This is actually a traditional harvest festival born in Hungary, but because Germans are the majority, they are brought together for Christmas.

The happiest people during the festival are children, because on this day, they may wear new clothes.

At that time, the price of cloth was still relatively expensive, and farmers were relatively frugal. Even if the clothes were torn, as long as they were not rotten, they would basically make do with them.

But the royal estates in Hungary were not as poor as they thought. These small agricultural towns were small but well-equipped, with everything from small sugar factories to blacksmith shops for production tools.

Of course, this scale can only maintain the local minimum living standard. If they want to "survive", they still need to import from the Austrian Empire.

Franz actually has a deeper consideration for this point, because they are too close to the Hungarians. Although Franz has done a lot, there is no guarantee that there will be no unexpected situations at that time.

Once these small towns are surrounded, although resistance may pay a heavy price, Franz feels that surrender may lead to a more miserable ending.

So it is necessary to make these estates self-sufficient for a period of time, even if it may have a certain impact on the national market economy layout in the future, Franz thinks it is worth it.

In Franz's plan, the self-sufficient industries in these small towns are very small and primitive. Once the railway is connected here in the future, these industries will quickly die out, and in theory will not have a negative impact on the future economy of the Austrian Empire.

The Christmas dinner in the royal manor was much more sumptuous than the tables of serfs and ordinary nobles in Hungary.

First of all, there were a lot of carp. That's right! Franz would not give up any opportunity to promote his products.

The overwhelming carp occupied the immigrants' tables, and then there were a lot of candies. After all, the Mexicans really had nothing to pay off their debts, and Franz also planted a lot of beets for food security, which directly led to a short-term oversupply of sugar.

In addition, there were a lot of cattle, horses, and sheep raised on the Great Plains. These livestock were the main force in eliminating straw, and also provided meat for the immigrants.

Although the immigrants were all Catholics, they did not have so many rules. Christmas was about eating whatever was available and whatever was delicious.

Chicken, duck, cattle, horse, rabbit, carp were served together, plus some cheap Pilsner beer and homemade wine, which was the most sumptuous Christmas dinner.

Besides that, how could the Austrians leave music? All kinds of messy musical instruments and serfs joined the battle, and some even beat rice bowls and buckets.

At the same time, Hungarians are also a nation that can sing and dance well. They all picked up various national instruments to help, and soon everyone became one.

Some were spiritual, some were physical, after all, anything could happen under the influence of alcohol.

Of course, this also promoted national integration to a certain extent, but the Hungarians in the royal manor had more outrageous methods.

That's right! This group of people claimed that they were East Germans, who came from Russia, and their accents were quite serious, so it was normal for the North Germans to not understand them.

Although this statement was very outrageous, there was really nothing to say about a group of immigrants from North Germany, because they often did not understand each other when communicating with South Germans.

At this time, Silesia was six years old, and the little girl was very busy throughout Christmas, because her father was a self-defense officer of the militia organization, and he would not leave his post even on Christmas.

And her mother, Evra, was the cook in the manor, and Christmas was her busiest day. The little girl was very sensible. She helped pass the food with her brothers and sisters and asked for some tips from the adults.

Although Silesia's family was very busy, they all seemed very happy. Because although Silesia had not experienced it, she often heard her parents and brothers and sisters talk about how difficult their days in Prussia were.

A can of milk would take a family a week to lick. They would dig wild vegetables everywhere and be happy for several days if they found a pile of cow dung.