Chapter 1184 Enemies are springing up like mushrooms after rain

Chapter 1184 Enemies are springing up like mushrooms after rain

Except for the Galician Legion, the prisoner-of-war camps of other legions have long been overcrowded. Although these prisoners of war are just serfs who have just picked up guns, they have seen blood.

It is difficult to guarantee that there will not be a few extreme examples among these prisoners of war. Their impact on the entire war situation may be so small that it can be ignored, but if left alone, it is very likely to cause disasters.

The mines and road construction teams are all overcrowded. They can neither kill nor release them, which is very troublesome.

As for why the Galician Legion does not have this problem?

Of course, it is the "smart" Jews, the "modest and noble" Poles, and the "smart, confident, and firm" Ruthenians. Each of them has its own unique skills, so the small prisoner of war problem is naturally not a problem.

In short, the prisoner of war issue was put on the table again, and Austria had to allocate a considerable part of its troops and logistics to manage this group of people.

According to Franz's estimate, the Hungarians will definitely make some big moves, and Kossuth's move can be said to have completely opened Pandora's box. The scale of the civil war must be much larger than previously expected.

"So what's the point?"

"Transylvania."

Prince Schwarzenberg was a smart man with strong executive ability. He immediately began to organize and coordinate the relevant matters of continuing to send troops to Hungary.

But there was a dispute within the General Staff regarding Franz's judgment on Transylvania.

It is an indisputable fact that Transylvania's military strength is weak, but Transylvania's importance is undoubtedly the lowest.

At least no one thinks that the situation in Transylvania will have much impact on this war. After all, the Magyars are not thieves, not to mention that they have already established a country at this time, and it is impossible for them to leave the land of Hungary.

If the Magyars really left Hungary, they would become rootless duckweed, just like fish leaving water, completely seeking their own death.

In fact, throughout 1848, the General Staff had a strong presence, but its role was not as big as imagined.

Although Franz had made a lot of arrangements long ago, and even deliberately established many seemingly strange telegraph routes.

However, the lag of intelligence could not be avoided. The strategy formulated by the General Staff using outdated intelligence was naturally full of loopholes.

Fortunately, most of the generals of the Austrian Empire at this time had strong subjective initiative, and they crushed their opponents in military technology and tactics. The quality and morale of the soldiers were generally higher than those of other countries, so there was not much negative impact.

Archduke Karl's last battle was completed entirely under the command of the General Staff. Although the strategic goal was achieved, the troops were lost and the main force of the French army escaped successfully.

In the case of successive victories in other routes, this has to be said to be a failure.

Since Archduke Karl was nominally in command, few people discussed it and pointed out the problems.

In essence, the level of science and technology was not enough, so the generals on the front line must have enough autonomy, otherwise the General Staff would not only fail to play its due role, but would even drag down the war situation in turn.

Back to the Transylvanian issue itself, although Transylvanian nationalism was stunted under Franz's intervention, it was hit hard by the two-sided attack in 1848.

However, Transylvania is a mountainous area after all, and many separatist forces have survived tenaciously (I have talked about this many times before, so I will not repeat it here).

In addition to the native troubles in the country, the Austrian Empire also had to face the invasion of surrounding troubles. After all, Romania is not only Transylvania, but also Wallachia and Moldavia.

After the Vienna Conference, Russia began a comprehensive sweep of Moldavia, and Wallachia was occupied by the Bucharest Eagle released by Franz.

The nationalists who escaped from the two places eventually came to Transylvania, which was in troubled times. Coupled with the chaos in Transylvania itself, it has become a vibrant land at this time.

This time, Franz not only wants to deal with Hungary, but also Transylvania.

In addition, Transylvania is also Kossuth's only way out. He can only choose Transylvania if he wants to escape.

Historically, after the Russians entered Transylvania, they often turned a blind eye to the Hungarian rebels, and many key figures escaped under the noses of the Russians.

Franz would not let history repeat itself. He did not want to comfort himself by using a scarecrow instead of an enemy.

(Historically, the Austrian government could not catch anyone, so it wrote names on scarecrows instead of hanging war criminals.

In the end, all these war criminals were pardoned, and all their property was returned, and they even received state compensation, and no one was punished.)

Compared with the troubles caused on the battlefield, the international impact of Kossuth's enthronement was even worse.

Due to the complexity of the Austrian Empire itself, Kossuth could completely claim to be the Hungarian emperor elected by the Hungarian people.

Although this was groundless, Kossuth could turn this war into a war of a vassal state against the suzerain state with the tacit consent of the great powers.

The Austrian Empire and Hungary were not a simple suzerain state relationship, but the great powers could use this excuse, which was not an excuse, as a reason for interference.

Fortunately, Kossuth was crowned as the emperor of the Hungarian Empire. In the face of foreign invasion, Franz only needed to drive him out.

In any case, it was a scandal for someone to privately proclaim himself emperor in a monarchy, and someone would definitely take this opportunity to make a fuss.

What Franz could do was to quickly declare the Hungarian government illegal and Kossuth a liar, and then strike hard at Hungary and punish these people severely to serve as a warning to others.

Franz even considered whether he should torture Kossuth.

It seemed that not doing so was not enough to prove the position and determination of the Austrian Empire, but Franz was a civilized man after all, and Austria was also a civilized country. It would be better to do less of this kind of behavior of simply venting anger.

As for public debate and point-by-point rebuttal, or even entangled in legal issues, they were all the worst strategies. Because doing so would not cause any loss to the other party, but would only cause more trouble to the party.

In case of improper operation, it might be used by others, and then a breakthrough would be found, forcing them to be pulled into the field where the enemy is good at.

Franz felt more and more that the ancestral motto of the Habsburg family "never prove yourself" was very prescient.

Instead of wasting time proving your innocence, it is better to beat the other party to admit his mistakes.

What neither Franz nor Kossuth expected was that soon after Kossuth became emperor, dozens of emperors appeared in Transylvania.

The banner of the republic was too heavy, and freedom, equality, and democracy were too difficult to achieve. However, it was easy to be a dictator. It only needed to suppress or control dissidents and then concentrate power on one or a few people.

In Transylvania at that time, a few people and a few guns could do this.

So kings and hegemons emerged like mushrooms after rain.