Chapter 1194 It is better to pursue the enemy with all remaining courage

Chapter 1194 It is better to pursue the enemy with all remaining courage

Bem and the remaining senior officials of the Hunnic Empire ran away with their buckets. After hearing the news of the fall of Debrecen and the death of Kossuth, the remaining forces of the Hunnic Empire also bravely chose to surrender.

As for those bandits who imitated Kossuth and proclaimed themselves emperors, they abdicated and canceled their country titles one after another. Those who did not abdicate in time either fell down trees and scattered like hozens, or had their heads picked off by their own men as a sincere tribute to Austrian officials.

After the defeat of Kossuth, there were no forces in the entire Austrian Empire that could threaten Franz's rule.

And in the past year or so, too many people have died.

Of the 550,000 registered nobles in Hungary, 498,000 had their names checked off. In addition to participating in the rebellion, most of the nobles who did not participate in the rebellion and failed to leave Hungary in time also suffered murderous attacks.

There were also some double-dealers who were unwilling to participate in the rebellion or join the Austrian Empire, and chose to live in exile overseas.

Franz did not object to what these people were doing, but he was not prepared to return the property and land to these guys.

Commoners can be neutral and serfs can be neutral, but these nobles who have enjoyed the rights of the empire for hundreds of years are not qualified to choose neutrality.

Franz just confiscated their property, canceled their noble privileges, and expelled their nationality, which was a very merciful move.

The losses of the Hungarian loyalist nobles were also very heavy. After all, Austria was not the only battlefield in Hungary, but the main casualties still came from the great purge of Kossuth.

The remaining nobles have long been no different from the Austrians. Either their own interests are highly bound to the Austrian Empire, or they can't tell whether they are Hungarians or not.

In fact, before Széchenyi revived Hungarian culture, the Hungarian language and Hungarian language had been generally despised by Hungary’s upper class.

Less than 20% of these nobles can speak Hungarian, and even less than 5% can write Hungarian. Their mastery of German is just the opposite. Some may not be able to speak it, but there is absolutely no one who cannot write it.

Civilian and serf casualties have not yet been tallied, but are expected to be no less than 2.5 million.

The losses of other ethnic groups are also very exaggerated. The Saxons have decreased by a quarter, the Slovak population has decreased by a third, the most exaggerated is that the Transylvanian population has dropped by at least 50%, and the Szekes, a branch of Hungary, have 90% of adult males were lost.

Although the population of Germany and Italy has skyrocketed, the death toll in successive wars has also exceeded 400,000.

At this time, even according to the most optimistic estimates, the population of the Austrian Empire will decrease from 49 million in 1847 to 43 million.

By convention, this was the time when the Habsburgs would show mercy, accept the enemy's surrender, then call it a day and let the country thrive.

Even the most radical nationalists before, after seeing the news of Kossuth's execution, became disinterested and felt that it was time to stop.

Countless people jumped out to explain from political, economic, diplomatic, moral, and ethical aspects that the war should be stopped and those people should be let go.

By doing this, Franz will not only gain a good reputation as a benevolent man, but he will also be able to control the empire in the shortest time, and gain the gratitude and support of those people.

At least until Franz died, the people of the entire St. Stephen's Crown would remember him and fear him, but so what? Franz wanted to be more than a benevolent king.

"It is better to chase down the poor bandits with bravery, and not to be a famous academic overlord. If heaven is sentimental, heaven will also grow old, and the right path in the world is subject to vicissitudes of life."

Franz would not give in to the separatist forces and bandits entrenched in the territory of St. Stephen's Crown, as well as the remnants of the Hunnic Empire.

Given this rare opportunity, Franz must eliminate all evil.

Whether they are thieves in the mountains or thieves in our hearts, we must defeat them all in one battle.

It would take years, even decades, to completely eradicate the bandits in the Transylvanian mountains.

Therefore, Franz's priority at this time was to deal with the remnants of the Hungarian Empire. They could either surrender and wait to be liquidated, that is, have a public trial and then be killed or exiled, or they could resist to the end and be directly eliminated physically.

Faced with Franz's tough attitude, the remnants of Kossuth showed amazing courage and vowed to fight to the death with the Austrian Empire.

However, the vast majority of civilians do not think so. They have had enough of the so-called Hungarian Empire and so-called freedom.

The only ones who are obviously free are those superior men, and the empire belongs to them. In the past, men had to abide by the rules, but now they make the law and they are the judges.

Taxes were even heavier than during the Austrian Empire, and military service was a narrow escape. The common people who originally had a small amount of money had their wealth emptied out and became paupers.

Although equality was one of the basic concepts of the Hunnic Empire, civilians only saw greater inequality and officers and soldiers who were like gangsters.

It must be said that Kossuth did have a talent for demagoguery, but his followers were incapable of inheriting his legacy.

Coupled with Franz's tough attitude, the Hungarian Empire was at war everywhere, and the Austrian army wiped out the remnants of the Hungarian Empire almost without a fight.

Many times, before the Austrian Imperial Army arrived, the soldiers and civilians in the city took the officials and activists of the Hungarian Empire into custody.

Of course, some people want to take advantage of this troubled waters and use a group of scapegoats to clear themselves. Fortunately, Franz had no intention of letting them go from the beginning, so when the temporary court was built, these children were dumbfounded.

Unable to get away with it, they could only flee with their families. The Ottoman Empire seemed to be a good choice. After all, as long as they converted to Islam, they could live a life of superiority again.

The Ottoman Empire has always been open to Europeans who come to serve. The Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire at that time, Orma Pasha, was a deserter from the Austrian Empire.

No one knew the situation in Austria and Hungary better than him. As long as he accepted this group of people, he would get the key to the West.

At that time, whether the Hungarians wanted to restore their country or the Austrians wanted to enjoy eternal peace, they had to look at the eyes of the Ottoman Empire.

Moreover, even if these Hungarians converted to Islam, they would still be aliens in the Ottoman Empire. They could only rely on themselves.

This was undoubtedly a great help to consolidate Orma Pasha's status. At this time, the Sultan was only 9 years old, and Queen Mother Shefkefza was just a woman.

Now that he was in power, if he could get a force that was only loyal to him, he might be able to go further.

In addition, the reason why the Ottomans were so tolerant of Europeans who served them was that they hoped to obtain advanced technology and ideas from Europe, and even improve their bloodline.

The remnants of the Hun Empire crossed the Danube and came to a completely unfamiliar land, finally getting a chance to breathe.

This is the land of the Ottomans, but it is also where their ancestors lived, so they have every reason to become the new owners of this land.

Of course, if possible, they still want to go back to Hungary.

In short, after coming here, they will have a lot of opportunities to rebel against the Ottomans or counterattack Hungary.

However, what neither the Ottomans nor the Hungarians expected was that the Austrian army was crossing the river.