The War Court and Lap Pillow, Austria's Mandate of Heaven

Chapter 1136 Extraordinary Person

The British plan to hold a peace conference in London was about to fail, and Prince Schwarzenberg was hoping that the Austrian Empire could take the lead again.

However, this was not a good time for the Austrian Empire because Franz was still wearing down the Hungarians' will to resist.

The Austrian army marched down the Danube River with unstoppable force. In every battle, Hungary was forced to flee in panic, suffering heavy casualties.

But the miraculous thing was that the Austrian army failed to seize the opportunity to pursue the victory, and Kossuth was always able to use his outstanding talents to recruit another large army to slow down the pace of the Austrian army.

However, even though miracles happened repeatedly, the flesh and blood of the Hungarians were still unable to stop the Austrian Iron Army.

During this period, Kossuth conscripted at least one million men into the army, but very few returned alive from the battlefield.

As for the prisoners, unlike the Austrian Empire's previous method of directly releasing them, this was a civil war after all, and it was understandable to execute traitors directly if they were caught.

Franz was still relatively merciful and could spare the death penalty as long as they admitted their guilt.

The captives had to confess all their sins. Knowing that they were spared from death, some sincerely repented, while others felt confident and began to brag about their great achievements.

The latter will be directly pulled out and sent to some old mines in the empire that have not yet been safely renovated. They will spend twenty years in the dark underground. If they are still alive, Franz will pardon them.

However, only a few people can go to the mines, and most people are not crazy enough to make their crimes such as murder, arson, rape and looting public.

Journalists and historians will help these guys fill in the gaps in this regard.

There are also some people who are simply infected by the madness of those evil people and start to brag nonsense. Although they may not have committed the crimes they boasted about, Franz is not interested in wasting national resources to identify such guys one by one.

Similarly, even if they appeared to be sincerely repentant, Franz could not pardon them on behalf of the victims. These prisoners would be sent to the Austrian Empire's road construction team to atone for their sins.

In fact, these Hungarian prisoners of war were responsible for the most arduous and least technically demanding work of clearing roads.

After all, the Austrian Empire has many mountains and rivers, and the roadbeds in these places cannot be sloppy. Franz would not let a group of resentful prisoners to repair them, but simple excavation and cleaning work is no problem.

They can also clear the silt, but Franz would rather give the work of building the dam to the refugees than to them.

The sentence for the road construction team was twenty years. Based on the average life expectancy of the Austrian Empire's population at that time and the intensity of the work, no more than 10% of the people would survive to the end of their sentence.

Of course, in order to reduce accidents and stabilize work mood, we still need to give these people hope.

For example, a centimeter system can be established to encourage more work and more pay. Centimeters can be exchanged for what you want, even freedom, but it does not increase the total distribution.

Then, among these natural holy bodies of oxen and horses, find some people who are easy to control and make them the so-called captains.

They must be treated differently and given certain rights within a certain range to create class differences, so as to achieve the goal of differentiation and disintegration.

Generally speaking, pressure is transmitted layer by layer, and these so-called team leaders are selected from the prisoners who participate in the work. They have a very high understanding of the degree of completion of the work, so they are not easily deceived by the lower levels.

At the same time, in order to prevent these so-called captains from pretending to obey but actually disobeying, there must be corresponding reporting and review mechanisms, and if necessary, a last-place elimination system can be adopted. These mechanisms have been developed for hundreds of years, and by the time they understand them, they will no longer have the energy to resist.

Franz was quite merciful to the unarmed civilians who could not endure the oppression of the Hungarian government. They would be sent to refugee camps to receive shelter, protection, and re-education by government officials and clergy.

Hungarians first need to understand that this was a conspiracy and rebellion against the empire. This war was initiated by only a small group of so-called Hungarian elites who launched this criminal war in order to expand their power and gain more from the empire.

As for the negative information about the Hungarian elites, there is plenty of it over the past few hundred years, and even these refugees will continue to provide more.

Secondly, they needed to understand the current situation of Hungary and the Austrian Empire. Hungary had already suffered natural disasters, and coupled with the hoarding of goods by the noble elites, ordinary people suffered terribly.

In order to maintain the war, the Hungarian government turned a blind eye to the actions of the elites in order to gain their support, while at the same time frantically exploiting ordinary people.

Nationalism is a beautiful word, but at this time it is just a tool to make ordinary people endure exploitation.

In the end, men who have nothing will be sent to the battlefield, and the elderly, the weak, women and children at home will not be saved. What awaits them is an even more terrifying abyss.

Even though the situation was so difficult, the areas where the elites lived were still full of joy and pleasure every day. When they got tired of eating pigs, cows, chickens, ducks and fish, they ate war horses.

The wives and children of ordinary soldiers who are left behind in the rear are even more targets for them to abuse at will. After all, the villains are just bad, not stupid. They know that they have to pick on the weak, so they choose to attack these families that lack male heirs.

The cruelty of the war further fueled their arrogance. After all, only one in ten people could return to Budapest alive, and even if they could come back, they would most likely be regarded as deserters or sent to the battlefield again for various reasons.

The privileged elites used the various wartime rights in their hands to live like feudal emperors. When the front line needed to save shells due to a shortage of gunpowder and even soldiers had to be equipped with cold weapons, the rear were still setting off fireworks for love to create a romantic atmosphere.

Journalists, clergy, and historians of the Austrian Empire would record these contents and then bind them into books for future research.

In short, we must use continuous education, ideological transformation, value reshaping and other means to make them understand who the enemy is and who the friend is.

This is very important for Franz's subsequent plans. War has never been an end, but only one of the means to achieve the end.

If there were more clever and effective means, Franz would not have chosen to hang himself on a tree.

Generally speaking, a siege will be carried out by encircling three sides and leaving one side open, leaving a gap to weaken the enemy's will and prevent them from making desperate moves.

However, this time the Austrian army only besieged the city on two sides, deliberately leaving Kossuth an escape route to Slovakia and Transylvania.

In order to prevent Kossuth and his idiot staff from missing the point, Franz sent people every day to shout that two roads in the southeast and northeast were unobstructed.

People who are hesitant and cautious will think that this is a scam. After all, the Austrian army is strong and there is flat land around. There is still a glimmer of hope if you hide in the city. Once you reach the plains, the Austrian army will follow and kill you and you will be doomed.

But more people will definitely choose to take the opportunity to break through. After all, people in desperate situations will seize any opportunity they can get.

The difference is that some people may lead the people across the river like Liu Bei, while others may let women and children take the property out of the city first like Qin Hui, and then take the opportunity to fish in troubled waters.

Of course, there will be brave men who take risks to test whether the road ahead is safe, and there will be villains who take the opportunity to eliminate dissidents.
However, Kossuth was not an ordinary person. He did not choose to break out, nor did he choose to defend himself. Instead, he chose to seek help from outside and make the center flourish!