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

Chapter 1182: Finding a Different Path (Part )

Historically, the Austrian Empire's military practices were extremely stupid. It transferred all the Hungarian generals and soldiers to garrisons elsewhere, and even replaced the local police with gendarmes of other nationalities.

Stationing a large army, setting up a military restricted area, and searching for the remnants of the Hungarian Communist Party with great fanfare, not to mention whether it would be used by those with ulterior motives, this behavior itself is propaganda for the Hungarian nationalists, and at the same time it is also pushing those who are neutral or uninterested in politics to the opposite side.

Franz felt that stationing large troops and setting up military restricted areas were both meaningless practices, and that Hungary, which had been severely damaged, would find it difficult to launch another rebellion.

Moreover, according to the practice of the Austrian Empire, the army needed a certain proportion of food to be provided by the local area, which was undoubtedly a huge burden for post-war reconstruction.

Rather than letting a large army stay there, wasting food and increasing public resentment, it would be better to disband the army on the spot and only leave a small number of soldiers who are loyal to the Austrian Empire and are in their prime.

Demobilized soldiers are both laborers and consumers. They are not only young and strong, but also have a certain amount of money in their hands. This not only reduces the pressure on logistics, but also promotes the recovery of local industries.

If these people settle down, the Hungarian problem will naturally cease to exist.

Promoting German education by simply enforcing the use of German in schools and government was far from enough, as the literacy rate in the Austrian Empire was pitifully low at the time.

Even in a big city like Košice, it is impossible for everyone to be literate. If an insider had not been arranged in advance, the effectiveness of the leaflets would have been greatly reduced, and they might even be deliberately ignored.

Changing store signs and road signs is like a child throwing a tantrum, which is completely unnecessary. As long as the language is widely used, people will abandon it without the need for government enforcement.

Therefore, to solve the problem of German education, the first step should be to make it compulsory. Otherwise, it is like declaring war on the air, working yourself to death, and in the end no one knows what happened.

At that time, no more than 20% of people in Hungary could afford to go to school, and universal compulsory education lies in its mandatory, universal and balanced nature.

After universal compulsory education, the number of people influenced by German will increase exponentially, and the language problem that has plagued the Austrian Empire for centuries will be solved at the root.

In addition, the literacy schools of the Soviet era are also worth learning from. Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky said:

“If you don’t know how to do it, we can teach you. If you don’t want to learn, we can help you realize the importance of learning.”

This is particularly appropriate in Hungary at this time.
(Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky, Russian revolutionary, founder of the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for the Suppression of Counter-Revolution and Sabotage (abbreviated as "Cheka"))
Of course, some details cannot be copied exactly. For example, the Soviet Union was centered around factories, which was obviously not suitable for Hungary, which was covered with farmland.

Secular reforms are necessary, but completely abandoning religion is not.

Literacy education is different from formal education. The purpose of literacy education is to improve the cultural quality of the illiterate or low-literate population in society and enable them to master basic reading, writing and arithmetic skills.

Franz did not expect those people to be able to build airplanes and cannons and do scientific research just after graduating from literacy school. If they could do this, then all the universities and research institutions in the Austrian Empire could be closed.

In Franz's view, suppressing Hungarian culture and folk customs was the most stupid behavior. It even went beyond the scope of self-deception and was completely drinking poison to quench thirst.

On the surface, it seems to have suppressed the revival of Hungarian culture, but in fact it was helping the Hungarian nationalists with propaganda and helping them create new Hungarian nationalists.

Simply suppressing Hungarian culture and folk customs can only intensify conflicts, waste resources, and encourage xenophobia. Franz did not care about the inheritance of Hungarian culture, nor did he care about their folk customs, as long as they did not go beyond the norm and did not violate morals under the banner of folk customs.

Some people will certainly panic because of this, and even fear that Magyar culture will in turn influence the Austrian Empire. However, if the Austrian Empire does not even have this little cultural confidence, it might as well become Slavic directly.

All of the above measures would cost the Austrian Empire approximately 30 to 50 million florins per year and were expected to last for three years, after which the cost would drop to less than 10 million florins, mainly used to maintain compulsory education.

According to Franz's estimate, the Hungarian rebellion could be quelled in one to two months at most. However, under such a tight net, Kossuth and the Magyar elites would probably have a hard time escaping.

"Alas, there are fewer jokes in this world."

Debrecen, the eastern capital of Hungary.

Kossuth was so angry that he overturned the table. There were wars everywhere, calls for help everywhere, and news of defeat everywhere.

Austrians, Croats, Transylvanians, Poles, Ruthenians (previous translation was incorrect), and the damn Jews, all want to tear a piece of flesh from the Hungarian Republic.

The troops in Western Hainau have been besieging Budapest, and the gap they left is only open to entry but not exit. This is clearly a siege to attack the reinforcements.

Even Kossuth, who knew nothing about military affairs, could see this, but some people in the Hungarian military and parliament insisted on rescue, which led to the dilemma of empty space in other directions or even no soldiers available.

But at this time, the right to speak on this matter was not in his hands. After all, he was the one who called Budapest the symbol of the Hungarian nation.

In fact, those people are not invisible, but this also involves the power struggle within the Hungarian government.

So now Kossuth could only watch the young and strong men he had forcibly conscripted with great difficulty go to their deaths.

He was even more furious at Arthur, who had been besieging Klossburg in the east, because every report said that the Austrian Empire's army was about to be wiped out and had been forced to death.

But how come the entire Transylvanian Army was wiped out in one battle? That damned Arthur was nowhere to be found, alive or dead.

There are rumors that he has had contact with the Russians
"Damn traitor! Give me back my legion!"

The southern Croatians had been prepared for a long time, but so had the Hungarians. The battle between the two sides became fierce at the beginning, but the Hungarian Great Plain was ultimately a place that was easy to attack but difficult to defend.

The Croats soon found gaps in the Magyar defenses, and the former entered the rear through these gaps and began to wreak havoc. Seeing their rear turned into a sea of ​​fire, the latter had no choice but to choose to fight.

The Croatians expected both to fight back and to send troops to rescue. In the end, southern Hungary fell, and more than 1,500 of the 30,000 troops were killed in the battle, while the rest surrendered.

In the northern Slovakia region, 15,000 Hungarian soldiers and 50,000 vassal troops were all defeated and their whereabouts were unknown. Also missing were 300,000 immigrants.

Faced with a complete defeat and endless internal power struggles, Kossuth decided to take another approach - to become emperor.