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

Chapter 1187 The Day the City Was Broken
Tiutkare was quickly pulled away from the city wall by several of his confidants. Although the remaining Hungarian troops did not collapse immediately, most of them had lost their will to fight.

In fact, even if they wanted to fight, they did not have enough firepower to stop everything in front of them. After all, the cannons had been destroyed by the Austrians long ago, and they didn't even have any shells left.

Most people just stared blankly at what was happening before their eyes. Heinau and his troops had already rehearsed many times for today's battle.

The Austrian army's attack was like a raging storm, and Budapest's defense had already been riddled with holes. The moment the two collided, the latter collapsed.

The Magyars in the city followed their instincts, either running away or hiding, and of course some were driven to ferocity by fear.

A burly bald man pulled open his collar. Once upon a time, he was also a passionate young man inspired by the Hungarian ideas.

However, during his time in Budapest, he could only hide in the ruins to avoid the bombardment, and he survived to this day by eating corpses and smelly water.

He had had enough of such days, so he picked up his gun and rushed towards the gap in the city wall.

"Follow me, all men! Let them see the courage of us Huns!"

"Yes! Our ancestors were able to beat the Europeans into submission, and we can do the same today!"

"Come on!"

However, times have changed, and personal bravery alone cannot change the entire devastating situation.

Whether it was the steel behemoths throwing grenades in the sky, the steam tanks equipped with vehicle-mounted air guns, or the Austrian soldiers approaching like a black cloud, they were not able to resist.

These people are like drops of water falling into the ocean. They cannot cause any ripples at all, let alone keep the torrent out.

Unfortunately, the bald man was hit by a white phosphorus bomb and turned into ashes in an instant, scaring the people around him out of their wits.

It wasn't long before the outskirts of Budapest fell, and most of the remaining enemy troops hid in the ruins.

Street fighting is the situation that Franz least wants to face, because once entering street fighting, the so-called equipment advantages and troop quality will be greatly reduced, and it will eventually become a battle of wills between the two sides.

Franz prepared a lot for this, from continuous devastating bombardment to the development of related equipment and even special tactics for this purpose.

However, the fierce street fighting that had been imagined did not happen. The Magyars were routed wherever they went. Many people gathered together with dull eyes, not caring at all about the outcome of the war, let alone becoming prisoners of the Austrian army.

The few remaining enemies who resisted stubbornly were first hit by heavy weapons, and then the Austrian soldiers would call on them to surrender.

If the enemy does not surrender, they will use grenades to clear the way. Grenades are particularly deadly to the remaining enemies in small spaces, especially those hiding in basements.

Only a few would rather die than surrender, while most Magyars did not even offer a symbolic resistance.

The battle was over in less than a day, and the Austrian army did not suffer many casualties. This was closely related to the collapse of the Hungarian army's command system. After all, scattered soldiers could not accomplish anything great.

The commander of the Hungarian defenders, Tiutkalé, was known as "the bravest man in Hungary".

When he was captured, he was kept in a dim basement. There was an unloaded pistol and a bottle of poison on the table, a rope loop hanging from the beam, and a chair underneath.

Everything was so calm, but the miserable situation in the city was shocking. Almost all Hungarians in the city were severely malnourished, and nearly one-third of them could not communicate normally.

However, what was even more horrifying was what the Hungarian army did in the city. Those soldiers who survived were worse than beasts. They robbed civilians of their supplies and then kept them in captivity. Their actions were beyond the imagination of ordinary people.

The Austrian war correspondents were so frightened that some went crazy just by recording the situation truthfully. Among the rescued civilians, some were missing limbs, some were missing eyes and ears, and some even had half their face missing.

The women suffered even more unspeakable pain and humiliation, and there was not even a single child in the entire city.

The tragic situation in the city was uncomfortable, and the behavior of the Magyars was even more disgusting.

A temporary court was set up in the city, and they would interrogate the Magyar soldiers and civilians in the city one by one, collect evidence to judge their crimes, and finally either detain them or execute them directly.

All of this will be recorded and bound into a book for future generations to explore.

However, finding an innocent person in this city at this moment is harder than climbing to the sky.

Even those who are locked in cages are not necessarily innocent. They may just be one step away from being able to bully others outside the cage.

Faced with overwhelming evidence, most people chose to confess, but a few still held on to their chances and refused to admit it.

Fortunately, the people in the court already had experience. Their combination of "leniency to those who confess, severity to those who resist", "mutual denunciation" and "quiz with prizes" often made those people doubt their lives.

The Austrian soldiers were accustomed to the form of public trials, but they were still surprised to see such a large number of scum appearing in the city of Budapest.

Some people are not even qualified to be called scum. Even just being a jury member can make people feel uncomfortable, coupled with the tragic situation in the city.

Most soldiers strengthened their faith in the Austrian Empire and became more convinced of the justice of their actions.

Is justice important? Yes, it is!
But for the vast majority of European and American countries throughout history, interests are more important.

According to tradition and these theories, Franz should not have held any formalistic public trial. He should have immediately started redistributing benefits and then resumed production. He might even have directly found a guide who was familiar with the local conditions to entrust him with the important task, and everyone could have happily conspired to exploit the lower classes.

However, for the Austrian Empire, a freak in history, justice, or at least making people believe that they are just, is really important.

For Franz personally, he didn't want to repeat the old paths and let the world go through reincarnation again, and he didn't want to let a bunch of rats remain on his map.

The first criminal to be tried was Tyutkal, an extreme Magyar nationalist.

Before the Hungarian rebellion broke out, he sneaked into the student dormitory alone late at night with a scimitar and stabbed four German students to death. He was called "the bravest man in Hungary."

He was released after the Hungarian Revolution broke out. Due to his ruthless behavior and no room for mercy, he soon became Kossuth's right-hand man.

At this time, as the defender of Budapest, Kossuth entrusted him with important tasks.

The heads of the four German students who were stabbed to death are still hung in front of the gate of Eötvös Loránd University, the oldest university in Budapest, as a symbol of their achievements.

In addition, in order to eliminate dissidents, Tiutkare also organized actions against pro-Austrian forces in Budapest.

At the same time, many massacres were organized in Hungary. In the royal estate alone, 50,000 civilians were massacred, and a total of more than 600,000 civilians of all ethnic groups were massacred.