Chapter 73: Chapter 73 – Hungary’s Preparations (II)

Count Lukács slammed his hand on his table and asked, "If you're not ready to take military action, why did you call this meeting? Do you think that we'll be fooled by your sophistry? We're tired of hearing endless speeches which lead to no results!"

President Kossuth's face turned gloomy. Now that the Viennese government had confiscated the nobles' property, they were on the same boat as the rebels.

He couldn't help but inwardly curse, 'We should stand united, but these nobles are busy finding faults!'

He, however, was unaware that even though the nobles had suffered immense losses, their centuries of influence in Hungary and Europe still remained since their foundation had not been shaken.

"Count Lukács, that's enough! Austria won't spare any of us, so we should stand united. However, if you still want to hold someone accountable, I am willing to resign.

Everyone, if anyone here thinks that they have the ability to lead our Republic out of this predicament, I am willing to give up my position of President to such a capable person!"

Being unable to control his anger, President Kossuth made this declaration. As a result, the expressions of all the people present changed greatly and they became shocked. In fact, few people were interested in being the President of the Republic of Hungary, at least Count Lukács himself had no interest in it.

Historically, after the Viennese government used force to suppress the Hungarian rebellion, the provisional government headed by had quickly disintegrated, which allowed Lajos Kossuth, the head of the revolutionaries, to seize power.

Due to the butterfly effect caused by Franz, the current situation in the Republic of Hungary was much worse and extremely dire. Naturally, no influential person wished to become the head of state and take responsibility, which was how Kossuth became the President.

Rather than winning a highly-contested presidency, he had become President as a scapegoat which led to him little to no prestige in the government. As a result, most nobles and capitalists didn't take him seriously.

According to him, however, regardless of his many shortcomings and his naive political opinions, he was still the founder of the Hungarian Republic. He wanted the respect which equaled his achievements.

Seeing that the situation was moving out of their control, another noble, the aging Margrave Pulszky - one of the most respected nobles in Hungary who had defended the Hungarian borders from the Ottomans numerous times - stood up and decided to changed the subject.

"Alright, let's stop talking about the past. Our priority is to come up with a plan to cope with our current predicament. We must come to an agreement as soon as possible!"

President Kossuth coughed lightly and said, his face still slightly flushed, "Margrave Pulszky, that's obvious. The Viennese government has already begun taking action to split Hungary apart. Even if we reconcile with them now, Hungary will have less than 35% of its original land and less than 40% of its original population.

If such a weakened Hungary remained a part of the Austrian Empire, we would be unable to maintain our current status and would be left powerless to stop the Austrians from exploiting us!"

President Kossuth had learned from his mistakes and realized that he had previously been too indecisive. Due to objections from the nobles, he failed to deal with the issue of serfdom since they had been unwilling to free their serfs. Similarly, due to objections from the bourgeoisie, he failed to guarantee equal rights to people of all ethnicity.

The discriminatory and divisive national policy of the Hungarian Republic was implemented because the bourgeoisie had feared that equal rights for all people would lead to increased competition for them since, like the Jews, the minorities might decide to only patronize other minority businesses.

Although currently no Croat, Romanian, or Slovene had the ability to compete with them, if they obtained political and commercial rights similar to them, that day wouldn't be too far. The Hungarian Republic was too small to accommodate so many businesses, so the bourgeoisie had decided to nip their competition in the bud.

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This had been prevalent in the Austrian Empire where, because of their superior political and commercial rights, the Germans owned almost all the large businesses and industries. The Hungarian capitalists had only managed to survive thanks to the tariffs and protection provided to local businesses. Now that it was their turn to be the master, they naturally implemented a similar system to monopolize the market.

No capitalist could reject the temptation of monopolizing the market which, inadvertently, led them to overdo things. Driven by their interest, extreme nationalism became the mainstream thought in Hungary, which left the minorities very dissatisfied. After the Viennese government threw them an olive branch, they didn't hesitate to grab it.

President Kossuth's words awakened the bourgeoisie. Even if it was only to keep their heads, they had to support Kossuth in the fight against Austrians. Even though the chances of Hungary's victory were quite slim, they had already boarded the ship. Even in the unlikely event that the Viennese government spared the nobles, it would show no mercy to them.

No matter the era, the idea that businesses were built from the backbreaking labor of countless ordinary workers was deeply rooted in people's hearts. Therefore, it had always been politically correct to punish the black-hearted capitalists.

In fact, this idea wasn't incorrect when it came to the early capitalists of the 18th and 19th centuries; these people, who were commonly known as "" in the United States had, directly or indirectly, murdered hundreds, bankrupted thousands and starved tens of thousands. As a result, punishing them would not only beget a fortune, but also the cheers and praise of the people.

Margrave Pulszky asked, "Mr. Kossuth, Hungary is surrounded on all sides. How do you plan to fight this war?"

As one of the most senior grand nobles of Hungary, Margrave Pulszky was not afraid that he would be punished too severely by the Viennese government. As long as the Habsburgs remained in control of Austria, nobles wouldn't be executed.

This was due to him having many relatives who were nobles of Austria. Since he didn't have to worry about his survival, his thoughts were naturally very different from the capitalists. His main goal now was to avoid losing further land and property.

Soon, Margrave Pulszky opened a map of South-eastern Europe which showed Hungary sandwiched between the Russian, Ottoman, and Austrian empires. Hungary was undoubtedly surrounded by the enemies on all sides.

Russia and Austria had been traditional allies since before they had partitioned Poland together. Moreover, the Tsar had publicly announced that he would help Austria and Prussia suppress their internal revolutions. Meanwhile, the Ottoman Empire was even worse. If they fought alongside the Ottomans, it was likely that, before they even fought the Austrians, the Hungarian Republic would be swallowed up by the Ottoman Empire.

"On the surface, Austria is strong and we are weak, but Austria is not without weakness. Currently, the Austrians are still busy fighting the Italians in Sardinia; this is our opportunity!" explained President Kossuth.

He believed that this plan was quite reasonable. In theory, it was indeed quite reasonable since a perfectly-timed pincer attack would most likely lead to a breakthrough.

However, Count Lukács retorted, "Mr. Kossuth, this plan of yours isn't as surefire as you make it seem. The Austrians are not fools; they won't leave us with enough time to organize our forces and attack them."

President Kossuth laughed and said, "Count Lukács, as long as we have enough soldiers, we can succeed against a distracted Austria. Austria appears to be strong, but it is quite fragile. As long as we can win a few battles, it will cause a chain reaction and lead to the eruption of another series of revolutions within their borders!"

Hearing these words, everyone present quickly understood that Kossuth's true intention was to extort a more money from them!

 

-TO BE CONTINUED-

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