Chapter 91: Chapter 89 – Flooding Budapest?

"Do you mean flooding? No, it's impossible! Unless they want to turn the plain of Hungary into a graveyard, they would never do it. From the current situation, they have no plans to build a dam upstream. As long as the Viennese government takes into account the influence of public opinion, they will never do so!" Henryk Dembiński replied, resolute.

Hearing the words of the two generals, Kossuth's complexion changed greatly. What seemed impossible to the soldiers was quite possible for politicians. If the Austrians were unable to conquer Buda-Pest even after months of siege, wouldn't it be cost-effective to simply flood the city?

In fact, the flooding of Budapest wasn't be a big deal in the future. At least Franz had seen news of the flooding of Budapest several times. However, if dams were created on the upper reaches of the Danube to artificially flood Budapest, the consequences would be severe. Not just Budapest, but even the farmlands and cities downstream would be destroyed.

If all the local Hungarians had been supporters of the revolutionaries, the ruthless politicians such as Metternich and Schwarzenberg would've already ordered the army to take this step. However, there were obviously many more supporters of the Habsburgs than those of the revolutionaries. If the city was flooded, the revolution may end but the damage to Austria's prestige would be beyond repair.

Hearing that the Austrians could flood the city in the worst-case scenario, Kossuth became sure that the fall of Buda-Pest was only a matter of time. In fact, if he had been in the position of the Viennese government, even if the consequences were serious and the price paid was heavy, he would have chosen to extinguish the Republic of Hungary.

"No, General Dembiński. Politicians have a much lower bottom line than you think. What can't the corrupt Austrians do? The displacement of hundreds of thousands of Hungarians is not a big deal in their eyes!" Kossuth said solemnly.

At least in his mind, the lives of hundreds of thousands of Hungarians was a chip to be used. If he could obtain the final victory, this sacrifice would be more than acceptable. This was evident from the repression of the workers and peasants movement by Kossuth's government. It had only been a few months since the establishment of the Hungarian Republic, but already more workers and peasants had been killed than in the past decade.

This was the common factor shared by most bourgeois governments during this era. While shouting for freedom and liberating people from feudal practices, they turned them into slaves of the capitalists where records of death toll were broken yearly. Besides the thousands of workers that had been murdered during the Massacre of Pest, thousands other had been killed by ruthless capitalists who refused to abide by the Austrian Labor Protection Act.

Henryk Dembiński sighed and replied, "President Kossuth, if the enemy is going to flood Buda-Pest, nothing we do will matter. I suggest that you prepare for the future, protect the flames of the revolution in order to continue this sacred cause."

Dembiński could be said to be speaking from the experience of the Poles. Since the partition of Poland in the late-18th century, the Poles had gone through all kinds of setbacks, but the flames of their revolution had still not been extinguished. Of course that was until the 20th century when they met the Soviets, who dwarfed even the ruthless Tsar, and were forced to become a part of the Eastern Bloc.

"In that case, we need to take the fight to the Austrians. At least that way we can ensure that the people in the city are not involved in the war." Sándor Petőfi couldn't help but propose.

As a patriotic young man, he couldn't be ruthless enough to let the people in the city die for a doomed cause.

Kossuth shook his head and said, "As General Dembiński explained, taking the initiative to attack the Austrians would be no different from hitting a stone with eggs. I'm afraid that the Austrians are terrorizing the city because they want us to take the initiative to leave the city. The Austrians won't flood the city until it's their last resort, and as General Dembiński stated, we can keep the city for two to three months. These two to three months are a crucial time for us since the war in Italy has reached a critical moment.

The Austrians are fighting on two fronts which is unsustainable for too long. As long as our Italian allies can obtain victory, the situation in Hungary will change. After they are defeated by the Italains, the decadent Austrians will have no courage to fight us. At that time, we will ask the French and British to mediate and our revolution will succeed!"

It seems that due to the many setbacks that he had experienced during the last month, Kossuth no longer believed that the Hungarians could achieve independence by themselves, so he had begun to pin his hopes on the intervention of international forces.

Henryk Dembiński coughed and hesitantly said, "President Kossuth, I'm afraid that… there is very little hope for the victory of the Italians against the Austrians. Of the four major Italian states, only the Kingdom of Sardinia has heavily invested money and manpower into fighting Austria. Even if they manage to conquer Venice thanks to a miracle, I doubt that they will be in any condition to support us."

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Kossuth gritted his teeth and fiercely replied, "No matter! We still have another powerful ally: the Ottoman Empire! They are the arch-nemesis of the Habsburgs, and they have recently completed their internal reform, so we can invite them to intervene in this war!"

He has made up his mind to cede Transylvania to the Ottoman Empire. As long as Hungary could obtain independence, this was an acceptable price. Since 1792, the Ottoman Empire had been through a variety of reforms, from the initial military reform, to technological reform, to economic reform, and finally to political reform. In this era, the Ottoman Empire was still progressing as they had imitated the polity of Europeans.

Petőfi hurriedly opposed, "No! The Ottoman Empire and Hungary have a blood feud that has lasted centuries! Cooperating with them is not different from leading a wolf into the pen!"

Open any Hungarian history book and you will find that battles against the Ottoman Empire occupy nearly half of the book. As a result, both sides have had irreconcilable enmity for centuries. Moreover, their diametrically opposed religious beliefs and the hatred accumulated by the people was not something that could be controlled. It was likely that the Hungarian soldiers would attack the Ottoman before they fought the Austrians.

Kossuth insisted, "For the great cause of our revolution, there is nothing that cannot be sacrificed. The Ottoman Empire is indeed our enemy, but, for now, Austria is our greater enemy. Once we manage to obtain our independence, we can take care of the other matters in the future. At that time, Britain, France and all of Europe will be our allies!"

 

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Italy

Trento had become the focus of the Battle of Venice since the Italian allied army could not progress further without ensuring that their rear was safe.

Marshal Franzini had given three days to General Messier in order to capture Trento, but even after three days passed Trento was still held by Austria. Even after Major General Madruzzo arrived with the heavy artillery and bombarded the fortress walls, Trento stood strong.

Marshal Franzini had deployed another division to reinforce Major General Madruzzo. For a few days, the fighting became very fierce and signs of victory could be seen by the Sardinian officers, but soon those signs extinguished as if they had never existed. This was because the newly-deployed soldiers had soon learnt the life-saving secrets of the Battlefield Survival Manual.

As a result, the casualty rate dropped sharply with just a few hundred casualties per day, an insignificant amount considering close to 20,000 soldiers were fighting on the Sardinian side. Normally, a reduction in the number of casualties would be celebrated, but that was based on the premise that the reduction was due to new policies or tactics, not due to soldiers avoiding battles.

 

-TO BE CONTINUED-

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