Holy Roman Empire - Chapter 104

Chapter 104: Chapter 104: Framing and Entrapment

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Translator: 549690339

By mid-May, a widespread food shortage hit Budapest, and the exorbitant prices of grain had already scavenged the last of the people’s wealth from their pockets.

To stabilize order, The Republican Government had to start implementing a rationing system for food.

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At this time in Budapest, vegetables and fruits had become luxury goods, and meat products had disappeared from ordinary people’s tables, becoming exclusive to the Nobility.

What the government could provide was only the bare minimum of five hundred grams of dark bread per person per day, along with three hundred grams of potatoes and two hundred grams of corn.

With such limited supplies, the bureaucrats in the government still profited from them, and short weighing was just standard procedure.

The more unscrupulous ones even added leaves and sawdust as impurities to the dark bread, offered sprouted potatoes that had changed color, and corn of various hues. Those with weak digestive systems who consumed these items could drop dead at any moment.

There was nothing too low for The Republican Government officials, who could be cited as paragons of capitalist ethics.

The food shortage in Budapest only applied to the lower class. For the ruling class, they were not short on food, and despite the enemy at the gates, their banquets continued uninterrupted.

They even started to plunder the wealth of the middle and petty bourgeois through the underground black market. The price of food had skyrocketed, and a piece of additive-free dark bread required its weight in silver coins.

In an ordinary residential building in Budapest City, you could buy a property at the time for just fifty kilograms of bread; and even in a bustling shop, the price wouldn’t exceed a few hundred kilograms of bread.

In the corners of the city, streetwalkers were everywhere, merely for a piece of dark bread or a potato, one could avail of their services.

To reduce food consumption, starting from June, The Revolutionary Government began to expel the sick, elderly, weak, and disabled from the city. General Julius received these refugees with a smile and properly resettled them.

Franz was keen on propaganda. Journalists from major Austrian media were invited over, brandishing their cameras, taking photos from every angle, all of which were important evidence to expose the crimes of the revolutionaries.

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Now without the government needing to lift a finger, seeing these emaciated war refugees and hearing their complaints about the excesses of the Hungarian Republican Government, the “ethically fervent” media raced to condemn the unscrupulous Revolutionary Government of Hungary.

The renowned Hungarian composer Liszt was among the journalists at this time, and the more he learned, the more he was hurt.

Not just him—many writers and scholars rushed over, including some supporters of the revolutionary party. The scenes before everyone’s eyes made them thoroughly disenchanted with the revolutionaries.

The pens of intellectuals are weapons that kill without bloodshed, and with everyone’s joint efforts, this Hungarian revolution was being redefined.

Kossuth and others trapped in Budapest were still unaware that their reputations had been thoroughly sullied. Tens of thousands of people submitted petitions to the Emperor, hoping he would administer justice for them.

Franz naturally took advantage of the situation and accepted the people’s petitions, stating clearly that there would be a public trial for all the rebels and inviting the victimized public to serve as jurors, with the jury voting to decide the final sentencing.

Any clear-sighted person knew that this was the Austrian Government’s way of utterly annihilating the revolutionaries.

These victims now loathed the revolutionaries so much they could hardly wait to devour them alive. How could they possibly show any mercy?

The inevitable outcome was a bloody scene of beheadings. And with the trial carried out in the name of the people, no matter how many were killed, no one could blame the Austrian Government.

Of course, this was only a one-time occurrence; the future Austria will undoubtedly be a rule-of-law country, and such capriciousness will no longer be possible.

Before the great revolution, Hungary and Austria were managed separately, with many differing laws between the two areas. Hungarian law was outdated, and Austrian law had never been implemented locally, which allowed Franz to exploit loopholes to delegate sentencing to the public.

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Seeing that the sparks of revolution had been extinguished everywhere, and their only ally, the Kingdom of Sardinia, was being thoroughly defeated single-handedly by Austria, the revolutionaries also began to consider their retreat.

The sudden halt of the Austrian army’s advance on Budapest surprised the revolutionaries; Kossuth immediately thought of internal treachery.

Supporters of the Habsburg Family were never in short supply in Hungary, and within the city of Budapest, there were also people from the Royalist Party. Besides them, nobles and capitalists wanting to turn their coats for opportunistic reasons were certainly not few in number.

Once these people started to act, Budapest could change hands in an instant.

The revolutionary party’s foundation was too shallow, and it was also fragmented into different groups. Before 1847, the largest revolutionary groups did not exceed three digits in numbers.

After the outbreak of the great revolution, the ranks of revolutionaries swelled by a hundredfold. Most of these people simply wore the revolutionary party’s skin, and in reality, the revolutionary party had no real control over them.

The repercussions of rapidly swelling ranks had emerged. Without a strict revolutionary organization or a unified political agenda, most people joined on a whim or were recommended by an acquaintance and felt too embarrassed to refuse, becoming members of the revolutionary party.

No one wants to die, and revolutionaries are no exception. While the Austrian army did not rush to attack, the internal conflicts within the Hungarian Republican Government intensified.

A series of defeats reduced Kossuth’s prestige to a critical point, and the opposition had become intolerant of him. Even his most loyal subordinates began to doubt his capabilities.

The Hungarian National Self-Defense Force expanded too quickly, admitting riffraff without restriction, and Kossuth failed to impose restrictions, which finally ignited contention within this disorganized group.

On June 8, a company of the National Revolutionary Army, following Kossuth’s orders, stormed into Count István’s residence, accused Count István of being a counter-revolutionary, and executed him and dozens of others on the spot. After looting all valuables, they also took all the young women back to the barracks for their pleasure.

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The matter blew up. Count István was not an ordinary noble; he was revered by later generations of Hungarians as “Hungary’s greatest man.” Was such a man to be killed so casually?

Keep in mind, since the establishment of the Hungarian Republic, internal conflicts were incessant, and Kossuth himself had personally asked Count István to mediate. And now, to be executed for a counter-revolutionary crime?

At the Hungarian government meeting on June 9, the opposition led by Chernir directly confronted him.

“Mr. Kossuth, I want to ask, who authorized you to convict Count István? And by what right did you execute a great nobleman? How do you explain the atrocities that occurred within the count’s residence?”

Kossuth’s heart was breaking; heaven and earth be his witness, when had he ever ordered the execution of Count István?

Yet, the deed had been done, and it was carried out under his banner by the National Self-Defense Forces; the responsible company captain had now disappeared without a trace, and the truth of the matter could no longer be restored.

“This matter has no relation to me. I have never issued such an order!” Kossuth vehemently denied.