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Chapter 921: The End and the Beginning

Franz II's journey proceeded quite smoothly, as he was escorted by over a thousand soldiers of the Imperial Guard.

The rioters in Vienna, even those who had managed to get their hands on firearms, did not truly dare to attack the regular army.

In fact, most people habitually shrank away the moment they caught sight of the royal emblem from a distance.

As for the youths from the new recruit battalion, they were currently engaged in a standoff with the Hungarian army on the eastern side of the city. Furthermore, they remained largely loyal to the royal family; their targets were only the "treacherous ministers" like Thugut.

Thus, on the afternoon two days later, Franz II's carriage had already passed through the Vienna Woods to the north and was driving toward its first stop, Harmannsdorf.

The following day, General Grassalkovich finished reorganizing his forces. Following Hohendorf's orders, he launched a general offensive against the Viennese rebels.

The fewer than eight hundred recruits led by Ehlers, the training instructor, were no match for the regular Hungarian army. After holding out for a mere two hours, they were split up and routed.

In truth, they had already performed remarkably well.

One had to consider that these recruits had only been training for about twenty days. Many of them fired their rifles with their eyes squeezed shut. Had it not been for the core group of over a hundred noble youths like Lukas, who had received military training since childhood and held the defensive line to the death, they might not have lasted even half an hour.

Soon, Ehlers and Lieutenant Schwarz each led two or three hundred men in a retreat into Vienna's outer city, calling upon the citizens to join them in resisting the Hungarian butchers.

By that evening, however, the Hungarian Legion's artillery finally arrived in Vienna. They began selecting firing positions in the open fields on the outskirts of the city throughout the night.

On the other side, Ehlers quickly gathered nearly two thousand citizens, preparing for a final stand against the suppressing army outside the city.

Under the flickering light of torches, Ehlers was teaching the citizens how to construct breastworks when a clerk from the city hall ran up, panting for breath. He pulled Ehlers aside and whispered, "I heard that His Majesty the Emperor is no longer in Vienna..."

Ehlers was struck by a wave of shock.

The reason he was fighting so desperately here was so that, after repelling the Hungarian army, he could "request" the Emperor to dismiss Thugut and announce reforms. He would have become a legendary hero.

But if he could not find the Emperor, was he really expected to lead his troops to occupy Vienna indefinitely?

In a panic, he led a hundred men to Schönbrunn Palace, only to find that while the palace was still guarded by sentries, the halls within did not show the brightly lit splendor of former days.

He stumbled suddenly, nearly slipping from his saddle.

That night, Ehlers spoke to no one. He only kept muttering under his breath, "It's over, it's all over..."

In contrast, the Sans-culottes, upon hearing the news of the Emperor's departure, were excited by the prospect of entering the palace to seek their fortunes.

However, they possessed no organizational capacity. After a chaotic and brief exchange of fire with the Imperial Guard, they left the ground covered in corpses and scattered in all directions.

If Franz II had witnessed this scene, he would likely have regretted his decision to leave the palace. Though the rabble in the city were numerous and armed, they posed no significant threat to his elite guards.

When dawn broke, the cannons of the Hungarian Legion began to roar.

The "Vienna Resistance," which had initially been in high spirits, was instantly paralyzed by fear. Before the Hungarian infantry lines could even launch an assault, the vast majority of people had already turned tail and fled.

Left with no choice, Lieutenant Schwarz ordered the remaining forces to retreat further into the city, preparing to engage the Hungarians in street-to-street combat.

Indeed, Ehlers had suddenly fallen into a state of severe depression and was no longer capable of commanding the insurgents. Schwarz was now the supreme commander.

Only five days later, Schwarz and over a thousand insurgents were cornered in the western district of Vienna.

The Sans-culottes continued their "carefree" spree of looting and destruction. In truth, most of them had no idea why they were supposed to be fighting the Hungarians in the first place.

Initially, they had gathered to demand pensions, the abolition of war taxes, or access to cheap bread.

But now, aside from Schwarz and about a hundred new recruits, no one remembered these goals.

This uprising—lacking a plan, preparation, a manifesto, or clear objectives—had reached the brink of failure almost as soon as it had begun.

Meanwhile, in Eisenmarkt, a remote province in southeastern Austria.

In a dilapidated residence in the weary town of Mureș, a middle-aged man with a thick black mustache and a grey-yellow tunic sat peeling peanuts. Speaking in Hungarian, he addressed several men who looked like petty street vendors.

"A serious riot has broken out in Vienna, and the Emperor has fled. This news is four days old."

A short man beside him curled his lip. "What does that have to do with us?"

"Claudiu, you never like to use your brain," a burly young man across from him countered. "This is our opportunity."

"Sandor is quite right," the middle-aged man peeling peanuts nodded. "Especially since the Debrecen Regiment was summoned by the Emperor to Vienna to suppress the rebellion."

The men around him immediately felt their eyes light up with sudden realization.

Previously, because the Holy Roman Emperor needed to fight France, a large number of troops belonging to the Hungarian nobles had been sent to Northern Italy. The garrison in the Transylvania region was already sparse.

Now, even the Debrecen Regiment, the most formidable fighting force, had departed. There were almost no troops left in the entire southeast of the Empire that they needed to fear!

Sandor leaned forward at once, his eyes sparkling with excitement. "Baron Kossuth, are we going to take action?"

"The resistance has that intention. However, we must first establish contact with the Romanians and the Serbians."

"They will certainly agree," another brown-haired, middle-aged man added. "Especially the Serbians; they have lost many people these past two years and have been looking for revenge for a long time."

Kossuth dropped a handful of peeled peanuts into a bowl and nodded. "Exactly. That is also why I asked you all here.

"When you return, gather your men. If all goes well, we may strike in half a month. Bring out everything you have; such a good opportunity does not come often."

The men around him nodded solemnly.

They were all armed forces under the umbrella of the Hungarian independence movement, primarily consisting of tribal leaders from the southern mountains and secret organizations from the towns.

Indeed, the core of the Hungarian independence faction resided in these lower classes.

In contrast, the Hungarian Noble Diet, as a vested interest class within the Austrian Empire, possessed the power to bargain with the Emperor and was, in reality, staunchly royalist.

The lower-class Hungarian people lived in extreme hardship under the dual exploitation of the Empire and the Hungarian lords, which led them to constantly spark independence movements.

In the Transylvania region of the southeastern Empire, there was a large mixed population of Hungarians, Romanians, and Serbians. All of these people happened to be keen on escaping Austrian control.

Consequently, this area had become a major disaster zone for rebellion within the Empire.