The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 850 The Return of the Western Pole to the East
Buda is a full 200 kilometers away from Bratislava, but Mogongze arrived in Buda in just four days, escorted by 20,000 elite soldiers.

At that time, Buda was not the same as the Budapest of later times, because Pest was still on the other side of the river, and the two cities had not yet been merged.

The separation of Buda and Pest is, in fact, a perfect illustration of Austria's method of ruling Hungary.

Buda is located on the west bank of the Danube River. The terrain here is hilly and complex. The Hungarians built a large number of fortresses here, mainly on Castle Hill.

The walls of Buda surround these fortresses, and together with the barrier of the Danube River, they form a tight military defense system.

Symbols of Austrian rule in Hungary, such as the royal palace, cathedral, military fortress, and the original governor's office, are all located here.

The main inhabitants were Hungarian nobles and Germanic migrants, and the defense system focused on protecting the east but not the west.

As for Pest, it is located on a flat alluvial plain on the east bank of the Danube River, with numerous ports along the river and markets that are interconnected like a chessboard.

Its land is fertile, its products are abundant, its handicrafts are developed, its commerce is thriving, and its inhabitants are mainly Hungarian commoners, Jews, Slavs, and a small number of Greek merchants.

As for city defenses, they were practically nonexistent. Firstly, there were no natural defenses to defend; secondly, city walls would restrict Buda's commerce; and thirdly, Pest's lack of defensive capabilities made it easier for the Viennese court, representing the power on the west bank, to control and exploit it.

Anyone with a discerning eye can see that Buda was designed to defend against the east but not the west. Besides guarding against the Ottoman Empire, it was also protecting itself from the Hungarian civilians.

As a result, the two cities, with a combined population of over 100,000, were not connected by a permanent bridge, but only by pontoon bridges and ferries.

Mogölze's arrival immediately caused a sensation. When the white flag with a gold sun and moon entered Buda, a deafening roar of cheers erupted. Large numbers of Hungarian nobles lined both sides of the street, cheering wildly.

Meanwhile, the Germans in the city were the same; they were not afraid that Mogongze would target them because Mogongze was half Habsburg, and was of Germanic descent.

Amid cheers, Mo Gongze, escorted by three hundred Chinese cavalry and two hundred Hungarian cavalry, entered the city. When he passed St. Matthias Church, everyone stopped in their tracks, and the cheering crowds on both sides of the street also ceased all their noise.

Mo Gongze looked at St. Matthias Church, while the others looked at him.

This church houses the Crown of St. Stephen, a symbol of Hungarian national independence, also known as the Hungarian Holy Crown.

This thing is not just a crown; it was a gift from Pope Sylvester II to St. Stephen, the first king of Hungary, in 1000 AD.

It witnessed the bloody transformation of Hungary, which abandoned shamanism from its ancestral homeland, converted to Christianity, and became a shield for Catholicism.

Since then, according to the Hungarian Code, every Hungarian king must wear this crown during his coronation ceremony to be considered the King of Hungary, and the Habsburgs were no exception.

The later Hungarian constitution stated very directly that "Hungarian national sovereignty is borne by the Holy Crown, and the power of the government is derived from this crown." This is basically an enhanced version of the Imperial Seal of China, and its significance cannot be underestimated.

Amidst the intense anticipation of the crowd, Mo Gongze knew that now was not the time to be crowned King of Hungary, and even less so to use the St. Stephen's Crown, because he was not Hungarian.

The reason why Mogonze was so popular with the Hungarians was largely because he represented their interests.

The Hungarian nobility, both middle and lower class, did not want to continue to be subservient to others. Vienna could easily appoint any nobleman to their position, making them figures to be looked up to. They wanted to be on equal footing with the Austrians, but the Austrian emperor would not grant them that wish.

The Hungarian people were unwilling to continue to be heavily taxed by the Viennese court. For example, the prosperous commercial city of Pest on the other side of the river had to pay a large amount of taxes every year.

Even the lowest-ranking farmers and serfs hoped to overthrow the corrupt Hungarian nobles supported by the Viennese court in order to lighten their burdens.

Even ethnic groups like Romanians hoped to break away from Austria and establish an independent Kingdom of Hungary, so that they would at least have one less oppressive master above them.

The other half is that half of Mo Gongze's bloodline comes from the Eastern Seres civilization, which makes him barely one of their own while also endorsing the civilizational attributes of the Hungarians.

But Mogongze was not Hungarian after all, and King St. Stephen eight hundred years ago was the key to turning the Hungarians from Easterners to Westerners, which is the opposite of what Mogongze wanted to do at this time: to pull the Hungarians back from the West to the East.

So after a moment's hesitation, on a street so quiet that even cats and dogs dared not bark, Mo Gongze rode his horse to the entrance of St. Matthias Church and said loudly, "Now is not the time, because the Crown of St. Stephen is still flawed and cannot fully represent us."

With a hum, the noise in the room immediately increased, and the shocked people began to whisper among themselves. This was the first time anyone had questioned the Crown of St. Stephen.

Mo Gongze suddenly broke out in a cold sweat, the pressure so great that even his raised hands began to feel heavy.

Upon seeing Mo Gongze raise his hands to signal for quiet, the citizens of Buda present quickly fell silent.

"Eight hundred years ago, the great King St. Stephen led us to convert to Christ, from the East to the West, enabling us to survive and thrive on this rich land to this day. He was great."

However, eight hundred years later, with increasingly frequent exchanges between East and West, the brilliance of the Eastern Seres civilization is now shining brightly like stars.

At this very moment, Westerners still regard us as barbarians of the grasslands, unaware that our ancestors were also members of the Seres civilization, and that we are one of the most civilized races in the world.

Therefore, today is the time for us to move from completely turning to the West to restoring the glory of our ancestors and reshaping the Eastern civilization and race.

St. Stephen is great, of course, but we need a greater future!
Please wait for me, and wait for us to bring together the treasures symbolizing the glory of our ancestral civilization from the East, and place them on the crown of St. Stephen.

Only when the crown is truly perfect will we Hungarians begin a new chapter!

The crowd fell silent, but then suddenly erupted in deafening cheers.

"Long live! Long live!" someone shouted, tears streaming down their face.

This is the first time the Hungarian nation has found its direction for the future, and they understand why Mogonze said the Crown of St. Stephen is not perfect.

Because that only represents the western side of Hungary, and not their eastern side.

Mo Gongze then continued riding toward the Danube, with the crowd following behind like a torrent.

When we arrived at the largest pontoon bridge on the Danube, the workers were chanting and lowering the bridge into the river. Then, ferries were used to travel to the middle of the river from both ends to slowly assemble the pontoon bridge.

In order not to affect navigation on the Danube River, there is currently only this kind of very time-consuming and labor-intensive pontoon bridge, and it is only set up when important people arrive or at important moments. On ordinary days, ferries are the main means of transportation.

An even louder cheer erupted from Pest on the east bank of the Danube. Tens of thousands of Pest citizens flocked to the riverbank, waving their hats wildly and jumping around. Most of them were dressed in tattered clothes, their eyes shining with deep longing.

Mo Gongze glanced back, pulled a girl in a floral dress from the cheering crowd in Buda City, took her hand, and stepped onto the pontoon bridge.

A charming shyness appeared on the girl's face. With her free left hand lifting the hem of her skirt, she followed Mo Gongze to the city of Pest on the east bank of the Danube River on the swaying pontoon bridge.

After regaining his footing, Mo Gongze waved to a teenage girl among the citizens of Pest, beckoning her over and taking her hand.

He pulled the two girls to stand on top of a pile of goods at the dock.

"I hereby declare that from this day forward, these two cities will be united as one, and the name will be Budapest."

I will build a permanent suspension bridge across the Danube, so that we will never be separated again!

This is truly a grand gesture. Ordinary citizens of Pest knelt down in droves, many weeping uncontrollably. These were the most staunch supporters of the Hungarian Revolution in history.

They could no longer endure the dual torment of the corrupt Hungarian nobles supported by Vienna and the Viennese court, and desperately hoped for a king to lead them to independence.

Meanwhile, the cheers from Buda on the west bank of the river did not cease, echoing those from Pest. Mogongze had eliminated the vast majority of the high-ranking nobles; those remaining were mostly lower- and middle-ranking nobles who had benefited from the situation.

These people were waiting, waiting for Mogonze to sort out the situation in Hungary and then head south to replace the role of the Tsarist Rus' Empire in conquering the Ottoman Empire and reclaiming Constantinople.

Even if they only achieve half of this goal, they will get back many times more of the benefits they gave up to the lower classes of society.

Finally, amidst cheers from the crowd, Mogonze moved into the Buda Castle and was practically indistinguishable from the King of Hungary, with only one final formality remaining.

Large numbers of Pest residents crossed the pontoon bridge to Buda, to explore this city they hadn't visited much before. From that moment on, the upper and lower classes of Hungary began to slowly merge together.

. . . .

Just as Mogonze entered Budapest and was about to completely control the Kingdom of Hungary, the peace treaty between the French Empire and the Austrian Empire was officially signed in Pressburg (Bratislava).

This is the most humiliating treaty ever signed by the Austrian Empire.

The Treaty of Pressburg stipulated:

The Austrian Empire relinquished almost all of its territories in the Rhineland, allowing Baden and Württemberg to be elevated to kingdom status.

The Holy Roman Empire lost almost all of its legal legitimacy, and Franz I recognized the Rhineland Confederation. At the same time, the Austrian Empire lost key territories such as the Augsburg Archdiocese.

On the Italian side, Veneto (the region where Venice is located), the Istrian Peninsula and Dalmatia (located in Slovenia and Croatia), Kotor (within Montenegro) and other territories were all handed over to the Kingdom of Italy under Napoleon as king.

This essentially means that the Habsburg family lost all of its territories along the Adriatic coast, centered on Venice.

With the earlier loss of the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza, the Habsburg family and the Holy Roman Empire's influence in Italy came to an end.

At the same time, Austria was required to pay France 40 million francs, equivalent to about 1.6 million pounds sterling and 5.6 million taels of silver in military expenses.

They also had to pay 200 francs to each of the 80,000 captured Austrian soldiers, plus officers, for a total ransom of 22 million francs.

In addition, the Vienna Royal Treasury and the Imperial Treasury were looted by the French, resulting in a loss of approximately 20 million francs.

In other words, not to mention other losses, the compensation, ransom, and treasury losses alone amounted to at least 82 million francs, totaling 3.28 million pounds sterling or 11.48 million silver dollars.

This is nothing in China, but it was equivalent to more than 70% of the Austrian Empire's total tax revenue in 1804.

If we take into account the war expenses and the damage caused by the French army, the total losses would be at least three times greater.

Finally, in trade and military matters, French merchant ships enjoyed the right to navigate the Danube River without hindrance or taxes, while the military strength of the Austrian Empire was limited to around 60,000 men.

The only thing that saved some face was that Napoleon did not demand that Franz I immediately dissolve the Holy Roman Empire; the issue was not put on the agenda and was thus shelved.

It can be said that if the Treaty of Pressburg had been fully implemented, the Austrian Empire would have immediately fallen to a second- or even third-rate position in Europe, and the Habsburg family, which had dominated Central Europe for hundreds of years, would have become a minor player who could only survive by obeying the whims of others.

But all of this was no longer relevant to Mo Gongze. He had already sent someone to Anxi to report, and he himself was preparing to go to Xi'an (Bukhara) to meet his cousin, Crown Prince Da Laosen, who might be leaving Anxi, as well as Liao Wang Mo Zhouzhi, who was both his cousin and his nephew-in-law.

Hungary could handle its own independence, but the Tsarist Rus' Empire and the Ottoman Empire were beyond its capabilities.

Moreover, based on Mogölze's understanding, given the significant losses suffered by the Tsarist Rus' Empire in the Battle of Austerlitz-Brno, Tsar Alexander I, in order to make up for the losses and regain his prestige, was very likely to continue to provoke attacks on the Ottoman Empire to the south.

Of course, the Ottoman Empire has recently begun to side with the French Empire, and they may take advantage of the Rus' Empire's crushing defeat to launch an offensive in order to reclaim parts of Wallachia and Moldavia.

Neither of them are good people, and Mo Gongze is even worse. He hopes to make full use of this opportunity to expand his territory and strength.

Therefore, it is necessary to immediately pay a visit to Crown Prince Sen and obtain the consent and support of this second-generation leader of the Mo Dynasty.

At the same time, Mo Gongze also hoped that King Mo Zhouzhan of Liao could send no less than 10,000 elite Liao troops across the Black Sea to support his operations.

However, before Mo Gongze could get up, Shen Yao, the chief secretary of the Lu Fan clan, came to report, waving the document in his hand.

"Your Highness, Emperor Franz of Vienna has sent a letter asking whether our Oriental Bank can lend them ten million francs."

Mo Gongze took it and looked at it, then asked, "It seems the emperor can't afford much reparations. I told him not to rush into an agreement with the French, and to stall Napoleon so we could sign a peace treaty at a lower cost, but he wouldn't believe me."

Now they've racked up a 40 million franc in reparations, and they want me to pay a quarter of it? Ha!

Ten million francs is roughly equivalent to 1.4 million silver dollars. It's not a lot, and Mo Gongze could afford it, but he wouldn't just give it away for nothing.

"If Emperor Franz were a shrewd and capable ruler, Austria wouldn't be in this state. I heard that even the silverware in Vienna's churches has been melted down as reparations to France. He must have had no other choice but to come to us."

Shen Yao's face was full of mockery, and after hearing his words, Mo Gongze pondered for a moment and asked, "He Xiang, do you think we can give him this money?"

Shen Yao laughed and cupped his hands in a gesture of respect, "Your Highness has already made a decision, so there is no need to ask this humble subject."

The reason Shen Yao said this was because he had just received news that the third dowry payment of one million silver dollars to Emperor Franz I of Austria by the Great Yu Dynasty had been suddenly postponed again.

The agreed-upon money was not paid, and the imperial court didn't need to exert any influence over the Austrian Empire, so it must be because Mo Gongze had pulled some strings in the middle.

Mo Gongze laughed as well, “We can give it, but we must give it little by little, and when we give it, we must make Emperor Franz feel indebted to us.”

Amid the laughter, someone peeked out from outside the door. Mo Gongze immediately strode over and, sure enough, it was Di Feihu hesitating outside.

"What are you still doing here!" Mo Gongze roared, putting on a stern face. "Hurry up and pack up, assemble the team and escort me to Anxi to see His Highness the Crown Prince!"

Upon hearing the first half of the sentence, Di Feihu felt as if he had fallen into an ice cave, his whole body turning ice-cold. But upon hearing the second half, he felt as if he had come back to life.

Going to Anxi and returning home is a coveted position that many people would rather die for. Since the Crown Prince specifically requested his name, he didn't blame him.

"Your Highness, Fei Hu has disgraced you. I failed the mission and was taken prisoner. I have no face to see you!" Di Fei Hu knelt down with a thud, tears streaming down his face as he sobbed uncontrollably.

For Eastern soldiers, there is nothing more unbearable than being taken prisoner.

"You're really trying to be rude, aren't you? You've been so busy these past few days that you haven't had a celebration banquet to remind me, haven't you?" Mo Gongze pulled Di Feihu up.

"Your nine hundred-plus men withstood the fierce attack of tens of thousands of French elite troops and held out until the very end, preventing them from capturing the Pratzen Heights. You displayed the might of our Lu Fan Army, and even the arrogant Napoleon called you the strongest army in the world."

"You're even crying now? If you have to cry about this, what about those Rus' and Austrians who were utterly defeated by the French? What about them?"

These words made Di Feihu feel instantly relieved; the weight on his heart disappeared in an instant.

"Go and make preparations. I will hold a celebration banquet for you in Anxi. Tell the boys to be in high spirits. When we get to Xi'an, I will introduce you to His Highness the Crown Prince."

(End of this chapter)