The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 904 Beset by Crisis and in a Dire Situation
Don't assume that because 19th-century Europe was so powerful, it must have been very civilized.

In fact, Europeans were largely unconnected to civilization for most of their lives.

For example, in 1811, when Mogölze was about to issue the Emancipation ...

Spain is in a slightly better position because it has historically received large sums of overseas income back home.

The nobles ate their fill of rich food, and the common people could at least smell the aroma of it, barely escaping the miserable state of being serfs, and existing somewhere between tenant farmers and serfs.

Before the French Revolution, France was similar to Spain, but after the revolution, things improved considerably, becoming roughly comparable to China during the Tang and Song dynasties.

That is, there are a certain number of wealthy and respectable families, accounting for about 20% to 30% of the self-cultivating farmers. The rest, although they have almost no land of their own, can choose to work as laborers or tenant farmers in the city, so their personal dependence is not so strong.

England was one of the better-off countries in Europe, roughly equivalent to France after the French Revolution.

However, because the Irish could be treated as less than human, and because of the good profits overseas, the lowest strata of English society, excluding the Irish, were generally able to make a living.

This is also the biggest reason why England has been able to compete with France until now.

The influence of serfdom or semi-serfdom on Europe was so profound that the very first task of the French Revolution, and its initial export, was the emancipation of serfs and semi-serfs.

In Hungary, however, Mogonze was slowly working on reforms of serfdom.

For example, buying back farmland.

For example, they ordered the Xiongnu people to abandon their European surnames and adopt Han surnames such as Liu, Lan, Helian, Huyan, and Wanqi to redistribute their spheres of influence and reduce the control of the nobility over the serfs.

There were also measures such as abolishing the Hungarian political system established by Austria and replacing it with a system of ten-thousand-household (county) and a thousand-household (county) to disrupt the original aristocratic system and liberate productive forces.

But none of this can truly address the root cause, because the Han Chinese forces brought by Mo Gongze numbered only a few hundred thousand, while the Hungarians in a broader sense numbered seven or eight million.

This reform needs to be implemented at the grassroots level. It can only be done when people at the bottom start to protest and begin to resist from the bottom up.

But the French invasion gave Mogongze the opportunity to liberate the serfs ahead of schedule.

In an emergency meeting of the Hungarian Parliament, Mogonze swiftly announced the emancipation of serfs, stipulating that all persons on the territory of the Kingdom of Hungary would become free from this moment on.

Furthermore, after the war ends, the royal government will redistribute land according to merit. If a noble owns more land than the area corresponding to their title, a redemption policy will be implemented.

Of course, in order to avoid large-scale opposition from the nobility, Mo Gongze allowed the existence of tenant farmers in his policies.

Although tenant farmers gained the freedom to starve to death, they also gained the freedom to no longer be killed at will by noble lords, to no longer have their property and relatives arbitrarily stripped away, and to have their own surname and choose their own life.

Even if the land wasn't cultivated well, at least what was handed over to the landlord was theirs, which meant they had moved from the Iron Age to the Bronze Age.

"The emancipation of serfs is imperative, because the low productivity of serfs cannot be compared with that of free citizens. If serfs are kept in existence, the Kingdom of Hungary cannot become strong."

More importantly, if we don't announce the emancipation of the serfs at this time, Napoleon will come and announce it.

"By then, the hearts and minds of the Hungarian people will have completely turned to the French Empire, and we'll never be able to return."

Since even King Mogongze said so, and given the grim situation, the nobles below, even if somewhat unwilling, could not voice any objections.

Mo Gongze also knew that some people agreed on the surface but were very unwilling in their hearts, and might even cooperate with Napoleon later because of this.

But such people are only a minority. They hinder the progress of history and are not truly submissive. It is a good opportunity to eliminate them all through war.

After convening his last parliamentary session in Transylvania, Mogongze mounted his warhorse and personally led his guards to escort the people away.

Before passing through the south gate of Sibiu and entering the Southern Carpathian Mountains, Mogongze looked back at Sibiu one last time.

He was born here, grew up here, and his mother died here, but now he must destroy it himself.

"Set it on fire. Remember to blow up Chaoyun Castle with explosives. I don't want Napoleon living in my parents' bedroom."

After saying this, Mo Gongze turned his horse around and left without looking back. Behind him, a violent explosion was heard, and the flames turned the sky red.

Three days later, a heavy rain finally extinguished the fire in Sibiu. With nowhere to set up camp, the French army could only endure the flames in their tents, soaking wet. Even Napoleon did not have a proper house to live in.

"The generals all advise against continuing the pursuit; this campaign should end here," Marshal Berthier, Chief of the General Staff, told Napoleon.

"After conquering Transylvania, we occupied most of Hungary's territory. Ferdinand I lost his country and was now a stray dog."

Napoleon shook his head after listening, pointing to the Southern Carpathian Mountains shrouded in darkness in the distance.
“I could feel Ferdinand was there, looking at me with hatred in his eyes.”

He withdrew voluntarily with his army; he didn't lose his country, but rather left it, ready to return as soon as we left.

Marshal Berthier nodded slowly upon hearing this. "Yes, if King Ferdinand were merely the King of Hungary, then all of this could end here."

But what's frightening is that he's still a prince of the Seres Empire. We can't let this fortress of the Seres Empire remain in Europe.

"Hurry up and move the supplies, but don't push Austria too far," Napoleon instructed before returning to boost morale.

He wanted to dispel his troops' thoughts of quitting while they were ahead; this time, the soldiers of the French Empire had to enter the lower Danube River and completely crush all the forces of King Ferdinand I of Hungary.

. . . .

When news of the grain requisition reached Vienna, even someone like Franz, who was willing to sell anything to secure his throne, was so enraged that veins bulged on his forehead.

Moldavia, located on the lower Danube plain, is not difficult to reach because of the Danube River, which makes it very convenient to transport supplies downstream.

But there's a prerequisite: Belgrade must be controlled. Only with Belgrade in hand can the transport on the Danube be prevented from being cut off, but unfortunately, Belgrade is in the hands of Mogongze.

Furthermore, traveling south from the Transylvanian Plateau to Moldavia is not difficult, as the Argesh River, a tributary of the Danube, originates from the Moldoveanu Peak near Sibiu and flows south into the plains where Moldavia is located.

Even though some sections of the mountain rivers are unusable, it has greatly reduced the pressure on transportation.

The only problem was that after the scorched-earth policy in Maukourzee, the French army of over 300,000 men entered Transylvania, and it was impossible to supply them with supplies from Transylvania alone; supplies had to be transported from other places.

The Danube River does not flow through Transylvania, so a large amount of manpower and resources must be used for transshipment. This is why Napoleon came to forcibly requisition Austria's grain and manpower.

“We should have realized long ago that this is the consequence of surrendering, the consequence of losing the empire.” Franz was still feeling frustrated when Foreign Minister Metternich had already launched a tirade.

This historically remarkable figure, though still young, had already foreseen the future of the Austrian Empire, not to mention that he had also reached a cooperation agreement with Mogonze.

Therefore, on various occasions, he directed his attacks at the hardliners before the war and the surrender faction after the war, led by Emperor Franz.

“We have no other choice but to agree to all the French demands,” Metternich continued, adding fuel to the fire. Napoleon, however, knew he couldn’t push Austria too far, so he gave the order personally.

But by this time, the French Empire had degenerated from a revolutionary government into an empire, and its people, from top to bottom, had long lost their faith.

Napoleon wanted to leave Austria a chance to survive, but his subordinates weren't thinking about that; they were only concerned with completing the task of requisitioning grain and laborers as quickly as possible.

As for where the food and people come from, I don't care.

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. For the sake of the empire, we must trap Napoleon's army in the Carpathian Mountains."

After giving Franz a dressing down in the palace and shifting all the blame onto them, Metternich quickly found the finance minister Karl Stadion, who was waiting to be summoned outside the palace.

"Your Excellency, please assist me in increasing the amount of grain, livestock, and laborers requested by France by another fifty percent."

Karl Stadion was also a veteran of Austria, and Metternich succeeded him as Foreign Minister.

So when Karl Stadion heard Metternich say that, he immediately guessed what this promising foreign minister was up to.

"You want to increase the burden on the people and make them resent the emperor and the French even more, Clemens. Do you really believe that King Ferdinand can win?"

“I believe not in King Ferdinand, but in the Seres Empire,” Metternich replied calmly.

"Moreover, given the current situation, no matter who the Empire chooses to believe, it cannot be worse than it is now."

Karl Stadion thought it made sense. The empire was already in such a sorry state that there was no room for it to get any worse, so they might as well take a gamble.

After Karl Stadion left, Metternich summoned his political ally, Franz Koloflatt, who came from a noble Bohemian family.

"From now on, all flour supplied to the French army must be the best, so good that even the French quartermasters cannot find fault with it."

However, once the war reached a stalemate the following year, they immediately mixed a large amount of coarse quartz sand into the flour.

Collofrat raised an eyebrow. This was an attempt to exploit the French army's trust and deliver a heavy blow when they were most critically short of food. The poison was indeed potent, but it should be quite effective.

1811 October.

Li Xingtai finally led 5,000 Anxi soldiers and 10,000 Xiaowu soldiers back to Moldavia, putting Mo Gongze at ease.

After discussing it, the two agreed that the most important task now was to protect Belgrade. As long as Belgrade remained, the French army would not be able to use the Danube River to transport supplies, and their burden would increase several times over.

So, only four days after Li Xingtai arrived in Bucharest, he immediately led six thousand elite troops to Belgrade to take command.

Mogongze then began to plan the retreat, transferring most of the food, supplies, and arsenals from Bucharest to Constanta on the coast.

He even prepared for the French army to capture Belgrade and engage him in a decisive battle at the mouth of the Danube.

However, the French offensive did not come so quickly because the Termachu fortress south of Sibiu was too difficult to capture.

Although it could only accommodate a maximum of two thousand defenders, the attacking French army could not form a proper battle formation and could only deploy a maximum of ten thousand men at a time.

This was extremely difficult, especially since it was almost October and snow was beginning to fall in the southern Carpathian Mountains. Napoleon could only order the digging of trenches slowly, and then use mortars to attack the city once the trenches reached the base of the Termachu fortress.

Meanwhile, Marshal Louis Davout's army of over 100,000 men suffered a heavy defeat in Belgrade, which was protected by a hundred-meter-high cliff.

The French army could not capture Belgrade, nor could they capture the Petro Varadin fortress complex, which was positioned to support Belgrade.

At the end of October, just as the temperature began to drop below zero and the French army thought they could finally relax after winter, Li Xingtai suddenly arrived with 6,000 troops.

They broke through a French position in the southwest corner, and the Xia army inside the city came out to welcome them, allowing Li Xingtai's fresh troops to enter the city smoothly, and killing and wounding hundreds of French soldiers.

This was actually the most obvious sign that the overall combat effectiveness of the French army was beginning to decline. Louis Davout was not a careless person, and he also made arrangements for the possible arrival of reinforcements from the Great Yu, but his subordinates gave him a discount and only carried out 60% of the plan.

At this point, the number of troops in Belgrade reached 11,000, which immediately made up for the previous problem of insufficient manpower.

Also at the end of October, the main force of the expeditionary army finally cleared the obstacles set up by the Russians in the Volga River and launched a fierce attack on the outer bastion of Tsaritsyn, located on the south bank of the Volga River, before the heavy snow arrived.

In this battle, steam-powered excavators with a kinetic energy of approximately 25 horsepower were used on the battlefield for the first time, greatly enhancing the ability of the Dayu army to dig trenches.

This steam excavator was originally invented for building railways in Panama. It belongs to the technology from around 1835. Although it was only more than 20 years earlier, it was still a powerful weapon.

Forced into a corner, the Russian army could only continuously organize suicide squads from the bastions, attempting to blow up the few steam excavators that Da Yu also possessed. The two sides engaged in round after round of bloody battles over the excavators.

It was at this time that General Mikhail Barclay led 90,000 Russian troops into Tsaritsyn. Da Yu's forces were insufficient to besiege Tsaritsyn, and he could only allow the Russian army to reinforce him.

A month later, the heavy snow finally arrived.

The commander of the central army, Mo Gongling, detached 3,500 Goryeo infantrymen to garrison the two newly captured fortresses, while the main force of the army returned to the town of Jirowa to avoid the cold winter in Russia. The fighting on all fronts began to come to a standstill.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Napoleon held a grand wedding in Paris.

He finally divorced Josephine and married the sister of Tsar Alexander I, marking a renewed strengthening of the Franco-Russian alliance.

However, the Rus' were not satisfied because they felt that Napoleon had not fulfilled his obligations as an ally, and that the French offensive had not tied down much of the Seres Empire's forces.

After much deliberation, Napoleon ultimately transferred 30,000 relatively combat-capable troops to the Swedish crown prince, whose ambitions had been thwarted and who had recently begun to curry favor with Napoleon, to Marshal Bernadotte.

Napoleon ordered him to lead these 30,000 men into the Rus' Empire to assist the Tsar in resisting the attack of the Seres Empire.

Upon hearing this news, Arthur Wellesley, Viscount Wellington, in London, immediately led 60,000 British troops to reland in Portugal after Bernadotte's French army reached Prussia, thus beginning the Second Peninsular War.

This infuriated Napoleon. He now had to fight the Maukronds in Eastern Europe, support the Rus' Empire, and maintain his presence in Spain. France's military strength was already stretched thin.

But the Iberian Peninsula cannot be ignored; if Arthur Wellesley were to conquer Spain, France itself would be under attack.

Therefore, by the end of 1811, Napoleon could only recruit soldiers on a large scale in the Netherlands, Belgium, the Confederation of the Rhine, and Prussia, which had already submitted.

They almost forcibly conscripted men to assemble an army of 80,000, which they then handed over to Guillaume Bruner, ordering him to go to Spain to assist Marshal Massena in dealing with the threat posed by the British army.

This not only put enormous pressure on France's already unhealthy finances, but also caused huge disasters for the Netherlands, the Confederation of the Rhine, and other countries.

The French army's wanton looting of grain and arrest of civilians for military service aroused the anger of many people who had originally been inclined to support the French. The French Empire's rule in these areas began to show signs of instability.

(End of this chapter)