War Palace and Knee Pillow, Austria’s Destiny

7. The tax power of the Crown Territory of St. Stephen belongs to the Hungarian Parliament, and it can independently formulate tax types and adjust tax rates according to its own situation. Everyone must pay taxes, including the estates of Austrian nobles and royal territories.

8. The judiciary is independent, and the Hungarian Parliament has the power to formulate all laws within the territory of the Crown of St. Stephen.

9. Hungary requires the establishment of an independent national bank with the right to issue currency. Austria must recognize its value and must not denigrate or reject Hungarian currency.

10. Soldiers in Hungary must re-swear allegiance to the Hungarian Constitution. Austria has no right to mobilize Hungarian soldiers. All Hungarian troops in Italy must withdraw to Hungary.

At the same time, soldiers in Hungary must withdraw unless they are loyal to Hungary.

11. The Austrian side must immediately release the Hungarian prisoners in custody.

12. The territory originally belonging to the Crown of St. Stephen will be renamed Hungary from now on and will be under the unified jurisdiction of the Hungarian government. Transylvania and Vojvodina will be merged into Hungary. 】

Count Raikkonen's hands began to shake when he was halfway through reading.

If the Austrian imperial government really accepted such a "peace agreement", then Austria would really become a colony of Hungary.

In addition to losing control of nearly one-third of its territory, Austria must also surrender Transylvania and Vojvodina.

"My lord, how do you feel?"

"It's so deceptive! Those damn guys! At this time, he actually proposed such a crazy agreement. He is simply taking advantage of the situation!"

"It's just taking advantage of the situation."

Mrs. Sophie made no secret of it. After all, many Hungarian nobles had joined Franz's plan at this time. In order to preserve their shares in the Hungarian Development Company, it was impossible for these to mix with the revolutionaries in Budapest.

In fact, there is even more shocking news, that is, the Hungarian side has sent troops to Pressburg.

But she didn't want to continue to exert pressure at this time, because these people might not be able to bear it.

Compared with the Italian coalition forces of the Hungarians and the Papal States, the King of Sardinia was really nothing to mention.

"The Kingdom of Sardinia is really cheap this time."

said the two regents, but Madame Sophie corrected them.

"It's not about taking advantage of them. We can settle the accounts later."

Austria declares a truce with the Kingdom of Sardinia.

Yes, it's a truce, not an armistice in the usual sense. This is worth pondering, but both sides need a breathing space, so the Kingdom of Sardinia and Austria stopped the ongoing war.

As for the captives of the Kingdom of Sardinia, they naturally followed the old rules common in Europe - ransoming people with money.

The ransom culture in Europe has a long history, and can even be traced back to the wars between the Romans and the Gauls.

As for the amount of ransom, there are corresponding standards for the treatment of prisoners.

For example, there was once a British soldier who was captured 24 times in his life, and the total ransom paid was 400 large Spanish silver coins.

This was equivalent to the total income of the halberdier during his service life. Finally, under his strong request, the British royal family had to come up with a sum of money to compensate for his losses.

And a certain knight who participated in the Crusades paid 260,000 gold coins in order to redeem himself.

This is of course positively related to the person's status and the degree of damage caused. At the same time, factors such as local prices at the time must also be taken into consideration.

The price offered by the Austrian side was 600 florins for each Sardinian prisoner. As for the officers, the price naturally increased.

However, some related people can still be released early through the back door, but the specific price is unknown.

For ordinary people, the price of 600 florins is unimaginable, and the Austrian official naturally does not expect the other party to make a private redemption.

To be honest, people who are officials in Austria are not stupid. Who has the money to be a top soldier? This is obviously a blow to the Kingdom of Sardinia.

In theory, if the Kingdom of Sardinia is defeated, it should cede territory and seek peace, but now Austria cannot protect itself, so it can only take a step back and only wants money, not land.

Regarding the six hundred florins required for an ordinary prisoner, Austria has strict statistics and can provide reasonable sources of expenditure.

First of all, there will inevitably be casualties in wars. The dead need to be buried and the injured need treatment. Medical expenses in Europe were always sky-high before World War II.

Doctors and lawyers have long been the highest-paid groups in Europe. Ordinary doctors are naturally unable to treat stab wounds and gunshot wounds on the battlefield, so professional doctors must be hired.

(It’s no joke that a hairdresser moonlights as a doctor.)

Naturally, full-time doctors are much more expensive than those who are wild and unlicensed.

Secondly, prisoners of war are human beings too, they have to eat and drink, right? You must know that this is a disaster, and the food supply in Europe is soaring, so it is reasonable to charge a higher ransom, right?

At the same time, with such a large group of people gathering together, in order to prevent the occurrence of the plague, some precautions must be taken, right?

It makes sense to ask a few priests to spray disinfectant, right?

The ransom has increased over time. In addition, those armies from the Kingdom of Sardinia did not come to Austria to repair bridges and roads. The buildings they destroyed and the flowers and plants they trampled to death are also money, right?

And to capture such a large group of people, they need a place to stay, right? So it makes sense to build a prisoner of war camp, right?

You ask where Austria got the manpower to build prisoner of war camps during the war? Naturally, professional matters must be left to professional people, so that the captives can have enough food and clothing by themselves.

Helping build a prisoner-of-war camp can also reduce some ransoms, so Sardinian prisoners of war are very motivated. Some people even planned not to go back after hearing the Austrian army's offer.

They think it would be a good idea to simply work as construction workers here. After all, food and housing are taken care of here, and the wages are not low.

In fact, the wages of workers in the Austrian Empire at this time were much higher than those in other countries, which is one of the reasons why workers in Austria rarely made trouble.

Marshal Radetzki didn't mind too much about these Italian prisoners of war living in Lombardy. After all, these people seemed to be more able to endure hardships and be more diligent than the locals.

Moreover, the old marshal is a person who pays great attention to publicity. Compared with those pure soldiers, he has more political skills.

This gave the Austrian army a good image, at least in the eyes of ordinary people, not as bad as the Jesuit propaganda.

At this time, these prisoners of war who were working hard in the Austrian prisoner-of-war camp were undoubtedly the best propaganda machines after returning to the Kingdom of Sardinia.

However, Marshal Radetzki regretted not capturing more prisoners of war. In fact, in order to speed up the march, the prisoners of war in the Kingdom of Sardinia had always been in custody.

If those people really wanted to escape, they had many, many opportunities.

However, the reality is that almost no prisoners of war chose to escape. Most of them chose to be obedient and wait for the Austrian army to come back to accept them.

There were thirty-seven thousand prisoners, and the ransom amounted to twenty-three million florins.

Carlo Alberto felt that the Austrians were crazy and it was impossible for him to pay to ransom the prisoners.