Compared to the Vienna government's resolve, Count Aoboni, leader of the Hungarian Independence Party, had quietly seen off the British representative. It was clear the two sides had enjoyed a very pleasant talk.
This was also an inevitable outcome. During last year's winter offensive launched by the Russians, the Kingdom of Hungary had already been dealt a crushing blow; even the foundations of the state had been shaken!
Who told them that the Russian Bear's Southwestern Front, responsible for the main attack, happened to border Hungary? If not Hungary, who else were they supposed to strike? To defend their homeland, even if the Kingdom of Hungary wanted to play coward, it had no choice!
And so the Hungarians fought a defensive war on their own soil. The result was that the Kingdom of Hungary lost seventy percent of its field formations, along with vast numbers of militia reservists, and half its territory to boot!
Although the Alliance's counteroffensive in the latter half of the year recovered those lands, the Russian Bear had still ravaged them once. The economic losses were beyond calculation, while civilian casualties numbered in the hundreds of thousands.
Furthermore, while retreating, the Russians had deliberately created over a million refugees, dealing a devastating blow to the Kingdom of Hungary's economy!
At the same time, the aftereffects of the Kingdom of Hungary's usual oppression of its ethnic minorities emerged. With the main army groups suffering catastrophic losses, the other peoples within the country saw an opportunity, and the Hungarian government's foundations of rule had become unstable.
After the previous food crisis erupted, the Hungarian government had demanded that the Vienna government provide funds to purchase the grain held by capitalists, only to be refused. This ruined the plans of many interest groups that had hoped to make a