As in history, Kossuth miraculously raised an army of more than two hundred thousand men in just over ten days.
But problems soon came one after another. At that time, Hungary's arsenals had few new, locally made muzzle-loading smoothbore rifles—let alone the antiques Austria had produced in the previous century.
In theory, the Hungarian government had already armed more than six hundred thousand people over the past six months. But anyone with eyes could see the true strength of the Hungarian army. As for the shortfall, no one knew.
The Hungarians' strategic reserves were woefully inadequate, which also showed that before the rebellion broke out, they had been overly optimistic—or simply hadn't expected a rebellion to happen.
For years, the Hungarian government had refused to pay for equipment upgrades, while the illegal sale of weapons within the army and government had also been common.
It was only to be expected that the Hungarians' weapons reserves were now inadequate. With no other choice, Kossuth could only call on civilians to hand over their weapons.
"Call on" was a nice way to put it, but the people carrying it out botched the job. Before long, requisitioning turned into robbery.
There was no need to mention hard cases like Chutkala and his Self-Defense Force. The police and gendarmes in the Buda-Pest region were like tigers let out of their cages, too.
But worse still, some clever opportunists and gang members seized the chance to pose as officials responsible for confiscating weapons, spreading rumors far and wide.
The call to hand over weapons became a demand to surrender property. Armed with forged documents, these people barged into homes everywhere, killing and setting fires, and no one dared stop them. Many civilians believed they were acting on government orders.
Before long, public resentment boiled over,