"Chak István, Károly Máta, Laszlo Szécsényi, and numerous other rebels who disturbed the Kingdom's order, by the golden bull, I hereby sentence you to death and confiscate all your property in the name of the King."
In the temporary court at the Hungarian Parliament, as High Justice Rozgonyi pronounced the verdict, the entire Parliament hall fell into a deadly silence.
Representatives of all ranks dared not even breathe, their eyes wide as dozens of rebels were sent to the gallows, ending their lives in a most undignified manner.
Some of them begged for mercy, some cried out, and some hurled curses, while Laszlo quietly watched his enemies being executed one by one. Their twisted faces looked so hateful, but at the same time, they served as a warning to the Hungarian to remain loyal and obedient.
After this display of the Emperor's authority, the revised parts of the new decree were officially released.
In addition to the previously implemented restrictions on corvée labor and permission for peasants to migrate freely, Laszlo added a new clause: the inheritance and transfer of land between nobles must be approved by the Crown.
If a Hungarian noble privately traded land or even illegally occupied others' land without his knowledge, it would be considered a violation of the Kingdom's law and would be subject to the most severe sanctions.
The purpose of this supplementary law was to limit excessive land concentration and the abuse of land rights by nobles.
This supplementary decree and the previous new decrees were merged into the new Kingdom of Hungary Land Law.
This time, Laszlo finally heard no dissenting voices.
Although the most common approach is to use both the stick and the carrot, this was not the case for Laszlo.
From Andrew II's golden bull to the expansion of noble power during Louis I's and Sigismund's reigns, the Hungarian nobles had enjoyed sweet lives for centuries. For Laszlo, all he had to offer were one stick and butcher's knife after another.
The surviving upper nobles had already decided to bow before Laszlo, and with the increasing influence of the lower nobles under Laszlo's support in recent years, the nobility, which held most of the power in the Parliament, finally reached a consensus on supporting the Emperor.
The clergy and burgher classes had no objections to this decree, which aimed to restrict the expansion of noble land.
Seeing the Parliament almost become his personal domain, Laszlo secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
This time, no one was tactless enough to accuse him of mobilizing the troops stationed in Hungary to participate in the war against the Swiss.
During the Swabian War, he transferred the Austrian troops stationed in Hungary and supported by the Hungarian treasury. At that time, many in Hungary criticized him, believing he was expending the Kingdom of Hungary's resources on Austria's affairs.
This time, he personally came to Budapest, and those who liked to gossip were silent.
Of course, it was also possible that the gossips had all been killed by him.
The last war was just a test; next time, Laszlo also planned to draw on the native Hungarian army. Through such repeated tests, he intended to make the Hungarian accept the reality of Austria-Hungary's integration.
Although he had repeatedly publicly declared that Austria and Hungary were traditionally friendly nations that relied on each other, not many Hungarian bought into it.
The same situation also occurred in Austria; the people of the two countries disliked each other, both believing they should be the favored son.
Laszlo hoped to treat the two principal states equally, but he always unconsciously favored the significantly weaker Austria.
This was also a last resort, as the current Hungary was already powerful enough to occupy half of the Habsburg Monarchy.
But through Laszlo's diligent efforts, he still successfully gained control of this vast country.
In Croatia, Transylvania, and Hungary proper, he established a very firm rule.
However, this was not enough for him; he wanted to gradually assimilate Hungary, but this was almost impossible to achieve.
The Hungarian had their own language and culture, and they had a strong resistance to the German.
If Laszlo were to promote German culture through education in Hungary, he could go bankrupt ten times and it would probably have no effect, like a stone thrown into the sea, unable to cause a ripple.
Since the Hungarian could not be voluntarily assimilated, the only option was to rely on immigration to dilute Hungary.
In this regard, the Kingdom of Hungary centuries ago already had experience.
In Transylvania, the famous Seven Saxon Cities, a series of border cities established by German immigrants, stubbornly survived under the threat of external enemies and internal exclusion by the Hungarian, and in this era, became an indispensable political force in the Transylvania region.
Most of these immigrants had migrated gradually over the past two centuries.
Initially, the King of Hungary invited them to alleviate the border defense pressure caused by the lack of Hungarian manpower, so most of these immigrant cities were built in the border areas of Transylvania.
After centuries of tenacious development, these Saxon immigrants had become an important aid to Laszlo's rule in Transylvania.
To replicate this success, after the week-long Parliament concluded, Laszlo summoned Governor of Transylvania Szécsényi, who had traveled a long distance.
"Szécsényi, your governance in Transylvania is quite excellent. My bailiffs' reports all show that you have faithfully executed my orders, and Transylvania has been able to recover from the war."
"You flatter me, Your Majesty. To be honest, I haven't done anything special, just managed the Transylvania territory for you. That's all.
In most matters, the Three Nations Pact Council has provided me with great assistance."
Szécsényi replied respectfully, and his words immediately caught Laszlo's attention.
"Three Nations Pact… I only had a general understanding of the situation in Transylvania before. Can you tell me more detailed information about this pact?"
"Of course, the establishment of this pact dates back to when your father inherited the Hungarian throne, which was in 1438.
At that time, the old King Sigismund died, and your father was in Bohemia dealing with Hussite rebels and the Kingdom of Poland's army, unable to focus on internal Hungarian affairs.
It just so happened that at this time, a large-scale peasant uprising broke out in the Transylvania region due to the introduction of Hussite heretical ideas.
To deal with the peasants, who were mostly Romanian, the Hungarian nobles, Saxon merchants, and Székely free armed forces chose to form an alliance.
The primary purpose of this pact was to suppress the local Romanian, and also to jointly resist the invasion of the Ottomans.
After that, your father temporarily stabilized the surrounding situation and began to exert his influence on Transylvania.
Thus, the three governorships—the Transylvania Governorship, Székelyföld, and Királyföld—controlled respectively by the Hungarian, Székely, and Saxon, were merged into the current Transylvania Governorship.
Among them, the lands of the Székely and Saxon were all ceded to the direct control of the Crown. The Székely, who maintained their military traditions and nomadic habits, and the Saxon, who excelled at manufacturing products and trading, both bore the permanent border defense obligations granted to them by the King of Hungary, and maintained a very high degree of autonomy.
Because of this, my work is actually mainly to coordinate the relationships between the various ethnic groups there, so that they can all serve the Kingdom wholeheartedly, and at the same time manage the Transylvania royal territory that you entrusted to me."
After listening to Szécsényi's work report, Laszlo realized that his previous words were not modesty, but that he genuinely did not need to worry much about the Székely and Saxon. Their lands probably accounted for more than half of the Transylvania royal territory.
In this area, the Székely free armed forces, skilled in herding, had their own military organization and local governance institutions, similar to the Cossack class of the Kingdom of Hungary.
They gained tax exemption and high autonomy by undertaking border defense and military service. Many cavalry in the current border army still come from the Székely ethnic group.
If Transylvania were invaded by foreign enemies, they could mobilize even more cavalry to assist Laszlo in defending the Kingdom.
German immigrants from the Empire established many important cities in Transylvania, and the administrative centers of most local counties were chosen to be Saxon cities.
Their excellent handicraft skills and business acumen greatly promoted the economic development of Transylvania, and these cities also served as border fortresses, responsible for defending the border near Wallachia.
Aside from these two parts, the remaining half of Transylvania's land was inhabited by many Romanian, who had been under the long-term rule of the Hungarian nobles.
These Hungarian nobles were the strong link connecting Transylvania with Hungary proper, and therefore, they also suffered greatly during Laszlo's crackdown on the Hungarian nobles.
Laszlo had originally wanted to learn from the advanced experience of the Three Nations Pact to see if there was a way to promote it throughout the Kingdom of Hungary.
Unexpectedly, this Three Nations Pact seemed to be a feudal alliance established to expand the power of the nobility, and its main purpose was to jointly oppress the local Romanian, with resisting the Ottomans appearing to be an Additional conditions.
However, he could apply this experience more flexibly. At least the situation in Transylvania proved that the coexistence of Hungarian and other ethnic groups was entirely feasible during this period.
First, make the Kingdom of Hungary less pure, and then find a way to make it undergo a qualitative change. This was the best way Laszlo could think of to maintain the Austria-Hungary union.
"Hmm, back then, the Kings of the Árpád dynasty in Hungary invited German immigrants to develop the frontier and consolidate their rule, and now it seems the results are significant.
Now I intend to imitate their approach and continue to introduce immigrants to develop Hungary's vast lands, promote the prosperity of commerce and trade, and strengthen Hungary's national power.
You have accumulated a lot of experience in handling multi-ethnic immigration affairs, so feel free to offer any suggestions."
Every word Laszlo said was sincere, but he concealed his most fundamental purpose.
"Haven't you always been organizing immigration activities?" Szécsényi asked, somewhat puzzled.
"In the past, I was tied up with various matters and did not invest too much energy in this area, so my Balkans and Hungary immigration plans did not achieve very significant results, and the number of immigrants was quite limited.
Now that Hungary's tax revenue has increased and expenditures have decreased significantly, I plan to increase investment in this area."
"Then, I suggest you establish an official specifically to manage immigration affairs, just as the Kings of Hungary did in the past,
by dispatching official envoys to recruit immigrants.
As the Emperor of the German, you have a considerable advantage in this regard compared to previous kings, and I believe this process will be quite smooth."
Szécsényi said with a smile.
Laszlo's expression stiffened as he recalled the continuous resistance from the South German nobles when he previously issued the "Eastward Expedition" decree.
He had not specifically set up an agency or allocated funds before, but mostly relied on merchants and church networks to attract immigrants, which was very inefficient.
Szécsényi's suggestion reminded him that this matter actually did not require consuming Austria's resources, because ultimately, the immigrants were needed by Hungary and the Balkans states.
Supporting immigration affairs with Hungary's resources was still very easy, as Hungary's financial situation was by far the best among Laszlo's states, maintaining an annual treasury surplus of over one hundred thousand florin, making it very "wealthy."
After some thought, Laszlo quickly found a suitable candidate for this job among his advisory council.
He then convened a new Regency Cabinet meeting and announced his decision to the ministers.
After a brief debate, Archbishop Veszter and others approved Laszlo's view.
Indeed, with the continuous expansion of the royal domain, although many people were attracted from noble lands, there were still many areas suitable for agricultural and livestock development that had not been properly developed.
For this reason, attracting immigrants to settle was indeed a good choice.
Moreover, the Emperor had previously set up colonization commissioners in several major cities within the Kingdom of Hungary's royal domain.
They were distributed in Budapest, Pest, Szeged, Pressburg, and other places to welcome and settle incoming immigrants.
However, the work of recruiting immigrants was completed in Austria. Those German who were not interested in Austria's immigration incentives would choose to travel by boat along the Danube River eastward to Hungary, where the incentives were even more generous than in Austria.
If it were possible to bypass Austria and directly recruit immigrants within the Empire, efficiency would undoubtedly increase significantly.
As for the choice of the new Minister of Immigration Affairs, Laszlo unceremoniously appointed John von Montfort to the position.
He was a member of Parliament in Tyrol, Lord of Tettenang, and also one of Laszlo's court advisors. The County of Bregenz belonged to his family before it was sold to Laszlo.
Due to his family background, he had a vast social network in Austria, Swabia, and Bavaria, which undoubtedly made him very suitable for this job.
In the past, Hungarian officials might have been critical of this, but in recent years, Italians, German, and even Byzantine remnants had been absorbed by Laszlo into Hungary's new government system. They were loyal to the Emperor and greatly improved the administrative efficiency of the Kingdom's government with their professional skills.
Now, people were no longer surprised by foreigners holding official positions in Hungary. Anyway, they were basically technocrats and would not take over the positions of local elites.
In early February 1466, the General Directorate of Immigration Affairs was established in Budapest, and after receiving its first budget of several thousand florin, it quickly began operations.