The victorious campaign of Napoleon excited all of the lands that had been penetrated by his enemy forces. All subjects wished to express and share in the joy created when their feudal lords were defeated. They believed that the ruling class’s loss would result in their inevitable liberation from the heavy yoke of the feudal lords. They were extremely confused in their thinking and in their actions; they refused to be obedient to their superiors, and wished only to be lords themselves. Chrlický’s authoritative archives offer good examples of this:

Following the Battle at Slavkov, all of the villagers were ordered to pull all drowned horses from Žačany’s pond, but they refused and eventually had to be forced by a French escort.

They then decided for themselves to drain Žačany’s pond.

Immediately following the battle, the magistrate together with Újezd’s new burgermeister, exchanged views with Chrlice’s burgrave, Josef Sojtík, explaining that there was no lordship above them, that they, themselves, were their own authorities, and that they were free to do whatever it was they pleased. The fact that they truly meant what they said was followed by an action to prove this. Once the pond had been drained, three or four hundred people gathered at the pond’s dam, removed fish from it, and could be convinced with neither persuasion nor warnings that they were not entitled to do this. They ignored the French sappers’ shots that were being fired at them, and it seemed as though nothing could stop their actions.

There was a considerable shortage of fuel, as the French army had burned everything, and this is the reason why people went to the pond and removed reeds for use in their homes. Farmer Josef Trbola and cottager Jakub Kozák of Újezd took no notice of the magistrate watching them, and continued on with their pillaging of the pond.

Žačany’s and Třebomyslice’s citizens purchased Žačany’s pond’s reeds from their lordship, which explains why they forbade Rychmanov’s inhabitants to take reeds for themselves. However, Rychmanov’s people still took the best reeds and merely told Žačany’s townspeople that they simply should not have made such a buying arrangement, and were actually going to beat them for it.

With oppression threatening them on every side, people were pushed to the point where they did not care about anything. However, the worst thing for them was still the constant violence imposed by the enemy and it became nearly unbearable. Flour, grain, oats, straw, and so on had to be delivered to Brno from all Chrlický’s estates – even meat had to be delivered and if this was ever late, there was the ever present danger of army requisition, “robbery,” and the fear of having all that remained systematically destroyed.

There was an acute need for more draught animals to haul cargo over long distances. The deliveries had to be taken to Vienna, Kremze, and anywhere else they were required. Soon, there was a shortage of those who were expected to drive the carts (farmers and laborers), and the French ordered two villages to send more people to Brno, such as cottagers or farmers.

Villagers were anxious about the French demands because they were being asked to supply too many people. Modřice’s magistrate announced on 11 December 1805 that farmers did not have any laborers remaining on their farms, that their carts, horses, and workers were in Brno’s ramparts, and that they could not survive in the absence of their cottagers because each had the responsibility of three hussars in their homes – field farmers working 1/4 of a plot of land had 8 mouths to feed, and farmers working more land had 14 mouths and a few horses to feed.

It would be impossible to get even 6 more workers, even if you tried. On 24 December 1805, on behalf of Újezd, burgermeister Antonín Blazek, magistrate Vincenc Hřebíček, administrator Heřman Haluza, and neighbors Antonín Sladký and Augustin Frank submitted a complaint on behalf of the entire town to their superiors about the French authority – it was ordered, several days before this, to deliver three workers to Brno who would care for horses, and they had still not been returned.

Again, eight carts intended as a means to transport ill people from Brno to Kartouzy were dispatched, of which two remained in Brno. The rest were forced to travel as far as Vienna, and if this were to actually happen, how would they be able to carry out further orders if they were just going to lose all of their carts and cattle each time they were asked for help. This is why their representatives appealed to the authorities to help them release their people, horses, and carts and if this was not done, they wished to submit their request to the French authority itself. There was a detailed list outlining the number of horses and carts before the war, the number during the war, and how many still remained afterwards.

It was the exact same situation with the livestock in the country.

In 1806, administrator Břittman wrote to a French commander in Brno, explaining that the people had nothing, having lost everything in the wars, and that they could not even afford to feed the 800 men who were staying on their land. The French army wanted to be supplied with meat and bread from Brno, so he felt that it should be Brno that delivered these amenities to the soldiers, because the farmers had nothing left to give. According to Peace Treaty article no. 22, all requisitions had to stop. There may have been some meat delivered from Brno, but it would only have fed 50 people, and certainly not 800. All damage done to land during the war, which was caused by housing the army’s soldiers and by meeting the demanded requisitions, and all damages to the buildings and to the farms, themselves, were listed. There was also a list of all things seized by the enemy, such as linen, carriages, cloth, shoes, shirts, hats, scarves, iron, horse shoes, and beehives, which were all expressed in monetary value.