Encouraged by the enlightened declarations of the revolutionaries of Pest about the liberation of all serfs in Hungary and the abolition of feudalism, as well as by the declarations of the Romanian national assemblies on 30 April and 15 May in the Transylvanian town of Balázsfalva (now Blaj), villagers in the southern Transylvanian Mihálcfalva (now Mihalț) illegally occupied a parcel of land belonging to the Esterházy family. On 1 June 1848, an imperial committee was appointed in Gyulafehérvár (now Alba Iulia) and sent out to Mihálcfalva (now Mihalț) to investigate the illegalities that took place in May. However, thousands of armed peasants from Obrázsa (now Obreja), Oláhcsesztve (now Cistei), and Alsókarácsonfalva (now Crăciunelu de Jos) gathered against them and refused their entry to the village. On the next day, 2 June 1848, an official regiment was sent from Gyulafehérvár by Anton von Puchner, commander in chief of the Austrian troops in Transylvania to disarm the armed peasants and guarantee the safety of the imperial committee during their investigation. However, the peasants resisted and the resulting armed clash killed 12 Romanian peasants and 1 Hungarian soldier. Other sources put the number of Romanian peasants shot dead at 14, with 50 other wounded, many of whom subsequently died. This was the first Transylvanian armed conflict in 1848.