With strong support from the Xinfei Merchant Guild, Count Wellen continued his fierce offensive against the various lords in the southern Stantin Duchy.
Over the next few months, Count Wellen not only completely crushed the alliance of four lords resisting him, but also defeated three more lords, taking possession of a vast stretch of territory covering over ten thousand square kilometers.
Count Wellen had now become the most powerful lord in the Stantin Duchy, without exception.
The northern Stantin Duchy was engulfed in war, while the south was hardly peaceful either.
Angklu had spent his first few years building up his strength. Although he had constantly expanded his territory and increased his power, attracting considerable attention in the southern Stantin Duchy, he had kept an extremely low profile compared with Lord Wellen.
Since the start of the year 3785 of the Continent Calendar, however, Angklu had departed from his usual approach and begun expanding aggressively in the southern Stantin Duchy.
In just the first half of the year, Angklu had more than tripled the size of his fief, bringing its total area to over ten thousand square kilometers.
Although he was not yet the lord with the largest territory in the southern Stantin Duchy, no one dared doubt that he was the strongest in terms of power, especially on the battlefield.
The reason was simple: he had the Xinfei Merchant Guild's full support.
After signing its agreement with Lord Wellen, the Xinfei Merchant Guild had cut off supplies of military magic machinery to every lord in the Stantin Duchy except Lord Wellen and Angklu.
Without further supplies of ammunition or maintenance services, military magic machinery naturally could not remain in use for long.
At first, the other lords could still rely on their stockpiles to hold their own against Lord