Volume 7 Chapter 147 Final acts of war
On November 1st, when the chill of early winter arrived in the air, there was a piece of news that spread across the continent.
The Candra Empire along with the Frestech Chamber of Commerce and the Rudson Kingdom, after a month of negotiations, had reached a ceasefire treaty.
When this news was spread, not many people were surprised.
Since the Candra Empire and the Marlow Empire’s allied army had lost to the Rudson Frestech Allied Forces on the Tara Plains, this was already decided.
Or it could be said that this was the best result for the Candra Empire.
Because if the Frestech Chamber of Commerce didn’t plan on stopping, working with the Rudson Kingdom to continue attacking the Candra Empire, then the Candra Empire wouldn’t be able to stop them at all.
If the Rudson Kingdom and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce were more cruel, they could even split up the entire Candra Empire and destroy them.
No one believed that the Rudson Kingdom and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had the ability to actually completely occupy the Candra Empire, but no one also doubted that they could.
So when the news that both sides had signed the ceasefire treaty, many people let out a sigh of relief for the first time.
Since the two sides started the war at the beginning of last year to when they signed the ceasefire treaty at the end of this year, the war had already lasted around a year and a half, but it had affected countless countries and more than half the people on the continent.
The daily lives of most people on the continent had been affected the most.
The clearest example was that because of the war, the countries of the southwest corner that belonged to the Frestech Chamber of Commerce camp suffered heavy setbacks when it came to their foreign trades.
Although this greatly affected these countries, it also greatly affected the countries that they traded with.
For example, these countries had already popularized using agricultural magic machines to farm and using the fertilizer from the elves, which greatly increased their grain output. So they always had plenty of grains to export and it was sold at a low price.
Many countries relied on the grains that these countries exported, so in the two years of the war, the import of grains from these countries had been affected. There were even many countries that showed signs of a famine.
Now that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce and the Candra Empire had signed the ceasefire treaty, the merchants that couldn’t hold back reorganized their trade routes as soon as possible. They kept securing grains and products to transport, quickly helping with the famine in these countries.
Of course, this was only a small part of the ceasefire treaty. What people really cared about was what conditions had been set by both sides in the ceasefire treaty.
Properly speaking, the Rudson Kingdom and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had clearly won, forcing the Candra Empire to sign the ceasefire treaty. Then the ceasefire treaty should be very favourable towards the Rudson Kingdom and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
But considering the fact that the Candra Empire was a large empire with a thousand years of history, with a deep foundation, even if the Rudson Kingdom and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce relied on the military magic machines to obtain the advantage on the battlefield, it would be impossible for them to force the Candra Empire to sign excessive terms.
So everyone was very curious about the contents.
It didn’t matter with the Rudson Kingdom since it wasn’t the first time war had happened on the Sines Continent. The ceasefire treaty signed between the two countries should be normal.
What people were truly curious about was how the Frestech Chamber of Commerce as a company would sign a ceasefire treaty with an empire like the Candra Empire. This was the first time this was happening in the history of the Sines Continent.
Moreover, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce was just a company in the end. They didn’t have many conditions that could be guessed like with the Rudson Kingdom, so what kind of conditions would they give?
However, whether it was the Frestech Chamber of Commerce or the Candra Empire, they didn’t discuss the ceasefire treaty. They didn’t reveal any conditions that were agreed upon in this treaty.
But based on the speculation of how the Rudson Frestech Allied forces quickly withdrew from the Candra Empire’s territory after the ceasefire treaty was signed, the Candra Empire must have agreed to conditions that the Rudson Kingdom and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce were very satisfied with. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have retreated that quickly.
However……for the Candra Empire, signing the ceasefire treaty was just the beginning.
Because of the defeats from the Rudson Frestech Allied Forces, even if the Candra Empire wasn’t being affected by them, their territory had fallen into chaos.
Not mentioning anything else, just the more than ten provinces that declared their independence was a headache for the Candra Empire royal family.
Although the Rudson Frestech Allied Forces had withdrawn, it wasn’t that easy for them to stabilize the chaotic condition that the Candra Empire was currently in.
Most people thought that even if the Marlow Empire wasn’t holding a knife to the Candra Empire’s back at this time, the Candra Empire would have to spend a lot of effort to pacify its internal situation.
On November 9th, the Marlow Empire along with the Lampuri Kingdom and the Drake Duchy announced that they had signed a ceasefire treaty.
This meant that after the Candra Empire had been forced to sign the ceasefire treaty, the other backbone of the camp of the two empires, the Marlow Empire had also been forced to end the war.
Although it was different from the Candra Empire being forced to sign the ceasefire treaty after a disastrous defeat, everyone could tell that the Marlow Empire had paid a heavy price.
After all, in the fight on the Tara Plains, the Marlow Empire had sent a large reinforcement army to resist the Rudson Frestech Allied Forces with the Candra Empire. However, they had also suffered a disastrous defeat with them.
It was clear that the Marlow Empire side had realized that they couldn’t defeat the army that was receiving support from the Frestech Chamber of Commerce in terms of military magic machines, so they would be defeated just like the Candra Empire. Instead of letting them break through to their capital, it was better to recognize this situation and pay a price earlier for peace.
As for the details of the ceasefire treaty, the Marlow Empire, the Lampuri Kingdom, and the Drake Duchy didn’t announce a thing.
But based on what happened after, they could see quite a few clues.
The most clear example was that the Falk Kingdom government that had been in exile in the Marlow Empire had announced their dissolution, formally announcing that the Falk Kingdom had perished.
At the same time, the Sack Kingdom royal family that had been in hiding with the support of the Marlow Empire had disappeared without a trace.
This meant that the Sack Kingdom had also vanished into history.
Based on the agreement the Lampuri Kingdom and the Drake Duchy had come up with beforehand, they carved up the territories that once belonged to the Falk Kingdom and the Sack Kingdom.
Of course, the Lampuri Kingdom received the bigger part, which was most of the Sack Kingdom and a bigger half of the Falk Kingdom. The Drake Duchy only occupied twenty thousand square kilometers of the Sack Kingdom near their border and a smaller half of the Falk Kingdom’s territory.
Like this, the Lampuri Kingdom’s territory had expanded by more than two times. They had jumped up from a normal country in the southwest to a super country that was only second to the two empires.
The expansion of the Drake Duchy was even more exaggerated. A small duchy that only had ten thousand square kilometers of land had suddenly become a large country with over two hundred thousand square kilometers of land.
With such a large territory, naturally they couldn’t be considered a small duchy anymore.
On November 17th, on the founding anniversary of the Drake Duchy, Duchess Caroline announced that she would take the throne, becoming the Drake Kingdom’s first queen.
From that day forth, the Drake Duchy had become the Drake Kingdom.
The Lampuri Kingdom didn’t show the same clear clues, but they fully worked on absorbing the new territory, encouraging the Lampuri Kingdom merchants to start investing in products in the new territories.
The Lampuri Kingdom had always been doing this, but they had been limited because they had been investing in other countries.
Now that the Sack Kingdom and the Falk Kingdom no longer existed, the hindrance had been removed and the Lampuri Kingdom worked even faster.
On November 23rd, the Wales Duchy with the help of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce guards broke through the Drow Race Kingdom’s capital Drow City. King Wacker died while protecting the royal palace and Drow City fell, causing the Drow Race Kingdom to announce their dissolution.
On the same day, the Nozdormu Business Union Kingdom that had been calmly defending suddenly attacked.
With the large amount of military magic machines from the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, the Nozdormu Business Union Kingdom had achieved victory in thirteen battles and repelled all the enemies sieging them.
Then the southeastern countries responded to the Nozdormu Business Union Kingdom’s call, signing the «Sines Continent Southeastern Countries Trade Cooperation Treaty», or simply known as the «Southeast Treaty».
According to this «Southeast Treaty», the Nozdormu Business Union Kingdom’s thirteen companies were given complete trade rights in the southeastern companies.
Some people with discerning eyes could see that with the strong mercantile power of the thirteen companies of the Nozdormu Business Union Kingdom, as well as the powerful magic machine industrial system developed from cooperating with the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, once they were free to trade in those countries, the entire southeast of the continent would become the world of the thirteen companies.
However……it depended on one’s strength. If the southeastern countries weren’t willing to sign this treaty, they would have no other choice.
On November 29th, the Mana Magic Kingdom also announced that they signed a ceasefire treaty with the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
Hence the war between the camp of the two empires and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce that lasted a year and half, enveloping the entire Sines Continent had officially ended.
In the history of the Sines Continent, a war of this scale ending in just a year and a half had never been heard of before.
When two empires had fully gone to war before, it had lasted twenty three years before it was finally over.
Of course, everyone understood that the reason it ended this quickly was all because the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s military magic machines were just too strong. It meant that there was no suspense in a direct conflict at all.
Then……while the countries involved in the war announced the end of the war, what was the Frestech Chamber of Commerce doing?