Otto did not think that there was anything wrong with what Baron Charley said, in fact, the taxes borne by ordinary peasants during this period were indeed excessive.

Peasant uprisings triggered by excessive taxation have actually occurred in various parts of Western Europe.

The reason why it didn't have much impact was mainly because the aristocratic class had a professional violent class - knights.

A well-armed knight, with a dozen or so soldiers at will, can easily defeat thousands of civilians who are not equipped with weapons.

In this way, even a small lord could easily cope with the threat of a peasant uprising. Not to mention the development of a spark like the Orient, it is impossible to reproduce the might of the slave revolt in Rome.

Although it was almost impossible for a peasant revolt to shake his rule, Otto did not want to raise taxes on the peasants, and not only did he not raise taxes, but he also wanted to reduce them.

Although the Allgao collar is already a relatively rich area in Switzerland, after all, the overall terrain is still dominated by plateaus, and the plateaus are naturally inferior to the great plains in agriculture.

After all, the Swiss region is short of resources, although there are many mountains, but the mineral resources are still extremely scarce, and it is completely an area where God does not give food.

Therefore, the only way to go is to rely on the location advantage to develop business.

However, the development of commerce requires primitive accumulation, and where the funds of primitive accumulation come from, naturally cannot be exploited from the peasants.

They are all poor ghosts, and they can't squeeze oil and water, so they must be who has the money to find whom.

"I understand what Master Otto means, but if we block the way to collect merchant taxes, will those merchants divert from our territory?" Through Otto's explanation, Baron Charlie already understood what Otto wanted to do and raised his own questions.

The previous two counts of Allgäu were in urgent need of funds to repay their debts, and they did not have the idea of caravans in the past, but in the end, after considering various factors, they only dared to symbolically collect a little toll, and did not dare to really collect business taxes.

After all, the territory also needs caravans to come and go and bring their own supplies. In the case of people who do not receive from Aargau after the detour, they will lose a source of external supplies, and in the case of Aargau, they will not be self-sufficient at all, not to mention anything else, but the shortage of spices and salt is enough to make the two counts of Aargau dispel this idea.

But Otto had clearly thought about this problem, and said with a smile:

"I have considered this, and merchants coming and going from the east who want to enter West Francia cannot avoid our territory in any way, unless they want to go north and encounter bandits in the mountains.

In the case of Italian merchants in the south, there were not many people who took this trade route, and they all crossed the Alps, and it was unlikely that they would take a detour.

Besides, the business tax we collect is not high, and if the thirty tax is one, those businessmen will recognize it if they grit their teeth. If there are more specialties in our territory at that time, so that merchants can come to buy them, and then they can ensure their safety in the territory, then I believe that there will be many merchants who are willing to pay taxes.

Besides, do you think that we are the only ones who covet those merchants to make money? As long as our territory starts collecting taxes, will the lords of all sizes next door be able to sit still? As long as they follow suit, hehe, I believe that they will definitely be more greedy and charge higher taxes, and the caravan will still choose to transit from our territory at that time. ”

Baron Charlie opened his mouth to say something, but felt that any statement was pale.

Otto was right, he knew even better than Otto the greed of those nobles, and the reason why no one had attacked the caravans in the past was simply because no one wanted to be the first.

And once someone takes the lead, they will definitely be unscrupulous, thirty taxes one? If you don't collect ten taxes, you're sorry for those people's titles of nobility.

"Since Young Master Otto has thought it through, then I will naturally follow your instructions, so the territory is so big, and Young Master Otto wants to set up checkpoints in those places."

Otto waved his hand, and Gint, who was on the side, took out Otto's hand-drawn map, stretched out his hands, opened it, and displayed it in front of everyone.

Fortunately, Otto's painting is good, and although there is no such thing as a scale, everyone can still understand at a glance what it is.

"The terrain in the northeast is dangerous, don't worry about it for now, more than ten miles nearby, there is the new castle, just leave it to Wade." Otto gestured to the gaping gap in the Jura Mountains.

Wade glanced at the map, silently memorized it, and wrote it down.

"These two are relatively critical locations in the west, and it is best to build a small wooden or dirt camp to block them, and after that, it is the location of these roads, which needs to be arranged for people to keep an eye on.

The rest are the places where the tolls were collected before, and these two places need to be guarded.

Baron Charlie, I'll hand over a hundred of Wade's castle guards to you, and then you can recruit some militia, which should be almost enough. ”

Otto quickly clicked on multiple locations on the map, then turned to look at Baron Charlie.

"Your Excellency, do you understand? Are there any difficulties? Tell Bard what you need, and I'll get him to work with you. ”

Baron Charlie frowned slightly, this just made him the commander of the new army, and before his ass was hot, he was sent to collect taxes, what does this mean.

"Master Otto, I don't have any problems, it's just those two hundred newly recruited soldiers...... I'm thinking, should I take it with me to collect taxes too? ”

As soon as Baron Charlie said this, Otto realized what the other party was worried about, and immediately relieved the other party. This is not to deprive him of military power or anything, the two hundred new troops are still under his control.

His job is to set up all the checkpoints for collecting business taxes, and after that, the work of collecting taxes will not be under his control, and he will come back to command the new army with peace of mind, and prepare to cooperate with Baron Dillon to clear the bandits around the territory, and arrange the patrol work of the territory by the way.

The removal of the bandits had been planned before, but the injury of the Count of Allgau disrupted the plan. As for the patrol of the territory, since the commercial tax is to be collected, the security of the territory still needs to be guaranteed, and at least the appearance has to be done.

At this time, Baron Charlie had no doubts and happily accepted the task. What he is most worried about is being squeezed out by Otto and becoming a marginal figure in the territory, and now that he has proved that he thinks too much, then there is no hesitation, follow Otto and do it well.

After settling the matter of collecting taxes, Otto returned to his room, returned overnight, and began to write his first decree as ruler of Aargau.

The next day, more than a dozen horsemen streamed out of the old castle and spread Otto's will throughout the Allgaux territory.