"Master Otto, the Basel region is not easy to take, Count Fried II of Sundegaard and Count Darrich of Bresgau are both fighting, and our strength may not be able to compete with the two of them."

Hearing that Otto wanted to choose Basel as his expansion target, Baron Dillon was the first to jump out and oppose it.

Immediately afterwards, Baron Charlie also spoke.

"Yes, Master Otto, although our strength is not weaker than that of Sunde and Bresgau, it is too sensitive there after all, and if the Zurich Leader also comes in, it will turn into a big war.

Young Master Otto, I suggest that it be postponed for two years, and if you really want to fight, it will not be too late to train more troops. ”

Baron Charley's words, though euphemistic, meant the same thing, and he was equally opposed to Otto's expansion into Basel.

For a while, other vassals also expressed their opinions, and the meaning of the words was nothing more than opposition.

This made Otto feel a little uncertain.

What's the situation, this kind of thing of external expansion, shouldn't the vassals at the bottom be more active than him, right, why are they all opposed now?

Could it be that you are really too anxious? However, more than a year has passed since he came to power, and Aargau has flourished under his rule, and with no internal obstacles, it is time to expand externally.

Basel's location is crucial, not only close to the Jura Mountains, one of the outlets across the Jura Mountains, but also close to the Danube River, making it an important transport hub. Basel is strategically valuable, both militarily and economically.

That's why Otto is considering the first step of expanding into Basel. It's just that the attitude of the vassals was a little unexpected to him. Without the support of his vassals, Otto could not force the war, but if he encountered a setback, it would greatly lose the prestige he had built up for more than a year, and some of the gains outweighed the losses.

I still have to think about how to convince everyone.

"Let's have a drink first." Otto was noncommittal, not revealing his true intentions, and raised his glass to the crowd. "What everyone said makes sense, let me think about it."

In the wine glass, it is the fruit of Claire's arrival at Château Lafite, Lafite.

This liquor, which is made from wheat as the main raw material, quickly became popular in Aargau Collar. Not only the general public, but even the aristocracy, fell in love with this new wine with a higher degree.

Originally, Otto's plan was to use distillation to make spirits with higher strength if the alcohol content was not enough.

But I don't know if it's because Otto is too good, or if the craftsmen in charge of brewing at Lafite's estate are too good, in short, in addition to trying to make liquor, there are no accidents, and after tasting the wine Otto himself, he feels that the taste is surprisingly good.

So that night, Otto set up a banquet and invited the nobles of Aargau to taste it to see how much alcohol the wine had, but he accidentally got drunk.

Fortunately, Otto's wine has always been good, and when he drank too much, he only knew how to sleep, and did not do anything out of the ordinary.

As soon as he woke up, Otto gave up on making distilled spirits, and the newly brewed liquor was completely full of alcohol, and any more would have drunk the dead.

This liquor was named Lafite by Otto, and the wine brewed at Lafite Manor is called Lafite, and the French will probably not have any opinion when they know about it in the future.

Hearing Otto say that he would think about it again, the nobles were also relieved and hurriedly raised their glasses in response.

Otto also stopped talking, and looked down in thought, and the nobles looked at each other in private, and for a while they didn't know what to say, and the atmosphere became awkward, and it seemed that everyone was concentrating on enjoying the food.

It's not that they're afraid of external expansion or war, but the situation in the Basel area is indeed a bit complicated.

Due to the proximity of the Basel region to the four counties and its geographical importance, everyone wanted to control Basel, and there were many wars that had broken out in the past to control the Basel region, including several Counts of Allgäu before Alahorf.

But in the end, the counts of Basel failed to control it, and instead the church became the largest force and actual controller in Basel.

In addition to this, the Bassel region was also a border area between the Lotharingia region and the Kingdom of East Francia.

In such a region, even if everyone knows that Basel is important, they dare not easily let Allgao Ling be involved in such a whirlpool. You must know that the biggest reason why the Arakhold family can become the Counts of Allgäu is that the original Count of Allgäu died in the war for Basel, and there happened to be no heirs, which gave Alakhof the opportunity to become the master.

In their eyes, Otto was a wise lord, and they still wanted him to continue to rule the Allgaux collar.

Since Otto took over the power of the territory, everyone has seen the changes in the territory and shared the dividends.

In the case of commercial taxes, Otto first asked Baron Dillon and Baron Charlie to take the army and clear the bandits in the territory and the Jura Mountains.

Later, because several caravans chose to bypass the Allgao collar and were robbed by the "mountain bandits", the subsequent caravans gradually learned to be obedient and honestly paid the business tax.

The number of caravans increased, and Otto concentrated the artisans and craftsmen of the territory around the new castle, and many peasants moved and established villages around it.

With the new castle and a small bazaar on the periphery, and the territory was home to such a popular commodity as raffia, the trade of the Aargau collar unexpectedly flourished.

With the benefits of prosperous commerce and commercial taxes, each of the nobles really got the benefits, and they also recognized Otto's ability.

After a period of silence, the thoughtful nobles began to wonder, since Otto wanted to expand his territory, why not change his goal?

Immediately afterward, some nobles began to whisper.

Otto sat on the throne, thinking about how to say the nobles, but after thinking about it, he couldn't think of any good excuses, and at this time, the whispers of the nobles disrupted his thoughts.

He raised his head and looked at the nobles in the hall, and couldn't help frowning, what are these guys discussing?

Soon, he knew.

"Ahem, Master Otto." Baron Charlie stood up and saluted Otto respectfully. "We just discussed it privately and felt that it would not be wise to compete for the Basel area at this time, and the better choice would be the Bern region.

The Count of Bern, Grolde, is old and deaf, and his heir is a notoriously cowardly, and we will certainly not be met with any resistance to the expansion of our influence in the Bernese region. ”