Watching Niang's figure disappear in the company of the soldiers, the disguised grief on Otto's face disappeared in an instant, replaced by an excitement that could not be concealed.

That's great! The general trend of history has not changed.

It seems that his little butterfly is too insignificant, so it has not been able to change the general trend of history. Then, you can also eat a lot of dividends from information differences.

Otto knew that the speed at which he could get news was not the fastest in Switzerland, or at least certainly not as fast as the Church. But he had prepared well in advance for the day of Lothair II's death.

Take advantage of this opportunity, the Basel region, must get your hands on it.

The recent expansion of the Bernier region has been unusually smooth.

In just over a month, Otto had harvested about four knights' land.

At this pace, it will not be a problem to eat the whole Bernese collar in less than two years.

Of course, this is just Otto's wishful thinking, and now it's just that the other party has no reaction, and if he really wants to expand aggressively, the other party will definitely not be indifferent like this.

Speaking of which, I don't know what happened to Count Bernier, who really didn't react to his expansion at all.

Except for the symbolic struggle of those minor nobles, they did not look forward to the Earl's main intervention, and until now, he had not received even the slightest verbal warning from Count Penil, as if he was acquiescing in his expansion.

What is this, appeasement in the Middle Ages?

Otto shook his head and chuckled, not thinking about the old Count of Bern. Even if his expansion in Bern is going well, he will have to suspend his expansion into Bern.

In any case, the priority of the Basel region must be higher than that of the Bern region.

Moreover, the acquisition of the Basel region may only have this short window, while the acquisition of the Bern region has an opportunity.

Strategic locations that everyone values, and territories in remote mountainous areas, are not the same concept at all.

It was time to go to Emma's Abbey, not so much for the sake of Lothair II's prayer to the gods, but for a certain tacit understanding with the Church.

Who made the most powerful force in the Basel region today the Church?

Now that his strength is still very weak, Otto does not want to have unhappiness with the church, this time, he wants to reach a certain tacit understanding with the church, and acquiesce in his hand to the Basel area.

But apparently, the church did not agree.

"Oh, Otto, a devout believer of the Luna, I'm afraid I can't grant your request.

The church in the Basel area belongs to the faction of the god of life, and we of the Luna faction have always been difficult to deal with, and I am afraid that I will not be able to help. ”

Hearing Bishop Lawrence's words, Otto's face turned ugly on the spot.

He knew very well that the other party just didn't want to help at all, and the so-called faction was just a prevarication. As a regional archbishop, even if the church in the Basel area is a Sun God faction, according to the organizational structure of the church, as long as Lawrence wants to manage it, he will definitely be able to manage it.

But Otto didn't want to give up and wanted to try one last time.

"Your Excellency Bishop, even if I enter the Basel area, I will not harm the interests of the Church, and I will keep all the privileges that the Church originally had.

At the same time, I will build new churches and monasteries in the Basel area to spread the gospel of the moon god. ”

"You don't understand, Master Otto." Bishop Lawrence glanced at Otto with regret and shook his head slightly. "It's not a question of how many monasteries and churches to build, your army's raids on passing caravans in the Jura Mountains have caused discontent among many in the Church.

Master Otto, if you were to build monasteries and churches in the Basel region this time, how many innocent worshippers of the gods would be slaughtered by your army?

What an act it is to preach the gospel of the gods and then kill the believers of the gods? ”

Otto's face became even more ugly, and he did not think that he could be completely unsuspicious of the actions of several times against the caravans, which would undoubtedly be a fool to everyone.

Now it is rumored that the private soldier of a nobleman in Switzerland is disguised as a mountain bandit, and Aargao is naturally within the scope of suspicion.

It's just that suspicion is always suspicion, Wade did some disguise when he started, and even the flag that "accidentally" dropped was the Count of Zurich's, how did Lawrence determine that the mastermind behind it must be his own?

Whoever leaked the news, after returning to those soldiers, must be strictly investigated.

Otto would certainly not admit such an accusation that could greatly affect his reputation and image, and it would be one thing for others to guess it, and it would be another for him to admit it.

"I don't understand what the Bishop said. Ever since I took over the burden of the Allgao Collar, I have been leading the army to suppress the bandits, and now there are still many original bandits working on the construction sites and farmlands of the Aargao Collar.

It can be said that the trade routes around the Aargau collar are so unimpeded today, and it is somewhat due to the fact that our Aargau led the team.

Your Excellency, you can't talk nonsense, if others hear it and spread some rumors, then what's the point?

I wonder where did the Bishop hear about this rumor? ”

"Huh." In the face of the implicit accusation in Otto's words, Bishop Lawrence did not care. "I guess the clergy heard some rumors outside, and they said nonsense.

Since Master Otto has nothing else to do, then I will take my leave first, I still have some church affairs to deal with.

May the moon god protect you! ”

With that, Lawrence drifted away, not even giving Otto time to return the gift.

Otto looked at Lawrence's back with a chill in his eyes.

Before he came, he had expected that this trip would not be so easy to gain the support of Bishop Lawrence.

Because when he was collecting commercial taxes in Aargau before, Bishop Lawrence had visited him, and the purpose was naturally to get a piece of the commercial tax.

You know, after Otto drastically reduced the taxes paid to the peasants in the territories, the tithes collected by the Church were already the heaviest taxes for the peasants. In Aargau, there were already quite a few peasants who privately complained that the church was more greedy than the aristocracy.

Although this is the case, the church still needs to be faced.

As a last resort, the Church had no choice but to reduce some of the taxes paid to the peasants of Allgau, and the amount of the reduction was not much, but the taxes collected were about the same as those of Otto.

But in this way, the church will naturally credit this loss to Otto's head, and at the same time seek new compensation, commercial taxes, which is undoubtedly the goal of the church.

But how could Otto agree, whether it was to ask the church to collect a "new tithe" on the caravan or to divide the church from the commercial tax, Otto did not agree.

How can the Church be allowed to intervene in the commercial tax, which is almost the most stable and lucrative tax in the long run?

At that time, in response to Bishop Lawrence's request, Otto only donated some money to the monasteries in the territory.

Since he had rejected the church before, Otto could also think that the church would make things difficult for him, and when he came this time, he was even ready to bargain.

But what he didn't expect was that the other party had no intention of bargaining with him at all.

However, this did not come too unexpectedly, and in the final analysis, Otto's takeover of the Basel area was generally detrimental to the interests of the Church.

Otto was not ready to give up, whether the church supported it or not, and who knows how long he would have to wait to miss this opportunity.

Let's see how many ranks in this Swiss region that the army that I have worked so hard to raise can be.