Obviously, judging by Sophie's expression, she didn't quite believe Otto's words of comfort.

Not to mention Sophie, even the soldiers who followed Otto on the expedition, it is estimated that few people believe Otto's words.

Otto didn't bother to explain, after all, under the banner of "King Qin", to expand the territory, this kind of thing is really not good to say directly.

When they successfully take the Basel region and return to Eagle Castle, everyone will naturally know that their kind young master Otto is not lying.

The easiest way to quickly take control of the Basel area is to take direct control of Basel-Stadt.

Baselville is a small town formed over the years of construction of a castle and a nearby monastery.

The Basel region was previously ruled by a family of barons, and at that time, there were no so-called territorial disputes, and Basel was only a barony attached to the county of Zurich.

But the Baron's family died more than thirty years ago, and it stands to reason that the Barony of Basel will be his lord who is also the Count of Zurich. However, the county of Zurich at that time happened to be in the midst of civil strife in the struggle for succession and could not take care of the Basel area.

At the right time, the surrounding lords began to fight for Basel, which the Zurich Lords had no time to take care of. The three counties, including Allgau, Sundegaard, and Breisgau, began to fight in order to take Basel.

After a long and tug-of-war battle, none of the three forces could really control Basel, and finally reached a compromise that would not interfere in Basel and not let Basel be controlled by others.

As a result, the church, which was originally relatively weak in Basel, seized this opportunity and expanded aggressively, becoming the de facto controller of Basel.

Today, Basel has become the de facto control of the Church, relying on the city of Basel and several monasteries to control important Basel.

This time, Otto wanted to take back the sovereignty of Basel from the hands of the Church.

If it is not a Papal State, when will the Church begin to be a secular ruler?

After receiving the acquiescence of Bishop Valens, Otto felt that taking Basel should not be a problem.

As a matter of fact, when Otto's army approached the city of Basel, it caused a huge reaction from the church in Basel, and the two sides almost clashed.

However, under the banner of helping to defend the city of Basel, Otto successfully let Basel open the city gate and let Otto enter.

Otto was not polite, and immediately after leading his army into Basel, he ordered his army to take over Basel.

"What do you mean, Your Excellency? Could it be that they are preparing to occupy Basel? Bishop Michael of Basel, who had come to greet Otto in person, frowned dissatisfiedly.

"Your Excellency, the Bishop, is overwhelmed." Otto snorted and did not respond positively. "I think there are a lot of problems with Basel's city defense, and in order to prevent the attack of the East Frankish army, I have to let my soldiers take over.

The knights and warriors of the church are not easy to come by, and they should still focus on guarding the churches and temples of the gods, and the dispute over such worldly matters should be left to nobles like us to deal with. ”

Bishop Michael smiled bitterly, he didn't know that Otto's statement was just an excuse, but he couldn't help it.

He opened the gates for Otto, not because Otto said that he would help defend the city of Basel, but because of the pressure of more than a thousand soldiers under Otto.

Even though the Church has been in control of the Basel area for many years, it still does not have enough military power here. After all, the Church was not a secular aristocracy, and there was no need to support so many soldiers to maintain its rule.

With the current number of two or three hundred soldiers and more than a dozen church knights in Basel, they were no match for Otto's army. Michael knew very well that if he didn't open the gates, Otto would also enter Basel, and the scene would only be even more ugly.

Michael had previously received rumors that Otto was preparing to take Basel and had been preparing for it. Originally, the church was going to send additional troops to guard Basel.

But since Otto's defeat of the Grotoning family in Bern, there has been no news of the reinforcements that were originally promised, and even many people in the church have written to him to avoid conflict with Otto.

Without support, it is obviously impossible for the Church to compete with Otto on the strength of the Basel area alone. Michael knew this very well, so he opened the city gate as soon as possible and greeted Otto in person, and he also had a little luck in his heart and wanted to try to negotiate with Otto.

But Otto's words and deeds have clearly told Michael that Basel is going to make up his mind, and it is not easy to say anything.

In this case, Michael can only take a step back and strive for some interests for the church as much as possible.

"Baron Otto has come from afar to work hard, and the nobles of Basel are also very happy to hear of your arrival, and have specially prepared a banquet to welcome you, I wonder if His Excellency Baron will have time to have dinner together in the evening?"

"Huh? Are there still nobles in the Basel area? Otto was surprised, it wasn't pretending, it was serious. He couldn't figure it out, if there were still nobles in Basel, how could the power fall into the hands of the church, could it be that they couldn't make a rice bucket?

"Uh... Some. Hearing Otto's question, Michael's face also showed a little embarrassed, the church illegally replaced the nobles and became the real controller of a barony, which is indeed not too glorious.

With Michael's explanation, Otto suddenly realized that the so-called nobles were just two knight families. These two knightly families were originally vassals under the Barons of Basel, and after the original Baron Basel became the heirs, they remained neutral in the subsequent power struggles, waiting for their allegiance to the winning side.

However, as a result, the three nobles did not win, and the church became the controller of Basel, but they could not be loyal to the church, so they declared their allegiance to the Zurich Lord.

said that they were loyal to the Zurich Lord, but they had never been to the Zurich Lord, nor had they ever heard the dispatch of the Count of Zurich, but they only guarded their own one-third of an acre of land, and the well water of the church did not interfere with the river water, and became a semi-independent knightly lord.

Otto pouted disdainfully, good fellow, what about this knight, what is the difference between this performance and those landlords who eat and wait for death? If you are yourself, you will definitely take advantage of the fact that external forces cannot intervene to take Basel and become a baron.

For these two knight families, Otto didn't plan to ask them for allegiance, it was too wasteful, and depriving the territory was the best choice. I just happened to take Basel, and it's not good to attack the church, so let's take the two knights first.

"Thank you for your kindness, but I'm not feeling well, so I probably won't be able to attend the dinner.

I don't know if Bishop Michael has time for the evening, but I recently found a painting that seems to have been handed down from the ancient Greek period, and I would like to ask His Excellency Bishop to help me examine it. ”