He refused to attend the knights' dinner and asked Michael alone, and if Michael didn't understand this, then he would not be able to secure the position of Bishop of Basel.

Obviously, Otto's first goal after taking Basel was not to the church, but to the two knight families.

Since it is not Otto's primary goal, then the two sides can discuss the distribution of benefits.

"Ancient Greek paintings? That's pretty rare. Michael smiled on his face.

"Since His Excellency the Baron is not feeling well, I will help His Excellency the Baron refuse tonight's banquet, I am really looking forward to seeing a beautiful painting."

Michael meant something.

The exchange with Michael was quite pleasant, perhaps because Bishop Valens had greeted him, or because he was obviously aware of the gap between the strength of the church in the Basel area and that of Otto, Michael did not make any excessive demands, and quickly reached an agreement.

The Church handed over a large amount of land in its hands, keeping only a small amount of land near a few monasteries. The Church surrendered the majority of power and no longer interfered in the secular affairs of the Basel area, and the number of soldiers and knights guarding the church in Basel could not exceed thirty.

Correspondingly, Otto had to pay a sum of compensation for the land that the church had given up. At the same time, the Church continued to have the right to tithe, and received half of the proceeds of the commercial tax in the Basel area.

Michael was extremely pleased with this, and on the whole, although the church had lost much of its land and control, it had been the best result in exchange for a considerable amount of cash and the long-term benefits of future commercial taxes, while retaining its original wealth.

The rapid rise of the Allgaux collar depended largely on the lucrative commercial tax, as Michael knew. Therefore, he is very content to receive half of the commercial tax income.

If other nobles had occupied Basel, I am afraid that such generous terms would not have been offered.

As for the two knight families, Michael didn't care at all, although the two sides had always cared about it relatively happily, but the relationship was not so good that Michael needed to risk offending Otto to save them.

Compared to the tangible benefits that Otto could provide to the Church, the two knightly families were really not worth mentioning.

Michael looked at the scribbled drawings on Otto's desk, and a heartfelt smile appeared on his face.

"Your Excellency the Baron's painting is really exquisite, but I don't think it should be a painting from the ancient Greek period, maybe it is the work of some master of Aargau."

"Really?" Otto looked suddenly enlightened. "Your Excellency the Bishop has the foresight, I was almost deceived, thanks to the guidance of Bishop Michael, otherwise I would have been deceived."

After speaking, the two looked at each other and smiled, and everything was silent.

The day after the negotiation with Michael was over, the cavalry of the Allgaux collar easily settled the two knight families and reclaimed the two knight domains.

Otto did not kill them all, and the members of the two knight families were still very self-aware and did not fight against Otto's army, and Otto only expelled them from the territory.

Although the knight is the lowest rank among the nobles, he is also a nobleman, since he is a nobleman, Otto can only abide by the rules of the game of some nobles, and cannot do things too absolutely, otherwise who will dare to play with Otto in the future.

The news of Otto's capture of Basel quickly reached the ears of the nearby nobles.

Neither Sondegaunor Zurich reacted much, and the lords of both main sides had already left the territory with their armies.

The Count of Bresgau was furious, because, like Otto, he was preparing to take advantage of the war between the kingdoms of East and West Francia and Lotharingia to take Basel, which he had in mind.

Unexpectedly, before he could make a move, Otto took the lead in capturing Basel.

"Damn megalomaniacal boy, alakhor bastard, I'm not going to make you look good."

The Count of Bresgaard thought that he had been rejected by the other party when he had planned to marry Otto, and now he had been robbed of Basel by the other party, and he was angry.

"Assemble the army! I'm going to take Basel! ”

He also received a conscription order from Louis, the king of East Francia, but he did not leave for a long time, and the idea of seizing Basel and then leading the army to assemble was now in vain, and the new and old hatreds made him angry.

Otto did not know the reaction of the Count of Bresgau, and did not know that the other party was about to gather troops to fight for Basel, but Otto also responded early to the possible enemy attack on Basel.

The day after the deal with the Church, Otto instructed Baron Dillon to start repairing the city of Basel, not to make the city of Basel a strong fortress, at least not to be like the current city of Basel, which was full of holes.

Five days had passed since Basel had arranged everything, and Otto had left the vast majority of his army to Baron Dillon to guard Basel, while he himself was going to return to the Eagle Castle with two hundred cavalry, and he had other things to do.

"Master Otto, are you returning to Eagle Castle?" Baron Dillon was surprised, didn't he say that he would be a good guard for King Huge? Why is Basel not moving at the doorstep.

As if he understood what Baron Dillon wanted to ask, Otto explained with a smile.

"Baal has gathered enough troops and nobles, so why not defend the kingdom when we are here to defend the army of the East Frankish kingdom?

It's not just those who fight on the frontal battlefield that are considered heroes, and we, who silently guard the kingdom's territory, are also warriors loyal to Your Majesty. ”

Otto's nonsense could have deceived the experienced Baron Dillon, and after a little thought, he came back to his senses.

What kind of feelings to defend the kingdom is fake, and it is true to take the opportunity to take the Basel region that Otto has in mind.

It's just that since they are already preparing to expand their territories, many of the surrounding territories are empty now, so why not do it endlessly?

"Baron Dillon, we have come to defend the territory of the kingdom, and in Basel, we have asked for help from the local church, so we have sent troops.

As for the other nobles' territories, if they didn't invite us to help, our own help might cause the other nobles to be unhappy, wouldn't that be a good thing to do? Otto explained to Baron Dillon with a smile.

To put it bluntly, in view of the so-called bullshit jurisprudence of this era, even if Otto wants to expand, he must be afraid of some influences, and he can't be so unscrupulous.

Basel is already in a de facto unlorded state, but other territories are not so easy to manage. Playing Bern first and then Basel has already gained enough benefits, and expanding too many territories at once is not all good for Otto.

Otto is ready to bring all the expanded territories under his direct jurisdiction, and is not ready to adopt any feudal system or manage with the help of the power of the church, so the requirement for the territory at this stage is to be directly governed within the radiation range of Eagle Castle.

In layman's terms, Otto did not have enough administrative power to manage a large territory, so he could only limit his expansion.

After handing over to Baron Dillon to guard Basel, Otto left Basel with two hundred cavalry.

When Sophie saw Otto return to Eagle Castle, she was surprised, she really didn't expect that what Otto said about a week was actually true.

"Oh, my beautiful wife." Otto looked at Sophie with a big smile on his face. "Are you interested in going out for a walk, for example, going back to your mother's house or something?"