Inside the Eagle Castle, a grand banquet is being held.

Everyone who attended the banquet was smiling.

The war of the East Frankish kingdom against the kingdom of Lotharingia ended, and Otto and Aargau were on the winning side.

Now that Otto has been knighted for his exploits, it is time for the nobles who fought for Otto to share the joy and spoils of war.

As the saying goes, a person who gets the way and the chicken and the dog ascend to heaven, Otto got a good reward this time, Otto eats meat, and the people below have to have soup to drink.

It's just that, in stark contrast to the joy of the knights, the most high-ranking barons present, except for Otto, are not very good-looking.

All this was due to Otto's conversation with them the day before the banquet began.

Otto, after negotiating cooperation with Bishop Valens, was in no hurry to begin "avenging his father". He still has a lot of things to deal with at the moment, the most critical of which is undoubtedly the issue of post-war rewards.

This time Otto gained a lot of benefits from this war, which was inseparable from the heroic battles of his nobles and knights. Then, after the war, Otto naturally had to give them rewards, which was also the practice of this era.

According to convention, knights who have made great achievements in war, such as Knight Wade, should be awarded the title of baron and have their own fiefdom.

Although Otto was not stingy with the reward of the title, he did not want to reward the land.

No one knows better than Otto the dangers of the feudal system practiced in Western Europe to centralized rule. The vassal of my vassal, not my vassal, Otto must not tolerate it in his own domain.

Even when playing games, Otto wants to govern all his territories, let alone in reality.

But if he wants to change the feudal system and fight against the feudal system, Otto today does not have the strength and courage, so Otto came up with a compromise plan.

The inspiration for this scheme came from the "fiefdom" system of the Eastern centralized empire, that is, although the land was given when the title was awarded, only the tax income obtained by the feudal nobles was given to the corresponding land, and the nobles were not allowed to obtain the right to govern the territory.

The territories of these nobles were still under Otto's control.

At the same time, according to the different titles, each level of nobles can form their own private armies, which can optionally participate in offensive wars launched by lords, and in defensive wars, they must fulfill feudal obligations and unconditionally follow Otto to fight.

As for the title of nobility, it can be passed down from generation to generation unless there are special circumstances.

This point is somewhat similar to the Oriental noble system.

Of course, even this compromise was not sure that Otto would be accepted by the nobles in the realm, and in any case, it would weaken the power of the vassals in disguise.

Otto was not worried that this plan would cause a backlash from the vassals, and now Otto has the power of the battlefield, his prestige is high, and the size of his territory is not large.

Even if the vassals don't agree, it doesn't matter, the size of all the vassals' territories combined, even less than one-sixth of Otto's direct territory, Otto has enough strength advantages.

What's more, Otto is only preparing to implement the "fiefdom system" for the newly rewarded vassals, and the previously existing vassal territories are not ready to change in the short term.

"Master Otto, is there something wrong with this?" As Otto expected, after Otto finished his thoughts, a baron objected on the spot.

"If a nobleman can't control his fiefdom, then what kind of nobleman is he?"

"The vassals fulfill their obligations to the lord because the lord gave them land, but now that the land is not given, is the feudal obligation also changed?"

"Didn't the young master already take this into account and revise the corresponding feudal obligations, besides, don't you still have titles and taxes, it's no different from before.

I don't think many nobles will manage the territory, so it's better to leave it to the young master to manage. "Baron Hill, who has long been angry with Otto, is clearly on Otto's side at this time.

Just because Otto agreed, in this reward, both of his sons will become knights, and Otto also promised that both of them will receive at least the title of baron in the future.

In this case, how could Baron Hill not support him.

At this time, Otto came out to express his position, saying that the title of the previous reward would not change, and as for the future, it will follow this, and there is a big deal of whether you agree or not, anyway, I will do it, just to inform you.

At this time, even Baron Dillon, who has the most opinions, can only pinch his nose and admit it.

The land belonged to Otto, and they had no control over how Otto wanted to reward others. Otto can consult with them and promise not to change the previous feudal treaty, which is already very face-saving for them, they really don't know each other, even if Otto deprives them of their titles, they can't do anything.

No one thought Otto was weak, and the corpses of several nobles who had been thrown into the well of a castle in Neussato and the many bones left over from the wild beasts in the Jura Mountains proved that Otto was anything but good.

At the same time as a slap, you also have to give a date.

When the barons were concerned about whether Otto was going to attack them, Otto decisively assigned new "fiefs" to everyone to appease them.

However, the barons were not very happy to learn that the acquisition of the fief had only increased their income. After Otto cut the taxes of his direct domains, the income from these fiefdoms may not be too much.

The barons were unhappy, but Otto was quite satisfied, although the Otto he arranged by himself took the lead in saying that he was willing to turn his fief into a fief and did not get the support of the other barons, wasting Baron Hill's superb acting skills.

Regardless of what the barons thought in their hearts, they finally accepted Otto's new policy. The barons were silent, and the knights were better able to settle the matter, and they had no capital to negotiate with Otto.

At the climax of the feast, Otto took a list and began to announce the reward for the war.

The rewards of the barons have been negotiated in private, and this time it is mainly the rewards of knights and "quasi-knights".

Through this war, Otto's command suddenly added three barons and seventeen knights, which made everyone envious. In the eyes of others with envy and jealousy towards the lucky ones, no one except the barons noticed the small change in Otto's use of fiefs instead of fiefs when awarding rewards.

But even if you notice it, I'm afraid no one will have any associations. Under the feudal system, in most cases, the mining of fiefs and fiefs meant the same thing, and who would have thought that Otto would hide such a hand?

As for the other soldiers who participated in the battle, they each had a corresponding reward, whether it was money or weapons or horses, etc., in short, almost all the soldiers who participated in the battle received a reward of their own.

While everyone was happy, Otto waved his hand and motioned for everyone to be quiet, and in the face of everyone's expectant eyes, Otto said in a loud voice:

"After consulting with Bishop Valence a few days ago, I decided to open a school in Eagle Castle City in cooperation with the Church, which will teach everyone literacy unconditionally, and if you want to learn knowledge, don't miss it!"