Obviously, judging from Sophie's expression, she didn't quite believe Otto's comforting words.
Not to mention Sophie, even among the soldiers who followed Otto on the expedition, probably few believed what Otto said.
Otto didn't bother to explain. After all, it was really not nice to say it directly about expanding territory under the banner of "King Qin".
When he successfully takes over the Basel area and returns to Eagle Castle, everyone will naturally know that their kind young master Otto is not lying.
If you want to quickly control the Basel area, the easiest way is to directly control Basel City.
Basel City is a small town formed after years of construction from an original castle and nearby monastery.
The Basel area was previously ruled by a baron family. At that time, there was no so-called territorial dispute at all. At that time, Basel was just a barony affiliated with the Earl of Zurich.
But that baron's family died out more than thirty years ago. It stands to reason that the lord who will take over the Barony of Basel is also the Earl of Zurich. However, the Count of Zurich at that time happened to be caught in a civil strife over succession and could not take care of the Basel area.
At the right time, the surrounding lords began to compete for Basel, which the Zurich Territory had no time to take care of. The three counts of Aargau, Sundegaard, and Bresgau began to fight in order to capture Basel.
After a long and tug-of-war, none of the three parties could really control Basel, and finally reached a compromise, that is, they would not interfere with Basel, and they would not let Basel be controlled by others.
As a result, the originally relatively weak church in Basel seized this opportunity, expanded aggressively, and became the actual controller of Basel.
Today, Basel has become the territory under the actual control of the church. Relying on the city of Basel and several monasteries, it controls the important Basel.
This time, Otto wanted to take back the sovereignty of Basel from the hands of the church.
It’s not the Papal State. When did the church become a secular ruler?
After getting the tacit approval of Bishop Valens, Otto felt that winning Basel should not be a problem.
This is also true. When Otto's army approached the city of Basel, it once aroused a huge reaction from the Basel Church, and the two sides almost clashed with each other.
However, under the banner of helping to defend Basel City, Otto successfully got Basel to open the city gate and let Otto enter.
Otto was not polite. After leading his army into Basel City, he immediately ordered his army to take over Basel City.
"What do you mean by this, Baron? Are you planning to invade the city of Basel?" Bishop Michael of Basel, who came to greet Otto in person, frowned dissatisfied.
"Your Excellency, the Bishop, you are worrying too much." Otto laughed, but did not respond directly. "I see that there are a lot of problems with Basel's city defense. In order to prevent the attack of the East Frankish Kingdom's army, I had to let my own soldiers take over.
Church knights and warriors are hard-earned, so they should focus on guarding the churches and temples of the gods. Disputes about secular matters should be left to nobles like us to handle. "
Bishop Michael smiled bitterly. He didn't know that Otto's statement was just an excuse, but there was nothing he could do about it.
He opened the city gate for Otto, not because Otto said he would help defend Basel City, but because of the pressure from Otto's thousands of soldiers.
Even though the church has controlled the Basel area for many years, it still does not have enough military power here. After all, the church is not a secular aristocracy and does not need to support so many soldiers to maintain its rule.
With the current number of two to three hundred soldiers and more than ten church knights in Basel, they are simply unable to compete with Otto's army. Michael knew very well that if he did not take the initiative to open the city gate, Otto would also enter Basel City, and the scene would only be even more ugly.
Michael had previously received rumors that Otto was preparing to take over Basel, and had been preparing for this. Originally, the church planned to send additional troops to guard Basel.
But since Otto defeated the Grodunning family in Bern, there has been no news about the reinforcements he originally agreed upon. Many people in the church even wrote to him specifically to let him avoid a conflict with Otto.
Without support, it is obviously impossible to compete with Otto based on the strength of the church in the Basel area. Michael knew this very well, so he immediately opened the city gate and greeted Otto personally. He also had a little luck in his heart and wanted to try to negotiate with Otto.
But Otto's words and deeds had clearly told Michael that Basel was decided, and nothing he said would work.
In this case, Michael can only take a step back and strive for some benefits for the church as much as possible.
"Thank you for your hard work, Baron Otto, coming all the way. The nobles in Basel are very happy to hear about your arrival. They have specially prepared a banquet to welcome you. I wonder if the Baron has time to have dinner together in the evening?"
"Ah? Are there any nobles in the Basel area?" Otto was very surprised. This was not pretending, but serious. He couldn't figure it out. If there were still nobles in Basel, how could they let power fall into the hands of the church? Could it be that they were all just losers?
"Um... Yes." After hearing Otto's question, Michael's face also showed a bit of embarrassment. The church illegally replaced the nobles and became the real controller of a barony. It is indeed not a big deal. Glorious things.
Following Michael's explanation, Otto suddenly realized that the so-called nobles were just two knight families. These two knight families were originally vassals under the Baron of Basel. After the original Baron of Basel died, they have remained neutral in the subsequent battles between the various forces, waiting to pledge their allegiance to the winning side.
But the result was that none of the three noble forces won, and the church became the controller of Basel. However, they could not be loyal to the church, so they declared their allegiance to the Zurich Territory.
They say they are loyal to the Zurich Territory, but they have never been to the Zurich Territory, and have never listened to the instructions of the Earl of Zurich. They just guard their own one-third of an acre of land, keep in harmony with the church, and become a semi-independent knight territory. .
Otto curled his lips disdainfully, good guy, this is a knight, what is the difference between this performance and those landowners who are just waiting to die? If it were him, he would definitely take advantage of the opportunity when external forces could not interfere, capture Basel, and become a baron.
As for these two knight families, Otto has no intention of asking them to be loyal. They are too useless. Taking away the direct jurisdiction of the territories is the best option. We just happened to have captured Basel, and it's not easy to attack the church, so let's take the two knights first.
"Thank you two knights for your kindness, but I am not feeling well and may not be able to attend the dinner.
I don’t know if Bishop Michael has time in the evening. I recently found a painting that seems to have been handed down from the ancient Greek period, and I would like to ask the bishop to help me identify it. "
