By the beginning of January 1035, William had grown into an eight-year-old man, and his body had grown much taller and stronger.

William, who returned to Rouen, was unfree and repressed, and William, who lived in the county of Rouen, often felt the disdain, ridicule, and disregard of the nobles.

He only felt like a bird that could trap its wings, and could no longer fly high.

Therefore, although William did not have much chance of being out of the county of Rouen, he still seized the opportunity to lead his own realm, the Barons of Vernon and the Barons of Alençon.

Every time William returned to his domain, William was amazed at the changes in his territory, the most notable of which was the militia in the villages he saw along the way, and every Sunday the men learned the art of the longbow.

Every time he returned to Fort Vernon to see Sir Hubert, he was able to learn about the changes in his territory.

First of all, the original standing regiment of 7,000 people was reduced by Sir Hubert to 5,100 men, and the original city defense regiment of the Nelson knights and the levy defense force of the Jeffrey knights were officially eliminated from the standing army sequence, and at the same time, the original main force of the first regiment and the main force of the second regiment were eliminated and the source of troops was expanded, and each main force regiment now has four battalions with a total of 2,100 men.

These two main infantry regiments now have not only Norman heavy infantry, Norman spearmen, Norman halberders, Norman light infantry, and Norman crossbowmen, but also Norman longbowmen, Norman heavy cavalry, and Norman light cavalry, which makes each of the two main regiments after the expansion have the ability to fight independently.

The fastest progress was made by the newly formed equipment battalion, which currently had 300 skilled equipment soldiers, including two torsion ballistas, six stone throwers, and twelve bed crossbows.

Although the number of siege engines in the equipment battalion did not increase much, the number of skilled soldiers more than doubled, which was a very valuable asset to William.

However, the expansion of the last cavalry regiment did not go well, and together with the diversion of a part of the light and heavy cavalry to the two main regiments, the cavalry regiment was still half the size so far, and the size of the light and heavy cavalry still did not exceed 600 men.

Although William offered a very good salary for recruiting cavalry, due to William's notoriety of killing knights in the war to pacify Barony Vernon, not many knights still came.

In the end, William had to turn to his uncle, Robert, Earl of Evre, to help William select some knights from the entire county of Evre, so that William could personally raise and train the cavalry.

In addition, the standing city defense regiments of the Barons of Alençon and Vernon were downsized, and most of the captured soldiers recruited before were eliminated, and although a large number of new soldiers were replenished, the two standing city defense regiments were still two shelf regiments of less than 600 men.

However, the number of reservists in the hands of the knights of Geoffrey has been greatly expanded, and the number of registered reserves in the baronies of Alençon and Barony Vernon has exceeded the scale of 4,500 men, of which the number of standing reserves is 1,800, and the reserve army of longbows has reached the size of 380.

Of course, in order to reorganize the army and maintain such a huge military force, William's gold and silver wealth is simply a sea of gold and silver, in addition to filling most of the taxes in the two places, even William's own small treasury has shrunk by nearly a half.

Seeing his wealth shrinking sharply and the revenue from the territorial tax to make ends meet, William even had the idea of disarmament again, but as soon as this idea came out, William was extinguished, gritted his teeth and persevered.

William was a loyal fan of Huaguo Taizu Red Sun Grandpa in his previous life, and the phrase "power comes out of the barrel of a gun" William is regarded as a guideline and truth, not to mention that William's situation is so sinister now, and the major nobles are eyeing the position of duke, and William cannot dismantle the army.

In order to maintain the huge military spending, William also worked hard, not only set up tax offices in various cities, but also set up a large number of checkpoints on the traffic roads connecting the two territories.

These tax authorities were not like the later generations who sat in the yamen and waited for the merchants to come to pay their taxes, but powerful tax authorities with their own army.

William's tax office, like the Internal Revenue Service in the United States of America, had the power to mobilize the local military to wage "armed extortions" against tax-resisting merchant landlords.

This monstrous tax department has its own armed organization, equipped with everything from knives, guns and arrows to leather armor, chain mail and shields, prison cells, tax courts, and the power to freeze and confiscate assets without an application.

In just one year, the taxes in William's territory have developed from a small number of three or four taxes to dozens of taxes, including import and export duties, agricultural taxes, road maintenance taxes, transaction taxes, value-added tax, profit taxes, investment profits taxes, stamp duty and deed taxes, personal income tax, property tax, real estate tax, property gift tax, property inheritance tax, etc., covering all aspects of people's life and transactions, birth, old age, sickness and death.

Of course, import and export duties were the lion's share of this, and the two territories controlled by William, the Barons of Alençon and Vernon, not only had many land transportation arteries, but also important waterway hubs such as the Seine, Earle, Itun, and Sarthe.

William made a lot of money by simply sending hundreds of newly built sailors and hundreds of ships to help the tax authorities collect customs duties.

Of course, these taxes were not enough, and in order to cope with the financial crisis, William had to set up courts in various cities and circuit courts in the villages, and gave these courts a certain degree of judicial independence.

You must know that in the Middle Ages, there was a fee for lawsuits, and it was expensive to die, and the income of the court could be said to be one of the major sources of income for the kings and nobles at that time.

And William, in order to make the trial fair and reasonable, so that its credibility will not go bankrupt, so that people can fight more lawsuits in his court, he has to pinch his nose to recognize the judicial independence of the judiciary and the court, and even William cannot change the judge's trial result.

The huge military spending, bureaucratic salaries and administrative expenses overwhelmed William, but fortunately, half a year later, William's territory finally ushered in a huge harvest to fill William's deficit.

It turned out that William promoted the construction of public toilets, the use of manure, the cultivation of leguminous plants, the use of metal farm tools, etc., in his estate, and these measures directly doubled the yield per mu of William's estate, with a yield of 900 catties per acre (that is, 150 catties per mu).

William alone owned 200,000 acres of cultivated land and harvested 90,000 tons of grain, which was still more than 76,000 tons, except for a portion of the food distributed to the serfs, the allowance of rations for the reservists, and the compensation given to the knights' estates.

With such a huge grain harvest, William only sold a small half, and at the high price of grain at that time, he harvested more than 100,000 Triss gold coins.

The development of William's own domain could not hide the shadow that was getting closer.

In this year, William the Elder, Earl of Castle, died, and the newly succeeded William, Earl of Castle, was full of hatred for William, who was an illegitimate son, and his intention to compete with William for the dukedom was very obvious.

Recently, William has discovered that William, Earl of Erburg, and Kay, Earl of Mortan, have a tendency to merge and form an alliance, which undoubtedly makes William's situation worse.