Seeing Baron Richard's heart-warming look, the corners of his mouth slightly hooked up a slight arc, and he continued to increase: "Richard, if you stand by my side and are willing to support me, I will appoint you as the military governor of the Duke's Palace of Normandy, responsible for commanding all the knights in Normandy in peacetime, responsible for recruiting and training soldiers, and in wartime, you are one of the commanders of my army, responsible for commanding all the knights." ”

As William slowly narrated the conditions unhurriedly, Baron Richard's heart seemed to be scratched by countless cat's paws, and his face gradually showed an expression of action.

"As expected." William couldn't help but think in his heart, the corners of his mouth hooked a slight arc, and continued: "Joining the Duke's Palace, I will not only canonize you with a new manor estate, but even after you have made a contribution, I will not be stingy with the reward of the title, and your children will also join the Duke's Palace, according to your title and official position, I can let your three children become local officials at or above the level of regional governor or above, or officers of the same rank, or officials of the Duke's Palace, and you don't have to worry about the future of your family members in the future." ”

The system proposed by William is actually the budding system of the Celestial Empire, to the effect that the children of incumbent officials can directly become officials at the corresponding level without passing merit or assessment.

William patiently explained the system of substitution, "My lords, the conditions I have proposed for Baron Charles also apply to you, you can also make the three children of your family officials, but in terms of rank, they will be reduced by half a rank, and there will be a chance of promotion in the future, and they will be given higher priority than others." ”

The most important reason why they resisted William's new policy and did not want to lose the right to rule the territory was the uncertainty of the future succession of power, and they did not know whether their children would be able to inherit their official positions.

When William had finished speaking, he said no more, but quietly watched Baron Richard and the nobles, waiting for their decision.

With such generous conditions, William didn't believe anyone would be tempted by it.

If anyone is determined to oppose William's implementation of the New Deal, then this person must be a man who has the appearance of a wolf, and is determined to be a reactionary.

To deal with such stubbornness, William also prepared for them the iron fist of dictatorship, and they and their family members would be welcomed on the gallows, in the mines, and in the women's battalion of the army.

Time passed minute by minute, and in less than three minutes, more than ordinary nobles had already decided to support William's administration, after all, they were only minor nobles of the knightly class, and it was already a great honor for them to come to this meeting, and under the temptation of William's generous conditions, they had reason to speak out against it.

"You have to decide early, the positions of officers and deputies at all levels I have given are limited, and I will give priority to my supporters when appointing officials." William said unhurriedly.

The number of nobles who supported Baron Richard was already small, and under William's coercion and temptation, a large number of these nobles defected, and in less than a quarter of an hour, there were few nobles left around Baron Richard.

Baron Richard saw that the tide was turning, and without the support of the nobles, he had no chance of opposition. Considering that William's conditions were not bad, Baron Richard finally relented to William: "Your Royal Highness William, I am willing to hand over the ruling power of Baron Agentão and divide it into regions, and let the officials you appoint to manage the Argentão region. ”

"Very well, Baron Richard, you are now William's trusted military director, congratulations." William said with a rare smile of relief.

In the case that William has a strong standing army, Baron Richard, as the military governor, is actually a militia and armed forces minister and the role of the training minister, William's direct nearly 10,000 standing army is not within the jurisdiction of Baron Richard at all, its commander is the guardian and confidant Sir Hubert, with this standing army, William can easily face all kinds of accidents.

"Baron Richard, it's winter, you should gather all the knights and their servants for the winter training, I will unify all the knights and appoint and dismiss some officers, so that they can quickly build up combat effectiveness when they are recruited in the future. As the leader of this army, Baron Richard must take care of the winter training, and you will also have to arrange the training during the off-season. William commanded.

Baron Richard was very surprised that William had given him military power, he did not expect that he would be able to receive such a great gift after handing over the territory, and immediately showed gratitude, bowed obediently and said: "Your Highness William, I will do my best to train knights and servants to repay your trust in me. ”

"Very well, Baron Richard, as one of the heads of the military affairs, you have to cooperate with my horseman, Vice-Baron Hubert, commander of the Praetorian Guard, and I hope that you will work together to help me unify Normandy, and I will not hesitate to make you earls and give you more estates." William smiled and nodded in response, satisfied with Baron Richard's obedience.

"Yes, His Highness William." Baron Richard replied excitedly, William's promise made him full of energy, and his heart could not help but be deeply overwhelmed by William's bearing.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I am here to announce a decree, and that is the shield tax system." Saying that, William looked at the crowd, paused and said, "I ask all the knights of Normandy to be directly loyal to me and obey my conscriptions and orders. However, if any knightly nobles do not respond to my call to participate in training camps and wars, or if no call-up order is issued this year, I will levy a shield tax on these noble knights, which is about one-tenth of the harvest of their estates. ”

As soon as William's words were finished, the nobles in the audience broke out into a commotion again, they had never been taxed by any lord in their lives, and they could barely agree to pay William's allegiance, but they really couldn't agree to pay the shield tax to William.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I think you may have misunderstood what I meant. I have issued a decree to levy the shield tax for your sake, and first of all I would like to say that as long as you join the knightly order formed by Baron Richard's winter training and various agricultural training seasons, then you have responded to my call and can be exempted from the shield tax.

And when I need you to fight for me, I will also give you some financial subsidies, generally in half a year, each knight will receive ten pounds of silver, a light cavalry will receive three pounds of silver, a heavy infantry or longbowman will receive two pounds of silver, and a light infantry will receive one pound of silver.

For example, if a knight takes himself and a light cavalry, three heavy infantrymen, three archers and five light infantry, then during the call-up, the knight will receive thirty pounds of silver in half a year. William was not annoyed by the opposition of the nobles, but smiled at the corner of his mouth and patiently explained to them.

As soon as the words fell, the discussion and opposition of the nobles on the field calmed down in an instant, and a pair of burning eyelids looked at William.

If the shield tax is really as William said, then as knights and nobles loyal to William, their interests will not be harmed, but they can get a lot of benefits, after all, half a Chinese New Year's Eve is a lot of silver, this price is comparable to the current price of mercenaries, in the past when they were recruited by the lord, they brought their own dry food, but never got a penny from the lord.

"I have always been on your side and for your sake, and this thirty pounds of silver is a plus. But why should I think of the noble knights who are unwilling to be loyal to me, unwilling to respond to my calls, and to serve me? That being the case, it was only right that those disloyal noble knights were levied a shield tax.

Moreover, I will not take a penny of the shield tax I collected, and use it all on you, including your military salary, training subsidies, equipment and equipment purchases, etc., and even after your manor suffers a disaster, I will sow some money to help you restore agricultural production.

Of course, most of the noble knights of the county of Evreux are loyal to me, and the shield tax will probably not be collected much, but when I conquer the Duchy of Normandy and beyond, a large number of disobedient and disloyal noble knights will be subject to the shield tax. Until then, I will use my own private funds to subsidize you to pay for your wartime military salaries, training subsidies, equipment purchases, and so on.

I have never been stingy with you nobles and knights who are loyal to me, and no matter how many troops you can contribute, I will pay you in wartime according to the above standards, and when you are training, I will also sow some food, goods, and funds as a subsidy for your training. According to the standard of thirteen soldiers per knight, each knight can get about 1,000 pounds of grain or the equivalent of physical goods and gold and silver coins. ”

Just by participating in two months of winter training and a few weeks of intensive training during the off-season, they each received more than 1,000 pounds of food. This account is very calculated, for them, there is no cost at all to recruit some soldiers to participate in training and combat, and there are many serfs on their estate, and they do not need to pay anything at all.

For William, there are only 500 knights in the whole of Evler, and at most 15,000 to 20,000 pounds of silver, you can reap their loyalty and more than 6,000 soldiers who can fight well, which is also a good deal for William.

William was a diamond king with 600,000 pounds of silver assets, not only controlled the huge Normandy consortium, but also owned the navigation tax of the golden waterway of the Seine, which was an income of more than 100,000 pounds of silver a year, and a mere 20,000 pounds of silver, just a drizzle.