When he arrived at Agentownburg, Baron Richard came out to meet William with a seven-year-old lady and a six-year-old boy.

"His Royal Highness William, this is my daughter Agnes, and this is my son Robert!" Baron Richard proudly introduced his two children to William.

Agnes looked a little shy and shy, hiding behind Baron Richard with a weak appearance, looking at William with a pair of big shining eyes, and his cute appearance made William can't help but want to protect.

It's Robert's tiger-headed appearance, and he is not afraid of life at all.

"Don't hurry up and say hello to His Highness William!" Baron Richard pushed Agnes and Robert with both hands, and urged with a straight face.

"His Highness William." Agnes saluted William softly, with slightly curly long black hair and shawl, smooth and delicate skin, and delicate face, just a beauty.

"Agnes, nice to meet you!" William crouched down and greeted Agnes.

"Yikes!" I saw Agnes blushing slightly, trotting a few steps behind Baron Richard.

However, Robert, who was strong on the side, looked like he was not afraid of anything, and said loudly: "His Royal Highness William, I heard that you are not only a duke, but also a great general, can I serve you?" ”

"Good! If I accept you, I will let you be my personal attendant, and when you are older, I will serve me. William touched Robert's little head with his right hand and encouraged.

Robert turned his head to look at Baron Richard, and when he saw the other party nodding in agreement, he immediately shouted excitedly: "Yes, His Highness William!" ”

"Your Highness William, please come with me to the banquet, this is a little bit of heart we have prepared for you." Baron Richard graciously invited.

William nodded and agreed, and attended the sumptuous banquet with the generals under his command, and the knights of the Barony of Agentang talked very speculatively, and dozens of knights said that they were willing to let their second son join William's army, of course, due to age, William just clinked glasses and basically did not drink.

William had been in the Barony of Agentang for three days, and Agnes, who had been afraid of life, had already affectionately called William's brother, shaking William's arm with both hands and begging William to continue telling the story of "Alice in Wonderland".

Sure enough, this kind of fantasy and magnificent legend is very pleasing to girls, laugh!

Three days later, William had to say goodbye to Baron Richard and Agnes, and set out on his way home with hundreds of second sons of the knight family and the army under his command.

......

"There's a deficit, Master William. This side has to expand the army, there is to build equipment and warships, and officials have to be sent to take over the place, and the agricultural tax, commercial tax and other taxes collected this year have been spent, and the take-out still owes a large amount of money to the Normandy bank! As soon as he returned to Fort Vernon, Osborne's butler was holding a thick stack of bills and nagging William endlessly.

"Okay, Osborne steward, can't you go to the Normandy bank and borrow money again?

Anyway, it's all left-handed and right-handed, and the money is spent on yourself, so don't be so nervous at all! William shrugged, looked indifferent, and waved his hand.

As early as after William founded the Normandy Consortium and the Normandy Bank, William used the funds and booty he seized to inject nearly 300,000 pounds of silver into it, increasing his stake to about 97 percent.

Of course, the well-funded Bank of Normandy played the role of central bank as a matter of course, and once the territory ran a deficit, the bank would lend money at preferential interest to William's treasury.

"No, Master William! It's been almost three years, and none of your territories are financially healthy, and even if you fill in the customs duties and city taxes, you won't be able to make up for the fiscal deficit!

What's more, the Normandy consortium is your private property, and you can't infinitely transfuse blood for the territory. Osborne was resolute, shaking his head and refusing.

"Well, let me think about it." William rubbed his temples, frowned and thought for a moment, and said:

"Steward Osborne, the army is our backbone, so we can't cut military spending under any circumstances, so we can only increase taxes."

"But we already have almost 60 kinds of taxes, and before the tax collectors are about to break through, increasing the number of taxes is just a thankless task.

Our territory is still in the development stage, and if the tax rate is increased, the business that has already begun to flourish may suffer badly. Steward Osborne shook his head, retorting to William's proposal.

"Haha, Steward Osborne, I think you've misunderstood!" William shook his head slightly, pointed to the map on his desk with his right hand, and said: "Steward Osborne, you see that my parish of Lisey, Barony Vernon and Barony of Wexon are located on both sides of the golden waterway of the Seine, and the geographical location is close to Paris.

Why, then, do we not collect a navigation tax from ships passing through the Seine waterway? ”

"But the waterways of the Seine are extremely busy, and it is impossible for the dozens of dragon-headed warships we have on hand to squat on the river every day to intercept merchant ships and collect taxes!" Steward Osborne closed his eyes and pondered for a moment, then shook his head slightly and said.

"Haha, of course I wouldn't use such a thankless method of collecting taxes." William laughed, pointed to a point under Fort Vernon with his right hand, and said confidently: "Steward Osborne, you see that this town called Bonier is close to the Seine, where there is a huge swallowtail island in the center of the river, the west side of the river is not more than a hundred meters wide, and the east side of the river is only thirty meters, with the help of this huge swallowtail continent we can easily build bridges."

As long as we can build a pontoon bridge connecting the Barons of Vernon and the Barons of Wexon, not only can we communicate the exercises of the two baronies, but more importantly, this pontoon bridge can effectively intercept the passing ships on the Seine, and we can only raise the drawbridge and let them go if we pay the navigation tax!

As for some seizures that attempted to break in, the Navy's Dragon Head Battleship under my command was responsible. ”

The steward of Osborne was stunned by William's plan, and he had no idea that William intended to include all the ships that passed through the Seine waterways into the tax.

"If this is really done, at a low rate of 10 percent, we will be able to collect at least 200,000 pounds of silver (i.e., more than 4,000,000 Triss gold coins) a year.

His Royal Highness William, this deal is done! Even a big contractor that offends some nobles is worth doing. Steward Osborne pondered for a moment, then shook his right hand into a fist and said with determination.