After the subdued Earl of Castle, the Duchy of Normandy had been recovered by William's brushstroke, although the county of Earlbur was still semi-autonomous, and William could not meddle in the internal affairs of Castle, but at this time William was already able to mobilize the power of the entire Duchy of Normandy.

In recovering the county of Rouen, William graciously forgave a large number of knights who had committed lesser crimes, except for the confiscation of Cay in Burgundy and the estates of various barons and knights.

In order to prepare for the upcoming war, William ordered Andrew, Baron of Lillebonne, to form the Knights of Rouen, and organized all the knights in Rouen to form a standing army of up to 5,000 men together with their servants and soldiers.

Just like the Knights of Evreux and the Knights of Mortan, the equipment, training, organization and combat of the Knights of Rouen are all the same, among which nearly a thousand knights are equipped with full-body plate armor provided by William, while the remaining more than 1,000 squire light cavalry and heavy infantry are replaced with half-body plate armor, and the remaining soldiers wear equipment from other doors, William does not have so much money to change the equipment of these miscellaneous soldiers.

In addition to a nobleman appointed by William as the head of the Knights, there is also a decision-making organization called the Knights' Council, which is responsible for electing officers at all levels of the Knights and discussing tactical decisions together.

In general, the system of the Knights is a method that William came up with to mobilize and organize these knights who are loyal to him after flying out of the system of knights and lords at all levels, and handle the internal affairs between their knights through the knights' internal autonomy and knights' guilds.

At this time, because most of the knights in the knights were attached to William, and the knights and knights would be divided into regions, and there were different knightly associations between the regions (baronies) and regions, and between the counties (counties) and the counties, they were not very harmonious with each other, and often fought with each other for some such and such reasons, which gave William the opportunity to operate, so that William was able to firmly control them.

The knights' association is not only a kind of military organization, but also a kind of regional self-government organization, its smallest level is the town-level knight's association, its members include all the local twenty or thirty knights, and above are the regional-level knights' associations and county-level knights' associations, the members of the knights' associations at all levels are not fixed, but their leaders are elected by the knights, which is also the germ of a democratic system.

The Knights' Guild played a huge role in organizing local agricultural production and military training, and although the local Knights' Guilds had only been established for a short time, this form of organization had already shown unimaginable vitality, and now William relied on the help of these large and small Knights' Guilds to collect taxes and mobilize troops outside his direct domain, and they were also inseparable from them to stabilize the local situation and suppress rebellions.

In order to cope with the upcoming war with the Duke of Anjou, William conveniently transferred William the Younger, Earl of Eiburg, and his 6,000 nobles to his command, so that the empty county of Earlburg was no longer capable of breaking out into a large-scale rebellion, and William also got a sizable army, although this army was dubious in loyalty and not strong in combat, it was still a better cannon fodder force than the levies.

In the face of William's oppression, the Earl of Castle and his nobles had no choice but to grit their teeth and give in, he had no choice, it was impossible for him to jump out in front of William's army and say that he disobeyed William, his brain had not yet been teased.

Gathering more than 10,000 Janissaries and Guards, the 5,000-strong Knights of Evre, the 3,000-strong Knights of Mortan, the 5,000-strong Knights of Rouen, and the 6,000 nobles of the Count of Castle, a total of 30,000 troops, marched all the way to the southwest, the Counts of Mortan and the border of the Duchy of Anjou, the Barony of Affranche.

After the army had crossed the Seine, William had to hasten his army's march because he had received a declaration of war from an emissary from the Duke of Anjou.

The other party formally declared war on William on the pretext of helping Cay of Burgundy become the Duke of Normandy, and said that William's illegitimate son was not eligible to become the Duke of Normandy.

Upon receiving this provocative declaration of war, William did not get angry, not even a word of curse, but accepted the other party's declaration of war and rebuked the messenger of Anjou.

From the moment he received the declaration of war, William breathed a sigh of relief, only the Duke of Anjou's side, William had the confidence to deal with it, before that William was worried that King Henry I of France or his uncle Thibault, Duke of Champagne, would join in, but now it was only the Anjou side that declared war on William alone, and he was completely confident that the other party would be defeated.

"It seems that it was Robert the Duke of Burgundy who pinned down the army of His Majesty Henry I." William analyzed the information sent by Emma at hand, and sent twelve thumbs up to the Duke of Burgundy, who was eager for justice and righteousness.

However, even though William has a large number of troops and a good external environment, but time is not on William's side, now the time is already mid-April, in about two months is the time for summer harvest and autumn sowing, William has missed the spring plowing and sowing season, only a few young and healthy women are busy in the manor farmland, even if some serfs and civilian helpers are invited, it will not help, and the harvest of William's territory this year is destined not to be too good.

In this case, then the summer harvest and autumn sowing in the second half of this year is what William values the most, after all, he can't watch himself and the noble knights under his command reduce the production of the territory.

If the war dragged on for more than three months, William's noble knights and soldiers would have an opinion, they could not leave their land and manor to reduce production and serve William wholeheartedly, this is impossible, if it is not handled well, there is likely to be a riot.

However, even as William tried his best to speed up the march, the potholed roads and the huge baggage convoy still slowed William's march, and twenty miles a day was already their fastest speed.

Looking at the county of Evler, which has a good road surface, is also full of potholes, William just wants to raise his forehead and roar, William has not cared much about the civil affairs of the territory in recent years, he deals with the military, steel, taxes, money and food every day, as for the other civil affairs of the territory William is really unable to take care of them, and they are thrown to Baron Adolf and the steward of Osborne, and now William has to swallow the bitter fruit he planted at the beginning.

At present, Mortan is only guarded by Vice-Baron Geoffrey and Faller, who, despite their military talent and war experience, are still too young compared to their other cunning opponents, and William is really not at ease with them.

Although Faller and Geoffrey had 6,000 well-trained standing militia and some local levies, the quality of the militia could not match that of the powerful Anjou elite, and William only hoped that they would hold out until he arrived with his army.