85_85536Although, William still has a lot to do. For example, it was necessary to consolidate the various territories, to be busy reassuring the people, and to send away all the captured levies - after the Hereford family had successfully taken away the titles of Earl of Sandomitz and Vitra, they were the serfs of the Hereford family.

He also wanted to deepen the agricultural reform, continue to build that commercial town, continue to train his own officers, train more civilian officials, manage talents, and form more new troops...... In short, more money, more food, more subordinates, and more troops. He wants more power.

But before that, what he needs most is to be recognized by the world for the territory he has won. Acknowledging the Hereford family's rule over the five counties northeast of Mazovia - the size of the Hereford Barony was large enough to be elevated to an earldom. And as a newly canonized territory with his own family name as the fief name, Baron Hereford's promotion to the Earl of Hereford can also have an exciting effect.

In this way, for the next period of time, William discussed the governance of the territory with his father, Count Otto, and Charlumie. In addition to the things mentioned earlier, William also wanted to have a fleet of river vessels that would travel north along the Vistula River to the United Province of Polotsk to trade, although he worked happily with John, a merchant from the Blue Hat Merchants. But the balance requires, and he hopes to get in touch with more businessmen.

"Speaking of which, the Vistula River does not flow very much, the channel is not wide, and the water is not deep. Inland river boats can't carry much. Hearing William say this, Charlumi couldn't help frowning, and then replied.

"But that can't be helped. The traffic on the road is much worse than river transportation. And we also don't have enough money to open a big road to Polotsk. William replied.

"It would be nice if there was a railway. Shalumi continued to think nonsense.

"We don't even have the financial resources to build a normal cinder road, let alone a railway. William replied.

As mentioned before, the world has just entered the industrial age, and steam engines, steam trains, and steam ships have also begun to take shape. It's just that there aren't many of them, they're not very efficient, and they're very expensive. Not to mention a frontier place like the Grand Duchy of Mazovia, even in the bustling interior of the empire, or in the kingdom of Briton, which dominated world trade, there were few serious railways.

So, the two of them didn't speak anymore and continued to think with sad faces. And Count Otto, who sat at the top, smiled and watched his son and niece talk, and he did not participate in ordinary matters. In fact, Count Otto was very self-aware. Know that you are not the material to govern your territory. But the military side of things is different, because that's what he's really good at.

After a while, Charlumi spoke again:

"But even inland waterway boats are expensive...... We inquired before, and the price of a river cargo ship is two hundred Wende gold coins. If you want to build a similar river fleet, you need to have a dozen ships, plus sailors, other auxiliary facilities, and ...... Are we really going to build a fleet, William?"

Hearing Xia Lumi say this, William couldn't help but frown. It is not just the inland river fleet that needs money, but what else does it need? We need money to reform agriculture, we need money to build commercial towns, we need money to expand the new army, and we need money to train qualified personnel. William wanted to do more than that. He wanted to clean up towns, he wanted to build roads, he wanted to establish a new public system, he wanted to invest in natural science, he wanted to build steam factories, he wanted more new weapons, he wanted to make iron, he wanted to make textiles...... This qiē and every qiē all need money.

For now, William had no money - even though he had just ransacked the two counts' lands and auctioned off the luxury goods that the two families had accumulated for nearly a hundred years, and made a fortune. But as far as the little money he has in his hand and what he wants to do, it is really not enough, and it is a drop in the bucket and useless.

Seeing that William frowned and didn't speak, Charlumi continued to sigh and said, "I sent so many things to those priests before, it was unnecessary. Generally speaking, if you want a duke title, you just need to pay half of the money. ”

"That's under normal circumstances. William also said with some displeasure: "Our duke is not inherited, but newly added. If you want such a duke, you naturally have to spend more money. ”

Hearing William say this, Charlumi pouted and stopped talking-she also knew that her duke was not in the right position, and if the money was not spent properly, then it would probably not be approved.

But William knew that there was something else that Charlumi didn't know. That is, even if the money is spent, it is very likely that this duke title will not be approved.

- Because the Archbishop of Krakow, who lives in the city of Krakow. The city of Krakow was the territory of the Grand Duke of Mazovia, Leszek von Trieste. The Archbishop of Krakow was also nominally the court minister of the Archduke Leszek. Despite rumors, the relationship between the archbishop and His Excellency the Grand Duke was not very good. But who knows what the rumors are and whether they are true or not.

Anyway, William felt that he couldn't believe all the rumors or anything. Maybe it's just a little joke made by two big people to the whole world. Who knows so clearly what is true or false......

"If His Excellency does have enough influence over Archbishop Svante, then things are even more difficult...... Although the Grand Duke is not capable, his basic judgment ability is still there.

If his father still bears the name of an earl, then he is only his vassal anyway. But if the father has the title of duke, then the knighthood between him and him is only half a rank. The northeastern part of Mazovia is divided up. Can he watch one of his powerful vassals fly away with a quarter of his territory?"

Thinking of this, William was very optimistic about the future of the dukedom. Thinking of what Xia Lumi said just now, when he was most short of money, such a large amount of money was likely to be wasted, and William's mood became very bad.

......

Of course, at this time, it wasn't just William who was in a bad mood. In the territory of the Grand Duchy of Mazovia, there are people who are in a bad mood. Those were the nobles who had heard of William's deeds. They were very jealous of the fact that the Hereford family had swallowed three counties in one go, and that it had more than doubled in an instant. There is also a worse mood, that is, His Excellency Grand Duke Lesek.

No matter which monarch is on the throne, he will not feel happy when he hears that he has such a powerful prince under his command.

It's like Liu Bang, the ancestor of the early Han Dynasty, looking at Han Xin, the king of Chu.

At that time, he had a secret conversation with Zhang Liang, and Zhang Liang asked him if he was better than Han Xin, and Liu Bang said no. Zhang Liang asked the Han soldiers again if they were comparable to the Chu soldiers, but Liu Bang said that he couldn't. So Zhang Liang said that soldiers are inferior to people, and they will be inferior to people. Are you going to hit Han Shin, or are you waiting for Han Shin to hit you?

So after that, there was a classic allusion to Gaozu Youyunmeng.

Now, Grand Duke Lesek is facing a situation similar to that of Han Gaozu. A hundred of him is not as powerful as one Otto. Lesek himself was just a knight, and Count Otto had been a famous Grand Mentor of the nations for more than a decade.

Compared with the army, Grand Duke Leschek currently has only a standing force of 500 mixed infantry and cavalry guards. If you really fight, you still have to spend money to hire mercenaries temporarily, and then launch a levy like ordinary nobles.

William already had a new army of 2,000 men and was well armed.

The situation is similar, but the problem is that Grand Duke Lesek can't do what Han Gaozu did - the emperor of the Central Plains is completely different from the noble monarch of the human world. Under the feudal system, if Grand Duke Leszek really dared to do this, then the other nobles who got the news would all revolt in minutes and become the unrighteous king.

In addition, Count Otto himself is also very strong. Thinking about smashing cups and ambushing 500 axe men or something is simply wishful thinking.

"And what if you send assassins......" said Archduke Leszek von Trieste, the current patriarch of the Trieste family and the titular first person of the Grand Duchy of Mazovia, the monarch of the Prince's Residence. In front of him was a table with a mess of cups and plates. On both sides of the table, the maids and maids were tremblingly bent over, bowing their heads and saying nothing.

Just now, this venerable Grand Duke Pavilion had just lost his temper. A maid who was close was slapped by him for no reason, knocked to the ground, not to mention, and was pulled down and whipped a dozen times, and half a life went down. So no one dared to squeak at this moment.

“...... I'm afraid it won't work. His Excellency thought about it, and then cut off this "beautiful" idea, five hundred axes, and assassins or something. It feels like it's almost the same thing.

Thinking of this, His Excellency's already small number of brain cells were almost consumed. For a moment, he couldn't think of a better way to do it. It frustrated him. So he lowered his head, and immediately saw his big belly and bloated figure, which even the loose royal robe could not cover......

"Once upon a time, I was a knight with athletic skills. His Excellency said this to himself, and became even more depressed.

He suddenly forced himself to stand up and go look at his arsenal. He wanted to draw his sword like he had done more than ten years ago, when he was still young, and ride a horse to fight with him.

But then, his breath passed. And he sat down again on his throne. He has been decadent for so long, but he can't cheer up lightly and casually