When Hugue da Franche saw the Duke of Normandy's crow banner on the coast, he did not know the target of this expedition. As the Duke's figure emerged from the surrounding horses, Hugg finally dispelled all doubts in his mind, and rumors of Duke William's injury and disability spread throughout the Duchy, and many lords began to stir up, including the Earl of Ioul and the former Earl of Hereford. However, now that the Duke has reappeared on horseback, the rumors have naturally been debunked, and the Count of Iu is still in his coastal territory, and the news of Hereford's death on the Flemish border has not yet reached Normandy, and for the time being, the Duchy still seems to be calm, and no one knows whether there is an ancient well or a glacier lurking below this abyss.

Huger's gaze swept over the unfamiliar faces beside the duke, and he could not help sighing secretly, many noble knights of great fame had died in battle, and Gerbeau, who had fought with him in the west of England, had returned to his homeland, and heard that he was fighting against the French; The Earl of Brian of Brittany died tragically in Wales, at the hands of his kind; His distant relative, Grande Messner, died in St. Albans; Even the flag bearer beside the Duke has been replaced, the original extraordinary and powerful Longueville was unfortunately killed by the English, and now the flag bearer has been replaced by an Englishman named Torquay. The young man from Sain, England, was the son of Vigold, who had been executed by the Earl of Benicia's Tomahawk at Wallingford, and many Normans felt that the Duke had appointed this young man to show that he was still king of England.

After dispelling the cranky thoughts in his heart, Hugg dismounted and saluted the Duke with his cousin Robert of Tiard, and William, who was talking to Alain de Pontililleville beside him, turned to the two knights: "Lord Hugg, Lord Robert, you are here. ”

"Your Majesty, my thirty-five knights are ready to join the battle at any time." The lord of Afranche immediately replied in a loud voice.

"Don't worry, my lord, the wind has turned to our side, and the prey is close at hand, and there is absolutely no escape this time." The Duke glanced at Alain de Pontierville, a Breton knight who immediately began to explain his plan to the two lords of the western part of the duchy.

It had been since Easter that the King of England had received the latest news from Flanders, and the news had come through Westminster, and the delay in the news was very serious, and Edgar felt more and more inconvenient about the speed of transmission, but the more important thing was the shocking defeat of the King of France in the news.

"William is completely free from now on." Edgar said to the Bishop of Exeter.

"Your Majesty, this year's assembly is too early, our county governors and Sain in the south have gathered here, and the taxation has been greatly affected." Leofrick, Bishop of Exeter, reminded the king of something else.

"We can still rely on the income of the north at the moment, the southern counties have lost too much, even the royal estate from Wessex to Kent has suffered heavy losses, and it still needs to recuperate this year, so in addition to the current military supplies, the south will not bear more for the time being." The king explained.

The camp on the Isle of Wight was well established by this time, and after the Harold era and William's conquest, Edgar stationed troops there, and built a number of training and defences for this purpose, and since pasture and other supplies had to be transported from across the fjord, Edgar fortified the area and set up a guard tower at the ruins of a nearby Roman manor.

The English army was based in the capital of an ancient Jute kingdom, near the former domain of the Earl of Tostig of the Godwins, and the island's estates now belonged to the royal family, the largest part of which once belonged to King Harold. Edgar had no intention of inspecting these newly acquired territories, and devoted himself to training, which he thought was not enough. Only a few of the Wessex veterans currently in the barracks had fought in Hastings, and the rest of the Thanes were young warriors who had seen too little winter and summer, and many were unmarried and had no experience fighting in the shield walls. The king, who had hoped to select cavalry officers from among them, abandoned the idea when he actually saw the soldiers, who were now drawn at most for cavalry training, and the officers were still drawn mainly from the Northumbrians. However, under the training of the King's Welsh Guards and Yorkist longbowmen, the training of bows and arrows was carried out well. After meeting with the Spaniards in Castile last year, King Edgar had offered to import yew wood from Castile, which was best produced from the warm southern Atlantic to the Mediterranean coast. While importing yew, flax and horses, the English would also export high-quality wool and ores such as iron and tin to Castile.

The problem of infantry training is mainly limited by the number of officers, and Edgar has no good way to do this, no matter what the idea is, if there is no experienced officer to carry it out, it will be difficult to carry it out into the army, and if there is insufficient control, it will be difficult for the infantry to maintain even the queue during the march and attack, no matter how many reasons, the reality is that Edgar is faced with a bloated and inconvenient army, which can only complete basic defensive tasks, and can never be used for cross-sea expeditions, or even invasion of Normandy.

Edgar, a former Guards Cavalry officer, could not immediately change the face of this army, but he was not one of his early 18th-century counterparts, and the soldiers of that era did not know how to control the movement and deployment of large forces, and even had difficulty in completing any surprise attacks, so they had to enter the battlefield slowly. Edgar first used Sean in Devon as a base, and had them mix with officers from Wessex, Sussex, and Kent, and instilled in them the content of military manuals, from complex passwords to basic techniques for the use of weapons. After May, these officers who had a certain foundation began to teach the ordinary Sean under their command how to use spears and shields, and they were trained in various arrays, even including the arrangement of field formations, and Edrea was convinced that war could not rely on temporary play, and if the unrehearsed formations were used temporarily on the battlefield, it would be chaotic.

After the redivision, the English were divided into units according to their respective districts, and according to the training manual sent by King Edgar to the magistrates, they were arranged in checkerboard or shield lines according to diamonds, circles, and various other means, and then carried out offensive and defensive exercises under strict command and banner control. Most of the arrays in the early stage are relatively simple, and the traditional shield wall battle is also relatively close, but the multi-row arrangement of the defensive cavalry is increased, the first row of soldiers inserts the spear obliquely on the ground, and the rear is obliquely raised or flat, the spear tip in their hands is mostly the shape with wings, and the body pole is mostly made of hard ash wood, but it is slightly longer than the ancient Fla spear, which is not very suitable for phalanx combat, and only by relying on the protection of the shield can the dense formation resist the enemy's charge. Guards wielding Danish axes will attack in brutal battles, leaving those who try to break through to pieces in front of the reef-like shield walls. Edgar felt that this combat mode was still a bit cumbersome, and he wanted to have lighter combat units, which could be formed in different formations as needed in dense or dispersed formations, changing into phalanxes, horizontal columns, or diagonal lines to deal with different situations.

Such ambitions were clearly beyond his current strength, but even so, when the King's emissary arrived, the English army on the Isle of Wight felt like it had been reborn.

"You mean that the Normans attacked Brittany?" The King asked, surprised.

"Yes, Your Majesty. The army of Duke William had captured the Duke of Hoel and supported Count Odo as regent of Brittany. ”

Edgar inquired about a Norman knight next to him, and learned that Otto was the father of Alain Loufus, who commanded the Brittany army in Hastings, and that he also had an eldest son, the Earl of Brian, who was killed at a wedding in Wales, and that Otto's family had become Norman vassals after marrying the Duke of Normandy, and had a large number of domains and monastic estates near Rouen. He had been at war with his nephew, Conan, Duke of Brittany, over the regency of Brittany. The battle even led to the later Normandy invasion, which also took place before Hastings, when King Harold had fought with the Norman army into Brittany.