The Anglo-Danish army on the opposite side made King William realize that he was one step too late—that York must have fallen. Across the gurgling stream, thousands of enemy troops on the water's edge were extremely strong, and such terrain and defense made the king feel extremely difficult.

King William first tried to divide his troops to the west bank of the Uss River, trying to detour to the rear of the English, but found that the newly built castles combined with the shore fortifications formed an impregnable flank defense, the hills were undulating, and the enemy castles that controlled all the heights covered the entire area south of York Castle. King William almost kicked his tent over when he finally recognized the position in front of him, he had never seen a defense of this magnitude since the use of his troops, and the enemy on the opposite side was the English rebels or the British legions of the Romans?

After calming down, the king first ordered a small number of soldiers to feign crossing the Uss River, and after confirming that the enemy had sent reinforcements to block his own soldiers, he directly ordered to withdraw from the cramped battlefield.

The Danes were a little uncomplacent, and took advantage of the fact that the Normans had not succeeded in their work and the defensive line was a little weak, and sent three thousand elites across the stream, shouting the slogan "Fram" (forward), all of them put on the battle, they marched forward with shields, carrying spears and swords, forming two "boar heads" formations, and began to advance towards the Norman front. The twenty or so well-armed Danes at the front took out their longbows, aimed at the front line of the enemy array, and began to shoot flat. In the front row of the Norman army, there were many knights who dismounted and fought on foot, all of them were armoured, and they heard the sound of the bowstring being plucked from the opposite side, and hurriedly raised their shields to cover them, but many of them were unable to react, and they were pierced through the chain mail by heavy arrows, or were shot in the front door, and all of them fell to the ground on the spot.

Then, the twenty or so elite warriors put away their bows and arrows, drew their swords and raised their shields, and at the same time, the entire Danish formation began to speed forward. The Danish warriors who rushed up arrived in front of the Normans in an instant, and with the influx of the large depth of troops in front of the opponent, the Norman line was forced out of the gap, but these elite soldiers did not break up in front of the Danes, but began to gather shields and stab, under their skillful attack, some of the Danes exposed on the flanks suddenly flowed like a fountain of blood, at this time a dozen Norman cavalry rushed from behind the formation to a place close to the stream, and they rushed into the ranks of the slingers who were supporting the attack in the rear of the enemy, Drawing their swords and slashing and slashing, after drawing a blood-stained arc, the knights rushed to the flank of the enemy's "boar head", and the thin-armored Danes suffered this heavy blow, and they all cried out and wailed, realizing that the Danes who were not attacking were able to take advantage of the mutilation of the Norman line, quickly broke away from the battle, and began to retreat under the orders that spread throughout the battlefield, and their two Yar led the most elite guards to resist the enemy's counterattack, and before the Normans successfully mobilized their forces to organize a counter-attack, most of the Danes fled to the opposite bank, Only a few unlucky ones were hacked to the ground by the dozen or so Norman knights. After the Danes retreated safely, the violent but short-lived offensive came to an abrupt end, and the unprepared Normans could only watch as the Danish army, which had left behind corpses, fled back to the camp on the other side, and was picked up by Prince Harald's bodyguards to regroup.

The dozen or so Norman knights on horseback galloped back after breaking through the formation, and without any damage, one of the knights led by him lifted his pointed helmet, revealing his face, and the people recognized it as Robert, Earl of Iul, and shouted loudly to welcome the earl's return. King William, who had been sitting in the rear of the whole army, came forward only when all the danger had been removed, took the helmet from the earl's hand, and helped him off his horse with his own hands. ”

King William smiled slightly, and whispered to the earl: "This battle is enough for the enemy in front of him not to dare to easily provoke our army array, but how to break the enemy still needs to be carefully planned." ”

Robert, Count of Mortan, the brother of the king and the Bishop of Odo, was talking with the Ralph knights in the army, when he saw the king and the Count of Eu coming with their horses, and hurriedly saluted, and the king motioned for the Count of Mortan to follow him into the tent, and dismissed all the attendants, and waited until there were only two counts left in the tent before he spoke again: "What do you think of the enemy's position?" ”

Count Mortan replied cautiously: "The terrain is too dangerous, and the enemy has more troops than ours, so I am afraid that there will be too many casualties in the attack." ”

The king nodded in agreement, "Although the details of the war in the north are unknown, Robert de Comina is not a weak general, and his subordinates are the elite of my principality, and it is not easy for the rebels to defeat them. The Danes are strong, and we have seen the bloody battle today, and they are not a weak brigade that can break through in front of us and retreat with their whole body. I intend to confront the enemy here and find another opportunity to weaken the rebels, which requires the division of troops, so I intend for you to take your respective knights and lead all the English soldiers to be stationed in the camp behind the main flank, waiting to be called upon at any time. ”

The two counts agreed in unison, and the king continued to think about letting the two Norman earls lead the English soldiers to be stationed beside them, in addition to planning to make them ready to surprise the enemy army at any time, there was also a layer of intention: after observing Edgar's position, King William realized that the battle might drag on until after the winter, when not only the knights in Brittany, Anjou and other places would ask to return, but even some Normandy vassals would encourage the withdrawal of the army on the grounds that their service had expired, and the king must have an independent army to control the internal situation. William had long been accustomed to this method when he ruled a principality with fierce infighting in Normandy, and he had used flexible domestic and foreign means to cooperate with military operations countless times to pacify the rebellious nobles, including some "cousins" who were dissatisfied with William's origins.

Edgar was not disappointed when he saw that the Danes had failed to attack, but he was more careful in his defense. At dusk he summoned the Earl of Moka and asked him to take him to William Mallett, a Norman nobleman dressed in a long green tunic with a simple pattern on the collar and cuffs, a very modest texture of the suspenders, and a pair of copper buckles on his boots. Edgar sat him down, and then told him that King William had arrived, and the knight's face was calm: "Does your lord want to let me go?" ”

Prince Edgar shook his hand and said, "Not yet, when the war is over, you will naturally be allowed to redeem yourself." ”

William Mallett was a little curious: "So what did the adults come to see me for?" ”

Naturally, the prince replied, "I just wanted to hear from you, what kind of man is King William?" ”

After some reflection, William Mallett recounted an incident from the past: "About a dozen years ago, when the king was still the Duke of Normandy, some rebellious nobles were in Arançon, and the king's army came to the city and demanded that the nobles in the city surrender and guarantee leniency. But the rebels of Alençon hung a hide on the wall, and said to the king, "I have heard that your maternal grandfather was a leatherman, how dare you ask us, noble lords, to surrender to you?" After this insult, the king himself led his army to break Alençon, and then cut off all the rebels in the city, cutting off their hands and feet, and gouging out their eyes, and since then, no one in Normandy has dared to mock the king's origins to his face. ”

The story seemed to have some intimidating connotations, and Prince Edgar only laughed it off after hearing it, looked at Count Moka, who looked a little worried, and took the initiative to say goodbye.