"Recognize my ownership of Ainaud, and promise not to assert my ownership of the imperial de jure territories of Gende and Zeelland, and to keep the peace between the two sides for a period of ten years?" William read the peace document sent by Henry III, and the more he read it, the more angry he became. At the end of the reading, William simply rolled up the paperwork, threw it on the ground, and said:

"Your Excellency Archbishop of Mainz, this is the peace agreement sent by your lordship, Emperor Henry III?

Is he looking down on me at this time, is he insulting us Normans, provoking us? ”

In the face of William's sharp question, Archbishop Christian of Mainz was taken aback, his body trembled, he shook his body tremblingly, and finally did not kneel, and said in a sweat: "Your Majesty William, please calm your anger, my lord His Majesty Emperor Henry does not mean to provoke you, everything can be discussed slowly."

Your Majesty, I ask you to suspend all military operations during the peace talks as a sign of respect for both you and me. ”

Listening to the words of the Archbishop of Mainz, William frowned, and refused the other party without the slightest hesitation: "Your Excellency Christian, I have come with an olive branch in my hand, and I really hope that the Normans and Germans can truly achieve peace, but now it seems that Emperor Henry III did not take my sincerity seriously.

If the olive branch in my hand slips, then it will be a murderous sword in my hand again, and once it is unsheathed, it will not return to the sheath without drinking enough blood. ”

William's tone was calm, but Archbishop Christian of Mainz only felt a chill all over his body, trembled, and bowed down respectfully to ask William for forgiveness.

"Listen to my request first, Your Excellency Archbishop Mainz.

I request the acquisition of the whole territory of the Duchy of Upper Lorraine, the State of Barber, the State of Santuis, the State of Upper Lorraine, the State of Mesber, the State of Palzbeth, the State of Soudgaard and the State of Nordgaobel in Alsace, the State of Verdun, the Bishopric of Trier, the Bishopric of Liege, the State of Julich, the State of Enoeber, the State of Blatterbon, the State of Breda, the State of Lorne, the State of West Friesland, the Count of the Netherlands and the Bishopric of Strich in the Duchy of the Netherlands. William reported his conditions without breathing, and his appetite was amazing, and the frightened Archbishop of Mainz, Christian, had black eyes and was about to fall.

The body of the Archbishop of Mainz shook, and with the support of the two accompanying priests, he did not fall.

He opened his eyes again to see the young Norman king and King William I of England, opened his mouth, and finally swallowed the words.

"Give my terms to your Emperor Henry III, I only ask him whether he agrees or not, and if he does, peace may be restored to you and me at once, and within ten years my Normans will not invade again.

If I do not agree, I will personally lead an army of 100,000 to pacify Nassau and Franconia, so that there will be no place for the Salian dynasty here. William said without question.

"Your Majesty, my lord is King of Germany, King of the Roman people, Holy Roman Emperor, His Majesty Emperor Henry III of Salion.

Please don't push too much, His Majesty the Emperor still has the strength to fight again. The Archbishop of Mainz said stubbornly, with a stiff neck, as if bluffing.

"Then I'll see, Your Excellency the Archbishop of Mainz." William waved his right hand and snorted and stopped looking at him.

After the Archbishop of Mainz, Christian and his entourage were sent out of the hall by the attendants, William sat back on his throne, looked at the Norman nobles who were in a commotion, and said, "What do you think?" ”

"Your Majesty, how can a Lorraine satisfy the appetite of our Normans, the Franconia of the Emperor of the HRE, we are interested in being a guest." A Norman nobleman licked his lips, revealing his white teeth and smiling in horror.

Greed is the quality of every Norman, except for greed, tyranny, drunkenness, and disrespect for military discipline, the Normans can be called perfect warriors, and no Norman is afraid of any enemy that appears before them.

Conquer and conquer, kill and kill, they never fear, and they never stop, until the last moment of their lives.

Hearing this, William just smiled and did not speak, he looked at the crowd again, and motioned for everyone to speak freely.

"Your Majesty, the Holy Roman Empire is a great power after all, and it is the best policy to reach a peace agreement with it, and it is unwise to get caught up in it and not extricate yourself." Duke Hubert came out and stroked his chest and bowed.

Duke Hubert was one of the rare modests among the Norman aristocracy, and he was not opposed to innovation, and even supported it, but he was opposed to unbridled wars and conquests. He had already experienced enough war, and in his fifties, he had already understood that war would bring not only glory, wealth, and land, but also death, sorrow, and hatred, so he was very cautious about war.

The Duke of Richard, who had returned to Brussels at about the same time as Duke Hubert, retorted: "Your Majesty, the complete defeat of Emperor Henry III will remove the threat of the Holy Roman Empire to our Normans, and I propose to march into Nassau and capture Franconia." ”

The moderate attitude of Duke Hubert and the radical views of Duke Richard represented two attitudes among the Norman aristocracy, with the Norman nobility supporting Duke Richard being the more.

William consulted the opinions of both sides, and said slowly: "Ladies and gentlemen, don't be impatient, we will wait for the recovery of Henry III before making a decision." If I generally agree to my demands, peace may be restored, but if I do not agree, the sword of my Normans will take the lives of all those who oppose it.

Again, I ask you to do your part and clear the remnants of the enemy in the Upper and Lower Lorraine area. ”

"Yes, Your Majesty." Everyone bowed down and retreated, leaving William alone to meditate on the main hall.

In fact, in William's mind, he was inclined to Duke Hubert's opinion, and he was already satisfied with taking the old land of Lorraine.

At the same time, he didn't want to continue to entangle with the Holy Roman Empire, he knew that the difficulty of this old empire was a mud pit, and he wanted to get out of here and return to Paris as soon as possible.

William had more important things for him to do, starting with the expulsion of Pope Leo IX's coalition army, which was raging in the south and central of France, and had it not been for the assistance of the Castile and the Faller. Osborne has enough to give, I'm afraid Paris will give them a break.

Fearing for Paris, William wanted to return to Paris as soon as possible, and then lead his army south to Aquitaine to expel the Papal coalition and end the war.

Another important reason why he wanted to end the war was that the kingdom's finances were already a little unsustainable, in order to support the Norman army, which numbered more than 80,000 people, there were six standing armies, and its consumption was huge, not to mention tens of thousands of pounds of silver, and the cost of gold and silver was more than hundreds of thousands of pounds of silver a year.