On the banks of the Seine, William led his army to wait for Henry I to break out, and he was confident that with the 5,000 elite guards he had trained on foot, he would be able to capture the fleeing Henry I.

Sitting on his horse, William raised his binoculars and looked into the distance with a little starlight, and sure enough, he found a cavalry of about 1,000 men escaping from the French camp, presumably this force was Henry I's personal guard cavalry, and he must have been among them.

"Flag bearer, raise my banner, knights, soldiers, come with me to destroy this cavalry, King Henry of France is in the middle of this group of cavalry, anyone who captures or kills Henry I can receive the title of nobility of the baron and the corresponding fief." William put away his monoculars and shouted to the left and right.

Hearing William's promise, whether it was a noble knight or an ordinary soldier, everyone's faces turned red, and they shouted excitedly and rushed towards this French cavalry under the leadership of Count Hubert.

Since William succeeded to the throne, he has never broken his word, and has never broken any of his promises, and William has been particularly generous to his soldiers, since he succeeded to the throne in the past few years, more than 1,000 people have been canonized as knights for their military exploits, and there are more than 60 knights and more than 10 detachins, 8 barons and 4 counts, such a large-scale canonization was unimaginable in France at that time.

Even the lowest-ranking noble knights are not so easy to obtain, many knight families or squires who have been trained by the lord since childhood, it is said that they should be the easiest to get the title of knight, but there are still many people who can only be a knight in their lifetime, which shows how difficult it is to be promoted from a non-noble to the lowest knight.

But with William, it is not so difficult, as long as you can make a battle worthy of the knighthood, then you can get the knighthood and title.

If you want to become a noble baron or even an earl, then you just need to do more until William is satisfied.

As a result, warriors and knights from France, Germany, England, Castile, and the Nordic countries joined William's command in order to obtain a title and a title of nobility, and from then on to the rank of noble noble.

Of course, compared to other places, in William's case, there are many restrictions on being a nobleman, and knights need to be directly loyal to William and be ready to obey William's call at any time, and cannot refuse, there is no time limit or conditions.

As barons and counts, they could not even have knights and nobles loyal to them, and they could not have the right to rule the territory, the right to collect taxes, and the right to military affairs, which belonged to William, and were usually held by officials sent by William.

But even so, as nobles, they still had many privileges and estates, and the officials of the Duchy of Normandy were basically monopolized by the nobility.

Compared with the nobles who could do whatever they wanted in their own territory in the past, William's noble vassals had more constraints and lost some of their power, but at the same time, the power in their hands did not decrease, which was also the price that William paid in order to regain the right to rule, military power and tax power.

......

"Quick! General Dugan, find me some boats, I'll cross the river with the army, I'm going to get out of here! Henry I, who had already arrived on the Seine first, said anxiously to his close general, Dugan.

"Your Majesty, we don't have so many ships, we can only carry a few dozen people, that is, there are enough ships, and there are fierce Normans behind them, they won't give us time to transport the army, how many people can be transported to the other side of the river?" General Dugan shook his head helplessly in the face of Henry I's request.

"I don't care, I'm going to be with my soldiers." Henry I fell to his knees and wept profusely.

Behind the flanks of Henry I, shouts of killing kept coming from the rear, and General Dugan looked behind him and saw the eye-catching golden double lion banners on a red background, knowing that Duke William himself led the army to chase after him, and he could not stay here for a long time.

Now that the situation was urgent, there was no time for Henry I to hesitate, so General Dugan did not care about anything else, grabbed Henry I's arm and carried him on his shoulders, and crossed the Seine with more than thirty knights of the guard in two boats.

The knights and heavy cavalry, abandoned by Henry I and General Dugan on the banks of the Seine, knew that they had been abandoned by their lord Henry I, and their faces were filled with despair.

In the face of the menacing cavalry of the 1,500-strong Guards Brigade, this cavalry unit of nearly 1,000 men surrendered to William without much hesitation, because they did not know who they were fighting for, and without the object of allegiance, there was no point in fighting William.

William looked at the surrendered knights, and then at Henry I, who fled by boat in the distance, and his heart was really full of regret, but he did not show it, nor did he blame anyone, but let go of his obsession with capturing Henry I.

After assigning a part of the infantry to guard the prisoners, William immediately led all the cavalry and part of the infantry back to pursue the scattered French soldiers.

William's army pursued the scattered French soldiers, killing them at sight, chasing them again, one from the banks of the Seine to the center of the camp, and from the center of the camp to the Seine.

The fleeing French soldiers were powerless to stop William's pursuit, and they were either killed or driven to the banks of the Seine.

Behind them were the terrifying Normans, in front of them was the raging Seine, in the face of a desperate situation with no way out, driven by the Normans behind them, the French soldiers had to wade across the river, of course, more often than not, they were pushed into the Seine by their companions.

At this time, it was past dawn and the water of the Seine was inflated, and the raging water rushed the French soldiers in the water downstream.

The French were in a dilemma, they were powerless to resist the murderous Wilhelm's army, the blood stained the river red, and the corpses clogged the river.

Henry I watched his soldiers being slaughtered like lambs on the other side, and he beat his chest in a hurry, regretting what he had done at the beginning, when William attacked at night, if he could organize some knights and soldiers to fight back against William's attack, maybe there would be a chance to regroup, but it was too late to say anything.

Henry I failed, completely failed, he not only lost his only 15,000 elites, but also his ally who supported him, the Duke of Champagne, Thibault, without this powerful coalition army, how could he realize his ambition of 'six princes, one world'?