There were few soldiers in the city of Nice, and the defenders had already broken their courage in the previous attack, so William only needed to leave a small number of troops to garrison outside the city, pretending that the main force was still stationed outside the city, and the defenders of Nice City did not dare to act rashly.

Taking over the task was William. Farle Osborne, the only one among William's generals who can gain his absolute trust, and only he can resolutely carry out William's strategic intentions without compromise.

William left Faller with a battalion of Guards infantry, a standing brigade and some militia units of less than 5,000 men, but ordered him to pretend to be leading tens of thousands of troops in order to confuse the defenders of Nice, while he himself led an army of 50,000 to bypass Nice and go to Monaco, ten kilometers away, to seek a decisive battle with the Lombards.

The terrain of the Nice area is long and narrow, with the Mediterranean Sea on the south side, the Beron Mountains on the east side, and the Alps on the west and north sides.

The city of Monaco, 20 kilometers away from the city of Nice, as an important town on this road, was chosen by William as the site of the decisive battle because of its difficult terrain.

In later generations, the Principality of Monaco was a city-state located in Europe, and the second smallest country in the world, the smallest being the Vatican.

At this time, Monaco was a colony of the Republic of Genoa, a town under the protection of the Genoese.

Monaco's terrain is long and narrow, about 3 kilometers long from east to west, the narrowest point from north to south is only 200 meters, the territory is hilly, the average altitude is less than 500 meters, as the only way to Nice City, its terrain is unsurpassed, if Monaco is occupied by the Lombards, it will make William in a strategic passive situation.

William preemptively occupied the city of Monaco as the site of the decisive battle, and also had the intention of seizing strategic points with the Lombards.

Monaco actually consists of two locations, Monaco City and Fort Monaco in front of it, and the precipitous terrain of Monaco is obviously more suitable as a strategic base than Monaco City, which is well-functioning in commerce and urban functions.

In the castle of Monaco, in order to increase the defensive ability of this strategic support point, William deliberately placed eight long-barreled siege guns in the castle of Monaco, in addition to twelve counterweight trebuchets, more than thirty bed crossbows and the same number of small trebuchets, it can be said that this castle of Monaco was fully armed by William, enough to defend against enemies several times his own with less than 5,000 defenders in the city.

Due to the limitation of Monaco's terrain, the narrowest point from north to south is only 200 meters, and the width near the Monaco castle is only about 500 meters, which can only allow William to deploy less than 3,000 people on the front, but even so, because of the relationship with the Monaco castle, in terms of the total number of troops and firepower projection per unit area, William's army far exceeds the Lombards who are about to arrive.

In Monaco, on a frontal battlefield, William can only invest less than 10,000 troops, although he can set up more reserves, but he needs to deploy more troops in Monaco will not exceed 20,000 troops, although this arrangement can rely on geographical advantages to win more with less, but it can not achieve William's intention to annihilate the Lombard coalition in his heart, he must find another way to cut off the back road of the Lombards.

Fortunately, it was not difficult to do this, not to mention that William had the advantage of the sea, which could transport troops to land from the rear of the Lombards, cut off the enemy's rear route, and there was a more difficult mountain road that led to the town of Menton in front of Monaco.

Once William and the Lombards had a decisive battle, he only needed to send a partial division to occupy the city of Menton by surprise through this mountain road, which could completely cut off the Lombards' retreat and completely block the Lombard army in this narrow area between Monaco and Menton, and this is why William was willing to give up his superiority in strength and chose not to fight in a wide area, but to choose a decisive battle in the narrow Monaco, he wanted to completely annihilate the Lombards and his allies in this battle.

Serving as the Earl of Chester and commander of the Fifth Legion, Roger Bush, was the commander of the Fifth Legion. Morality. Montgomery, he was to lead two-thirds of the forces of the Fifth Army, about 8,000 men, through Monaco, through the mountain roads, to take the city of Menton.

It's not that Count Roger can't carry more troops, but the mountain roads are steep and steep, and leading 8,000 infantry is already the maximum limit in terms of supplies and road conditions.

After the 8,000 infantry of the Fifth Legion was separated, William's strength was reduced to 42,000 men, including his direct 1st Guards Legion, Duke Rodrigo's 2nd Legion, Duke Richard's 4th Legion, the remaining brigade of the 5th Legion commanded by Lancelin, Baron Buckingham, and mercenaries such as the Nordic Guard.

Not only because William already occupied the strategic location of Monaco, but more importantly, he believed that his battle-hardened Norman warriors were no worse than the Lombards.

Two days later, Ezzo II finally arrived outside the castle of Monaco with an army of 35,000 men, and it took them less than four days to reach Monaco 300 kilometers away from Milan.

"Your Majesty, the decisive battle is about to begin, and the Lombards have launched the first attack on the castle of Monaco!" Duke Rodrigo asked William for instructions.

"Raise my battle flag, blow the trumpet, and beat the Lombards back with all the rage!

Orders to the front line and the castle of Monaco, without sparing ammunition, all artillery and trebuchets are fired, and the longbowmen organize a barrage to suppress the fire of the Genoese crossbowmen! William nodded slightly, and with a wave of his right hand, he ordered.

"Yes!" The herald took the order and carried William's order to the corners of the front line of the battlefield.

Several banners bearing William's coat of arms were erected on the castle of Monaco and in the front line troops, and as soon as these banners appeared, they immediately aroused the courage of the Normans to fight and defeated the imposing Lombards.

Artillery, trebuchets, longbows, and crossbows, these projectile weapons were divided into several waves under the command of commanders at all levels, and carried out continuous and uninterrupted strikes against the enemy forces in front of them, and successfully inflicted great casualties on the Lombard coalition forces in front of them.

Although the Lombards also had powerful Genoese crossbowmen, they could not be used due to the narrow terrain restrictions, but William's side could suppress the enemy in front of them with multi-level firepower because of the favorable terrain.