"Do big things and cherish your life, see small profits and forget righteousness, it is difficult to become a big tool!" This is what William said to the Duke of Burgundy, Robert. Capet's evaluation, he is a medieval Yuan Shao.

Robert. Capet gave William the impression that he was always looking ahead and backward, accustomed to listening to other people's opinions, but he was not decisive, and when faced with some major issues, he either shirked or stuck to the old ways and did not innovate. Such a character may not be a big mistake, but it may also be destined to make great achievements.

William had fought Henry I twice before, not on a small scale, and in both wars against France, William had contacted Robert Brown, Duke of Burgundy. Capet rebelled, but the timid Duke of Burgundy was reluctant to do so, so he had a good chance to do so.

In this war, the Duke of Burgundy and William joined forces against Henry I, but because of the analysis of some interests, they switched to Henry I's camp, without considering who was strong and who was weak, which is how unwise.

Such a person who did big things and spared his life, forgot his righteousness when he saw small profits, and it was difficult to become a big man, William naturally did not take him seriously, and he did not take into account the crisis of Henry I after switching camps, and he was trapped in the territory because of personal grievances, and did not send a single soldier to support Henry I of Reims, which made William look down on him even more.

A man who is blind, short-sighted and unassertive will be eliminated by him sooner or later, and William has this confidence.

Now William's goal was to occupy Reims, kill or capture King Henry I of France, and be crowned King of France at Reims Cathedral, because all the kings in the history of France were crowned in Reims Cathedral, so William attached great importance to Reims.

Reims is the religious center of France, the coronation place of successive French kings, and is known as the city of kings.

The history of the city of Reims can be traced back to the beginning of the 4th century AD, when Christianity was called the state religion of the Roman Empire, and as one of the important cities of the Western Roman Empire, Reims naturally also built a church - the church of St. Niches, which is also the predecessor of Reims Cathedral.

On December 25, 496, Clovis I renounced the Germanic Arian sect and officially converted to Roman Catholicism at the church of Saint-Nicais in Reims, becoming the first king of the Frankish kingdom.

This historical event is of great historical significance, as for more than a thousand years after Clovis I, Reims became the place of coronation of the French monarchs.

The only exact document in William's possession is the record of Henry I's coronation in Reims in 1027 - the 19-year-old Henry I was crowned at Reims Cathedral in honor of the first Flassi king, Clovis I, while most of the previous records of the coronation of French monarchs were passed down by word of mouth, and there is no exact record.

William sent almost all of his troops to besiege Reims from Paris, Orleans-Sens and Amiens in three directions, which is enough to show that William attached great importance to Reims.

However, William's march was not very smooth these days, because because he initiated the Reformation in England and confiscated the assets of the Church, and the Church of France was very hostile to William, considering him the "Antichrist", lest he use the excuse to confiscate the assets of the French Church.

Therefore, in the archdiocese of Reims, a territory ruled by the local church, bishops from all over the country responded to the call of Archbishop Gervais of Reims and King Henry I of France to raise a large number of armies at their own expense to block William's advance.

These troops may not be strong, but they are outnumbered and familiar with the terrain, and they have the support of the local population, they do not dare to fight William, but they are really good at harassing transport convoys and sneak attacks, and they have no scruples about eliminating William.

Now that he has torn his face with the Farasi Church, William no longer has any scruples, and everywhere he goes, William will uproot the local church, take back the church assets and appoint the Normans as the local bishop.

And these flies and dogs could not stop William's march in the slightest.

As for whether William's behavior will cause dissatisfaction with the Holy See and Leo IX, and whether he will be excommunicated again, William said that it does not matter, whether he is excommunicated or not, he is a well-deserved king of England and the Normans, the future king of France, and the incomparably noble monarch of a great country, which cannot be changed by an edict of Leo IX's excommunication.

Rather than compromise with the Church and be taken advantage of by it, it is better to take advantage of the war to justifiably weaken the power of the Church in France.

......

Under Reims, William had launched no less than three attacks on it in five days, but all of them were in vain, and the determination to resist in Reims was even stronger than he expected.

On the sixth day, William had joined up with Andrew's 8,000 men who had gone south, and his forces had increased to 45,000, which was good news for him.

On this day, William saw a very interesting scene, on the walls of Reims, the Archbishop of Reims Gervais canonized five hundred valiant warriors as knights on the spot, and these five hundred knights were called the holy knights of Christ by the Archbishop of Reims, in order to boost the morale of the army in the city.

After the canonization ceremony, the morale of the defenders of Reims was greatly boosted, and on several occasions they used courage to drive the Normans who occupied several walls off the walls.

In William's view, this was just a moment of courage, and as long as they recognized the disparity in strength between themselves and the Normans, this inspired courage would be exhausted.

However, in order to avoid unnecessary losses, William still ordered that the siege of the city in the past few days should mainly be based on trebuchets and longbowmen, and that no infantry should be sent to the city without suitable fighters.

On the ninth day of the siege, William finally used dozens of counterweight trebuchets to smash a gap in the wall of Reims City that was more than ten meters wide.

Then William made a quick decision, led by Duke Rodrigo's Second Army, and the whole army swarmed in.

Now that the walls had fallen, the morale of the defenders in the city plummeted, and they retreated under the frenzied attack of the Normans, with a few retreating into the Cathedral of Reims, while most of the rest were scattered and annihilated by the Normans.

The Reims Cathedral in the city is also extremely strong, the whole body is made of huge stones, even if it is bombarded with a counterweight trebuchet, it cannot be broken in a short time, not to mention that William does not want to destroy Reims Cathedral, after all, this will be the place where he will be crowned King of France in the future, and he does not want Reims Cathedral to be damaged in any way.

However, William was reluctant to force the siege, so he ordered the Duke of Richard to cut off the water supply to Reims Cathedral and besiege it.

He didn't believe it, how long could the defenders in Reims Cathedral last without a water supply, and even if there was a cistern built in the church, how many days could it last?