The war in the Duchy of Brittany has subsided, and the last two rebellious Counts of Leon and Cornev have died in the war, and the two counties have been completely under William's control, so William can not care about whether the two will resist or not, and he can immediately issue a disciplinary order.

Of course, William would not do this, because it would chill the soldiers, and he would recall Jeanne and Rodrigo and their respective troops to Rouen and announce their rewards and punishments in front of them.

As the smoke of the Brittany battlefield subsided, William set his sights on Wales and Ireland, and the princes of these two places had no intention of bowing their heads to William, as if they wanted to rely on the English Channel as a support for survival.

William was so angry with this attitude that he decided to send a fleet to teach them a good lesson, and by the way to seize a territory in Wales as a base for his future advance into England.

William turned around, looked at the large map behind his desk, and reached out his right hand to point at the Duchy of Deherbas in Wales, and finally moved his finger to the county of Glamorgan, which was one of the territories that William had chosen, and which would be one of the bases from which he and his Norman army would march into Britain.

Then William's finger pointed to Dublin, an earldom on the east side of the island of Ireland, which would become famous in Ireland at this time, and at this time it was only an independent county attached to Ed, Duke of Connaught, and its importance was not significant, but this did not prevent William from choosing it as one of the targets to be captured.

It is impossible to bring the nobles of Ireland and Wales to their knees without the use of some force to conquer these two regions, and in the end it is necessary to conquer the territories with iron and blood.

"Steward Osborne, Steward Osborne!" William shouted twice towards the door and said.

"Young Master William, what do you command?" Butler Osborne pushed open the door and walked in, bowed down with his right hand on his chest.

"Help me call Dirk, the commander of the North Sea Fleet, I have something to tell him to do." William nodded.

"Yes, Master William." Steward Osborne bowed down and said.

The North Sea Fleet is a new type of fleet that William has recently formed, and the biggest difference between this fleet and the native fleet that uses the old Dragonhead and Kirk ships is that it is generally equipped with all-sail ships, and the main difference between the two is that it uses long-range weapons to destroy enemy ships instead of destroying enemy sailors with gang jumping tactics.

This all-sail battleship William called the Galen ship, which was "invented" by William according to the appearance of the Galen ship in history, it began to be developed as early as when William unified Normandy, and began to be launched one after another when William attacked the Duchy of Brittany two years earlier.

First of all, the Galen ship used sails as power to replace the original dragon head battleship and Kirk ship with oars and sails, thus increasing the maximum range of the fleet and enhancing the fleet's long-distance sailing ability.

Under William's design, the Galen was designed in two models, divided into two-masted and four-masted, of which the sails of the two-masted small Galen were composed of the forerunner of the first mast and the transverse and aft jib of the middle main mast, and this small Galen ship mostly existed as a privateer or small pirate ship, and also served as a frigate and destroyer in the North Sea Fleet.

It is also not rigorous for real sail battleships to be collectively called "three-masted battleships", because the one with its head sticking out obliquely forward should also be counted as a mast and is the first mast, so the real more common sail battleships are composed of the first mast and three masts on the hull, the foremast, the mainmast and the rear mast, a total of four masts.

Among these four masts, the foremast and the main mast are mainly propulsive, and generally three to four crossbeams are placed, and the width of the crossbeams decreases from bottom to top, and the sail surface also changes according to these crossbeams of different widths.

Normally, if the foremast is three crossbeams and the sails are all open, then the canvas on the widest crossbow at the bottom of the mainmast is mainly retracted, because the wind at this time is concentrated on the crossbow under the foremast, if the mainmast lower crosscross sail is opened, then the wind will be blocked and blocked.

Of course, if the downwind conditions are particularly good and the boat does need to go at maximum speed, the full sail will be fully opened, including the additional sail on the foremast and the secondary cross beam attached to the middle cross of the main mast.

As for the rear mast, it is mainly used to adjust the wind direction with the steering gear to adjust the course, so it is generally set up with an upper sail and a diagonal spinnaker below.

The four-masted Galen was William's large Galen, which served primarily as a battery in the North Sea Fleet.

Intersecting the two-masted light single-deck Galen ship with a displacement of only 150 tons, this large Galen ship generally has a displacement of between 300 tons and 400 tons, and is divided into a double-deck layout, with eight large bed crossbows that can be turned at a large angle on the left and right sides of the upper deck, and on the lower deck, twenty-two medium-sized bed crossbows are placed in a frenzy, so that a large Galen ship has forty bed crossbows, and the salvo fire on one side reaches twenty.

Originally, William intended to use the torsion ballista that fired stone projectiles, which were Roman ballistae, as the firepower output, but due to its high cost, complex manufacturing process, unable to fire larger stone projectiles, too slow firing speed, and the straight trajectory of this ballista, unable to eject, and the general bed crossbow did not have any advantages, William chose to abandon the Roman ballista as a shipborne weapon, and instead chose the more expensive three-bow bed crossbow.

The three-bow bed crossbow fired a huge bolt enough to penetrate any kind of warship so far, and its power was smaller than that of the expensive Roman ballista, and it was easier to operate and easier to handle, with shorter firing intervals.

......

After a while, Steward Osborne came to William with a tall and sturdy young general.

"His Highness William." The young admiral looked at William with burning eyes, he knew that there would be a war waiting for him, and such an opportunity was rare.

"Commander of the North Sea Fleet, Dirk, I have ordered you to come here so that you may lead the North Sea Fleet in attacking the coastal areas of Ireland and Wales.

Whatever you do, I ask you to destroy the enemy's naval forces and take the county of Glamorgan in the Duchy of De Hebas in Wales and the county of Dublin in the east of Ireland. Commander Dirk, can you do it? William stood up, his eyes fixed on Dirk, and said.

The young naval commander Dirk, a Dutchman from a commoner family, joined William when he succeeded to the county of Evreux, and led the Dragonhead to defeat the fleet of Burgundy Caj, and later played a pivotal role in numerous battles.

Now, the Dirk commander has been promoted to the position of commander of the North Sea Fleet by virtue of his exploits, and has been knighted by William, which is a rare achievement at such a young age.

"I can do it, I swear to you, no ship can go to sea, the land along the coast is uninhabited, Dublin and Glamorgan, I will take it for you." Sir Dirk, the commander of the North Sea Fleet, assured William solemnly, and his sonorous voice made William feel a little kind of favor with him.

"Strike, for victory." William ordered with a smile.