Whether it was Baron Mephistopheles in Genoa, or Theowulf and Igino in Verona, and Maurice in Lombardy, their respective recruitment of mercenaries went very smoothly, and it took less than a week to recruit more than 2,500 mercecenaries.

The largest number of them were the Northern Italian mercenaries, who numbered more than 1,300 people, unlike the cowardly Romans and Southern Italians, these Northern and Northern Italian mercenaries could be said to have experienced a hundred battles, and some even participated in the war against Emperor Conrad II of the Salian family, and fought against the German knights under the emperor's command.

These 1,300 Northern Italian mercenaries were regarded by William as the backbone of the army, and their discipline, fighting ability, and fighting spirit were very good, at least in Morris's opinion, they could be regarded as elite in the general aristocratic army.

Then Morris recruited a lot of Lombard mercenaries, these people are brave warriors, good at using swords and shields, dare to fight and rush, and are used by Morris as a commando.

As the fire cover of the entire mercenary group, Genoa hired crossbowmen are indispensable, but unfortunately they are too cost-effective and expensive, and Morris has only recruited more than 360 Genoese hired crossbowmen with a bloody investment.

Luckily, both the Italian mercenaries and the Lombards were adept at using javelin overdrafts as long-range support, which, combined with the use of javelin throwers, was enough to provide fire cover for the army's attack.

The javelin thrower appeared at the same time as the catapult, made of a wooden handle or a horn handle, leaning on the end of the javelin, the javelin can be thrown a hundred meters away, which is two or three times farther than throwing it directly by hand. Later, the Roman army made the throwing distance even longer with the help of a belt that increased the thrust.

However, throwing weapons were not valued much in Europe and Asia in ancient times, and were only equipped with lightly armed infantry, but only auxiliary units of heavily armed infantry phalanxes.

The last one or two hundred men were Maurice and his hand-picked strong men, probably from the German region, most of whom copied Italian with a strong accent, and most of these strong men were powerful, and Morris had recruited them specifically for Theowulf as the striker of the commandos.

Recruiting all the mercenaries, Morris immediately distributed the equipment he brought according to the different classes of troops and armed them.

Most of these mercenaries have some weapons and armor in their hands, but they are still very excited to get good quality weapons, chain mail and leather armor, etc., knowing that it is not easy to get weapons and equipment, not only is it expensive, but there are not many places to buy them.

To their greatest surprise, the lucky ones among them were lucky enough to receive this precious piece of armor, which made them extremely excited, even if the mercenaries who obtained the chain mail had to pay for several months.

By the time Maurice had gathered all three thousand mercenaries to Genoa, they had only eight days left for them to prepare.

Maurice wasted no time, while letting his squire Ian Wright hire ships and procure supplies to cross the sea to the Duchy of Apulia, on the other hand, Morris also seized the time to assemble and train the army.

It was certainly impossible for Maurice to command such a large number of mercenaries alone, his friend Igno Delamarck was appointed commander of the Italian mercenaries, Theowulf was in charge of the British mercenaries and Germans, and then the Genoese mercenary crossbowmen were assigned to the Baron Mephistopheles, and he himself was in charge of the Lombards.

In the past few days, Morris will appear in front of the soldiers on time every day and participate in training with them, due to the tight time, Morris can only focus on training the discipline of these mercenaries, rather than their independent combat ability.

However, for these casual mercenaries, asking them to obey military discipline is tantamount to sending them to prison, so they are complaining about being tired within two days of the start of training, and some even dare to disobey Morris's orders.

Seeing this, Baron Mephistopheles frowned, and before Maurice could give the order, he led the Norman cavalry to charge into the fiercest mercenary army, allowing hundreds of iron hooves to trample on their bodies, and suddenly the mercenaries screamed and screamed, the scene was bloody, and the stumps and broken arms were everywhere.

These wolf-like Norman cavalrymen dragged out the leaders and leaders of the ranks, and they were executed or flogged in public, depending on the severity of the crime.

The death and wounding of dozens of mercenaries was in exchange for their fear and obedience to the Normans, and with Baron Mephistopheles and his Norman knights supporting Maurice, no one dared to disobey Maurice's orders.

It may be said that Morris and the Normans are fierce and cruel, but this is also something that cannot be helped, who asked William to urge so hard, Morris has already suffered a lot of pressure, not to mention that the wicked also have Normans to do it, and he is happy to use them to suppress the riots.

Of course, in the eyes of these mercenaries, Maurice and the Normans are simply the same thing, both devils, devils that they fear.

Under the persecution of the Norman sticks, the military discipline of these mercenaries finally improved greatly, and at the same time, Morris made the soldiers of the same nationality in the same team, which strengthened the cohesion and resilience of the army to a certain extent.

After all, the Normans' swords were not fake, and if anyone escaped, the whole team would be punished, so that all the soldiers in the team would monitor each other, and even if someone tried to escape, the soldiers of these fellow villagers would organize the soldiers to flee in order to avoid being punished.

Eight days later, in the morning, the Italian mercenary group, which had long since finished its intensive training, boarded the ships one by one in the busy port of Genoa after a day's rest.

By two o'clock in the afternoon, all the supplies and personnel had been loaded and unloaded, and under the command of Maurice, the group left the port of Genoa by boat, and sailed south, aiming at the Duchy of Apulia in southern Italy.

Morris and the others sailed for more than ten days, and finally disembarked and landed in the port city of Naples, and the stevedores and serfs on the docks also rushed to help.

Napoli, also translated as Naples, is an Italian city, founded in the seventh century B.C., the Greeks called her "New City", it is located in the north of the Bay of Naples at the southwestern tip of Italy, is the second largest port in Italy and one of the most beautiful ports in the world.

Due to the mild climate, Augustus, Tiberius and Nero the Great of the Roman Empire all came here to escape the cold. There is a beautiful Italian proverb: "When you see Naples, you die without regrets." That's why some say Naples is a paradise within a paradise.

Naples is the most beautiful port in Italy, and the Italians once said: "When you go to Naples, you can die at night". The folk customs are quite lively and strong, and the streets are dirty and noisy.