Chapter 258: Extraordinary Military Talent

In addition to giving Jenny a holy sword, Durandal, William also received a royal gift of the Normandy flag.

The flag was meticulously sewn by Flemish craftsmen from the finest silk fabrics, and on its front it was painted the coat of arms of the Normandy family with two lions on a red background, and on the back the flag was patterned with the words of the Trinity and the phrase "Legion of the Kings of Heaven", which was not comparable to ordinary military flags.

William's purpose in making this flag was to give Jenny a better morale-boosting role.

The holy sword Durandal, which represented William's authority, and the banner that represented the Normandy family were the greatest help that William could give to Jenny, believing that with these two treasures, all the noble knights who were effectively loyal to William would obey Jenny's orders.

As for Jeanne's so-called sword of St. Catherine, which he wore with him, William did not care, although Jeanne boasted that St. Catherine had given it to him personally, but in William's opinion, it was nothing more than a longsword that Jenny had found by luck in Catherine's church in her hometown.

In this way, Jeanne rode on a pure white Andalusian horse in full plate armor, holding the holy sword Durendal in her right hand and the double lion coat of arms on a red background given by William in her left hand, and visited the garrison of the Knights of Rouen-Urbor, accompanied by Baron Ferdinand and Sauron Barons of Pontoise, and hundreds of cavalry.

The Order had previously played a major role in William's wars against Henry I and Baldwin V, Duke of Flanders, but unfortunately William did not want to continue to expand the size and military strength of the Order, so the Knights of Rouen-Örborg were semi-disbanded after the war, and except for some knights who remained on rotation, the other members of the Order remained in their respective estates.

These members of the Rouen-Knights must have been very dissatisfied, especially now that William has transferred the previous head of the Knights, Count Andrew, and has not selected a new leader until now, so that they have not had a weighty noble leader to advocate for them in the interests of the Knights in front of William.

Jeanne was rightfully greeted by all the noble knights at the headquarters of the Knights of Rouen-Euburg, and no one came to greet them, nor was anyone willing to obey their orders.

Faced with such a difficult situation, Jeanne did not rely on the holy sword and banner given by William, as well as the noble generals and cavalry assigned to her, to subdue the Rouen-Urborg Knights, but chose to convince others.

Relying on her graceful and robust temperament, superior common sense and military talent, as well as her devotion to God, Jenny persuaded all the noble knightly officers at the headquarters of the Order to use her charm and piety to conquer all the nobles present and make them willing to obey Jenny's orders.

After that, Jenny did not stop, and immediately went to the manor where the members of the knights were located to visit the noble knights.

With the help of the Knights' higher-ups, Jenny's visit went smoothly, and everyone who met Jenny admired her outstanding beauty and unique temperament, and expressed their willingness to fight for her.

In just one week, Jeanne was able to reorganize the half-disbanded Knights of Rouen-Erburg, much faster than the newly formed Third Legion, much to the surprise of William, who had been watching Jeanne.

On the second day, a letter from Jenny appeared on William's desk, which contained a list of the supplies and weapons that Jenny had requested: five thousand robes and three thousand shields with the coat of arms of the Normandy family red and gold lions, thirty military flags and a military band and drummer, six counterweight trebuchets, ten torsion ballistae, twenty bed crossbows, and the accompanying equipment, in addition to the need to select some captured weapons from the warehouse to arm the ordinary soldiers of the Order.

William could understand this and Jeanne's request, because since the end of the war, he had gradually reduced his support for the Knights, which led to the Knights of Rouen-Erborg except for the knights and some of the squire knights, who still had plate armor, horses, and weapons, and the rest of the soldiers recruited from the knights' manor were not given any weapons at all, and they still fought with rudimentary one-handed maces, spears, and wooden shields, and were very poorly equipped.

Jeanne's request was reasonable, all the soldiers of the Order were given uniform clothing and equipped with sufficient weapons and equipment, which was conducive to improving the morale and combat effectiveness of the Order, and the use of drummers, military bands and well-marked flags was conducive to the command of the battlefield.

Finally, William also noticed that Jenny's equipment request included dozens of siege machines, among which the easy to move torsion ballista and bed crossbow stood the majority, it seems that Jenny still has a high talent for projection weapons such as artillery, if William had a cannon now, he believed that Jenny would definitely choose to be equipped with cannons instead of slow siege equipment.

Jenny was quick to move, and she had already begun assembling the army before William's supplies arrived.

First of all, she organized the army into a small corps according to the military establishment of the Praetorian Guard, including a cavalry regiment of 1,000 men, two infantry regiments with a total of 4,000 men, a longbow regiment with 800 men, and a total of 1,400 troops such as the equipment barracks, the baggage barracks, and the engineer battalion.

Jenny's move greatly improved the previous inconvenience and disobedience of the Knights, and made it easy to command them according to the numbers and flags of their respective units.

Jeanne then assigned them to the officers of the various units according to their rank and ability in the Knights of Rouen-Eiburg, with those who were good at infantry commanding being appointed infantry commanders, and those who were good at commanding cavalry being assigned to cavalry units.

After Jeanne had assembled the Knights of Rouen-Euburg, she finally waited for the weapons, equipment, money, and other supplies allocated by William to arrive at the camp of the Knights of Rouen-Örburg.

Jenny did not hesitate, and immediately distributed these materials and equipment to the various armies, and all the soldiers were at least wearing uniform smocks and holding decent weapons and equipment, which made the soldiers who were originally demoralized quite excited.

In addition, there were counterweight trebuchets, torsion ballistas and bed crossbows, and drummers and marching bands were assigned by Jeanne to her direct jurisdiction, and the siege equipment battalion and military band were quickly formed, which greatly strengthened the Rouen-Urborg Knights, making it no longer just a second-line army, but a force capable of independently undertaking siege field tasks.

Although Jenny was a young girl with a very simple mind, she was the most skilled in military affairs, commanding spears, assembling armies, commanding military operations, and commanding siege equipment troops.

Jenny's abilities were displayed in the formation of the Order, much to everyone's astonishment, and how clever and sensible she could be in warfare, as if she were a general with twenty or thirty years of experience, especially when it came to using equipment such as a counterweight trebuchet.