King Henry's army in the middle was more than 37,000 people, and even after deducting the unscrupulous levies, there were about 25,000 elite trees.

On William's side, because he had previously sent the strongest Knights of Eifler and the veteran Count Richard to the Eastern Front in the East to support Andrew's Eastern Front, William only had the First Legion of the Praetorian Guard and the newly formed Third Legion in his hands, a total of 19,000 people, and it seemed that the number of elites was almost the same, but in fact it was not the case.

The newly formed Third Army was in fact a militia unit that had always been armoured, and although it had increased its combat effectiveness, it was not even a third of the same number of First Army soldiers.

The role of this Third Army is actually to replenish troops all the time, to supplement the battle losses of the First Army, and at the same time, William also has the idea of training with battle, tempering this army with a war of blood and fire.

In the face of several times the enemy, William did not have the slightest sense of timidity, if he surrendered, then he would be "William the mongrel", and he was not even worthy of being called William, because William could not protect all he had, his principality, his family, partners and subjects.

"I can't go down, and I can't afford to lose. I have to fight, I have to win. William thought.

The soldiers had been assembled, and William and Earl Hubert stood together in front of them, and a stir welled up in his chest, and he was confident that he would be able to defeat an enemy many times more numerous than himself.

William did not force all his soldiers to take risks with him, because it was a gamble of life and death, and even William himself was not sure that he would be able to return, he rode up to the soldiers and said, "Admit that I am a duke, love me, follow me." ”

After saying that, William kicked the horse's belly and was the first to rush out.

No one chooses to abandon William at this time, even if they encounter as many difficulties, they will face them with William.

All the soldiers of the 1st and 3rd Legions set out, numerous wagons of baggage behind the ranks, and siege equipment such as tall counterweight trebuchets and torsion ballistae followed the ranks slowly under the tutelage of horses and livestock.

William's original plan was to break through in the middle and defeat his king Henry I with a strong force, but although William's army in the middle was greatly reduced due to the need to support the eastern army, and the number of troops on the opposite side of Henry I was much higher than William expected, he did not change his plan.

Because he knew that even if he defeated the aristocratic coalition of the eastern road, or the army of the Duchy of Anjou, the war would not stop if Henry I was not resolved.

And time is not on William's side, Henry I, who has the support of most of the French princes, has a war potential far greater than that of Normandy, which is equivalent to Normandy to confront the whole of France, and such a behemoth to fight a long-term war for several years, William really has no confidence, even if he wins, he will drag Normandy down.

Now, William had only one choice in front of him, and that was to defeat Henry I's army as quickly as possible, preferably by capturing or killing Henry I, so that the French coalition would have no backbone and William would be able to easily defeat each other one by one.

......

On the Normandy border of Evreux, Chartres and Paris, the vast army of the Middle Route under the command of Henry I raged like locusts in the south of Normandy, and no one could stop this huge army.

They killed as much as they wanted, burned as much as they wanted, drank wine and sang rogue songs, and easily captured the city of Bonival.

During the day they sacked the city and sent troops along the pontoon bridge to capture the fortress of the island in the center of the Seine, taking away some of the undiverted navigation taxes, and finally burning the huge pontoon bridge with fire.

The defenders and fleet that had been stationed here had already withdrawn at the beginning of the war, and fortunately there were not many casualties, but it was a pity that this pontoon bridge that William had worked so hard to build.

In the evening, though each of them had robbed a large bag of silver coins and many other valuables, they were still very active, and then they kicked open the doors of the houses with their swords and took away a large number of women, who they carried in their arms, drunk and fell into a deep sleep.

The soldiers under his hands looked like this, and the noble generals above were not much better, they were also drunk, sleeping straight on their white bellies.

In the evening, William approached the city with his army, but instead of attacking the seemingly unsuspecting soldiers, he ordered them to lurk on the hills on the other side of the city, and he waited until 10 o'clock in the evening to surprise the French army and annihilate them in one fell swoop.

William definitely has this confidence to win in the night attack, hundreds of Normans and his ancestors Vikings are very good at night raids, sneak attacks and other tactics, under William's careful training, their night raid tactics are more proficient, so he is very confident in his Praetorian Guard legions.

"Count Hubert, ladies and gentlemen, the army on the other side is only a miscellaneous army of about 10,000 people, most of them are serfs, townspeople, merchants, robbers, almost everyone, but there are not many elites, at most two or three hundred knights.

Their generals were Henry I's cousin Ondu and the mayor of Paris, Charles, both of whom were straw bales.

Now that this group has let their guard down and is sleeping soundly in the city, there is no one who can stop us from victory.

Warriors, go! William rode his horse and puffed loudly in front of the soldiers.

"Oh!"

The night could not stop the sharp eyes of the Normans, and they could still see the way forward by the starlight of the stars in the night.

With cavalry as the lead, heavy infantry and light infantry still formed an array and followed behind them, charging towards the open city of Bonival.

Although some of the French soldiers came to their senses and tried to remind their comrades, it was too late now, and even if they were all sober, they would not be able to resist when they had spent their physical and energy on robbery and women.

The Norman army slaughtered the French soldiers who were almost unsuspecting like wolves, like wild wolves rushing into a flock, biting their throats, one bite at a time, and killing them one after another.

In the crowd, the main general of the French army, Angdu, broke through to the south under the desperate protection of his own guards, but the mayor of Paris, Charles, was captured by Palle, which William regretted, but in an instant it ran to the back of his mind, for these insignificant figures, it was not worth William's attention at all.

Having gathered the troops, William did not dare to stay here, and returned to the garrison with all his men and horses in charge of the prisoners for two nights.

After daybreak, Henry I's army arrived, and looking at the devastated city of Bonival, Henry I angrily whipped his cousin Ondu with his horsewhip until he cried and begged for mercy.