William did not pay attention to the praise of the nobles and knights present, and he still concentrated on fiddling with the arquebus in his hand, firing three more shots at the target in front of him.

William calculated in his heart, he fired four shots in a total of 3 minutes and 20 seconds, an average of 50 seconds to fire, that is to say, the arquebus rate of fire is more than one shot a minute, such a rate of fire is acceptable, and the arquebus rate of fire in his memory is not far behind.

Because of the use of paper shells, the firing rate has been increased from two rounds per minute at the beginning to more than one round per minute at the beginning, which is already the best result, and it is very difficult to increase it.

The rate of fire of the arquebus was so slow that William had to consider mixing cold weapons such as arquebusiers and spearmen when he was organizing his army.

However, William was still a little unhappy with this, as the arquebus's rate of fire of two to three rounds per minute was not at all advantageous compared to the rate of fire of flintlock guns that fired two to three rounds per minute with paper shells.

And the flintlock pistol uses flint to ignite, and the firing efficiency is 67% to 85%, which is much higher than the 50% of the smoothbore gun; The flintlock pistol is half the weight, simplifies the firing process, and more than doubles the firing speed; The caliber of the flintlock pistol has been reduced to 17 mm, the weight has been reduced to 4.5 kg, the weight of the bullet has been reduced to 25 grams, the maximum range has been increased from 450 meters to 600 meters, and the effective range has been increased from 180 meters to 300 meters.

It can be said that the flintlock pistol is superior to the arquebus in all respects, and some tactics such as the line tactics of all-firearms troops, the tactics of dense salvo fire, bayonets and hollow phalanxes brought by the flintlock pistol will greatly enhance the combat effectiveness of the army.

Although the flintlock pistol has one or another advantage, the meal should be eaten one bite at a time, and the weapon research and development should be gradual in order to exercise the weapon research and development capability of the Royal Arsenal.

At the same time, the army's firearms reform should not be too radical, after all, there were many Norman nobles who opposed firearms, and there were not a few soldiers who resisted the use of arquebuses.

The development of the flintlock pistol has now been handed over to the craftsmen of the Royal Arsenal to develop it, and it is believed that it will soon bear fruit. However, William did not plan to take it out too early to change his outfit, after all, the current arquebus with spearmen, halberders, artillery, etc.

"Fare, summon the 1,000 Guards infantry and 200 Guards cavalry I have commanded you to select, and I will personally instruct them in the arquebus phalanx, and Falle, I appoint you as the commander of this Guards Shooting Corps." William looked at Phaleosborne and ordered.

"Yes, Your Majesty." Faller bowed and retreated.

Soon, 1,000 phalanx infantry and 200 cavalry guards were summoned by Faller to the royal grounds to be inspected by William.

Surrounded by squires, nobles, and guards, William rode slowly in front of the phalanx infantry and cavalry, looked at the crowd and said, "Knights! Soldiers! I, your king, now need you to form an army like never before, with a different kind of training and tactics, will you serve me? Will you obey me and be faithful to me that I want to love you? ”

"Yes, we are willing to be loyal to you forever!"

"Unless the world is apocalyptic, our oath of allegiance will never fade."

"Whatever your orders are, we will obey you unconditionally!"

Everyone responded loudly, and not a single word was uttered.

"Very well, my soldiers, five hundred of you will be the archers with arquebuses, the other five hundred will form the walls of the arquebusiers with spears, and one hundred of you will be gunners at the disposal of the twelve six-pounder guns that belong to you.

Now go over there and pick up your new gear, my soldiers! William pointed to a weapon rack not far away, on which were displayed five hundred arquebuses, five hundred spears, a thousand one-handed swords, a thousand sets of half-body armor and helmets, and twelve six-pounder guns, which were more than enough to equip the thousand-man brigade.

The cost of such a large number of new equipment is naturally surprisingly high, because these equipment must be provided by William himself, and the cost of this phalanx brigade of about 1,000 men alone is more than three times higher than that of the ordinary standing army infantry, the largest of which are twelve artillery pieces and five hundred arquebuses, as for spears, halberds, one-handed swords and armor, most of the other standing army cantonments are generally equipped.

"My knights, cavalrymen, you will be the cavalry directly under the phalanx of this brigade, and the hammer of the entire brigade attack." William then shouted to the two hundred cavalry guards in front of him.

"Hooray, hooray!" The cavalrymen raised their spears and swords and cheered.

After all the soldiers in the phalanx had received their equipment under the leadership of their respective officers, William ordered: "All the spear infantry in the middle of the phalanx!" ”

This formation had long been widespread among the Norman army, and many soldiers had been trained in such formations and formations, so soon the formation was neatly arranged, with a horizontal 62-man column of spears in the middle of the 8 rows.

"The arquebusiers were in position, and five hundred men were arranged on either side of the spear phalanx in two teams, two hundred and fifty men each, in six rows." William then ordered.

Soon, five hundred arquebusiers, led by their respective legions, divided into two teams of two hundred and fifty men, were arranged on either side of the spear phalanx.

The principle of William's phalanx was simple, the basic idea was to use a mixture of spearmen and arquebusiers to achieve a complementary effect, with spearmen to stop the onslaught of enemy cavalry and infantry, and arquebuses to strike at a distance.

Of course, there are still many problems involved in the actual formation, such as the deployment of artillery and the deployment of cavalry, but the core of the Spanish phalanx is basically unchanged, that is, the combat ability of spearmen and arquebusiers.

The army was basically organized according to divisions, regiments, and companies, with the strength of a regiment varying between 4 and 8 companies, half of the arquebusier company and half of the spearmen's company.

The battle formation is different from the traditional Spanish phalanx, it is more similar to the improved Maurice phalanx, with the spearmen in the middle and the musketeers on the flanks, so that they can form crossfire on the enemy in the front, and the six rows of two rounds of three-stage fire can ensure uninterrupted fire, and can also take into account the enemy on both sides.

In William's plan, in addition to the infantry phalanx and 200 guards cavalry in front of him, there would also be a hundred artillery men directly under the brigade to handle twelve six-pounder guns.

In addition, William also planned to incorporate a dragoon into the infantry, and it was not surprising that this dragoon fighting in the form of mounted motorized infantry was originally a motorized infantry.