Since he had made a choice and decided to choose Urraca of the Ximena family as his marriage partner, William did not hesitate, and immediately wrote a letter and drafted a covenant with Osborne and Hubert, sending William's Praetorian Guard, Baron Hubert, as an envoy to the Count of Castile in the northern Iberian Peninsula to meet Ferdinand, Count of Castile.

On the second day, Sir Hubert set out with a hundred guards with letters and letters of alliance to sail to Castile in Iberia at the port of Virutel a sea in the Liser region.

After bidding farewell to Sir Hubert, William began his busy preparations for war.

That's right, William began to prepare for the war to unify Normandy, from an economic point of view, relying only on the taxes of the county of Evreux and the golden waterway of the Seine, William could harvest more than 100,000 pounds of silver every year, more than four times higher than the previous revenue of the Duchy of Normandy, you must know that the current revenue of England is only 60,000 to 80,000 pounds of silver, and William's financial revenue is twice that of England, enough to support the most protracted and fierce battle of more than tens of thousands of people.

As far as the number of soldiers in William's hands is concerned, there are 8,900 standing soldiers including three regiments, one cavalry regiment, one independent cavalry battalion, one equipment battalion, and one mixed guard regiment, in addition to the 1,000 defense troops stationed in each region, a total of 6,000 people in the six regions, 6,000 standing militia, 8,000 reserve militia, and 5,000 knights including 300 knights.

Calculated, William has a huge army of 34,000 people, and the number of troops can be as many as about 20,000, which is an extremely huge force, at that time, a country as big as England has a total number of troops, and the maximum number of troops can organize an army of 20,000 people, which depends on the prestige of the king in power, if the king has just succeeded to the throne and is weak, the local nobles may not provide him with many troops, and more than 10,000 people are already the most.

In the county of Evreux and the barony of Wexon, which have a population of more than 200,000, they have raised a force of 34,000 troops, which is almost to drain all the young men in the territory.

Although among these troops, in addition to 8,900 standing military personnel who have been removed from agricultural labor. The remaining 25,000 men spent most of their time in the fields, and were organized for training only during the winter and when the serfs were not working.

As for the names of the defense army, the standing militia and the reserve militia, it is only that the former is separated from agricultural labor for half of the year, while the latter spends the rest of the year in agriculture, and as for the knights, about three-quarters of them are also peasant soldiers, and even the reserve militia is not as good as the reserve militia, and only a few knights and squires are still okay.

Even if only 8,900 men were completely detached from agricultural labor, the huge number of troops would almost crush the backbone of the entire county of Evre, and if William could not let this force be unleashed, William, who was finally insisting on non-disarmament, would likely be attacked by the army.

Of course, it is impossible for William to draw all his soldiers out to fight on the battlefield, on the one hand, the supplies along the way will not be able to keep up, on the other hand, after the troops are exhausted, Evler will be completely empty, and will affect the local agricultural production, if a local division attacks Evreux, whether he succeeds or not, William will suffer heavy losses.

Therefore, William was able to recruit 20,000 troops, including 8,900 standing troops, 6,000 standing militia, and 5,000 knights, while the remaining defense and reserve militias were responsible for maintaining agricultural production and defending Normandy.

In the past few days, in addition to urging Baron Adolphus and Osborne's butler to speed up the procurement of materials and food and the preparation of baggage, William went to the training ground outside Evreux every day to urge Baron Richard to train the knights, asking them to form combat effectiveness.

Today, William travels with Master Claude to a weapons testing ground belonging to the Arsenal on the banks of the Seine, where William finally sees his long-awaited counterweight trebuchet.

The project to develop the counterweight trebuchet began to be developed by William when he arrived in Evreux from Rouen and began to order Claude to lead the craftsmen to work on it.

For this kind of siege weapon, William, who could not see the heavy casualties of the army, can be said to have no upper limit on his investment in it, but the result still disappointed William.

Although it was not difficult to build a decent trebuchet, the key was the sheer size of the trebuchet with its heavy weights, and it was a great challenge for medieval craftsmen to manufacture and test it.

Faced with a series of problems exposed during the experiments, William would use his spare time to solve these problems with his later knowledge of the enormous amount of knowledge that could be found in later generations, such as the unstable wooden joints and parts, which were cast in bronze.

"Claude, how many counterweight trebuchets have you built in more than half a year? I'm going to need them in the near future. William looked at Claude beside him and said.

"Fifteen, fifteen counterweight trebuchets, His Highness William." Claude was a little excited, and said excitedly: "Each one is eighteen meters high, the boom is fifteen meters long, and the counterweight is ten tons, which can throw a stone projectile weighing three hundred pounds (136 kilograms a month) to three hundred yards (274 meters) away, and its range is more than half that of a longbowman, and twice the range of today's human trebuchets." ”

"It's magnificent, and with such a weapon, what castle can stop me? I just didn't know that it was not easy to move such heavy catapults. William sighed when he saw the tall counterweight trebuchets lined up on the field.

"You see, we have four huge wheels mounted on each counterweight trebuchet, and its bearings are also made of precious bronze, and I can guarantee that only six horses will be enough to pull it.

In addition, I designed a detachable structure for this counterweight trebuchet, the heavy counterweight and the tall boom are both detachable and can be used as usual as long as they are reassembled on the battlefield. Claude said confidently.

"Very well, Claude, you have done a great favor, and now you must send some craftsmen to help the equipment battalion learn to operate the counterweight trebuchet, and take care of the repair of the fifteen counterweight trebuchets." William commanded.

"Yes, His Highness William." Claude replied loudly.

Intense preparations continued, and two days later, Baron Hubert and his party finally returned to Normandy a week after their absence, and William led the nobles out of the city to meet Hubert.

"Fortunately, I have brought you the covenant and marriage contract with Ferdinand, Count of Castile." Hubert said with relief.

"Thank you, Sir Hubert, and as much as I deserve to give you a few days off, I still need your help and support in the urgent preparations for battle." William solemnly asked.

"Please rest assured, His Highness William, just leave everything to me." Hubert patted his chest and reassured.