William, who left Duke Robert's study, found Osborne's butler in the castle.

"Steward Osborne, my father has allowed me to recruit a group of 120 cavalry, and I need you to help me customize a batch of weapons and armor that are not quite different." William said, looking at Osborne.

The old butler Osborne bent down and saluted: "Young Master William, let's go to the blacksmith workshop in Fort Rouen to have a look, where the equipment in the castle is generally built and maintained." ”

"Alright, Steward Osborne, let's hurry up and take a look while it's still dark." William hurried towards the blacksmith's shop.

"Yes, Master William." So saying, the old butler Osborne followed.

......

Dingding... Dingding... Whew...

From afar, William could hear the sound of tapping on the felt, the sound of the wind, the sound of grinding, and so on.

The two walked into a semi-open workshop courtyard, the steaming heat made William a little uncomfortable, and William smiled happily as he saw the serf craftsmen busy making weapons and armor.

"Haraud, Haraud, come here, His Highness William has something to look for you." The old butler shouted to the old blacksmith who was supervising and managing the blacksmith shop.

Hearing the call, Steward Harold hurriedly wiped his hands on the leather apron on his chest, ran over and bowed down and said, "His Royal Highness William, Steward Osborne, is there anything I have to do?" ”

"Haraud, look at this drawing, can you make this kind of cavalry light armor?" As he spoke, William spread out the drawings drawing armor, throat guards, arm guards, and helmets, and pointed to the armor drawn on them.

"His Royal Highness William, can you show me the drawings?" Haraud was a little pleased to see such a strange piece of armor.

"Here, Haraud, in addition to this armor drawing, here are a drawing of a sword and a cavalry spear for you." As he spoke, William took out another weapon blueprint and handed it to Haraud, along with the previous armor drawing.

Taking the two drawings, Harold first spread out the drawings of his armor and carefully studied them.

The armor is composed of a cuirass, a dorsal armour, a chain mail, a throat guard, an arm guard, and a helmet, of which the cuirass and dorsal armor are made up of several strips of steel joined together to form a lobster-shaped, and then fastened to the back with longitudinal belts and a series of rivets.

The helmet is made of two iron plates joined together, except that the flat brim is attached to the removable nose, ear and neck guards, and a large heart-shaped hole is made in the ear guard so as not to affect hearing.

Aside from the difficulty of the breastplate and back armor, there is nothing particularly troublesome about crafting these armors.

Harold nodded with a deep groan, then spread out another weapon drawing, scrutinizing the curved saber and the slender cavalry spear, two weapons not very common in Normandy.

I saw that the whole body of the vermilion spear is 5.5-6 meters long, the spearhead at the front of the spear is made of steel and hung with colored flags, the spear body adopts a two-section structure connected by the spherical gauntlet, the spear body in front of the spherical gauntlet is hollow, made of pine, fir or fir and other relatively light and weak wood, generally speaking, the mass is about 4.5kg.

The saber has a curved, double-edged blade with a 90cm long blade, a rounded joint handguard and side guard on the handle to protect the fingers when static blocking, and an adjustable thumb ring for quick and direct chopping.

In this way, Harold looked at the drawings quietly, and William didn't bother him anything, after all, Harold was already the best blacksmith in Rouen, if even he couldn't build it, it was estimated that others would not be able to play.

After a while, Harold put away the drawings, looked up at William and said: "Your Highness William, it is not difficult to build these equipment, but there are no corresponding raw materials in the blacksmith workshop, and the craftsmen are not very skilled in creating these new equipment, so the time will be extended, and the cost of building will be about half higher than before." ”

"It's all right, Haraud, when will you see when the 120 sets of weapons and armor will be completed?" William said with a brisk wave of his hand.

"It will take about a month, His Highness William."

"Then you have to hurry, I can wait for your good news, Haraurd." With that, William turned around and walked towards the castle.

......

The next day, in the vast training ground in the Castle of Rouen, almost all the children of the knight families in the county of Rouen, and the squire knights in the Castle of Rouen, gathered together, and people chatted with each other, and there was no order at all.

Knock knock... Knock knock...

The soldiers who maintained order in the training ground tapped the ground with the handles of their axes and guns, and shouted in unison: "Prince William has arrived." ”

Immediately after that, the door of the driving range opened, and a young man wearing a chainmail covered with an ornate burqa strode on a war horse.

William on the war horse raised his right hand to signal quiet, and suddenly the guards slammed the ground with their weapons in unison, and the knights on the scene suddenly quieted down, and their eyes looked towards William.

At this time, William was not stage frightened, and rode to the high platform in front of him with a straight face, and shouted loudly: "I am William, the son of Robert the Duke of Normandy." I have gathered you today to select 120 people to form a companion cavalry, and at least more than half of the 300 or so present will be eliminated, now stand upright for me, as long as you can hold on for an hour, you will be able to pass the primary. ”

Suddenly, the knights' disciples who had been hooked on their shoulders straightened up, looked up at William, and tried to make a very serious appearance.

The guards who had been maintaining order walked in and dispersed the dense crowd to prevent anyone from stealing and slipping.

......

The sun was shining fiercely, and the knights' children had been standing for nearly 40 minutes.

William looked at the people on the field, at least a third of them had collapsed to the ground and been pulled out of the training ground by the soldiers.

As for the rest of the people, the situation is not very good, some people are sweating profusely, some people are scratching their ears and cheeks, all of them.

Another 20 minutes passed, and there were only 160 sparse knights left on the field, who estimated the time in their hearts, and looked up at William in the hope that he would announce the end sooner.

"Okay, now I'm announcing the end of the first round of selection." William raised his hand and said loudly.

The knights' disciples on the training ground breathed a sigh of relief, and moved their hands and feet in place in twos and threes.

Standing for an hour is not a pleasant taste, even for the nutritious college students of the 21st century, let alone in the Middle Ages, where only black bread was eaten.

Even not everyone in the knight family can eat enough, the knights' fiefdom manors can't support so many children, and the non-eldest sons have no other way to go except to serve the nobles or be a wandering knight.

William saw that they were almost rested, and said loudly to the audience: "Today, you are lucky to pass the primary, and tomorrow you will have three months of recruit training. In three months' time, I will evaluate you, and select 120 people to form a companion cavalry, and I hope you will train hard. ”

With that, William mounted his horse and turned around, and walked out of the training ground on his horse.