Outside Brionneburg, William led an army of 20,000 troops to surround Fort Brionne, which stood on a hill, and as far as the eye could see, it was full of black and oppressive human heads, endless and less than a hundred years at a glance.

In front of the formation, fifteen eighteen-meter-high huge counterweight trebuchets were lined up, and a battalion of six hundred equipment cooperated with nearly a thousand snow militiamen to operate these terrifying monsters.

With the sound of crunching sound one after another, the 10-ton counterweight lead block was pulled up, the 15-meter-long boom that had been erected high was pulled down, and the polished huge stone bullets weighing 300 pounds were put into the leather pockets under the boom by the militiamen.

"Hubert, you come to command the siege, please be sure to take this Brionnesburg Fort within a week, whether it is any siege equipment or any army at your disposal, you can use the 'Heavenly Thunder' when necessary, now is the right time to use it." William looked solemnly at Baron Hubert and entrusted.

These days, William has had a feeling that the rain is about to come since he received the mediation letter from the King of France, and the oppressive sky seems to indicate that something bad is about to happen, and William, who trusts his hunch very much, has to speed up the raid on the county of Rouen.

It stands to reason that it is impossible to capture a steep, towering, and well-defended castle without a siege of several years, and it took William more than five years to attack this Brionne castle in history.

Of course, the situation is very different now, as William's army is many times larger than at the same time in history, and he has at his disposal the counterweight trebuchet, a siege weapon that appeared in Western Europe only in the mid-to-late twelfth century, and at the same time he has a large amount of gunpowder, which can be easily breached by blasting cities at any time.

Despite the look on Baron Hubert's face, he still stubbornly agreed: "I understand, Your Highness William, I will definitely attack Brionne Castle this week." ”

Baron Hubert had not followed William in the battle of Castel Sant'Angelo, which had broken through the city of Rome, and did not know the true power of the gunpowder bombardment, and in his opinion, even with the help of fifteen powerful counterweight trebuchets, it would have been a blessing to be able to break through Castel de Brignat in a month.

Of course, since Baron Hubert agreed to William's request, then he would definitely do it, and there may be casualties among them.

"Hubert, I'll let Faller lead my guards to break down the walls for you with the 'Heavenly Thunder', as long as you can suppress the defenders in the castle." William saw the worry on Baron Hubert's face, and said softly: "It doesn't matter if you can't take Brionne Castle in a week, but please remember not to let my army suffer too many casualties, I have a hunch that a great battle awaits us in the future, so we must cherish every strength in our hands." ”

"Do you have any concerns? What could it be? Baron Hubert asked.

"I don't know, but I received a letter of mediation from His Majesty King Henry I a few days ago, and my hunch of the crisis is likely to come from this." William sighed helplessly and confessed.

"Are you saying that His Majesty will meddle in our wars, or even lead troops against us?" Baron Hubert worried.

"It's not impossible, so I'm going to quickly deal with the rebellious nobles such as Kay, pacify the Duchy of Normandy, and don't give anyone a chance to take advantage of it." William nodded in response.

"It is unlikely that the two counties of Paris and Orleans in the hands of His Majesty Henry alone will be able to muster more than 10,000 elite troops, and I am afraid that our Majesty the King will unite with other princes to besiege us, and then we will be in a situation where we will be attacked on our backs." Baron Hubert analyzed.

"I have already taken some countermeasures, and on the day I received His Majesty's letter of mediation, I sent Emma to the Duchy of Burgundy with my letters and covenants, to prepare to unite with His Majesty's younger brother, Robert, Duke of Burgundy, to defend His Majesty Henry I, I think he will agree to form an alliance with me, after all, he has not coveted the throne of France for a day or two, and he also needs an ally to help him, who has been guarded by His Majesty abroad all the year round." William confessed his preparation and said confidently.

"That way I'm much more at ease." Baron Hubert exhaled lightly and said.

After Baron Hubert took his leave, William summoned Faller again and told him to prepare to bomb the city with gunpowder, and then returned to the Chinese army to no longer interfere with Baron Hubert's command.

William knows his strengths and weaknesses very well, large-scale battles are indeed not William's forte, whether it is the Battle of Vals Dunes or the large and small wars experienced by William before, the main person responsible for commanding the army is Baron Hubert, as the only general under William who has experience in general battles, he is William's biggest honor guard who has won the most victory.

William is confident that he can do his best in government affairs, intelligence, strategy, etc., relying on the huge accumulation of information in the Internet information age in William's previous life.

However, William had not participated in the army in his previous life, and he did not have much experience in commanding operations, and tactical command required a lot of experience, knowledge and a certain amount of talent.

As the lord who commands them, the ability to independently command the army to fight a big battle is important, but it is not necessary, William only needs to know and use his talents, which is the so-called general's handsome talent.

......

As more than a dozen stone bullets with long tails of flame slammed into the castle, countless scattered stones set fire to everything in the castle with a raging flame.

"It's begun," William muttered as he stood on a makeshift watchtower and watched the battlefield with a telescope.

These incendiary stone bombs were carefully made by William's craftsmen, and the stone bullets were wrapped layer by layer with linen soaked in fish oil, which was the special incendiary bomb in William's hand.

This kind of incendiary bomb not only has the huge kinetic energy of ordinary stone bullets, can easily collapse the city wall, the fish oil wrapped in the stone bomb burns and scatters out, but also ignites all the combustibles near it, which can be a very effective weapon.

Unfortunately, due to the low and expensive production of fish oil, not much of these incendiary bombs were produced, and the production capacity of 100 pieces per year could not be expanded until William found a suitable replacement oil.