Chapter 655： The main force of the French army

The best way to wipe out the French fleet is to attack while halfway through the sea. . More latest chapter visit: ШЩЩ.⑦⑨XS.сОМ. As a result, the French fleet was in the middle of the English Channel and could not move forward. Whether it is going forward or backward, it takes a day, and it is difficult to make a choice.

Of course, in order to prevent the enemy fleet from fleeing back, Henry VII and the ministers negotiated and felt that it was better to bring the French fleet closer. If the French fleet is closer to England, the retreat will be more difficult. Moreover, it is easy to be surrounded and wiped out.

However, it is not good if it is too close to the side of England. Because, the French may take the opportunity to force landing. Once the subsequent heavy cavalry and artillery of the French army merged with the vanguard units on the shore, then the opponent would become a whole and difficult to deal with. After all, the English Army is not confident that it can defeat the complete French army 100%.

Henry VII mobilized this time on a large scale, but mobilized 20,000 troops, the same number as the French army. The total number of French teams is also 20,000. If the battles are fought against each other, the French have the advantage of artillery, and the English army may not be able to win. Therefore, it is better to solve the heavy cavalry and artillery at the core of the French team at sea.

To completely solve the French fleet, it needs to be surrounded by the French fleet. But the French are not stupid, if they see the British fleet overwhelmed, they might run around ...

After intense discussion, Henry VII finally decided to let the 54 big ships rush out of Southampton Bay, intercept the French fleet that wanted to land, and entangle each other. Then, the main force rushed over from the Straits of Calais while the two sides were fighting violently, first to the south and then to the west, directly cutting off the retreat of the French fleet, and then taking advantage of the situation ...

However, the ministers agreed that the 54 English warships alone could not stop the French fleet. The French fleet has a total of 100 large ships as warships, and other small and medium-sized ships, mainly carrying personnel, horses, artillery, grain and grass and other materials. Among them, medium-sized ships are the main force of transportation, and horses and artillery are basically on medium-sized ships. The small ships mainly transport infantry and food.

If only 54 large warships intercepted the French fleet of several hundred ships, the French would only need to let 100 large ships come to entangle the 54 British ships. The rest of the small and medium-sized transport ships can bypass the side and land directly.

In response to this issue, Henry VII, Thomas Stanley and others decided to mobilize some small combat ships from the Thames estuary to pass through the Straits of Calais and go to the reinforcements.

Regardless of the 54 large ships, or the twenty or thirty small combat ships sent by Henry VII to reinforce them, their mission was not to destroy the French fleet, but to drag the French to death and let the French fleet retreat.

The reason why Henry VII sent only a few boats to reinforce was to let the French see hope. The 54 big ships, and other small boats, just want to send a message to the French-as long as they work harder, they can still beat each other ...

In this way, the French fleet will not retreat. With confidence, the French's main fleet will try to defeat the "non-main fleet" that seems to be pieced together. The transport fleet will stop on the sea and wait for the battle to continue.

However, it will take time for the French to eliminate this fleet of 54 "big ships" and 20-30 ships. In this way, the French fleet will be stranded on the English Channel. And Henry VII's real fleet main force has enough time to kill from the east and outstrip the French fleet ...

After formulating the tactics, Henry VII sent someone to convey the order. Some naval officers have also been sent to Southampton Port to take charge of the battle. And it was the Wallace who was in charge of commanding the 54 big ships in Southampton before pretending to chase Kidd's fleet with a group of fishing boats ...

Sir Wallace actually took a dozen small warships that had been brought to Plymouth before Henry VII issued the final battle order, and set off from Plymouth Port to Southampton Bay. At this time, he could not care about sending the dozen small and medium-sized warships to intercept the French reconnaissance ship sent to the Irish Sea. Because Wallace knew that the battle in the middle of the English Channel was the most important. As long as the French main fleet has set off, the anomalies in the Irish sea, even if they are found ...

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On the French side, after the vanguard arrived in the port of Hastings, Louis XII did not immediately send a fleet. Because, he intends to give the first troops of Hastings time to build the Long Bridge Wharf. After all, the follow-up troops are not infantry, there are many heavy cavalry and artillery, unable to land in wading.

In this way, the French delayed another three days before allowing the second fleet to set off. In addition to the two days of the fleet returning to the ship, it has been 5 days ...

It was with these five days that the English fleet completed its final transfer. Today, Wallace and the dozen small warships under his command, as well as the twenty or thirty small warships coming from London, have arrived in Southampton Bay.

The twenty or thirty small warships sent by Henry VII were naturally spotted by French scouts as they passed through the narrow Strait of Calais. The French commander of the Calais fortress immediately sent someone to the French base camp at the mouth of the Seine to report this to Louis XII.

But Louis XII didn't care. He thought that even if the big ships were transferred away, the English would definitely leave some small warships. Therefore, for the twenty or thirty small warships passing through the Strait of Calais, Louis XII felt normal. If England did not respond at all, he felt abnormal. But what is the use of the top of twenty or thirty small warships? In front of 100 large French warships, those twenty or thirty small warships are definitely delivering food ...

As a result, Louis XII reassured himself and climbed to the seaside high platform. He ordered aloud to let the French heavy cavalry troops and horses, artillery artillery and personnel, and a large amount of weight, began to board the ship and set off. ...

Unlike the first batch of tentative ‘sex’ landings, the 5000 infantry and 5,000 civilians were affordable to the French. And now this "wave" is not affordable. Because most of the commanders, as well as the sharp 8000 heavy cavalry, and a large number of artillery, artillery and other weapons to restrain the English army are all in this fleet. If this fleet is lost, France will not slow down for many years ...

Louis XII did not board the ship because he was a bit worried about naval battles. After all, if he is defeated on land, he, the king, has the opportunity to be captured. The king's capture will not be harmed ~ www.novelhall.com ~ will only ask for a huge ransom. But if you are defeated in the middle of the sea, you might fall into the sea and feed the sharks, whether you are a king ...

Out of fear of the sea, Louis XII stayed in Le Havre, a small fishing village at the mouth of the Seine, and watched the main fleet leave. Instead of commanding the French team, it was Count Valjeri, the court. Although it is the Earl of the Court, like Earl of Durte, Kvargeri is more of a military talent. Of course, he was a few blocks away from Earl Durt in the ability to flatter. However, at a critical time, Louis XII decided to use the more capable Earl Valgery to command the army.

In order to weaken the local aristocracy, Louis XII preferred to use and appoint these newly promoted nobles with no land. Because, even if these nobles have mastered the military power, it is difficult to threaten the royal family. And those local nobles are very powerful themselves. If they were to be commanders of the army, then Louis XII could not sleep ...

France is now a centralized country, and since it wants to be centralized, it naturally does not want the large aristocrats with enclaves to sit big. Therefore, it is also an important means to reuse court nobles with no foundation.

It ’s just that this general, Valjeri, who had just been promoted to Earl, was unfortunate and was about to take the French army to failure ... Of course, this man did not know that the French army was about to fail, and he was full of ambition for the first time as the head coach What ...