Chapter 662： Confrontation on land

While fierce naval battles broke out between Britain and France at sea, they were not idle on land. It is estimated that the time is almost running. Henry VII's darling general Richard Ball, led a British army of 20,000, and went straight to the port of Hastings occupied by the French.

By this time, the French had built ten temporary bridges in the port of Hastings. In addition to the dozen or so long bridge docks in Hastings Port, Hastings Port has basically been equipped to allow the French army to land on a large scale. However, all this became irrelevant with the arrival of Richard Ball's army ...

When the 20,000-strong army of Richard Ball arrived in Hastings Port, Abel, the French commander who had guarded Hastings, was shocked. He quickly withdrew all French infantry on the pier into the city, and even the 5000 French civilians also withdrew into the city to help defend the city.

However, although the walls of Hastings are tall and strong, all four gates were burned by the original defenders. Abel was very careful and sent people to block the gates in the north, west and east with stones, but the gates in the south were not blocked. After all, the South Gate still needs to get in and out. After the French landed, they also needed to enter and leave Hastings. Therefore, the South Gate only sent heavy soldiers to guard and built a temporary fence, without a special strong gate.

When Richard Ball led the army to the bottom of the city, they also found that the gates in the north, west and east were blocked. So he commanded:

"Send a few cavalry to the South Gate to see what happened there!"

It did n’t take long for a few English light cavalrymen to return, reporting to Richard Ball:

"Sir, South Gate is not blocked, only simple fortifications, but now there are full of French people, if you want to break through the South Gate defense line, it is estimated that it will cost you a lot ..."

Abel also knew that the South Gate was a weakness, so he arranged five thousand soldiers and horses in the city and arranged two thousand people to guard the South Gate. The other three thousand soldiers took 5,000 French people to the top of the city and scared the British.

Two thousand elite infantry guard a city gate, plus various obstacles of the other side of the city gate, if you want to break through this city gate, you will definitely pay a great price ...

However, the script did not follow Abel's vision. Richard Ball thought for a while, then ordered directly:

"The whole army went to the south gate of Hastings, and then arrayed there. Half of the French troops in the defense city and the other half went directly to the pier!"

Then, 20,000 British troops ignored the French army and the other three gates, and went directly to the south gate. When Abel thought that the British army would initiate a siege, the British army stopped directly at the array 100 meters outside the south gate. Moreover, it looks like a defensive formation ...

At first, Abel was a little puzzled, but when he saw the British troops behind the city going to demolish the long bridge dock in Hastings port, he was finally anxious ...

Abel knew very well that the 5,000 soldiers he led, the biggest task, was to fight the main force of the French army. Therefore, the terminal is very important. Because, when the French came over, they must use the dock.

However, if the army is guarded on the dock, it will not work. Because the dock has no defensive facilities, it is easy to fail under the impact of large enemy forces. Therefore, the French had to rely on the tall and strong walls of Hastings to defend themselves.

Moreover, according to the practice of this era, the other party should first attack the city. Usually after taking the city, they will take over the dock as ancillary facilities.

However, Richard Ball had long been instructed by Henry VII and Thomas Stanley to let him go to Hastings and demolish the pier first. Without the dock, even if the French fleet defeated Wallace's fleet, they would not be able to land here. Even if you can force a landing, Richard Ball ’s 20,000 army is waiting on the shore ...

And, in the absence of a pier, at most infantry can force wading to land. As for the knights, they can only take off the plate armor and wade for landing. At the same time, neither the warhorse nor the artillery can forcibly land without the dock ...

In this way, even if the French army forcibly waded and landed, it would become a living target for the seven thousand English Longbowmen brought by Richard Ball ...

Therefore, as long as Richard Boll demolished the pier, the main force of the French army on the sea would be in a dilemma-attack, and only rely on wading to land. Without the impact of the plate armoured knights, those French soldiers who waded and landed would only become the live targets of the British longbowmen.

It is also difficult to retreat. Because, the ambush of the English main fleet will never let the French main fleet ...

Therefore, the strategy discussed by Henry VII, Thomas Stanley and others is a perfect solution. Even if Wallace ’s fleet failed to drag the French fleet, as long as Richard Ball ’s army demolished the dock at Hastings Port, the same effect could be achieved.

Although it is not ruled out that the French find the pier elsewhere, it is absolutely impossible to find a large-scale pier like Hastings Port in a short time. Without so many long-bridge docks, hundreds of French transport ships could not land on the shore. The force of landing only a few ships is also easily repulsed by the army of Richard Ball who follows him.

It seemed that there was a long time to prepare. Richard Ball split out the ten thousand British soldiers who demolished the pier. Everyone brought a logging axe. The soldiers jumped into the water, and began to cut down like a tree felling against the piles under the long bridge pier nailed into the water ...

Many of the long bridge piers of this era are made of wood. That is, under the boardwalk of later generations, use solid wood such as logs to pile up on the seabed to make a strong support frame. Its principle is no different from the boardwalk with supporting piles seen in later generations. So, in the same way, as long as the supporting piles made of logs are cut off, the long bridge wharf will directly collapse ...

The British soldiers were struggling with a logging axe to look at the stakes supporting the wooden long bridge dock, while the French commander Abel at the head of the city was very angry. However, he had no choice.

Obviously, the British army has 20,000 horses. Even if half was split to demolish the pier, there were 10,000 troops guarding them, and the 5000 French troops in the city did not dare to go out to fight. After all, they were all infantrymen and could not attack the British formation at all. Perhaps, halfway through, they will be shot by the British Longbowmen most of the time ...

Therefore, Abel could only cover her heart, watching the British soldiers on the pier happily tearing down the long bridge pier ...

The long bridge wharf made of wood is still easy to dismantle, as long as you can cut down the supporting wooden piles. But the port of Hastings is one of the five largest ports in Britain, and it is not only the wooden long bridge wharf. Here, there are five Yonggu Wharves made of stones and bricks ...

Richard Ball had a headache about how to demolish this masonry dock. Because this kind of sturdy pier is really difficult to dismantle. Moreover, time is too late to dismantle. If the French defeated Wallace's fleet ~ www.novelhall.com ~ may arrive soon, and the British army will not be allowed to slowly dismantle.

In the end, a low-level British officer who ran a boat at home gave Richard that Bohr had an idea-since the pier could not be demolished, then it would be fine to make the pier unable to dock the ship ...

The reason why the Long Bridge Pier goes deep into the sea is because the ship needs a certain water depth to dock, otherwise, if the water is too shallow, the ship will easily run aground. Once such a heavy ship is stranded, it is difficult to handle.

Therefore, the officer ’s idea was to throw stones and bricks violently at the seabed around the Long Bridge Pier, so that the height of the debris was close to the water surface (not higher than the water surface, otherwise it could be used as the Long Bridge Pier Up). In this way, as long as the French ships dared to dock, they ran aground directly on the stones and bricks that were thrown into the water ...

Richard Ball immediately accepted this good suggestion and sent his soldiers to gather stones and bricks around. In order to collect enough stones and bricks for reclamation, Richard Ball even sent his men to force down the houses of many residents outside the city to obtain enough bricks and stones.

With enough masonry, the underwater surrounding the five masonry long bridge pier filled the masonry with a height of about one meter from the water. This height makes the ship most uncomfortable. Moreover, because the bricks and stones are thrown in random, the shape of the piled up is irregular, which is not suitable for the docking of ships. In this way, even if the French fleet came, they could not land ...

After solving the dock, Richard Ball was not in a hurry. Anyway, those French troops in the city won't grow their wings and fly away, so why rush to attack?

As long as the main force of the French army at sea is resolved, these French troops can only surrender in despair ...

So, the British army camped directly outside the city, waiting for the news. For the French army in the city, only people were sent to monitor and guard against their struggles as trapped beasts ...

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