The Rise of the European Emperor

Because Switzerland is fighting the Habsburg invasion, Louis XII currently has no Swiss army available. Therefore, in the 20,000 army, except for the 8,000 French knights and artillery, the rest of the infantry were also native infantry.

Of course, these infantrymen were not as good as the Swiss mercenaries. After all, they were all picked out in huge France. At least, Louis XII believed that these infantrymen were no worse than the English infantry.

Infantry landing does not need to bring horses, which is very convenient. As long as they landed and formed a spear formation, they could fully resist the crazy counterattack of the English army.

Once a foothold was gained, and the French heavy cavalry and artillery landed, occupation was doomed. Moreover, according to the intelligence, Edward seems to have issued a denunciation of Henry VII, which made Henry VII so angry that the British longbowmen who are the most troublesome to France should all be transferred to the north to encircle and suppress Edward... Louis XII is so Thinking... but what he didn't know was that there were a lot of 7,000 longbowmen affiliated with the English royal family waiting near London...

As the French began to cross the sea, ships of various sizes, such as dumplings, poured into the English Channel from the river. Then, they formed a dense formation and sailed in the direction of Hastings in a mighty manner. According to the previous survey by the French reconnaissance ship, there seemed to be few boats at the Hastings pier, only some fishing boats...

The movement of the French naturally attracted the attention of the British. In fact, most of the British fishing boats roaming the English Channel at this time were reconnaissance ships. Moreover, they are all fast-running reconnaissance ships...

Seeing that the French started to cross the sea, the fishing boats turned around and returned to their voyage...

The French don't care either, because this is a normal reaction - shouldn't the British fishing boats be scared to flee for their lives when they see the French fleet crossing the sea?

Moreover, even if these fishing boats went back to tip off, the French would not care. why? Because at this time, even if the British got the news, it should be too late to deal with it. When the other party reacts, the French army has already gained a foothold on the coast of England... In addition, those fishing boats are running fast enough, and they are far away, the French can't stop them if they want to...

Those who remained on British reconnaissance ships scouting the English Channel were seasoned scouts. Based on the direction of the French fleet, they immediately judged that the French were going to land at Hastings Harbor. Because, in that direction, there are no other ports in the UK. Later, the more famous ports such as Brighton did not appear at this time. Only an old port like Hastings, which belongs to the Five-Port Alliance, is more suitable for landing.

So, after the small fishing boat docked, the scouts immediately reported to the messengers waiting on the shore—the French, targeting the port of Hastings... More powerful scouts, inferred from the size of the fleet—may be the first Troops, excluding heavy cavalry and artillery...

At such an important juncture, those messengers did not care to cherish the horses, and with a wave of the whip, the horses ran non-stop to London. And, on the way, there are replacement horses that have been prepared for a long time...

After changing horses several times, the information finally reached the hands of Henry VII of London...

"Landing in Hastings...well...seems like a good choice..."

"Then, Your Majesty, shall we begin our attack now?" asked Admiralty Charlie Johnson.

"Well... not in a hurry... I didn't see the information showing that the enemy's heavy cavalry and artillery probably didn't come?"

"What does your majesty mean?"

"When we attack the French this time, of course, we have to attack their core strength. Only when we hit their heavy cavalry and artillery can we achieve our goal. Well, anyway, this wave of landings will take the French two days. We Let them land in this wave, and when the second wave of landings begins, our navy will attack again..."

After all, the English Channel is one or two hundred kilometers wide, and at the current speed of sailboats, it does take a day or two for a fully loaded fleet to cross.

Unlike the reconnaissance Clippers, which was originally on the side close to England, it was faster. So, the English have plenty of reaction time.

"And, Richard (Richard Pohl, Henry VII's confidant), you lead your army to Hastings. When the battle at sea begins, you must also attack. However, your army will not Get too close to Hastings so you don't scare off the French!"

Hastings is seventy or eighty kilometers away from London, and the army march takes two days. Taking advantage of this time, Henry VII decided to drive the army to the vicinity of Hastings, ready to attack at any time.

"Also, let the defenders in Hastings retreat. However, before retreating, we must destroy the city gate and city wall there so that we can counterattack!" Henry VII added after thinking about it. Hastings' army will definitely give up Hastings to lure the French front troops to land, so as to give confidence to the cavalry and artillery to cross the sea. However, if the complete city of Hastings is left to the French, it would be **. After all, as one of the members of the "Five Harbors Alliance", Hastings is relatively rich, and the city walls are tall and strong. Really want to completely fall into the hands of the French vanguard, maybe it will be able to defend for a few months, bringing huge casualties to the British counterattack. Therefore, Henry VII ordered that the defenders of Hastings must destroy the city gate and city wall before withdrawing, so as to facilitate the counterattack of Richard Pohl's army...

...

As expected by Henry VII, the French did take a long time to cross. And, not two days, but three days...

The reason it took three days was because the French vanguard was very cautious in crossing the sea. Although Louis XII drove away the messenger of Marin, he was still a little beaten in his heart. Therefore, he ordered the vanguard troops crossing the sea to be careful and careful. If you find something wrong, return immediately... Therefore, the crossing of the sea that could be completed in two days was stunned for three days. Because, in the process of crossing the sea, the French army has been preparing for the interception of the British fleet...

However, nothing happened when the leading troops crossed the sea, only a lot of English fishing boats went back to report in a panic. However, this also makes sense.

When the French fleet arrived at Hastings Harbor, the English fishing boats in the harbor were so frightened that they left the harbor and ran away, fleeing all the way to the east, seemingly heading for London.

The French didn't care either, but sent troops to land in the water with peace of mind (there were British troops blocking it on the other side of the port). Then, the French attacked the city of Hastings...

The Hastings garrison had long received orders from Henry VII, so the resistance was perfunctory. The huge city of Hastings was easily climbed to the top of the city by the French death squad...

Then, the 800 British troops in the city saw that the situation was not good, and "hurriedly" abandoned the city and fled. However, what surprised the French was that the British had burned down the four gates of the city of Hastings before they left. Anyway, the French did not know how the British troops, who seemed to be in a hurry to escape, took the time to burn the city gates during the limited escape time. It seems that a lot of suet was also used to burn the city gate...

In this way, the French army successfully occupied Hastings, an important port city in England. Moreover, it also successfully won the city of Hastings. Originally, the reason why the French sent 5,000 infantry as the vanguard was to besiege the city of Hastings first. After all, the French are not sure to quickly win the tall and sturdy city of Hastings. Therefore, they plan to divide their troops to surround the city of Hastings, as long as the defenders of the city of Hastings do not interfere with their construction of the Long Bridge Pier. Unexpectedly, the defenders of Hastings City were so vulnerable that they abandoned the city and fled...

Louis XII, who got the news, felt that something was wrong, but the messenger sent back told Louis XII that the people in Hastings City had not been evacuated, and the warehouse was also full of goods. Therefore, the British army abandoned the city and escaped, certainly not premeditated. If it is a strategic abandonment, the materials in the city will definitely not be left to the enemy...

Henry VII also made a lot of money in order to get the French into the trap. In order to attract the French, when he let the Hastings defenders retreat, he did not bring any belongings and deliberately cheapened the French. Otherwise, if the city of Hastings is evacuated and left to the French, the French may be suspicious and dare not continue to cross the sea...

In the end, Henry VII's plan succeeded. Louis XII is also very happy now that he has obtained a large amount of goods in the Hastings warehouse. So, the second wave of the main force's crossing the sea has officially begun...

At the same time, Henry VII also began to order all the warships gathered on the southeastern coast of England, including the 54 warships ambushed in Southampton Bay, all ready to attack. The time to attack is naturally when the French are halfway across the sea... 8)