In 1415, the English army won more with fewer victories, killing only 112 knights. While the French army lost more than 10,000 people, including 3 dukes, 5 counts, and 90 barons, the French nobles were almost overwhelmed. At the Battle of Agincourt, King Henry V of England won more than a few victories, and soon captured the entire Normandy region. Had it not been for the timely appearance of Joan of Arc, France would have been ended in the Hundred Years of England and France and would have become a British territory.
In 1066, William I, Duke of Normandy, made an expedition to England and became his king, and the king of England had his own territory in France, and the contradictions with France became increasingly acute. King Edward III of England believed that he was the grandson of the King of France and qualified to inherit the throne, and eventually provoked the "Hundred Years' War". Under the combination of Edward III and Edward the Black Prince, the British army won consecutive battles and suppressed the French hanging.
In 1415, Henry V led an expedition of 20,000 soldiers and horses on the grounds that King Charles VI of France had torn up the treaty and once again invaded France. In October of that year, the British army captured the fortress of Havrear and won the victory. However, due to the impact of the epidemic dysentery, the British army lost nearly 5,000 non-combat personnel and suffered heavy losses. In this way, Henry could only let the Royal Navy escort the wounded back to their homes to recuperate, ready to accept new tasks.
When the wounded returned home, some of the soldiers were left to defend Havrel, and Henry was able to fight with only about 6,000 men, with limited troops. Due to the ravages of dysentery and the winter, the British army was in a state of distress, but Henry was unwilling to end the expedition and did not want to return to England. To this end, Henry decided to cross the Duchy of Normandy to his territory of Calais to recuperate, and then send troops to Paris to make a contribution.
The so-called soldiers are fast, the British army crossed the Duchy of Normandy, and it was inevitable that they would be attacked by the French army along the way. In order to hurry, Henry did not carry too much weight, and each soldier only carried 8 days of rations, that is, just enough to reach Calais. Henry's idea was beautiful, but the reality was harsh, it was raining heavily, the roads were muddy, and it was attacked by the French, and the British army was making a difficult progress, and the rations were quickly eaten.
Without rations, Henry could only abandon his "chivalry" and plunder cities and villages. The French army practiced the tactic of "clearing the field", Henry did not get a lot of food, and the British still had to go hungry. However, Henry also had an unexpected gain, which was to capture the French soldiers on the way to the march. From the mouths of these soldiers, Henry learned that the French had formed a powerful heavy armored cavalry to deal with the British longbowmen.
The words of the French soldiers, Henry did not doubt. In 1346, King Edward III of England led 9,000 soldiers and horses and 30,000 elite French troops, and the English army fought with longbows, killing only more than 150 people, while the French army lost more than half of them. The power of the yew longbowmen was well known to the French army and had to be defended. Heavily armored cavalry, not only knights wearing armor, but also war horses, can be called "land tanks".
In order to deal with the Heavily Armored Cavalry of the French Army, Henry ordered each soldier to cut down a six-foot-long wooden stick and sharpen both ends to cover the infantry phalanx and stop the cavalry from charging. It turned out that Henry had a unique vision, and in the final battle, these sticks made the French suffer a lot. An emperor with a brain, an emperor who knows how to adapt, can often lead his soldiers to victory, as was the case with Henry V.
It was snowy and cold, and the British army was shivering. At this time, the French commander,d'Albrecht, sent a letter of challenge to make an appointment with Henry on the day of the decisive battle. Henry was ready to fight a decisive battle if he wished, and both sides could survey the terrain beforehand to ensure a fair duel and to promote chivalry. Henry did not reply, but was ready for battle, ready to face the French at any time.
By the time the British arrived at the small village of Agincourt near Calais, the French had already formed a battle formation to prevent the British from advancing, and Henry had to fight the French here. In order to deal with Henry, almost all the French principalities sent troops to participate in the war, and the duke personally led the troops, with a total of more than 30,000 troops, and the lineup was very luxurious. However, King Charles VI of France did not personally march, and the dukes dismantled each other, and the cooperation was not good, and the result was a fiasco.
In the face of 30,000 elite French troops, Henry let 6,000 British troops line up in one line to form a "one-word long snake array" and fight a frontal battle with the French army. Perhaps it was the favor of heaven, the sky was raining heavily, and the wheat fields in front of the position were muddy, which was really not a good thing for the French heavy armored cavalry and heavy infantry. Taking this opportunity, Henry ordered the British to move forward, less than a hundred meters from the French, and the yew longbowmen came in handy.
The French heavily armored cavalry charged first, spears in hand, and came fiercely. The British longbowmen fired volleys into the sky, and the arrows rained down. The French had armored guards, and apart from a little panic, there was little to lose. However, the heavily armored knights stepped into the muddy wheat field, the sprint slowed down, and they were too close to the British, and fell under the longbowmen. Some of the knights rushed to the front, but they were blocked by the sharpened wooden sticks placed by the British army first.
Sharpened wooden sticks, one in the wheat field and the other facing upwards, the French knights' offensive was blocked. At this time, the French heavy armored infantry followed behind, and they fell into the mud, and it was very inconvenient to move. Henry seized the opportunity and ordered the British to attack with heavy swords and sledgehammers and engage the French in hand-to-hand combat. The muddy wheat fields were very favorable to the lightly armed British army, while the heavily armored French army was unlucky.
After a battle, the French army lost more than 10,000 people, including more than 5,000 nobles of all sizes, including 3 dukes, 5 counts, and more than 90 barons, and the losses were quite heavy. In Buck's Battle of Agincourt, 112 British troops were killed, including the Duke of York, and 250 wounded, and Henry won. After that, the French army lost consecutive battles, until the appearance of Joan of Arc, the British longbowmen ended the myth.
Judging from the Battle of Agincourt, the tactics of the French and British armies are very rigid, or the medieval model, pursuing a fair duel. In contrast, in the Ming Dynasty, the Ming army was already a multi-service coordinated operation, and the Shenji Battalion, the Five Military Battalions, and the Three Thousand Battalions were closely coordinated. At this time, whether it was the British army or the French army, if it encountered the Ming army led by Zhu Di, it was estimated that they would be hanged.
Bibliography: A Brief History of the Hundred Years' War