France is a region that determines the fate of European history.
At this time, 300 years ago, in the Champagne Plain, not far east of Paris, the armies of Western Rome and Germania defeated Attila's Xiongnu barbarian alliance, freeing Europe from the fate of falling into the hands of the Huns.
300 years later, Poitiers, not far southwest of Paris, will be the site of the fate of Europe, where Hammer Charles will defeat the Muslim invasion and Europe will become the bastion of Christendom.
After leading his army to defeat Eudo, Count of Aquitaine, Rahman continued his attack northward, entering the heart of France, reaching Poitiers, and beginning the siege.
At this time, the inferiority of the Arab cavalry was revealed. The Arab cavalry was all light cavalry, with no experience in attacking fortifications, and even less heavy siege equipment, so they were helpless in the face of the tall and strong stone walls of France.
This is a far cry from the Mongol cavalry hundreds of years later. The Mongol cavalry not only had the powerful assault force and mobility of the cavalry, and was invincible in field battles, but also had methods in attacking cities. Mechanics from the Central Plains and Arabia, technology provided the Mongols with powerful siege techniques and equipment for conquering European cities.
Rahmanton was under the fortified city, and had no choice but to leave a force to besiege Poitier, and he led his main force to continue north, besieging the city of Tours. The city of Tours is located in the Loire Valley in west-central France.
This was the northernmost limit of Arab expansion.
Now it's up to Charlie Matt. Charlie Matt showed a heroic side, listening carefully to the story of the defeated Count Aquitaine, gaining a thorough understanding of the composition and tactics of the Arab cavalry, and the strategy that followed.
His follow-up tactics are reminiscent of Li Shimin, the Qin king of the Tang army. As the de facto supreme commander of the Tang army, Li Shimin, the king of Qin, in all the classic battles in the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, had a distinctive characteristic: he firmly held on and fought back with all his might.
When the enemy came from a distance, when the edge was in its prime, he always held on first, frustrated the enemy's sharp spirit, and cut off the enemy's food route, so that when the enemy's sharp spirit was exhausted, he launched an all-out assault. The strength of the counterattack and the determination to chase the enemy to the end can reach the point of not eating for 2 days and not disarming for 3 days, such as the battle against Song Jingang.
Charlie Matt also used this tactic at this time.
On the one hand, he ordered all the cities to hold out, not believing in holding out at all costs, in order to defeat the Arabs, and on the other hand, under the city of Tours, he did not fight a decisive battle with Rahman, but sent a small force of cavalry to constantly harass him, and sent a cavalry to penetrate directly behind the enemy and cut off the Arabs' food routes.
Rahman was shocked when he heard the news, and immediately ordered the whole army to retreat quickly, but his subordinates just refused to abandon the hard-won bulky booty and travel lightly, and there was no way, Rahman could only send a force to the rear to cover the slow retreat of the main force.
In the hinterland of a foreign country, it is very dangerous to move quickly and only slowly. The Frankish army, which had caught up behind, kept gnawing and destroying the forces behind the Arab Temple. Six days later, Rahman's army was already badly damaged.
Realizing that if he continued like this, his troops would be eaten up by Charles Matt, he decided to fight the Franks under the city of Poitiers.
In 732 AD, the moment finally came to determine the fate of Europe. The Battle of Poitiers broke out.
On the Arab side, there were less than 50,000 troops, all light cavalry, armed with spears and Arab scimitars, with very little armor, and strong mobility and combat effectiveness, but weak protection.
On the Frankish side, there were 70,000 troops, consisting of infantry and cavalry. The cavalry was all heavy cavalry.
Charlie Matt's Frankish army was very different from what it used to be. He overhauled his army, transforming the Frankish army, which was dominated by infantry and a small number of light cavalry (the kind of Count of Aquitaine's), to a new group of heavily armored steel-armored spear cavalry, supplemented by heavily armored steel-armored spear infantry.
This is also tailored to its own characteristics. The Frankish Germans were tall, sturdy and powerful, able to withstand heavy armor and heavy spears.
These cavalrymen wore steel helmets that protected their entire heads, covered their entire bodies, and even had iron gloves on their hands, and were armed with a three-meter-long spear, a heavy sword, and a large long-pointed shield.
The Gallic Spanish horse under the crotch is heavy and enduring, and the horse's body is covered with iron armor, and even the horse's head and face are protected by iron masks.
If the heavily armored steel armored spear cavalry group is launched in this way, its impact and lethality are very powerful, and its own protection is very strong.
One can imagine the infantrymen who met their group's charge, feeling the tremors of the earth, and how terrible the shock in their hearts was when they faced them head-on.
The armor protection of the Frankish hoplite steel-armored spear infantry, like the cavalry, was armed with double-edged heavy battle axes, spears up to 3-4 meters long, and a large rectangular shield large enough to cover the whole body.
In addition, Charles organized Greek ballista units to fire spears from heavy ballista clusters at a range of 400 meters, and the spear groups fired by the Greek ballistas fired in salvo had a powerful lethality against the group's charge of the cavalry.