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Charlemagne: Armies
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Charlemagne organized one of the better intelligence networks of the period, sending out spies and scouts to determine enemy locations and capabilities. To confuse opponents, he often divided his army into two columns and united the force only at the time of attack. Battles usually began with a charge of cavalry followed by massed infantry. Once a fight began, little maneuver occurred. Charlemagne's forces were victorious because of their superior numbers and individual abilities.
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As the day dawned, Charlemagne surveyed the wreckage of his camp and realized he could not fight the vampires by conventional means. After breaking his army up into smaller groups and setting them in defensive positions in the hills, he sent his most experienced vampire hunters into the mountains to conduct reconnaissance. That night, the men located the vampire cave network, and as soon as the sun came up, Charlemagne led his army there. Rather than send his men stumbling blindly into the dark caves, Charlemagne had them heap timber onto modified horse carts, light the pile on fire and roll the carts into the caves. The plan worked beautifully: vampires were smoked out into the light and beheaded by the hundreds.
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The key to Charlemagne's amazing conquests was his ability to organize. During his reign he sent out more than 50 military expeditions. He rode as commander at the head of at least half of them. He moved his armies over wide reaches of country with unbelievable speed, but every move was planned in advance. Before a campaign he told the counts, princes, and bishops throughout his realm how many men they should bring, what arms they were to carry, and even what to load in the supply wagons. These feats of organization and the swift marches later led Napoleon to study his tactics.
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These military successes owed much to Charlemagne's ability as a strategist and a diplomat. The favoured tactic involved the division of Frankish troops into two forces as they entered enemy territory, enabling a pincer movement. The cream of the Frankish army was the heavy cavalry, but it is no longer believed that this élite always and inevitably carried the day due to sheer brute force or technological superiority. The heavy cavalry made up perhaps a tenth of Frankish armies, which probably numbered in tens of thousands. Charlemagne was ... far from dependent on the cavalry charge, and indeed remarkably successful at reducing enemy fortifications. The complex organization, which equipped and supplied the army, and maintaining lines of communication, was the real basis of Carolingian success.
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