Philip vacillated: on the day the siege of Calais began he disbanded most of his army to save money, convinced that Edward had finished his "chevauchée" and would proceed to Flanders and ship his army home. On or shortly after 7 September, Duke John made contact with Philip, having already disbanded his own army. On 9 September Philip announced that the army would reassemble at Compiègne on 1 October, an impossibly short interval, and then march to the relief of Calais. Among other consequences, this equivocation allowed the English forces in the south west, under the Duke of Lancaster, to launch offensives into Quercy and the Bazadais; and launch a major raid north through Saintonge, Aunis and Poitou, capturing numerous towns, castles and smaller fortified places and storming the rich city of Poitiers. These offensives completely disrupted the French defences and shifted the focus of the fighting from the heart of Gascony to or more beyond its borders. Few French troops had arrived at Compiègne by 1 October and as Philip and his court waited for the numbers to swell, news of Lancaster's conquests came in. It was believed that Lancaster was heading for Paris, and in order to block this the French changed the assembly point for any men not already committed to Compiègne to Orléans, and reinforced them with some of those already mustered. After Lancaster turned south to head back to Gascony, those Frenchmen already at or heading towards Orléans were redirected to Compiègne; French planning collapsed into chaos.