Lord Henrich’s panicked serfs had fled back toward the main roads, leaving the Rothenburg mining camp eerily silent.

Konrad stood near the blasted mouth of the main shaft. His clothes were ruined, his face smeared with soot and dried blood.

"Lord Konrad." Captain Eckhard approached, offering a clean linen cloth. "The ground is held. Henrich’s tower is locked tight, and his remaining men cower inside. Do we lay siege?"

Konrad wiped the blood from his face, "Henrich is but a symptom of a festering sickness among these lords... We must strike the root."

He turned to Master Dieter, who was checking the remaining powder pots.

"Master Dieter, the Swabian vanguard was broken, but Baron von Waldburg still holds his great culverins and the bulk of his veteran footmen. The northern pass is safe, but this eastern road is now entirely bare."

"..." Dieter frowned, looking out over the rough earth. "If Waldburg learns Henrich has failed, he will turn his host here. We cannot hold an open valley with sixty men."

"We will not hold the valley..." Konrad corrected. "We will hold the narrow throat leading to the mine, and we will wait for them. The Swabian League relies on heavy ranks. They cannot fight without their great numbers."

Crunch... crunch...

The sound of wagon wheels rolling over stone drew their eyes.

Lady Katarina of Bavaria rode toward them, flanked by Gregor. She had overseen the raising of the watch at the keep and had rushed to the hills the moment she heard he was drawn from the earth!

She stopped her horse near Konrad, her sharp eyes scanning his battered form. "You survived, Lord Konrad."

"The odds were dark, but my men acted with true speed," Konrad replied.

Katarina dismounted, stepping closer. "...While you were buried, my scouts caught a rider. Baron von Waldburg has joined with the remaining swords of the Duchy of Württemberg. Lady Isolde’s uncle has sent a thousand men to swell the League. They march straight for Rothenburg."

"..."

A joined Swabian and Württemberg host was a grave peril. The pacts of the Empire were shifting rapidly, bound together by the truth of his new weapons.

"The ground here is even more pinched than the northern pass... They must force their men through the narrow gorge leading to the mine."

He turned to Captain Eckhard. "Set the watch along the ridges overlooking the gorge. Bid them use the rocks for cover. They are not to fire until the enemy vanguard is entirely caught in the trap."

"And the great guns, my Lord?" Eckhard nodded. "We left the falconets at the keep."

"We do not need the falconets..." Konrad replied, pointing to the crates Dieter guarded. "We have the powder pots. Master Dieter, work with the watch. Set the pots along the gorge walls." 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

The next twelve hours were a blur of frantic, ordered toil...

The sixty men of the watch, aided by the remaining loyal miners, turned the narrow gorge into a slaughter pen.

They set the powder pots deep into the weak limestone cliffs, running long slow-matches back to safe perches.

As dusk began to settle over the valley, casting long shadows across the gorge...

Thud... Thud... Thud... The distant beat of marching boots and drums heralded the coming of the foe.

Konrad stood on a high ridge overlooking the gorge, flanked by Katarina and Eckhard.

Below them, the vanguard of the joined Swabian and Württemberg host marched boldly into the narrow pass.

They were a fearful sight - thousands of seasoned soldiers, their armor gleaming in the fading light, their long pikes forming a thick forest of steel.

Leading the vanguard was an armored knight flying the colors of Württemberg. He rode a great warhorse, certain that the unarmored peasant watch would break at the mere sight of such lordly might.

"They are proud," Katarina whispered, watching the ordered ranks march deeper into the trap.

The Württemberg knight raised his sword, calling the advance. The vanguard pressed deeper into the gorge, entirely blind to the deadly ruin set into the cliffs above them.

Konrad waited until the thickest knot of enemy troops stood directly beneath the hidden pots.

He raised his hand.

"Loose the fire!" Konrad commanded.

Captain Eckhard signed to the men hidden among the rocks.

Ssss...

A breath later...

The gorge erupted in a world-shattering roar! The deafening thunder was trapped by the narrow stone walls, creating a blast of air that struck the marching men. Great faces of the limestone cliffs simply sheared away and plummeted downward!

Tons of jagged rock rained down upon the tightly packed ranks. The armored knights and pikemen were crushed instantly, their bodies buried beneath a roaring avalanche of stone.

The screams of the dying and the terror of the living were drowned out by the endless, fearful thunder of the breaking earth.

The Swabian and Württemberg vanguard was not just broken; it was wiped from the earth in a matter of heartbeats!

Before the dust could even settle, Eckhard roared his next command.

From their safe perches along the ridges, the sixty men of the watch stood up and leveled their wheel-lock pistols. They fired a crashing volley down into the broken remnants of the enemy host.

The unarmored, swift-moving watch poured lead into the thick mass of soldiers, picking off their marks with cold rhythm.

The foe could not return fire; their crossbows and clumsy matchlocks were useless in the ruin, and they could not turn their long pikes in the narrow, rock-strewn gorge.

Katarina watched the slaughter, her breath catching in her throat.

Konrad had turned the very bones of the valley into an engine of death.

Down in the gorge, the surviving Swabian and Württemberg soldiers, seeing they were trapped in a slaughter pen, broke entirely.

They cast aside their weapons, their banners, and their wounded, scrambling madly to flee the trap!

The proud, unbending host of the Swabian League and the Duchy of Württemberg had been broken by sixty men and a handful of blasting powder.

As the echoes of the gunfire finally faded, yielding to the groans of the dying, Konrad stood still on the ridge. "...we now hold the upper hand."

"..." Katarina stared at the young lord.

"You have destroyed an army, Konrad..." Katarina whispered, "What will you do now?"