Re: Steel and Gunpowder

The Rechberg men, clad in dark wool and bearing old flint and steel, crept through the mud of the valley.

Rustle...

The shadows of the wooden beams suddenly moved.

Click... clack...

From the high wooden walks, a sharp clicking sounded over the roar of the mills. Dozens of wheellocks were made ready at once.

"Marks found. Give fire," a low voice commanded.

The blast was deafening! The guards fired their new wheellock dags, the barrels packed with heavy lead.

The saboteurs were caught in a crossing storm of shot. Their bodies were torn apart by the lead, their leather jacks offering no shield against the new arms.

The guards came down from the walks to view the dead. They tallied the bodies and went back to their posts.

Within the master’s room of the keep, Konrad von Frundsberg sat alone.

The hour was late, far past the time when men seek rest, yet Konrad’s mind was fixed entirely upon a ledger of Baltic copper.

The doors swung open. Lady Isolde entered the room.

She stepped to the desk and gave her report. "Baron von Rechberg’s men breached the outer line near the brimstone vats. The guards dealt with them. We lost no men, and the forges stand whole."

"The Baron’s move was easily guessed..." Konrad said.

Isolde stepped a hair closer to the desk. As master of spies, she sought to press the advantage won by the failed attack.

"The Rechberg strength is now broken, the loss of their winter wheat promises sure hunger, and the death of their men has broken their spirits.

I say we send the wheellock footmen at once to take the eastern pass. We can seize their lands before the Swabian League knows we march."

"Hmm, if we send our soldiers across the border, the vows of brotherhood made by the Swabian League will be restored and we will immediately face the cutting off of Hanseatic trade routes and the swords of the Duke of Bavaria." Konrad said.

"..." Isolde stood still, bearing the words. "Then how do we take the lands without waking the wrath of the Empire?"

"Can’t you see it? By sending armed men to burn our sovereign forges, Baron von Rechberg has given us clear, written proof of his unprovoked war against this house... he has handed us the lawful right to strike." Konrad explained.

Rustle... Konrad pulled a fresh sheet of parchment toward him. "We shall send riders to the Emperor’s Diet in Augsburg, bearing the bodies of the slain men and the sworn proof of their intent to burn our forges, and we will ask the council for the legal right to march on the lands of Reichberg to recover the value of our stolen steel."

"The Diet has frozen over because of the arrival of the investigators, and they will not send the swords of the empire to rescue a bankrupt and starving baron who started a fight." Isolde noted.

"Just so," Konrad confirmed. "The Diet will wash their hands of it... at that very hour, our right to march will be absolute."

He turned back to the copper ledgers, "...see that the master of stores readies the meat and bread for the march."

...

For a fortnight, the eastern road had been choked by Baron von Rechberg.

The neighboring lord had halted the wagons of half-plate, claiming the Pope’s Interdict gave him the right to seize goods meant for the Fugger merchants.

This stoppage was bleeding the estate dry... without Bavarian silver, Konrad could not buy the Baltic saltpeter needed to feed his great guns.

Standing about the desk were the remnants of his father’s old council.

Chief among them was Master Hube, an aging clerk steeped in the slow ways of the Holy Roman Empire.

Hube was reciting a litany of woes, his voice trembling with the fear of a man seeing his house fall to ruin.

"The merchants of the Hansa threaten to close their purses, Lord Konrad," Master Hube reported, wringing his hands. "The burning of Baron von Rechberg’s grain has only hardened his heart. He turns away all heralds. He hoards our stolen steel, and our workmen will soon see the silver chests are empty... if we do not bow to the Church courts and open the roads, the forges must cease their fires within three weeks."

Before Konrad could correct the clerk’s fears, the doors of the room were cast open. Marshal Eckhard strode in.

He was followed by Lady Isolde. Both passed the aging clerks, coming straight to the Konrad’s desk.

"A grave turn of tides upon the eastern border, my lord," Lady Isolde reported.

Konrad set his brass compass down.

Marshal Eckhard gave a bow. "Our outriders confirm the whisperers’ tales. Baron von Rechberg has given the stolen Swabian steel to the Bishop of Augsburg as a holy tithe... furthermore, to prove his loyalty to the inquisitors, he has put to death the six guards who rode with the wagons."

Gasp...

Master Hube gasped. To slay the sworn men of a neighboring lord was a dark and unforgivable crossing of bounds.

"How did they die?" Konrad demanded.

"They were hanged at the border marker," Isolde answered. "The Baron’s writ claims they were slain for the crime of heresy against the Church... he held no trial, nor did he seek the Emperor’s Diet for judgment."

A heavy silence fell upon the old clerks in the room... they looked for Konrad to fly into a rage, to strike the desk, or swear a blood oath to avenge his murdered men.

"Hmm, the legitimate demands of the war have now been met. The Baron has granted us a full right to use the sword." Konrad declared.

He looked at his Marshal, "Marshal Eckhard, call the men to arms. You shall gather the whole company of wheellock footmen. Requisition the beasts needed to draw twelve of the new great guns. We march upon the eastern road before the sun sets."

"It shall be done, my lord," Eckhard confirmed, turning to begin the moving of the cannons.

Master Hube lunged forward. "Lord Konrad, you cannot march to war!" Hube cried, "Baron von Rechberg holds a stout stone keep upon a high hill. He commands three hundred men-at-arms and a company of horse. A siege will spend thousands of florins in grain... we cannot starve our workmen to sit before a wall for months!"

"...a siege is a waste of time and coin, we shall show them the true power of powder and shot." Konrad lectured

"This...?" Hube stared at him.

"Rechberg’s walls were built to withstand thrown stones and old catapults," Konrad explained, "They will crumble like chalk against bursting shells. We shall set the twelve-pounder batteries at four hundred paces. We will batter his main wall with a crossing storm of cannon fire."

Konrad stood up from the table, "The absorption of the Thiersee knights proved we must widen our fields. The Rechberg lands are failing. I mean to take them whole.

We shall strike out the Baron’s name and forever hold the eastern road under our own hand."

Hube stepped backward, "You mean to blot an ancient Swabian house from the Emperor’s books?"

"Pen the formal writ of war. Send it to the Swabian Diet in Augsburg by swift rider. Let them read of our march only after the Rechberg keep is reduced to rubble." Konrad stated

"The writ shall be sent at once, my lord," Isolde confirmed.