Batu POV
Torghul's tumen was moving north when Batu looked south, at the smoke from the first position and understood what the second would look like when they arrived.
The first garrison had come south to find what was coming. The signal fire had given the second garrison time to do something different. Dorbei's raiding smoke was already rising to the west, three columns from the agricultural ground beyond the ford where his dispersed parties had reached the winter stores.
Batu held this thought without warmth and moved past it.
Torghul POV
Torghul observed the second position from five hundred meters. The palisade walkway was fully manned. He could see from this distance the dark horizontal line of bows above the rail, arrows already nocked.
The first garrison had been caught by surprise. This one had prepared for over an hour. He gave the signal, and the tumen spread into its encirclement arc, the leading riders pushing east and west at a canter.
