Batu POV
Dorbei's rider came in before midday. The message was short, the total push had been repelled and the forest cavalry couldn't repeat the effort.
The eastern perimeter would not break.
Batu read it and told Torghul to move.
The army had been staged on the open ground west of the ford for two days, the formations resting and the horses eating the spring grass. When the order went through the relay the movement was immediate.
Torghul's tumen took the lead. The brothers' contingents spread to the south and west wings, and Batu rode north with the column.
Bulgar came into view from the low ground two hours out.
The city sat on raised earth above the floodplain, with the Volga river along its eastern wall. The walls were packed dirt banks, taller than Suvar's, with a timber palisade along the top built from thick logs set close together. Towers stood at the corners and along the walls, each one taller than the walkway between them.
