Five days from Kolomna, the center army emerged from the trees and saw Moscow waiting across the open ground in the pale light of early morning.
Batu judged the settlement before anyone spoke.
The palisade was timber, perhaps four meters high at its tallest point. It would slow an assault, but not for long. A determined force could work through something like that in an afternoon.
Four watchtowers stood along the wall, each only slightly higher than the palisade beneath it. Behind the northern side of the settlement, the Moskva river curved past in a narrow pale ribbon. Between the forest and the walls stretched roughly five hundred meters of open ground. The earth had dried during the march and looked firm enough to support a full advance.
The place was small.
The whole town could have fit inside Sarai's market district with room left over.
Torghul rode up beside him and reached much the same conclusion.
"The men burned bigger barns in Volga Bulgaria."
