The smoke from Ryazan became visible ten kilometers before the city. From outside the walls, Batu could already see that the separate columns had joined high overhead, forming a single gray-black mass that stretched north and east with the wind.
Relay reports had arrived throughout the assault, about the earthwork breach, the fight at the gate, the raze advancing district by district, the church secured, the prince dead inside it.
The smoke matched every report. Nothing he saw suggested otherwise.
The first city of a Rus principality marked on the campaign map had fallen within the time the logistics planners had expected. No relief force had arrived from Vladimir or Chernigov.
Before noon, the nearby cities would send a rider north carrying news of Ryazan's fate. Every principality that received that news would face the same problem and make its own decision. Most people, given enough information and enough pressure, reached the same conclusion.
