The road north from Ryazan followed the western bank of the Oka for a time before bending away into different terrain.
Batu noticed the change immediately.
South of Ryazan, the steppe had stretched in every direction, open grassland with sightlines that ran all the way to the horizon. Here, the terrain created a new problem.
Forest closed in from both sides of the road.
Birch and pine stood in dense clusters, sometimes a few hundred meters away, sometimes pressing directly against the route itself.
The three-layer screen had already adjusted. Bayan's riders expanded their patrol rounds, moving through the trees in broad arcs wherever the forest might conceal an approach. An army this large could not afford blind spots.
Torghul's tumen maintained the pace Subutai had ordered the previous night, and the army stretched so far behind them that the rear formations still occupied ground the vanguard had passed more than an hour earlier.
