The army 5,000 strong was now setting up camp in and around Ufa. The battle had been short, a nearly 2,000 mongols lay dead piled in heaps. Some soldiers were now traveling back and forth between the heaps setting them on fire; the smell was terrible, but the city would not be currsed with the diseases from the dead.
A picket line had been set up outside the city in case of any mongol attacks, but the rest of the army settled down for a full night sleep. The General was busy with his captains in the market, though it was late at night, the city was buzzing with festivities. As soon as the army had captured the city the peasants came out with all the food and drink they could spare. Most of the men recieved some of the food, and many of the girls started to visit the tents in the camp.
The mood of the civilians served to raise the moral of the soldiers also. They had marched for days from Moscow after fighting off the large mongol attack on the city, and had just come through on another battle. The warm greetings of the civilians, all Orthodox, just put it firmer in the heart of the Russians to ground the Horde into destruction.
Many of the soldiers had never been outside of Russia, and never realized that many of the peoples living in the Horde were equals with the Russians. They enjoyed the same customs, looked the same, and prayed to the same God. The soldiers realized then that the Hordes rulling over of these lands was not their right, and was merly an occupation, for these people were not muslim. That night in the city helped to spread a new ferver through the army, one of unity for all Russians. At first when the battle cry was just to save Moscow, had now been transfered into the liberation of all Russians.
The festivities and giving lasted long into the night, but the General finally ordered all the civilians to bed and imposed a curfew on them and his soldiers, for tommorrow they would begin marching again.
