There was a reason for everyone's despondency; they all knew that the stream wouldn't hold off the enemy for long, their warhorses were already exhausted, they couldn't run much further, and being caught by the enemy was inevitable.
But Aleph had never panicked. This commander always appeared to have victory in his grasp. No matter how disheartened his subordinates became, he was always like this, and he always encouraged everyone with full energy.
It was the commander's confidence that gave everyone confidence. If not for that, they wouldn't have persevered for so long, but would have scattered and fled halfway.
"Lord Aleph, can we really escape the pursuit of those fellows? Akad has sent out all his elites, and their numbers are so much greater than ours..."
Just as everyone was seizing the moment to rest and prepare for the upcoming battle, the small figure who had been under everyone's protection walked up to Aleph, took off his hood, and asked somewhat timidly.
Beneath the hood was a beautiful black-haired little boy, and the silver ring on his hand and the buckle on his cloak undoubtedly indicated his extraordinary status.
"Lord Adam, please rest assured, everything will be fine. You only need to cooperate with the protection. You are the true Bulgar Khan, and you will one day reclaim everything that belongs to you."
Aleph's tone towards the child was very gentle and full of respect.
From his words, we can deduce this person's identity—Adam Dulü, the legitimate heir to the Bulgar throne.
Aleph's words clearly made little Adam breathe a sigh of relief. He trusted his father's confidant implicitly. He had never betrayed the family's trust and was quite gentle with him, far less irritable than his father.
Next, the commander put the Khan's son's hood back on, and subtly hid the cross pendant that had accidentally slipped out. Aleph called for guards to protect Adam. Although he never doubted their rescue, a battle was still possible, so the Khan's son had to be well protected.
And watching the little Khan look back at him every few steps, Aleph's eyes filled with more warmth. This period of sharing life and death had deepened his affection for the child.
And with these emotions, his thoughts couldn't help but return to the night of the coup.
Recalling that night, Aleph couldn't help but sigh that Akad's coup must have been planned and laid out much earlier.
Half of Bulgar's city defense army sided with the usurper the moment the coup began, and the loyal troops were either massacred or trapped, unable to support their Khan at all.
The coup forces quickly controlled key points in the city: towers, barracks, fortresses... When the Khan discovered the coup, almost half the city had fallen into the hands of the coup plotters.
Bulgar was in chaos that night. At the time, people had dispersed after receiving the Khan's promise to ransom their families, but then they ran into the rampaging coup forces.
The coup forces didn't care about anything; anyone who stood in their way would be slaughtered. For a time, the streets were filled with corpses and carnage, and these killings made the lawless realize that their time to openly do evil had come.
Within a mere hour, Bulgar had become a city of sin, full of looters, killings, and rapes.
And the coup forces occupying various key points completely ignored all this. In the eyes of these devout frontier believers, the suffering of these wealthy city people was well-deserved. They would only act if some muddle-headed fool tried to set fires, but that was only because of Akad's orders; the usurper did not want this great city of Volga to burn.
And the Khan's army was powerless to maintain order; they soon retreated to the palace.
Facing such a situation, the Khan understood that with the forces he had, it would be difficult to contend with the coup plotters. The Khan's guard was elite, but their numbers were no more than a hundred.
Even though Akad's father fulfilled his promise and joined the palace defenders with his retainers, it was still a drop in the bucket.
Moreover, everyone knew that since Akad dared to launch a coup at this time, he certainly wouldn't care about his father's life.
In such a terrible situation, the Khan directly ordered Aleph to escape with his son, while the Khan decided to stay behind to attract attention for them.
Khan Ashraf clearly understood his relative's character; he had to be the torch in the dark to draw all eyes to himself, and only then could a loophole appear in his comprehensive and strict blockade.
Aleph naturally understood the gravity of the situation. He chose to carry out the mission, taking the Prince away. While the main force of the coup army rushed to the palace, he led a carefully selected elite force to cut a bloody path and break out of the city through the city gate controlled by troops loyal to the Khan.
Akad's pursuit would soon arrive, sending his pawns across the country to search for the Khan's son's whereabouts.
Soon after, news of everything that happened on that night of upheaval spread. The Khan had been killed, his head hung on Bulgar's city gate, and the jurists ignored the usurper's patricide and began to sing his praises.
As for the old man who was loyal to the Khan and opposed his own son, he also died. Yes, Akad killed his father. Aleph had thought that even he wouldn't do such a thing, but he did it.
Initially, Aleph and his group could still find refuge with loyal chieftains or in towns, as everyone still remembered who had caused their relatives to be captured and who was the legitimate Khan.
But after Akad announced that he would ransom all captives and sent large bribes to influential people in various regions, everything became delicate.
Aleph noticed the change in atmosphere. Originally, he had planned to use the Khan's son as a banner to call loyalists from various regions to come and support the King, but now, given the situation, they would be lucky if they weren't handed over to the usurper.
To prevent the situation from deteriorating to the worst-case scenario, and to prevent these potential allies from completely turning against them, Aleph chose to leave Bulgar.
Everyone cooperated with this, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. No one wanted to betray their former liege, but no one wanted to face such a powerful victor. This was a good choice for both sides—and if one day the Khan's son were to return as a Prince, their fallback option of changing allegiances would still be there.
Aleph chose to flee to Rus'. Among the many rulers surrounding Bulgar, only the Rus' monarch would certainly maintain a hostile attitude towards Bulgar for a long time.
The war hadn't been over for long, and the Rus' people wouldn't mind being given a useful blade; this was the legitimate Bulgar heir.
However, Akad had also thought of these things. This kinslayer was very good at putting himself in others' shoes. The usurper's henchmen discovered the fleeing group when they crossed the border, and they have been pursued ever since.