While Domnal and Dir were enjoying wine and food in a tavern in Moscow, their superior, Yan Vishatich, was imprisoned in the dungeon of a certain village.
As the Mayor of Suzdal, Yan was in an extremely sorry state, wrapped only in a piece of fur, and squeezed together with a group of equally disheveled individuals.
The smell was enough to make anyone frown, but Yan's face showed complete indifference; compared to what he intended to do, these smells were nothing.
On the surface, Yan appeared calm and accepting of his current situation, but inwardly he was very anxious, pondering how to escape and how to transmit the information he knew.
During this period, Yan had deeply penetrated the countryside of Northeast Rus. After long preparations, Yan appeared more like a forest dweller than anyone else—a forest dweller who had lived in the woods for an unknown number of years and had only recently emerged to see the world.
This time, he went personally, without any attendants, to minimize the possibility of suspicion.
This cover identity helped him greatly, allowing him to genuinely obtain useful information from the villagers.
Although this information was fragmented and seemed very insignificant, once compiled and analyzed, very interesting things would be discovered.
For instance, some villages had been consistently supplying grain to a certain place, some had been consistently purchasing small quantities of ironware from Moscow, and others were conducting conscious militia training.
Although such villages were not the majority in the total count, their mere existence implied a problem, and possibly a big problem, a very big problem.
After all, often only a small group of people need to lead the charge for a frantic trend to sweep through, especially given the current social environment in Northeast Rus.
If towns and villages under the influence of the Prince's power still had the intention of paying taxes to the Prince, then the vast countryside believed they had little to do with the Prince of Moscow, paying only in kind to Moscow on ordinary days; if it weren't for Rostislav leading them to wealth, they wouldn't even join the Prince's army.
And now, fully armed grain collection teams were visiting frequently, collecting various supplies from them. Although it wasn't life-threatening, such continuous collection was truly annoying, and discontent was brewing amidst the annoyance.
As for Yan, the breakthrough he finally achieved filled him with great joy, but he did not stop there, because all of this pointed to one thing: a larger conspiracy and a larger organization behind these actions.
Yan wanted to unearth this organization, so he continued to lie low in the village, presenting himself as a fervent believer, and his actions indeed brought him rather sweet rewards.
After a series of enthusiastic gestures and assistance to the village, he finally learned the source of their orders from the village elder: Veles Valley.
This name sounded a strong alarm in Yan's heart; a valley named after veles was certainly not simple. He then swore to himself that he would find this place.
Recalling that scene now, Yan only felt immense regret. Foolish, he was truly too foolish. Why didn't he run away immediately after gaining the advantage? He had already obtained what he wanted.
Because of the fervor he usually displayed, he was instead chosen by the local sorcerers and then sent to Veles Valley as a candidate.
However, it was at this stage that a problem occurred.
Yan's identity was that of a forest dweller living in the Kashin region, an area that had become a mixed bag after the Kashen Silver Mine incident, with most local tribes and villages having been leveled. That's why Yan chose this place.
The village he spoke of was real. This village had an old patriarch, and he and his sons and grandsons controlled a large area of land in the Kashin region.
However, this old man and his sons and grandsons had all been eliminated, seemingly because they perished defending Kashin, and the village was gone too.
But he did not expect that the people conducting the final inspection would actually find someone from the village he claimed was destroyed by the Bulgar, and it was even the old man's son, who happened to be working for the pagans.
Then, after a round of interrogation, Yan naturally exposed himself and was arrested.
Next came severe torture. Fortunately, Yan had a contingency plan for this. He claimed he was a spy from Moscow, from the outskirts of Rostov, who had come to explore for Moscow's high bounty, and after discovering information about Veles Valley, he planned to take the news back to Moscow to sell for money.
The pagans believed this false identity, as Yan's acting was very convincing, and his disguise in all aspects was very thorough.
This series of actions led the pagans to believe that Yan was just a small pawn, and they didn't pay much attention to him.
Originally, they intended to kill Yan directly, but one of their officials seemed to think it was too wasteful; the pagans needed money now, so they halted the killing.
And naturally, the next step was a more economical solution: he was thrown into the dungeon, intending to be sold as a slave, and this dungeon was full of slaves.
These slaves were mostly passing merchants and travelers, and some were people who showed goodwill towards or even converted to Christ, which is why they were captured here.
Seeing these slaves and understanding their situation from them, Yan gained a new understanding of the pagans' influence. The origins of these people spanned the entire Northeast Rus, meaning that the scope of organized pagan activities extended throughout Northeast Rus.
This was no small matter. With the increasing dissatisfaction over taxes in most parts of Northeast Rus currently, if these guys were willing, they could truly instigate an upheaval that would sweep across the entire Northeast Rus.
Yan also heard the pagans loudly proclaiming that they had a "grand plan," and that they just needed to endure for a while, and soon those accursed Christ exploiters would be finished.
Therefore, Yan desperately wanted to escape. He had to spread the news; he had to mobilize troops immediately.
Unfortunately, the dungeon was built too sturdily. He couldn't find any opportunities at all and was even whipped a few times for looking around.
However, he did manage to connect with many people. There were still many who didn't want to be slaves, and these people slowly united around him, waiting for a suitable opportunity.
After all, the pagans couldn't keep them locked up forever; they would eventually sell them. Yan also learned from the guards' conversations that they often dealt with unruly individuals this way, and this was their chance.
And the opportunity came quickly. After an unknown amount of time, all the slaves in the dungeon were escorted out.
The administrators told them they would be sold to merchants in Novgorod and then go to the Baltic Sea as galley slaves.
This was quite shrewd; once sold there, they would basically say goodbye to Northeast Rus forever.
Soon, the group set off. The guards along the way were very strict, and he himself was considered a key target, burdened with a large lock.
However, the large lock couldn't hold Yan. Yan had prepared extensively, and picking locks was even easier for him.
Right under everyone's noses, he used a thin iron rod to open the unsophisticated large lock; with just a little force, the lock would loosen automatically.
But Yan didn't run immediately. Attacking immediately would be suicide. He needed to find a suitable place, and that place appeared very quickly.
As their group was crossing a large river, when Yan saw that half the group had already crossed, he signaled his companions to riot, and with this riot, the entire group fell into chaos.
The guards had no idea the slaves would riot, as they were all wearing wooden yokes, but some slaves had somehow secretly unfastened their yokes.
Because the slaves initiated the attack on the bridge, many guards were immediately knocked into the river, but as soon as the fully armed warriors from the front and back arrived, they would be suppressed again.
But from the very beginning, the slaves' intention was not to go forward or backward, but to jump into the river!
Yan immediately unlocked the large lock, then directly smashed it at a nearby pagan, and then he jumped straight into the water, just as planned from the beginning, struggling forward in the torrent, with pagan arrows and shouts behind him.
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