Over the past three years, Moscow has undergone significant changes.
The biggest change is that Moscow's outer walls have now been updated; the original wooden walls are gone, replaced by a sturdy brick wall, a wall of red bricks.
After the riot in 1063, Rostislav, having learned from the painful experience, decided to upgrade Moscow's city defenses, so from that year on, building brick walls became Moscow's top priority.
With Rostislav's massive investment of resources, the brick walls of Moscow were finally completed in July of this year, after three years.
Because of the existence of this unique red brick wall in all of Rus', the name Red City, which originally only applied to Moscow's inner city, now covers all of Moscow, and it is also referred to as the City of Red Bricks.
Of course, the inner city still retains the name Red City, as the name Red City originated from there.
The residents of Moscow are very proud of their city walls; such beautiful and tall red brick walls are a wondrous sight for many Rus' people, with red towers and Red City walls complementing each other, and the banner of saint george slaying the dragon flying above the towers, looking so magnificent.
A moat as wide as a lake flows gently beneath the brick walls, and the Moscow Prince has built wooden bridges at all the city gates for easy passage, and also to facilitate burning them in times of war, after which Moscow would become an isolated island.
Looking outwards, one can see scattered houses and vast, boundless agricultural suburbs, which speaks volumes about the prosperity of Moscow's agriculture.
Rostislav carried out a large-scale transformation of Moscow's suburbs, relocating many residents living near the city walls some distance back to facilitate widening the moat.
This was also to prevent too many houses from growing beneath the city walls, which could affect the city's defense, and to avoid enemies setting fires outside the city that could spread inside.
However, even now, Rostislav still stipulates that should enemy forces appear, all houses in the suburbs must be immediately burned down to clear the line of fire for the towers and city walls, leaving no cover for the enemy.
With the completion of this magnificent city wall, Moscow naturally became the safest city in all of Northeast Rus, and safety alone was enough to attract people.
Especially in an environment where bandit gangs are rampant in the countryside, not to mention it is also the political and economic center of Northeast Rus.
A large population was drawn to Moscow: farmers cultivating in the river bend, residents from the forests, and even people from various cities left their hometowns to move to Moscow; Moscow's development momentum instinctively caused people to gather here.
Alexei's theater troupe played a significant role in this; it was precisely because this troupe leader continuously toured and performed in the countryside that news of Moscow's prosperity spread rapidly, and people came with the Moscow dream.
And Moscow can indeed give them something in return, because it is a growing city; as long as one is willing to work, one can become wealthy.
Regarding this, various cities have voiced many complaints, grumbling that Moscow has attracted their best artisans and citizens, but they can only complain; who dares to oppose the flourishing Moscow Prince? Who dares to do anything to Rostislav?
Moreover, Rostislav has never actively encouraged the people of other cities to migrate to Moscow; this is the people's own choice.
Within the city walls, many vacant blocks have been filled with houses and workshops; the new population has filled these areas awaiting construction, and the streets are full of vibrant immigrants; the entire city is continuously developing.
Although many farmlands can still be seen in the city, under the planning of the Veche officials, these farmlands look so neat and uniform, and their co-existence with the city's beauty is not at all incongruous.
Moreover, many farmlands have been converted to vegetable cultivation, as there is an increasing abundance of grain outside the city, so citizens will also grow crops that can earn more money, and vegetables are one of them.
As an economic growth point for the city, the Guild District has become even more prosperous; the land allocated to them by the Prince now has completed banks, and the scale and industries of the guilds have expanded, with their various products continuously providing funds to the Moscow Prince.
Among the many guilds, the Blacksmiths Guild maintains continuous prosperity; the scale of this guild has expanded threefold in the past three years, supplying ironware to all of Rus'.
Now, many places in Northeast Rus can use pure iron farm tools, thanks to the efforts of the Blacksmiths Guild.
However, this guild is still most famous for the various weapons and armor it produces; due to the abundant output in this area, Moscow also has another name, the City of Weapons.
This reputation has led many warriors to come to the North, wanting the master craftsmen in the guild to make weapons and armor for them; uncles and even foreign Princes have placed orders, showing that the reputation of Moscow's equipment has been successfully established.
Moscow's population has exceeded twenty thousand, and many people could not meet the entry requirements, so they could only build houses and cultivate farmland outside the city walls; although they could not enter beyond the city walls, being close to Moscow itself meant safety.
As a city founded in 1053, Moscow took only 13 years to become one of the top five largest cities in all of Rus', which shows truly rapid development.
The Moscow Veche has also become more developed; this civilian self-governing organization is now completely organized, and Moscow has been divided into orderly electoral districts, with each district electing its chieftain, who then represents the interests of their respective district by submitting opinions to the Veche.
However, as a unique condition of Rus' democratic politics, the Veche meetings have not become refined or procedural; it is still a scene where the public crowds the entire venue, and decisions are made as always by whoever shouts the loudest.
Every time a meeting is held, Rostislav has to send the standing army to surround the venue, to prevent the people in the Veche, who are arguing so much they are about to fight, from gathering people in their respective districts to start a group brawl; this is also a normal state of Veche politics, but it is not the scene the Moscow Prince wants to see.
Rostislav also regrets this; it seems that this attempt to tame the Veche has failed again, but this was also expected, as partially organizing the Veche is already a victory.
However, even though Moscow is so prosperous, the fundamental reason for the large population gathering is the rampant banditry over the past three years.
The Veles Gang's warband in 1063 still held the ideal of fighting for the gods and the people, but they have now completely degenerated into a bandit gang, on par with the Eye-Digging Gang as villains of Northeast Rus.
The support of the people has long since vanished; everyone now only has disgust for the bandit gangs, and if it weren't for the fact that the Prince's tax collectors seemed even more despicable to the people, they would have lost their living space long ago.
They rob villages, harass towns, and plunder merchant caravans, forcibly conscripting supplies in the name of overthrowing the Christians, which also forces the chieftains of the rural strongholds to spend a great deal of time fighting the bandit gangs, because these gangs can threaten their very existence.
From a macro perspective, while they cannot cause large-scale destruction, these sudden raids are most effective at creating unrest.
They come and go without a trace, as once caught, their fate is complete annihilation.
Although the Prince's army continuously conducts large-scale encirclement and suppression campaigns, they always manage to let a portion of their core members escape, and these core members can easily raise another force; this is Northeast Rus, where there is no shortage of desperadoes and rebels.
Over the past three years, a few reckless individuals also instigated several larger-scale rebellions, with participants numbering in the hundreds, but they were ultimately quickly suppressed.
The Veles Gang no longer has the ability to incite uprisings in multiple locations; they can only concentrate their forces, and this concentration gives the Moscow government an opportunity to strike them.
However, after several strikes, the Veles Gang's transformation into a full-fledged bandit gang became even more complete.
Among the cadres trained by Lev, those who were willing to continue his great ideals gradually died during the uprisings, leaving behind naturally only some rotten individuals.
Rotten individuals naturally do rotten things; if the Veles Gang previously still had a facade of resistance, now they have completely become the same as the Eye-Digging Gang, though they have not yet developed the same enthusiasm for various cruel acts as the Eye-Digging Gang.
But interestingly, these two still remain hostile to each other, and their battles are even more intense; Leo believes this is a result of the two competing for ecological niches; now that the Veles Gang has also become bandits, the struggle with the Eye-Digging Gang is bound to be fierce.
The activities of these criminals have caused many people to flock to the Moscow Prince's domain; frankly, the casualties and damage caused by these bandit activities are not extensive, but they are very annoying, and the people want to live safely, not be caught in the turmoil of war.
This was an unexpected pleasant surprise for Rostislav; he had no idea such an effect could be produced, greatly enriching Moscow's population and allowing the city to expand more quickly.
And due to the generally pagan background of those bandit gangs, these new immigrants are also quite willing to convert, or even if they don't convert, they are somewhat dual-believers; otherwise, Rostislav would not have dared to accept so many people.
Another consequence is the increase in crime; the surge in immigration also led to an increase in criminals, which put the prisons built by Rostislav to good use.
However, this prison does not only hold criminals from the Moscow region; serious offenders from all over Northeast Rus are also sent to Moscow, a policy Rostislav implemented to strengthen the Prince's authority.
As for where these criminals are sent after being caught, they all go to one place.
The Gulag prison on the island in the center of the Moscow River, directly opposite Moscow City, forms part of Moscow's defense system, but the difference between them is immense: one is a prosperous city, while the other is a prison hell that operates on the law of the jungle.
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