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Unlike Demetrius, who attracted more and more supporters with his wise actions, the tsarist governors, and Godunov himself, made mistake after mistake. After the victory at Bryansk, Shuisky, furious that all the surrounding towns and villages supported the "imposter", ordered the local population to be killed indiscriminately. Hundreds of families were slaughtered and hanged, and the inhabitants of the Seversk land, seeing such lawlessness, swore allegiance to Demetrius and swore to fight to the death. Everyone understood that those who surrendered would not be spared cruel reprisals.

Meanwhile, Boris, having received detailed reports of the victory, sent Peter Sheremetyev to the army, who expressed royal disfavor to Shuisky and the whole army for not being able to capture Dimitri "by their negligence and non-service." The governors, among whom there were many "wavering", were seriously offended, and although they had not yet openly opposed Godunov, they were already thinking about mo