Fyodor Mstislavsky commanded an army of some 20,000 soldiers, while False Dmitriy I had some 23,000 men at his disposal. The impostor found out that Boris Godunov's army had been deployed near a small village of Dobrynichi and made a decision to attack it at once, first sending his men to set the village on fire. The Russian patrol, however, was able to capture the incendiaries and warn the rest of the army of the oncoming enemy forces, thus, giving the Russian army some time to prepare for the battle.