Osman Pazvantoğlu's "krdžalije" (Ottoman brigands), who were deemed rebels by the Sultan, had fought the Imperial troops at Crna Reka, and then continued to attack local Turks loyal to the Sultan, and burned and devastated several villages in the region, including Lenovac. This prompted Veljko, only 15 years old, to leave his parents and brothers for Vidin. There he was hired as a shepherd by a Turk, and after some time he left for Požarevac, where he was hired by the Vojvoda of Požarevac to prepare food. As he had also spent some time there, at Easter time, he danced the "kolo" with his friends, forgetting to prepare the important dinner for his master. For this, his master chased to beat him, thus Veljko fled, ending up in the "hajduk" (Serbian brigands) bands of Stanoje Glavaš. In the winter time of 1803, Glavaš had arranged for Veljko to stay at the house of a "jatak" ("concealer", civil hajduk supporter) in Dubona, in the Smederevo nahija, where he would work as a shepherd. In the same village Veljko met Marija, a widow and relative of Glavaš, and married her, moving to her house. Not long after the wedding, the Slaughter of the Knezes took place (January 1804), in which prominent Serb leaders were executed by the Janissary military junta of the Sanjak of Smederevo (these janissaries, under the leadership of Kučuk Alija, had murdered "sanjak-bey" Hadži Mustafa Pasha on 15 December 1801 and taken the rule of the sanjak). As a response to the executions, the Serbian population, without a central figure, took measures of self-defence, and spontaneously attacked the jannisaries.