The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c23.s3.54

v4.c23.s3.54

Yet despite its splendour, the kingship was not loved. Bayinnaung and the princes risked their lives freely at the head of the hosts conspicuously on elephants, and Bayinnaung shared many a hardship with his men. But what was sport to him was death to the common people. The disorganisation caused by his wars was such that Pegū sometimes starved. Even the fertile Delta cannot grow rice without men to plant it, and they were not there to plant it, having all been dragged away on foreign service. Of those that went, few returned, for if battle casualties were great, the wastage from hunger and dysentery was even greater. Even if they were not sent to fight, they were herded together and led away in one of the everlasting deportations which the kingship found necessary to re-populate ravaged areas.