History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v1.c8.13

v1.c8.13

Poor as were the resources of the country and tame as were the men of its plains, an invader from the south found it hard to keep hold of his conquest. He had to guard his own communications with the rear over the long and difficult passes of the Hindu Kush. But numberless hordes of savage horsemen, the Mongols and Turkomans, came from beyond the Oxus to oppose him, burning crops and villages, carrying off the loyal peasantry into slavery, hovering round his army on the march, cutting off detachments and stragglers, and when chased maintaining a Parthian fight. Indeed, his camp was ever in a state of siege. On them he could make no successful reprisal, deal no crushing blow which might win for him peace and the growth of revenue. The enemy had “no forts or towns or immovable property, worthy of the name, for an invader to destroy, and no stationary population, left undefended, upon whom he might wreak his vengeance......Mobility must have been the quality they relied on more than any other, both in attack and retreat, and we find them baffling their enemies more by their movements than by their fighting power.”[*]