Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c16.s8.6

v1.c16.s8.6

But how was the insolvent sovereign to make this royal journey with all his family, household staff and artillery? The gunners refused to move unless their arrears were paid; the royal elephants had been kept fasting for four days at a time and grown too weak to carry loads; there was no draught bullock left in the artillery department; the imperial stores were denuded of their materials; no menial or porter could be secured and no cart hired except for cash, of which there was none in the Treasury. But somehow or other, the Emperor with his mother and wazir made a start from Delhi and went to Luni on 27th April; the other princesses and the royal artillery arrived a few days later. Aqibat Mahmud then fell back from Ghaziabad (10m. s. e. of Luni) to Sikandrabad, plundering the wayfarers and the carts of food-stuff coming to Delhi. The wazir kept urging the Emperor to advance to Sikandrabad for recovering that tract of Crownlands from the usurpers. The Emperor at last consented, in spite of his lack of the money and material necessary for the journey and the projected compaign. Leaving Luni on 8th May, he reached a camp a few miles beyond Sikandrabad on the 17th. Meantime, Aqibat, after extorting Rs. 50,000 from the local traders in cloth and ghee by attaching their waggons of goods on the roads, had fallen back further south to Khurja, and the Emperor's administration was restored at Sikandrabad.