Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c8.s5.31

v1.c8.s5.31

Zain-ud-din was warned by Alivardi of the coming danger and urged to save himself by fleeing to Murshidābād by the northern side of the Ganges, so as to avoid Mustafa’s route. He chose the manlier part of defending the province in his charge. Hurrying back to his capital from Tirhut, he rapidly organised a most efficient plan for guarding Patna. Calling up his detachments from the outposts and all local nobles and loyal zamindārs to his side, he soon assembled about 14,000 fighters round him. His armed camp in Jafar Khān’s garden, east of Patna City, was surrounded on the land side by a ring of wooden towers (*sangar*) for musketeers, and these were joined together by curtains and continued up to the embankment for keeping out the flood from the marsh south-west of the city (called *jallā*). A deep wet ditch was dug outside this line of defence and the earth thus excavated was thrown up in the form of a rampart outside the mud and water. On the bastions guns were mounted, and sections of the walls were distributed among the different captains.