Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c27.s2.4

v2.c27.s2.4

Along the western side of it stretches the edge of the upland running north to south parallel to the river. North, east and south of Shukartal there are numberless tortuous ravines sloping down to the river, the loose sandy bed and sides of which render the terrain impossible for cavalry, while they afford excellent opportunity to foot musketeers to dig themselves in and form perfect ambushes. In the north of the place, a bend in the Salāni (a feeder of the Ganges) formed an effective natural cover, while the entire eastern flank for many miles above and below was protected by the mighty Ganges and its network of channels, parted by sandy islands. Najib completed this natural fortress by forming entrenchments and redoubts, and mounting guns and posting his sharpshooters towards the west and south-west, whence only an enemy could approach. Thus, a perfect sunken fort was formed which only starvation could have made untenable in the age before the invention of modern shells. But the fear of starvation was removed by Najib throwing a bridge of boats over the Ganges south-east of his entrenchments, in an absolutely safe position, unless the enemy could cross the mighty river and storm the fortified bridgehead on the left bank, which was impossible during the rainy season just then beginning.