Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c35.s9: § 14. Dig completely blockaded
Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c35.s9
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§ 14. Dig completely blockaded
v3.c35.s9.1
In March the two Gosāin generals, Himmat Bahadur and Umrāogir, with their 6,000 brave mercenaries and 30 or 40 guns, after being driven out of Oudh service by the English, joined Najaf Khan, agreeing to subsist by plunder and not to expect any regular pay from him. The Mughal generalissimo now changed his tactics; he turned the siege into a blockade. His bands of horsemen, both Mughalias under Najaf Quli or Miskin and Gosāins, patrolled the southern road from Kumbher and the northern road from Kāmā by which provisions used to enter Dig so freely that grain actually sold cheaper in the fort than in the besiegers' camp. The Mughal horse did their work so well that the coming of provisions to the garrison was soon totally stopped. The stores within the fort were exhausted in a few weeks, because an immense population from the districts around had taken refuge within its walls, besides the garrison of 60,000 Jats. A terrible famine now broke out in the beleaguered city, and no relief was in sight. The people perished daily by the hundred, poisoning the air with their corpses and those of the animals....The survivors ate everything without distinction." [Ibrat, i. 282, Modave 298.]
v3.c35.s9.2
Unable to bear this agony any longer, the Jat soldiers began to slip out of the fort at night in groups, so that the garrison was reduced from 60,000 to 10,000. The poorer people were allowed by Ranjit Singh to go to the siege-camp in search of food. Mirzā Najaf nobly refused to drive them back into the fort for the purpose of intensifying the famine there and hastening its fall. He set up "a standard of safety" beneath which the refugees took shelter and were protected by his own followers. Encouraged by his generous conduct, many rich men too left the city for his camp. Even bankers and members of the Jat royal family sought this means of escape.