Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c35.s9.1

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.]