Page 118 - Lohgarh

118 w Lohgarh : The World’s Largest Fort

The Mughal Mansabdars, along with their army tried to move
forward between the web of 52 Fortresses that had been established
by the Sikhs on the passages leading to Khalsa Rajdhani. The Sikhs
launched attacks from each Fortress and a fierce battle with cannon
and musket took place at regular interval of time, The Sikh soldiers
were not bothered by the mighty enemy; with their chivalrous spirit
they brought down large Mughal army under the range of their attack.
The Sikhs had great advantages of being at higher contours; and they
used arrows and musket fire against the Mughals from high ramparts.
From the flashing of swords and spears, many of the Mughals died from
sword thrusts of the Sikh soldiers. Khan-i-Khanan tried to advance near
the Fortress, but did not dare much to achieve the objective. The
imperial soldiers were somehow trying to fight against Sikhs, but Mughal
Generals were cowards and were trying to save their lives. Much
endeavour and effort was put in from both sides in which the ‘trade of
giving and taking life’ came briskly. By that time, the Imperial forces,
crossing over the plain ground, reached to a distance of a quarter Kous
from the wall of the advance Fortress of Lohgarh. Cannon balls, regularly
fired from the top of the bastions, were falling on the Imperial army
and it killed a large number of Mughal soldiers. Amini’l Umara Bahadur
Nusrat Jang never went close to Lohgarh and kept on sending the
message to the Emperor from his tent. The Emperor was stationed at
Ugala village near Shahbad and was daily monitoring the warfare from
quite a far and safe place. This process continued for a month and daily
hundreds of Mughal soldiers were being killed at the hands of the Sikhs.
There was not even a minor achievement on the side of the Mughal
army.
Irvine writes, “The Mughal and Pathan soldiers were very much
scared due to the rumours about Banda Singh. They had heard that Banda
Singh had magical power with which he could make the spears and
swords of the enemy ineffective. They had learnt that Banda Singh had
given a ‘blessing’ to the Sikhs that if anyone of them died in the battle,
he would be reborn and would get a higher office in life. Due to such
rumours the Emperor and the senior generals of the Mughal army had