Page 179 - Lohgarh

Third Mughal Expedition Against the Sikhs w 179

killed. 21
However, after the shelling of several days, the Mughal army
succeeded in putting the Sikhs on the defensive. By this time, the Mughal
army occupied the area around the Fort and took positions at a distance
of about 35-40 metres of the Fort. Now, they (the Mughals) have dug a
wide trench around the Fort in order to stop the Sikhs from coming out
of the Fort. By that time they had brought one big cannon too; this
cannon was being used to throw shells on one wall of the Fort, which
led to a serious damage to any portion of the wall. Now, the Sikhs
realised that, sooner or later, the Mughals would succeed in breaking
the wall of the Fort unless this cannon was silenced; hence, on the
night of 31 July 1713, when it was raining heavily and the Mughal soldiers
had taken shelter in their tents, some daring Sikh soldiers came out of
the Fort and began pulling the cannon towards the Fort. The Sikh soldiers
succeeded in pulling the cannon up to the trench, but here their ropes
got broken and the cannon fell into the moat, creating a loud thud.
Hearing the sound, several Mughal soldiers came out of their tents and
found their cannon missing. Now they looked here and there and finally
found it in the moat. The army officials paid fifty rupees each to one
hundred soldiers and got it pulled out after a great labour. 22
After the failure of the cannon-mission, the Sikhs realized that they
wouldn’t be able to hold long; moreover, they did not have a lot of
food and ammunition and the number of the Mughal soldiers were
very large; so, they decided to begin the guerrilla war.
According to Muhammed Qasim Aurangabadi not a day passed
when the Sikhs did not come out of the Fort and attack the Mughal
soldiers with swords. One day, at midnight, the Sikhs came out of the
Fort and attacked on the trenches of Abdus Samad Khan. It caused
disarray in the camp of Abdus Samad Khan. The firing of cannons and
guns, and the sound of rockets and bullets was like thunder and
lightning. Some Sikhs made a strong attack with their swords. At first
the Mughal soldiers were losing the battle, but then Sayyad Kashim
Khan and Mir Baba Khan and their sons, brothers and companions
reached there and fought bravely. In this battle 200 Sikhs were killed
(the author does not tell the number of the casualty of the Mughals,