158 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. VIII. few weeks of the opening of the siege the work of draining the wet ditch and running mines had to be suspended for lack of materials. Aurangzib now realised that the fort could be taken only by storm. And the Emperor had ordered that no assault was to be delivered with- out making a breach.* Mughals fail to breach eastern wall. According to Sadullah's plan, all the big guns were assembled on the eastern side, opposite the Mashuri gate. Batteries were raised on the the right and left of Sadullah's trenches (17th and 22nd June.) The famous gun Fatih Lashkar and three other large pieces were mounted here with great labour. Every day ten rounds were fired from each gun, but the damage done to the screens and towers of the fort was always repair- ed at night. and the Persian artillery was not over-powered.t The Mughal artillery was as weak in number as in efficiency. In the mean- time Aurangzib set up four stockades in front of his trenches, holding 3,000 men in all, for making a feint against Fort Lakah when Sadul-
- Adab-i-Alamgiri, 17b.
† Adab-i-Alamgiri, 14a, 156, 176, 18a, 15a. From these stockades to the fort-wall there was a fire- swept zone with no shelter except a few boulders, while the soil was too stony to permit sapping. (Adab-i- Alamgiri, 16a.) Digitized by Microsoft Ⓡ
