Page:History of Aurangzib (based on original sources) Vol 1.djvu/116

86 A land of this nature could support but a small population, and was too poor to maintain an army on its own produce. The salaried troops of the king of Balkh numbered only 3000 men, and his revenue (including that yielded by Badakhshan) was only 25 lakhs of rupees,—the stipend of a third-rate peer of the Mughal empire, as the Delhi historian has noted with contempt. His chief minister was paid only Rs. 80,000 a year.

Poor as were the resources of the country and tame as were the men of its plains, an invader from the south found it hard to keep hold of his conquest. He had to guard his own communications with the rear over the long and difficult passes of the Hindu Kush. But numberless hordes of savage horsemen, the Mongols and Turkomans, came from beyond the Oxus to oppose him, burning crops and villages, carrying off the loyal peasantry into slavery, hovering round his army on the march, cutting off detachments and stragglers, and when chased maintaining a Parthian fight. Indeed, his camp was ever in a state of siege. On them he could make no successful reprisal, deal no