Page:History of Aurangzib (based on original sources) Vol 1.djvu/128

98 forts or guarding the line of communication with the base in Afghanistan. High officers in full strength held important districts like Taliqan and Qunduz in the east, Rustaq in the north-east, Balkh, Tarmiz on the Oxus, north of Balkh, Maimana in the south-west, and Andkhui in the north-west. Aurangzib wisely kept them at their posts, lest the country should pass out of his control. But this step weakened his own immediate command. Some of the Indian nobles under orders to join him lingered at home or reached no further than Afghanistan. So the Prince had to fight his battles with less than 25,000 men, while the enemy were a nation in arms and outnumbered the Mughals as three to one. True they did not fight pitched battles and had a wholesome dread of musketry-fire; but their "Cossak tactics" wore out the Mughals, and their superiority in number enabled them to bear easily a loss ten times as large as the casualties of the invaders. Against these light forayers the small Imperial army could not hope for a crushing victory.