Page:History of Aurangzib (based on original sources) Vol 1.djvu/354

324 Shahbaz Khan first tried to corrupt the commandant of the fort, Syed Tayyib, through his friend Mirza Kamran, by saying that the astrologers had predicted the throne for Murad, and therefore to resist him was two court one's own ruin. The honest qiladar held firmly to his duty, and when Shahbaz advanced with his force to attempt an assault, he drove him back by a smart discharge of artillery. So Shahbaz had to encamp at a safe distance and begin the slow and tedious work of cannonading. But his guns being light pieces, no harm was done to the fort walls, and the siege dragged on for weeks. Four or five big guns sent from Junagarh were too long in arriving. Success could be secured only by other means. Under the guidance of some Dutch artificers, he ran mines. The