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When capturing the city of Delhi, Aurangzeb not only successfully placed his father Shah Jahan under house arrest, but also captured his eldest brother, Crown Prince Dara Shukor.
Darashuk is four years older than Aurangzeb and is only 34 years old this year. He also serves as the governor of Punjab, but because he is the crown prince, he does not have to go to the province to take up a post like other princes, but his confidants manage Punjab.
He stayed at court for a long time and was favored by his father. But he had some serious personality defects. He had a hot temper and arrogant manner, which made him many enemies among the nobles. It was said that he was too straightforward and completely despised the advice of others.
In addition, his tolerant views on religious issues hindered his political interests, because some orthodox Sunni Muslims like Aurangzeb regarded him as a heretic. Among them was Bajiltei, a military general who secretly defected to Aurangzeb because he could not stand the religious views of Crown Prince Darashuk.
The day after taking control of Delhi, Aurangzeb tied his brother Darashuk to the back of a dirty little elephant and paraded him through the streets of Delhi, announcing his crimes of treason and religious heresy, and then quickly executed him.
Because Darashuko usually had a hot temper and arrogant behavior, the nobles and ministers in Delhi rarely sympathized with his death.
However, for Aurangzeb, placing his father Shah Jahan under house arrest, killing his brother Darashuk, and controlling the city of Delhi did not mean that everything was fine.
These only mean that he has temporarily seized the throne of the Mughal Empire. As for whether he can hold on to this position, it depends on his next moves.
Among his brothers, there were two who grew up. One was his second elder brother, Shah Shuja, who was two years older than Aurangzeb and was now the Governor-General of Bengal.
The other is his younger brother Murad Bach, who was six years younger than Aurangzeb and is currently the Governor of Gujarat.
Both of them had served in various military and administrative positions, had considerable experience in ruling, and had a large standing army under their command. Moreover, both of them had long coveted the throne;
Now that Aurangzeb is trying to seize the throne by forcing the emperor to abdicate, will his second brother Shah Shuja and younger brother Murad Bach agree
Although Shah Shuja had a plain personality, he was very brave and performed well in governing Bengal. However, his biggest disadvantage was that he was also addicted to comfort and pleasure; he also had another disadvantage, that is, he professed the Shia faith, which aroused the dissatisfaction of the orthodox Sunnis in the court.
Murad Bah was also a brave man, but he was unruly, drank excessively, and was not well-liked by the ministers in the court.
Compared with his two remaining brothers, Aurangzeb, in addition to his undoubted administrative talent, was a Muslim of the strictest type and enjoyed the complete trust of the orthodox Sunni nobility of the empire; the orthodox Sunni nobility had been a very powerful force in the court since the time of Akbar.
After Aurangzeb took control of Delhi, his decisive, calm and calculating character was fully revealed. His first step was to win over these orthodox Sunni nobles and gain their support.
He sent Alan Yar, the most capable officer in his army, with 50,000 troops to attack the province of Bengal under his second brother's jurisdiction. He also sent people to persuade his younger brother Murad Bahri to deal with the situation as little as possible.
At the same time, he prepared an abdication edict in the name of his father, which said: Since the death of Taj Mahal, he has no interest in politics, which has led to successive defeats in the south. The invasion of the north has caused great suffering to the people, and the crown prince has rebelled and attempted to kill his father and usurp the throne. Now he is exhausted, so he abdicates to Prince Aurangzeb, who has made great contributions to suppressing the rebellion.
Bakilthai entered the palace in the name of the crown prince, and even most people in Delhi thought that it was really the crown prince Darashuko who was plotting a rebellion, not to mention the local officials.
Therefore, this abdication decree is still very misleading.
At the same time, Aurangzeb had people quickly prepare for the coronation ceremony. On the third day, he was officially crowned emperor in the Delhi Palace. Next, of course, there was a major personnel appointment and dismissal.
He transferred all the ministers he could not trust from their posts, and then let people he trusted take charge of all the important positions. For example, when he was the governor of the Deccan region, he had a very capable tax collector, Murshid Kuri Khan, who was appointed as the Minister of Finance of the Empire.
There was a major reshuffle of the garrison in the capital, and many of the former generals were arrested on the spot and executed as accomplices of Crown Prince Darashuko.
In this operation, Aurangzeb fully demonstrated his firm and ruthless side. He acted without mercy and used iron and bloody means to quickly take control of the situation in Delhi.
Delhi was quickly under his control, but there were still four imminent major problems facing Aurangzeb: the first was his second brother, the second was his younger brother, the third was the four-nation coalition commanded by Hai Rufeng in the south; and the fourth was the Dzungar army that captured the Punjab region in the north.
From a geographical point of view, the Bengal province controlled by his second brother is located to the east of Delhi, and the Gujarat province controlled by his younger brother is located to the south-west of Delhi. Together with Hai Rufeng in the south and Sengge in the north, they form a four-sided siege of Delhi.
In other words, although Aurangzeb had occupied Delhi, he was in danger from all sides.
Hai Rufeng in the south might be able to be stabilized temporarily by offering great benefits, but the most fatal thing is the Dzungar army that invaded the Punjab region in the north.
This 50,000-strong army conquered cities and plundered territories with great force. And it must be clear that Punjab is not an ordinary place. It is located in northern India. The Mughal Emperor Babur divided Punjab into three provinces, namely Lahore, Multan and Delhi.
The Dzungarian army is now conquering the two provinces of Lahore and Multan. The Sutlej River, a tributary of the Indus River, passes through these two provinces. Irrigation is well developed and most of the residents are Sikhs. It is one of the most agriculturally developed states in India and is known as the "granary of India." It is rich in wheat, rice, cotton, etc.
Moreover, the road from Lahore to Delhi is flat and not far away, which is the most urgent and terrifying threat to Aurangzeb, the newly enthroned Mughal emperor.
At this time, Sengge was feeling very proud of himself for having conquered two wealthy provinces in succession. He also instigated the local Sikhs to follow him in resisting the rule of the Mughal Empire.
The name Sikhs came into being after the Punjab monk Guru Nanak founded the Sikh sect in the late 15th century. The Sikh sect is a unique organized armed group that has been engaged in a long-term armed struggle with the Mughal Empire and was suppressed as the Mughal Empire became increasingly powerful.
Sengge took full advantage of the long-standing conflicts between the Sikhs and the Mughal Empire and instigated a rebellion, and many Sikhs joined his army.
After hearing about the coup in Delhi, Sengge keenly smelled the opportunity and immediately set out from Lahore with an army of 40,000 and 3,000 Sikhs, heading straight for Delhi.
Hearing this news, Aurangzeb dared not neglect it. He had not gained the throne legitimately, and no matter how well he did, there would always be people who would doubt him. In order to deal with the fiercest foreign enemy and consolidate his throne, he secretly held his father hostage in the army, and at the same time, he took some important ministers and mobilized 40,000 troops to personally fight against Sengge.
At this time, an army of 50,000 led by Akbar, another great general of the Mughal Empire, had already been fighting fiercely in the city of Karnar between Delhi and Lahore.
The coup in Delhi almost caused the collapse of the 50,000-strong army. Fortunately, Aurangzeb acted quickly, quickly seized power and ascended the throne, and rewarded Akbar generously. Before the army in front was sure about the situation in Delhi, Aurangzeb had already led his army in person as the new emperor.
When Aurangzeb arrived at Karnar, the army under his command totaled 90,000. The new emperor's personal presence and the large number of troops greatly boosted the morale of the Mughal army.
Sengge, who was stationed in the north of Karnar, was also not vague. The 40,000 Dzungar troops, plus thousands of Sikh soldiers, set up camps for ten miles. In addition, all his 30 cannons were brought in and were being set up in the north of the city overnight. A huge and bloody battle would inevitably break out under the city of Karnar.
If Aurangzeb was defeated, it would definitely bring about earth-shaking changes to the whole of India. So, what would be the outcome of this war
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.(To be continued..)
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