National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.1 |
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7o IN AFGHAN WAKHAN CH. VII
Colonel agreed to let me examine in the morning of May
2 I st the ruined fortifications reported on the steep spur
overlooking the debouchure of the Baroghil route on the
west, while he himself would look after the starting of
baggage and escort.
So with Naik Ram Singh and a few Wakhis, including
the Karaul Beg and Talmish, a versatile follower of his
who quickly attached himself to me as a sort of local
factotum (Fig. 30), I rode off to the south for three miles
across the level plain of sand and marsh over which the
Baroghil stream spreads out towards the Oxus. Just
where the mouth of the valley narrows to a width of about
half a mile at the bottom, it is flanked by precipitous
rocky ridges, the last offshoots of spurs which descend
from the main Hindukush watershed. Protected by these
natural defences the position seemed to correspond
accurately to that which the Chinese Annals describe as having been occupied in 747 A.D. by the Tibetans when
they endeavoured to bar Kao Hsien - chih's advance
to the Baroghil and Darkot. Posted at a distance of
fifteen Li, or about three miles from the river, to the
number of eight or nine thousand, they are said " to
have taken advantage of the mountainous ground to
erect palisades." This time-honoured Tibetan scheme of
defence, to await attack behind a wall erected across the
open ground of the valley, had the same results then as
when repeated in 1904 against the British Mission force at
Guru and on the Karo-la. For the Chinese general having
gained the heights, i.e. turned the fortified line, engaged
the defenders in a fight which ended in their complete
defeat with heavy loss.
Of the palisades I could not well expect to find visible
traces after the lapse of centuries. But how Kao Hsien-
chih had turned the Tibetan position I could see quite
clearly when, starting a short distance south of absolutely
impracticable rock faces, I climbed up to the top of the
western spur after an hour's hard scramble over steep
slopes of rock and shingle. There, beyond a stretch of
easily sloping ground, rose the old fort of Kansir my
Wakhi informants had spoken of, at the extreme north
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