1 176 A Short History of the Sikhs.
2 the latter that the retreat from Firozshahr was
3 ordered. It may well be that Tej Singh did not urge
4 his troops to advance, but his influence over them
5 was certainly not sufficient to enable him to hold them
6 back against their will. Whatever lukewarmness
7 there may have been on the part of their leaders, the
8 Sikh soldiers were in deadly earnest, as is amply
9 proved by their desperate resistance in four pitched
10 battles ; and had they on this occasion realized
11 their opportunity, they would have stormed the
12 British entrenchments, and it would have been
13 more than the life of Tej Singh was worth to
14 counsel a retreat.
15 There was now a lull in the storm, and the interval
16 was used by both sides to make good their losses and
17 gather strength for a renewal of the struggle. Guns
18 and supplies were hastily dispatched from Lahore
19 to the Sutlej, and the Sikh soldiers, their energy
20 and determination still unabated, laboured day
21 and night strengthening the defences of their
22 main position at Sobraon, where, in addition to a
23 treble line of entrenchments, they erected a bridge-
24 head of great strength to protect the passage of
25 the river. The British force remained encamped at
26 Firozpur, awaiting the arrival of a siege-train from
27 Delhi, whilst reinforcements were gradually coming
28 in from Meerut, Agra, and Sabathu.
29 Emboldened by the inactivity of their foes, the
30 Sikhs, on January 6, 1846, sent a force of 8,000
31 men and 70 guns, under the command of Sirdar
32 Ranjur Singh, to attack Ludhiana. The town was
33 then very much under-garrisoned, and Sir Harry