Twice we had moved out of Khujand, once for Andijān, once for Samarkand, and twice we had gone back to it because our work was not opened out.[433] Khujand is a poor place; a man with 2 or 300 followers would have a hard time there; with [Sidenote: Fol. 59.] what outlook would an ambitious man set himself down in it? As it was our wish to return to Samarkand, we sent people to confer with Muḥammad Ḥusain _Kūrkān Dūghlāt_ in Aūrā-tīpā and to ask of him the loan for the winter of Pashāghar where we might sit till it was practicable to make a move on Samarkand. He consenting, I rode out from Khujand for Pashāghar. (_Author's note on Pashāghar._) Pashāghar is one of the villages of Yār-yīlāq; it had belonged to his Highness the Khwāja,[434] but during recent interregna,[435] it had become dependent on Muḥammad Ḥusain Mīrzā. I had fever when we reached Zamīn, but spite of my fever we hurried off by the mountain road till we came over against Rabāṯ-i-khwāja, the head-quarters of the sub-governor of the Shavdār _tūmān_, where we hoped to take the garrison at unawares, set our ladders up and so get into the fort. We reached it at dawn, found its men on guard, turned back and rode without halt to Pashāghar. The pains and misery of fever notwithstanding, I had ridden 14 or 15 _yīghāch_ (70 to 80 miles). After a few days in Pashāghar, we appointed Ibrāhīm _Sārū_, [Sidenote: Fol. 59b.] Wais _Lāgharī_, Sherīm T̤aghāī and some of the household and braves to make an expedition amongst the Yār-yīlāq forts and get them into our hands. Yār-yīlāq, at that time was Sayyid Yūsuf Beg's,[436] he having remained in Samarkand at the exodus and been much favoured by Sl. `Ali Mīrzā. To manage the forts, Sayyid Yūsuf had sent his younger brother's son, Aḥmad-i-yūsuf, now[437] Governor of Sialkot, and Aḥmad-i-yūsuf was then in occupation. In the course of that winter, our begs and braves made the round, got possession of some of the forts peacefully, fought and took others, gained some by ruse and craft. In the whole of that district there is perhaps not a single village without its defences because of the Mughūls and the Aūzbegs. Meantime Sl. `Alī Mīrzā became suspicious of Sayyid Yūsuf and his nephew on my account and dismissed both towards Khurāsān. The winter passed in this sort of tug-of-war; with the oncoming heats,[438] they sent Khwāja Yaḥya to treat with me, while they, urged on by the (Samarkand) army, marched out to near Shīrāz and Kabud. I may have had 200 or 300 soldiers (_sipāhī_); powerful foes were on my every side; Fortune had [Sidenote: Fol. 60.] not favoured me when I turned to Andijān; when I put a hand out for Samarkand, no work was opened out. Of necessity, some sort of terms were made and I went back from Pashāghar.