The first tendrils of rebellion snaked through the Punjab, not as a roaring fire, but as a series of controlled burns. Rai Ahmad Khan Kharal, ever the strategist, understood that a direct confrontation with the British army, a force of disciplined redcoats and thunderous cannons, would be suicidal. Instead, he orchestrated a campaign of harassment, a dance of shadows and swift strikes designed to bleed the enemy dry, one drop at a time.

The initial clashes were more akin to skirmishes, lightning-fast raids on supply convoys and isolated outposts. Small bands of Kharal's men, seasoned riders and marksmen, would appear from the seemingly empty landscape, unleash a volley of accurate fire, and vanish back into the folds of the earth before the British could even form a proper response. These weren't pitched battles for glory; they were calculated acts of defiance, a demonstration of the tribes' unwillingness to submit.