IOTL the Sepoy Mutiny was a huge but ultimately disorganized revolt that, lacking a clear leader or even a common goal, was eventually defeated in detail after the British retook Delhi in September 1857. Suppose that the rebels get a few lucky breaks in an alternate timeline, leading to this succession of events:
- First, the British fail to destroy the Delhi magazine before they to abandon the city to the mutineers. As a result, the rebels have more and better weapons than IOTL;
- The British are forced to lift their siege of Delhi - this apparently almost happened IOTL, but the rebels didn't know how close they were to winning and so didn't press their attack. Not only does this mean the mutineers keep the closest thing they have to a seat of power under their control, but it also increases Mirza Mughal (who apparently tried to set up a functioning government in spite of his lack of experience)'s prestige since the siege ends before Bakht Khan's arrival. I don't know if this is a boost or a hindrance to the rebel cause, but it does at least unify it a little more;
- Thanks to their extra weapons, the rebels capture Cawnpore and Lucknow much faster than IOTL, then move on to Agra and Allahabad. By the end of 1857 the central parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain (stretching from, say, the outskirts of Delhi and Meerut to roughly the western border of the modern state of Bihar) are completely cleared of British troops.
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