When Gorkha laid siege to Kirtipur and began to close in, Jayaprakas Malla, the Last King of Kathmandu, sought military assistance from the Company. The Gorkhalis had already disrupted the trans-himalayan trade. The Company realized that these mountains warriors would soon put an end to its commercial expansion in northern India if they captured the Nepal Valley. Therefore, it decided to send an army expedition under Captain George Kinloch. The Gorkhalis and Kinloch’s men met head-on in the valley of Sindhuli in the autumn of 1767.