Alaungpaya
Siege of Ayutthaya

After the rainy season of 1759, Alaungpaya and his armies returned to the south to deal with the still-unstable Lower Burma. One year back, a major Mon rebellion broke out, temporarily driving out the Konbaung governor of Pegu (Bago). Although the rebellion was put down, Mon resistance was still operating in the upper Tenasserim coast (present-day Mon State), where Konbaung control was still largely nominal. Siam provided shelter to the rebel leaders and their resistance troops. Alaungpaya sought assurances from the Siamese king that they would not intervene in the Burmese affairs and to surrender rebel leadership. But the Siamese king refused Burmese demands and prepared for war.

In December 1759, Alaungpaya's 40,000-strong Burmese army left Martaban to invade Siam via Tenasserim. His second son, Hsinbyushin was his deputy. The Burmese occupied the town of Tenasserim, moved eastward over the Tenasserim Hills to the shore of the Gulf of Siam, turned north and captured the coastal towns, Kuwi, Pran Buri, and Phetchaburi. Siamese resistance stiffened as the Burmese approached the capital of Ayutthaya, but nonetheless, they were driven back with heavy losses in men, guns, and ammunition.

The Burmese armies reached Ayutthaya in April 1760. Only five days into the siege, however, Alaungpaya suddenly fell ill. Thai sources say he was wounded by a cannon shell explosion while he was inspecting the cannon corps at the front, but Burmese sources state clearly that he fell ill, and given the inglorious nature of death by illness it is unlikely they were trying to hide the truth. His ailment has been stated as " dysentery " or " scrofula "

The Burmese began their retreat on 17 April 1760 (3rd waxing of Kason 1122 ME). Only Minkhaung Nawrahta 's 6000 men and 500 Cassay cavalrymen remained as the rearguard, successfully fending off Siamese attacks along the route of retreat.

Although the Burmese did not achieve the ultimate objective of toppling Ayutthaya, they formally annexed the upper Tenasserim coast and shifted the border down the coast at least to the Dawei- Myeik corridor.
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