structural:scholar_edition, quality:corruption, structural:summarization
Truce

The Chinese command, which had already lost 20,000 men, and a quantity of arms and ammunition, now asked for terms. The Burmese staff were averse to granting terms, saying that the Chinese were surrounded like cattle in a pen, they were starving, and in a few days, they could be wiped out to a man. But Maha Thiha Thura, who oversaw the annihilation of Ming Rui 's army at the Battle of Maymyo in 1768, realized that another wipe-out would merely stiffen the resolve of the Chinese government.

Maha Thiha Thura was said to have said:

He pointed out to his commanders that war with the Chinese was quickly becoming a cancer that would finally destroy the nation. Compared to Chinese losses, Burmese losses were light but considered in proportion to the population, they were heavy. The commanders were not convinced but Maha Thiha Thura, on his own responsibility, and without informing the king, demanded that the Chinese agree to the following terms:

The Chinese commanders decided to agree to the terms. At Kaungton, on 13 December 1769 (or 22 December 1769), under a 7-roofed pyathat hall, 14 Burmese and 13 Chinese officers signed a peace treaty (known as the Treaty of Kaungton). The Chinese burned their boats and melted down their cannon. Two days later, as the Burmese stood to arms and looked down, starved Chinese soldiers marched sullenly away up the Taping River valley; they began to perish of hunger by thousands in the passes.