Page 260 - A History of Siam

^ HISTORY OF SIAM
244
better known as P'ya Taksin, 1 later King of Siam
and retreated back to Tenasserim.
On the the rebel
capture of Tenasserim, Huit'ongcha,
Governor of Tavoy, fled, accompanied by Prince T'ep
who had returned from his exile in
P'ip'it, Ceylon.
King Ekat'at had them both arrested. Prince T'ep
was in at Chantabun.
P'ip'it kept custody
Chiengmai and Luang P'rabang having fallen without
any very stiff fighting, and the possibility of a successful
invasion of Siam from the south having been twice
demonstrated, King Mangra now determined to use his
northern and southern armies to
converge upon Ayut'ia
from both sides. At the same time he equipped a third
army, which was to invade Siam by the Three Pagodas
route.
Siam had a of almost a to a rebellion
respite year, owing
at Chiengmai, which resulted in the flight of the Burmese
Governor. By the end of 1764, however, the rebellion
was and in a Burmese ot
suppressed, June 1765 army
5,000 men left Chiengmai for the south, whilst an equal
number crossed the western frontier.
The Burmese adopted towards the population of
"
Siam a of town or
policy frightfulness." Every village
which offered the resistance was
slightest ruthlessly
and the inhabitants either killed or taken
destroyed,
of or sex. As a result of
as slaves, regardless
age
most of the on the line of march fled
this, people
to the on the of the Burmese
jungle approach
army.
The same methods were the southern
adopted by
which left Tenasserim in October and
army, 1765, by
the end of November had occupied P'etchaburi and
*His personal name was Sin, and he had held the office of Governor of
Tak, near Raheng. European writers have joined together his name and
his title.