90	BURMA
Emperor Chien-hmg to take all necessary measures to reduce
Burma to submission. Little did he realize that the exploits of
Alaungpaya had given the Burmese an entirely new estimation
of themselves. They had become a conquering race and feared
no one on earth. Hence, when the Viceroy called on the Court
of Ava to submit, Hsinbyushin replied by sending an army to
invade Hsenwi.
The Chinese first tried the well-known route into northern
Burma. They captured Bhamo by surprise and proceeded to
attack the Burmese frontier force at Kaungton. But the Kaung-
ton stockade held until reinforcements arrived from Ava which
enabled the Burmese to take the offensive and drive the Chinese
back beyond Bhamo. Another Burmese army advanced to
Waingmaw, south of Myitkyina, defeated a Chinese force at
the Nammyin Creek and entered Chinese territory.
These perplexing reverses caused yet another change in the
Yunnan government. A third Viceroy, Ming Jui, a son-in-law
of the emperor, now took up the task and planned to launch a
double attack on Burma, as soon as the rainy season of 1767
ended. The main Chinese army was to approach Ava through
Hsenwi, Lashio and Hsipaw, and down the Namtu river. The
second was to try the Bhamo route again. The attack nearly
succeeded; large Burmese forces were tied up in Siam, where
the situation was beginning to turn in favour of Paya Tak.
Ming Jui's army, marching by the southern route followed by
the Manchu force a century earlier, when chasing Yung-li,
defeated two Burmese armies, and got as far as Singaung, only
thirty miles from Ava (February 1768). So critical was the
situation that Hsinbyushin prepared to evacuate his capital. A
third Burmese force, however, marched into Hsipaw and
Hsenwi and cut the Chinese communications. When Ming Jui
in difficulties began to retreat, his army was surrounded and
suffered disaster. A few managed to cut their way out, but the
Viceroy himself, unable to extricate his main body, sent his
pigtail as a present to his emperor and committed suicide. The
other Chinese army, which had entered Burma by the Bhamo
route, should have rescued him; but, instead of pressing on
down the Irrawaddy, its commander wasted time by besieging
the famous Kaungton stockade, which defied all attempts to