The Burmese King Bodawpaya attempted to reclaim the lost dominions in Lan Na, east of Salween River.

Lan Na, under the leadership of Prince Kawila of Chiang Mai with Siamese support, successfully repelled the Burmese invasion.

[7] Prince Kawila held the town for four months until the Siamese relief forces arrived from the south and expelled the Burmese in 1786.

Prince Kawila and other Lan Na lords adopted the policy of "picking vegetables in baskets, putting people in towns" and waged wars to seek manpower.

[9]: 47  In 1802, King Bodawpaya appointed a Chinese man from Yunnan Province named Chom Hong as the ruler of Mong Hsat, one of the Shan States.

[10] Bodawpaya also declared that Chom Hong of Mong Hsat would rule all the "fifty-two towns of Lan Na".

Prince Kawila then sent his younger brother and heir Phraya Uparaj Thammalangka to seize Mong Hsat.

From Mong Hsat, Phraya Thammalangka decided to proceed his campaign to Chiangtung (Kengtung),[11] which had been under Burmese domination.

[11] Thammalangka took Chiangtung in March 1802 and captured Sao Kawng Tai, the saopha of Kengtung, to Chiang Mai.

[7] Maha Hkanan, brother of Sao Kawng Tai, escaped to Mong Yawng and tried to establish himself as an independent ruler.

At Mong Hsat, Prince Kawila also captured the Burmese envoy returning from the mission to Emperor Gia Long.

[citation needed] King Bodawpaya then used these provocations by the Lan Na prince as the casus belli to resume his expedition against Chiang Mai.

King Bodawpaya sent general Einshe Wun Nemyo Kyawdin Thihathu to invade and laid siege on Chiang Mai and occupy Lamphun again in 1802.

Prince Anouvong, brother of King Inthavong of Vientiane, also led the Lao army to join the campaign.

Maha Sura Singhanat assigned Prince Sunthonbhubet and Phraya Kalahom Ratchasena Thongin to go on to march the Front Palace Army to Li.

Prince Maha Sura Singhanat gave his nephew the authorities to command the Front Palace Army and ordered him to go to Chiang Mai.

Prince Anurak Devesh arrived in Chiang Mai and ordered the Siamese armies to attack the Burmese in all directions.

King Kawila assigned his younger brother and heir Phraya Uparaj Thammalangka to lead the Lan Na army to subjugate Chiang Saen.

As he ran out of food resources, Prince Thepharirak decided to retreat, leaving only Lan Na and Lao armies at Chiang Saen.

[7] The main objectives of this campaign were the states of Mongyawng and Chiang Hung (modern Jinghong in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture).

Chiang Hung was the center of "Sipsongpanna"—the federation of Tai Lue tribes that roughly corresponds to modern Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture.

[13] However, since the sixteenth century, Sipsongpanna had been caught between the domination of Burma and China as its ruler sought recognition from both empires.

[14] King Kawila of Chiang Mai assigned his brother Phraya Thammalangka to lead the Lan Na troops to the north.

The saopha of Mongyawng surrendered to the Lan Na troops without fighting[7][10] and Maha Hkanan of Chiangtung, who had taken refuge there, escaped again to hide in the forests.

[7] Prince Atthawarapanyo of Nan led his army to subjugate the Tai Lue princedoms to the northeast in March 1805.

Sao Kawng Tai of Kengtung, who was captured in 1802 and sent to Bangkok in 1804, returned to live at Chiang Mai in exile.

After the protracted guerilla warfare, Maha Hkanan decided to accept Burmese suzerainty and was officially appointed the ruler of Kengtung by Bodawpaya in 1813.