He appeared in history for the first time in Thonburi period when he was Phra Phonlamueang,[2] an official position under Chaophraya Surasi the governor of Phitsanulok.
Chaophraya Chakri ordered[4] Phraya Phetchabun Pli to lead the Lao forces from Luang Phrabang to attack the city of Vientiane from the northeast.
[5] Since 1733, due to a political conflict, the position of Samuha Kalahom had been deprived of its authority over Southern Siam and had become a powerless military figurehead.
Prince Anurak Devesh marched from Bangkok to Nakhon Sawan and sent Mahasena Pli as vanguard to Phichit, just to the south of Pakphing.
King Rama I then ordered Mahasena Pli and Prince Chakchetsada to bring the Siamese armies to the north to relieve the siege of Lampang.
However, Bodawpaya sent his son the Upayaza Crown Prince Thado Minsaw to lead the Burmese armies to reclaim Tavoy and repel the Siamese from the Tenasserim coast.
[6] In 1793, Chaophraya Mahasena Pli wrote[7] to Francis Light, a British merchant in Penang, to request the purchase of Western muskets to be employed against the Burmese.
Mahasena Pli (known as Paya Kalahon in the Burmese Hmannan chronicles) punished a Tavoyan named Wundauk[5] for his leadership in resistance against Siam.
Aphai Ronnarit, however, refused to let the three generals and other retreating Siamese into his encampments, citing that his duty was to secure the royal vanguard and the Burmese might follow them into his camps.
King Rama I was angered[5] that inappropriate actions of Phraya Aphai Ronnarit led to the loss of Chaophraya Mahasena Pli the Samuha Kalahom, who had been a prominent military commander.